ivouacs were formed; the watch-fires were lighted; and
seventy thousand men and two hundred pieces of cannon occupied the heights
of Planchenoit.

"My orders are to bring you to La Caillon," said the quartermaster; "and if
you only can spur your jaded horse into a trot, we shall soon reach it."

About a hundred yards from the little farm-house, stood a small cottage of
a peasant. Here some officers of Marshal Soult's staff had taken up their
quarters; and thither my guide now bent his steps.

"Comment, Bonnard!" said an aide-de-camp, as we rode up. "Another prisoner?
_Sacrebleu!_ We shall have the whole British staff among us. You are
in better luck than your countryman, the general, I hope," said the
aide-decamp. "His is a sad affair; and I'm sorry for it, too. He's a fine,
soldier-like looking fellow."

"Pray, what has happened?" said I. "To what do you allude?"

"Merely to one of your people who has just been taken with some letters and
papers of Bourmont's in his possession. The Emperor is in no very amicable
humor towards the traitor, and resolves to pay off some part of his debt on
his British correspondent."

"How cruel! How unjust!"

"Why, yes, it is hard, I confess, to be shot for the fault of another.
Mais, que voulez-vous?"

"And when is this atrocious act to take place?"

"By daybreak to-morrow," said he, bowing, as he turned towards the hut.
"Meanwhile, let me counsel you, if you would not make another in the party,
to reserve your indignation for your return to England."

"Come along," said the quartermaster; "I find they have got quarters for
you in the granary of the farm. I'll not forget you at supper-time."

So saying, he gave his horse to an orderly, and led me by a little path
to a back entrance of the dwelling. Had I time or inclination for such a
scene, I might have lingered long to gaze at the spectacle before me. The
guard held their bivouac around the quarters of the Emperor; and here,
beside the watch-fires, sat the bronzed and scarred veterans who had braved
every death and danger, from the Pyramids to the Kremlin. On every side I
heard the names of those whom history has already consigned to immortality;
and as the fitful blaze of a wood-fire flashed from within the house, I
could mark the figure of one who, with his hands behind his back, walked
leisurely to and fro, his head leaned a little forward as though in deep
thought; but as the light fell upon his pale and placid features