'What are the troops yonder with the red tufts in their caps, and scarlet trousers?'
'Ah, parbleu! your countrymen will soon know to their cost: they are the Infanterie de la Garde. There's not a man in the column you are looking at who is not decoré.'
'Look at this side, monsieur! See the Chasseurs à Cheval,' said Annette, putting her hand on my arm, while her bright eyes glanced proudly at the glittering column which advanced by a road near us—coming along at a sharp trot, their equipment clattering, their horses highly conditioned, and the splendid uniform of light blue and silver giving them a most martial air.
'Bah!' said the corporal contemptuously, 'these are the dragoons to my taste.' So saying, he pointed to a dark column of heavy cavalry, who led their horses slowly along by a narrow causeway; the long black horse-hair trailed from their dark helmets with something of a gloomy aspect, to which their flowing cloaks of deep blue added.
'The Cuirassiers de Milhauds. But look—look yonder! Tonnerre de ciel! see that!'
The object to which my attention was now directed was a park of artillery that covered the whole line of road from the Miranda pass to the very walls of Vittoria.
'Two hundred, at least,' exclaimed he, after counting some twenty or thirty of the foremost. 'Ventre bleu! what chance have you before the batteries of the Guard?'
As he spoke, the drums beat across the wide plain; a continuous dull roll murmured along the ground. It ceased; the trumpets brayed forth a call; a clanging crash followed, and I saw that the muskets were brought to the shoulder, as the bayonets glanced in the sun and the sharp sabres glittered along the squadrons. For a second or two all was still, and then the whole air was rent with a loud cry of 'Vive le Roi!' while a mounted party rode slowly from the left, and entering one of the gates of the city disappeared from our sight. Night was now beginning to fail, as we wended our way slowly along towards the walls of Vittoria—it being the corporal's intention to deliver his prisoner into the hands of the état major of Marshal Jourdan.