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+Project Gutenberg's The Exploits Of Brigadier Gerard, by Arthur Conan Doyle
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Exploits Of Brigadier Gerard
+
+Author: Arthur Conan Doyle
+
+Release Date: February 23, 2004 [EBook #11247]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EXPLOITS OF BRIGADIER GERARD ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Garrett Alley, and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+The Exploits of BRIGADIER GERARD
+
+
+SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
+
+
+
+
+_This book is published by arrangement with the Estate of the late Sir
+Arthur Conan Doyle_
+
+
+
+1896
+
+
+
+BY SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
+
+_The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes_
+_The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes_
+_The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes_
+_The Return of Sherlock Holmes_
+_His Last Bow_
+_The Hound of the Baskervilles_
+_The Sign of Four_
+_The Valley of Fear_
+_Sir Nigel_
+_The White Company_
+_Micah Clarke_
+_The Refugees_
+_Rodney Stone_
+_Uncle Bernac_
+_Adventures of Gerard_
+_The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard_
+_The Lost World_
+_The Tragedy of the Korosko_
+
+
+OMNIBUS VOLUMES
+
+_Great Stories_
+_The Conan Doyle Stories_
+_The Sherlock Holmes Short Stories_
+_The Sherlock Holmes Long Stories_
+_The Historical Romances_
+_The Complete Professor Challenger Stories_
+_The Complete Napoleonic Stories_
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle_
+
+by John Dickson Carr
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+1. How the Brigadier came to the Castle of Gloom
+
+2. How the Brigadier slew the brothers of Ajaccio
+
+3. How the Brigadier held the King
+
+4. How the King held the Brigadier
+
+5. How the Brigadier took the field against the Marshal Millefleurs
+
+6. How the Brigadier played for a kingdom
+
+7. How the Brigadier won his Medal
+
+8. How the Brigadier was tempted by the Devil
+
+
+
+
+1. HOW THE BRIGADIER CAME TO THE CASTLE OF GLOOM[A]
+
+
+You do very well, my friends, to treat me with some little reverence,
+for in honouring me you are honouring both France and yourselves. It is
+not merely an old, grey-moustached officer whom you see eating his
+omelette or draining his glass, but it is a fragment of history. In me
+you see one of the last of those wonderful men, the men who were
+veterans when they were yet boys, who learned to use a sword earlier
+than a razor, and who during a hundred battles had never once let the
+enemy see the colour of their knapsacks. For twenty years we were
+teaching Europe how to fight, and even when they had learned their
+lesson it was only the thermometer, and never the bayonet, which could
+break the Grand Army down. Berlin, Naples, Vienna, Madrid, Lisbon,
+Moscow--we stabled our horses in them all. Yes, my friends, I say again
+that you do well to send your children to me with flowers, for these
+ears have heard the trumpet calls of France, and these eyes have seen
+her standards in lands where they may never be seen again.
+
+Even now, when I doze in my arm-chair, I can see those great warriors
+stream before me--the green-jacketed chasseurs, the giant cuirassiers,
+Poniatowsky's lancers, the white-mantled dragoons, the nodding bearskins
+of the horse grenadiers. And then there comes the thick, low rattle of
+the drums, and through wreaths of dust and smoke I see the line of high
+bonnets, the row of brown faces, the swing and toss of the long, red
+plumes amid the sloping lines of steel. And there rides Ney with his red
+head, and Lefebvre with his bulldog jaw, and Lannes with his Gascon
+swagger; and then amidst the gleam of brass and the flaunting feathers I
+catch a glimpse of _him_, the man with the pale smile, the rounded
+shoulders, and the far-off eyes. There is an end of my sleep, my
+friends, for up I spring from my chair, with a cracked voice calling and
+a silly hand outstretched, so that Madame Titaux has one more laugh at
+the old fellow who lives among the shadows.
