Napoleon rushed on.

No coalition should daunt him: he could overpower any number of men--everything except the cold of Russia--and the losses of that campaign had been made good.

He then diverged into stories about that war, varied by digressions as to his exact knowledge of Austria's armaments, details of which were sent to him daily.

To end this wandering talk, Metternich reminded him that his troops now were not men but boys.

Whereupon the Emperor passionately replied: "You do not know what goes on in the mind of a soldier; a man such as I does not take much heed of the lives of a million of men,"-- and he threw aside his hat.