an hour, while a delicious smell of roast poultry pervaded the
whole house. At last, however, a knock against the shutters made

us all jump up at the same moment. Stout Ponderel ran to open the
door, and in less than a minute a little Sister of Mercy appeared

in the doorway. She was thin, wrinkled, and timid, and
successively saluted the four bewildered hussars who saw her

enter. Behind her, the noise of sticks sounded on the tiled floor
in the vestibule. As soon as she had come into the drawing-room I

saw three old heads in white caps, following each other one by
one, balancing themselves with different movements, one canting

to the right, while the other canted to the left. Then three
worthy women showed themselves, limping, dragging their legs

behind them, crippled by illness and deformed through old age,
three infirm old women, past service, the only three pensioners

who were able to walk in the establishment which Sister
Saint-Benedict managed.

"She had turned round to her invalids, full of anxiety for them,
and then seeing my quartermaster's stripes, she said to me: 'I am

much obliged to you for thinking of these poor women. They have
very little pleasure in life, and you are at the same time giving

them a great treat and doing them a great honor.'
"I saw the priest, who had remained in the obscurity of the

passage, and who was laughing heartily, and I began to laugh in
my turn, especially when I saw Marchas's face. Then, motioning

the nun to the seats, I said: 'Sit down, Sister: we are very
proud and very happy that you have accepted our unpretentious

invitation.'
"She took three chairs which stood against the wall, set them

before the fire, led her three old women to them, settled them on
them, took their sticks and shawls which she put into a corner,

and then, pointing to the first, a thin woman with an enormous
stomach, who was evidentlysuffering from the dropsy, she said:

'This is Mother Paumelle, whose husband was killed by falling
from a roof, and whose son died in Africa; she is sixty years

old.' Then she pointed to another, a tall woman, whose head shook
unceasingly: 'This is Mother Jean-Jean, who is sixty-seven. She

is nearly blind, for her face was terribly singed in a fire, and
her right leg was half burned off.'

"Then she pointed to the third, a sort of dwarf, with protruding,
round, stupid eyes, which she rolled incessantly in all

directions. 'This is La Putois, an idiot. She is only
forty-four.'

"I bowed to the three women as if I were being presented to some
Royal Highness, and turning to the priest I said: 'You are an

excellent man, Monsieur l'Abbe, and we all owe you a debt of
gratitude.'

"Everybody was laughing, in fact, except Marchas, who seemed
furious, and just then Karl Massouligny cried: 'Sister

Saint-Benedict, supper is on the table!'
"I made her go first with the priest, then I helped up Mother

Paumelle, whose arm I took and dragged her into the next room,
which was no easy task, for her swollenstomach seemed heavier

than a lump of iron.
"Stout Ponderel gave his arm to Mother Jean-Jean, who bemoaned

her crutch, and little Joseph Herbon took the idiot, La Putois,
to the dining-room, which was filled with the odor of the viands.

"As soon as we were opposite our plates, the Sister clapped her
hands three times, and, with the precision of soldiers presenting

arms, the women made a rapid sign of the cross, and then the
priest slowly repeated the 'Benedictus' in Latin. Then we sat

down, and the two fowls appeared, brought in by Marchas, who
chose to wait rather than to sit down as a guest at this

ridiculous repast.
"But I cried: 'Bring the champagne at once!' and a cork flew out

with the noise of a pistol, and in spite of the resistance of the
priest and the kind Sister, the three hussars sitting by the side

of the three invalids, emptied their three full glasses down
their throats by force.

"Massouligny, who possessed the faculty of making himself at
home, and of being on good terms with everyone, wherever he was,

made love to Mother Paumelle, in the drollest manner. The
dropsical woman, who had retained her cheerfulness in spite of

her misfortunes, answered him banteringly in a high falsetto
voice which seemed to be assumed, and she laughed so heartily at

her neighbor's jokes that her large stomach looked as if it were
going to rise up and get on to the table. Little Herbon had

seriously undertaken the task of making the idiot drunk, and
Baron d'Etreillis whose wits were not always particularly sharp,

was questioning old Jean-Jean about the life, the habits, and the
rules in the hospital.

"The nun said to Massouligny in consternation: 'Oh! oh! you will
make her ill; pray do not make her laugh like that, Monsieur. Oh!

Monsieur.' Then she got up and rushed at Herbon to take a full
glass out of his hands which he was hastily emptying down La

Putois's throat, while the priest shook with laughter, and said
to the Sister: 'Never mind, just this once, it will not hurt her.

Do leave them alone.'
"After the two fowls they ate the duck, which was flanked by the

three pigeons and a blackbird, and then the goose appeared,
smoking, golden-colored, and diffusing a warm odor of hot,

browned fat meat. La Paumelle who was getting lively, clapped her
hands; La Jean-Jean left off answering the Baron's numerous

questions, and La Putois uttered grunts of pleasure, half cries
and half sighs, like little children do when one shows them

sweets. 'Allow me to carve this bird,' the cure said. 'I
understand these sort of operations better than most people.'

" 'Certainly, Monsieur l'Abbe,' and the Sister said: 'How would
it be to open the window a little; they are too warm, and I am

afraid they will be ill.'
"I turned to Marchas: 'Open the window for a minute.' He did so;

the cold outer air as it came in made the candles flare, and the
smoke from the goose--which the cure was scientifically carving,

with a table napkin round his neck--whirl about. We watched him
doing it, without speaking now, for we were interested in his

attractive handiwork, and also seized with renewed appetite at
the sight of that enormous golden-colored bird, whose limbs fell

one after another into the brown gravy at the bottom of the dish.
At that moment, in the midst of greedy silence which kept us all

attentive, the distant report of a shot came in at the open
window.

"I started to my feet so quickly that my chair fell down behind
me, and I shouted: 'Mount, all of you! You, Marchas, will take

two men and go and see what it is. I shall expect you back here
in five minutes.' And while the three riders went off at full

gallop through the night, I got into the saddle with my three
remaining hussars, in front of the steps of the villa, while the

cure, the Sister, and the three old women showed their frightened
faces at the window.

"We heard nothing more, except the barking of a dog in the
distance. The rain had ceased, and it was cold, very cold. Soon I

heard the gallop of a horse, of a single horse, coming back. It
was Marchas, and I called out to him: 'Well?'

" 'It is nothing; Francois has wounded an old peasant who refused
to answer his challenge and who continued to advance in spite of

the order to keep off. They are bringing him here, and we shall
see what is the matter.'