then, that's home!' said I, thrusting beneath his hilt, till the
blood spurted out along my blade and even in my eyes.

"'Yes, that's home,' said he, staggering back, while one of his legs
crossed over the other, and he fell heavily on the grass. I stooped down
to feel his heart; and as I did so my senses failed, my limbs tottered,
and I rolled headlong over him. Truth was, I was badly wounded, though I
never knew when; for his sword had entered my chest, beneath a rib, and
cut some large vessels in the lungs.

"The end of it all was, the Austrian was buried, and I was broke the
service without pay or pension, my wound being declared by the doctors
an incapacity to serve in future.

"Comrades, we often hear men talk of the happy day before them when they
shall leave the army and throw off the knapsack, and give up the musket
for the mattock. Well, trust me, it's no such pleasure as they deem it,
after all. There was I, turned loose upon the world, with nothing but a
suit of ragged clothes my comrades made up amongst them, my old rapier,
and a bad asthma. Such was my stock-in-trade, to begin life anew, at the
age of forty-seven. And so, I set out on my weary way back to Paris."

"Didn't you try your chance with the Petit Caporal first?" asked one of
the listeners.

"To be sure I did. I sent him a long petition, setting forth the whole
circumstance, and detailing every minute particular of the duel; but I
received it back, unopened,--with Duroc's name, and the word 'Rejected,'
on the back.

"It is strange-how unfit we old soldiers are for any occupation in a
civil way, when we 've spent half a lifetime campaigning. When I reached
Paris, I could almost have wedged myself into the scabbard of my
sword. Long marches and short rations had told heavily on me; and the
custom-house officer at the barrier told me to pass on, without ever
stopping to see that I carried no contraband goods about me.

"I had a miserable time enough of it for twelve or fourteen months.
The only way of support I could find was teaching recruits the sword
exercise; and you know they could n't be very liberal in their rewards
for the service. But even this poor trade was soon interdicted, as the
police reported that I encouraged the young soldiers to fight duels,--a
great offence, truly! But you see everything went unluckily with me at
that time.

"What was to become of me now I couldn't tell; when an old comrade,
pensioned off from Moreau's a