When after the first campaign of Vienna, so happily terminated by the peace of Presburg, the Emperor was returning to Paris, many complaints reached him against the exactions of certain generals, notably General Vandamme.  Complaint was made, amongst other grievances, that in the little village of Lantza this general had allowed himself five hundred florins per day, that is to say, eleven hundred and twenty-five francs, simply for the daily expenses of his table.  It was on this occasion the Emperor said of him:  “Pillages like a madman, but brave as Caesar.”  Nevertheless, the Emperor, indignant at such exactions, and determined to put an end to them, summoned the general to Paris to reprimand him; but the latter, as soon as he entered the Emperor’s presence, began to speak before his Majesty had time to address him, saying, “Sire, I know why you have summoned me; but as you know my devotion and my bravery I trust you will excuse some slight altercations as to the furnishing of my table, matters too petty, at any rate, to occupy your Majesty.”  The Emperor smiled at the oratorical skillfulness of General Vandamme, and contented himself with saying, “Well, well! say no more, but be more circumspect in future.”

General Vandamme, happy to have escaped with so gentle an admonition, returned to Lantza to resume his command.  He was indeed more circumspect than in the past; but he found and seized the occasion to revenge himself on the town for the compulsory self-denial the Emperor had imposed on him.  On his arrival he found in the suburbs a large number of recruits who had come from Paris in his absence; and it occurred to him to make them all enter the town, alleging that it was indispensable they should be drilled under his own eyes.  This was an enormous expense to the town, which would have been very willing to recall its complaints, and continue his expenses at the rate of five hundred florins per day.

The Emperor does not figure in the following anecdote.  I will relate it, however, as a good instance of the manners and the astuteness of our soldiers on the campaign.

During the year 1806, a part of our troops having their quarters in Bavaria, a soldier of the fourth regiment of the line, named Varengo, was lodged at Indersdorff with a joiner.  Varengo wished to compel his host to pay him two florins, or four livres ten sous, per day for his pleasures.  He had no right to exact this.  To succeed in making it to his interest to comply he set himself to make a continual racket in the house.  The poor carpenter, not being able to endure it longer, resolved to complain, but thought it prudent not to carry his complaints to the officers of the company in which Varengo served.  He knew by his own experience, at least by that of his neighbors, that these gentlemen were by no means accessible to complaints of this kind.  He decided to address himself to the general commanding, and set out on the road to Augsburg, the chief place of the arrondissement.