+
+Although I was a full Chief of Brigade when the wars came to an end, and
+had every hope of soon being made a General of Division, it is still
+rather to my earlier days that I turn when I wish to talk of the glories
+and the trials of a soldier's life. For you will understand that when an
+officer has so many men and horses under him, he has his mind full of
+recruits and remounts, fodder and farriers, and quarters, so that even
+when he is not in the face of the enemy, life is a very serious matter
+for him. But when he is only a lieutenant or a captain he has nothing
+heavier than his epaulettes upon his shoulders, so that he can clink his
+spurs and swing his dolman, drain his glass and kiss his girl, thinking
+of nothing save of enjoying a gallant life. That is the time when he is
+likely to have adventures, and it is often to that time that I shall
+turn in the stories which I may have for you. So it will be tonight when
+I tell you of my visit to the Castle of Gloom; of the strange mission of
+Sub-Lieutenant Duroc, and of the horrible affair of the man who was once
+known as Jean Carabin, and afterwards as the Baron Straubenthal.
+
+You must know, then, that in the February of 1807, immediately after the
+taking of Danzig, Major Legendre and I were commissioned to bring four
+hundred remounts from Prussia into Eastern Poland.
+
+The hard weather, and especially the great battle at Eylau, had killed
+so many of the horses that there was some danger of our beautiful Tenth
+of Hussars becoming a battalion of light infantry. We knew, therefore,
+both the Major and I, that we should be very welcome at the front. We
+did not advance very rapidly, however, for the snow was deep, the roads
+detestable, and we had but twenty returning invalids to assist us.
+Besides, it is impossible, when you have a daily change of forage, and
+sometimes none at all, to move horses faster than a walk. I am aware
+that in the story-books the cavalry whirls past at the maddest of
+gallops; but for my own part, after twelve campaigns, I should be very
+satisfied to know that my brigade could always walk upon the march and
+trot in the presence of the enemy. This I say of the hussars and
+chasseurs, mark you, so that it is far more the case with cuirassiers or
+dragoons.
+
+For myself I am fond of horses, and to have four hundred of them, of
+every age and shade and character, all under my own hands, was a very
+great pleasure to me. They were from Pomerania for the most part, though
+some were from Normandy and some from Alsace, and it amused us to notice
+that they differed in character as much as the people of those
+provinces. We observed also, what I have often proved since, that the
+nature of a horse can be told by his colour, from the coquettish light
+bay, full of fancies and nerves, to the hardy chestnut, and from the
+docile roan to the pig-headed rusty-black. All this has nothing in the
+world to do with my story, but how is an officer of cavalry to get on
+with his tale when he finds four hundred horses waiting for him at the
+outset? It is my habit, you see, to talk of that which interests myself
+and so I hope that I may interest you.
+
+We crossed the Vistula opposite Marienwerder, and had got as far as
+Riesenberg, when Major Legendre came into my room in the post-house with
+an open paper in his hand.
+
+'You are to leave me,' said he, with despair upon his face.
+
+It was no very great grief to me to do that, for he was, if I may say
+so, hardly worthy to have such a subaltern. I saluted, however, in
+silence.
+
+'It is an order from General Lasalle,' he continued; 'you are to
+proceed to Rossel instantly, and to report yourself at the headquarters
+of the regiment.'
+
+No message could have pleased me better. I was already very well thought
+of by my superior officers. It was evident to me, therefore, that this
+sudden order meant that the regiment was about to see service once more,
+and that Lasalle understood how incomplete my squadron would be without
+me. It is true that it came at an inconvenient moment, for the keeper of
+the post-house had a daughter--one of those ivory-skinned, black-haired
+Polish girls--with whom I had hoped to have some further talk. Still, it
+is not for the pawn to argue when the fingers of the player move him
+from the square; so down I went, saddled my big black charger, Rataplan,
+and set off instantly upon my lonely journey.
+
+My word, it was a treat for those poor Poles and Jews, who have so
+little to brighten their dull lives, to see such a picture as that
+before their doors! The frosty morning air made Rataplan's great black
+limbs and the beautiful curves of his back and sides gleam and shimmer
+with every gambade. As for me, the rattle of hoofs upon a road, and the
+jingle of bridle chains which comes with every toss of a saucy head,
+would even now set my blood dancing through my veins. You may think,
+then, how I carried myself in my five-and-twentieth year--I, Etienne
+Gerard, the picked horseman and surest blade in the ten regiments of
+hussars. Blue was our colour in the Tenth--a sky-blue dolman and pelisse
+with a scarlet front--and it was said of us in the army that we could
+set a whole population running, the women towards us, and the men away.
+There were bright eyes in the Riesenberg windows that morning which
+seemed to beg me to tarry; but what can a soldier do, save to kiss his
+hand and shake his bridle as he rides upon his way?
