and Count von Eyrick a very short, fair-haired man, who was proud
and brutal toward men, harsh toward prisoners, and very violent.

Since he had been in France, his comrades had called him nothing
but "Mademoiselle Fifi." They had given him that nickname on
account of his dandified style and small waist, which looked as
if he wore stays, from his pale face, on which his budding
mustache scarcely showed, and on account of the habit he had
acquired of employing the French expression, fi, fi donc, which
he pronounced with a slight whistle, when he wished to express
his sovereign contempt for persons or things.

The dining-room of the chateau was a magnificent long room, whose
fine old mirrors, now cracked by pistol bullets, and Flemish
tapestry, now cut to ribbons and hanging in rags in places, from
sword-cuts, told too well what Mademoiselle Fifi's occupation was
during his spare time.

There were three family portraits on the walls; a steel-clad
knight, a cardinal, and a judge, who were all smoking long
porcelain pipes, which had been inserted into holes in the
canvas, while a lady in a long, pointed waist proudly exhibited
an enormous pair of mustaches, drawn with a piece of charcoal.

The officers ate their breakfast almost in silence in that
mutilated room, which looked dull in the rain, and melancholy
under its vanquished appearance, although its old, oak floor had
become as solid as the stone floor of a public-house.

When they had finished eating, and were smoking and drinking,