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22 young limb, I thought of my own; but Reynaud, who knew everything about everybody in the village, said there was not a better one, so off we went with it, leaving the official staggering in the road and muttering, "France! 'tis the first nation in the world!" The 3d of August came, but Macdonald did not appear, so we started for the Val Louise; our party consisting of Reynaud, myself, and a porter, Jean Casimir Giraud, nicknamed "little nails," the shoemaker of the place. An hour and a half's smart walking took us to La Ville de Val Louise, our hearts gladdened by the glorious peaks of Pelvoux shining out without a cloud around them. I renewed acquaintance with the mayor of "La Ville." His aspect was original, and his manners were gracious, but the odour which proceeded from him was dreadful. The same may be said of most of the inhabitants of these valleys.

Reynaud kindly undertook to look after the commissariat, and I found to my annoyance, when we were about to leave, that I had given tacit consent to a small wine-cask being carried with us, which was a great nuisance from the commencement. It was excessively awkward to handle; one man tried to carry it, and then another, and at last it was slung from one of our batons, and was carried by two, which gave our party the appearance of a mechanical diagram to illustrate the uses of levers.