intense; my fellow-officers were resting, they were warm, they had
food, and the room, strewn with trusses of straw, gave the promise of
a delightful night. We did not ask for so much in those days. My
comrades could be philanthropists _gratis_--one of the commonest ways
of being philanthropic. I sat down to eat on one of the bundles of
straw.

"At the end of the table, by the side of the door opening into the
smaller room full of straw and hay, sat my old colonel, one of the
most extraordinary men I ever saw among all the mixed collection of
men it has been my lot to meet. He was an Italian. Now, whenever human
nature is truly fine in the lands of the South, it is really sublime.
I do not know whether you have ever observed the extreme fairness of
Italians when they are fair. It is exquisite, especially under an
artificial light. When I read the fantastical portrait of Colonel
Oudet sketched by Charles Nodier, I found my own sensations in every
one of his elegant phrases. Italian, then, as were most of the
officers of his regiment, which had, in fact, been borrowed by the
Emperor from Eugene's army, my colonel was a tall man, at least eight
or nine inches above the standard, and was admirably proportioned--a
little stout perhaps, but prodigiously powerful, active, and
clean-limbed as a greyhound. His black hair in abundant curls showed
up his complexion, as white as a woman's; he had small hands, a
shapely foot, a pleasant mouth, and an aquiline nose delicately
formed, of which the tip used to become naturally pinched and white
whenever he was angry, as happened often. His irascibility was so far
beyond belief that I will tell you nothing about it; you will have the
opportunity of judging of it. No one could be calm in his presence. I
alone, perhaps, was not afraid of him; he had indeed taken such a
singular fancy to me that he thought everything I did right. When he