been collected at
one point troops better disciplined or more ready to march at the least
signal of their chief; and it is not surprising that I should have
retained in my recollections of this period details which no one has yet,
I think, thought of publishing. Neither, if I am not mistaken, could any
one be in a better position than I to know them. However, the reader
will now judge for himself.

In the different reviews which the First Consul held, he seemed striving
to excite the enthusiasm of the soldiers, and to increase their
attachment for his person, by assiduously taking advantage of every
opportunity to excite their vanity.

One day, having especially noticed the excellent bearing of the
Thirty-sixth and Fifty-seventh regiments of the line, and Tenth of light
infantry, he made all the officers, from corporal to colonel, come
forward; and, placing himself in their midst, evinced his satisfaction by
recalling to them occasions when, in the past under the fire of cannon,
he had remarked the bearing of these three brave, regiments. He
complimented the sub-officers on the good drilling of the soldiers, and
the captains and chiefs of battalion on the harmony and precision of
their evolutions. In fine, each had his share of praise.

This flattering distinction did not excite the jealousy of the other
corps of the army, for each regiment had on that day its own share of
compliments, whether small or great; and when the review was over, they
went quietly back to their quarters. But the soldiers of the
Thirty-sixth, Fifty-seventh, and Tenth, much elated by having been so
specially favored, went in the afternoon to drink to their triumph in a
public house frequented by the grenadiers of the cavalry of the Guard.
They began to drink quietly, speaking of campaigns, of cities taken, of
the First Consul, and finally of that morning's review. It then
occurred to the young men of Boulogne, who were among the drinkers, to
sing couplets of very recent composition, in which were extolled to the
clouds the bravery and the exploits of the three regiments, without one
word of praise for the rest of the army, not even for the Guard; and it
was in the favorite resort of the grenadiers of the Guard that these
couplets were sung! These latter maintained at first a gloomy silence;
but soon finding it unendurable, they protested loudly against these
couplets, which they said were detestable. The quarrel became very
bitter; they shout