Mr. Duguey replied that he would gladly present me with the first passport, and seemed wonderfully taken with my idea about the papers. He admitted that living in darkness was beginning to get on his nerves, too, and asked me, in case my plan should prove successful, if I would be willing to put it on the public sign board so all could see the news. I acquiesced willingly, and after he had asked a few questions as to names, age, characteristics and destination, he stamped the seal on my paper, and I departed. At Charly the same preparations had been made, and two elderly men, leaning on their guns, smiled as I presented my paper for their inspection. At the hotel, the proprietor had just returned after having waited nearly twenty-four hours in line to present his machines. All save one had been bought for the army. But with his double-seated taxi he promised to drive me to Soissons the following morning. I continued my road, and reached Nogent to find that I was not alone in my idea about begging the papers. Several others from neighboring villages, so I heard, had already succeeded in obtaining a sheet, and had driven off hastily with their trophies. My proceeding was very simple. It consisted of crossing the rails to the up-train platform, to stand in line with the other women already assembled, there to wait like birds on a fence until a train coming from Paris passed by. Then as it whizzed through the station, we shouted in chorus, "_Les journaux! Les jour-naux!_" It worked like magic. We had hardly been there two minutes when a train was signaled. As it approached, we could see that engine and cars were decorated with garlands of flowers, and trailing vines, while such inscriptions as, "_Train de Plaisir pour Berlin,_" and numerous caricatures had been chalked on the varnished sides of the carriages. Our appeals were not in vain. With joyful shouts, the boys gladly threw us the papers which were welcomed like the rain of manna in the desert. I managed to collect two, _L'Action Franfaise_, and _Le Bonnet Rouge_. Until others and fresher were procured, the Royalist and the Revolutionary sheets hung side by side on the public sign board at Villiers, proving that under the Third Republic, _Liberte', Egalite', Fraternite_ are not vain words. The news of the violation of Luxembourg and Belgian territory created less sensation than one might have expected. In the circumstances news of any kind seemed a blessing. There was still quite a gathering in front of the town hall when the first carts began to return from the revision. They were few and far between, compared with the double line that had driven past in the morning. My heart leapt with joy, as I saw George, driving Cesar, turn into the court. "Too old, Madame," he said, his eyes shining. "Though still so game that they nearly kept him. He's reserved for a second call." "And Florentin and Cognac?"