The Man with the broken Ear, Edmond About [the little red hen read aloud .txt] 📗

the brilliant companion who had inspired everything with his impetuous gayety.

The Marshal buttonholed him during the evening and said: "What are you thinking about?"

"I'm thinking of the old messmates who were happy enough to fall at Waterloo with their faces toward the enemy. That old fool of a Dutchman who preserved me for posterity, did me but a sorry service. I tell you, Leblanc, a man ought to live in his own day. Later is too late."

"Oh, pshaw, Fougas, don't talk nonsense! There's nothing desperate in the case. Devil take it! I'll go to see the Emperor to-morrow. The matter shall be looked into. It will all be set straight. Men like you! Why France hasn't got them by the dozen that she should fling them among the soiled linen."

"Thanks! You're a good old boy, and a true one. There were five hundred thousand of us, of the same, same sort, in 1812; there are but two left; say, rather, one and a half."

About ten o'clock in the evening, M. Rollon, M. du Marnet and Fougas accompanied the Marshal to the cars. Fougas embraced his comrade and promised him to be of good cheer. After the train left, the three colonels went back to town on foot. In passing M. Rollon's house, Fougas said to his successor:

"You're not very hospitable to-night; you don't even offer us a pony of that good Andaye brandy!"

"I thought you were not in drinking trim," said M. Rollon. "You didn't take anything in your coffee or afterwards. But come up!"

"My thirst has come back with a vengeance."

"That's a good symptom."

He drank in a melancholy fashion, and scarcely wet his lips in his glass. He stopped a little while before the flag, took hold of the staff, spread out the silk, counted the holes that cannon balls and bullets had made in it, and could not repress his tears. "Positively," said he, "the brandy has taken me in the throat; I'm not a man to-night. Good evening, gentlemen."

"Hold on! We'll go back with you."

"Oh, my hotel is only a step."

"It's all the same. But what's your idea in staying at a hotel when you have two houses in town at your service?"

"On the strength of that, I am going to move to-morrow."

The next morning, about eleven o'clock, the happy Leon was at his toilet when a telegram was brought to him. He opened it without noticing that it was addressed to M. Fougas, and uttered a cry of joy. Here is the laconic message which brought him so much pleasure:

"To Colonel Fougas, Fontainebleau.

"Just left the Emperor. You to be brevet brigadier until
something better turns up. If necessary, corps
legislatif will amend law.

"LEBLANC."

Leon dressed himself, ran to the hotel of the blue sundial, and found Fougas dead in his bed.

It is said in Fontainebleau, that M. Nibor made an autopsy, and found that serious disorders had been produced by desiccation. Some people are nevertheless satisfied that Fougas committed suicide. It is certain that Master Bonnivet received, by the penny post, a sort of a will, expressed thus:

"I leave my heart to my country, my memory to natural
affection, my example to the army, my hate to
perfidious Albion, fifty thousand francs to Gothon, and
two hundred thousand to the 23d of the line. And
forever Vive l'Empereur!

"FOUGAS."

Resuscitated on the 17th of August, between three and four in the afternoon, he died on the 17th of the following month, at what hour we shall never know. His second life had lasted a little less than thirty-one days. But it is simple justice to say that he made good use of his time. He reposes in the spot which young Renault had bought for him. His granddaughter Clementine left off her mourning about a year since. She is beloved and happy, and Leon will have nothing to reproach himself with if she does not have plenty of children.

Bourdonnel, August , 1861.


FINIS.


NOTES

TO

THE MAN WITH THE BROKEN EAR.


NOTE 1, page 69.-- Black butterflies , a French expression that we might tastefully substitute for blue devils .

NOTE 2, page 72.-- The 15th of August is the Emperor's birthday.

NOTE 3, page 85.-- Centigrade , of course.

NOTE 4, page 101.--Fougas' surprise is explained by the well-known fact that Napoleon was obliged to forbid the playing of Partant pour la Syrie in his armies, on account of the homesickness and consequent desertion it occasioned.

NOTE 5, page 118.-- Jeu de Paume (tennis-court), is the name given to the meeting of the third-estate ( tiers-état ) in 1789, from the locality where it took place.

NOTE 6, page 161.--The English used by the two young noblemen is M. About's own. It is certainly such English as Frenchmen would be apt to speak, and it is as fair to attribute that fact to M. About's fine sense of the requirements of the occasion, as to lack of familiarity with our language.

NOTE 7, page 164.--It is not without interest to note that M. About used the English word gentlemen .

NOTE 8, page 166.-- War against tyrants! Never, never, never shall the Briton reign in France!

NOTE 9, page 214.--The original here contains a neat little conceit, which cannot be translated, but which is too good to be lost. The French for daughter-in-law is belle fille , literally "beautiful girl." To Fougas' address " Ma belle fille! " Mme. Langevin replies: " I am not beautiful, and I am not a girl. " It suggests the similar retort received by Faust from Marguerite, when he addressed her as beautiful young lady!

NOTE 10, page 230.--The Translator has intentionally used both the singular and the plural of the second person in Fougas' apostrophe to Clementine, as it seemed to him naturally required by the variations of the sentiment.

NOTE 11, page 248.--The reader will bear in mind Marshal Leblanc's allusion to condemned horses. Imprint

Publication Date: 05-06-2008

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