rubbing, when the bugler interfered,
took aside the most desperate and coaxed them into giving up the stolen
object. To celebrate the reconciliation which followed this scene,
Francis and I contributed three francs each, and it was arranged that
the bugler with the aid of his comrades should try to slip out of the
hospital and bring back some meat and wine.

The light had disappeared from the major's window, the druggist at last
extinguished his, we climb over the thicket, examine our surroundings,
caution the men who are gliding along the walls not to encounter the
sentinels on the way, mount on one another's shoulders and jump off into
the field. An hour later they came back laden with victuals; they pass
them over and reenter the dormitory with us; we suppress the two night
lamps, light candle-ends stuck on the floor, and around my bed in our
shirts we form a circle. We had absorbed three or four liters of wine
and cut up the best part of a leg of mutton, when a great clattering of
shoes is heard; I blow out the candle stubbs, by the grace of my shoe,
and every one escapes under the beds. The door opens; the major appears,
heaves a formidable "Good Heavens!" stumbles in the darkness, goes out
and comes back with a lantern and the inevitable train of nurses. I
profit by the moment to disperse the remains of the feast; the major
crosses the dormitory at a quick step, swearing, threatening to take us
all into custody and to put us in stocks.

We are convulsed with laughter under our coverings; a trumpet-flourish
blazes from the other side of the dormitory. The major puts us all under
diet; then he goes out, warning us that we shall know in a few minutes
what metal he is made of.

Once gone, we vie with each other in doing our worst; flashes of
laughter rumble and crackle. The trumpeter does a handspring in the
dormitory, one of his friends joins him, a third jumps on his bed as
on a springboard and bounces up and down, his arms balancing, his shirt
flying; his neighbor breaks into a triumphant cancan; the major enters
abruptly, orders four men of the line he has brought with him to seize
the dancers, and announces to us that he is going to draw up a report
and send it to whom it may concern.

Calm is restored at last; the next day we get the nurses to buy us some
eatables. The days run on without further incident. We are beginning to
perish of ennui in this hospital, when, one day, at five o'clock, the
doctor bursts