ssioner between Chatelet, Fleurus, and Namur and knew every foot
of the country and all that happened every day.

He complained greatly of the Prussians, said they were proud and
insolent, that they corrupted the women and were never satisfied, and
that the officers boasted of having driven us from Dresden to Paris,
that they had made us run like hares.

I was indignant at that, for I knew they were two to one at Leipzig,
and that the Russians, Austrians, Saxons, Bavarians, Wurtemburgers,
Swedes, in fact all Europe had overwhelmed us, while three-quarters of
our army were sick with typhus, cold, and famine, marching and
countermarching; but that even all this had not prevented us from
beating them at Hanau, and fifty other times when they were three to
one, in Champagne, Alsace, in the Vosges, and everywhere.

Their boasting disgusted me, I had a horror of the whole race, and I
thought, "those are the rascals who sour your blood." The old man said
too, that the Prussians constantly declared that they would soon be
enjoying themselves in Paris, drinking good French wines; and that the
French army was only a band of brigands. When I heard that, I said to
myself, "Joseph, that is too much! now you will show no more mercy,
there is nothing but extermination."

The clocks of Chatelet struck nine and a half, and the hussars sounded
the retreat, and each one was about to dispose himself behind a hedge
or a bee-house or in a furrow for the night, when the general of the
brigade, Schoeffer, ordered the battalion to take up their position on
the other side of the wood, as the vanguard. I saw at once that our
unlucky battalion was always to be in the van, just as it was in 1813.

It is a sad thing for a regiment to have a reputation; the men change,
but the number remains the same. The Sixth light infantry had always
been a distinguished number, and I knew what it cost. Those of us who
were inclined to sleep, were wide awake now, for when you know that the
enemy is at hand, and you say to yourself, "The Prussians are in
ambush, perhaps in that wood, waiting for you," it makes you open your
eyes.

Several hussars deployed as scouts on our right and left, in front of
the column. We marched at the route step, with the captains between
the companies, and the Commandant Gemeau, on his little gray mare, in
the middle of the battalion. Before starting each man had received
three pounds of bread and two pounds of rice, and th