THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR. 73 



altar for Christmas eve in their wreck of a church. The 

 churchyard had apparently been attacked, for many of the 

 tombstones were wrenched up and thrown across the gate- 

 way to barricade it. We saw the ground all trampled and 

 trodden, haversacks tossed about, a dead horse in an en- 

 trenchment not buried yet, and all war's ghastly symptoms. 



25th. Towards evening firing heard : supposed to be 

 letting off of cannons which had been loaded by the French 

 at the forts, and abandoned without being discharged. 

 Our Christmas was one of the coldest days I ever ex- 

 perienced. The keen frost, which had lasted with little inter- 

 mission since our arrival, had bound everything in its icy 

 fetters ; but this rigorous weather, while it increased the suffer- 

 ing of many poor people, was a most valuable check to the 

 spread of infection. Typhus, Dysentery, and Small-pox 

 were rife. No less than five members of our small society 

 took the last, and one, who had come out to do all she 

 could for the sick and impoverished people, succumbed to 

 its virulence. 



Of course the wild birds suffered as much as the people. 

 Gangs of famished Rooks* swarmed on the roads, in the 

 fields, or by the river's edge, searching for the food they 

 could not find. Some, more lucky than the rest, had dis- 

 covered a partially uncovered rubbish-heap. I drove them 

 away, and picked up one of the " field-post " letter boxes 

 used by the French regiments.f 



** Some ladies in England reared a young Rook which was blown 

 out of its nest. Instead of evincing its gratitude by quitting its bene- 

 factors when it grew up, this tractable bird built two nests of holly 

 leaves ; but ultnnately it joined its sable companions, showing that its 

 natural instinct was in the end stronger than anything else. 



f I read a curious account of the wounded soldiers at Sedan beckon- 

 ing for the field-postman before calling the ambulance, showing their 

 extraordinary eagerness to communicate with their friends. Blank 

 sheets were generally carried with each box for the men to write upon. 



