my former friend, while they
laughed loud and long at my embarrassment.

"Make way for him there; make way, lads! Come, Burke, here's your
place," said he, stretching out his hand and pressing me down beside him
on the straw. "So you did not remember me?"

In truth, there was enough of change in his appearance since last I saw
him to warrant my forgetfulness. A dark, bushy beard, worn cuirassier
fashion, around the mouth and high on the cheeks, almost concealed his
face, while in figure he had grown both taller and stouter.

"Art colonel of the Eighth Regiment?" said he, laughing; "you know I
promised you were to be, when we were to meet again."

"No; but, if I mistake not," said a hussar officer opposite, "monsieur
is in the way to become so. Were you not named to a troop, about half an
hour ago, by the Emperor himself?"

"Yes!" said I, with an effort to suppress my pride.

"_Diantre bleu!_" exclaimed Tascher, "what good fortune you always have
I I wish you joy of it, with all my heart. I say, Comrades, let us drown
his commission for him."

"Agreed! agreed!" cried they all in a breath. "Francois will make us a
bowl of punch for the occasion."

"Most willingly," said the little maitre d'armes. "Monsieur le
Capitaine, I am sure, bears me no ill-will for our little affair. I
thought not," added he, seizing my hand in both his. "_Ma foi!_ you
spoiled my tierce for me; I shall never be the same man again. Now,
gentlemen, pass down the brandy, and let the man with most credit go
seek for sugar at the canteen."

While Francois commenced his operations, Tascher proceeded to recount to
me the miserable life he had spent in garrison towns, till the outbreak
of the campaign had called him on active service.

"It was no use that I asked the Empress to intercede for me, and get me
appointed to another regiment; being the nephew of Napoleon seemed to
set a complete bar to my advancement. Even now," said he, "my name has
been sent forward by my colonel for promotion, and I wager you fifty
Naps I shall be passed over."

"And what if you be?" said a huge, heavy-browed major beside him; "what
great hardship is it to be a lieutenant in the cuirassiers at two and
twenty? I was a sergeant ten years later."

"Ay, _parbleu!_" cried another, "I won my epaulettes at Cairo, when
three officers were reported living, in a whole regiment."

"To be sure," said Francois, looking up from his operation of
lemon-squeezing; "here am I,