housand picked men, among them the splendid regiment of the
Guides, created three years earlier as a bodyguard to Bonaparte during
the Italian campaign, in consequence of a great danger he had escaped
on one occasion. He was resting in a small chateau, after the exhaustion
attendant upon the passage of the Mincio, and was preparing to take a
bath, when a retreating Austrian detachment, losing its way, invaded
the chateau, which had no other guard than the sentries. Bonaparte had
barely time to escape in his shirt.

A curious difficulty, which deserves to be recorded, arose on the
morning of this removal, which took place the 30th Pluviose, year
VIII. The generals, of course, had their horses and the ministers their
carriages, but the other functionaries had not yet judged it expedient
to go to such an expense. Carriages were therefore lacking. They were
supplied from the hackney coach-stands, and slips of paper of the same
color as the carriages were pasted over their numbers.

The carriage of the First Consul alone was harnessed with six white
horses, but as the three consuls were in the same carriage, Bonaparte
and Cambaceres on the front seat, and Lebrun on the back, it was, after
all, but two horses apiece. Besides, were not these six white horses
given to the commander-in-chief by the Emperor Francis himself, after
the treaty of Campo-Formio, a trophy in themselves?

The carriage crossed a part of Paris, following the Rue de Thionville,
the Quai Voltaire, and the Pont-Royal. From the archway of the Carrousel
to the great portal of the Tuileries the Consular guard lined the way.
As Bonaparte passed through the archway, he raised his head and read the
inscription it bore. That inscription was as follows:

AUGUST 10, 1792.
ROYALTY IS ABOLISHED IN FRANCE
AND SHALL NEVER RISE AGAIN.

An almost imperceptible smile flickered on the First Consul's lips.

At the door of the Tuileries, Bonaparte left the carriage and sprang
into the saddle to review the troops. When he appeared on his war-horse
the applause burst forth wildly on all sides.

After the review was over, he placed himself in front of the
clock-tower, with Murat on his right, Lannes at his left, and the
glorious staff of the Army of Italy behind him. Then began the march
past.

And now it was that one of those inspirations came to him which engrave
themselves forever on the hearts of soldiers. As the flags of the 30th,
the 96th, and the