My attention was next drawn to a group of six or seven individuals who were standing in a circle round one, whose rotund face and short red hair could be seen above their heads. They were all men of from twenty to thirty years of age. Several of them were neat and clean in appearance, and seemed to be of the artisan class, but there were others in a decidedly "down-at-heel" condition. The red-headed man was evidently a wit in his way, if one could judge by the smiles and low laughter which greeted his frequent sallies; and I was regretting that I could not catch the meaning of his words, being too far away for that, when by chance our eyes met; and after making his way out of the group, he came across the room, sat beside me, and opened the conversation with a polite "_Bonjour, Monsieur!_"--to which I responded with equal urbanity. "Excuse me," said my interlocutor, "but you are not a Frenchman, are you?" "No; I am an Englishman." Then desirous, no doubt, of excusing his seeming indiscretion, he continued: "I asked you that question because I am myself a stranger--a Swiss--and from your appearance I thought you might be here with a similar intention to my own: that of enlisting in the Foreign Legion. Am I right?" "Yes," I answered, having no reason to conceal the object of my presence there, and, besides, the looks of the man rather pleased me. He was evidently a frank-speaking, good-tempered fellow, and his clean-shaven face and neat exterior indicated a certain respectability. I took him for an actor or a gentleman's valet. Knowing that I should be likely to meet and mix with all sorts and conditions of men in the road I had chosen, on taking my decision I had determined to accept things as they were without complaint, so long as the life would bring me new experiences which I could not hope to encounter in the ordinary stay-at-home, humdrum existence. "Well," he continued, "it appears that we have both chosen the same route. I hope we shall be in the same regiment." "The same regiment!" I exclaimed in surprise, "I thought there was only one Legion." "Formerly it was so," he replied; "but that fellow over there--a German, who is going to enlist for a second time--tells me that about five years ago the old Legion was formed into two corps, which go by the name of the 1st and 2nd Régiments Étrangers."