From thence these troops could any moment, on a dark night, enter the trenches, and even attempt to force a postern. They were in large numbers and denied themselves nothing, having three or four villages around them to furnish their provisions, and the great fires of the tile-kiln to keep them warm. Sometimes a Russian battalion relieved them, but only for a day or two, being obliged to continue its route. These Russians bathed in the little pond behind the building, in spite of the ice and snow which filled it. All of them, Russians, Wurtemburgers, and Baden men, fired upon our sentinels, and we wondered that our governor had not stopped them with our balls. But one day the sergeant came in joyfully, and whispered to me, winking: "Get up early to-morrow morning, Father Moses; don't say a word to any one, and follow me. You will see something that will make you laugh." "All right, sergeant!" said I. He went to bed at once, and long before day, about five o'clock, I heard him jump out of bed, which astonished me the more, as I had not heard the call. I rose softly. Sorlé sleepily asked me: "What is it, Moses?" "Go to sleep again, Sorlé," I replied; "the sergeant told me that he wanted to show me something." She said no more, and I finished dressing myself. Just then the sergeant knocked at the door; I blew out the candle, and we went down. It was very dark. We heard a faint noise in the direction of the barracks; the sergeant went toward it, saying: "Go up on the bastion; we are going to attack the tile-kiln." I ran up the street at once. As I came upon the ramparts I saw in the shadow of the bastion on the right our gunners at their pieces. They did not stir, and all around was still; matches lighted and set in the ground gave the only light, and shone like stars in the darkness. Five or six citizens, in the secret, like myself, stood motionless at the entrance of the postern. The usual cries, "Sentries, attention!" were answered around the city; and without, from the part of the enemy, we heard the cries "_Verdâ!_" and "_Souïda!_"* * Who goes there? It was very cold, a dry cold, notwithstanding the fog. Soon, from the direction of the square in the interior of the city, a number of men went up the street; if they had kept step the enemy would have heard them from the distance upon the glacis; but they came pell-mell, and turned near us into the postern stair-way. It took full ten minutes for them to pass. You can imagine whether I watched them, and yet I could not recognize our sergeant in the darkness. The two companies formed again in the trenches after their defiling, and all was still. My feet were perfectly numb, it was so cold; but curiosity kept me there.