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Hilaire nor poor Pioche occurred; and then, setting spurs to my horse, hurried back to my quarters at the top of my speed. When I arrived, the preparations for the departure of the élite were already in progress, and I had but time to make my few arrangements for the road when the order came to join my comrades.
"Don't do it, Pioche," cried a one-eyed cobbler. "Notary Mule offers to abolish all these Seigneur's rights if we elect him to the States-General." "Shut up, you tan-smelling bow-legs!" the enraged Populus retorted at a shout. "Who is this Mule, that he should represent the majesty of the bailiwick of Grelot?
"Dost wish I should make her one of my aides-de-camp?" said Napoleon, still laughing. "Parbleu! thou hast more ill-favored ones among them," said Pioche, with a significant look at the grim faces of Rapp and Dam, whose hard and weather-beaten features never deigned a smile, while every other face was moved in laughter. "But thou hast not said yet what I am to do," rejoined the Emperor.
"Thou used not to be so hard to understand," grumbled out Pioche. "I have seen the time thou 'd have said, 'Is it Minette that was wounded at the Adige? Is that the girl stood in the square at Marengo? Parbleu! I 'll give her the cross of the Legion!" "And she shall have it, Corporal Pioche," said Napoleon, as he detached the decoration he wore on the breast of his coat.
"Each man brings what he can find, drinks what he is able, and leaves the rest," remarked Pioche, and invited me to take my share in the common stock. All went well until I absent-mindedly called out, as if to a waiter, for bread. There was a roar of laughter at my mistake, and a little dark-whiskered fellow stuck his sword into a loaf and handed it to me.
The bearers replaced the dead man by the dying body of poor Pioche; and from a vague feeling of curiosity, I stooped down and drew back the sheet from the face of the corpse. As I did so, my limbs trembled, and I leaned back almost fainting against the wall.
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