their steel arms flashed like lightning upon your eyes. We
closed our ranks and descended; the Arabs, in parties of forty or fifty,
charging upon our flanks every minute, not coming to close conflict, but
stopping at pistol-shot distance, discharging their guns and then
wheeling off again to a distance--mere child's play, sir; nevertheless
there were some of our men wounded, and the little waggon upon which I
was riding was ordered up in the advance to take them in. Unfortunately,
to keep clear of the troops, the driver kept too much on one side of the
narrow defile through which we passed; the consequence was, that the
waggon upset, and I was thrown out a considerable distance down the
precipice----'

"'And broke your nose,' interrupted I.

"'No indeed, sir, I did not. I escaped with only a few contusions about
the region of the hip, which certainly lamed me for some time, and made
the jolting more disagreeable than ever. Well, the _reconnaissance_
succeeded. Damremont was, however, wrong altogether. I told him so when
I met him; but he was an obstinate old fool, and his answer was not as
polite as it might have been, considering that at that time I was a very
pretty woman. We returned to the camp at Mzez Ammar; a few days
afterwards we were attacked by the Arabs, who showed great spirit and
determination in their desultory mode of warfare, which, however, can
make no impression on such troops as the French. The attack was
continued for three days, when they decamped as suddenly as they had
come. But this cannot be very interesting to you, monsieur.'

"'On the contrary, do not, I beg, leave out a single remark or
incident.'

"'You are very good. I presume you know how we _militaires_ like to
fight our battles over again. Well, sir, we remained in camp until the
arrival of the Duc de Nemours--a handsome, fair lad, who smiled upon me
very graciously. On the 1st of October we set off on our expedition to
Constantine; that is to say, the advanced guard did, of which my
husband's company formed a portion. The weather which had been very
fine, now changed, and it rained hard all the day. The whole road was
one mass of mud, and there was no end to delays and accidents. However,
the weather became fine again, and on the 5th we arrived within two
leagues of Constantine, when the Arabs attacked us, and I was very
nearly taken prisoner.'

"'Indeed!'

"'Yes; my husband, who, as I before observed to you, was very obstinate,