'We'll go
fish for thy kingdoms with our bayonets.' Ha! there was no backing down,
don't you see! If he had taken it into his head to conquer the moon, we
should have made ready, packed knapsacks, and clambered up; happily, he
didn't think of it. The kings of the countries, who liked their
comfortable thrones, were, naturally, loath to budge, and had to have
their ears pulled; so then--Forward, march! We did march; we got there;
and the earth once more trembled to its centre. Hey! the men and the
shoes he used up in those days! The enemy dealt us such blows that none
but the grand army could have borne the fatigue of it. But you are not
ignorant that a Frenchman is born a philosopher, and knows that a little
sooner, or a little later, he has got to die. So we were ready to die
without a word, for we liked to see the Emperor doing _that_ on the
geographies."
Here the narrator nimbly described a circle with his foot on the floor
of the barn.
"And Napoleon said, 'There, that's to be a kingdom.' And a kingdom it
was. Ha! the good times! The colonels were generals; the generals,
marshals; and the marshals, kings. There's one of 'em still on his
throne, to prove it to Europe; but he's a Gascon and a traitor to France
for keeping that crown; and he doesn't blush for shame as he ought to
do, because crowns, don't you see, are made of gold.
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