Memoirs of the Foreign Legion by Maurice Magnus

I AWOKE the following morning with an attack of depression. The room was dismal and dreary, not a ray of sunlight shone into it. I dressed and went out. Somehow I did not have the energy or curiosity to look at the town. I wanted to know where the Legion's barracks were. I walked up the main street and finally asked some one. I had been walking in the opposite direction.

Large gates confronted me, opening into an immense courtyard with a large white building on either side and one at the back facing the gates. At each side of the gate was a small guard-house. I asked to see the Colonel, and a soldier from the guard was despatched to accompany me. He led me straight across the courtyard, flanked by two rows of trees, to the middle building. Up a flight or two of stairs and I was ushered into an office where several soldiers at desks were writing. After a moment's wait I was ushered into an inner office where I found the Colonel. A thick-set fattish man with a miscarriage of a beard, which might have had the intention of becoming an Imperial but was neglected at the wrong time, and so had degenerated into some hair on his chin. The moustache grew in patches. He had only one leg, the other was wood; he had lost it in a Moroccan campaign while captain, and in consequence had been made colonel. He had commenced as cook in the Legion. I showed him the telegram he had sent me, and he answered in a high falsetto voice that he would see if my papers had arrived from Tunis. They had not. I was then ushered to the Major's office. The Major was a fairly pleasant man with a nice twinkle in his eye and good manners. He looked me all over and seemed amused, and asked me some questions as to my profession which. I answered. He was himself interested in archaeology, and had written some things. We had a little chat, and he asked me why I had come to the Legion. When I told him he gave a good-natured smile as if he wanted to say: "I don't know whether to believe you or not, you look truthful, but it is too extraordinary--however, it is no business of mine."