erty, equality, and
justice, and all those grand ideas which distinguish men from brutes,
causing them to respect themselves and the rights of their neighbors
also. Our courage was greatly strengthened by these strong and just
words. The old soldiers laughed and said, "We shall not be kept
waiting this time. On the first march we shall fall upon the
Prussians."

But the conscripts, who had never yet heard the bullets whistle, were
the most excited of all. Buche's eyes sparkled like those of a cat, as
he sat on the road-side, with his knapsack opened on the slope, slowly
sharpening his sabre, and trying the edge on the toe of his shoe.
Others were setting their bayonets and adjusting their flints, as they
always do when on the eve of a battle. At those times their heads are
full of thought, which makes them knit their brows, and compress their
lips; giving them anything but pleasant faces.

The sun sank lower and lower behind the grain fields, several
detachments of men went to the village for wood, and they brought back
onions and leeks and salt, and even several quarters of beef were hung
on long sticks over their shoulders. But it was when the men were
around the fires, watching their kettles as they commenced to boil, and
the smoke went curling up into the air, that their faces were happiest,
one would talk of Lutzen, another of Wagram, of Austerlitz, of Jena, of
Friedland, of Spain, of Portugal, and of all the countries in the
world. They all talked at once, but only the old soldiers whose arms
were covered with chevrons, were listened to. They were most
interesting, as they marked the positions on the ground with their
fingers, and explained them by a line on the right, and a line on the
left. You seemed to see it all while listening to them. Each one had
his pewter spoon at his button-hole, and kept thinking, "The soup will
be capital, the meat is good and fat."

When we were stationed for the night, the order was given to extinguish
the fires and not to beat the retreat, which indicated that the enemy
was near, and that they feared to alarm them.

The moon was shining, and Buche and I were eating at the same mess;
when we had finished, he talked to me more than two hours about his
life at Harberg, how they were obliged to drag two or three cords of
wood on great sleds at the risk of being run over and crushed,
especially when the snow was melting. Compared with that, the life of
a soldier, with hi