General in Chief. Now then, a large four-horse coach having been
engaged for this trip, and ten persons having had their names booked
with the driver, it was decided to leave on a Tuesday morning,
before daybreak, to avoid attracting any crowd.

For some time past the frost had hardened the ground, and on that
particular Monday, at about three o'clock, big black clouds coming
from the North brought the snow which fell without interruption
all that evening and during the whole night.

At half past four in the morning, the travelers met in the courtyard
of the Hotel de Normandie, where they were to take the coach.

They were still half asleep, and shivered with cold under their
wraps. They could not see each other well in the darkness, and
bundled in their heavy winter clothing, their bodies looked like
fat priests in their long cassocks. Two men recognized each other;
a third joined them; they talked:--"I am taking my wife with me--"
said one;--"So am I"--"And I too"--The first speaker continued, "We
shall not come back to Rouen, and if the Prussians should threaten
Havre, we shall cross over to England"--They all had the same plans,
being of similar disposition.

However, the horses were not yet harnessed. A small lantern,
carried by a stable boy, came now and then out of a dark doorway,
and immediately disappeared in another. Horses were stamping the
ground, but their hooves being covered with dung and straw, the
noise of the stamping was deadened; a man's voice talking to the
animals and swearing at them was heard from the rear of the building.
A faint tickle grew soon into a clear and continuous jingling,