idings.

"Two batteries of artillery and the voltigeurs of the 4th, I know for
certain are coming," said the orderly, "and they spoke of a battalion of
grenadiers."

"What! do these Germans need another lesson," said the cannonier, "I
thought Fleurus had taught them what our troops were made of?"

"How you talk of Fleurus," interrupted a young hussar from the south; "I
have just come from the army of Italy, and, ma foi! we should never have
mentioned such a battle as Fleurus in a dispatch. Campaigning among
dykes and hedges--fighting with a river on one flank and a fortress on
the t'other--parade manoeuvres--where, at the first check, the enemy
retreats, and leaves you free, for the whole afternoon, to write off
your successes to the Directory. Had you seen our fellows scaling the
Alps, with avalanches of snow descending at every fire of the great
guns--forcing pass after pass against an enemy, posted on every cliff
and crag above us--cutting our way to victory by roads the hardiest
hunter had seldom trod; I call that war."

"And I call it the skirmish of an outpost!" said the gruff veteran, as
he smoked away, in thorough contempt for the enthusiasm of the other. "I
have served under Kleber, Hoche, and Moreau, and I believe they are the
first generals of France."

"There is a name greater than them all," cried the hussar with
eagerness.

"Let us hear it, then--you mean Pichegru, perhaps, or Massena?"

"No, I mean Bonaparte!" said the hussar, triumphantly.

"A good officer, and one of us," said the artilleryman, touching his
belt to intimate the arm of the service the general belonged to "He
commanded the seige-train at Toulon."

"He belongs to all," said the other. "He is a dragoon, a voltigeur, an
artillerist, a pontonier--what you will--he knows every thing, as I know
my horse's saddle, and cloak-bag."

Both parties now grew warm; and as each was not only an eager partisan,
but well acquainted with the leading events of the two campaigns they
undertook to defend, the dispute attracted a large circle of listeners,
who, either seated on the green-sward, or lying at full length, formed a
picturesque group under the shadow of the spreading oak trees. Mean
while the cooking went speedily forward, and the camp-kettles smoked
with a steam whose savory odor was not a little tantalizing to one who,
like myself, felt that he did not belong to the company.

"What's thy mess, boy?" said an old grenadier to me, as I s