‘I may find leisure and inclination to give you the fullest information on this point at another moment, sir; for the present, my business is more pressing. Can I see General Vandamme?’
‘Of course you cannot, my worthy fellow! If you had served, as you say you have, you could scarcely have made so absurd a request. A French general of division does not give audience to every tatterdemalion who picks up a prisoner on the highroad.’
‘It is exactly because I have served that I do make the request,’ said I stoutly.
‘How so, pray?’ asked he, staring at me.
‘Because I know well how often young staff-officers, in their self-sufficiency, overlook the most important points, and, from the humble character of their informants, frequently despise what their superiors, had they known it, would have largely profited by. And, even if I did not know this fact, I have the memory of another one scarcely less striking, which was, that General Masséna himself admitted me to an audience when my appearance was not a whit more imposing than at present.’
‘You knew General Masséna, then? Where was it, may I ask?’
‘In Genoa, during the siege.’
‘And what regiment have you served in?’
‘The Ninth Hussars.’
‘Quite enough, my good fellow. The Ninth were on the Sambre while that siege was going on,’ said he, laughing sarcastically.