CHAPTER II.

SOLDIER.

Two days after I had drawn the number which made me a soldier, my father, who had lamented unceasingly, took me aside and said.

"When are you going?"

"Why?" said I, astonished at the way in which he had divined my thoughts.

"I have plenty of time

after the claims of exemption!"

"You are deceiving your father, my son," said he, grasping my hand with tears in his eyes.

"That is true, father. I intend to leave this evening at six o'clock."

"I knew it. A father's eyes see a great deal. I have already prepared everything for your departure. Only, to escape the tears and lamentations of your relations, we will leave at ten instead. The horses will be waiting for us outside the village."

At ten o'clock precisely my father, my brother, and I left the house as if we were going to the café;

then we went separately to the place where my cousin, Ange-Pierre, was waiting with the horses.

My brother and my cousin, after saying good-bye, returned home, whilst my father and I started for Ajaccio, where, on my arrival, I was entered as Number 7,703 on the register of the 60th regiment of the line.

The recruiting captain, after examining me, sent me to Bastia, to the 1st Battalion, 4th Company. The same day, my father, without shedding a tear, gave me his blessing and returned home, whilst I started for Bastia to join my Company.

On my arrival at the barracks a sergeant took me to the stores to equip me, gave me a knapsack, a cartridge box, a rifle, etc., took me back to the barracks a transformed man, and left me at the foot of the bed in which I was to sleep. A soldier's life has been so often described by abler pens than mine that I shall only briefly relate the principal events, most of them curious, and sometimes tragic, which concern me personally. They are all strictly true. The next morning, after fatigue-duty (which all conscripts have to undergo as soon as they join), I was taken, without my gun, to a plain where the drilling went on. Two Corsicans, Major Riston and Lieutenant Risbrussi, came up to me and gave me such good advice about my military future that I already looked upon myself as a future General,

but they also told me that before anything else I should have to learn to drill in order to be admitted into the battalion, and to read and write, that I might master the theory of fighting, and teach others.

Their counsels made so great an impression upon me that from that day forth I gave myself up entirely to learning how to handle my gun and studying military art in all its branches.

Two months later, the drill-instructor, after having made me drill alone and with my company, allowed me to join the battalion.

That evening, when I entered the barracks, I hastened to enrol my name in the regimental school, where I was to learn French, and in the fencingschool, where I intended to acquire the art of killing my fellow-man properly, in accordance with all the rules of the game, as will unfortunately be seen later

on.

With my insular vivacity and mountaineer's agility I became in the course of a few months the best pupil at the fencing-school. The head-master, Duillestre, an old soldier, who retired shortly after that, grew so fond of me that he had me made a corporal, exempted from service, and attached me to the regimental fencing-school to help him and take his place when necessary. The regiment received orders to return to France; we landed at Toulon, and went into garrison at Rodez (Aveyron).

Although exempted from service by order of the Captain, I performed the duties of Quartermaster during the entire march, with Adjutant Duchemin and Quartermasters Santelli, Casanova, etc. Reaching Rodez at mid-day, we obtained the billets at the Mayor's office, then went to the barracks which the 5th regiment of the line had just vacated. While waiting for the troops, who were not to arrive before three o'clock, Quartermaster Santelli invited me to go to the café with him. When we entered we were obliged, in order to get to a table, to pass two civilians who were already seated, and who, seeing Santelli so young, and particularly so slender, offered him an outrageous insult. They had hardly uttered the last word before one of them received a blow on the face. At that moment I had hold of the chair in which I was about to seat myself. But seeing that I might use it in another way, I raised it and struck both of the men, without asking what it was all about. The guard was called for. Our soldiers arrived. One of the civilians, who had received the slap and a blow from the chair, went up to the corporal and asked him not to arrest us, although we had begun the affair.

As soon as the soldiers were gone they approached us, and a duel for the next day was proposed by one side and accepted by the other.

The reader will pardon me if I enter into all these

details; but as it was my first duel, and we were more or less deceived in our antagonists, I think it worth while to say that Santelli and I accepted this duel with pleasure, persuaded beforehand that we were going to fight inexperienced civilians, and that we could thus get up a reputation as good swordsmen. Our two adversaries thought the same, as will be seen.

The next day, at six o'clock in the morning, Santelli and I were awakened and summoned by the two men of the day before to the gate of the quarter. Instead of being two they were now three; I accordingly called Corporal Versini, a second-rate fencer.

We six left the town together, and went as far as the river which gives its name to the department (Aveyron). The preliminaries were soon over. Quartermaster Santelli and the civilian who had been struck in the face took off their shirts and grasped their weapons.

At the first pass, looking at Versini, I remarked that the Quartermaster, whose adversary was a skilled duellist, was as good as dead. Then I recommended my friend to play close and prudently.

He took no notice of me, however, for I had hardly finished speaking before he made two full passes, as in a fencing-lesson, then lunged forward. His adversary adroitly caught the Quartermaster's