on the other.
I did not doubt that something had happened, but not an event of such
gravity as was reported. We therefore decided to push on to Beaucaire,
and when we got there we found the town in the most perfect order. The
expedition of twelve thousand men was reduced to one of two hundred,
which had been easily repulsed, with the result that of the assailants
one had been wounded and one made prisoner. Proud of this success, the
people of Beaucaire entrusted us with a thousand objurgations to deliver
to their inveterate enemies the citizens of Nimes.

"If any journey could give a correct idea of the preparations for civil
war and the confusion which already prevailed in the South, I should
think that without contradiction it would be that which we took that
day. Along the four leagues which lie between Beaucaire and Nimes
were posted at frequent intervals detachments of troops displaying
alternately the white and the tricoloured cockade. Every village upon
our route except those just outside of Nimes had definitely joined
either one party or the other, and the soldiers, who were stationed at
equal distances along the road, were now Royalist and now Bonapartist.
Before leaving Beaucaire we had all provided ourselves, taking example
by the men we had seen at Orgon, with two cockades, one white, and one
tricoloured, and by peeping out from carriage windows we were able to
see which was worn by the troops we were approaching in time to attach
a similar one to our hats before we got up to them, whilst we hid
the other in our shoes; then as we were passing we stuck our heads,
decorated according to circumstances, out of the windows, and shouted
vigorously, 'Long live the king!' or 'Long live the emperor!' as the
case demanded. Thanks to this concession to political opinions on the
highway, and in no less degree to the money which we gave by way of tips
to everybody everywhere, we arrived at length at the barriers of Nimes,
where we came up with the National Guards who had been repulsed by the
townspeople of Beaucaire.

"This is what had taken place just before we arrived in the city:

"The National Guard of Nimes and the troops of which the garrison was
composed had resolved to unite in giving a banquet on Sunday, the 28th
of June, to celebrate the success of the French army. The news of the
battle of Waterloo travelled much more quickly to Marseilles than
to Nimes, so the banquet took place without interruption. A bust