kids, and it was fun to pick 'em off and see 'em tumble on their nose.
But what would you have? they kept coming, coming, all the time, ten
men to our one, and all the artillery they could wish for. Courage is
a very good thing in its place, but sometimes it gets a man into
difficulties, and so, at last, when it got too hot to stand it any
longer, we cut and run. But regarded as nincompoops, our officers were
a decided success; don't you think so, Picot?"

[*] This was Abel Douay--not to be confounded with his brother,
Felix, who commanded the 7th corps.-TR.

There was a brief interval of silence. Picot tossed off a glass of the
white wine and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Of course," said he. "It was just the same at Froeschwiller; the
general who would give battle under such circumstances is a fit
subject for a lunatic asylum. That's what my captain said, and he's a
little man who knows what he is talking about. The truth of the matter
is that no one knew anything; we were only forty thousand strong, and
we were surprised by a whole army of those pigs. And no one was
expecting to fight that day; battle was joined by degrees, one portion
after another of our troops became engaged, against the wishes of our
commanders, as it seems. Of course, I didn't see the whole of the
affair, but what I do know is that the dance lasted by fits and starts
all day long; a body would think it was ended; not a bit of it! away
would go the music more furiously than ever. The commencement was at
Woerth, a pretty little village with a funny clock-tower that looks
like a big stove, owing to the earthenware tiles they have stuck all
over it. I'll be hanged if I know why we let go our hold of it that
morning, for we broke all our teeth and nails trying to get it back