th what delight and surprise!--my poor
friend, Pioche, seated on the driving-seat of a gun, with his hand in
salute as the Emperor spoke to him.

"Thou wilt not have promotion, nor a pension. What, then, can I do for
thee?" said Napoleon, smiling. "Hast any friend in the service whom I
could advance for thy sake?"

"Yes, _parbleu!_" said Pioche, scratching his forehead, with a sort of
puzzle and confusion even the Emperor smiled at, "I have a friend. But
mayhap those wouldn't like--"

"Ask me for nothing thou thinkest I could not, ought not to grant," said
the Emperor, sternly. "What is't now?"

The poor corporal seemed thoroughly nonplussed, and for a second or
two could not reply. At last, as if summoning all his courage for the
effort, he said,--

"Well, thou canst but refuse, and then the fault will be all thine. She
is a brave girl, and had she been a man--"

"Whom can he mean?" said Napoleon. "Is the man's head wandering?"

"No, _mon general!_ all right there; that shell has turned many a sabre's
edge. I was talking of Minette, the vivandiere of ours. If thou art so
bent on doing me a service, why, promote _her_, and thou'lt make the
whole regiment proud of it."

This speech was lost in the laugh which, beginning with the Emperor,
extended to the staff, and at last to all the bystanders.

"Dost wish I should make her one of my aides-de-camp?" said Napoleon,
still laughing.

"_Parbleu!_ thou hast more ill-favored ones among them," said Pioche,
with a significant look at the grim faces of Rapp and Dam, whose hard
and weather-beaten features never deigned a smile, while every other
face was moved in laughter.

"But thou hast not said yet what I am to do," rejoined the Emperor.

"Thou used not to be so hard to understand," grumbled out Pioche. "I
have seen the time thou 'd have said, 'Is it Minette that was wounded at
the Adige? Is that the girl stood in the square at Marengo? _Parbleu!_ I
'll give her the cross of the Legion!'"

"And she shall have it, Corporal Pioche," said Napoleon, as he detached
the decoration he wore on the breast of his coat. "Give the order for
the vivandiere to advance."

Scarce were the words spoken, when the sound of a horse pressed to his
speed was heard, and mounted upon a small but showy Arab, a present from
the regiment, Minette rode up, in the bloom of health, and flushed
by exercise and the excitement of the moment. I never saw her look
so handsome. Reining in her ho