Emperor offered peace.  But before signing, ‘Let us drub those Russians!’ he said to us.  ‘Done!’ cried the army.  ‘Forward, march!’ said the sergeants.  My clothes were in rags, my shoes worn out, from trudging along those roads, which are very uncomfortable ones; but no matter!  I said to myself, ’As it’s the last of our earthquakings, I’ll go into it, tooth and nail!’ We were drawn up in line before the great ravine,—­front seats, as ’twere.  Signal given; and seven hundred pieces of artillery began a conversation that would bring the blood from your ears.  Then—­must do justice to one’s enemies—­the Russians let themselves be killed like Frenchmen; they wouldn’t give way; we couldn’t advance.  ‘Forward,’ some one cried, ’here comes the Emperor!’ True enough; he passed at a gallop, waving his hand to let us know we must take the redoubt.  He inspired us; on we ran, I was the first in the ravine.  Ha! my God! how the lieutenants fell, and the colonels, and the soldiers!  No matter! all the more shoes for those that had none, and epaulets for the clever ones who knew how to read.  ‘Victory!’ cried the whole line; ’Victory!’—­and, would you believe it? a thing never seen before, there lay twenty-five thousand Frenchmen on the ground.  ’Twas like mowing down a wheat-field; only in place of the ears of wheat put the heads of men!  We were sobered by this time,—­those who were left alive.  The MAN rode up; we made a circle round him.  Ha! he knew how to cajole his children; he could be amiable when he liked, and feed ’em with words when their stomachs were ravenous with the hunger of wolves.  Flatterer! he distributed the crosses himself, he uncovered to the dead, and then he cried to us, ‘On! to Moscow!’ ‘To Moscow!’ answered the army.

“We took Moscow.  Would you believe it? the Russians burned their own city!  ’Twas a haystack six miles square, and it blazed for two days.  The buildings crashed like slates, and showers of melted iron and lead rained down upon us, which was naturally horrible.  I may say to you plainly, it was like a flash of lightning on our disasters.  The Emperor said, ‘We have done enough; my soldiers shall rest here.’  So we rested awhile, just to get the breath into our bodies and the flesh on our bones, for we were really tired.  We took possession of the golden cross that was on the Kremlin; and every soldier brought away with him a small fortune.  But out there the winter sets in a month earlier,—­a thing those fools of science didn’t properly explain.  So, coming back, the cold nipped us.  No longer an army—­do you hear me?—­no longer any generals, no longer any sergeants even.  ’Twas the reign of wretchedness and hunger,—­a reign of equality at last.  No one thought of anything but to see France once more; no one stooped to pick up his gun or his money if he dropped them; each man followed his nose, and went as he pleased without caring for glory.  The weather was so bad the Emperor couldn’t see his star; there was something between him and the skies.  Poor man! it made him ill to see his eagles flying away from victory.  Ah! ’twas a mortal blow, you may believe me.