The other colonels waved their hats in triumph at the commander-in-chief’s decision, and Raynal’s face showed he looked on Dujardin as a sort of spoil-sport happily defeated.

“Well, then, gentlemen,” said General Raimbaut, “we begin by settling the contingents to be furnished by your several brigades.  Say, an equal number from each.  The sum total shall be settled by Colonel Dujardin, who has so long and ably baffled the bastion at this post.”

Colonel Dujardin bowed stiffly and not very graciously.  In his heart he despised these old fogies, compounds of timidity and rashness.

“So, how many men in all, colonel?” asked General Raimbaut.

“The fewer the better,” replied the other solemnly, “since”—­and then discipline tied his tongue.

“I understand you,” said the old man.  “Shall we say eight hundred men?”

“I should prefer three hundred.  They have made a back door to the bastion, and the means of flight at hand will put flight into their heads.  They will pick off some of our men as we go at them.  When the rest jump in they will jump out, and”—­He paused.

“Why, he knows all about it before it comes,” said one of the colonels naively.

“I do.  I see the whole operation and its result before me, as I see this hand.  Three hundred men will do.”

“But, general,” objected Raynal, “you are not beginning at the beginning.  The first thing in these cases is to choose the officer to command the storming party.”

“Yes, Raynal, unquestionably; but you must be aware that is a painful and embarrassing part of my duty, especially after Colonel Dujardin’s remarks.”

“Ah, bah!” cried Raynal.  “He is prejudiced.  He has been digging a thundering long mine here, and now you are going to make his child useless.  We none of us like that.  But when he gets the colors in his hand, and the storming column at his back, his misgivings will all go to the wind, and the enemy after them, unless he has been committing some crime, and is very much changed from what I knew him four years ago.”

“Colonel Raynal,” said one of the other colonels, politely but firmly, “pray do not assume that Colonel Dujardin is to lead the column; there are three other claimants.  General Raimbaut is to select from us four.”

“Yes, gentlemen, and in a service of this kind I would feel grateful to you all if you would relieve me of that painful duty.”

“Gentlemen,” said Dujardin, with an imperceptible sneer, “the general means to say this:  the operation is so glorious that he could hardly without partiality assign the command to either of us four claimants.  Well, then, let us cast lots.”

The proposal was received by acclamation.

“The general will mark a black cross on one lot, and he who draws it wins the command.”

The young colonels prepared their lots with almost boyish eagerness.  These fiery spirits were sick to death of lying and skulking in the trenches.  They flung their lots into the hat.  After them, who should approach the hat, lot in hand, but Raynal.  Dujardin instantly interfered, and held his arm as he was in the act of dropping in his lot.