Some day you will hear of those papers, and you will see how, after he has been so long in his grave, that great man can still set Europe shaking.  When that day comes, you will think of Etienne Gerard, and you will tell your children that you have heard the story from the lips of the man who was the only one living of all who took part in that strange history—­the man who was tempted by Marshal Berthier, who led that wild pursuit upon the Paris road, who was honoured by the embrace of the Emperor, and who rode with him by moonlight in the Forest of Fontainebleau.  The buds are bursting and the birds are calling, my friends.  You may find better things to do in the sunlight than listening to the stories of an old, broken soldier.  And yet you may well treasure what I say, for the buds will have burst and the birds sung in many seasons before France will see such another ruler as he whose servants we were proud to be.