"We are ready now, General."

They lifted the litter as he spoke, and moved slowly forward. Murat
pressed the hand St. Hilaire extended to him without a word; and then,
turning his head away, suffered the party to pass on.

Before we reached Beygern, the wounded general had fallen into a heavy
sleep, from which he did not awake as they laid him on the bed in the
hospital.

"Good-night, sir,--or rather, good-morning," said Louis to me, as I
turned to leave the spot. "We may chance to have better news for you
than we anticipated, when you visit us here again."

And so we parted.

CHAPTER V. A MAITRE D'ARMES.

The day after the battle of Austerlitz the Prince of Lichtenstein
arrived in our camp, with, as it was rumored, proposals for a peace.
The negotiations, whatever they were, were strictly secret, not even
the marshals themselves being admitted to Napoleon's confidence on this
occasion. Soon after mid-day, a great body of the Guard who had been in
reserve the previous day were drawn up in order of battle, presenting an
array of several thousand men, whose dress, look, and equipment, fresh
as if on parade before the Tuileries, could not fail to strike the
Austrian envoy with amazement. Everything that could indicate the
appearance of suffering, or even fatigue, among the troops, was
sedulously kept out of view. Such of the cavalry regiments as suffered
least in the battle were under arms; while the generals of division
received orders to have their respective staffs fully equipped and
mounted, as if on a day of review.

It was late in the afternoon when the word was passed along the lines
to stand to arms; and the moment after a _caleche_, drawn by six horses,
passed in full gallop, and took the road towards Austerlitz. The return
of the Austrian envoy set a thousand conjectures in motion, and all were
eager to find out what had been the result of his mission.

[Illustration: BrowneBivwacAfterBattle027]

"We must soon learn it all," said an old colonel of artillery near me.
"If the game be war, we shall be called up to assist Davoust's movement
on Goeding. The Russians have but one line of retreat, and that is
already in our possession."

"I cannot for the life of me understand the Emperor's inaction," said a
younger officer; "here we remain just as if nothing had been done. One
would suppose that a Russian army stood in full force before us, and
that we had not gained a tremendous battle."

"Depend o