A CITIZEN'S CAMPAIGN. 209 



Respectfully bowing to this distinguished officer, M. B de- 

 clined receiving the offered weapon, desiring him to keep it, and be- 

 lieve on the word of a man of honour, that he should be treated with 

 all the respect and attention due to his rank and situation, assuring 

 him that the good faith which should be kept with him would leave 

 no cause to regret his having acted as he had done. 



The General then ordered his party, consisting of two aides-de- 

 camp in brilliant uniforms and two troopers of the guard, to approach, 

 dismount, and surrender their arms, which was accordingly done; 

 and our adventurers now learned that the general had straggled 

 from a body of the royal horse the preceding evening, and after 

 marching several hours with the hope of rejoining their friends, 

 found they had taken a contrary direction, and had in fact completely 

 lost their way. When day broke they were in the midst of a hostile 

 and insurgent population ; throughout the entire day they had wan- 

 dered from place to place, sometimes directed aright by the few per- 

 sons they encountered, but oftener misled by the unfriendly peasantry. 

 Without money for both general and officers had expended their last 

 centime in their march from Paris harassed, fatigued to death, and 

 fainting for want of sustenance, the easiness of their surrender is 

 little to be wondered at ; though, when somewhat refreshed by sleep 

 and the few eatables our party possessed, they certainly felt and ex- 

 pressed some mortification to find how mean a force had captured 

 them : fortunately they did not learn this fact till daybreak ; and 

 though they might even then, perhaps, have succeeded in disarming 

 their captors and setting themselves at liberty, the intelligence of the 

 total flight of the royal army, which they "received at a very early 

 hour from a farmer, convinced them at once of its inutility ; besides, 

 the interest excited by the general's situation and rank on the one 



side, and the frankness, attention, and temperate behaviour of M.B 



on the other, soon led to a sort of intimacy and good understanding 

 between them, that the general would not have willingly interrupted 

 by violence. 



About seven o'clock M. B set off with his five prisoners to 



return to Paris ; previous to starting, the general insisted upon M. 



B 's mounting his own beautiful and richly caparisoned horse, 



taking for himself that of one of the troopers, our youngest adven- 

 turer mounting the other, Huguenin and the two dismounted troopers 

 following on foot, as no consideration would have induced the veteran 

 to lay aside the prejudices of an old grenadier and ride on horseback, 

 a feat he declared he had not attempted for twenty-five years. 



After an hour's marching the little cortege stopped at a village to 

 breakfast, the aides-de-camp and troopers eating ravenously ; for this 



meal they were indebted to the kindness of M. B , for, as I 



before observed, they had not a sous, and M. B was paymaster 



for all ; here also the general insisted upon purchasing a peasant's 

 blouze and a common hat, both of which he instantly put on, eagerly 

 relinquishing his own splendid dress, and concealing all his deco- 

 rations most carefully ; besides this precaution, M. B and his 



companions gave up their tri-coloured cockades to their prisoners, 



M.M. No. 104. 2 E 



