Page:Alerielorvoyaget00lach.djvu/35

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Besieged in Paris.
13

around you. But you are in danger in the front."

"Do not trouble yourself about me; think of yourself and of the poor soldiers; I am in no danger," and he smiled.

"Yes; but you are in the front. The cannon kill doctors as well as combatants. It is really a dreadful system of war—this long range. It is almost worse than the hand-to-hand strife of the days of chivalry. Every one suffers. I heard only yesterday of a shell bursting in a bedroom of a school where nine little boys were sleeping, and killing three. I only wish I could get out of the city, for I have nothing to do with this quarrel."

"Perhaps not. However, let us have a talk again to-morrow. Au revoir!"

I went home to my hotel, and as I woke in the night and heard the distant roar of the cannon, and saw the flashes through my window-blind, I thought once or twice of brave, kind Posela, and his errand of mercy in the ramparts.