on. All the
wagons and boats and diligences already carried the white flag, and
they were singing "Te Deums" in all the villages through which we
passed; the mayors and their assistants and the councillors all praised
and glorified God for the return of "Louis the well-beloved."

The scoundrels called us "Bonapartists," as they saw us pass, and even
set their dogs on us.

But I do not like to speak of them; such people are the disgrace of the
human race.

We replied only by contemptuous glances, which made them still more
insolent and furious.

Some of them flourished their sticks, as much as to say,--"If we had
you in a corner, you would be as meek as lambs."

The gendarmes upheld these _Pinacles_ and we were arrested in three or
four places. They demanded our papers and took us before the mayor,
and the rascals forced us to shout "_Vive le Roi!_"

It was shameful, and the old soldiers rather than do it allowed
themselves to be taken to prison. Buche wanted to follow their
example, but I said to him, "What harm will it do us to shout Vive Jean
Claude, or Vive Jean Nicholas? All these kings and emperors, old and
new, would not give a hair of their heads to save our lives, and shall
we go and break our necks in order to shout one thing rather than
another? No, it does not concern us, and if people will be so stupid,
as long as we are not the strongest, we must satisfy them. By and by,
they will shout something else, and afterward still something else.
Everything changes--nothing but good sense and good will remain."

Buche did not want to understand this reasoning, but when the gendarmes
came, he submitted notwithstanding.

As we went along, one after another of our little party would drop off
in his own village, till at last no one was left but Toul, Buche, and I.

We saw the saddest sight of all, and this was the crowds of Germans and
Russians in Lorraine and Alsace. They were drilling at Luneville, at
Blamont, and at Sarrebourg, with oak branches in their wretched shakos.
What vexation to see such savages living in luxury at the expense of
our peasants.

Father Goulden was right when he said that military glory costs very
dear. I only hope the Lord will save us from it for ages to come!

At last, on the 16th July, 1815, about eleven o'clock in the morning,
we reached Mittelbronn, the last village on that side, before reaching
Pfalzbourg. The siege was raised after the armistice, and the whole
co