ute; the foresters turned
their heads away to avoid seeing me; and in the villages the folk would
gather into knots in the roadway and would scowl at me as I passed. Even
women would do this, and it was something new for me in those days to
see anything but a smile in a woman's eyes when they were turned upon
me.

It was in the hamlet of Schmolin, just ten miles out of Altenburg, that
the thing became most marked. I had stopped at the little inn there just
to damp my moustache and to wash the dust out of poor Violette's throat.
It was my way to give some little compliment, or possibly a kiss, to the
maid who served me; but this one would have neither the one nor the
other, but darted a glance at me like a bayonet-thrust. Then when I
raised my glass to the folk who drank their beer by the door they turned
their backs on me, save only one fellow, who cried, 'Here's a toast for
you, boys! Here's to the letter T!' At that they all emptied their beer
mugs and laughed; but it was not a laugh that had good-fellowship in it.

I was turning this over in my head and wondering what their boorish
conduct could mean, when I saw, as I rode from the village, a great T
new carved upon a tree. I had already seen more than one in my morning's
ride, but I had given no thought to them until the words of the
beer-drinker gave them an importance. It chanced that a
respectable-looking person was riding past me at the moment, so I turned
to him for information.

'Can you tell me, sir,' said I, 'what this letter T is?'

He looked at it and then at me in the most singular fashion. 'Young
man,' said he, 'it is not the letter N.' Then before I could ask further
he clapped his spurs into his horses ribs and rode, stomach to earth,
upon his way.

At first his words had no particular significance in my mind, but as I
trotted onwards Violette chanced to half turn her dainty head, and my
eyes were caught by the gleam of the brazen N's at the end of the
bridle-chain. It was the Emperor's mark. And those T's meant something
which was opposite to it. Things had been happening in Germany, then,
during our absence, and the giant sleeper had begun to stir. I thought
of the mutinous faces that I had seen, and I felt that if I could only
have looked into the hearts of these people I might have had some
strange news to bring into France with me. It made me the more eager to
get my remounts, and to see ten strong squadrons behind my kettle-drums
once more.