<div style="text-align: justify;">When a country is living in peace with its neighbours, one can easily join the army and make promises about his loyalty to his priors. Henri was one of those idealistic men, believing that France is superior to any other nation in the world, as chauvinistic as any French citizen could be. Other than that feeling of doing something good, he thought that getting an opportunity to brag about what he did to his friends and the attention from the female gender were nice bonuses too. So together with many other young men he was eager to give his all for the country that he loved, willing to die for it while defending the grounds that were theirs. <br/><br/>When war came those soon to be warriors weren't as eager anymore. Some proved to be cowards but not Henri. This young fellow did really want to prove what his country meant to him. As his family had always lived close to the borders of the French territory, he soon had to take off to protect his country against the Prussian army. Having heard that the diplomacy with potential allies has failed, Henri knew already that the battle was going to be tough but he still felt that their French spirit would blow the enemy armies away. Not a moment he doubted that.<br/><br/>But that all was before he had seen the efficiency of travelling at the other side. When arriving at the battlefields he immediately noticed the advantage in troops for the Prussians and from that moment on he wasn't quite so sure anymore about the victory of the French. Henri got in battle though, where he fought hard and took out some opponents but they couldn't blow them all away. There were just too many men fighting at the Prussian side and the young man felt as if he had betrayed his country because he hadn't been able to stop the ones that hadn't French as their mother tongue. He knew that he had done everything he could to protect his country but that just wasn't enough. The fight wasn't over yet though and there were still a few things that they could do to slow the enemy down while waiting on newly arriving troops.<br/><br/>All of a sudden there was all kind of action in their camp. Usually the mornings were quite silent, fights went on but not as much as during the day. This time it was different, Henri woke up to shootings, lots of them and when he got out he saw quite some people doing the same all trying to figure out what was happening. Apparently the Prussians had used the early morning silence of the last few days as an element of surprise for this attack and the French troops had fallen for it. Quickly he went back inside to grab his armour and got to one of the places of where shots could be heard. <br/><br/>While he fought there, trying to push the Prussians back to where they came from, he could easily see that their French army was no match for their opponents. Even though him and his mates had eliminated several attackers, more kept coming. They could've killed fifty each and it wouldn't have made a difference. The only thing that they could do was retreat and help forces on a different location because this battle would be an easy win for the German attackers. If they stayed the others would've just killed them without having a chance to make a difference in this war.<br/><br/>The command came, French troops should reunite in Metz but as soon as Henri wanted to do so, he got shot. Being turned around he hadn't seen those coming but still he ran, not wanting to be left alone in the camp amonst with all those corpses of dead soldiers. The young man really did his best to keep up with all the healthy soldiers but his shot wounds didn't make that easy. One wound hurt as hell but he knew that he had been lucky. The wound was in his chest, very close to his heart. Although that one was the most dangerous, the other gave him more trouble keeping up with the other. A shot in the leg made him limp which took away all the speed he had.<br/><br/>Seeing a farm in the distance, he made up his mind. Henri would never be able to keep the same pace up as the other soldiers and he probably would be killed by pursuers if he kept going on his own. That or he would just die because of his wounds. He didn't have a choice, the man had to search for an alternative. His only hope was that the farmer agreed to keep him save and help with his wounds. Else he would have to drag himself to somewhere else with the same question, hoping that someone would eventuelly say yes.<br/><br/>When arriving at the door, Henri was exhausted and he probably looked terrible too. He knocked on the door while he hold himself at the doorpost, trying not to fall. After having waited a few moments he was guided inside by an employee of Monsieur La Roux. Feeling the seat was wonderful, for the first time in two days he could really rest and that did him good. As the man himself came to visit the young warrior, only a short conversation was enough to convince the man. From that moment on Henri could only hope that he wouldn't be found by Prussians because it wouldn't only hurt him but the fair man La Roux too.</div>