Five or six days passed in this fashion, during which we learnt in succession of the battles of Lizy, of St Julien, and of Bar-sur-Seine.
At length one day, as I have said, we heard from the farmyard the roaring of cannon.
There was fighting going on at Neuilly-Saint-Front.
The night after the battle, I went to sleep with my head filled with the noise of battle, and I dreamt that the Cossacks came down into the quarry.
When morning came, I repeated this dream to my mother, and it terrified her to such an extent that she made up her mind we should set off next day.
Where were we to go? She had absolutely no idea; but she fancied by changing places she might perhaps exorcise the danger.
[CHAPTER X]
The return to Villers-Cotterets, and what we met on the way—The box with the thirty louis in it—The leather-bag—The mole—Our departure—The journey—The arrival at Mesnil and our sojourn there—King Joseph—The King of Rome—We leave Mesnil—Our visit to Crespy in Valois—The dead and wounded—The surrender of Paris—The isle of Elba.