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I was about to leave to make my report, when General Morland and Captain Fournier renewed their pleas pointing out that the greater part of the men who had dropped behind for various reasons would rejoin them very shortly, and that it was not likely that Napoleon would engage in battle before the arrival of the divisions of Friant and Gudin, who were still at the gates of Vienna, thirty-six leagues from us and would take several days to reach us.
For weeks the mimic warfare went on, Buonaparte, always in command, being sometimes the besieger and as often the besieged. Such was the aptitude, such the resources, and such the commanding power which he showed in either rôle, that the winter was always remembered in the annals of the school. Of all his contemporaries only two became men of mark, Gudin and Nansouty.
The driver and the patriot and even Gudin paid no attention to this mute individual; he was, in truth, one of those uncomfortable, unsocial travellers who are found sometimes in a stage-coach, like a patient calf that is being carried, bound, to the nearest market.
The Gars and Gudin reached the little wood together, but as they did so the latter stopped and darted behind a tree. About twenty Chouans, afraid to fire at a distance lest they should kill their leader, rushed from the copse and riddled the tree with balls.
There are several very clever painters of marine subjects, amongst others Gudin and Isabey, and there is not any department which is more encouraged by the King and the government; for the last several years the former has had orders for at least a dozen each year, of naval combats between France and her enemies, but those subjects which he paints from his own spontaneous suggestions, are infinitely superior to such as he executes to order.
"There's the National Guard of Fougeres!" cried Gudin, in a loud voice; "my man has brought them." The words reached the ears of the young leader of the Chouans and his ferocious aide-de-camp, and the royalists made a hasty retrograde movement, checked, however, by a brutal shout from Marche-a-Terre.
At this instant Gudin perceived his adversary sitting among the trees and out of breath, and he left his comrades firing at the Chouans, who had retreated behind a lateral hedge; slipping round them, he darted towards the marquis with the agility of a wild animal.
How do you expect to get on in life? Stay with us; sooner or later we shall triumph and you'll be counsellor to some parliament." "Parliaments!" said young Gudin, in a mocking tone. "Good-bye, uncle." "You sha'n't have a penny at my death," cried his uncle, in a rage. "I'll disinherit you." "Thank you, uncle," said the Republican, as they parted.
The Emperor loves Gudin dearly, and orders picture after picture from him, mostly commemorative of some fine event of which the Emperor is, of course, the principal figure, and destined for Versailles later. Gudin has a beautiful hotel and garden near us in the Rue Beaujon. The garden used to be square; but now it is a triangle, as a new boulevard has taken a part of it.
When the famous Cibot, otherwise called Pille-Miche, helped his neighbor to get out of the coach, a respectful murmur was heard among the Chouans. "It is the Abbe Gudin!" cried several voices. At this respected name every hat was off, and the men knelt down before the priest as they asked his blessing, which he gave solemnly.
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