+
+It was a bleak season to ride through the poorest and ugliest country in
+Europe, but there was a cloudless sky above, and a bright, cold sun,
+which shimmered on the huge snowfields. My breath reeked into the
+frosty air, and Rataplan sent up two feathers of steam from his
+nostrils, while the icicles drooped from the side-irons of his bit. I
+let him trot to warm his limbs, while for my own part I had too much to
+think of to give much heed to the cold. To north and south stretched the
+great plains, mottled over with dark clumps of fir and lighter patches
+of larch. A few cottages peeped out here and there, but it was only
+three months since the Grand Army had passed that way, and you know what
+that meant to a country. The Poles were our friends, it was true, but
+out of a hundred thousand men, only the Guard had waggons, and the rest
+had to live as best they might. It did not surprise me, therefore, to
+see no signs of cattle and no smoke from the silent houses. A weal had
+been left across the country where the great host had passed, and it was
+said that even the rats were starved wherever the Emperor had led his
+men.
+
+By midday I had got as far as the village of Saalfeldt, but as I was on
+the direct road for Osterode, where the Emperor was wintering, and also
+for the main camp of the seven divisions of infantry, the highway was
+choked with carriages and carts. What with artillery caissons and
+waggons and couriers, and the ever-thickening stream of recruits and
+stragglers, it seemed to me that it would be a very long time before I
+should join my comrades. The plains, however, were five feet deep in
+snow, so there was nothing for it but to plod upon our way. It was with
+joy, therefore, that I found a second road which branched away from the
+other, trending through a fir-wood towards the north. There was a small
+auberge at the cross-roads, and a patrol of the Third Hussars of
+Conflans--the very regiment of which I was afterwards colonel--were
+mounting their horses at the door. On the steps stood their officer, a
+slight, pale young man, who looked more like a young priest from a
+seminary than a leader of the devil-may-care rascals before him.
+
+'Good-day, sir,' said he, seeing that I pulled up my horse.
+
+'Good-day,' I answered. 'I am Lieutenant Etienne Gerard, of the Tenth.'
+
+I could see by his face that he had heard of me. Everybody had heard of
+me since my duel with the six fencing masters. My manner, however,
+served to put him at his ease with me.
+
+'I am Sub-Lieutenant Duroc, of the Third,' said he.
+
+'Newly joined?' I asked.
+
+'Last week.'
+
+I had thought as much, from his white face and from the way in which he
+let his men lounge upon their horses. It was not so long, however, since
+I had learned myself what it was like when a schoolboy has to give
+orders to veteran troopers. It made me blush, I remember, to shout
+abrupt commands to men who had seen more battles than I had years, and
+it would have come more natural for me to say, 'With your permission, we
+shall now wheel into line,' or, 'If you think it best, we shall trot.' I
+did not think the less of the lad, therefore, when I observed that his
+men were somewhat out of hand, but I gave them a glance which stiffened
+them in their saddles.
+
+'May I ask, monsieur, whether you are going by this northern road?' I
+asked.
+
+'My orders are to patrol it as far as Arensdorf,' said he.
+
+'Then I will, with your permission, ride so far with you,' said I. 'It
+is very clear that the longer way will be the faster.'
+
+So it proved, for this road led away from the army into a country which
+was given over to Cossacks and marauders, and it was as bare as the
+other was crowded. Duroc and I rode in front, with our six troopers
+clattering in the rear. He was a good boy, this Duroc, with his head
+full of the nonsense that they teach at St Cyr, knowing more about
+Alexander and Pompey than how to mix a horse's fodder or care for a
+horse's feet. Still, he was, as I have said, a good boy, unspoiled as
+yet by the camp. It pleased me to hear him prattle away about his
+sister Marie and about his mother in Amiens. Presently we found
+ourselves at the village of Hayenau. Duroc rode up to the post-house and
+asked to see the master.
+
+'Can you tell me,' said he, 'whether the man who calls himself the Baron
+Straubenthal lives in these parts?'
+
+The postmaster shook his head, and we rode upon our way. I took no
+notice of this, but when, at the next village, my comrade repeated the
+same question, with the same result, I could not help asking him who
+this Baron Straubenthal might be.
+
+'He is a man,' said Duroc, with a sudden flush upon his boyish face, 'to
+whom I have a very important message to convey.'
