Monday Tales - v. 32 Author:Alphonse Daudet Volume: v. 32 General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1901 Original Publisher: Little, Brown Subjects: Fantasy Fiction / Classics Fiction / Literary Fiction / Short Stories History / General History / Europe / France Juvenile Fiction / Science Fiction, Fantasy, Magic Literary Criticism / European ... more »/ French Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: THE CONCERT OF COMPANY EIGHT. All the battalions of the Marais, and of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine were encamped that night in the barracks, along the Avenue Daumesnil. For three days the army of Ducrot had been fighting upon the heights of Champigny, and the rest of us had been prevailed upon to believe that we formed the reserve. Nothing could have been more dismal than this encampment upon the boulevard extMeur, surrounded by factory-chimneys, closed stations, and deserted lumber-yards, lighted only by a few wine- sellers' shops. Nothing more glacial, more sordid, could be pictured than these long rows of wooden barracks, erected upon a ground dried and hardened by the cold of December; the frames of their windows were badly joined, the doors were always open, and the smoky lamps dimmed with the fog, like lanterns in the open air. It was impossible to read, to sleep, to remain seated. It was necessary to invent street urchins' games, merely to keep warm; men were seen beating their feet together, and running around the barracks. Such absurd inaction, so close to the field of battle, was as ignominious as it was enervating, especially on that night. Although the cannonadehad ceased, all felt that something terrible was about to happen above, and from time to time, when the electric search-lights of the forts flashed upon that side of P...« less