In all the great French army there was only one officer to whom the English of Wellington's army harbored a deep, vivid, inextinguishable hatred. There were among the French robbers, rapists, avid players, duelists and hangings. All this can be forgiven, because it was not difficult to find them among the British. But one officer in Massenet's army committed a crime unheard of, unheard of, terrible; not by nightfall be it remembered, unless the second bottle untie the tongues. News of this reached England, and gentlemen from the remote corners, who knew little of the war, blushed with fury when they heard of it, and yeomen from all the counties threatened the sky with freckles and spewed curses. Well, of course, our friend Brigadier tienne Gérard of the Conflan Hussar Regiment, a dashing rider, a bully, a good fellow, a favorite of ladies and six brigades of light cavalry .