d one of them in the
flank, bringing the breast of my horse against the shoulder of his,
and cutting at the same time at his head. Man and beast rolled upon
the ground. M. de Bellechasse had scarcely time to observe from whom
the timely succour came, when I dashed in before him, and drew upon
myself the fury of his remaining foe. Just then, to my infinite
relief, I heard at a short distance a steady regular fire of musketry.
It was the infantry, advancing to our support. The Arabs heard it
also, and having had, for one day, a sufficient taste of French
lead, beat a precipitate retreat, scouring away like phantoms, and
disappearing in the gloom of the desert. I was triply recompensed for
my share in this action, by honourable mention in general orders, by
promotion to the rank of _marechal des logis_--equivalent to troop
sergeant-major in the English service--and by the personal thanks of
my excellent old colonel, who shook me heartily by the hand, and swore
'_Mille millions de sabres!_' that after successfully guarding his
head against Russian, Prussian, and Austrian, Englishman and Spaniard,
he would have been ignominiously cut to pieces by a brace of
black-faced heathens, but for my timely interposition. Since then he
has shown me unvarying kindness, for which I am indebted chiefly to my
preservation of his life, but partly also to his high approval of the
summary manner in which I upset, by a blow of my sabre and bound of my
horse, one of his swarthy antagonists, reminding him, as he always
mentions when telling the story, of a similar feat of his own when
attacked on the Russian retreat by three gigantic Tartars from the
Ukraine. Since we have been in garrison here, he has frequently had me
at his house, nominally to assist in the arrangement of regimental
accounts and orders, but in reality to take opportunities of rendering
me small kindnesses; and latterly, I am inclined to think, a little
for the pleasure of talking to me of his old campaigns. He soon
discovered, what he previously had some inkling of, that my original
position in the world was superior to my present one; and I am not
without hopes, from hints he has let fall, that he will, at no very
distant day, procure my promotion to a cornetcy. These hopes and
alleviations enable me to support, with tolerable patience and
cheerfulness, the dull ordeal of a garrison life, seldom so pleasantly
varied as by my meeting with you. And now, that I have inflicted my