"The English
hate the Orleans too." Lajeunesse looked from one to the other, then
burst into a laugh. "There's two gills of rum for every man at twelve
o'clock to-day, so says His Excellency; and two yellow buttons for the
coat of every sergeant, and five for every captain. The English up there
in Quebec can't do better than that, can they? And will they? No. Does
a man spend money on a hell's foe, unless he means to give it work to do?
Pish! Is His Excellency like to hang back because Monsieur De la Riviere
says he'll fetch the Government? Bah! The bully soldiers would come
with us as they went with the Great Napoleon at Grenoble. Ah, that!
His Excellency told me about that just now. Here stood the soldiers,"--
he mapped out the ground with his sword," here stood the Great Napoleon,
all alone. He looks straight before him. What does he see? Nothing
less than a hundred muskets pointing at him. What does he do? He walks
up to the soldiers, opens his coat, and says, 'Soldiers, comrades, is
there one of you will kill your Emperor?' Damned if there was one! They
dropped their muskets, and took to kissing his hands.
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