_--Let me try once more'; and now the spoon met my lips with
due dexterity.

'Thanks,' said I faintly, and I opened my eyes.

'You'll soon be about again, Tiernay,' said the same voice--as for the
person, I could distinguish nothing, for there were six or seven around
me--'and if I know anything of a soldier's heart, this will do just as
much as the doctor.'

As he spoke he detached from his coat a small enamel cross, and placed
it in my hand, with a gentle squeeze of the fingers, and then saying
'_Au revoir_,' moved on.

'Who's that?' cried I suddenly, while a strange thrill ran through me.

'Hush!' whispered the surgeon cautiously; 'hush! it is the Emperor.'

CHAPTER LI. SCHOeNBRUNN IN 1809

About two months afterwards, on a warm evening of summer, I entered
Vienna in a litter, along with some twelve hundred other wounded men,
escorted by a regiment of cuirassiers. I was weak and unable to walk.
The fever of my wound had reduced me to a skeleton; but I was consoled
for everything by knowing that I was a captain on the Emperor's own
staff, and decorated by himself with the Cross of 'the Legion.' Nor
were these my only distinctions, for my name had been included among
the lists of the _officiers delite_--a new institution of the Emperor,
enjoying considerable privileges and increase of pay.

To this latter elevation, too, I owed my handsome quarters in the
'Raab' Palace at Vienna, and the sentry at my door, like that of a
field-officer. Fortune, indeed, began to smile upon me, and never are
her flatteries more welcome than in the first hours of returning health,
after a long sickness. I was visited by the first men of the army;
marshals and generals figured among the names of my intimates, and
invitations flowed in upon me from all that were distinguished by rank
and station.

Vienna, at that period, presented few features of a city occupied by an
enemy. The guards, it is true, on all arsenals and forts, were French,
and the gates were held by them; but there was no interruption to the
course of trade and commerce. The theatres were open every night, and
balls and receptions went on with only redoubled frequency. Unlike his
policy towards Russia, Napoleon abstained from all that might humiliate
the Austrians. Every possible concession was made to their natural
tastes and feelings, and officers of all ranks in the French army were
strictly enjoined to observe a conduct of conciliation and civility
on eve