imes
sixteen, horses to draw the carriage at a walk through the bogs and
quagmires; but in Germany we found at length civilisation and real
roads.

'After a halt at Dresden, and ten or twelve days' stay at Frankfort, we
reached Paris about March 15. I walked very lame, wore my arm in a
sling, and still felt the terrible shaking caused by the wind of the
cannon-ball; but the joy of seeing my mother again, and her kind care of
me, together with the sweet influences of the spring, completed my cure.
Before leaving Warsaw I had meant to throw away the hat which the ball
had pierced, but the marshal kept it as a curiosity and gave it to my
mother. It still exists in my possession, and should be kept as a family
relic.'

FOOTNOTE:

[32] As a matter of fact, Suetonius, 'The destined to die salute thee.'

_HOW MARBOT CROSSED THE DANUBE_

AFTER crossing the Traun, burning the bridge at Mauthhausen, and passing
the Enns, the army advanced to Moelk, without knowing what had become of
General Hiller. Some spies assured us that the archduke had crossed the
Danube and joined him, and that we should on the morrow meet the whole
Austrian army, strongly posted in front of Saint-Polten. In that case,
we must make ready to fight a great battle; but if it were otherwise, we
had to march quickly on Vienna in order to get there before the enemy
could reach it by the other bank. For want of positive information the
Emperor was very undecided. The question to be solved was, Had General
Hiller crossed the Danube, or was he still in front of us, masked by a
swarm of light cavalry, which, always flying, never let us get near
enough to take a prisoner from whom one might get some enlightenment?

Still knowing nothing for certain, we reached, on May 7, the pretty
little town of Moelk, standing on the bank of the Danube, and overhung by
an immense rock, on the summit of which rises a Benedictine convent,
said to be the finest and richest in Christendom. From the rooms of the
monastery a wide view is obtained over both banks of the Danube. There
the Emperor and many marshals, including Lannes, took up their quarters,
while our staff lodged with the parish priest. Much rain had fallen
during the week, and it had not ceased for twenty-four hours, and still
was falling, so that the Danube and its tributaries were over their
banks. That night, as my comrades and I, delighted at being sheltered
from the bad weather, were having a merry supp