r, he had kept the double napoleon which
the Emperor gave him for his milk and his eggs. The curate
of Gross-Aspern took us to the famous cemetery where French
and Austrians struggled together knee-deep in blood, with a
courage and obstinacy glorious to each. There, while
explaining that a marble tablet (to which our attention had
been attracted, and on which were inscribed the names of the
owner of Gross-Aspern, who had been killed on the third day)
was the sole compensation ever given to the family, he said,
in a tone of deep sadness: "It was a time of great misery,
and of great hopes; but now are the days of forgetfulness."
The saying seemed to me sublime in its simplicity; but when
I came to reflect upon the matter, I felt there was some
justification for the apparent ingratitude of the House of
Austria. Neither nations nor kings are wealthy enough to
reward all the devotions to which these tragic struggles
give rise. Let those who serve a cause with a secret
expectation of recompense, set a price upon their blood and
become mercenaries. Those who wield either sword or pen for
their country's good ought to think of nothing but of _doing
their best_, as our fathers used to say, and expect nothing,
not even glory, except as a happy accident.

It was in rushing to retake this famous cemetery for the
third time that Massena, wounded and carried in the box of a
cabriolet, made this splendid harangue to his soldiers:
"What! you rascally curs, who have only five sous a day
while I have forty thousand, do you let me go ahead of you?"
All the world knows the order which the Emperor sent to his
lieutenant by M. de Sainte-Croix, who swam the Danube three
times: "Die or retake the village; it is a question of
saving the army; the bridges are destroyed."

The Author.

Now, I must tell you that the Comtesse de Montcornet is a fragile,
timid, delicate little woman. What do you think of such a marriage
as that? To those who know society such things are common enough; a
well-assorted marriage is the exception. Nevertheless, I have come to
see how it is that this slender little creature handles her bobbins in
a way to lead this heavy, solid, stolid general precisely as he himself
used to lead his cuirassiers.

If Montcornet begins to bluster before his Virginie, Madame lays