Les Bœufs d'Alsace . d'' après René Bazin

Conte d'Alsace

In the war betAveen France and Prussia, known as the Franco- Prussian War (1870-71), the Prussian armies overran the French province of Alsace lying between the Rhine and the Vosges Mountains. Two months after the outbreak of hostilities, owing

12 Petits Contes de France

PAGE

to the unpreparedness of France, the Prussian armies were before Paris. This incident illustrâtes the patriotism of an Alsatian peasant.