Devil take it! I'll go to see the Emperor to-morrow. The
matter shall be looked into. It will all be set straight. Men like you!
Why France hasn't got them by the dozen that she should fling them among
the soiled linen."

"Thanks! You're a good old boy, and a true one. There were five hundred
thousand of us, of the same, same sort, in 1812; there are but two left;
say, rather, one and a half."

About ten o'clock in the evening, M. Rollon, M. du Marnet and Fougas
accompanied the Marshal to the cars. Fougas embraced his comrade and
promised him to be of good cheer. After the train left, the three
colonels went back to town on foot. In passing M. Rollon's house, Fougas
said to his successor:

"You're not very hospitable to-night; you don't even offer us a pony of
that good Andaye brandy!"

"I thought you were not in drinking trim," said M. Rollon. "You didn't
take anything in your coffee or afterwards. But come up!"

"My thirst has come back with a vengeance."

"That's a good symptom."

He drank in a melancholy fashion, and scarcely wet his lips in his
glass. He stopped a little while before the flag, took hold of the
staff, spread out the silk, counted the holes that cannon balls and
bullets had made in it, and could not repress his tears. "Positively,"
said he, "the brandy has taken me in the throat; I'm not a man to-night.
Good evening, gentlemen."

"Hold on! We'll go back with you."

"Oh, my hotel is only a step."

"It's all the same. But what's your idea in staying at a hotel when you
have two houses in town at your service?"

"On the strength of that, I am going to move to-morrow."

The next morning, about eleven o'clock, the happy Leon was at his toilet
when a telegram was brought to him. He opened it without noticing that
it was addressed to M. Fougas, and uttered a cry of joy. Here is the
laconic message which brought him so much pleasure:

"To Colonel Fougas, Fontainebleau.

"Just left the Emperor. You to be brevet brigadier until
something better turns up. If necessary, _corps
legislatif_ will amend law.

"LEBLANC."

Leon dressed himself, ran to the hotel of the blue sundial, and found
Fougas dead in his bed.

It is said in Fontainebleau, that M. Nibor made an autopsy, and found
that serious disorders had been produced by desiccation. Some people are
nevertheless satisfied that Fougas committed suicide. It is certain that
Master Bonnivet received, by the penny post, a