Ah! Mon Dieu! How the colonels are
falling, and the lieutenants, and the soldiers! But never mind! There'll
be all the more shoes for those who haven't any, and epaulets for the
ambitious fellows who know how to read.
At last the cry of "Victory!" rang all along the line; but--would you
believe it?--there were twenty-five thousand Frenchmen lying on the
ground! A trifle, eh? Well, such a thing had never been seen before. It
was a regular harvest field after the reaping; only instead of stalks of
grain there were bodies of men. That sobered the rest of us. But the
Emperor soon came along, and when we formed a circle around him, he
praised us and cheered us up (he could be very amiable when he liked),
and made us feel quite contented, even although we were as hungry as
wolves. Then he distributed crosses of honor among us, saluted the dead,
and said, "On to Moscow!"
"All right! To Moscow!" replied the army.
And then what did the Russians do but burn their city! It made a
six-mile bonfire which blazed for two days.
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