bottle, emptied with so much velocity that the lad was lucky to get his share.
Billet got upon Maggie, and Pitou "forked" himself on, though stiff as a pair of compasses.
The good beast, tickled by the spur, trotted bravely under the double load towards town, without ceasing to flick off the flies with her robust tail, the strong hairs lashing the dust off Pitou's back and stinging his thin calves, from which his stockings had run down.
CHAPTER VII.
THE FIRST BLOOD
Night was thickening as the two travelers reached La Villette, a suburb of Paris. A great flame rose before them. Billet pointed out the ruddy glare.
"They are troops camping out," said Pitou; "Can't you see that, and they have lighted campfires. Here are some, so that there may naturally be more over yonder."
Indeed, on attentively looking on the right, Father Billet saw black detachments marching noiselessly in the shadow of St. Denis Plain, horse and foot. Their weapons glimmered in the pale starry light.
Accustomed to see in the dark from his night roaming in the woods, Pitou pointed out to his master cannon mired to the hubs in the swampy fields.
"Ho, ho," muttered Billet: "something new is going on here. Look at the sparks yonder. Make haste, my lad."
"Yes, it is a house a-fire. See the sparks fly," added the younger man.
Maggie stopped; the rider jumped off upon the pavement and going up to a group of soldiers in blue and yellow uniforms, bivouacking under the roadside trees, asked:
"Comrades, can you tell me what is the matter in Paris?"
The soldiers merely replied with some German oaths.
"What the deuce do they say?" queried Billet of his brother peasant.
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