Renault were succeeding each other on the table, Fougas asked--but without ever losing a bite--what were the principal wars in progress, how many nations France had on her hands, and if it was not intended ultimately to recommence the conquest of the world?
The answers which he received, without completely satisfying him, did not entirely deprive him of hope.
"I did well to come," said he; "there's work to do." The African wars did not interest him much, although in them the 23d had won a good share of glory.
"As a school, it's very well," said he.

"The soldier ought to train himself in other ways than in the Tivoli gardens, behind nurses' petticoats.

But why the devil are not five hundred thousand men flung upon the back of England?
England is the soul of the coalition, I can tell you that." How many explanations were necessary to make him understand the Crimean war, where the English had fought by our sides! "I can understand," said he, "why we took a crack at the Russians--they made me eat my best horse.

But the English are a thousand times worse.
If this young man" (the Emperor Napoleon III.) "doesn't know it, I'll tell him.

There is no quarter possible after what they did at St.
Helena! If I had been commander-in-chief in the Crimea, I would have begun by properly squelching the Russians, after which I would have turned upon the English, and hurled them into the sea.