with the greatest difficulty the colonel was enabled to conclude
this brief story; the sentences were uttered with short, almost
convulsive efforts, and when it was over he turned away his face, and
seemed buried in grief.

'You think,' said he, turning round and taking my hand in his--'you
think that the sad scene has left me such as you see me now. Would to
Heaven my memory were charged with but that mournful event! Alas! it
is not so.' He wiped a tear from his eye, and with a faltering voice
continued. 'You shall hear my story. I never breathed it to one living,
nor do I think now that my time is to be long here.'

Having fortified his nerves with a powerful opiate, the only remedy in
his dreadful malady, he began:--

'I was reduced to the ranks in Strasbourg; four years after, day for
day, I was named Chef de Bataillon on the field of Elchingen. Of twelve
hundred men our battalion came out of action with one hundred and
eighty; the report of the corps that night was made by myself as senior
officer, and I was but a captain.

'"Who led the division of stormers along the covered way?" said the
Emperor, as I handed our list of killed and wounded to Duroc, who stood
beside him.

'"It was I, sire."

'"You are major of the Seventh regiment," said he. "Now, there is
another of yours I must ask for; how is he called that surprised the
Austrian battery on the Dorran Kopf?"

'"Himself again, sire," interrupted Duroc, who saw that I hesitated how
to answer him.

'"Very well, very well indeed, Elgenheim; report him as Chef de
Bataillon, Duroc, and colonel of his regiment. There, sir, your
countrymen call me unjust and ungenerous. Show them your brevet
to-night" and do _you_, at least, be a witness in my favour."

'I bowed and uttered a few words of gratitude, and was about to
withdraw, when Duroc, who had been whispering something in the Emperor's
ear, said aloud, "I'm certain he's the man to do it. Elgenheim, his
Majesty has a most important despatch to forward to Innspruck to Marshal
Ney. It will require something more than mere bravery to effect this
object--it will demand no small share of address also. The passes above
Saltzbourg are in the possession of the Tyrolese sharpshooters; two
vedettes have been cut off within a week, and it will require at least
the force of a regiment to push through. Are you willing to take the
command of such a party?"

'"If his Majesty will honour me with----"

'"Enough, sir,"