The art of spying brings about happenings so fantastic that even the movies could name, was Napoleon's chief spy and more valuable to the Little Corporal than any of his gener:
In his native Alsace, Schulmeister was pursuing a nice little career as a smuggler on the Rhine, and the authorities came to have such admiration for his of evading them that he became something of a hero.
Finally caught with the goods, Schulmeister was interviewed at length by a Col. Savory of the French Army, who persuaded him that there would be easier money in a spot of spying for Napoleon.
So Savory wrote to Napoleon that he was sending him a man who was "all brain and no heart," and when Schulmeister was granted an audience with the emperor, Napoleon was surprised to see a man with iron-grey hair and a stupid face.
Nap, always one for quick decisions, turned thumbs down on Schulmeister and out of the room. When he returned a few minutes later he found a cocky individual with red hair, and for an uneasy moment Nap thought that one of the proletariat had penetrated the guards in order to knock him off. "Who are you?" asked Napoleon. "The real Schulmeister!" replied the red-head. Needless to say, he got the job.
Some time later a party of French troopers kicked a dopey individual out of their lines. After brushing himself off, he wandered over to Austrian territory, where a patrol officer began asking him questions. The dopey gent explained that the French thought he might be a spy, but as they'd had no definite charges io make, they'd simply expelled him.
The Austrian officer, a sergeant, pressed him further. Was he really a spy? Karl Schulmeister whispered that he was a Hungarian who hated the French and that indeed he had been able to get hold of information which might bring victory to their enemies.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.