ars of
laborious toil and heroic bravery to obtaining that rank, and was so
illiterate that he had no chance of ever getting his captaincy.

"You, sir, who think you know everything, let me tell you a thing you
don't know. Yes, at Mazagran I was scarce nineteen years old, and there
were twenty-three of us, not a living soul more, and for more than four
days we held out against twelve thousand Arabs. Yes, indeed! for years
and years, if you had only been with us out there in Africa, sir, at
Mascara, at Biskra, at Dellys, after that in Grand Kabylia, after that
again at Laghouat, you would have seen those dirty niggers run like deer
as soon as we showed our faces. And at Sebastopol, sir, _fichtre_! you
wouldn't have said it was the pleasantest place in the world. The wind
blew fit to take a man's hair out by the roots, it was cold enough to
freeze a brass monkey, and those beggars kept us on a continual dance
with their feints and sorties. Never mind; we made them dance in the
end; we danced them into the big hot frying pan, and to quick music,
too! And Solferino, you were not there, sir! then why do you speak of
it? Yes, at Solferino, where it was so hot, although I suppose more rain
fell there that day than you have seen in your whole life, at Solferino,
where we had our little brush with the Austrians, it would have warmed
your heart to see how they vanished before our bayonets, riding one
another down in their haste to get away from us, as if their coat tails
were on fire!"

He laughed the gay, ringing laugh of the daredevil French soldier; he
seemed to expand and dilate with satisfaction. It was the old story:
the French trooper going about the world with his girl on his arm and a
glass of good wine in his hand; thrones upset and kingdoms conquered in
the singing of a merry song. Given a corporal and four men, and great
armies would bite the dust. His voice suddenly sank to a low, rumbling
bass:

"What! whip France? We, whipped by those Prussian pigs, we!" He came up
to Weiss and grasped him violently by the lapel of his coat. His entire
long frame, lean as that of the immortal Knight Errant, seemed to
breathe defiance and unmitigated contempt for the foe, whoever he might
be, regardless of time, place, or any other circumstance. "Listen to
what I tell you, sir. If the Prussians dare to show their faces here, we
will kick them home again. You hear me? we will kick them from here to
Berlin." His bearing and manner