LIEUTENANT. Not at all: I don't fly so high. Besides: I'm better
as I am: men like me are wanted in the army just now. The fact
is, the Revolution was all very well for civilians; but it won't
work in the army. You know what soldiers are, General: they WILL
have men of family for their officers. A subaltern must be a
gentleman, because he's so much in contact with the men. But a
general, or even a colonel, may be any sort of riff-raff if he
understands the shop well enough. A lieutenant is a gentleman:
all the rest is chance. Why, who do you suppose won the battle of
Lodi? I'll tell you. My horse did.

NAPOLEON (rising) Your folly is carrying you too far, sir. Take
care.

LIEUTENANT. Not a bit of it. You remember all that red-hot
cannonade across the river: the Austrians blazing away at you to
keep you from crossing, and you blazing away at them to keep them
from setting the bridge on fire? Did you notice where I was then?

NAPOLEON (with menacing politeness). I am sorry. I am afraid I
was rather occupied at the moment.

GIUSEPPE (with eager admiration). They say you jumped off your
horse and worked the big guns with your own hands, General.

LIEUTENANT. That was a mistake: an officer should never let
himself down to the level of his men. (Napoleon looks at him
dangerously, and begins to walk tigerishly to and fro.) But you
might have been firing away at the Austrians still, if we cavalry
fellows hadn't found the ford and got across and turned old