She remained there until the German troops departed, and then one
evening the priest borrowed the baker's cart, and himself drove
his prisoner to Rouen. When they got there, he embraced her, and
she quickly went back on foot to the establishment from which she
had come, where the proprietress, who thought that she was dead,
was very glad to see her.

A short time afterward, a patriot who had no prejudices, who
liked her because of her bold deed, and who afterward loved her
for herself, married her, and made a lady of her.



AN AFFAIR OF STATE.

Paris had just heard of the disaster of Sedan. The Republic was
proclaimed. All France was panting from a madness that lasted
until the time of the Commonwealth. Everybody was playing at
soldier from one end of the country to the other.

Capmakers became colonels, assuming the duties of generals;
revolvers and daggers were displayed on large rotund bodies,
enveloped in red sashes; common citizens turned warriors,
commanding battalions of noisy volunteers, and swearing like
troopers to emphasize their importance.

The very fact of bearing arms and handling guns with a system
excited a people who hitherto had only handled scales and
measures, and made them formidable to the first comer, without
reason. They even executed a few innocent people to prove that