te, the one which Sebastiani had wished to buy after
Dresden. It is the fastest horse in the six brigades of light cavalry,
and was only beaten by the Duke of Rovigo's racer from England. As to
Charpentier, he had the kind of horse which a horse grenadier or a
cuirassier would be likely to ride: a back like a bedstead, you
understand, and legs like the posts. He is a hulking fellow himself, so
that they looked a singular pair. And yet in his insane conceit he ogled
the girls as they waved their handkerchiefs to me from the windows, and
he twirled his ugly red moustache up into his eyes, just as if it were
to him that their attention was addressed.

When we came out of the town we passed through the French camp, and then
across the battle-field of yesterday, which was still covered both by
our own poor fellows and by the Russians. But of the two the camp was
the sadder sight. Our army was thawing away. The Guards were all right,
though the young guard was full of conscripts. The artillery and the
heavy cavalry were also good if there were more of them, but the
infantry privates with their under officers looked like schoolboys with
their masters. And we had no reserves. When one considered that there
were 80,000 Prussians to the north and 150,000 Russians and Austrians to
the south, it might make even the bravest man grave.

For my own part, I confess that I shed a tear until the thought came
that the Emperor was still with us, and that on that very morning he had
placed his hand upon my dolman and had promised me a medal of honour.
This set me singing, and I spurred Violette on, until Charpentier had to
beg me to have mercy on his great, snorting, panting camel. The road was
beaten into paste and rutted two feet deep by the artillery, so that he
was right in saying that it was not the place for a gallop.

I have never been very friendly with this Charpentier; and now for
twenty miles of the way I could not draw a word from him. He rode with
his brows puckered and his chin upon his breast, like a man who is heavy
with thought. More than once I asked him what was on his mind, thinking
that, perhaps, with my quicker intelligence I might set the matter
straight. His answer always was that it was his mission of which he was
thinking, which surprised me, because, although I had never thought much
of his intelligence, still it seemed to me to be impossible that anyone
could be puzzled by so simple and soldierly a task.

Well