it being accomplished, Kehl was carried at the point
of the bayonet, the French troops entering the outworks pell-mell with the
retreating enemy, and in less than two hours after the landing of our
first detachments, the "tri-color" waved over the walls of the fortress.

Lost amid the greater and more important successes which since that time
have immortalized the glory of the French arms, it is almost impossible to
credit the celebrity attached at that time to this brilliant achievement,
whose highest merits probably were rapidity and resolution. Moreau had
long been jealous of the fame of his great rival, Bonaparte, whose
tactics, rejecting the colder dictates of prudent strategy, and the slow
progress of scientific manoeuvres, seemed to place all his confidence in
the sudden inspirations of his genius, and the indomitable bravery of his
troops. It was necessary, then, to raise the _morale_ of the army of the
Rhine, to accomplish some great feat similar in boldness and heroism to
the wonderful achievements of the Italian army. Such was the passage of
the Rhine at Strasbourg, effected in the face of a great enemy,
advantageously posted, and supported by one of the strongest of all the
frontier fortresses.

The morning broke upon us in all the exultation of our triumph, and as our
cheers rose high over the field of the late struggle, each heart beat
proudly with the thought of how that news would be received in Paris.

"You'll see how the bulletin will spoil all," said a young officer of the
army of Italy, as he was getting his wound dressed on the field. "There
will be such a long narrative of irrelevant matter--such details of this,
that, and t'other--that the public will scarce know whether the placard
announces a defeat or a victory."

"Parbleu!" replied an old veteran of the Rhine army, "what would you have?
You'd not desire to omit the military facts of such an exploit?"

"To be sure I would," rejoined the other. "Give me one of our young
general's bulletins, short, stirring, and effective--'Soldiers! you have
crossed the Rhine against an army double your own in numbers and munitions
of war. You have carried a fortress, believed impregnable, at the bayonet.
Already the great flag of our nation waves over the citadel you have won.
Forward, then, and cease not till it float over the cities of conquered
Germany, and let the name of France be that of Empire over the continent
of Europe.' "

"Ha! I like that," cri