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The resistance was severe; when the emperor came to visit the battle-field, he recognized among the corpses still scattered upon the ground the uniforms of the 32nd half-brigade. "Still the 32nd!" cried he. "I have had so many of them killed in Egypt, in Italy, everywhere, that there ought to be no more of them."
The march of this column upon Mayenne, the heterogeneous elements of which it was composed, and the divers sentiments which evidently pervaded it, will explain the presence of another troop which formed the head of the detachment. About a hundred and fifty soldiers, with arms and baggage, marched in the advance, commanded by the chief of a half-brigade.
"If you ever want a sabre to deal some special blow, my life is yours. I am good for that. My name is Jean Falcon, otherwise called Beau-Pied, sergeant of the first company of Hulot's veterans, seventy-second half-brigade, nicknamed 'Les Mayencais. Excuse my vanity; I can only offer you the soul of a sergeant, but that's at your service." He turned on his heel and walked off whistling.
But Hulot, whom we shall henceforth call the commandant, to avoid giving him the inharmonious title of "chief of a half-brigade" was one of those soldiers who, in critical moments, cannot be caught by the charms of a landscape, were they even those of a terrestrial paradise.
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