quandering,
no waste; that's one of my principles,' said he gravely, as he watched
me while I tied up the bread and wine in the napkin. 'You'll soon see
the advantage of serving under an old soldier.'

I confess the great benefit had not already struck me, but I held my
peace and waited; meanwhile he continued--

'I have studied my profession from my boyhood, and one thing I have
acquired that all experience has confirmed--the knowledge that men must
neither be taxed beyond their ability nor their endurance. A French
soldier, after all, is human; eh, is't not so?'

'I feel it most profoundly, _mon capitaine_,' replied I, with my hand on
my empty stomach.

'Just so,' rejoined he; 'every man of sense and discretion must confess
it. Happily for you, too, I know it; ay, Tiernay I know it, and practise
it. When a young fellow has acquitted himself to my satisfaction during
the day--not that I mean to say that the performance has not its fair
share of activity and zeal--when evening comes and stable duty finished,
arms burnished, and accoutrements cleaned, what do you think I say to
him?--eh, Tiernay--just guess now?'

'Probably, sir, you tell him he is free to spend an hour at the canteen,
or take his sweetheart to the theatre.'

'What! more fatigue! more exhaustion to an already tired and worn-out
nature!'

'I ask pardon, sir, I see I was wrong; but I had forgotten how
thoroughly the poor fellow was done up. I now see that you told him to
go to bed.'

'To bed! to bed! Is it that he might writhe in the nightmare, or suffer
agony from cramps? To bed after fatigue like this! No, no, Tiernay; that
was not the school in which I was brought up; we were taught to think of
the men under our command; to remember that they had wants, sympathies,
hopes, fears, and emotions like our own. I tell him to seat himself
at the table, and with pen, ink, and paper before him, to write up the
blanks. I see you don't quite understand me, Tiernay, as to the meaning
of the phrase, but I'll let you into the secret. You have been kind
enough to give me a peep at your note-book, and you shall in return have
a look at mine. Open that volume, and tell me what you find in it.'

I obeyed the direction, and read at the top of a page the words,
'Skeleton, 5th Prarial,' in large characters, followed by several
isolated words, denoting the strength of a brigade, the number of guns
in a battery, the depth of a fosse, the height of a parapet, and su