'Comrade,' say I,
'the army thanks you for your courtesy.' 'Brother,' he say, 'twas to
your drum,' and his eye flash out where Gudin carved his way through
those pigs of Prussians. 'I'd take my head off to keep your saddle
filled, comrade,' say I. Ping! come a bullet and catch me in the calf.
'You hold your head too high, brother,' the general say, and he smile.
'I'll hold it higher,' answer I, and I snatch at a soldier. 'Up with me
on your shoulder, big comrade,' I say, and he lift me up. I make my
sticks sing on the leather. 'You shall take off your hat to the Little
Corporal to-morrow, if you've still your head, brother'--speak Davoust
like that, and then he ride away like the devil to Morand's guns. Ha,
ha, ha!" The sergeant's face was blazing with a white glare, for he was
very pale, and seemed unconscious of all save the scene in his mind's
eye. "Ha, ha, ha!" he laughed again. "Beautiful God, how did Davoust
bring us on up to Sonnenberg! And next day I saw the Little Corporal.
'Drummer,' say he, 'no head's too high for my Guard. Come you, comrade,
your general gives you to me. Come, Corporal Lagroin,' he call; and I
come. 'But, first,' he say, 'up on the shoulder of your big soldier
again, and play.' 'What shall I play, sire?' I ask. 'Play ten thousand
heroes to Walhalla,' he answer. I play, and I think of my brother
Jacques, who went fighting to heaven the day before.
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