year after that I
became cognizant of the few autograph lines by which Alexander induced
Davoust to suspend his operations, under the pretence that the Austrian
armistice included the Russian army. It was an unworthy act and ill
befitting one whose high personal courage and chivalrous bearing gave
promise of better things.

CHAPTER VIII. THE COMPAGNIE D'ELITE

With whatever triumphant feelings the Emperor Napoleon may have
witnessed the glorious termination of this brief campaign, to the young
officers of the army it brought anything rather than satisfaction,
and the news of the armistice was received in the camp with gloom and
discontent. The brilliant action at Elchingen, and the great victory at
Austerlitz, were hailed as a glorious presage of future successes, for
which the high-sounding phrases of a bulletin were deemed but a poor
requital. A great proportion of the army were new levies, who had not
seen service, and felt proportionably desirous for opportunities of
distinction; and to them the promise of a triumphant return to France
was a miserable exchange for those battlefields on which they dreamed
they should win honor and fame, and from whence they hoped to date their
rise of fortune. Little did we guess, that while words of peace and
avowals of moderation were on his lips, Napoleon was at that very moment
meditating on the opening of that great campaign, which, beginning at
Jena, was to end in the most bloody and long sustained of all his wars.

Nothing, however, was now talked of but the fetes which awaited us on
our return to Paris,--while liberal grants of money were made to all the
wounded, and no effort was spared which should mark that feeling of the
Emperor's, which so conspicuously opened his bulletin, in the emphatic
words, "Soldiers, I am content with you!"

Napoleon well understood, and indeed appeared to have anticipated, the
disappointment the army would experience at this sudden cessation
of hostilities; and endeavored now to divert the torrent of their
enthusiasm into another and a safer channel. The bulk of the army were
cantoned around Brunn and Olmutz; some picked regiments were recalled
to Vienna, where the Emperor was soon expected to establish his
headquarters; while many of those who had suffered most severely
from forced marches and fatigues were formed into corps of escort to
accompany the Russian prisoners--sixteen thousand in number--on their
way to France; and lastly, a _