, to judge from the zest of the guests, were no common
delicacies. At the foot of a little marble group, and before a small
table, with a map on it, sat General Massena himself, in his grey
overcoat, cutting his bread with a case-knife, while he talked away to
his staff.

'These maps are good for nothing, Bressi,' cried he. 'To look at them,
you 'd say that every road was practicable for artillery, and every
river passable, and you find afterwards that all these fine _chaussees_
are bypaths, and the rivulets downright torrents. Who knows the Chiavari
road?'

'Giorgio knows it well, sir,' said the officer addressed, and who was a
young Piedmontese from Massena's own village.

'Ah, Birbante!' cried the general, 'are you here again?' and he turned
laughingly towards a little bandy-legged monster, of less than three
feet high, who, with a cap stuck jauntily on one side of his head, and a
wooden sword at his side, stepped forward with all the confidence of an
equal.

'Ay, here I am,' said he, raising his hand to his cap, soldier fashion;
'there was nothing else for it but this trade,' and he placed his hand
on the hilt of his wooden weapon. 'You cut down all the mulberries and
left us no silkworms; you burned all the olives, and left us no oil;
you trampled down our maize crops and our vines. _Per Baccho!_ the only
thing left was to turn brigand like yourself, and see what would come of
it.'

'Is he not cool to talk thus to a general at the head of his staff?'
said Massena, with an assumed gravity.

'I knew you when you wore a different-looking epaulette than that
there,' said Giorgio, 'and when you carried one of your father's
meal-sacks on your shoulder instead of all that bravery.'

'_Parbleu!_ so he did,' cried Massena, laughing heartily. 'That
scoundrel was always about our mill, and, I believe, lived by thieving!'
added he, pointing to the dwarf.

'Every one did a little that way in our village,' said the dwarf; 'but
none ever profited by his education like yourself.'

If the general and some of the younger officers seemed highly amused at
the fellow's impudence and effrontery, some of the others looked angry
and indignant. A few were really well born, and could afford to smile at
these recognitions; but many who sprung from an origin even more humble
than the general's could not conceal their angry indignation at the
scene.

'I see that these gentlemen are impatient of our vulgar recollections,'
said Mas