We did get out, but with losses, great
losses, as I tell you. The Allies captured our provisions. Men began to
betray him, as the Red Man predicted. Those chatterers in Paris, who had
held their tongues after the Imperial Guard was formed, now thought he
was dead; so they hoodwinked the prefect of police, and hatched a
conspiracy to overthrow the empire. He heard of it; it worried him. He
left us, saying: 'Adieu, my children; guard the outposts; I shall return
to you,' Bah! without him nothing went right; the generals lost their
heads, the marshals talked nonsense and committed follies; but that was
not surprising, for Napoleon, who was kind, had fed 'em on gold; they
had got as fat as lard, and wouldn't stir; some stayed in camp when they
ought to have been warming the backs of the enemy who was between us and
France.
"But the Emperor came back, and he brought recruits, famous recruits; he
changed their backbone and made 'em dogs of war, fit to set their teeth
into anything; and he brought a guard of honour, a fine body
indeed!--all bourgeois, who melted away like butter on a gridiron.
"Well, spite of our stern bearing, here's everything going against us;
and yet the army did prodigies of valour. Then came battles on the
mountains, nations against nations--Dresden, Luetzen, Bautzen. Remember
these days, all of you, for 'twas then that Frenchmen were so
particularly heroic that a good grenadier only lasted six months.
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