The thing that most astonished the children was the vast size of the army, which took all day to file by their home.

They had never realized that either of the fighting forces could embrace such great numbers of men.

Nor did the behaviour of the invading troops especially endear them to their unwilling hosts.

Part of the cavalry encamped in the Page yard; their horses ate the bark off the mimosa trees; an army corps built its campfires under the great oaks, and cut their emblems on the trunks; the officers took possession of the house, a colonel making his headquarters in the parlour.

Several looting cavalrymen ran their swords through the beds, probably looking for hidden silver; the hearth was torn up in the same feverish quest; angry at their failure, they emptied sacks of flour and scattered their contents in the bedrooms and on the stairs; for days the flour, intermingled with feathers from the bayonetted beds, formed a carpet all over the house.