"Come, Moses, don't be so disconsolate; this is only a formality. We
have troops enough for active service; we shall have only to mount
guard. If sorties are to be made, or attacks repulsed, they will not
take you; you are not of an age to run, or to give a bayonet stroke!
You are gray and bald. Don't be troubled!"
"Yes," I said, "that is very true, Burguet, I am broken down--more so,
perhaps, than you think."
"That is well," said he, "but go and take your musket and
cartridge-box."
"And are we not going to stay in the barracks?"
"No, no!" he cried, laughing aloud, "we are going to live quietly at
home."
He shook hands with me, and I went under the arch of the mayoralty.
The stairway was crowded with people, and we heard names called out.
And there, Fritz, you should have seen the looks of the Robinots, the
Gourdiers, the Mariners, that mass of tilers, knife-grinders,
house-painters, people who, every day, in ordinary times, would take
off their caps to you to get a little work--you should have seen them
straighten themselves up, look at you pityingly over the shoulder, blow
in their cheeks, and call out:
"Ah, Moses, is it thou? Thou wilt make a comical soldier. He! he! he!
They will cut thy mustaches according to regulation!"
And such-like nonsense.
Yes, everything was changed; these former bullies had been named in
advance sergeants, sergeant-majors, corporals, and the rest of us were
nothing at all. War upsets everything; the first become last, and the
last first. It is not good sense but discipline which carries the day.
The man who scrubbed your floor yesterday, because he was too stupid to
gain a living any other way, becomes your sergeant, and if he tells you
that white is black, you must let it be so.
At last, after waiting an hour, some one called out, "Moses!" and I
went up.
The great hall above was full of people. They all exclaimed:
"Moses! Wilt thou come, Moses? Ah, see him! He is the old guard!
Look now, how he is built! Thou shalt be ensign, Moses! Thou shalt
lead us on to victory!"
And the fools laughed, nudging each others' elbows. I passed on,
without answering or even looking at them.
In the room at the farther end, where the names were drawn at
conscriptions, Governor Moulin, Commandant Petitgenet, the mayor,
Frichard, secretary of the mayoralty, Rollin, captain of apparel, and
six or seven other superannuated men, crippled with rheumatism, brought
from all parts of the world, were met in council, some sitting, the
rest standing.
These old ones began to laugh as they saw me come in. I heard them say
to one another: "He is strong yet! Yes, he is all right."
So they talked, one after another. I thought to myself: "Say what you
like, you will not make me think that you are twenty years old, or that
you are handsome."
But I kept silence.
Suddenly the governor, who was talking with the mayor in a corner,
turned around, with his great chapeau awry, and looking at me, said:
"What do you intend to do with such a patriarch? You see very well
that he can hardly stand."