troopers there. What has become of the rest?' General Morland, at fighting an excellent and very brave officer, but not gifted with the faculty of ready reply, was taken aback, and answered, in his Alsatian French, that only a very small number of men were missing. The Emperor maintained that there were close upon four hundred short, and to clear the matter up he determined to have them counted on the spot; but knowing that Morland was much liked by his staff, and being afraid of what their good nature might do, he thought that it would be safer if he took an officer who belonged neither to his household nor to the guard, and, catching sight of me, he ordered me to count the chasseurs, and to come and report their number to him in person. Having said this, he galloped off. I began my operation, which was all the more easy that the troopers were marching at a walk and in fours."
It is a proof of the wonderful accuracy of Napoleon's eye that his estimate on this occasion turned out to be correct almost to a unit. But Marbot, unable to withstand the appeal of the commander, backed up by that of the surgeon who had stood beside his father's death-bed, declared to the Emperor that they were only eighty instead of four hundred short. Marbot delayed his report until evening, fearing that if he told his lie to the Emperor during the day,
