postman, accustomed as he was to such scenes, could hardly help being affected. Louis paid him the three francs, and now they were alone.

"This is indeed an unexpected blessing! said Louis; "even I was beginning to despair, but you see my surmises were correct. Pierre was after all in Bourbaki's army, which had to retreat into Switzerland, for the letter has the Swiss postmark on it."

Josephine had now risen from her knees, she broke the seal. of the letter, it was a very long one, closely written on several large sheets of paper. She had just began to read it when her mother came in; it is needless to say what joy she too felt to learn that Pierre was safe, and that the weight of anxiety which had been pressing so heavily on her daughter, was at last removed.

"Now, Josephine, you will read us the letter, won't you?" said Louis.

"Yes, with pleasure," she replied, and read as follows:

"How many times, my dear Josephine, have I longed to be able to write to you, but even had I had the opportunity, so long as Paris was besieged I knew no letter could reach you, and now when I do write at last, I think, will my Josephine ever get this letter? has she survived the horrors and dangers of the siege, about which we have heard so much? Oh, Josephine, how I have thought about you all through the long dreary campaign and wearisome marches that I have had to undergo during the last three months! how I have prayed to God to protect you, that even if it were His good will, that we should never meet on earth-for I didn't expect I could ever survive the sufferings I had to endure that you might be spared to be a blessing to your own family, and to comfort my dear old father for my loss! Oh! my poor father! could I only get some news of him. I fear he is heart-broken about our disasters, and pining away in anxiety about me, but I

wrote to him directly we got into Switzerland, which was only yesterday, to tell him I was safe. Yes, here we are in Switzerland, whither we were driven by the Prussians. We are kindly treated and well fed, as you will learn at the end of my story, which I am going to write to you, as fully as I can.

"I hope you got the short letter which I wrote to you from Troyes, after my happy escape from the field of Sedan. There I joined several of my comrades. We had new clothes and boots given us, and were soon after marched off westward under General Bourbaki, who had escaped from Sedan. Then at last we came near Orleans, and every day we had to fight the Prussians; now and then we were victorious, but I must confess we were generally beaten, their discipline was much better than ours, and their men much stronger too, better clothed and better fed than our poor fellows. At last, after a battle, we entered Orleans, and so full was this city, that some of us had to encamp inside the Cathedral. It was a dreadful sight which I saw there; it made my blood run cold; our soldiers showed no respect at all for that sacred place; they destroyed and defiled everything-acting as if they were heathens, rather than Christians. Many fires were lighted on the pavement, mostly made of the chairs and benches; they played profane tunes on the organ, they desecrated the consecrated building in every possible manner. I saw a priest in tears, as accompanied by two sisters of mercy, he went about distributing food, and attending to the wounded. But I will not dwell on that sad scene. We did not remain long in Orleans, the Prussians soon came and drove us out again, and then we were defeated over and over again, and our real sufferings commenced. Once we marched for seven days from morning to night, without halting even to get a piece of hard biscuit. We were always in mud up to our knees. I lost my shoes twice, and then had to march in my socks, which were soon gone, and I had to go barefoot, but I found a boot on the road, and afterwards picked

up a sabot on a farm. We had no tents, and often had to rest on the bare ground. Then we came to Bourges, where the general received orders from M. Gambetta-that adventurer who had made himself dictator, and brought so much disgrace on our country-to march to the eastward. We had to obey orders, though we knew we were not perfectly equipped, or sufficiently supplied for an arduous campaign. They said we were to do great things, first raise the siege of Belfort, then cross the Rhine, and invade Germany. Some corps from Lyons joined us, so when we reached Dijon, we were a large army of 133,000 men. On January 15th we had a terrible. battle with the troops of General Werder. It lasted all day, the cold was terrible, and we had not a morsel to eat from six in the morning till seven in the evening, and our poor horses had had no forage for twenty-four hours, although in that time they had marched forty miles.

"We passed the night huddled together round our fires. On the two following days, the battle was still continued, but on the afternoon of the third day we began to retreat, and were pursued by the Germans. Our army was utterly disorganized; the road was strewn with the arms and ammunition which our

soldiers threw away. The horses fell down dead from fatigue, and as they fell hungry men rushed upon them to devour them. Thousands perished or were taken prisoners, 250 waggon-loads of provisions, forage, and clothing for our army fell into the enemy's hand. There was no hope for us now; two German armies were driving us on to the Swiss frontiers. How can I describe our sufferings, or the terrible, heartrending scenes I hourly witnessed? You know I am strong and hearty. Have I not been accustomed to work hard from early morn to night, winter and summer, exposed to all sorts of weather? and is not our Breton climate a very rigorous one? But it was nothing to this; we had to march along hard, frozen roads, or over snow and ice, and great mountains, all white