ladies, who have decided to prolong their cruise and get some fun out
of their misfortune."

"And where else than to Paris would any one in search of pleasure
go?" asked Bonaparte.

"I had more fun a few miles outside of Brussels," said Wellington,
with a sly wink at Washington.

"Oh, let up on that!" retorted Bonaparte. "It wasn't you beat me at
Waterloo. You couldn't have beaten me at a plain ordinary game of
old-maid with a stacked pack of cards, much less in the game of war,
if you hadn't had the elements with you."

"Tut!" snapped Wellington. "It was clear science laid you out,
Boney."

"Taisey-voo!" shouted the irate Corsican. "Clear science be hanged!
Wet science was what did it. If it hadn't been for the rain, my
little Duke, I should have been in London within a week, my
grenadiers would have been camping in your Rue Peekadeely, and the
Old Guard all over everywhere else."

"You must have had a gay army, then," laughed Caesar. "What are
French soldiers made of, that they can't stand the wet--unshrunk
linen or flannel?"

"Bah!" observed Napoleon, shrugging his shoulders and walking a few
paces away. "You do not understand the French. The Frenchman is not
a pell-mell soldier like you Romans; he is the poet of arms; he does