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Crainquebille, Putois, Riquet and other profitable tales
Crainquebille Putois Riquet and other profitable tales Author:Anatole France Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: boots, for you looked up from your work and cried: Why it is Puss in Boots !' " " Did I say ' Puss in Boots.' Poor Emile." " You said ' Puss in Boots '; and ... more »you need not regret it, Zoe. Madame d'Abrantes in her Memoirs relates how a young girl seeing Napoleon, then young and slender, ridiculously accoutred as a General of the Republic, likewise called him ' Puss in Boots.' Bonaparte never forgave her for it. Our friend was more magnanimous; the title did not offend him. Emile Vincent and his company were placed under the command of a general who did not like francs-tireurs, and who thus harangued them: ' It is not everything to be dressed for a carnival. You must know how to fight.' " The caustic speech did not trouble my friend Vincent. He was splendid throughout the campaign. One day he was seen to approach the enemy's outposts with all the calm of a shortsighted man and a hero. He could not see three steps before him. Nothing could make him retreat. For the remaining thirty years of his life, while he was making carpet-brooms, he lived on the memory of that campaign. He read military newspapers, presided over meetings of his former companions in arms, was present at the unveiling ofmonuments raised to the soldiers of 1870. When from time to time there were erected on French soil monuments to Vercingetorix, to Jeanne d'Arc, to the soldiers of the Loire, at the head of the workmen in his factory, Emile defiled before them. He made patriotic speeches. And, here Zoe, we approach a scene in the comedy of life, the melancholy humour of which may one day be appreciated. During the Dreyfus Affair it occurred to Emile Vincent to say that Esterhazy was a fraud and a traitor. He said it because he knew it was so and because he was far too candid ever to conceal the truth. From that...« less