ADVENTURES OF A FRENCH CAPTAIN.        71
camp life was insufferably monotonous. We
hardly allowed ourselves even the pleasure or
excitement of a hunt, though game was abun-
dant, and if we did, it was with the greatest
circumspection or in large parties, as it was
feared that the Comanches or the Pawnees
would not have scrupled to scalp isolated in-
dividuals had any one ventured out alone with
his gun. The camp was as severely guarded as
it might have been in the days of the Empire.
The battalion officers were but common officers
according to their real grade, and the captains
were lieutenants or sub-lieutenants for the
nonce ; those in their turn had become non-
commissioned officers, while the quartermasters,
sergeants, and other inferior officers had become
privates. This was, to say the least, a disagree-
able state of things.
As we had very little special knowledge
outside our profession, we took to drill and
military manoeuvres as a pastime, after our work
in the trenches was done. We had one com-
mon mess, and bivouacked as if we were in an
enemy's country, except the generals, two or
three superior officers, and the women, for
whom we had built large and not uncomfort-