THE GARDE MOBILE. 103 



by their parents, youthful, unfledged jail-birds — all thrown 

 upon their wits to find a living, and their wits therefore 

 speedily becoming of the sharpest. Full of spirit and 

 knavery, hungry and naked, they have always been the 

 foremost in civil commotions, worming themselves into holes 

 where an abl-ebodied man would stick fast — the very ferrets 

 of a revolution. It was really a bright thought which at 

 once converted them into the defenders of order ; let us 

 give its due to the author of it. So they were formed into a 

 Garde Mobile. Mobile enough, let us say ; and doubtless a 

 secret prayer arose from the wise projector of the scheme, 

 that they might be quickly moved off'mto a place not to be 

 named. Truly an exceptional force altogether, a veritable 

 normal force — outwardly not a force at all, but in reality 

 animated by the impetuous boiling ardor of La Jeune 

 France, and therefore doing miracles. Uniform they had 

 none ; many lacked shoes ; and few lacked rags and tatters. 

 Guiltless were they of discipline or manoeuvre. Of all 

 sizes were they, from four feet upwards, many of them 

 only knowing a gun by sight ; yet did they perform feats 

 on which men looked with astonishment. My friend said 

 that very few of them knew how to load their pieces, bat 

 some rammed the cartridge down without biting it, while 

 others bit it and pushed it down by the wrong end. In 

 his company he had them of fifteen and sixteen years old, 

 the youngest fledgeling being fourteen complete — a callow 

 warrior. But the three days of June arrived --those 

 bloody days which tried men's mettle — and then these 

 little breechless blackguards showed what they were made 

 of. " But," I observed to Monsieur Dornout, " surely these 



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