spirits, good humour and downright gaiety of the soldiers never failed
for a single moment. I had never seen them before under such trying
circumstances, and I thought them quite admirable, and their officers
too,--the very embodiment of devotion. One day, the rear guard
detachment had dropped some way behind the main column, and found itself
stopped by an impetuous torrent, which was swelling visibly under a
deluge of rain. The first men who tried to cross were carried off their
feet, thrown down, and only pulled out with great difficulty. Without a
moment's hesitation all the officers plunged into the water, though it
was up to their arm-pits, and holding on to each other's arms they
formed a sort of animated dam, above which they made their men cross
over, and it was all done in the simplest way. Frenchmen of all classes,
soldiers, sailors, what-not, a splendid race they are, when the spirit
of obedience and discipline inspires them with a sense of duty! At last
we came in sight of Constantine, and shortly after of a body of cavalry,
the Third Chasseurs d'Afrique, sent out to meet us. From an officer
detached in advance we learnt the place had been taken by assault three
days previously, and that the Comte de Damremont, general in command,
had been cut in two by a round shot, while he was talking to my brother
Nemours. Very soon, galloping up to the Coudiat-Ati, I was in the arms
of that good brother, who had behaved so brilliantly during the whole
campaign. He was in the act of inspecting his brave little army, and we
finished the inspection together. Then he scanned me from top to toe,
and the smart soldier spoke instead of the brother "You can't go about
like that, haven't you anything else to put on?"

"I'm afraid I haven't," I sadly replied, with a humiliated glance at my
short jacket, my trousers turned up with a bit of gutta percha, and my
straw hat covered with waxed cloth, none of which had been improved by
camping out in the mud. The only soldier-like things about me were my