rabbits!"

The attitude of those going to meet death was in sharp contrast to
the panic and doubt of those who were deserting Paris. An old
and much-decorated gentleman, type of a jubilee functionary, kept
questioning Desnoyers whenever the train started on again--"Do you
believe that they will get as far as Tours?" Before receiving his reply,
he would fall asleep. Brutish sleep was marching down the aisles with
leaden feet. At every junction, the old man would start up and suddenly
ask, "Do you believe that we will get as far as Bordeaux?" . . . And
his great desire not to halt until, with his family, he had reached
an absolutely secure refuge, made him accept as oracles all the vague
responses.

At daybreak, they saw the Territorialists guarding the roads. They were
armed with old muskets, and were wearing the red kepis as their only
military distinction. They were following the opposite course of the
military trains.

In the station at Bordeaux, the civilian crowds struggling to get out
or to enter other cars, were mingling with the troops. The trumpets were
incessantly sounding their brazen notes, calling the soldiers together.
Many were men of darkest coloring, natives with wide gray breeches and
red caps above their black or bronzed faces.

Julio saw a train bearing wounded from the battles of Flanders and
Lorraine. Their worn and dirty uniforms were enlivened by the whiteness
of the bandages sustaining the wounded limbs or protecting the broken
heads. All were trying to smile, although with livid mouths and feverish
eyes, at their first glimpse of the land of the South as it emerged from
the mist bathed in the sunlight, and covered with the regal vestures of
its vineyards. The men from the North stretched out their hands for the
fruit that the women were offering them, tasting with delight the sweet
grapes of the country.

For four days the distracted lover lived in Bordeaux, stunned and
bewildered by the agitation of a provincial city suddenly converted
into a capital. The hotels were overcrowded, many notables contenting
themselves with servants' quarters. There was not a vacant seat in the
cafes; the sidewalks could not accommodate the extraordinary assemblage.
The President was installed in the Prefecture; the State Departments
were established in the schools and museums; two theatres were fitted up
for the future reunions of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. Julio
was lodged in a filthy, disrepu