tent, 'what shall I do for you?'

"_Ma foi!_ said I, with a shrug of my shoulders, 'I can't well say at a
moment; perhaps the best thing would be to promise you 'd never take
me as one of your escort when you make such an expedition as this
morning's.'

"'No, no, I 'll not say that. Who are you? What's your grade?'

"'Francois, maitre d'armes of the Fourth Chasseurs of the Guard,' said
I, proudly. And, indeed, I thought he might have known me without the
question.

"'Ah, indeed!' replied he, gravely. 'Promotion is then of no use here;
a maitre d'armes, like a general of division, is at the top of the tree.
Come, I have it; a fellow of your sort is never out of scrapes,--always
duelling and quarrelling, under arrest three days in every week; I know
you well. Now, Maitre Francois, I 'll forgive you the first time you ask
me for any offence within my power to pardon. Go; you are satisfied with
that promise,--is it not so?'

"'Yes, General; and I'll soon jog your memory about it,' said I,
saluting and retiring from the tent.

"I see some old 'braves' of the Pyramids about me now," continued
Francois, "and so I need not dwell on the events of the campaign. You
all know how General Bonaparte left the army to Kleber, and went back to
France; and somehow we never had much luck after that. But so it was, I
came back with the regiment, and was at the battle of Marengo when our
brigade captured four guns of Skal's battery, and carried off eleven of
their officers our prisoners. You'd wonder now, Comrades, how that piece
of good fortune should turn out so ill for me; but such was the case.
After the battle was gained, General Bonaparte retired to Gerofola with
his staff, and I was ordered to proceed after him, with the Hauptmann
Klingenswert of the Austrian army,--one of our prisoners who had served
on Melas's staff, and knew everything about the effective strength of
the army and all their plans.

"We set off at daybreak. It was in June, and a lovely morning too; and
as my prisoner was an officer and a man of honor, I took no escort, but
rode along at his side. We halted at noon to dine in a little grove of
cedars, where I opened my canteen and spread the contents on the grass:
and after regaling ourselves pleasantly, we lighted our meerschaums
and chatted away like old comrades over the war and its chances. A more
agreeable fellow than the Austrian I never met. He told me his whole
history, and I told him mine; and we dra