Ping! come a bullet and catch me in the calf. 'You hold
your head too high, brother,' the general say, and he smile. 'I'll hold
it higher,' answer I, and I snatch at a soldier. 'Up with me on your
shoulder, big comrade,' I say, and he lift me up. I make my sticks sing
on the leather. 'You shall take off your hat to the Little Corporal
to-morrow, if you've still your head, brother'--speak Davoust like that,
and then he ride away like the devil to Morand's guns. Ha, ha, ha!" The
sergeant's face was blazing with a white glare, for he was very pale, and
seemed unconscious of all save the scene in his mind's eye. "Ha, ha, ha!"
he laughed again. "Beautiful God, how did Davoust bring us on up to
Sonnenberg! And next day I saw the Little Corporal. 'Drummer,' say he,
'no head's too high for my Guard. Come you, comrade, your general gives
you to me. Come, Corporal Lagroin,' he call; and I come. 'But, first,' he
say, 'up on the shoulder of your big soldier again, and play.' 'What
shall I play, sire?' I ask. 'Play ten thousand heroes to Walhalla,' he
answer. I play, and I think of my brother Jacques, who went fighting to
heaven the day before.
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