broadest men that I have ever seen in my life. But the
gondoliers of Venice are a strong breed, and powerful men are
common enough among them. The fellow took his place behind me
and began to row.

A good soldier in an enemy's country should everywhere and at all
times be on the alert. It has been one of the rules of my life,
and if I have lived to wear grey hairs it is because I have
observed it. And yet upon that night I was as careless as a
foolish young recruit who fears lest he should be thought to be
afraid. My pistols I had left behind in my hurry. My sword was
at my belt, but it is not always the most convenient of weapons.
I lay back in my seat in the gondola, lulled by the gentle swish
of the water and the steady creaking of the oar. Our way lay
through a network of narrow canals with high houses towering on
either side and a thin slit of star-spangled sky above us. Here
and there, on the bridges which spanned the canal, there was the
dim glimmer of an oil lamp, and sometimes there came a gleam from
some niche where a candle burned before the image of a saint.
But save for this it was all black, and one could only see the
water by the white fringe which curled round the long black nose
of our boat. It was a place and a time for dreaming. I thought
of my own past life, of all the great deeds in which I had been
concerned, of the horses that I had handled, and of the women
that I had loved. Then I thought also of my dear mother, and I
fancied her joy when she heard the folk in the village talking
about the fame of her son. Of the Emperor also I thought, and of
France, the dear fatherland, the sunny France, mother of
beautiful daughters and of gallant sons. My heart glowed within
me as I thought of how we had brought her colours so many hundred