" Lord knows I
would have given a hundred francs to be out of her reach; but we had
been all ticketed and labelled through under the same "pass," and there
was no such thing as dissolving partnership _now._
"Ugh!" she muttered, putting her handkerchief to her nose, "and that
horrid smoke too!" But the imperturbable director of our flight took no
heed, and drew away at his clay idol with unabated satisfaction. 'Twas
thus we jogged on for five weary hours, "OLD CONNECTICUT" charging head
foremost at my spinal column with a frequency and momentum that made me
believe, finally, she did it on purpose. Three miles out from St. Cloud
we found the road completely blocked up with artillery wagons, and saw
large masses of troops moving through the fields on either side. It
still rained incessantly, and the forlornness of the situation was no
wise relieved by the distant booming of guns, and the sucking sound of
the wheels in the mud.
"Oh, my!" sail a thin, squeaky voice on the back seat. "I believe they
are coming this way. Do let us get out, SARAH. I would rather die on the
road than be murdered in such a sepulchre as this."
She referred to a battalion of the Landwehr that had just denied into
the road, not a hundred yards in front of us.
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