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My experiences of the war between France and Germany
My experiences of the war between France and Germany Author:Archibald Forbes Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER HI. FROM THE NEW YEAR TO THE ARMISTICE. The New Year was celebrated very quietly by the Maas Army. I saw it in with a goodly company of frank comra... more »des in a chateau at Vaires, where the pon- tooneer company of the Guard Engineers had their headquarters, and with whom, as belonging to the same branch of the service, the head-quarter engineer staff, whose guest I was, messed during their sojourn in the adjacent village of Brou. Returning to Brou in the small hours of the morning, we heard still the sounds of conviviality from sundry apartments in the great chateau there ; but one by one the revellers sank into slumber. The latest roisterer was a Frenchman; who he was or where he had got drunk, I have not the remotest conception; but about four o'clock I heard some one tumbling about in the passage, sacre-mg most vigorously through a bad fit of hiccough. Ultimately he rolled into the chamber, on the floor of which I lay, and even in his drink he was civil. With profuse pardons he asked for a light, but forgot what he had asked for the next moment, andstaggered out again into the passage. A quarter of an hour afterwards I heard him making a speech to the sentry, and what ultimately befell him I know not. On New Year's morning Colonel Bartsch, who was also quartered in Brou, received a very flattering souvenir in the shape of the Iron Cross of the first class, in token of the success which had attended the efforts of the Artillery under his command. The Colonel had a good right to be gratified at a distinction which is comparatively rare. The bearer of the Iron Cross of the first class wears it on his left breast, while he also wears the cross of the second class attached to his buttonhole. On the same occasion Captain Reinsdorff, the adjutant of the Artillery Staff of ...« less