aid to be at Vitry-le Francois, could get up to Verdun.

"Oh, come now! I wonder if they are going to let us starve!" was
Chouteau's remark when, at seven o'clock, there was still no sign of
rations.

By way of taking time by the forelock, Jean had instructed Loubet
to light the fire and put on the pot, and, as there was no issue of
firewood, he had been compelled to be blind to the slight irregularity
of the proceeding when that individual remedied the omission by tearing
the palings from an adjacent fence. When he suggested knocking up a
dish of bacon and rice, however, the truth had to come out, and he
was informed that the rice and bacon were lying in the mud of the
Saint-Etienne road. Chouteau lied with the greatest effrontery declaring
that the package must have slipped from his shoulders without his
noticing it.

"You are a couple of pigs!" Jean shouted angrily, "to throw away
good victuals, when there are so many poor devils going with an empty
stomach!"

It was the same with the three loaves that had been fastened outside the
knapsacks; they had not listened to his warning, and the consequence was
that the rain had soaked the bread and reduced it to paste.

"A pretty pickle we are in!" he continued. "We had food in plenty, and
now here we are, without a crumb! Ah! you are a pair of dirty pigs!"

At that moment the first sergeant's call was heard, and Sergeant Sapin,
returning presently with his usual doleful air, informed the men that
it would be impossible to distribute rations that evening, and that they
would have to content themselves with what eatables they had on their
persons. It was reported that the trains had been delayed by the bad
weather, and as to the herds, they must have straggled off as a result
of conflicting orders. Subsequently it became known that on that day the
5th and 12th corps had got up to Rethel, where the headquarters of the
army were established, and the inhabitants of the neighboring villages,
possessed with a mad desire to see the Emperor, had inaugurated a hegira
toward that town, taking with them everything in the way of provisions;
so that when the 7th corps came up they found themselves in a land of
nakedness: no bread, no meat, no people, even. To add to their distress
a misconception of orders had caused the supplies of the commissary
department to be directed on Chene-Populeux. This was a state of affairs
that during the entire campaign formed the despair of the wret