le bonhomme: the poor fellow

23. piquant de petits drapeaux : marking it off with little flags. Pins carrying little French and German flags were used to mark the position of the armies.

24. Bazaine sur Berlin. According to the old campaigner, Bazaine was on his way to take the Prussian capital, Mac-Mahon to overrun the provinces along the Baltic Sea, while Frossard was to strike Germany in its largest kingdom, Bavaria. In reality Mac-Mahôn was tr3ring to coUect a new force at Chalons, Bazaine and Frossard were closely

besieged in Metz. The siège ended October 27, when the place surrendered to the Pnissians. François Achille Bazaine and Charles Auguste Frossard were bom, the former in 181 1 and the latter in 1807. Both had served with great renown in Algeria, the Crimea, and Italy. Bazaine had been most prominent in the French occupation of Mexico from 1863 to 1867. After the establishment of the French Republic he was tried on a charge of treason for surrendering Metz, and was condemned to death. The sentence was commuted to imprisonment for life, but he escaped after a year's confinement, and died in Madrid in 1888.

25. maintenant voilà oti ils vont aller : that is where they must be going now,

26. Mayence : Mainz ; one of the largest and best fortified cities on the Rhine, opposite the confluence of the Main and the Rhine.