I wanted to embrace him. He laughed and squeezed my hand.
"Then you saw the engagement, Father Moses!" said he, with a mischievous wink. "We have shown them what stuff the Fifth is made of!"
"Oh, yes! yes! you have made me tremble."
"Bah!" said he, "you will see a good deal more of it; it is a small affair."
The two companies re-formed against the wall of the chemin de ronde, and the whole city shouted, "Vive l'Empereur!"
They went down the rampart street in the midst of the crowd. I kept near our sergeant.
As the detachment was turning our corner, Sorlé, Zeffen, and Sâfel called out from the windows, "Hurrah for the veterans! Hurrah for the Fifth!"
The sergeant saw them and made a little sign to them with his head. As I was going in I said to him, "Sergeant, don't forget your glass of cherry-brandy."
"Don't worry, Father Moses," said he.
The detachment went on to break ranks at the Place d'Armes as usual, and I went up home at a quarter to four. I was scarcely in the room before Zeffen, Sorlé, and Sâfel threw their arms round me as if I had come back from the war; little David clung to my knee, and they all wanted to know the news.