n horseback, a truss-maker, who had formerly been quartermaster of
the third hussars. Certainly they only asked for service; it was not
their fault, after all, if one had not confidence in them, and if they
were not sent to the front as soon as they reached the fortifications.
While crossing the drawbridge they had sung the Marseillaise like men
ready to be shot down. What spoiled their martial appearance, perhaps,
were their strong hunting-boots, their leather leggings, knit gloves, and
long gaiters; lastly, that comfortable air of people who have brought
with them a few dainties, such as a little bread with something eatable
between, some tablets of chocolate, tobacco, and a phial filled with old
rum. They had not gone two kilometres outside the ramparts, and were near
the fort, where for the time being the artillery was silent, when a staff
officer who was awaiting them upon an old hack of a horse, merely skin
and bones, stopped them by a gesture of the hand, and said sharply to
their major to take position on the left of the road, in an open field.
They then stacked their arms there and broke ranks, and rested until
further orders.

What a dismal place! Under a canopy of dull clouds, the earth bare with
half-melted snow, with the low fort rising up before them as if in an
attitude of defence, here and there groups of ruined houses, a mill whose
tall chimney and walls had been half destroyed by shells, but where one
still read, in large black letters, these words, "Soap-maker to the
Nobility;" and through this desolated country was a long and muddy road
which led over to where the battle field lay, and in the midst of which,
presenting a symbol of death, lay the dead body of a horse.

In front of the National Guard, on the other side of the road, a
battalion, which had been strongly put to the test the night before, were
cooking. They had retreated as far as this to rest a little, and had
spent all that night without shelter under the falling snow. Exhausted,
bespattered, in rags, they were dolefully crouched around their meagre
green-wood fires; the poor creatures were to be pitied. Underneath their
misshapen caps they all showed yellow, wrinkled, and unshaven faces. The
bitter, cold wind that swept over the plain made their thin shoulders,
stooping from fatigue, shiver, and their shoulder-blades protruded under
their faded capes. Some of them were wounded, too slightly to be sent
away in the ambulance, and wore abo