o have nothing more to feed upon, and one by one they returned to the
capital, leaving me the only lingerer.

To any one accustomed to military display, there was little to attract
notice in the column, which consisted of detachments from various corps,
horse, foot, and artillery; some were returning to their regiments after
a furlough; some had just issued from the hospitals, and were seated in
_charrettes_, or country cars; and others, again, were peasant boys only
a few days before drawn in the conscription. There was every variety of
uniform, and, I may add, of raggedness, too--a coarse blouse and a pair
of worn shoes, with a red or blue handkerchief on the head, being the
dress of many among them. The Republic was not rich in those days,
and cared little for the costume in which her victories were won. The
artillery alone seemed to preserve anything like uniformity in dress.
They wore a plain uniform of blue, with long white gaiters coming
half-way up the thigh; a low cocked-hat, without feather, but with the
tricoloured cockade in front. They were mostly men middle aged, or past
the prime of life, bronzed, weather-beaten, hardy-looking fellows, whose
white moustaches contrasted well with their sun-burned faces. All their
weapons and equipments were of a superior kind, and showed the care
bestowed upon an arm whose efficiency was the first discovery of the
republican generals. The greater number of these were Bretons, and
several of them had served in the fleet, still bearing in their looks
and carriage something of that air which seems inherent in the seaman.
They were grave, serious, and almost stern in manner, and very unlike
the young cavalry soldiers, who, mostly recruited from the south of
France, many of them Gascons, had all the high-hearted gaiety and
reckless levity of their own peculiar land. A campaign to these fellows
seemed a pleasant excursion; they made a jest of everything, from the
wan faces of the invalids to the black bread of the commissary; they
quizzed the new 'Tourlerous,' as the recruits were styled, and the old
'Grumblers,' as it was the fashion to call the veterans of the army;
they passed their jokes on the Republic, and even their own officers
came in for a share of their ridicule. The Grenadiers, however, were
those who especially were made the subject of their sarcasm. They were
generally from the north of France, and the frontier country toward
Flanders, whence they probably imbibed a