rse suddenly
round, and followed by his aide-decamp, rode at full speed down the
mountain.

"There is the first streak of day," said the Emperor, pointing to a
faint gray light above the distant forest; "it breaks like Austerlitz."

"May it set as gloriously!" said old Nansouty, in his deep low voice.

"And it will," said Napoleon. "What sayest thou, _grognard?_" continued
he, turning with an affected severity of manner to the grenadier who
stood sentinel on the spot, and who, with a French soldier's easy
indifference, leaned on the cross of his musket to listen to the
conversation; "what sayest thou? Art eager to be made corporal?"

"_Parbleu!_" growled out the rough soldier, "the grade is little to
boast of; were I even a general of division, there might be something to
hope for."

"What then?" said Napoleon, sharply, "what then?"

"King of Prussia, to be sure; thou 'lt give away the title before this
hour to-morrow."

The Emperor laughed aloud at the conceit. Its flattery had a charm for
him no courtier's well-turned compliment could vie with; and I could
hear him still continuing to enjoy it as he rode slowly forward and
disappeared in the gloom.

CHAPTER XXIII. JENA AND AUERSTAeDT.

"He has forgotten me!" said I, half aloud, as I watched the retiring
figures of the Emperor and his staff till they were concealed by the
mist; "he has forgotten me! Now to find out my brigade. A great battle
is before us, and there may still be a way to refresh his memory." With
such thoughts I set forward in the direction of the picket-fires, full
sure that I should meet some skirmishers of our cavalry there.

As I went, the drums were beating towards the distant left, and
gradually the sounds crept nearer and nearer, as the infantry battalions
began to form and collect their stragglers. A dense fog seemed to shut
out the dawn, and with a thin and misty rain, the heavy vapor settled
down upon the earth, wrapping all things in a darkness deep as night
itself. From none could I learn any intelligence of the cavalry quarter,
nor had any of those I questioned seen horsemen pass near them.

"The voltigeurs in the valley yonder may perhaps tell you something,"
said an officer to me, pointing to some fires in a deep glen beneath us.
And thither I now bent my steps.

The dull rolling of the drums gradually swelled into one continued roar,
through which the clank of steel and the tremulous tramp of marching
columns could be