sican
adventurer! What a pang it must have cost his haughty spirit as he
uttered the words, _Mon frere!_

As they walked side by side towards the plateau, where the fires were
lighted, it was easy to mark that Napoleon was the speaker, while
Francis merely bowed from time to time, or made a gesture of seeming
assent.

As the Emperor arrived at the place of conference, we fell back some
fifty yards; and although the air was still and frosty, and the silence
was perfect around, we could not catch a word on either side. After
about an hour the conversation appeared to assume a tone of gayety and
good-humor, and we could hear the sovereigns laughing repeatedly.

The conference lasted for above two hours, when once more the emperors
embraced, and, as we thought, with more cordiality, and separated; the
Emperor of Austria returning, accompanied by Prince Lichtenstein; while
Napoleon stood for some minutes beside the fire as if musing, and then,
beckoning his staff to follow, he walked towards the highroad.

Scarcely had the Austrian emperor reached his carriage, when Savary,
bareheaded and breathless, stood beside the door of it. He was the
bearer of a message from Napoleon. The next moment the _caleche_
started, accompanied by Savary, who, with a single aide-de-camp, took
the road towards the Austrian headquarters.

As Napoleon was about to mount his horse, I saw General d'Auvergne
move forward towards him. A few words passed between them; and then the
general, riding up to where I stood, said,--

"Burke, you are to remain here, and if any orders arrive from General
Savary, hasten with them to the headquarters of his Majesty. In twelve
hours you will be relieved."

So saying, he galloped back to the imperial staff; and soon after the
squadrons defiled into the road, the cortege dashed forward, and all
that remained of that memorable scene was the dying embers of the fires
beside which the fate of Europe was decided.

The old mill of Holitsch had been deserted when the Austrian and Russian
columns took up their position before Austerlitz. The miller and his
household fled at the first news of the advance, and had not dared to
return. It was a solitary spot at best: a wild heath, without shelter of
any kind, stretched away for miles on all sides; but now, in its
utter loneliness, it was the most miserable-looking place that can be
conceived. While, therefore, I contented myself with the hope that my
stay there might