I am aware that the story is often told at
mess-tables and in barrack-rooms, so that there are few in the
army who have not heard it, but modesty has sealed my lips, until
now, my friends, in the privacy of these intimate gatherings, I
am inclined to lay the true facts before you.
In the first place, there is one thing which I can assure you.
In all his career Napoleon never had so splendid an army as that
with which he took the field for that campaign. In 1813 France
was exhausted. For every veteran there were five children--Marie
Louises, as we called them; for the Empress had busied herself in
raising levies while the Emperor took the field. But it was very
different in 1815. The prisoners had all come back-- the men
from the snows of Russia, the men from the dungeons of Spain, the
men from the hulks in England.
These were the dangerous men, veterans of twenty battles, longing
for their old trade, and with hearts filled with hatred and
revenge. The ranks were full of soldiers who wore two and three
chevrons, every chevron meaning five years' service.
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