Furst first found his house, but it was shut; and while he was knocking at the door, I found mine, which had a light in two windows. I pushed at the door, it opened, and I entered a dark alley, whence came a smell of fresh bread, which was very welcome. Zébédé had to go further on.
I called out in the alley:
"Is any one here?"
Then an old woman appeared with a candle at the top of a wooden staircase.
"What do you want?" she asked.
I told her that I was billeted at her house. She came down-stairs, and, looking at my billet, told me in German to follow her.
I ascended the stairs. Passing an open door, I saw two men at work before an oven. I was, then, at a baker's, and this accounted for the old woman being up so late. She wore a cap with black ribbons; her arms were bare to the elbows; she, too, had been working, and seemed very sorrowful.
"You come late," she said.
"We were marching all day," I replied, "and I am fainting with hunger and weariness."
She looked at me and murmured: