!" said an officer near me.

"The Faubourg?" repeated I, asking for explanation.

"Yes, to be sure. The Faubourg St. Antoine supplies all the reckless
devils of the army; one of them would corrupt a regiment, and so, the
best thing to do is to keep them as much together as possible. The
voltigeurs have little else; and proof is, they are the cleverest corps
in the service, and if they could be kept from picking and stealing,
lying, drinking, and gambling, there's not a man might not be a general
of division in time. There goes another!"

As he spoke, a fellow passed by with a goose under his arm, followed by
a woman most vociferously demanding restitution; while he only amused
himself by replying with a mock courtesy, deploring in sad terms the
unhappy necessities of war and the cruel hardships of a campaign.

"It's no use punishing those fellows," said the officer. "They desert in
whole companies if you send one to the _salle de police_; and so we have
only one resource, which is, to throw them pretty much in advance, and
leave their chastisement to the enemy. And, sooth to say, they ask for
nothing better themselves."

Thus, even these fellows seemed to have their own sentiment of glory,--a
problem which the more I reasoned over the more puzzled did I become.

While a hundred conjectures were hourly in circulation, none save those
immediately about the person of Napoleon could possibly divine the
quarter where the great blow was to be struck, although all were in
expectation of the orders to prepare for battle. News would reach us of
marchings and counter-marchings; of smart skirmishes here, and prisoners
taken there; yet could we not form the slightest conception of where the
chief force of the enemy lay, nor what the direction to which our own
army was pointed. Indeed, our troops seemed to scatter on every side.
Marmont, with a strong force, was despatched towards Gratz, where it
was said the Archduke Charles was at the head of a considerable army;
Davoust moved on Hungary, and occupied Presburg; Bernadotte retraced his
steps towards the Upper Danube, to hold the Archduke Frederick in check,
who had escaped from Ulm with ten thousand men; Mortiers corps, harassed
and broken by the engagement with Kutusof, were barely sufficient to
garrison Vienna; while Soult, Lannes, and Murat pushed forward towards
Moravia, with a strong cavalry force and some battalions of the Guard.
In fact, the whole army was scattered lik