She looked down resigned, with an expression in her eyes of one who had known surprising calamities.
The silent soldiers surrounded this wretched group. A widow, three orphans, flight, desolation, solitude, the rumblings of war on the horizon, hunger, thirst, no food but herbs, no roof but the sky.
The sergeant drew near the woman and gazed upon the nursing infant. The baby left the breast, turned her head, and looked with her lovely blue eyes on the dreadful hairy face, bristling and fierce, that was bending over her, and began to smile.
The sergeant drew back, and a large tear was seen to roll down his cheek, clinging to the end of his moustache like a pearl.
He raised his voice.
"Comrades, I have come to the conclusion that this battalion is about to become a father. Are you willing? We adopt these three children."
"Hurrah for the Republic!" shouted the grenadiers.
"So be it!" exclaimed the sergeant; and he stretched out both hands over the mother and the children.
"Behold the children of the battalion of the Bonnet-Rouge!" he said.
The vivandière jumped for joy.