good-night.'




3. HOW THE BRIGADIER HELD THE KING


Here, upon the lapel of my coat, you may see the ribbon of my
decoration, but the medal itself I keep in a leathern pouch at home, and
I never venture to take it out unless one of the modern peace generals,
or some foreigner of distinction who finds himself in our little town,
takes advantage of the opportunity to pay his respects to the well-known
Brigadier Gerard. Then I place it upon my breast, and I give my
moustache the old Marengo twist which brings a grey point into either
eye. Yet with it all I fear that neither they, nor you either, my
friends, will ever realize the man that I was. You know me only as a
civilian--with an air and a manner, it is true--but still merely as a
civilian. Had you seen me as I stood in the doorway of the inn at Alamo,
on the 1st of July, in the year 1810, you would then have known what the
hussar may attain to.

For a month I had lingered in that accursed village, and all on account
of a lance-thrust in my ankle, which made it impossible for me to put my
foot to the ground. There were three besides myself at first: old
Bouvet, of the Hussars of Bercheny, Jacques Regnier, of the Cuirassiers,
and a funny little voltigeur captain whose name I forget; but they all
got well and hurried on to the front, while I sat gnawing my fingers and
tearing my hair, and even, I must confess, weeping from time to time as
I thought of my Hussars of Conflans, and the deplorable condition in