We begged the Marshal to use a boat we had found to cross over the Danube and escape.

'No,' he said, 'certainly not! I will not desert my brave comrades! I will save them or die with them.' Ah, he was a brave man that day." "And that such a man could betray the Emperor!" exclaimed another.
"I never could understand it," said one of the soldiers.
"That was the day," said a third, "when our drums were shot to pieces and we had to beat the long roll on the iron cooking cans." "You remember it well, comrade." "I was a drummer there.

I remember there were but two thousand of the six thousand in the division that answered roll call that day." "I carried that Eagle into Moscow," said a scarred, one-armed veteran.
"I would have carried it back, but I was wounded at Malojaroslavets and would have died but for you, my friend." "And I carried it across the Niemen after that retreat was over," returned the other, acknowledging the generous tribute of his old fellow soldier.
"Sacre-bleu! How cold it was.

Not many of you can remember that march because so few survived it.

The battalions in Spain can thank God they escaped it," said another.
"It was hot enough there, and those English gave us plenty of fighting," added one of the veterans who had fought against Wellington.
"Aye, that they did, I'll warrant," continued the veteran of Russia.
"The Emperor who marched on foot with the rest of us.