name amid all the resources of our language. He died of old age, and
never once in that imperturbable self-confidence which adorned or
disfigured his character knew that so many thousand Englishmen would
gladly have hanged him with their own hands. On the contrary, he
numbered this adventure among those other exploits which he has given to
the world, and many a time he chuckled and hugged himself as he narrated
it to the eager circle who gathered round him in that humble cafe where,
between his dinner and his dominoes, he would tell, amid tears and
laughter, of that inconceivable Napoleonic past when France, like an
angel of wrath, rose up, splendid and terrible, before a cowering
continent. Let us listen to him as he tells the story in his own way
and from his own point of view.

You must know, my friends, said he, that it was towards the end of the
year eighteen hundred and ten that I and Massena and the others pushed
Wellington backwards until we had hoped to drive him and his army into
the Tagus. But when we were still twenty-five miles from Lisbon we
found that we were betrayed, for what had this Englishman done but build
an enormous line of works and forts at a place called Torres Vedras, so
that even we were unable to get through them! They lay across the whole
Peninsula, and our army was so far from home that we did not dare to
risk a reverse, and we had already learned at Busaco that it was no
child's play to fight against these people. What could we do, then, but
sit down in front of these lines and blockade them to the best of our
power? There we remained for six months, amid such anxieties that
Massena said afterwards that he had not one hair which was not white
upon his body. For my own part, I did not worry much about our
situation, but I looked after our horses, who were in great need of rest
and green fodder. For the rest, we drank the wine of the country and
passed the time as best we might. There was a lady at Santarem--but my
lips are sealed. It is the part of a gallant man to say nothing, though
he may indicate that he could say a great deal.

One day Massena sent for me, and I found him in his tent with a great
plan pinned upon the table. He looked at me in silence with that single
piercing eye of his, and I felt by his expression that the matter was
serious. He was nervous and ill at ease, but my bearing seemed to
reassure him. It is good to be in contact with brave men.

"Colonel E