d sent numbers off in full speed to their
quarters; and now, all was haste and bustle to prepare for the coming
inspection. The Mere's endeavors to drag her beast along were not very
successful; for, with the peculiar instinct of his species, the more
necessity there was of speed, the lazier he became; and as every one had
his own concerns to look after, she was left to her own unaided efforts
to drive him forward.

"Thou'lt have a day in prison if thou'rt found here, Mere Madou," said a
dragoon, as he struck the ass with the flat of his sabre.

"I know it well," cried she, passionately; "but I have none to help me.
Come here, lad; be good-natured, and forget what passed. Take his bridle
while I whip him on."

I was at first disposed to refuse, but her pitiful face and sad plight
made me think better of it; and I seized the bridle at once; but just as
I had done so, the escort galloped forward, and the dragoons coming on
the flank of the miserable beast, over he went, barrels and all,
crushing me beneath him as he fell.

"Is the boy hurt?" were the last words I heard, for I fainted; but a few
minutes after I found myself seated on the grass, while a soldier was
stanching the blood that ran freely from a cut in my forehead.

"It is a trifle, general--a mere scratch," said a young officer to an
old man on horseback beside him, "and the leg is not broken."

"Glad of it," said the old officer; "casualties are insufferable, except
before an enemy. Send the lad to his regiment."

"He's only a camp-follower, general. He does not belong to us."

"There, my lad, take this, then, and make thy way back to Paris," said
the old general, as he threw me a small piece of money.

I looked up, and there, straight before me, saw the same officer who had
given me the assignat the night before.

"General La Coste!" cried I, in delight, for I thought him already a
friend.

"How is this--have I an acquaintance here?" said he, smiling: "on my
life! it's the young rogue I met this morning. Eh! art not thou the
artillery-driver I spoke to at the barrack?"

"Yes, general, the same."

"Diantre! It seems fated, then, that we are not to part company so
easily; for hadst thou remained in Paris, lad, we had most probably
never met again."

"Ainsi je suis bien tombe, general," said I, punning upon my accident.

He laughed heartily, less I suppose at the jest, which was a poor one,
than at the cool impudence with which I uttered it; an