—Take this, said the kind man, holding out a basket full of food and bottles . . . Shut yourself up, and do not stir out . . . I will come and see you soon. Thereupon he whipped up his horse, and I threw myself into the thicket. A quarter of an hour later, I was at the Hermitage. [Picture: Being challenged by a sentry] * * * * * [Picture: Hungry birds come for food] _January_ 3_rd_. . . . A fine drifting snow has been falling for the last few days. The forest is completely covered. Around me the silence was so deep that I could even hear the fall of the thickening flakes. It is impossible to go out. I watch the snow falling from the murky sky and whitening all things. The famished birds come to my very doorstep. The roedeer have taken refuge in the stable in place of my poor Colaquet, of whom I have heard nothing… [Picture: Deer sheltering in the stable] * * * * * [Picture: “They blew out his brains with a revolver.”] * * * * * [Picture: Robert hears bad news from the Doctor] _January_ 10_th_. . . . The Doctor came to see me. Bad news: Paris still shut up, disasters in the provinces! The conquerors, worn out by such a tardy victory, redouble the humiliations and brutalities . . . At Draveil, on Christmas night, five or six Bavarians, after sitting up late drinking with old Rabot, the forester, in a public-house, blew out his brains with a revolver. The unhappy man’s brother, who lived opposite, ran in on hearing the report of the shot, and in his turn fell mortally wounded. Another man of the same family was seriously wounded. The wretches would have massacred all comers! The affair created a great sensation: a fictitious inquiry was made, and concluded by the district of Draveil being condemned to pay an indemnity of _sixteen hundred pounds_ to the Bavarians! . . . [Picture: Bavarian preparing for the party] * * * * * [Picture: Game-shooting party in the forest] _January_ 15_th_.