reestablish God's holy religion, which had then been overthrown. That
was the agreement they made; and although it seems strange, such things
have happened. It's sure and certain, anyhow, that only a man who had an
agreement with God could pass through the enemy's lines, and move about
in showers of bullets and grape-shot, as Napoleon did. They swept us
away like flies, but his head they never touched at all. I had a proof
of that--I myself, in particular--at Eylau, where the Emperor went up on
a little hill to see how things were going. I can remember, to this day,
exactly how he looked as he took out his field-glass, watched the battle
for a minute, and finally said: "It's all right! Everything is going
well." Then, just as he was coming back, an ambitious chap in a plumed
hat, who was always following him around, and who bothered him, they
said, even at his meals, thought he'd play smart by going up on the very
same hill; but he had hardly taken the Emperor's place when--batz!--away
he went, plume and all!

Now follow me closely, and tell me whether what you are going to hear
was natural.

Napoleon, you know, had promised that he'd keep his agreement with God
to himself. That's the reason why his companions and even his particular
friends--men like Duroc, Bessières, and Lannes, who were strong as bars
of steel, but whom he molded to suit his purposes--all fell, like nuts
from a shaken tree, while he himself was never even hurt.

But that's not the only proof that he was the child of God and was
expressly created to be the father of soldiers. Did anybody ever see him
a lieutenant? Or a captain? Never! He was commander-in-chief from the
start. When he didn't look more than twenty-four years of age he was
already an old general--ever since the taking of Toulon, where he first