ies of the town.

A letter, remarkably and vigorously drawn up, was written as an
ultimatum; the cause of quarrel was plainly stated, and a delay
of twenty-four hours was accorded to the guilty city in which to
repair the outrage done to Quiquendone.

The letter was sent off, and returned a few hours afterwards,
torn to bits, which made so many fresh insults. The Virgamenians
knew of old the forbearance and equanimity of the Quiquendonians,
and made sport of them and their demand, of their _casus belli_
and their _ultimatum_.

There was only one thing left to do,--to have recourse to arms,
to invoke the God of battles, and, after the Prussian fashion, to
hurl themselves upon the Virgamenians Before the latter could be
prepared.

This decision was made by the council in solemn conclave, in
which cries, objurgations, and menacing gestures were mingled
with unexampled violence. An assembly of idiots, a congress of
madmen, a club of maniacs, would not have been more tumultuous.

As soon as the declaration of war was known, General Jean
Orbideck assembled his troops, perhaps two thousand three hundred
and ninety-three combatants from a population of two thousand
three hundred and ninety-three souls. The women, the children,
the old men, were joined with the able-bodied males. The guns of
the town had been put under requisition. Five had been found, two
of which were without cocks, and these had been distributed to
the advance-guard. The artillery was composed of the old culverin
of the chateau, taken in 1339 at the attack on Quesnoy, one of
the first occasions of the use of cannon in history, and which
had not been fired off for five centuries. Happily for those who
were appointed to take it in charge there were no projectiles
with which to load it; but such as it was, this engine might well
impose on the enemy. As for side-arms, they had been taken from
the museum of antiquities,--flint hatchets, helmets, Frankish
battle-axes, javelins, halberds, rapiers, and so on; and also in
those domestic arsenals commonly known as "cupboards" and
"kitchens." But courage, the right, hatred of the foreigner, the
yearning for vengeance, were to take the place of more perfect
engines, and to replace--at least it was hoped so--the modern
mitrailleuses and breech-loaders.

The troops were passed in review. Not a citizen failed at the
roll-call. General Orbideck, whose seat on horseback was far from
firm, and whose steed was a vicio