Sure enough,
a long column of troops --horse, foot, and guns--was streaming
down one side of it and swarming up the other, while the advance
guard was already among the trees on either side of me. A
battery of Horse Artillery was coming along the road, and I was
about to gallop up to it and ask the officer in command if he
could tell me where I should find the Marshal, when suddenly I
observed that, though the gunners were dressed in blue, they had
not the dolman trimmed with red brandenburgs as our own
horse-gunners wear it. Amazed at the sight, I was looking at
these soldiers to left and right when a hand touched my thigh,
and there was the landlord, who had rushed from his inn.
"Madman!" he cried, "why are you here? What are you doing?"
"I am seeking Marshal Grouchy."
"You are in the heart of the Prussian army. Turn and fly!"
"Impossible; this is Grouchy's corps."
"How do you know?"
"Because the Emperor has said it."
"Then the Emperor has made a terrible mistake! I tell you that a
patrol of Silesian Hussars has this instant left me.
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