A shorter introduction and quite possibly the beginning of Chapter one.

To begin with, it was very dark. This is not an excuse as to why things happened but simply fact. It was night, just after midnight I think, and the clouds hung low in the sky. It had rained earlier and now the air was...  moist.

In this dark moistness stumbled three darker shapes trying ever so hard to be quiet and failing. This was mostly due to the amount of wine consumed and the fact that is was dark. Very very dark. Did I mention being moist?

"I can't see a damned thing!"

"Shhh.."

"Ooof!"

"Stop stepping on me!"

"Sorry."

"SHHHHHHHHH!"

"...stop shhhh-ing us. It's annoying."

"...then shut the fuck up!" Do you want the pickets to hear us?"

"....ours... or the Austrians?"

a pause of sorts as the three shapes swayed in the dark

"... either. Ours mostly. The Austrians won't shoot us if they think we are deserting."

"They will just shoot us for being French."

"Well.... I'm not French, you know."

...

"Neither am I."

"Nor I, but I doubt that will matter since we are in the French army, wearing French uniforms, seeking out of a French camp..."

"We could tell them we are spies."

"Who? The Austrians?"

"...or the French."

The shapes thought about this for a moment.

"They shoot spies though, don't they."

"Yes."

"oh... yeah."

"How about we just shut the fuck up and not bump into them at all?"

"Who? The French?"

"...anyone."

"That would probably be for the best."

 and the shapes disappeared further into the dark.

Being an Introduction of sorts.

On the tenth of April in the year 1809 several things happened. First of which was the price of cheese in the city of Paris rose almost 2 cents. This caused much anguish to the people of Paris and rioting almost began. The reason the French in Paris did not riot was the news that the Austrians, those damned Nancys living to the east, had invaded southern Germany...again. By today's' thinking that is a most unusual thing, but in the early 1800s the Austrians were always causing some mishap (if not them then it was most assuredly the English) and so it was up to the French to move quickly to restore German pride (again, not a common thing now-days) and so, the Great Cheese Riots of 1809 did not happen.

What did happen was that the Emperor of the French, one Napoleon Bonaparte, ordered his rather large army that had been taking in the sea air on the French coast in preparation for the invasion of England, to pack up and head east. One of these units in the French army was the 21ere Regiment de Ligne, or in the English way of saying it: The 21st Line. It was part of the 3rd Division of the III Corps commanded by Marchel Davout.

There were three battalions in the 21st. Each fielded about 700 men in the ranks in six companies. The one we are most interested in is the 1st Battalion, 3rd company. To be more exact, we are interested in 3 fusiliers. This is the story they have set down about their adventures during this epic campaign. The author cannot comment about the validity of their story, I am merely translating the words from their diaries from French into English, in the hope that someone may find interest in this remarkable story.