o, was a very
dashing leader, but he ruined himself with wine and folly. Now I,
Etienne Gerard, was always totally devoid of swagger, and at the same
time I was very abstemious, except, maybe, at the end of a campaign, or
when I met an old comrade-in-arms. For these reasons I might, perhaps,
had it not been for a certain diffidence, have claimed to be the most
valuable officer in my own branch of the Service. It is true that I
never rose to be more than a chief of brigade, but then, as everyone
knows, no one had a chance of rising to the top unless he had the good
fortune to be with the Emperor in his early campaigns. Except Lasalle,
and Labau, and Drouet, I can hardly remember any one of the generals who
had not already made his name before the Egyptian business. Even I, with
all my brilliant qualities, could only attain the head of my brigade,
and also the special medal of honour, which I received from the Emperor
himself, and which I keep at home in a leathern pouch.

But though I never rose higher than this, my qualities were very well
known to those who had served with me, and also to the English. After
they had captured me in the way which I described to you the other
night, they kept a very good guard over me at Oporto, and I promise you
that they did not give such a formidable opponent a chance of slipping
through their fingers. It was on the 10th of August that I was escorted
on board the transport which was to take us to England, and behold me
before the end of the month in the great prison which had been built for
us at Dartmoor!

'L'hotel Francais, et Pension,' we used to call it, for you understand
that we were all brave men there, and that we did not lose our spirits
because we were in adversity.

It was only those officers who refused to give their parole who were
confined at Dartmoor, and most of the prisoners were seamen, or from the
ranks. You ask me, perhaps, why it was that I did not give this parole,
and so enjoy the same good treatment as most of my brother officers.
Well, I had two reasons, and both of them were sufficiently strong.

In the first place, I had so much confidence in myself, that I was quite
convinced that I could escape. In the second, my family, though of good
repute, has never been wealthy, and I could not bring myself to take
anything from the small income of my mother. On the other hand, it would
never do for a man like me to be outshone by the bourgeois society of an
Englis