s a wild extravagance in that dinner, but then it was
patriotic--at least the dessert was.

We nearly froze to death at Bourget, but I have not time to tell
you of it. I must pass on to the last sortie--toward Montretout and
Malmaison. That was a dark, foggy, leaden morning, with a drizzling
rain. We passed through the whole French army on our way out--line,
National Guards, Mobiles, artillery, cavalry: we passed through them
all, everywhere meeting with a grateful reception. Sometimes they
cheered us and our wagons (now increased to eight) and our immense
coffee-pot. This last was an institution: it consisted of three great
boilers mounted on wheels. Before the meat gave out we used sometimes
to put soup in our coffee-pot and take it to the field. Coffee by some
means we still had. Even on the desolate morning I am now telling you
of many a poor foot-soldier who had been upon the almost impassable
roads all night had been cheered by a sly tin cupful of the precious
liquid as we trudged on toward the field. Well, we were finally
ordered to halt at the little village of Rueil, within a stone's throw
of the church where Josephine and Hortense lie buried. I climbed a
hill on the left, and saw the French pushing toward Buzenval. They
could see nothing before them but a line of fire--not a Prussian above
the low wall in front of the thick mass of wood. Though I could see
these Frenchmen dropping down by hundreds, they went steadily on and
on. Some of them were National Guards who had never before been under
fire. It was here that young Henri Regnault fell, with many other
Parisians known in literature and art. After a while the Germans began
shelling the hill on which I was, and I scampered down to the open
square where the wagons were. It was not long, however, till another
German battery got to throwing shells into this square, each discharge
bringing them nearer and nearer to us. Suddenly a shell struck the
corner house in front of us. The door opened in a very deliberate
way, and out came a man in a blouse, smoking a pipe, and followed by
a woman with a baby in her arms. He leisurely locked the door behind
him, and put the key into his pocket. Then he started slowly across
the square, with his wife and baby still behind him. As he passed us I
exclaimed, "For Heaven's sake, what are you doing here with that baby?
Don't you see they are shelling all around us?"

"Yes, I see, I see: one of them struck our house just now. I