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Short Rounds
"Save the Emperor! Save the Emperor!"
One day, during the height of the Empire, Napoleon and his entourage went on a boar hunt in the forests near Marly, a small village not far from Paris.
The Imperial party was rather large, but the Emperor, Marshal Soult, and Marshal Berthier were out in front, in a position to get in the first shots once the beaters roused a boar.
By chance, the beaters roused not a boar, but three. And all three of them made straight for the Imperial party. As Napoleon, Soult, and Berthier patiently took aim and fired, and then went to work with their bayonets � for such was the way � the rest of the Imperial party acted with, shall we say, great discretion.
Some time later, at a soiree, the Emperor himself told what happened next,. . .
"We killed them all three, but I received a hurt from my adversary and nearly lost this finger"[indicating the third finger of his left hand.]
"But the most laughable circumstance of all was to see a multitude of men, surrounded by their dogs, screen themselves behind the three heroes, and calling out lustily, �Save the Emperor! Save the Emperor!', though not one advanced to my assistance."
"Buffalo Chips," Frontier Scout
During the 1876 campaign against the Northern Cheyenne and the Sioux in the Powder River country, Maj. Gen. Phil Sheridan asked to meet the famous "Buffalo Bill" Cody. It chanced that Cody was not around. Not wishing to disappoint the general, one of Cody's friends, also named Bill, decided to pass himself off as the famous scout.
As it turned out, Sheridan had met Cody once or twice before. So the general took one look at the imposter and said "'Buffalo Shit', more likely."
The nickname stuck, though in polite society the man was henceforth known as "Buffalo Chips." Fortunately � or unfortunately � he did not have to bear the humiliation long, as he was killed in action at Slim Buttes on September 9th of that same year.
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