How sad to think of my magnificent regiment
waiting down yonder, and to know that they would never see their
colonel again! With one squadron of them I could have swept all
these cut-throats of the face of the earth. My eager eyes filled
with tears as I looked at the corner of the camp where I knew
that there were eight hundred men, any one of whom would have
died for his colonel. But my sadness vanished when I saw beyond
the tents the plumes of smoke which marked the headquarters at
Torres Novas. There was Massena, and, please God, at the cost of
my life his mission would that night be done. A spasm of pride
and exultation filled my breast. I should have liked to have had
a voice of thunder that I might call to them, "Behold it is I,
Etienne Gerard, who will die in order to save the army of
Clausel!" It was, indeed, sad to think that so noble a deed
should be done, and that no one should be there to tell the tale.
"Now," said the brigand chief, "you see the camp and you see also
the road which leads to Coimbra.
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