a maitre d'armes, after twenty-six years'
service; and there's Davoust, who never could stand before me, he's a
general of brigade."

The whole party laughed aloud at the grievances of Maitre Francois,
whose seriousness on the subject was perfectly real.

"Ah; you may laugh," said he, half in pique; "but what a mere
accident can determine a man's fortune in life! Would Junot there be a
major-general to-day if he did not measure six feet without his boots?
We were at school together, and, _ma foi!_ he was always at the bottom
of the class."

"And so, Francois, it was your size, then, that stopped your promotion?"

"Of course it was. When a man is but five feet--with high heels, too--he
can only be advanced as a maitre d'armes. _Parbleu!_ what should I be
now if I had only grown a little taller?"

"It is all better as it is," growled out an old captain, between the
puffs of his meerschaum. "If thou wert an inch bigger, there would be'
no living in the same brigade with thee."

"For all that," rejoined Maitre Francois, "I have put many a pretty
fellow his full length on the grass."

"How many duels, Francois, did you tell us, the other evening, that you
fought in the Twenty-second?"

"Seventy-eight!" said the little man; "not to speak of two affairs
which, I am ashamed to confess, were with the broadsword; but they were
fellows from Alsace, and they knew no better."

"_Tonnerre de ciel!_" cried the major, "a little devil like that is
a perfect plague in a regiment. I remember we had a fellow called
Piccotin--"

"Ah! Piccotin; poor Piccotin! We were foster-brothers," interrupted
Francois; "we were both from Chalons-sur-Marne."

"Egad! I 'd have sworn you were," rejoined the major. "One might have
thought ye were twins."

"People often said so," responded Francois, with as much composure as
though a compliment had been intended. "We both had the same colored
hair and eyes, the same military air, and gave the _passe en tierce_
always outside the guard exactly in the same way."

"What became of Piccotin?" asked the major. "He left us at Lyons."
"You never heard, then, what became of him?" "No. We knew he joined
the _chasseurs a pied_." "I can tell you, then," said Francois; "no one
knows better. I parted from Piccotin when we were ordered to Egypt. We
did our best to obtain service in the same brigade, for we were like
brothers, but we could not manage it; and so, with sad hearts, we
separated,--he to return