howled and surged. Himmel! It made me proud. Ach, Gott! but the old
badger-grey Strauss sat steady, and rode his horse at a walk--easy, cool
as if he were going up Unter den Linden on Mayday under the eyes of the
pretty girls. Not that ever old Strauss cared as much for maids' eyes as
I would have done--ah me, in Siebenzig!

Then came two men behind him, looking quickly up the side-streets, with
carbines ready across their saddles. And so they rode, these three,
like true Prussians every one. And I swear it took Jacob Oertler, that
was Jules of the Midi, all his possible to keep from crying out; but he
could not for his life keep down the sobs. However, the Frenchmen
thought that he wept to see the disgrace of Paris. So that, and nothing
else, saved him.

When Strauss and his two stayed a moment to consult as to the way, the
crowd of noisy whelps pressed upon them, snarling and showing their
teeth. Then Strauss and his men grimly fitted a cartridge into each
carbine. Seeing which, it was enough for these very faint-heart
patriots. They turned and ran, and with them ran Jules of the Midi that
waited at the Hôtel de Ville. He ran as fast as the best of them; and so
no man took me for a German that day or any other day that I was in
Paris.

Then, after this deliverance, I went on to the Halles. The streets were
more ploughed with shells than a German field when the teams go to and
fro in the spring.

There were two men with me in the uniform of the Hôtel de Ville, to
carry the provisions. For already the new marketings were beginning to
come in by the Porte Maillot at Neuilly.