Part 18 (1/2)

But when one can tell, as can I, of stories that are true,--of history--history this--history that--true histories every one--bah!”

and, shrugging his shoulders, old Nonesuch tapped upon his neighbor's snuff-box, and, with his only hand, drew out a mighty pinch by way of emphasis.

”Well, what say thou, Nonesuch,--you and your histories?” persisted the young admirer of the ”Arabian Nights.”

”As for me,--my faith! I like only marvellous.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: ”Beneath the great dome he rests”--The Hotel des Invalides (The 'Soldiers' Home' in Paris, containing the Tomb of Napoleon)]

”And I tell you this, youngster,” the old veteran cried, while his voice cracked into a tremble in his excitement, ”there is more of the marvellous in the one little finger of my history than in all the characters you can crowd together in your 'Thousand and One Nights.'

Bah!--Stephen, boy; light my pipe.”

”And what is your history, Father Nonesuch?” demanded ”the youngster,”

while two-armed Stephen, a gray old ”boy” of seventy, filled and lighted the old veteran's pipe.

”My history?” cried old Nonesuch, struggling to his feet,--or rather to his foot,--and removing his hat, ”it is, my son, that of the Emperor Napoleon!”

And at the word, each old soldier sprang also to his feet, and removed his hat silently and in reverence.

”Why, youngster!” old Father Nonesuch continued, dropping again to the bench, ”if one wished to relate about my emperor a thousand and one stories a thousand and one nights; to see even a thousand and one days increased by a thousand and one battles, adding to that a thousand and one victories, one would have a thousand and a million million things --fine, glorious, delightful, to hear. For, remember, comrades,” and the old man well-nigh exploded with his mathematical calculation, and the grandeur of his own recollections, ”remember you this: I never left the great Napoleon!”

”Ah, yes,” another aged veteran chimed in; ”ah, yes; he was a great man.”

Old Nonesuch clapped his hand to his ear.

”Pardon me, comrade the Corsican,” he said, with the air of one who had not heard aright; ”excuse my question, but would you kindly tell me whom you call a great man?”

”Whom, old deaf ears? Why, the Emperor Napoleon, of course,” replied the Corsican.

Old Nonesuch burst out laughing, and pounded the pavement with his heavy cane.

”To call the emperor a man!” he exclaimed; ”and what, then, will you call me?”

”You? why, what should we?” said the Corsican veteran; ”old Father Nonesuch, old 'Not Entire,' otherwise, Corporal Francis Haut of Brienne.”

”Ah, bah!” cried the persistent veteran; ”I do not mean my name, stupid!

I mean my quality, my--my t.i.tle, my--well--my s.e.x,--indeed, what am I?”

”Well, what is left of you, I suppose,” laughed the Corsican, ”we might call a man.”

”A man! there you have it exactly!” cried old Nonesuch. ”I am a man; and so are you, Corsican, and you, Stephen, and you,--almost so,--youngster.

But my emperor--the Emperor Napoleon! was he a man? Away with you! It was the English who invented that story; they did not know what he was capable of, those Englis.h.!.+ The emperor a man? Bah!”

”What was he, then? A woman?” queried the Corsican.

”Ah, stupid one! where are your wits?” cried old Nonesuch, shaking pipe and cane excitedly. ”Are you, then, as dull as those English? Why, the emperor was--the emperor! It is we, his soldiers, who were men.”

The Corsican veteran shook his head musingly.

”It may be so; it may be so, good Nonesuch. I do not say no to you,” he said. ”Ah, my dear emperor! I have seen him often. I knew him when he was small; I knew him when he was grown. I saw him born; I saw him die”--”Halt there!” cried old Nonesuch; ”let me stop you once more, good comrade Corsican. Do not make these other 'Not Entires' swallow such impossible and indigestible things. The emperor was never born; the emperor never died; the emperor has always been; the emperor always will be. To prove it,” he added quickly, holding up his cane, as he saw that the Corsican was about to protest at this surprising statement, ”to prove it, let me tell you. He fought at Constantine; he fought at St.