rules, the pupils were never allowed a fire!

Nevertheless, the pupils at Sorèze were well fed, especially for
that time; for in spite of the famine which was sweeping France, the
good administration of Dom Ferlus provided an abundance of food. The
everyday fare was certainly all that could be desired for
school-children. However the supper seemed to me to be most
niggardly, and the sight of the dishes put before me disgusted me:
but had I been offered ortolans, I would not have been tempted, my
heart was so full. The meal finished as it had begun, with a
patriotic song. We knelt down at the couplet of the Marseillaise
which begins "Amour sacré de la patrie"...Then we filed out, as we
had come in, to the sound of a drum, and we went to the dormitories.

The pupils of the upper school had each his own room, in which he
was shut in for the night; those of the lower school slept four to a
room, of which each angle contained a bed. I was put with Guiraud,
Romestan and Lagarde, who were my companions at table, and almost as
new as I was. I was quite happy with this. They had seemed to me to
be nice children, which, in fact, they were. But I was taken aback
when I saw the smallness of my bed, the thinness of the mattress, and
what displeased me most, the iron bed-stead. I had never seen
anything like it. However everything was very clean, and in spite of
my dismay I slept soundly, worn out by the shocks to my system which
I had suffered on this fateful day.

The next morning, the drum beat reveille, makinga horrible noise
in the dormitories, which I thought was quite atrocious; but how do
you think I felt when I saw that, while I was asleep, someone had
removed my beautiful clothes, my fine stockings and my pretty shoes,