s have something to eat, for we have fasted since breakfast.
Have they any eggs?" The _gouverneur du chateau_ appeared, and informed us
he had plenty of eggs, and could give us a _fricassee de mouton_ and
_pommes de terre au maitre d'hotel_, "but," added the doctor, "those d----d
fellows the gendarmes must dine with us." This I did not like, and
requested him to speak to the gaoler, which he did; but the former
declared it was customary, when they escorted prisoners they always eat
with them. We were obliged to conform to the nuisance. After dinner, or
rather supper, or, more correctly speaking, the two in one, I fell asleep
in my chair until a dirty-looking girl shook me by the arm to say that my
bed was ready. I gave her a look that had she been milk it would have
turned her into vinegar. I followed her, however, into a room about twelve
feet by seven, where there were two crib bedplaces like those on board the
packets. They were, considering the place, tolerably decent, and I turned
in half-rigged. At half after two in the morning our two horse attendants
had the civility to wake us out of tired Nature's sweet reposer, balmy
sleep. I looked daggers, and they looked determined on their plan of
making us march at three o'clock. The dirty, but civil damsel, brought me
a basin of water. I shook my feathers and refreshed myself. She then
appeared with some porringers filled with what she called
_cafe-au-lait_--_i.e._, milk bedevilled, and some tolerable bread and salt
butter. However, as we presumed we had another long march to encounter, we
made no hesitation in accepting it, and for which and the supper I had to
pay most extravagantly. We began our agreeable walk before daybreak,
accompanied by our two attendant cavaliers. As I walked rather lame one of
them offered me his horse, which I thought civil. I declined it, as I
preferred walking with my officers, although in pain.

About three in the afternoon we reached Hesdin, our destination for that
night, having marched nineteen miles, and were ushered into the gaol. "May
the devil run a-hunting with these rascally vagabonds!" said the doctor.
"Amen," responded the rest. We were put into a dirty brick-floored room
with a grated window, in which there were three beds. "Now," said I to the
doctor, "let us hunt for something to eat, for notwithstanding all my
miseries I am very hungry." The _gouverneur du chateau_ made his
appearance; he was a brigadier of gendarmes. "What do