"Retreating--and waiting for orders. How far are we from Paris?"

I told him about seventeen miles. He sighed, and remarked that he
thought they were nearer, and as the train started I had the idea in the
back of my head that these boys actually expected to retreat inside the
fortifications. La! la!

Instead of the half-hour the train usually takes to get up from here to
Paris, we were two hours.

I found Paris much more normal than when I was there two weeks ago,
though still quite unlike itself; every one perfectly calm and no one
with the slightest suspicion that the battle line was so near--hardly
more than ten miles beyond the outer forts. I transacted my business
quickly--saw only one person, which was wiser than I knew then, and
caught the four o'clock train back--we were almost the only passengers.

I had told Pere not to come after us--it was so uncertain when we could
get back, and I had always been able to get a carriage at the hotel in
Esbly.

We reached Esbly at about six o'clock to find the stream of emigrants
still passing, although the roads were not so crowded as they had been
the previous day. I ran over to the hotel to order the carriage--to be
told that Esbly was evacuated, the ambulance had gone, all the horses
had been sold that afternoon to people who were flying. There I was
faced with a walk of five miles--lame and tired. Just as I had made up
my mind that what had to be done could be done,--die or no die,--Amelie
came running across the street to say:--