"So much for Kilmaine's contingent. I asked for a company of engineers and a battalion of 'les Gardes,' and they send me a boy from the cavalry-school of Saumur. I tell them that I want some fellows conversant with the language and the people, able to treat with the peasantry, and acquainted with their habits, and here I have got a raw youth whose highest acquirement, in all likelihood, is to daub a map with water-colors, or take fortifications with a pair of compasses! I wish I had some of these learned gentlemen in the trenches for a few hours. Parbleu! I think I could teach them something they'd not learn from Citizen Carnot. Well, sir," said he, turning abruptly toward me, "how many battalions of the 'Guides' are completed?" "I can not tell, general," was my timid answer. "Where are they stationed?" "Of that also I am ignorant, sir." "Peste!" cried he, stamping his foot passionately; then suddenly checking his anger, he asked, "How many are there coming to join this expedition? Is there a regiment, a battalion, a company? Can you tell me with certainty that a sergeant's guard is on the way hither?" "I can not, sir; I know nothing whatever about the regiment in question." "You have never seen it?" cried he, vehemently. "Never, sir." "This exceeds all belief," exclaimed he, with a crash of his closed fist upon the table. "Three weeks letter-writing! Estafettes, orderlies, and special couriers to no end! And here we have an unfledged cur from a cavalry institute, when I asked for a strong reinforcement. Then what brought you here, boy?" "To join your expedition, general." "Have they told you it was a holiday-party that we had planned? Did they say it was a junketing we were bent upon?" "If they had, sir, I would not have come." "The greater fool _you_, then! that's all," cried he, laughing; "when I was your age, I'd not have hesitated twice between a merry-making and a bayonet-charge." While he was thus speaking, he never ceased to sign his name to every paper placed before him by one or other of the secretaries. "No, parbleu!" he went on, "La maitresse before the mitraille any day for me. But what's all this, Girard. Here I'm issuing orders upon the national treasury for hundreds of thousands without let or compunction." The aid-de-camp whispered a word or two in a low tone. "I know it, lad; I know it well," said the general, laughing heartily; "I only pray that all our requisitions may be as easily obtained in future. Well, Monsieur le Garde, what are we to do with you." "Not refuse me, I hope, general," said I, diffidently. "Not refuse you, certainly; but in what capacity to take you, lad, that's the question. If you had served--if you had even walked a campaign--" "So I have, general--this will show you where I have been;" and I handed him the "livret" which every soldier carries of his conduct and career. He took the book, and casting his eyes hastily over it, exclaimed,