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When last I closed it, little could I have foreseen the terrible blow that awaited me. Well may I exclaim with the French writer whose works I have been just reading, "Nous, qui sommes bornés en tout, comment le sommes-nous si peu quand il s'agit de souffrir." How slowly has time passed since!
'Bon jour, Madame, said Arthur boldly, to a tidy old lady, sitting in her green verandah. 'Nous sommes des étrangers I'd like to ask her what it's all about, he whispered confidentially to Robert; 'but I'm out of my depth already. The aged Canadienne arose, with the politeness so natural to her Gallic descent, and bade them welcome.
With a considerable knowledge of French life and character, I confess I went to Mulhouse little prepared to find there a ferment of feeling which years have not sufficed to calm down. "Nous ne sommes pas heureux a Mulhouse" were almost the first words addressed to me by that veteran patriot and true philanthropist, Jean Dollfus. And how could it be otherwise?
However, this did not last long, his faction was soon dispersed, and he himself taken and hanged, and his head stuck on a pole. "Nous sommes deja presque au bout. When we arrived at the inn, the young man took me above, as you saw, and there for some time he could do nothing but weep and sob.
"You must leave all your wet things to be dried." "O! entre frères! In any boat-house in England we should find the same." "En Angleterre, vous employez des sliding-seats, n'est-ce pas?" "We are all employed in commerce during the day; but in the evening, voyez-vous, nous sommes sèrieux." These were the words.
"Nous sommes si heureux de vous avoir ici, chere Aunt Maria," answered Isobel, falteringly. "Aunt Marie, my dear. I have forsaken the good name that was given to me in baptism. One must keep apace with the times, and though Maria might be good enough for my greatgrandmother, my parents did not foresee that it was scarcely suitable for me!" The purple folds swelled visibly.
"And big bad luck to ye, Major Jones, for the same, every day ye see a paving stone," was the faint sub-audible ejaculation of Father Luke, when he was recovered enough to speak. "Sacristi! Que nous sommes attrappes," said the Abbe, scarcely able to avoid laughing at the situation in which they were placed. "Well, there's the quarter chiming now; we've no time to lose Major Jones! Major, darling!
There were dead and wounded on their wagons. Cuirassiers stumbled as they led their tired horses. Crowds of people with white faces, like ghosts in the darkness, stared at their men retreating like this through their city, and knew that the enemy was close behind. "Nous sommes perdus!" whispered a woman, and gave a wailing cry.
One of these functionaries approached them with eagerness and with a "Mesdames sont seules?" receiving in return from her ladyship the slightly snappish announcement "Non; nous sommes beaucoup!" He introduced them to a table larger than most of the others, and under his protection they took their places at it and began rather languidly and vaguely to consider the question of the repast.
"Another time," an artillery officer relates, "they ran into one of our regiments with some of their officers dressed in French uniforms. They said 'Ne tirez-pas, nous sommes Français, and asked for the C.O. He came up, and then they calmly blew his brains out!"
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