she is called in the village (and I should have mentioned that most, if not all, the peasantry have returned, and that only the chateaux and country seats of the citizens remain unoccupied)--Mademoiselle Rose is a character. Strong in the confidence of her want of charms, she is said to have remained faithful to her charge,[19] even when the Prussians entered and plundered the village, and thereby, the villagers assure me, saved her mistress’s property when all else was destroyed. A short, squat figure, clad in coarse black frieze, a face of the ugliest, set off by a pair of black mustaches fit for a hussar, which gives her a fierce and masculine aspect, like the dragon of the Hesperides, for she performs the part of watching the fruit most unremittingly. The moment I enter the garden she skulks after me; and on looking about I am sure to detect her ugly phiz watching my movements from behind some bush, not presuming, however, to interfere. More than once I have noticed the sudden disappearance of fruit from some particular tree; and William tells me that Mademoiselle Rose strips the trees at night and sends the fruit to Paris. I should suspect my own people, only that they would not take it in such quantities. This, however, is not of any great consequence, since we have several other well-stocked gardens in the village from whence to help ones self without trespassing on those attached to the officers’ houses, which are, of course, considered as private property. There are, _par exemple_, the chateau belonging to Jerome Buonaparte; the Petit chateau to M. Domer, who, I believe, is something in the Admiralty; another large handsome chateau, with very extensive, well-kept gardens, to Admiral le Comte Rosilly; a very pretty villa, garden, &c., the property of some rich shopkeeper; and several little boxes of minor importance. The village itself may be said to consist of two streets, short, and neither of them continuous. It is situated on a dead flat, consequently has no other beauty to boast of than what it derives from the foliage of the trees in the grounds of the chateaux, &c. The fields about it are corn and vines--principally the latter, I think.