d through the
gardens; it was all over with us, when the men in gray came up."

"I was at the barricade," one said, "there were not twenty of us left
there when a company arrived. If they had fought in a hundred battles
they could not have done better. They had their colonel with them. A
fine old militaire. He was killed by my side. The Prussians never got a
foot further, for though we were hard pressed again and again we held
our ground till the cowards, who had run, began to come back again. It
was hot, mademoiselle. I can tell you it was a rain-storm of bullets,
and their shell fell every moment among us, and it would have been all
up with them if the batteries had not silenced their guns."

"I was in one of the houses," his comrade put in; "we were doing our
best to prevent the Prussians coming up through the gardens behind, but
there were but few of us, and they were some hundreds strong. If they
had gone on they would have caught us all in a trap, and we were just
going to warn the others to fall back when we saw the Franc-tireurs come
running up. They were smart fellows as well as brave ones. They knocked
loopholes through a wall in no time and clung to it for an hour, at
least. Then the Prussians were reinforced heavily. The Franc-tireurs
fell back to the next wall, and when the Prussians rushed forward, they
gave it them hotly while we took them in flank from the houses; they
must have a hundred and fifty men left behind them when they rushed back
to the wall they had advanced from.

"And did the Franc-tireurs suffer much?" Mary asked.

"I should say they lost more than half their number. When they formed up
after the fighting was over and the Prussians driven back, we gave them
a hearty cheer. I believe there were three companies of them when they
came up, and altogether there were not more than a strong company
paraded. You must not think that all the others were killed,
mad'moiselle," seeing by Mary's face that the news was terrible to her.
"Of those who didn't parade you may reckon that two-thirds were only
wounded."

"Not so many as that," the other, who had not observed Mary's face,
said, "they were not the fellows to fall out for a slight wound. Why,
the best part of those who paraded had hurts, and I fancy some of them
were serious, though they did their best to make light of it, and waved
their caps when we cheered them. You may be sure that those who were
missing must have been hard hit indeed."