you wounded?" said the Emperor, with a quickness in his manner.

"A mere flesh-wound in the arm,--of no consequence, Sire."

"Let the surgeon of the detachment see to this at once, Lieutenant,"
said he to the officer of the party; "and do you come to headquarters
when you are able."

With this, the Emperor mounted again, and in a few seconds more was lost
to our sight.

"_Ventrebleu!_" said the old lieutenant, who had served without
promotion from the first battles of the Republic, "you'll be a colonel
for that scratch on your epaulette, if we only beat the Prussians
to-morrow; and here am I, with eight wounds from lead and steel, and
the Petit Caporal never bade me visit him at his bivouac. Come, come! I
don't wish to be unfriendly; it's not _your_ fault, it's only _my_ bad
fortune. And here comes the surgeon."

The lieutenant was right,--the epaulette had the worst of the adventure;
and, in half an hour I proceeded on my way to headquarters.

CHAPTER XXII. L'HOMME ROUGE

On my way to the imperial quarters, I fell in with some squadrons of our
dragoons, from whom I learned that General d'Auvergne had just received
orders to repair to the Emperor's bivouac, to which several officers in
command were also summoned. As I saw, therefore, that I could have no
prospect of meeting the Emperor, I resolved merely to hold myself in
readiness, should he, which seemed little likely, think of me; and
accordingly I took up my post with some young under-officers of
our brigade, at a huge fire, where a species of canteen had been
established, and coffee and corn-brandy were served out to all comers.

The recent escape of Napoleon at the outposts was already known far and
near, and formed the great topic of conversation, in which, I felt hurt
to remark, no mention of the part I took was ever made, although there
were at least a dozen different versions of the accident. In one, his
Majesty was represented to have rode down upon and sabred the advanced
picket; in another, it was the Prussians who fired, he having penetrated
within their lines to reconnoitre,--each agreeing in the one great fact,
that the feat was something which no one save himself could have done
or thought of. As for me, I felt it was not my part to speak of the
incident at all until his Majesty should first do so. I listened,
therefore, with due patience and some amusement to the various
narratives about me; which served to show me, by one slight instance,