+
+Well, this was not satisfactory, but there was something in my
+companion's manner which told me that any further questioning would be
+distasteful to him. I said nothing more, therefore, but Duroc would
+still ask every peasant whom we met whether he could give him any news
+of the Baron Straubenthal.
+
+For my own part I was endeavouring, as an officer of light cavalry
+should, to form an idea of the lay of the country, to note the course of
+the streams, and to mark the places where there should be fords. Every
+step was taking us farther from the camp round the flanks of which we
+were travelling. Far to the south a few plumes of grey smoke in the
+frosty air marked the position of some of our outposts. To the north,
+however, there was nothing between ourselves and the Russian winter
+quarters. Twice on the extreme horizon I caught a glimpse of the glitter
+of steel, and pointed it out to my companion. It was too distant for us
+to tell whence it came, but we had little doubt that it was from the
+lance-heads of marauding Cossacks.
+
+The sun was just setting when we rode over a low hill and saw a small
+village upon our right, and on our left a high black castle, which
+jutted out from amongst the pine-woods. A farmer with his cart was
+approaching us--a matted-haired, downcast fellow, in a sheepskin jacket.
+
+'What village is this?' asked Duroc.
+
+'It is Arensdorf,' he answered, in his barbarous German dialect.
+
+'Then here I am to stay the night,' said my young companion. Then,
+turning to the farmer, he asked his eternal question, 'Can you tell me
+where the Baron Straubenthal lives?'
+
+'Why, it is he who owns the Castle of Gloom,' said the farmer, pointing
+to the dark turrets over the distant fir forest.
+
+Duroc gave a shout like the sportsman who sees his game rising in front
+of him. The lad seemed to have gone off his head--his eyes shining, his
+face deathly white, and such a grim set about his mouth as made the
+farmer shrink away from him. I can see him now, leaning forward on his
+brown horse, with his eager gaze fixed upon the great black tower.
+
+'Why do you call it the Castle of Gloom?' I asked.
+
+'Well, it's the name it bears upon the countryside,' said the farmer.
+'By all accounts there have been some black doings up yonder. It's not
+for nothing that the wickedest man in Poland has been living there these
+fourteen years past.'
+
+'A Polish nobleman?' I asked.
+
+'Nay, we breed no such men in Poland,' he answered.
+
+'A Frenchman, then?' cried Duroc.
+
+'They say that he came from France.'
+
+'And with red hair?'
+
+'As red as a fox.'
+
+'Yes, yes, it is my man,' cried my companion, quivering all over in his
+excitement. 'It is the hand of Providence which has led me here. Who can
+say that there is not justice in this world? Come, Monsieur Gerard, for
+I must see the men safely quartered before I can attend to this private
+matter.'
+
+He spurred on his horse, and ten minutes later we were at the door of
+the inn of Arensdorf, where his men were to find their quarters for the
+night.
+
+Well, all this was no affair of mine, and I could not imagine what the
+meaning of it might be. Rossel was still far off, but I determined to
+ride on for a few hours and take my chance of some wayside barn in which
+I could find shelter for Rataplan and myself. I had mounted my horse,
+therefore, after tossing off a cup of wine, when young Duroc came
+running out of the door and laid his hand upon my knee.
+
+'Monsieur Gerard,' he panted, 'I beg of you not to abandon me like
+this!'
+
+'My good sir,' said I, 'if you would tell me what is the matter and what
+you would wish me to do, I should be better able to tell you if I could
+be of any assistance to you.'
+
+'You can be of the very greatest,' he cried. 'Indeed, from all that I
+have heard of you, Monsieur Gerard, you are the one man whom I should
+wish to have by my side tonight.'
+
+'You forget that I am riding to join my regiment.'
+
+'You cannot, in any case, reach it tonight. Tomorrow will bring you to
+Rossel. By staying with me you will confer the very greatest kindness
+upon me, and you will aid me in a matter which concerns my own honour
+and the honour of my family. I am compelled, however, to confess to you
+that some personal danger may possibly be involved.'
+
+It was a crafty thing for him to say. Of course, I sprang from
+Rataplan's back and ordered the groom to lead him back into the stables.
+
+'Come into the inn,' said I, 'and let me know exactly what it is that
+you wish me to do.'
