WAR PICTURES IN TIME OF PEACE. 21 



their horses and grooming them, hissing at their work like so 

 many serpents, and pausing occasionally to swallow a hot cup 

 of coffee which, with an enormous piece of bread, was handed 

 them by a comrade. The door of a bedroom opposite mine 

 opened, and an officer in shirt -sleeves and slippers, and wiping 

 his hands on a towel, leaned over the railing of the gallery and 

 called to his servant for his boots. 



The horses were standing in long lines under the sheds, 

 saddles and equipments were being put on, and sabres were 

 clanking as the soldiers moved about, when I descended to the 

 coffee-room, which I found already filled with officers of the 

 staff. They were coming and going, or sitting at the tables 

 drinking their coffee and smoking their morning cigarettes. 

 All rose as the general, a handsome old soldier clad in the 

 tasteful fatigue uniform of a general of division, entered the 

 room, and raising his gold-laced fatigue-cap in recognition of 

 the salute, with a hearty " Bonjour, messieurs !" led the way 

 through the door to the yard, where the horses were now in 

 readiness, the cavalry escort drawn up behind, the men, shakos 

 strapped under their chins, great -coats on, carbines slung over 

 their shoulders, sitting motionless on their horses. The staff 

 mounted, and, the general at the head, moved out through the 

 archway and rode up the village street, which was already filled 

 with troops from end to end. 



Six o'clock struck from the tower of the old Norman church 

 when the head of the infantry column, a battalion of chasseurs- 

 a-pied, the picked light-infantry of the French army, crossed 

 the market-place, their bugles sounding a march. They moved 

 with astonishing rapidity, with the quick, short step peculiar to 

 this corps, and were followed close on their heels by column 

 after column of troops of the line in heavy marching order, and 

 in their ungraceful fatigue uniform. The long skirts of their 



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