the art of handling men, the science of tactics, the theory of sabre
play, and the mysteries of the farrier's craft, his learning had been

prodigiously neglected. He knew in a hazy kind of way that Caesar was
a Roman Consul, or an Emperor, and that Alexander was either a Greek

or a Macedonian; he would have conceded either quality or origin in
both cases without discussion. If the conversation turned on science

or history, he was wont to become thoughtful, and to confine his share
in it to little approving nods, like a man who by dint of profound

thought has arrived at scepticism.
When, at Schonbrunn, on May 13, 1809, Napoleon wrote the bulletin

addressed to the Grand Army, then the masters of Vienna, in which he
said that like Medea, the Austrian princes had slain their children

with their own hands; Genestas, who had been recently made a captain,
did not wish to compromise his newly conferred dignity by asking who

Medea was; he relied upon Napoleon's character, and felt quite sure
that the Emperor was incapable of making any announcement not in

proper form to the Grand Army and the House of Austria. So he thought
that Medea was some archduchess whose conduct was open to criticism.

Still, as the matter might have some bearing on the art of war, he
felt uneasy about the Medea of the bulletin until a day arrived when

Mlle. Raucourt revived the tragedy of Medea. The captain saw the
placard, and did not fail to repair to the Theatre Francais that

evening, to see the celebratedactress in her mythological role,
concerning which he gained some information from his neighbors.

A man, however, who as a private soldier had possessed sufficient
force of character to learn to read, write, and cipher, could clearly

understand that as a captain he ought to continue his education. So
from this time forth he read new books and romances with avidity, in

this way gaining a half-knowledge, of which he made a very fair use.
He went so far in his gratitude to his teachers as to undertake the

defence of Pigault-Lebrun, remarking that in his opinion he was
instructive and not seldom profound.

This officer, whose acquired practical wisdom did not allow him to
make any journey in vain, had just come from Grenoble, and was on his

way to the Grande Chartreuse, after obtaining on the previous evening
a week's leave of absence from his colonel. He had not expected that

the journey would be a long one; but when, league after league, he had
been misled as to the distance by the lying statements of the

peasants, he thought it would be prudent not to venture any farther
without fortifying the inner man. Small as were his chances of finding

any housewife in her dwelling at a time when every one was hard at
work in the fields, he stopped before a little cluster of cottages

that stood about a piece of land common to all of them, more or less
describing a square, which was open to all comers.

The surface of the soil thus held in conjoint ownership was hard and
carefully swept, but intersected by open drains. Roses, ivy, and tall

grasses grew over the cracked and disjointed walls. Some rags were
drying on a miserablecurrant bush that stood at the entrance of the

square. A pig wallowing in a heap of straw was the first inhabitant
encountered by Genestas. At the sound of horse hoofs the creature

grunted, raised its head, and put a great black cat to flight. A young
peasant girl, who was carrying a bundle of grass on her head, suddenly

appeared, followed at a distance by four little brats, clad in rags,
it is true, but vigorous, sunburned, picturesque, bold-eyed, and

riotous; thorough little imps, looking like angels. The sun shone down
with an indescribable purifying influence upon the air, the wretched

cottages, the heaps of refuse, and the unkempt little crew.
The soldier asked whether it was possible to obtain a cup of milk. All

the answer the girl made him was a hoarse cry. An old woman suddenly
appeared on the threshold of one of the cabins, and the young peasant

girl passed on into a cowshed, with a gesture that pointed out the
aforesaid old woman, towards whom Genestas went; taking care at the

same time to keep a tight hold on his horse, lest the children who
were already running about under his hoofs should be hurt. He repeated

his request, with which the housewifeflatly refused to comply. She
would not, she said, disturb the cream on the pans full of milk from

which butter was to be made. The officer overcame this objection by
undertaking to repay her amply for the wasted cream, and then tied up

his horse at the door, and went inside the cottage.
The four children belonging to the woman all appeared to be of the

same age--an odd circumstance which struck the commandant. A fifth
clung about her skirts; a weak, pale, sickly-looking child, who

doubtless needed more care than the others, and who on that account
was the best beloved, the Benjamin of the family.

Genestas seated himself in a corner by the fireless hearth. A sublime
symbol met his eyes on the high mantel-shelf above him--a colored

plaster cast of the Virgin with the Child Jesus in her arms. Bare
earth made the flooring of the cottage. It had been beaten level in

the first instance, but in course of time it had grown rough and
uneven, so that though it was clean, its ruggedness was not unlike

that of the magnified rind of an orange. A sabot filled with salt, a
frying-pan, and a large kettle hung inside the chimney. The farther

end of the room was completely filled by a four-post bedstead, with a
scalloped valance for decoration. The walls were black; there was an

opening to admit the light above the worm-eaten door; and here and
there were a few stools consisting of rough blocks of beech-wood, each

set upon three wooden legs; a hutch for bread, a large wooden dipper,
a bucket and some earthen milk-pans, a spinning-wheel on the top of

the bread-hutch, and a few wicker mats for draining cheeses. Such were
the ornaments and household furniture of the wretcheddwelling.

The officer, who had been absorbed in flicking his riding-whip against
the floor, presently became a witness to a piece of by-play, all

unsuspicious though he was that any drama was about to unfold itself.
No sooner had the old woman, followed by her scald-headed Benjamin,

disappeared through a door that led into her dairy, than the four
children, after having stared at the soldier as long as they wished,

drove away the pig by way of a beginning. This animal, their
accustomed playmate, having come as far as the threshold, the little

brats made such an energetic attack upon him, that he was forced to
beat a hasty retreat. When the enemy had been driven without, the

children besieged the latch of a door that gave way before their
united efforts, and slipped out of the worn staple that held it; and

finally they bolted into a kind of fruit-loft, where they very soon
fell to munching the dried plums, to the amusement of the commandant,

who watched this spectacle. The old woman, with the face like
parchment and the dirty ragged clothing, came back at this moment,

with a jug of milk for her visitor in her hand.
"Oh! you good-for-nothings!" cried she.

She ran to the children, clutched an arm of each child, bundled them
into the room, and carefully closed the door of her storeroom of

plenty. But she did not take their prunes away from them.
"Now, then, be good, my pets! If one did not look after them," she

went on, looking at Genestas, "they would eat up the whole lot of
prunes, the madcaps!"

Then she seated herself on a three-legged stool, drew the little
weakling between her knees, and began to comb and wash his head with a

woman's skill and with motherly assiduity. The four small thieves hung
about. Some of them stood, others leant against the bed or the bread-

hutch. They gnawed their prunes without saying a word, but they kept
their sly and mischievous eyes fixed upon the stranger. In spite of

grimy countenances and noses that stood in need of wiping, they all
looked strong and healthy.

"Are they your children?" the soldier asked the old woman.
"Asking your pardon, sir, they are charity children. They give me

three francs a month and a pound's weight of soap for each of them."
"But it must cost you twice as much as that to keep them, good woman?"

"That is just what M. Benassis tells me, sir; but if other folk will
board the children for the same money, one has to make it do. Nobody

wants the children, but for all that there is a good deal of
performance to go through before they will let us have them. When the

milk we give them comes to nothing, they cost us scarcely anything.
Besides that, three francs is a great deal, sir; there are fifteen

francs coming in, to say nothing of the five pounds' weight of soap.
In our part of the world you would simply have to wear your life out

before you would make ten sous a day."
"Then you have some land of your own?" asked the commandant.

"No, sir. I had some land once when my husband was alive; since he
died I have done so badly that I had to sell it"

"Why, how do you reach the year's end without debts?" Genestas went
on, "when you bring up children for a livelihood and wash and feed