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. 
2sth. 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. 
* 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 ultimately it joined its sable companions, showing that its 
natural instinct was in the end stronger than anything else. 
+ 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. 
