With all his self-confidence, this officer did not seem to me to be more than my own age, so I asked him whether he had seen any service.  His moustache bristled with indignation at my question, and he looked me up and down with a severe eye.

’I have had the good fortune to be present at nine battles, sir, and at more than forty skirmishes,’ said he.  ’I have also fought a considerable number of duels, and I can assure you that I am always ready to meet anyone—­even a civilian—­who may wish to put me to the proof.’

I assured him that he was very fortunate to be so young and yet to have seen so much, upon which his ill-temper vanished as quickly as it came, and he explained that he had served in the Hohenlinden campaign under Moreau, as well as in Napoleon’s passage of the Alps, and the campaign of Marengo.

’When you have been with the army for a little time the name of Etienne Gerard will not be so unfamiliar to you,’ said he.  ’I believe that I may claim to be the hero of one or two little stories which the soldiers love to tell about their camp fires.  You will hear of my duel with the six fencing masters, and you will be told how, single-handed, I charged the Austrian Hussars of Graz and brought their silver kettledrum back upon the crupper of my mare.  I can assure you that it was not by accident that I was present last night, but it was because Colonel Lasalle was very anxious to be sure of any prisoners whom he might make.  As it turned out, however, I only had the one poor chicken-hearted creature, whom I handed over to the provost-marshal.’

‘And the other—­Toussac?’

’Ah, he seems to have been a man of another breed.  I could have asked nothing better than to have had him at my sword-point.  But he has escaped.  They caught sight of him and fired a pistol or two, but he knew the bog too well, and they could not follow him.’

‘And what will be done to your prisoner?’ I asked.

Lieutenant Gerard shrugged his shoulders.

‘I am very sorry for Mademoiselle your cousin,’ said he, ’but a fine girl should not love such a man when there are so many gallant soldiers upon the country side.  I hear that the Emperor is weary of these endless plottings, and that an example will be made of him.’

Whilst the young hussar and I had been talking we had been cantering down the broad white road, until we were now quite close to the camp, which we could see lying in its arrangement of regiments and brigades beneath us.  Our approach lay over the high ground, so that we could see down into this canvas city, with its interminable lines of picketed horses, its parks of artillery, and its swarms of soldiers.  In the centre was a clear space, with one very large tent and a cluster of low wooden houses in the middle of it, with the tricolour banner waving above them.