Courteil lets us have it for next to nothing. Ah, you managed it very
cleverly, but, all the same, I know you had a hand in it."

"Oh! come, come! Good-day, mother. You are going to work on that bit
of land of Champferlu's to-day of course?"

"Yes, sir; I made a beginning there yesterday evening."
"Capital!" said Benassis. "It must be a satisfaction to you, at times,

to see this hillside. You two have broken up almost the whole of the
land on it yourselves."

"Lord! yes, sir," answered the old woman, "it has been our doing! We
have fairly earned our bread."

"Work, you see, and land to cultivate are the poor man's consols. That
good man would think himself disgraced if he went into the poorhouse

or begged for his bread; he would choose to die pickaxe in hand, out
in the open, in the sunlight. Faith, he bears a proud heart in him. He

has worked until work has become his very life; and yet death has no
terrors for him! He is a profoundphilosopher, little as he suspects

it. Old Moreau's case suggested the idea to me of founding an
almshouse for the country people of the district; a refuge for those

who, after working hard all their lives, have reached an honorable old
age of poverty.

"I had by no means expected to make the fortune which I have acquired
here; indeed, I myself have no use for it, for a man who has fallen

from the pinnacle of his hopes needs very little. It costs but little
to live, the idler's life alone is a costly one, and I am not sure

that the unproductive consumer is not robbing the community at large.
There was some discussion about Napoleon's pension after his fall; it

came to his ears, and he said that five francs a day and a horse to
ride was all that he needed. I meant to have no more to do with money

when I came here; but after a time I saw that money means power, and
that it is in fact a necessity, if any good is to be done. So I have

made arrangements in my will for turning my house into an almshouse,
in which old people who have not Moreau's fierceindependence can end

their days. Part of the income of nine thousand francs brought in by
the mill and the rest of my property will be devoted to giving outdoor

relief in hard winters to those who really stand in need of it.
"This foundation will be under the control of the Municipal Council,

with the addition of the cure, who is to be president; and in this way
the money made in the district will be returned to it. In my will I

have laid down the lines on which this institution is to be conducted;
it would be tedious to go over them, it is enough to say that I have a

fund which will some day enable the Commune to award several
scholarships for children who show signs of promise in art or science.

So, even after I am gone, my work of civilization will continue. When
you have set yourself to do anything, Captain Bluteau, something

within you urges you on, you see, and you cannot bear to leave it
unfinished. This craving within us for order and for perfection is one

of the signs that point most surely to a future existence. Now, let us
quicken our pace, I have my round to finish, and there are five or six

more patients still to be visited."
They cantered on for some time in silence, till Benassis said

laughingly to his companion, "Come now, Captain Bluteau, you have
drawn me out and made me chatter like a magpie, and you have not said

a syllable about your own history, which must be an interesting one.
When a soldier has come to your time of life, he has seen so much that

he must have more than one adventure to tell about."
"Why, my history has been simply the history of the army," answered

Genestas. "Soldiers are all after one pattern. Never in command,
always giving and taking sabre-cuts in my place, I have lived just

like anybody else. I have been wherever Napoleon led us, and have
borne a part in every battle in which the Imperial Guard has struck a

blow; but everybody knows all about these events. A soldier has to
look after his horse, to endurehunger and thirst at times, to fight

whenever there is fighting to be done, and there you have the whole
history of his life. As simple as saying good-day, is it not? Then

there are battles in which your horse casts a shoe at the outset, and
lands you in a quandary; and as far as you are concerned, that is the

whole of it. In short, I have seen so many countries, that seeing them
has come to be a matter of course; and I have seen so many men die,

that I have come to value my own life at nothing."
"But you yourself must have been in danger at times, and it would be

interesting to hear you tell of your personal adventures."
"Perhaps," answered the commandant.

"Well, then, tell me about the adventure that made the deepest
impression upon you. Come! do not hesitate. I shall not think that you

are wanting in modesty even if you should tell me of some piece of
heroism on your part; and when a man is quite sure that he will not be

misunderstood, ought he not to find a kind of pleasure in saying, 'I
did thus'?"

"Very well, then, I will tell you about something that gives me a pang
of remorse from time to time. During fifteen years of warfare it never

once happened that I killed a man, save in legitimate defence of self.
We are drawn up in a line, and we charge; and if we do not strike down

those before us, they will begin to draw blood without asking leave,
so you have to kill if you do not mean to be killed, and your

conscience is quite easy. But once I broke a comrade's back; it
happened in a singular way, and it has been a painful thing to me to

think of afterwards--the man's dying grimace haunts me at times. But
you shall judge for yourself.

"It was during the retreat from Moscow," the commandant went on. "The
Grand Army had ceased to be itself; we were more like a herd of over-

driven cattle. Good-bye to discipline! The regiments had lost sight of
their colors, every one was his own master, and the Emperor (one need

not scruple to say it) knew that it was useless to attempt to exert
his authority when things had gone so far. When we reached Studzianka,

a little place on the other side of the Beresina, we came upon human
dwellings for the first time after several days. There were barns and

peasants' cabins to destroy, and pits full of potatoes and beetroot;
the army had been without vitual, and now it fairly ran riot, the

first comers, as you might expect, making a clean sweep of everything.
"I was one of the last to come up. Luckily for me, sleep was the one

thing that I longed for just then. I caught sight of a barn and went
into it. I looked round and saw a score of generals and officers of

high rank, all of them men who, without flattery, might be called
great. Junot was there, and Narbonne, the Emperor's aide-de-camp, and

all the chiefs of the army. There were common soldiers there as well,
not one of whom would have given up his bed of straw to a marshal of

France. Some who were leaning their backs against the wall had dropped
off to sleep where they stood, because there was no room to lie down;

others lay stretched out on the floor--it was a mass of men packed
together so closely for the sake of warmth, that I looked about in

vain for a nook to lie down in. I walked over this flooring of human
bodies; some of the men growled, the others said nothing, but no one

budged. They would not have moved out of the way of a cannon ball just
then; but under the circumstances, one was not obliged to practise the

maxims laid down by the Child's Guide to Manners. Groping about, I saw
at the end of the barn a sort of ledge up above in the roof; no one

had thought of scrambling up to it, possibly no one had felt equal to
the effort. I clambered up and ensconced myself upon it; and as I lay

there at full length, I looked down at the men huddled together like
sheep below. It was a pitiful sight, yet it almost made me laugh. A

man here and there was gnawing a frozencarrot, with a kind of animal
satisfaction expressed in his face; and thunderous snores came from

generals who lay muffled up in ragged cloaks. The whole barn was
lighted by a blazing pine log; it might have set the place on fire,

and no one would have troubled to get up and put it out.
"I lay down on my back, and, naturally, just before I dropped off, my

eyes traveled to the roof above me, and then I saw that the main beam
which bore the weight of the joists was being slightlyshaken from

east to west. The blessed thing danced about in fine style.
'Gentlemen,' said I, 'one of our friends outside has a mind to warm

himself at our expense.' A few moments more and the beam was sure to
come down. 'Gentlemen! gentlemen!' I shouted, 'we shall all be killed

in a minute! Look at the beam there!' and I made such a noise that my
bed-fellows awoke at last. Well, sir, they all stared up at the beam,

and then those who had been sleeping turned round and went off to
sleep again, while those who were eating did not even stop to answer