“It was here that I heard of the near approach of Napoleon’s army on its march into Spain; that the news was true was quickly proved, for very soon after I had begun my work on the wall the country to the north seemed to be filled with cavalry, infantry, artillery, baggage-wagons, and everything that pertained to an army.  About noon there was a general halt, and in the field the wall of which I was repairing a body of officers made a temporary encampment.

“I paid as little apparent attention as possible to what was going on around me, but proceeded steadily with my work, although I assure you I had my eyes wide open all the time.  I was thinking of stopping work in order to eat my dinner, which I had with me, when a party of officers approached me on their way to a little hill in the field.  One of them stopped and spoke to me, and as he did so the others halted and stood together a little way off.  The moment I looked at the person who addressed me I knew him.  It was Napoleon Bonaparte.”

“Then thee has seen the great Napoleon,” almost whispered Mrs. Crowder.

“And very much disappointed I was when I beheld him,” remarked her husband.  “I had seen portraits of him, I had read and heard of his great achievements, and I had pictured to myself a hero.  Perhaps my experience should have taught me that heroes seldom look like heroes, but for all that I had had my ideal, and in appearance this man fell below it.  His face was of an olive color which was unequally distributed over his features; he was inclined to be pudgy, and his clothes did not appear to fit him; but for all that he had the air of a man who with piercing eyes saw his way before him and did not flinch from taking it, rough as it might be.  ‘You seem an old man for such work,’ said he, ’but if you are strong enough to lift those stones why are you not in the army?’ As he spoke I noticed that he had not the intonation of a true Frenchman.  He had the accent of the foreigner that he was.

[Illustration:  “‘Why are you not in the army?’”]

“‘Sire,’ said I, ’I am too old for the army, but in spite of my age I must earn my bread.’  I may state here that my hair and beard had been growing since I left Madrid.  For a moment the emperor regarded me in silence.  ’Are you a Frenchman?’ said he.  ’You speak too well for a stone-mason, and, moreover, your speech is that of a foreigner who has studied French.’  It was odd that each of us should have remarked the accent of the other, but I was not amused at this; I was becoming very nervous.  ‘Sire,’ said I, ‘I come from Italy.’  ‘Were you born there?’ asked he.  My nervousness increased.  This man was too keen a questioner.  ‘Sire,’ I replied, ’I was born in the country southeast of Rome.’  This was true enough, but it was a long way southeast.  ‘Do you speak Spanish?’ he abruptly asked.