rdless of the
laugh against him. "Had it been so, I had not gained the battle of
Grandrengs on the Sambre."

"Thou gain a battle!" shouted half-a-dozen, in derisive laughter.

"What, Petit Pierre gained the day at Grandrengs!" said the cannonier;
"why, I was there myself, and never heard of that till now."

"I can believe it well," replied Pierre; "many a man's merits go
unacknowledged: and Kleber got all the credit that belonged to Pierre
Canot."

"Let us hear about it, Pierre, for even thy victory is unknown by name
to us, poor devils of the army of Italy. How call'st thou the place?"

"Grandrengs," said Pierre, proudly. "It's a name will live as long,
perhaps, as many of those high-sounding ones you have favored us with.
Mayhap, thou hast heard of Cambray?"

"Never!" said the hussar, shaking his head.

"Nor of 'Mons,' either, I'll be sworn?" continued Pierre.

"Quite true, I never heard of it before."

"Voila!" exclaimed Pierre, in contemptuous triumph. "And these are the
fellows who pretend to feel their country's glory, and take pride in her
conquests. Where hast thou been, lad, not to hear of places that every
child syllables nowadays?"

"I will tell you where I've been," said the hussar, haughtily, and
dropping at the same time the familiar "thee" and "thou" of soldier
intercourse--"I've been at Montenotte, at Millesimo, at Mondove--"

"Allons, done! with your disputes," broke in an old grenadier; "as if
France was not victorious whether the enemies were English or German.
Let us hear how Pierre won his battle--at--at--"

"At Grandrengs," said Pierre. "They call it in the dispatch the 'action
of the Sambre,' because Kleber came up there--and Kleber being a great
man, and Pierre Canot a little one, you understand, the glory attaches
to the place where the bullion epaulets are found--just as the old King
of Prussia used to say, 'Dieu est toujours a cote de gros bataillons.'"

"I see we'll never come to this same victory of Grandrengs, with all
these turnings and twistings," muttered the artillery sergeant.

"Thou art very near it now, comrade, if thou'lt listen," said Pierre, as
he wiped his mouth after a long draught of the vine-flask. "I'll not
weary the honorable company with any description of the battle
generally, but just confine myself to that part of it, in which I was
myself in action. It is well known, that though we claimed the victory
of the 10th May, we did little more than keep our own