all my own indiscretion. And now, Pioche, if you 'll
keep me company here till daybreak--it cannot be far off now--the light
will soon satisfy you that my account of myself is a true one."

"Willingly, sir," said the gruff cuirassier. "My patrol is, to watch the
parterres from the pavilion to the allee yonder; and, if you please, we
'll take up our quarters on this bench."

They who know not the strange mixture of deference and familiarity of
which the relation between officer and soldier is made up in the French
service, will perhaps wonder a the tone of almost equality in which we
conversed. But such is the case: the Revolutionary armies acknowledged
no other gredations of rank than such as the service conferred, nor any
degree of superiority save that derivable from greater ability of more
daring heroism; and although the troops more implicitly obeyed the
commands of their officers, the occasion of discipline over a perfect
feeling of equality remained amongst all, whether they wore the epaulets
of colones or carried a musket in the ranks. With time, and the changes
the Consulate had introduced, much of this excessive familiarity was
suppressed; still it was no uncommon thing to hear the humble rank and
file address the general of division as "thou,"--the expression of
closest friendship, probably dating from the hours of schoolboy
attachment. Nor was the officer of rank thought less of because in the
hours of off-duty, he mixed freely with those who had been his
companions through life, and talked with them as brothers. It is
probable that in no other nation such a course could have been practised
without a total subversion of all respect and the ruin of all habits of
order. The Frenchman is, however, essentially military; not merely
warlike, like the inhabitants of Great Britain,--his mind ever inclines
to the details of war as an art. It is in generalship he glories, not
the mere conflict of force; and the humblest soldier in the army takes
an interest in the great game of tactics, which in any other people
would be quite incredible. Hence he submits to the control which
otherwise he could not endure; for this, he yields to command at the
hands of one, who, although his equal in all other respects, he here
acknowledges as his superior. He knows, too, that the grade of officer
is open to merit alone, and he feels that the epaulette may be his own
one day. Such causes as these, constantly in operation, could not fa