aders must be first-class nincompoops to thrust us into such a
hornet's nest, with no support at hand, and leave us to be crushed there
without coming to our assistance. And then our General, Douay,[*] poor
devil! neither a fool nor a coward, that man,--a bullet comes along
and lays him on his back. That ended it; no one left to command us! No
matter, though, we kept on fighting all the same; but they were too many
for us, we had to fall back at last. We held the railway station for a
long time, and then we fought behind a wall, and the uproar was enough
to wake the dead. And then, when the city was taken, I don't exactly
remember how it came about, but we were upon a mountain, the Geissberg,
I think they call it, and there we intrenched ourselves in a sort of
castle, and how we did give it to the pigs! they jumped about the rocks
like kids, and it was fun to pick 'em off and see 'em tumble on their
nose. But what would you have? they kept coming, coming, all the time,
ten men to our one, and all the artillery they could wish for. Courage
is a very good thing in its place, but sometimes it gets a man into
difficulties, and so, at last, when it got too hot to stand it any
longer, we cut and run. But regarded as nincompoops, our officers were a
decided success; don't you think so, Picot?"

[*] This was Abel Douay--not to be confounded with his brother, Felix,
who commanded the 7th corps.-TR.

There was a brief interval of silence. Picot tossed off a glass of the
white wine and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Of course," said he. "It was just the same at Froeschwiller; the
general who would give battle under such circumstances is a fit subject
for a lunatic asylum. That's what my captain said, and he's a little man
who knows what he is talking about. The truth of the matter is that
no one knew anything; we were only forty thousand strong, and we were
surprised by a whole army of those pigs. And no one was expecting to
fight that day; battle was joined by degrees, one portion after another
of our troops became engaged, against the wishes of our commanders, as
it seems. Of course, I didn't see the whole of the affair, but what I
do know is that the dance lasted by fits and starts all day long; a body
would think it was ended; not a bit of it! away would go the music more
furiously than ever. The commencement was at Woerth, a pretty little
village with a funny clock-tower that looks like a big stove, owing to
t