Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1860-06-26

iorty-one voices.
aSilence in the ranks" shouted tn,
general, then turning again to Bilboquet h,
said
''What am to do, my poor boy2 IT.
very hard, but they have forgotten you-be
sides, you are very young" he continued
I'Wait till you have hair on your chin, anJ
then you'll get the cross too. In the mean
while, you must try to console yourself with
this"
And with these words, the general held out
a forty-franc piece to the unfortunate Bilbo-
Quet He looked at it for a few seconds,
without evincing the slightest intention OF
taking it. All were silent. Every one was
looking at the poor little drummer-boy, and
wondering what he would do. His eyes were
full of tears, and those who had been the first
to tease'him, now pitied him from the bottom
of their hearts. The whole regiment seemed
inclined to take up his case, and probably
the result would have been petition to the
Emperor, had not the young drummer sud-
denly changed his attitude
He raised his head, and looked the general
full in the face, and said
"Well, give it to me, must wait for
another time"
And without any further ceremony, he put
the coin in his pocket, and went back to the
ranks humming an air.
From this moment no one thought Of i'll
treating young Bilboquet But he was not
very communicative to his comrades, and
seemed to have some strange project in his
head, about which he was constantly medi-
tating. 1t was expected that he would spend
his forty francs in a treat, and several hints,
to that affect were thrown out by his fellow
soldiers. But no. Bilboquet kept his money
and his counsel to himself
Some time afterwards, the French army
entered Smolensk. Bilboquet had assisted
at the capture, and the day after walked all
| over the town, examining every face with
remarkable curiosity. He seemed pleased
with most of the physiognomies he saw, for
he was perpetually smiling, especially when
he met a man who had a long beard, and he
met several thousands of them in the course
Of the day.
However, the boards of Smolensk are, for
the most part, carroty. This seems not to
1 have met with Bilboquets appreciation; but
/ he probably reflected, that if the Russians,
/ the Poles, and other SclavOnians had red
I boards that was not their fault and that they
/ had not chosen that color themselves for the
/ purpose of annoying a French drummer boy
/ However that may have been, he continued
/ TO laugh whenever he met man with red
/ beard, until at last he found himself in the
/ Jewish quarter of the city, where all the
/ Lizards are black.
BilbOquet did not like Jews but he liked
their black boards, and indeed was so de-
| lighted that he resolved to have one of them,
and that without delay.
Behind the counter, in dirty little shop
which was one of long line, stood He
brew, with magnificent beard, as black as
ebony
"What do you want, my little man 2"
said the Jew patronizingly.
8" want your beard, said Bilboquet, in
decided lone
"My beard you're Joking my itrttv
man u suggested its proprietor, with an un-
easy expression of cOuntenance.
al want your beard, | tell you, repeated
Bilboquet, as he put his hand on his sabre
"and what's more, mean to have it. But
don't think want to rob you Of il" he ad-
ded here is forty-ffanc piece; you can
keep the change"
The poor Jew tried to convince BilbOquet
that his beard would be of no use to him,
that it was not worth forty francs or forty
sous, or forty centimes to any one that he,
Bilboquet, would do much better to invest
his money in horse-hair if he really wanted
anything of the kind, that he, the Jew, would
gladly undertake such a commission, and so
on.
But it was all in vain. BilbOquet was de-
termined to have his forty francs worth Of
black beard. Some French soldiers had been
attracted to the jews shop, by the high
words that had passed between the latter and
BilbOquet and having ascertained what the
quarrel was about came to the conclusion
that the drummer-bOys notion was both
humorous and original, and called upon this
Hebrew to surrender his chin at discretion.
Fortunately for the Jew, one of the sol
diers who were present, happened to be the
barber of the regiment-We say, fortunately,
because in the absence of a razor, there can
be no doubt whatever, but that he would
have been shaved with a sabre. However,
the beard was taken of, more or less accord
ing to art, and given to Bilboquet who folded
it up carefully in piece of paper, and slowed
it away in his pocket.
When BilbOquets regained his quarters he
got the regiment tailor to sew the Jews beard
or Bilboquets beard as it had now become,
to a strip of parchment, cut from an old drum
and then, without giving any explanation
of his design, put it at the very bottom OF his
knapsack. His comrades bothered him about
the matter for few days, but then the regi-
ment started eastward, and after the battle of
Borodino, and the taking of Moscow, such
incidents as BilbOquet's adventures with the
Jew OF SmOlensk, naturally escaped recollec-
ton. -.....
Then came the horrors of the retreat-cold,
Cossacks, and famine. Napoleon's army was
decimated in the worst sense; that is to say,
every tenth man was spared, while the nine
others fell victims to the Oossacks lances,
hunger, or to the Russian snow. The ninth
regiment formed part of the rear-guard,
which fought so magnifcently under the lead
ership and auspices of Ney. Little Bilboquet
was among the most fortunate, for he was
neither wounded nor frost bitten.
A few days after the terrible passage of the
Beresino, the troops had to cross a small riv-
er, over which the engineers had already
thrown bridge. BilbOquets brigade, which
formed the extreme rear, had passed over in
safety, and the great point now was, to pre-
vent the Russians following. The general
ordered the sappers to blow up the bridge,
but the explosion was attended Win only
partial success. One half of the bridge was
connected with the other by means of a sin
gle beam. If this beam could be cut in two,
the whole structure would fall into the water.
Otherwise the enemy would have no difficult
ty in repairing the bridge, and their pursuit
would not be delayed for more than an hour
at most. Some Sappers were directed to get
on a raft, and endeaYored to destroy the
bridge altogether but the Russians arrived
on the opposite bank of the river before the
order could be obeyed, and opened a murder
Gus fire which seemed TO render its execution
quite impossible The French returned the
/ fire and the army was about to move on,
when suddenly, a soldier with hatchet on
his shoulder, plunged into the river, dived
and come up half minute afterwards at
/ short distance from the beam, which it was
desired to sever. By his long beard, it was