was in a rage his brow was knit and the muscles of the middle of his
forehead set in a delta, or, to be more explicit, in Redgauntlet's
horseshoe. This mark was, perhaps, even more terrifying than the
magnetic flashes of his blue eyes. His whole frame quivered, and his
strength, great as it was in his normal state, became almost unbounded.

"He spoke with a strong guttural roll. His voice, at least as powerful
as that of Charles Nordier's Oudet, threw an incredible fulness of
tone into the syllable or the consonant in which this burr was
sounded. Though this faulty pronunciation was at times a grace, when
commanding his men, or when he was excited, you cannot imagine, unless
you had heard it, what force was expressed by this accent, which at
Paris is so common. When the Colonel was quiescent, his blue eyes were
angelically sweet, and his smooth brow had a most charming expression.
On parade, or with the army of Italy, not a man could compare with
him. Indeed, d'Orsay himself, the handsome d'Orsay, was eclipsed by
our colonel on the occasion of the last review held by Napoleon before
the invasion of Russia.

"Everything was in contrasts in this exceptional man. Passion lives on
contrast. Hence you need not ask whether he exerted over women the
irresistible influences to which our nature yields"--and the general
looked at the Princesse de Cadignan--"as vitreous matter is moulded
under the pipe of the glass-blower; still, by a singular fatality--an
observer might perhaps explain the phenomenon--the Colonel was not a
lady-killer, or was indifferent to such successes.

"To give you an idea of his violence, I will tell you in a few words
what I once saw him do in a paroxysm of fury. We were dragging our
guns up a very narrow road, bordered by a somewhat high slope on one