case, but did it please them to pose as royalists? He took a long chance after a quick prayer because he wanted to live not so much for himself as for the woman. 

 "I am deserting the Emperor," he said.  "I am for the king." 

 "No king could have brought us to worse straits than we are now in," said the leader, lowering his pistol uncertainly, but still keeping the young man covered. 

 "Right, my friend," continued Marteau exultantly, realizing that he had made the right choice.  "Bonaparte is beaten, Blücher is marching on Paris, Schwarzenberg has the Emperor surrounded. I thought I might as well save myself while I had the chance, so I stole this Russian coat to keep myself from freezing to death, and here I am. I belong to Aumenier." 

 "You'll join us, then?" 

 "With pleasure. Who do you serve?" 

 "Ourselves," laughed the leader grimly.  "We're from Fére-Champenoise way. We're all of the village and countryside that the Cossacks and the Prussians have left of our families. We're hungry, starving, naked. Do you hear? We were hiding in the woods hard by to-day. There was a wagon-train.  A regiment of Cossacks surprised it, killed its defenders, brought it here. We saw it all." 

 "And where are the Cossacks gone?" asked the young man, coolly picking up his pistol from the floor and nonchalantly sitting upon the nearest table in a careless way which certainly belied the beating of his heart. He took careful notice of the men. They were ignorant fellows of the baser sort, half-mad, starving, ferocious peasants, little better than brute beasts, made so by the war. 

 "An order came for them. They marched away, leaving a company of other soldiers like those yonder."  He pointed to the men on the floor. 

 "And what became of them?" 

 "There was an attack from the woods at night—a little handful of French soldiers. They beat them off and followed them down the road. They have been gone half an hour. We heard the firing. We came out thinking to plunder the train. We opened wagon after wagon but found nothing but arms. We can't eat steel or powder. We killed two sentries, made prisoners of the officers. We'll set fire to the house and leave them presently. As for this man, we'll kill him, and as for this woman——" 

 He 

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