Returning to the railway station, I obtained something to eat at the refreshment-room, where I presently heard somebody trying to make a waiter understand an order given in broken French. Recognizing a fellow-countryman, I intervened and procured what he desired. I found that he was going to Saint Malo like myself, so we made the journey together. He told me that, although he spoke very little French, he had come to France on behalf of an English boot-making firm in order to get a contract from some of the military authorities. Many such people were to be found in Brittany, at Le Mans, at Tours, and elsewhere, during the latter period of the war. An uncle of mine, Frederick Vizetelly, came over, I remember, and interviewed Freyeinet and others on behalf of an English small-arm firm. I forget whether he secured a contract or not; but it is a lamentable and uncontrovertible fact that many of the weapons and many of the boots sold by English makers to the National Defence were extremely defective. Some of the American weapons were even worse than ours. As for the boots, they often had mere "composition soles," which were soon worn out. I saw, notably after the battle of Le Mans, hundreds--I believe I might say, without, exaggeration, thousands--of men whose boots were mere remnants. Some hobbled through the snow with only rags wrapped round their bleeding feet. On the other hand, a few of our firms undoubtedly supplied satisfactory boots, and it may have been so in the case of the traveller whom I met at Rennes. A few days after my return to Saint Malo, my cousin, Montague Vizetelly, arrived there with a commission from the _Daily News_ to join Chanzy's forces at Le Mans. Mr. Robinson, I was afterwards told, had put some questions about me to my brother Adrian, and, on hearing how young I was, had thought that I might not be equal to the occasion if a decisive battle between Prince Frederick Charles and Chanzy should be fought. My cousin-- then four-and-twenty years of age--was accordingly sent over. From that time nearly all my war letters were forwarded to the _Pall Mall Gazette_, and, as it happened, one of them was the first account of the great battle of Le Mans, from the French side, to appear in an English paper. XI BEFORE LE MANS The War in various Regions of France--General Faidherbe--Battle of Pont-Noyelles--Unreliability of French Official News--Engagement of Nuits--Le Bourget Sortie--Battles of Bapaume and Villersexel--Chanzy's Plan of Operations--The Affair of Saint Calais--Wretched State of some of Chanzy's Soldiers--Le Mans and its Historical Associations--The Surrounding Country--Chanzy's Career--Positions of his Forces--Advance of Prince Frederick Charles--The first Fighting before Le Mans and its Result.