I took off my hat to them. Then came the Engineers, and
to them also I took off my hat. There are no braver men than the
Engineers. Then came the cavalry, Lancers, Cuirassiers,
Chasseurs, and Spahis. To all of them in turn I was able to take
off my hat, save only to the Spahis.
The Emperor had no Spahis. But when all of the others had
passed, what think you came at the close? A brigade of Hussars,
and at the charge!
Oh, my friends, the pride and the glory and the beauty, the flash
and the sparkle, the roar of the hoofs and the jingle of chains,
the tossing manes, the noble heads, the rolling cloud, and the
dancing waves of steel! My heart drummed to them as they passed.
And the last of all, was it not my own old regiment? My eyes
fell upon the grey and silver dolmans, with the leopard-skin
shabraques, and at that instant the years fell away from me and I
saw my own beautiful men and horses, even as they had swept
behind their young colonel, in the pride of our youth and our
strength, just forty years ago.
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