“'If you not keep cape, me cut. No one cape.'
“And he would have done it. So I yielded.
“Eight days later we capitulated. Some of us had been able to escape, the rest were to march out of the town and give themselves up to the conquerors.
“I went towards the exercising ground, where we were all to meet, when I was dumfounded at the sight of a gigantic negro dressed in white duck and wearing a straw hat. It was Timbuctoo. He was beaming and was walking with his hands in his pockets in front of a little shop where two plates and two glasses were displayed.
“'What are you doing?' I said.
“'Me not go. Me good cook; me make food for Colonel Algeria. Me eat Prussians; much steal, much.'
“There were ten degrees of frost. I shivered at sight of this negro in white duck. He took me by the arm and made me go inside. I noticed an immense flag that he was going to place outside his door as soon as we had left, for he had some shame.”
I read this sign, traced by the hand of some accomplice
“'ARMY KITCHEN OF M. TIMBUCTOO,
“'Formerly Cook to H. M. the Emperor.
“'A Parisian Artist. Moderate Prices.'
“In spite of the despair that was gnawing at my heart, I could not help laughing, and I left my negro to his new enterprise.