ought to play the wag,
and took the Emperor's place as he rode away. Ho! in a twinkling, head
and plume were off! You must understand that Napoleon had promised to
keep the secret of his compact all to himself. That's why all those who
followed him, even his nearest friends, fell like nuts--Duroc,
Bessieres, Lannes--all strong as steel bars, though _he_ could bend them
as he pleased. Besides--to prove he was the child of God, and made to be
the father of soldiers--was he ever known to be lieutenant or captain?
No, no; commander-in-chief from the start. He didn't look to be more
than twenty-four years of age when he was an old general at the taking
of Toulon, where he first began to show the others that they knew
nothing about manoeuvring cannon.

"After that, down came our slip of a general to command the grand army
of Italy, which hadn't bread, nor munitions, nor shoes, nor coats--a
poor army, as naked as a worm. 'My friends,' said he, 'here we are
together. Get it into your pates that fifteen days from now you will be
conquerors--new clothes, good gaiters, famous shoes, and every man with
a great-coat; but, my children, to get these things you must march to
Milan, where they are.' And we marched. France, crushed as flat as a
bed-bug, straightened up. We were thirty thousand bare-feet against
eighty thousand Austrian bullies, all fine men, well set-up. I see 'em
now! But Napoleon--he was then only Bonaparte--he knew how to put the
courage into us! We marched by night, and we marched by day; we slapped
their faces at Montenotte, we thrashed them at Rivoli, Lodi, Arcole,
Millesimo, and we never let 'em up. A soldier gets the taste of
conquest. So Napoleon whirled round those Austrian generals, who didn't
know where to poke themselves to get out of his way, and he pelted 'em
well--nipped off ten thousand men at a blow sometimes, by getting round
them with fifteen hundred Frenchmen, and then he gleaned as he pleased.
He took their cannon, their supplies, their money, their munitions, in
short, all they had that was good to take. He fought them and beat them
on the mountains, he drove them into the rivers and seas, he bit 'em in
the air, he devoured 'em on the ground, and he lashed 'em everywhere.
Hey! the grand army feathered itself well; for, d'ye see the Emperor,
who was a wit, called up the inhabitants and told them he was there to
deliver them. So after that the natives lodged and cherished us; the
women too, and very