of foggy nights. Then in the morning they would
start out again. Droves of animals, and throngs of
men succeeded one another alternately. They were
passing by us, and upon the yellow main road one
could see the black and mournful procession of the
refugees as far as the hill closing the horizon: one
might think it was an exodus of a whole people. I
questioned an old man who led a donkey pulling a
cart, at the bottom of which in the midst of bundles,
tied with kerchiefs, and carrots and heads of cabbage,
on a pile of straw there shifted about a peasant woman
with a flat nose, two pink-colored pigs and a few domestic fouls tied by their feet in twos.
"Eh, the robbers!" the old man replied. "Don't speak to me about them! . . . They came one morning, a whole gang of them with plumed hats. . . . They raised such a racket! . . . Eh, Holy Jesus! And then they took everything away. . . . Well I thought they were the Prussians. . . . I have found out since that they were the 'franc-tireurs'. . ."
"How about the Prussians?"
"The Prussians! . . . Of them that are Prussians I have seen very few to be sure. . . . They are supposed to be up at our place right now! . . . Jacqueline thinks she saw one behind the hedge the other day! . . . He was tall, very tall and he was as red as the devil. . . . Is he really one of these fellows, those savages that came? . . . Now tell me truly who are they?"
"Those are Germans, old man, just as we are French."
"Germans? . . . So I hear. . . . But what do they want, those damned Germans, will you please tell me, mister soldier? . . . Well, I have saved two pigs, our girl and all our poultry just the same! . . . By Jove!"
And the peasant continued on his way, repeating:
