Joseph Alexander Altsheler

“ France is not ready and the German armies will go far toward Paris, but France, the republic, will not fall. I am young, but I have heard, and I have seen. French valor is French valor still, and Germany is creating for herself a ring of foes."
"You make me believe! you make me believe, Philip, in spite of myself," she said.
"We shall see what we shall see," said Lannes with confidence.
The day passed and they did not seek to stir from the room. Madame Crocheville brought them food, but talked little. Time was very heavy. John did not dare to go much to the window, for fear of being seen. ”

“ Then she bore it to the table and John looked at it with great longing. He was young, he was healthy and he had a digestion beyond criticism.
"I told you so," exclaimed Lannes triumphantly, "and look, Madame Crocheville has brought us her best—a bottle of the light, white wine made in this very district, and good! You can dismiss your American scruples—it's very mild—filet of beef, tender, too, baked potatoes, salad, bread and butter and cheese. It is truly fit for a king. Madame Crocheville, two young and starving souls, thank you." ”

“ Graveyards are good places, my old—my old, being as you know, a translation of man vieux, a term of friendship, becoming to you because of your grave demeanor—but it's not well to stay in them too long. ”

“ We've made you think you're dollar-worshipers, but while the dollars are dropping through your fingers, John, we're hanging on to the francs, and marks, and shillings, and rubles and gulden and pesos and kronen with a grasp that death itself often fails to break. ”

“ Madame Crocheville will take good care of us tonight and tomorrow, and tomorrow night we'll leave."
"I don't see just how we'll go," said John. "There are German troops in this town, as we know, and even if we could get out of it, where then would we be. I want to go to Munich, and you, I take it, want to reach France. We can't go by land and we can't go by water. ”

“ Lannes drew himself up again—John recognized the dramatic quality in him—and replied in words that he shot forth like bullets:
"The peoples. Armies can be defeated, but nations cannot be put down. Our Napoleon, despite his matchless genius, found it so in his later empire. And they have reckoned ill at Berlin and Vienna. The world in alarm at military domination will be against them. They say the English won't fight and will keep out. But Mother Krochburg or Crocheville—I prefer the sound of Crocheville—we French know better. A3 thousand years of our history say that the English will fight. ”

“ Some went to your own new land, but the majority settled in the surrounding countries. They've intermarried chiefly with themselves, and, after more than two hundred years on foreign soil, many of them still have French hearts in French bodies. ”

“ The light from the window is sufficient for us, and we don't want to take any unnecessary risk."
He blew out the light, but John went to the window, and looked out on the tiny court or place, on the far side of which ran a street so narrow that it would have been called an alley at home.
He could not see much owing to the thick darkness, and it had begun to rain also. The air was chill and heavy with damp. John shivered. Fate had played him a weird trick by causing him to lose his train, but she had atoned for it partly by giving him this brave young Frenchman as a comrade. ”

“ It means that we must seek quarters for the night, and night is always friendly to fugitives. I promised that I'd take you to your friends in Munich—I can't 'do it in an hour or even in two, although I'll lead you to food and a bed, which are not to be despised. ”