"No, indeed!" replied Mr. Goulden. "Everything is quiet. Do you hear
anything?"
"No."
But you could see by their eyes, that they had heard the news. Zebede
stayed at the barracks. The half-pay officers filled the cafe from
morning till night, but not a word transpired, the affair was too
serious. On the third day these officers, who were boiling over with
impatience, were seen running back and forth, their very faces showing
their terrible anxiety. If they had had horses or even arms, I am sure
they would have attempted something. But the guards went and came
also, with old Chancel at their head, and a courier was sent off hourly
to Saarbourg. The excitement increased, nobody felt any interest in
his work. We soon learned through the commercial travellers, who
arrived at the "City of Basle," that the upper Rhine provinces and the
Jura had risen, and that regiments of cavalry and infantry were
following each other from Besancon, and that heavy forces had been sent
against the usurper.
One of these travellers having spoken rather too freely, was ordered to
quit the town at once, the brigadier in command having examined his
passport and, fortunately for him, found it properly made out.
I have seen other revolutions since then, but never such excitement as
reigned on the 8th of March between four and five in the evening, when
the order arrived for the departure of the first and second battalions
fully equipped for service for Lons-le-Saulnier. It was only then that
the danger was fully realized, and every one thought, "It is not the
Duke d'Angouleme nor the Duke de Berry that we need to arrest the
progress of Bonaparte, but the whole of Europe."
The faces of the officers on half-pay lighted up as with a burst of
sunshine, and they breathed freely again. About five o'clock the first
roll of the drum was heard on the square, when suddenly Zebede rushed
in.
"Well!" said Father Goulden to him.
"The first two battalions are going away," he replied. He was very
pale.
"They are sent to stop him," said Mr. Goulden.
"Yes," said Zebede, winking, "they are going to stop him."
The drums still rolled. He went downstairs, four at a time. I
followed him. At the foot of the stairs, and while he was on the first
step, he seized me by the arm, and raising his shako, whispered in my
ear:
"Look, Joseph, do you recognize that?"
I saw the old tri-colored cockade in the lining.
"That is ours," he said, "all the soldiers have it."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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