any other reply to my questioning than an
erect position as if on parade, a military salute, and "Connais pas,
mon lieutenant,"--a phrase which I actually began to abhor from its
repetition. Still, his daily visits showed I was not utterly
forgotten; while from my window I had a view of all that went on in the
barrack-yard. There--for I had neither books nor newspapers--I spent my
day watching the evolutions of the soldiers: the parade at daybreak,
the relieving guards, the drill, the exercise, the very labors of the
barrack-square,--all had their interest for me; and at length I began to
know the very faces of the soldiers, and could recognize the bronzed and
weather-beaten features of the veterans of the republican armies.

It was a cuirassier regiment, and one that had seen much service; most
of the _sous-officiers_ and many of the men were decorated, and their
helmets bore the haughty device of "Dix centre un!" in memory of some
battle against the Austrians, where they repulsed and overthrew a force
of ten times their own number.

At first their heavy equipments and huge unwieldy horses seemed strange
and uncouth to my eyes, accustomed to the more elegant and trim style of
a hussar corps; but gradually I fancied there was something almost more
soldierlike about them. Their dark faces harmonized too with the great
black cuirass; and the large massive boot mounting to the middle of the
thigh, the long horsehaired helmet, the straight sword, and peculiar,
heavy, plodding step, reminded me of what I used to read of the Roman
centurion; while the horses, covered with weighty and massive trappings,
moved with a warlike bearing and a tramp as stately as their riders.

When evening came, and set the soldiers free from duty, I used to watch
them for hours long, as they sat in little groups and knots about the
barrack-yard, smoking and chatting,--occasionally singing too. Even
then, however, their distinctive character was preserved: unlike the
noisy, boisterous merriment of the hussar, the staid cuirassier deemed
such levity unbecoming the dignity of his arm of the service, and there
reigned a half-solemn feature over all their intercourse, which struck
me forcibly. I knew not then--as I have learned full well since--how
every department of the French army had its distinctive characteristic,
and that Napoleon studied and even encouraged the growth of these
singular manners to a great extent; doubtless, too, feeling a pride