he adored his country and would have greatly preferred that it could
have been saved without being submitted to the yoke of a dictator.

I have said that my father's principle reason for making me enlist
as a lowly Hussar had been to rid me of the simple notions of a
schoolboy, which had not been changed by my short acquaintance with
the world of Paris. The result exceeded his expectations, for living
amongst swaggering Hussars, and having as a mentor a sort of brigand
who laughed at my innocence, I began to howl with the wolves, and for
fear that I might be mocked for my timidity, I became a real devil.
This, however, was not enough for me to be accepted into a sort of
brotherhood, which under the name of the clique, had members in all
the squadrons the 1st Hussars.

The clique was made up of all the biggest rogues, but, at the
same time, some of the bravest men in the regiment. The members of
the clique supported one another against all opposition, particularly
in the face of the enemy. They called themselves the Jokers, and
recognised one another by a notch cut into the metal of the first
button on the right hand row of the pelisse and dolman. The officers
were aware of the existence of the clique, but as its worst crimes
were limited to the adroit theft of chickens or sheep, or some trick
played on the local inhabitants, and as the Jokers were always at the
forefront in any action, they turned a blind eye. I was young and
feckless, and I longed desperately to belong to this raffish society,
which I thought would raise my standing amongst my comrades; but it
was in vain that I frequented the salle-d'armes to practice
swordsmanship and the use of the pistol and carbine, and that I dug
my elbows into anyone who got in my way: allowed my sabre to trail on
the ground and tipped my shako over one ear, the members of the