The room is still there, the very
pictures and the plaster head of Jean Bart which used to stand upon the
side table. As I stood with my back to the narrow window, I had around
me every smallest detail upon which my young eyes had looked; nor was I
conscious that my own heart and feelings had undergone much change. And
yet there, in the little round glass which faced me, was the long drawn,
weary face of an aged man, and out of the window, when I turned, were
the bare and lonely downs which had been peopled by that mighty host of
a hundred and fifty thousand men. To think that the Grand Army should
have vanished away like a shredding cloud upon a windy day, and yet that
every sordid detail of a bourgeois lodging should remain unchanged!
Truly, if man is not humble it is not for want of having his lesson
taught to him by Nature.
My first care after I had chosen my room was to send to Grosbois for
that poor little bundle which I had carried ashore with me that squally
night from the English lugger. My next was to use the credit which my
favourable reception by the Emperor and his assurance of employment had
given me in order to obtain such a wardrobe as would enable me to appear
without discredit among the richly dressed courtiers and soldiers who
surrounded him.
Pages:
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203