the frigates. It could be done! it could be done!"

His moustaches bristled out more like a cat's than ever, and I could see
by the flash of his eyes that he was carried away by his dream.

"You forget that our soldiers would be upon the beach," said I
indignantly.

"Ta, ta, ta!" he cried. "Of course it takes two sides to make a battle.
Let us see now; let us work it out. What could you get together?
Shall we say twenty, thirty thousand. A few regiments of good troops:
the rest, _pouf!_--conscripts, bourgeois with arms. How do you call
them--volunteers?"

"Brave men!" I shouted.

"Oh yes, very brave men, but imbecile. Ah, _mon Dieu_, it is incredible
how imbecile they would be! Not they alone, I mean, but all young
troops. They are so afraid of being afraid that they would take no
precaution. Ah, I have seen it! In Spain I have seen a battalion of
conscripts attack a battery of ten pieces. Up they went, ah, so
gallantly! and presently the hillside looked, from where I stood, like--
how do you say it in English?--a raspberry tart. And where was our fine
battalion of conscripts? Then another battalion of young troops tried
it, all together in a rush, shouting and yelling; but what will shouting
do against a mitraille of grape? And there was our second battalion
laid out on the hillside. And then the foot chasseurs of the Guard, old
soldiers, were told to take the battery; and there was nothing fine
about their advance--no column, no shouting, nobody killed--just a few
scattered lines of tirailleurs and pelotons of support; but in ten