There is Ney with the red head. And there is Lefebvre
with his singular mouth, and Bernadotte with the beak of a bird of
prey.'
'Precisely. And that is Rapp, with the round, bullet head. He is
talking to Junot, the handsome dark man with the whiskers. These poor
soldiers are very unhappy.'
'Why so?' I asked.
'Because they are all men who have risen from nothing. This society and
etiquette terrifies them much more than all the dangers of war.
When they can hear their sabres clashing against their big boots they
feel at home, but when they have to stand about with their cocked hats
under their arms, and have to pick their spurs out of the ladies'
trains, and talk about David's picture or Passaniello's opera, it
prostrates them. The Emperor will not even permit them to swear,
although he has no scruples upon his own account. He tells them to be
soldiers with the army, and courtiers with the Court, but the poor
fellows cannot help being soldiers all the time. Look at Rapp with his
twenty wounds, endeavouring to exchange little delicate drolleries with
that young lady.
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