CHRISTMAS-TIME IN FOUR CONTINENTS 191 



Some bottles of excellent wine of the country assisted in making 

 the evening a very pleasant one, for such a feast had not fallen 

 to our lot for some time. All the more enjoyable was it made 

 by the knowledge that we had been able to distribute some 

 few little extras among the unfortunate wounded, of which 

 cigars, cut up by them and made into cigarettes, were always 

 appreciated more than anything else. 



We had been about a month in Beaune-la-Rolande in charge 

 of the wounded, of which the greater part had already been 

 evacuated further to the rear, for supplies ran short near the 

 front ; many others had died of their wounds, and only the 

 more serious and immovable cases now remained. 



The wounded had passed through a terrible time, for they 

 were stricken when the land was deep in mud after several days 

 of rain. All the shelter available was in the town and adjoining 

 villages, the houses of which, with few exceptions, had suffered 

 severely from shot and shell during the French unsuccessful 

 attack on the German position. However, now they lay in 

 comparative comfort, instead of, owing to former want of space, 

 piled one on top of another, as during the first days after the 

 battle, and reposed on mattresses, beds, &c., instead of the 

 bare floor perhaps covered with a little straw as long as that was 

 procurable. 



Beaune-la-Rolande, altogether, had a woebegone appearance, 

 enveloped as it was in its mantle of snow and ice; for on 

 the evening of the 29th of November the weather suddenly 

 changed to frost. The buildings on the outskirts, loopholed and 

 crenellated, were everywhere marked by bullets and partly 

 demolished by shell ; roofs were sadly in want of repair, and 

 windows innocent of glass. Above all rose the church spire, 

 half shot away, so that it seemed wonderful that it still bore 

 itself erect ; while but few tombstones in the small churchyard 

 were left standing or unbroken, for here also the fight had been 

 severe. Temporary graves with rough wooden crosses to mark 

 the spot, graves in which German and Frenchman lay together, 

 all feelings of enmity gone, were plentiful around the village, 

 but a white shroud of snow had long since hidden all other 

 evidence of the fierce fight which was fought here on the 28th 

 and 29th of November, 1870. 



On the early morning of the former day three brigades of 



