The Zouaves gave me a pressing invitation to go and see them perform, which I promised to do that day week. They were perfectly satisfied, though I was not at all, with my Zouave, Bornet. As he was not fit to follow me, I gave him up, and, after seeing his horse right and him wrong, I left him, and started alone for Balaklava, returning in solemn solitude to my nautical home--the _Ottawa_. At six the next morning he was on board, busily engaged preparing for our departure, so soon as a spot could be selected in the camp for us to pitch our tents. The horses were landed, and my military pupils sent to different quarters, and set to work cooking. I retained three with me for the opening of my field-kitchens. As I approached my deserter, the Zouave, in order to reprimand him for his conduct the preceding day, he remarked, by way of apology, “I know, mon cher governor, what you are going to say--that is, if I play you any more such tricks, you will not keep me, as we agreed when you engaged me.” “Certainly not,” said I. “We will begin fresh to-day; but yesterday, you see, governor, the temptation was too strong for me. When I saw my old comrades Riflard and Franc Chatbeau, Panaudet, et la cantinière--Beni Zoug Zoug--des vieux amis de la tente, with whom I had braved all dangers, and so few of us left--not more than fourteen or fifteen of our company--why, voyez-vous, it carried me away, and I could not help standing the picton (which means something to drink), like a Frenchman and a man. And what a fine lass la petite Mère Jouvin is! Don’t she look well in her Zouave dress?” “Certainly, but did she go to the trenches?” “Of course she did. She was on duty last night. Her husband goes one night, and she the other.” “Did you see her this morning?” “I did. The darling had just returned for more liquor. She told me they had a kind of sortie, and for twenty minutes were peppering one another like fun, and no mistake. Rabbit-shooting, governor--rabbit-shooting! We lost about seventeen men, besides the wounded. But that’s nothing. Last year I saw three times as many knocked over in a sort of skirmish which only lasted ten minutes. We were half frozen and partly starved; and hundreds were found dead or nearly frozen, lying under shelter of those who had been shot, endeavouring to warm themselves before the bodies got cool.” “Pray, Bornet, don’t recall those things to my mind: they are too painful; but, after all, are only the chances of war, and must be endured.” “Well, governor,” said he, while cording a large box, “you have gained the esteem of the 3rd Zouaves; and should you require the services of the whole regiment, could it be spared, you would have them, including la petite Mère Jouvin.”