Napoleon, in his Italian successes, took a Hungarian battalion
prisoners. The colonel, an old man, complained bitterly of the French
mode of fighting--by rapid and desultory attacks, on the flank, the
rear, the lines of communication, &c., concluding by saying, “that he
fought in the army of Maria Theresa.”
“You must be _old_?” said Napoleon.
“Yes, I am either sixty or seventy.”
“Why, colonel, you have certainly lived long enough to know how to count
years a little more closely?”
“General,” said the Hungarian, “I reckon my money, my shirts, and my
horses; but as for my years, I know that nobody will want to steal them,
and that I shall never lose one of them!”
* * * * *