Among the officers who were not very well educated, we may be permitted to mention General Gros; and the manner in which he was promoted to the grade of general proves this fact.  But his bravery was equal to every proof, and he was a superb specimen of masculine beauty.  The pen alone was an unaccustomed weapon to him, and he could hardly use it to sign his name; and it was said that he was not much more proficient in reading.  Being colonel of the guard, he found himself one day alone at the Tuileries in an apartment where he waited until the Emperor could be seen.  There he delighted himself with observing his image reflected in the glass, and readjusting his cravat; and the admiration he felt at his own image led him to converse aloud with himself or rather with his reflection.  “Ah!” said he, “if you only knew ‘bachebachiques’ (mathematics), such a man as you, with a soldier’s heart like yours, ah! the Emperor would make you a general!”—­“You are one,” said the Emperor, striking him on the shoulder.  His Majesty had entered the saloon without being heard, and had amused himself with listening to the conversation Colonel Gros had carried on with himself.  Such were the circumstances of his promotion to the rank of general, and what is more to be a general in the guard.

I have now arrived at the end of my list of military anecdotes.  I have just spoken of a general’s promotion, and will close with the story of a simple drummer, but a drummer renowned throughout the army as a perfect buffoon, in fact, the famous Rata, to whom General Gros, as we shall see; was deeply attached.

The army marched on Lintz during the campaign of 1809.  Rata, drummer of the grenadiers of the fourth regiment of the line, and famous as a buffoon, having learned that the guard was to pass, and that it was commanded by General Gros; desired to see this officer who had been his chief of battalion, and with whom he had formerly taken all sorts of liberties.  Rata thereupon waged his mustache, and went to salute the general, addressing him thus:  “Ah, here you are, General.  How are you?” —­“Very well, indeed, Rata; and you?”—­“Always well, but not so well as you, it seems to me.  Since you are doing so very well, you no longer think of poor Rata; for if he did not come to see you, you would not even think of sending him a few sous to buy tobacco.”  While saying, “You do so well,” Rata had quickly seized General Gross hat, and put it on his head in place of his own.  At this moment the Emperor passed, and seeing a drummer wearing the hat of a general of his guard, he could hardly believe his eyes.  He spurred up his horse, and inquired the cause.  General Gros then said, laughing, and in the frank speech he so often used even to the Emperor, “It is a brave soldier from my old battalion, accustomed to play pranks to amuse his comrades.  He is a brave fellow, Sire, and every inch a man, and I recommend him to your Majesty.  Moreover, Sire, he can himself do more than a whole