Read "The Invasion of France in 1814" by Erckmann-Chatrian online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
You can imagine the animation at the farm, the bustling of the domestics, the shouts of enthusiasm, the chinking of glasses and forks, the joy depicted on all faces, when Jean-Claude, Doctor Lorquin, the Maternes, and all those who had followed the cart of Catherine Lefevre were installed in the large room around a magnificent ham, and began to celebrate their future triumphs, glass in hand.
It was on a Tuesday, baking-day at the farm. Excitement had prevailed in the kitchen all the morning: old Duchene, with shirt-sleeves turned up and a cotton cap on his head, was taking out of the oven numberless loaves of bread, the good odor of which pervaded the whole house. Annette received them and piled them on the hearth; Louise waited on the guests; and Catherine Lefevre superintended everything, crying out, -- "Make haste, my children -- make haste! The third batch must be ready when the men from the Sarre arrive. It will make six pounds of bread for each man."