the regiment of the vermin. But see here, as there's no longer any
discipline, I will attend to your case myself. There's no corporal
here now, but a hard-fisted fellow who is tired of listening to your
jaw, and he'll see if he can't make you keep your potato-trap shut.
Ah! you d----d coward! You won't fight yourself and you want to keep
others from fighting! Repeat your words once and I'll knock your head
off!"

By this time the whole car, won over by Jean's manly attitude, had
deserted Chouteau, who cowered back in his seat as if not anxious to
face his opponent's big fists.

"And I care no more for Badinguet than I do for you, do you
understand? I despise politics, whether they are republican or
imperial, and now, as in the past, when I used to cultivate my little
farm, there is but one thing that I wish for, and that is the
happiness of all, peace and good-order, freedom for every man to
attend to his affairs. No one denies that war is a terrible business,
but that is no reason why a man should not be treated to the sight of
a firing-party when he comes trying to dishearten people who already
have enough to do to keep their courage up. Good Heavens, friends, how
it makes a man's pulses leap to be told that the Prussians are in the
land and that he is to go help drive them out!"

Then, with the customary fickleness of a mob, the soldiers applauded
the corporal, who again announced his determination to thrash the
first man of his squad who should declare non-combatant principles.
Bravo, the corporal! they would soon settle old Bismarck's hash! And,
in the midst of the wild ovation of which he was the object, Jean, who
had recovered his self-control, turned politely to Maurice and