This irritated the Marshal rose, and stamped on the floor. The colonel essayed to interfere. “Sentry—sentry—a file of grenadiers—take him forth,” and—here he energetically clutched the steel hilt of his sword, and instantly dashed it from him—“Sacre!—the devil—what is that?” and straightway he began to pirouette on one leg round the room, shaking his right hand, and blowing his fingers.
The officers in waiting could not stand it any longer, and burst into a fit of laughter, in which their commanding officer, after an unavailing attempt to look serious—I should rather write fierce joined, and there he was, the bloody Davoust—Duke of Auerstad Prince of Eckmuhl—the Hamburgh Robespierre—the terrible Davoust—dancing all around the room, in a regular guffaw, like to split his sides. The heated stove had made his sword, which rested on it, nearly red-hot.
All this while the quiet, plain-looking little man sat still. He now rose; but I noticed that he had been fixing his eyes intently on me. I thought I could perceive a tear glistening in them as he spoke.
“Marshal, will you intrust that boy to me?”
“Poo,” said the Prince, still laughing, “take him—do what you will with him;”—then, as if suddenly recollecting himself, “But, Mr——, you must be answerable for him—he must be at hand if I want him.”
The gentleman who had so unexpectedly patronized me rose, and said, “Marshal, I promise.”
“Very well,” said Davoust. “Lafontaine, desire supper to be sent up.”
It was brought in, and my new ally and I were shown out.
As we went down stairs, we looked into a room on the ground floor, at the door of which were four soldiers with fixed bayonets. We there saw, for it was well lit up, about twenty or five-and-twenty respectable-looking men, very English in appearance, all to their long cloaks, an unusual sort of garment to my eye at that time. The night was very wet, and the aforesaid garments were hung on pegs in the wall all around the room, which being strongly heated by a stove, the moisture rose up in a thick mist and made the faces of the burghers indistinct.
They were all busily engaged talking to each other, some to his neighbour, the others across the table, but all with an expression of the most intense anxiety.