Pile the baggage--strike the tent;
France demands you--fight for France.
If the hero gets a ball,
His accounts are closed--that's all!

"Who'd stay wasting time at home,
Made for women to despise;
When, where'er we choose to roam,
All the world before us lies,
Following our bugle's call,
Life one holiday--that's all!

"When the soldier's coin is spent,
He has but to fight for more;
He pays neither tax nor rent,
He's but where he was before.
If he conquer, if he fall--
_Fortune de la guerre_--that's all!

"Let the pedant waste his oil,
With the soldier all is sport;
Let your blockheads make a coil
In the cloister or the court;
Let them fatten in their stall,
We can fatten too--that's all!

"What care we for fortune's frown,
All that comes is for the best;
What's the noble's bed of down
To the soldier's evening rest