citizens and messieurs
bonaparte drew rein four paces from them, making a motion to his staff to stop where they were. immovable upon his horse, which was less impassive than he, stooping slightly from the heat and the malady from which he was suffering, his piercing eyes half hidden by the drooping upper lid, and darting flashes through the lashes, he resembled a bronze statue.
"so you are fighting a duel here," he said, in his incisive voice, "when you know that i do not approve of duels. the blood of frenchmen belongs to france and should be shed for france alone." then, looking from one to the other, and finally letting his glance rest upon faraud, "how does it happen that a fine fellow like you, faraud—"
bonaparte at this time made it a matter of principle to retain in his memory the faces of the men who distinguished themselves, so that he could upon necessity call them by name.
faraud started with delight when he heard the general mention his name, and raised himself on tiptoe. bonaparte saw the movement, and, smiling inwardly, he continued: "how does it happen that a fine fellow like you, who has been twice mentioned in the order of the day, once at lodi and again at rivoli, should disobey my orders thus? as for your opponent, whom i do not know—"
the commander-in-chief purposely emphasized these words. falou frowned, for the words pierced him like a needle in the side.
"i beg your pardon, general," he said; "the reason you do not know me is because you are too young; because[pg 442] you were not with the army of the rhine at the battle of dawendorff, and at froeschwiller, as well as the recapture of the lines of weissembourg. if you had been there—"
"i was at toulon," said bonaparte, dryly: "and if you drove the prussians out of france at weissembourg, i did as much for the english at toulon, which was fully as important."
"that is true," said falou; "and we even put your name on the order of the day. i was wrong to say that you were too young; i acknowledge it and beg your pardon. but i was right in saying that you were not there, since you yourself admit that you were at toulon."
"go on," said bonaparte; "have you anything more to say?"
"yes, general," replied falou.
"then say it," replied bonaparte; "but as we are republicans, be good enough to call me citizen-general when you address me."
"bravo!" cried faraud; and his seconds, groseiller and vincent, nodded approvingly.
falou's seconds did not betray either their approval or disapproval.
"well, citizen-general!" said falou, with that familiarity of speech which the principle of equality had introduced into the army, "if you had been at dawendorff, faith! you would have seen me save general abatucci's life during a charge of cavalry, and he is as good as any man."
"ah!" said bonaparte, "thanks! i believe that abatucci is a sort of cousin of mine."
falou picked up his cavalry sabre and showed it to bonaparte. he was much astonished to find a general's sword in the possession of a quartermaster-general.
"it was on that occasion that general pichegru, who is as good as any man"—and he emphasized this characterization—"seeing the state to which my poor sabre had been reduced, made me a present of his, which is not altogether according to orders, as you see."
[pg 443]
"go on," said bonaparte; "for i see that you have something more to tell me."
"i have this to tell you also, general. if you had been at froeschwiller, on the day that general hoche offered six hundred francs on the prussian cannon, you would have seen me capture one of those cannon, and also have seen me made quartermaster for it."
"and did you receive those six hundred francs?"
falou shook his head.
"we gave them up to the widows and children of the poor fellows who died on the day of dawendorff, and i took only my pay, which was in one of the prince de condé's chests."
"brave, disinterested fellow! go on," said the general; "i like to see such men as you, who have no journalists to sound their praises or to decry them, pronouncing their own panegyrics."
"and then," continued falou, "had you been at the storming of the lines of weissembourg, you would have known that when three prussians attacked me i killed two. true, i did not parry in time to escape a blow from the third, of which this is the scar—you see where i mean—to which i replied with a thrust with the point that sent my man to rejoin his two comrades. i was made quartermaster-general for that."
"and is this all true?" asked bonaparte.
"oh! as for that," said faraud, drawing near, and bringing his bandaged hand to the salute, "if the quartermaster needs a witness, i can testify that he has told nothing but the truth, and that he has said too little rather than too much. it is well known in the army of the rhine."
"well," said bonaparte, looking benevolently at the two men who had just been exchanging blows, and of whom one was now sounding the other's praises, "i am delighted to make your acquaintance, citizen falou. i trust that you will do as well in the army of italy as you[pg 444] have in the army of the rhine. but how does it happen that two such fine fellows as you should be enemies?"
"we, citizen-general?" exclaimed falou. "we are not enemies."
"why the deuce were you fighting then, if you are not enemies?"
"oh!" said faraud, with his customary twist of the neck, "we were just fighting for the sake of fighting."
"but suppose that i tell you i wish to know why you fought?"
faraud looked at falou as if to ask his permission.
"since the citizen-general wants to know, i see no reason why we should conceal it," said the latter.
"well, we fought—we fought—because he called me monsieur."
"and what do you want to be called?"
"citizen, by heaven!" replied faraud. "we paid dearly enough for that title to want to keep it. i am not an aristocrat like those messieurs of the army of the rhine."
"you hear, citizen-general," said falou, tapping impatiently with his foot and laying his hand on the hilt of his sabre; "he calls us aristocrats."
"he was wrong, and so were you when you called him monsieur," replied the commander-in-chief. "we are all citizens of the same country, children of the same family, sons of the same mother. we are fighting for the republic; and the moment when kings recognize it is not the time for good men like you to deny it. to what division do you belong?" he continued, addressing quartermaster falou.
"to the bernadotte division," replied falou.
"bernadotte," repeated bonaparte—"bernadotte, a volunteer, who was only a sergeant-major in '89; a gallant soldier, who was promoted on the battlefield by kléber to the rank of brigadier-general, who was made a general of division after the victories of fleurus and juliers, and who took maestricht and altdorf! bernadotte encouraging aristocrats[pg 445] in his army! i thought he was a jacobin. and you, faraud, to what corps do you belong?"
"to that of citizen-general augereau. no one can accuse him of being an aristocrat. he is like you, citizen-general. and so, when we heard these men of the sambre-et-meuse calling us monsieur, we said to each other, 'a cut of the sabre for each monsieur! is it agreed?' 'agreed!' and since then we have stood up here perhaps a dozen times, our division against that of bernadotte. to-day it is my turn to pay the piper. to-morrow it will be a monsieur."
"to-morrow it will be no one," said bonaparte, imperiously. "i will have no duelling in the army. i have said it, and i repeat it."
"but—" murmured faraud.
"i will talk of this with bernadotte. in the meantime you will please preserve intact the republican traditions; and whether you belong to the sambre-et-meuse, or to the army of italy, you will address each other as citizen. you will each of you pass twenty-four hours in the guard-house as an example. and now shake hands and go away arm in arm like good citizens."
the two soldiers stepped up to each other and exchanged a frank and manly grasp of the hand. then faraud threw his vest over his left shoulder and passed his arm through that of falou.
the seconds did the same, and all six entered the city by the eastern gate, and went quietly toward the barracks.
general bonaparte looked after them with a smile, murmuring: "brave hearts! c?sar crossed the rubicon with men like that; but it is not yet time to do as c?sar did." then he cried: "murat!"
a young man of twenty-four, with black hair and mustache, and a quick, intelligent eye, dashed forward on his horse, and sprang instantly to the general's side.
"murat," he said, "you will start at once for vicenza, where augereau is at present. you will bring him to me[pg 446] at the palace serbelloni. you will tell him that the ground-floor is unoccupied, and that he can have it."
"the deuce!" murmured those who had seen but had not heard; "it looks as though general bonaparte were out of humor."
