a close escape, for the comb, brush, and handkerchief in my
shako were broken and torn by the bullet. A cold shiver ran through me.

"Well done! a miss is as good as a mile!" cried the old sergeant,
starting forward at a run, and I, who had no wish to remain longer in
such a place, followed with right good-will.

Lieutenant Bretonville, waving his sabre, cried, "Forward!" while, to
the right, the firing still continued. We soon arrived at a clearing,
where lay five or six trunks of felled trees, and a little lake full of
high grass, but not a tree standing, that might serve us for a cover.
Nevertheless, five or six of our men advanced boldly, when the sergeant
called out:

"Halt! The Prussians are in ambush around us. Look sharp!"

Scarcely had he spoken, when a dozen bullets whistled through the
branches, and at the same time, a number of Prussians rose, and plunged
deeper into the forest opposite.

"There they go! Forward!" cried Pinto.

But the bullet in my shako had rendered me cautious; it seemed as if I
could almost see through the trees, and, as the sergeant started forth
into the clearing, I held his arm, pointing out to him the muzzle of a
musket peeping out from a bush, not a hundred paces before us. The
others, clustering around, saw it too, and Pinto whispered:

"Stay, Bertha; remain here and do not lose sight of him, while we turn
the position."

They set off, to the right and left, and I, behind my tree, my piece at
my shoulder, waited like a hunter for his game. At the end of two or
three minutes, the Prussian, hearing nothing, rose slowly. He was
quite a boy, with little blonde mustaches, and a tall, slight, but
well-knit figure. I could have killed him as he stood, but the thought
of thus slaying a defenceless man froze my blood. Suddenly he saw me,
and bounded aside. Then I fired, and breathed more freely as I saw him
running, like a stag, toward the wood.

At the same moment, five or six reports rang out to the right and left;
the sergeant Zebede, Klipfel, and the rest appeared, and a hundred
paces farther on we found the young Prussian upon the ground blood
gushing from his mouth. He gazed at us with a scared expression,
raising his arms, as if to parry bayonet-thrusts, but the sergeant
called gleefully to him:

"Fear nothing! Your account is settled."

No one offered to injure him further; but Klipfel took a beautiful
pipe, which was hanging out of his pocket, saying:

"