'"It is our Napoleon who comes back to France," said I; "the soldier will have his meat to carve again." 'At the moment a tall figure passed, and recalled me from my dreaming. I walked on, but somehow I was melancholic. I couldn't shake off the impression which that star, blotted out of sight as I looked, had made on my mind. I put my hand in the pocket of my uniform and involuntarily took something out of it. It was my cigar-case. Involuntarily still, I opened it--there was one cigar left. I was depressed in spirits, thinking sadly--and smoking, you know, kills thought. 'The bribe was strong. I forgot my promise to Caroline's mother, or encouraged myself to look upon it as a mere puerile engagement to humour a woman's whim, and lit the cigar. Scarcely did the red fire take at its end, and the first puff of smoke escape from my lips, when it was pulled out of my mouth and cast on the ground, and a tall man stood frowning before me, as well as I could distinguish in the dim light. My hand immediately flew to my sword-hilt, and I put myself in an attitude of defence. '"How dare you smoke here? don't you know the magazine is beside you?" said the stranger, in a harsh voice. '"I did not know it," I answered; "nor will I allow any fellow to make the fact known to me in that brutal manner." '"Fellow!" and the stranger laughed; "_ma foi_, that's amusing; and the cockchafer has his hand on his butter-blade. Is your honour wounded, my gallant sir?" '"Your body will be wounded shortly if you don't endeavour to civilize your tongue," I answered, enraged. '"I positively think," said he, coolly twirling his moustaches, "that the Gascon would fight. Does your fancy run on being impaled like a frog? If so, follow me, Sir Braggart," and he moved off. 'I followed, wrath boiling in every vein. He stopped when he came to an angle in the works, totally secure from observation from any side. The moon burst out in full splendour; he cast a look upward, made a jesting remark on the politeness of the higher powers in lighting folk to kingdom come; and, throwing off his cloak, I discovered him to be a staff-officer of rank by the uniform underneath. '"Has your courage failed yet?" he tauntingly asked, as he dexterously detached his sword from the scabbard. 'I was too vexed to speak. I said nothing, but fixed myself in the best position I knew to receive his expected attack. '"Ha! Is that it?" he exclaimed, "think of your _maître d'armes_, and recommend your soul to God, if you believe in Him."