That pained us in the end, and, as we regained health and strength, the longing to fight took possession of us.  It was disgraceful and irritating to know that within two or three leagues of us the Germans were victorious and insolent, to feel that we were protected by our captivity, and to feel that on that account we were powerless against them.

One day our captain took five or six of us aside, and spoke to us about it, long and furiously.  He was a fine fellow, that captain.  He had been a sublieutenant in the Zouaves, was tall and thin and as hard as steel, and during the whole campaign he had cut out their work for the Germans.  He fretted in inactivity, and could not accustom himself to the idea of being a prisoner and of doing nothing.

“Confound it!” he said to us, “does it not pain you to know that there is a number of uhlans within two hours of us?  Does it not almost drive you mad to know that those beggarly wretches are walking about as masters in our mountains, when six determined men might kill a whole spitful any day?  I cannot endure it any longer, and I must go there.”

“But how can you manage it, captain?”

“How?  It is not very difficult!  Just as if we had not done a thing or two within the last six months, and got out of woods that were guarded by very different men from the Swiss.  The day that you wish to cross over into France, I will undertake to get you there.”

“That may be; but what shall we do in France without any arms?”

“Without arms?  We will get them over yonder, by Jove!”

“You are forgetting the treaty,” another soldier said; “we shall run the risk of doing the Swiss an injury, if Manteuffel learns that they have allowed prisoners to return to France.”

“Come,” said the captain, “those are all bad reasons.  I mean to go and kill some Prussians; that is all I care about.  If you do not wish to do as I do, well and good; only say so at once.  I can quite well go by myself; I do not require anybody’s company.”

Naturally we all protested, and, as it was quite impossible to make the captain alter his mind, we felt obliged to promise to go with him.  We liked him too much to leave him in the lurch, as he never failed us in any extremity; and so the expedition was decided on.

II

The captain had a plan of his own, that he had been cogitating over for some time.  A man in that part of the country whom he knew was going to lend him a cart and six suits of peasants’ clothes.  We could hide under some straw at the bottom of the wagon, which would be loaded with Gruyere cheese, which he was supposed to be going to sell in France.  The captain told the sentinels that he was taking two friends with him to protect his goods, in case any one should try to rob him, which did not seem an extraordinary precaution.  A Swiss officer seemed to look at the wagon in a knowing manner, but that was in order to impress his soldiers.  In a word, neither officers nor men could make it out.