said:

"If I know myself--and I think I do--my performances in this campaign
will give you occasion more than once to remember those words."

"I were a fool to doubt it. That I know."

"I shall not be at my best, being but a common soldier; still, the
country will hear of me. If I were where I belong; if I were in the place
of La Hire, or Saintrailles, or the Bastard of Orleans--well, I say
nothing. I am not of the talking kind, like Noel Rainguesson and his
sort, I thank God. But it will be something, I take it--a novelty in this
world, I should say--to raise the fame of a private soldier above theirs,
and extinguish the glory of their names with its shadow."

"Why, look here, my friend," I said, "do you know that you have hit out a
most remarkable idea there? Do you realize the gigantic proportions of
it? For look you; to be a general of vast renown, what is that?
Nothing--history is clogged and confused with them; one cannot keep their
names in his memory, there are so many. But a common soldier of supreme
renown--why, he would stand alone! He would the be one moon in a
firmament of mustard-seed stars; his name would outlast the human race!
My friend, who gave you that idea?"

He was ready to burst with happiness, but he suppressed betrayal of it as
well as he could. He simply waved the compliment aside with his hand and
said, with complacency:

"It is nothing. I have them often--ideas like that--and even greater
ones. I do not consider this one much."