Page:Napoleon (O'Connor 1896).djvu/404

from whom he endeavoured in vain to extricate himself, not using, I must say, the gentlest terms our language affords. In this way we arrived at the Hôtel de Ville, amid loud cries of 'Vive les Anglais!' We were received by our friends who had come with the flag of truce in the morning, but who were evidently not prepared for such a visit from us now. . . . They now politely requested us to wait upon the general in command. We found that officer attending High Mass at the cathedral, and it is hardly possible to describe his astonishment, and the excitement caused by seeing two British naval officers, in their uniforms, in the midst of the congregation. I went up to the general, who received me with much apparent cordiality, and with considerable tact (for we were at the time the greater 'lion' of the two) invited us to join the procession (I think it was that of the Virgin), for which preparations had been made, and which was about to set out from the church where we then were. The streets through which we passed were excessively crowded, so much so that it was with the utmost difficulty the procession could make its way at all. The predominance of old people and children among the crowd was remarkable. Commenting upon this to some of the municipal officers, I was told that this was caused by the conscription, which had swept off without distinction (like another plague) all the young men who were capable of bearing arms,