near his plate, and then he turned to Monsieur Hermann and smiled.
After all, that man, now beatified by gastronomical enjoyments,
hadn't probably two ideas in his brain, and was thinking of nothing.
Consequently I felt rather ashamed of wasting my powers of divination
"in anima vili,"--of a doltish financier.

While I was thus making, at a dead loss, these phrenological
observations, the worthy German had lined his nose with a good pinch of
snuff and was now beginning his tale. It would be difficult to reproduce
it in his own language, with his frequent interruptions and wordy
digressions. Therefore, I now write it down in my own way; leaving out
the faults of the Nuremburger, and taking only what his tale may have
had of interest and poesy with the coolness of writers who forget to put
on the title pages of their books: "Translated from the German."

THOUGHT AND ACT

Toward the end of Venemiaire, year VII., a republican period which in
the present day corresponds to October 20, 1799, two young men, leaving
Bonn in the early morning, had reached by nightfall the environs of
Andernach, a small town standing on the left bank of the Rhine a few
leagues from Coblentz. At that time the French army, commanded by
Augereau, was manoeuvring before the Austrians, who then occupied the
right bank of the river. The headquarters of the Republican division was
at Coblentz, and one of the demi-brigades belonging to Augereau's corps
was stationed at Andernach.

The two travellers were Frenchmen. At sight of their uniforms, blue
mixed with white and faced with red velvet, their sabres, and above
all their hats covered with a green varnished-cloth and adorned with a
tricolor plume, even the German peasants had recognized army surgeons,
a body of men of science and merit liked, for the most part, not only
in our own army but also in the countries invaded by our troops. At this
period many sons of good families taken from their medical studies
by the recent conscription law due to General Jourdan, had naturally
preferred to continue their studies on the battle-field rather than be
restricted to mere military duty, little in keeping with their early
education and their peaceful destinies. Men of science, pacific yet
useful, these young men did an actual good in the midst of so much
misery, and formed a bond of sympathy with other men of science in the
various countries through which the cruel civilization of the Republic
passed.