"I have escaped, let us thank God, I am coming, I embrace you a thousand times with all my heart.
"JOSEPH BERTHA."
I thanked God as I wrote, but a great many things were to happen before I should mount our staircase at the corner of the rue Fouquet opposite the "Red Ox." When one has been taken by conscription he must not be in a hurry to write that he is released. That happiness does not depend upon us, and the best will in the world helps nothing.
I sent off my letter by the post, and we stayed all that day at the inn of the "Golden Sheep."
After we had eaten a good supper, we went up to our beds, and I said to Buche, "Ha! Jean, to do what you please is quite a different thing from being forced to respond to the roll-call."
We both laughed in spite of the misfortunes of the country, of course without thinking, otherwise we should have been veritable rascals.
For the second time we went to sleep in our good bed, when about one o'clock in the morning we were wakened in a most extraordinary manner: the drums were beating and we heard men marching all over the village.
I pushed Jean, and he said, "I hear it, the Prussians are outside."
You cannot imagine our terror, but it was much worse a moment after; some one knocked at the door of the inn, and it opened; in a moment the great hall was full of people. Some one came up the stairs. We had both got up, and Buche said, "I shall defend myself if they try to take me."
I dared not think what I was going to do.
We were almost dressed, and I was hoping to escape in the darkness without being recognized, when suddenly there was a knock at the door and a shout, "Open."