Wine, too, which would
cost them 60 centimes the kilo in the town, was valued at 2 francs by
their grasping enemy. He had an idea that English soldiers are allowed
to take their whole pay in money, and spend it as they will; whereas the
French foot-soldier, according to his account, gets 25 centimes a day in
money, and has everything found except coffee. A young trooper at
Besancon was very eloquent on this subject. He represented himself as a
man of small appetite and a gay spirit; he could well live on very
little solid food, and yet he had as much deducted from his pay on that
account as anyone in the army--as much, for instance, he groaned, as a
certain stout old warrior who was then reposing on a corn-bin. If he
could have drawn all his pay in money, and lived on almost nothing for
food, he would have had abundance of sous for cards and tobacco; and
what a career would that be!
The blocks of ice were by this time becoming rather small; and as we had
now once more reached the region of lavender, we cut a large quantity
and wrapped the ice in it, and thus protected it from further thaw.
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