The Story of a Conscript.
Translated From The French.
XII.
But, as Sergeant Pinto said, all we had yet seen was but the prelude to the ball; the dance was now about to commence.
The sergeant had formed a particular friendship for me, and on the eighteenth, on relieving guard at the Warthan gate, he said:
"Fusilier Bertha, the emperor has arrived."
I had yet heard nothing of this, and replied respectfully:
"I have just seen the sapper Merlin, sergeant, who was on duty last night at the general's quarters, and he said nothing of it."
Then he, closing his eye, said with a peculiar expression:
"Everything is moving; I feel his presence in the air. You do not yet understand this, conscript, but he is here; everything says so. Before he came, we were lame, crippled; but a wing of the army seemed able to move at once. But now, look there, see those couriers galloping over the road; all is life. The dance is beginning; the dance is beginning! Kaiserliks and the Cossacks do not need spectacles to see that he is with us; they will feel him presently."
And the sergeant's laugh rang hoarsely from beneath his long mustaches; and he was right, for that very day, about three in the afternoon, all the troops stationed around the city were in motion, and at five we were put under arms. The Marshal-Prince of Moskowa entered the town surrounded by the officers and generals who composed his staff, and, almost immediately after, the grey-haired Sunham followed and passed us in review upon the Place. Then he spoke in a loud, clear voice so that every one could hear.