When the last verse came, she seized the
flag and knelt down; the audience shouted, "_Debout_!" All rose and
listened standing to the conclusion, which was followed by mad applause.
People seized upon every opportunity of obtruding their patriotism. One
evening _Le lion amoureux_ was given. In the long speech which
concludes the second act, a young Republican describes the army which,
during the Revolution, crossed the frontier for the first time and
utterly destroyed the Prussian armies. The whole theatre foamed like the
sea.
XXIV.
Those were Summer days, and in spite of the political and martial
excitement, the peaceful woods and parks in the environs of Paris were
tempting. From the Quartier Latin many a couple secretly found their way
to the forests of St. Germain, or the lovely wood at Chantilly. In the
morning one bought a roast fowl and a bottle of wine, then spent the
greater part of the day under the beautiful oak-trees, and sat down to
one's meal in the pleasant green shade. Now and again one of the young
women would make a wreath of oak leaves and twine it round her
companion's straw hat, while he, bareheaded, lay gazing up at the tree-
tops. For a long time I kept just such a wreath as a remembrance, and
its withered leaves roused melancholy reflections some years later, for
during the war every tree of the Chantilly wood had been felled; the
wreath was all that remained of the magnificent oak forest.
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