Nothing could have been more enjoyable than were the meals of these young men, although the table resembled that of Lacedæmona. Woe to him who came late, whether detained by love or war; he found the dishes washed and the bottles empty, and had to eat his dry bread amid the laughter and jokes of his companions.
But not a week passed without leaving an empty place at the board. The general, as he entered, would notice it, and, by a gesture, order the cover of the absent one removed; he had died for his country. They drank to his memory, and all was over.
There was something of sovereign grandeur in this carelessness of life and forgetfulness of death.
The siege of Toulon had engaged the attention of the young men for the last few days almost as much as if they had been actors on the scene.
Toulon, it will be remembered, had been delivered to the English by Admiral Trogoff, whose name, we regret to say, we are not able to find in any encyclopedia; the names of traitors should be preserved.
M. Thiers, doubtless through patriotism, said that he was a Russian. Alas! he was a Breton.
The first news was not reassuring, and the young men, particularly those who were cavalry officers, had laughed heartily over General Cartaux's plan, which was embodied in the following lines:
The general body of artillery will bombard Toulon for three days; at the end of which time I shall attack it in three columns and take it.
Then the news came that General Dugommier had succeeded Cartaux. This inspired a little more confidence; but as he had returned from Martinique only two years before, and had been a general but eighteen months, he was an unknown quantity.
The last news received was that the siege had been begun according to all the rules of scientific warfare; that the artillery in particular was commanded by an officer of merit, and was doing efficient service. The natural result of all this was that the "Moniteur" was impatiently waited for each day.