"'Yes, they do,' she replied, 'as vivandières.'
"'Rose,' I answered, 'I will write you once a fortnight, to let you know where I am; and if you enlist, enlist in my regiment.'
"'Agreed!' she said.
"We clasped hands, embraced each other, and away went Faraud. After Jemmapes, where my regiment was cut to pieces, they put us with the volunteers of the Indre and brought us up the Rhine. Whom did I see six or eight weeks ago but Rose Charleroi! Her poor mother was dead, and she had been chosen as the best and most beautiful girl of the quartier to be the Goddess of Reason in some celebration or other, and after that, upon my word, she kept her promise to me, and descended from her pedestal to enlist. I attempted to embrace her. 'Idle, lazy fellow,' she said to me, 'not even a corporal?'
"'What would you have, Goddess? I said to her; 'I am not ambitious.'
"'Well, I am ambitious,' she said; 'don't come near me until you are a sergeant, unless it be to get something to drink.'
"'On the day that I am a sergeant will you marry me?' I asked.
"'I swear it on the flag of the regiment.'
"She has kept her word, general. We are to be married in ten minutes."
"Where?"