General Mack himself headed it, wan-faced and pale as the white uniform coat he wore, his eyes filled with tears, his head bowed, a pitiful and abject figure to behold. After him followed eighteen Austrian generals--a surprising number--most of them as wretched and downcast-looking as their chief. “Behold, Sire, the unfortunate Mack!” was the ill fated leader’s address to Napoleon, as he formally presented his sword. Napoleon, in a mood--as well he might be--in that hour of unparalleled triumph, to show courtesy to the fallen foe, desired Mack to keep his sword and remain at his side. He said the same to the eighteen other generals as, one by one, they came up in turn to tender him their swords. He returned each his sword and bade them all place themselves near their chief. When all the swords had been presented and returned, Napoleon made the Austrian generals collectively a short harangue. “Gentlemen,” he began, “war has its chances! Often victorious, you must expect sometimes to be vanquished!” He did not really know, Napoleon went on, why they were fighting. Their master had begun against him an unjust war. “I want nothing on the Continent,” said Napoleon in conclusion, “only ships, colonies, and commerce!” It was on the day before Trafalgar that these memorable words were spoken. The Austrian generals stared at Napoleon blankly, but not one uttered a word. “They were all very dull; it was the Emperor alone who kept up the conversation.” Then they took their stand beside their conqueror and looked on at the bitterly humiliating scene of the defilade of their fellow soldiers. [Sidenote: THE PARADE OF THE VANQUISHED]