and
here's the wine-flask beside thee.'

'How comes it thou hast this old uniform, boy?' said he, pointing to my
sleeve.

'It was one they gave me in the Temple,' said I. 'I was a _rat du
prison_ for some time.'

'Thunder of war!' exclaimed the cannonier, 'I had rather stand a whole
platoon-fire than see what thou must have seen, child.'

'And hast heart to go back there, boy,' said the corporal, 'and live the
same life again?'

'No, I 'll never go back,' said I. 'I 'll be a soldier.'

'Well said, _mon brave_--thou'lt be a hussar, I know.'

'If nature has given thee a good head, and a quick eye, my boy, thou
might even do better, and in time, perhaps, wear a coat like mine,' said
the cannonier.

'_Sacrebleu!_ cried a little fellow, whose age might have been anything
from boyhood to manhood--for while small of stature, he was shrivelled
and wrinkled like a mummy--'why not be satisfied with the coat he
wears?'

'And be a drummer, like thee?' said the cannonier.

'Just so, like me, and like Massena--he was a drummer, too.'

'No, no!' cried a dozen voices together; 'that's not true.'

'He's right; Massena was a drummer in the Eighth,' said the cannonier;
'I remember him when he was like that boy yonder.'

'To be sure,' said the little fellow, who, I now perceived, wore the
dress of a _tambour_; and is it a disgrace to be the first to face the
enemy?'

'And the first to turn his back to him, comrade,' cried another.

'Not always---not always,' said the little fellow, regardless of the
laugh against him. 'Had it been so, I had not gained the battle of
Grandrengs on the Sambre.'

'Thou gain a battle!' shouted half a dozen, in derisive laughter.

'What, Petit Pierre gained the day at Grandrengs!' said the cannonier;
'why, I was there myself, and never heard of that till now.'

'I can believe it well,' replied Pierre; 'many a man's merits go
unacknowledged--and Kleber got all the credit that belonged to Pierre
Canot.'

'Let us hear about it, Pierre, for even thy victory is unknown by name
to us poor devils of the army of Italy. How call'st thou the place?'

'Grandrengs,' said Pierre proudly. 'It's name will live as long,
perhaps, as many of those high-sounding ones you have favoured us with.
Mayhap, thou hast heard of Cambray?'

'Never!' said the hussar, shaking his head.

'Nor of Mons, either, I'll be sworn?' continued Pierre.

'Quite true, I never heard of it before.'

'_Voila!_ exclaimed Pierre