Returned _home_ (conceive being _at home_ in a French farmhouse!) just as the good woman was placing a most inviting fricasseed fowl and _omelette aux herbes_, smoking hot, upon our table, to which, with a good bottle of _vin du pays_, we lost no time in doing justice. We have passed a most comfortable evening; and if we may judge by the laughing and chattering in the kitchen, our servants and the rustics have not passed it badly. As their door is opposite to ours, we have occasionally peeped in upon them, and been much amused at seeing the ploughmen equipped in our men’s helmets, belts, &c.; but their chief source of amusement appeared to be reciprocally teaching each other English and French words--the attempt at pronouncing which causes infinite fun. CHAPTER XVI. _27th._--Fine warm morning. Started early after an excellent breakfast of coffee and _et ceteras_. Our orders were to rejoin the grand column at Ugny l’Equippée; but we had not gone far from Etreillers when two roads, branching off in different directions, brought us to a halt. Lord Greenock came up just at the moment, and blamed me for not bringing a guide from the village--“Better late than never.” I took the hint, and sent Trumpeter Brown back with orders to bring the first person he could lay hands on, _nolens volens_. He went his way and brought back _a tailor_, escorting him like a prisoner with his drawn sabre. Not knowing why he was thus forcibly taken from his home, the poor tailor appeared terribly alarmed--imploring mercy even with tears. When told, however, what was expected of him, he soon became tranquil; so, sticking him at the head of the column, we jogged on again. At Ugny l’Equippée we rejoined the column and dismissed our tailor, slipping into the main stream as heretofore. We now learned that the army was about to cross the Somme, and soon felt that it was actually engaged in so doing from our long and tedious halts--there being but one ford, which made the operation a very slow one. As we drew near the river the country improved somewhat, became more undulating and more wooded, consequently prettier.