This ribbon on my breast was my passport. The cross itself I
keep at home in a leathern pouch. They did us honour, for we
were placed at the saluting point, with the Emperor and the
carriages of the Court upon our right.
It is years since I have been to a review, for I cannot approve
of many things which I have seen. I do not approve of the red
breeches of the infantry. It was in white breeches that the
infantry used to fight. Red is for the cavalry. A little more,
and they would ask our busbies and our spurs! Had I been seen at
a review they might well have said that I, Etienne Gerard, had
condoned it. So I have stayed at home. But this war of the
Crimea is different. The men go to battle.
It is not for me to be absent when brave men gather.
My faith, they march well, those little infantrymen!
They are not large, but they are very solid and they carry
themselves well. I took off my hat to them as they passed. Then
there came the guns. They were good guns, well horsed and well
manned.
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