CONTENTS

1. How the Brigadier came to the Castle of Gloom

2. How the Brigadier slew the brothers of Ajaccio

3. How the Brigadier held the King

4. How the King held the Brigadier

5. How the Brigadier took the field against the Marshal Millefleurs

6. How the Brigadier played for a kingdom

7. How the Brigadier won his Medal

8. How the Brigadier was tempted by the Devil




1. HOW THE BRIGADIER CAME TO THE CASTLE OF GLOOM[A]


You do very well, my friends, to treat me with some little reverence,
for in honouring me you are honouring both France and yourselves. It is
not merely an old, grey-moustached officer whom you see eating his
omelette or draining his glass, but it is a fragment of history. In me
you see one of the last of those wonderful men, the men who were
veterans when they were yet boys, who learned to use a sword earlier