CHAPTER VIII. THE COMPAGNIE D'ELITE
With whatever triumphant feelings the Emperor Napoleon may have witnessed the glorious termination of this brief campaign, to the young officers of the army it brought anything rather than satisfaction, and the news of the armistice was received in the camp with gloom and discontent. The brilliant action at Elchingen, and the great victory at Austerlitz, were hailed as a glorious presage of future successes, for which the high-sounding phrases of a bulletin were deemed but a poor requital. A great proportion of the army were new levies, who had not seen service, and felt proportionably desirous for opportunities of distinction; and to them the promise of a triumphant return to France was a miserable exchange for those battlefields on which they dreamed they should win honor and fame, and from whence they hoped to date their rise of fortune. Little did we guess, that while words of peace and avowals of moderation were on his lips, Napoleon was at that very moment meditating on the opening of that great campaign, which, beginning at Jena, was to end in the most bloody and long sustained of all his wars.
Nothing, however, was now talked of but the fêtes which awaited us on our return to Paris,—while liberal grants of money were made to all the wounded, and no effort was spared which should mark that feeling of the Emperor's, which so conspicuously opened his bulletin, in the emphatic words, “Soldiers, I am content with you!”
Napoleon well understood, and indeed appeared to have anticipated, the disappointment the army would experience at this sudden cessation of hostilities; and endeavored now to divert the torrent of their enthusiasm into another and a safer channel. The bulk of the army were cantoned around Brunn and Olmutz; some picked regiments were recalled to Vienna, where the Emperor was soon expected to establish his headquarters; while many of those who had suffered most severely from forced marches and fatigues were formed into corps of escort to accompany the Russian prisoners—sixteen thousand in number—on their way to France; and lastly, a compagnie d'élite, as it was called, was selected to carry to the Senate the glorious spoils of victory,—forty-five standards taken on the field of Austerlitz, and now destined to grace the Palace of the Luxembourg.
I had scarcely seated myself to the humble supper of my bivouac, when an orderly came to command me to General d'Auvergne's quarters. The little sitting-room he occupied, in a peasant hut, was so filled with officers that it was some time before I could approach him; and my impatience was not lessened by more than once hearing my name mentioned aloud,—a circumstance not a little trying to a young man in the presence of his superiors in station.
“But here he is,” said the general, beckoning to me to come forward. “Burke, his Majesty has most graciously permitted me to include your name in the compagnie d'élite,—a testimony of his satisfaction you've every reason to be proud of. And just at the moment I was about to communicate the fact to you, I have received a message from Marshal Murat, requesting that I may permit you to serve on his own staff.”
“Yes, Captain,” said an officer in the uniform of a colonel,—it was the first time I had been addressed by my new title, and I cannot express what a thrill of pleasure the word gave me,—“Marshal Murat witnessed with pleasure the alacrity and steadiness of your conduct on the 2d, and has sent me with an offer which I fancy few officers would not deem a flattering one.”
“Unquestionably it is, Colonel,” said General d'Auvergne; “nay, more, I will say I regard it as the making of a young man's fortune, thus early in his career to have attracted such high notice. But I must be passive here; Captain Burke shall decide for himself.”
“In that case, sir, I shall cause you but little delay, if you will still permit me to serve on your own staff.”