soldiers
to save your life by running with the others?'

"This question puzzled me, for I certainly never had thought of the
matter in that way at all. It occurred to me that perhaps I really had
not done my duty. But what the Emperor said, for all that he was the
Emperor, did not seem reasonable, and I made bold to answer him: 'If
I had taken care of my own life, your Majesty, a great many of your
soldiers would have died to pay for it. It would have been a bad day's
work if those two guns had not been spiked, for the Russians certainly
would have turned them on our lines.'

"The Emperor turned to my colonel. 'There is something in what Private
Labonne says, eh, colonel? I suppose there really would have been the
very devil to pay had the enemy turned those guns?'

"'I suppose there would,' said my colonel, a little grimly.

"'Then the case is not quite so black against Private Labonne as it at
first appeared?'

"'Not quite so black,' said my colonel.

"'Perhaps we need not have him shot, after all?'

"'Perhaps not--not this time, at least.'

"'We might even compliment him a little upon his bravery. For it was
rather brave--eh, colonel?--to stay in that battery and spike those
guns, while a hundred Russians were tumbling in upon him, and his own
comrades had run off and left him to do his duty and to die for it there
alone.'

"My colonel's voice broke a little as he answered, 'It was very brave,
your Majesty.'

"'Eh, well, Private Labonne,' said the Emperor, turning again to me, 'we
won't shoot you. Your colonel is right about your bravery; and to shoot
a brave man, except in battle, is a mistake. The Russian officer who
came so near to killing you was a major, I am told; well, you may happen
to meet him again, and if you do it is only fair that your rank should
equal his. Here is your commission, Major Labonne; and here is a little
thing '--it was his own cross of the Legion that the Emperor gave
me--'that I want you to wear in remembrance of that day when you did as
brave a piece of work as ever was done by a French soldier for the honor
of France!'

"And so you see, Monsieur, it was only a comedy about my being shot,
after all. Here is Avignon. You must wait for me a moment, little one,
while I get the basket of jelly for Marie."

End of Project Gutenberg's For The Honor Of France, by Thomas A. Janvier

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOR THE HONOR OF FRANCE ***

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