see the wide plain, not marked by regular columns in marching array,
but covered with straggling detachments, hurrying onward as if without
order or discipline. Here was an infantry battalion mixed up with a
cavalry corps, the foot-soldiers endeavoring to keep up with the ambling
trot of the dragoons; there, the ammunition wagons were covered with
weary soldiers, too tired to march. Most of the men were without their
firelocks, which were piled in a confused heap on the limbers of the
guns. No merry chant, no burst of warlike music, cheered them on. They
seemed like the scattered fragments of a routed army hurrying onward in
search of some place of refuge,-sad and spiritless.

"Can he have been beaten?" was the fearful thought that flashed across
me as I gazed. "Have the bold legions that were never vanquished
succumbed at last? Oh, no, no! I'll not believe it." And while a glow of
fever warmed my whole blood, I buckled on my sabre, and taking my shako,
prepared to issue forth. Scarcely had I reached the door, with tottering
limbs, when I saw Minette dashing up the steep street at the top speed
of her pony, while she flourished above her head a great placard, and
waved it to and fro.

"The news! the news!" cried I, bursting with anxiety. "Are they
advancing; or is it a retreat?"

"Read that!" said she, throwing me a large sheet of paper, headed with
the words, "Proclamation! la Grande Armee!" in huge letters,-"read that!
for I've no breath left to tell you."

Soldiers!--The campaign so gloriously begun will soon be completed.

One victory, and the Austrian empire, so great but a week since, will be
humbled in the dust. Hasten on, then! Forced marches, by day and night,
will attest your eagerness to meet the enemy; and let the endeavor of
each regiment be to arrive soonest on the field of battle.

"Minette! dearest Minette!" said I, as I threw my arms around her
neck, "this is indeed good news." "Gently, gently, Monsieur!" said she,
smiling, while she disengaged herself from my sudden embrace. "Very good
news, without doubt; but I don't think that there is any mention in the
bulletin about embracing the vivandieres of the army."

"At a moment like this, Minette--"

"The best thing to do is, to make up one's baggage and join the march,"
said she, very steadily, proceeding at the same time to put her plan
into execution.

While I gave her all assistance in my power, the doctor entered to
inform us that all the w