any one will tell you what he did,—­but in Europe.  It is all true, for I myself who address you at this moment, I have been on the Danube, and have seen the remains of a bridge built by that man, who, it seems, was a relation of Napoleon in Rome, and that’s how the Emperor got the inheritance of that city for his son.  So after the marriage, which was a fete for the whole world, and in honor of which he released the people of ten years’ taxes,—­which they had to pay all the same, however, because the assessors didn’t take account of what he said,—­his wife had a little one, who was King of Rome.  Now, there’s a thing that had never been seen on this earth; never before was a child born a king with his father living.  On that day a balloon went up in Paris to tell the news to Rome, and that balloon made the journey in one day!

“Now, is there any man among you who will stand up and declare to me that all that was human?  No; it was written above; and may the scurvy seize them who deny that he was sent by God himself for the triumph of France!

“Well, here’s the Emperor of Russia, that used to be his friend, he gets angry because Napoleon didn’t marry a Russian; so he joins with the English, our enemies,—­to whom our Emperor always wanted to say a couple of words in their burrows, only he was prevented.  Napoleon gets angry too; an end had to be put to such doings; so he says to us:—­’Soldiers! you have been masters of every capital in Europe, except Moscow, which is now the ally of England.  To conquer England, and India which belongs to the English, it becomes our peremptory duty to go to Moscow.’  Then he assembled the greatest army that ever trailed its gaiters over the globe; and so marvelously in hand it was that he reviewed a million of men in one day.  ’Hourra! cried the Russians.  Down came all Russia and those animals of Cossacks in a flock.  ’Twas nation against nation, a general hurly-burly, and beware who could; ‘Asia against Europe,’ as the Red Man had foretold to Napoleon.  ‘Enough,’ cried the Emperor, ’I’ll be ready.’

“So now, sure enough, came all the kings, as the Red Man had said, to lick Napoleon’s hand!  Austria, Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, Poland, Italy, every one of them were with us, flattering us; ah, it was fine!  The eagles never cawed so loud as at those parades, perched high above the banners of all Europe.  The Poles were bursting with joy, because Napoleon was going to release them; and that’s why France and Poland are brothers to this day.  ‘Russia is ours,’ cried the army.  We plunged into it well supplied; we marched and we marched,—­no Russians.  At last we found the brutes entrenched on the banks of the Moskova.  That’s where I won my cross, and I’ve got the right to say it was a damnable battle.  This was how it came about.  The Emperor was anxious.  He had seen the Red Man, who said to him, ’My son, you are going too fast for your feet; you will lack men; friends will betray you.’  So the