+
+He led the way into a sitting-room, and fastened the door lest we should
+be interrupted. He was a well-grown lad, and as he stood in the glare of
+the lamp, with the light beating upon his earnest face and upon his
+uniform of silver grey, which suited him to a marvel, I felt my heart
+warm towards him. Without going so far as to say that he carried himself
+as I had done at his age, there was at least similarity enough to make
+me feel in sympathy with him.
+
+'I can explain it all in a few words,' said he. 'If I have not already
+satisfied your very natural curiosity, it is because the subject is so
+painful a one to me that I can hardly bring myself to allude to it. I
+cannot, however, ask for your assistance without explaining to you
+exactly how the matter lies.
+
+'You must know, then, that my father was the well-known banker,
+Christophe Duroc, who was murdered by the people during the September
+massacres. As you are aware, the mob took possession of the prisons,
+chose three so-called judges to pass sentence upon the unhappy
+aristocrats, and then tore them to pieces when they were passed out into
+the street. My father had been a benefactor of the poor all his life.
+There were many to plead for him. He had the fever, too, and was carried
+in, half-dead, upon a blanket. Two of the judges were in favour of
+acquitting him; the third, a young Jacobin, whose huge body and brutal
+mind had made him a leader among these wretches, dragged him, with his
+own hands, from the litter, kicked him again and again with his heavy
+boots, and hurled him out of the door, where in an instant he was torn
+limb from limb under circumstances which are too horrible for me to
+describe. This, as you perceive, was murder, even under their own
+unlawful laws, for two of their own judges had pronounced in my father's
+favour.
+
+'Well, when the days of order came back again, my elder brother began to
+make inquiries about this man. I was only a child then, but it was a
+family matter, and it was discussed in my presence. The fellow's name
+was Carabin. He was one of Sansterre's Guard, and a noted duellist. A
+foreign lady named the Baroness Straubenthal having been dragged before
+the Jacobins, he had gained her liberty for her on the promise that she
+with her money and estates should be his. He had married her, taken her
+name and title, and escaped out of France at the time of the fall of
+Robespierre. What had become of him we had no means of learning.
+
+'You will think, doubtless, that it would be easy for us to find him,
+since we had both his name and his title. You must remember, however,
+that the Revolution left us without money, and that without money such a
+search is very difficult. Then came the Empire, and it became more
+difficult still, for, as you are aware, the Emperor considered that the
+18th Brumaire brought all accounts to a settlement, and that on that day
+a veil had been drawn across the past. None the less, we kept our own
+family story and our own family plans.
+
+'My brother joined the army, and passed with it through all Southern
+Europe, asking everywhere for the Baron Straubenthal. Last October he
+was killed at Jena, with his mission still unfulfilled. Then it became
+my turn, and I have the good fortune to hear of the very man of whom I
+am in search at one of the first Polish villages which I have to visit,
+and within a fortnight of joining my regiment. And then, to make the
+matter even better, I find myself in the company of one whose name is
+never mentioned throughout the army save in connection with some daring
+and generous deed.'
+
+This was all very well, and I listened to it with the greatest interest,
+but I was none the clearer as to what young Duroc wished me to do.
+
+'How can I be of service to you?' I asked.
+
+'By coming up with me.'
+
+'To the Castle?'
+
+'Precisely.'
+
+'When?'
+
+'At once.'
+
+'But what do you intend to do?'
+
+'I shall know what to do. But I wish you to be with me, all the same.'
+
+Well, it was never in my nature to refuse an adventure, and, besides, I
+had every sympathy with the lad's feelings. It is very well to forgive
+one's enemies, but one wishes to give them something to forgive also. I
+held out my hand to him, therefore.
+
+'I must be on my way for Rossel tomorrow morning, but tonight I am
+yours,' said I.
+
+We left our troopers in snug quarters, and, as it was but a mile to the
+Castle, we did not disturb our horses. To tell the truth, I hate to see
+a cavalry man walk, and I hold that just as he is the most gallant thing
+upon earth when he has his saddle-flaps between his knees, so he is the
+most clumsy when he has to loop up his sabre and his sabre-tasche in one
+hand and turn in his toes for fear of catching the rowels of his spurs.
+Still, Duroc and I were of the age when one can carry things off, and I
+dare swear that no woman at least would have quarrelled with the
+appearance of the two young hussars, one in blue and one in grey, who
+set out that night from the Arensdorf post-house. We both carried our
+swords, and for my own part I slipped a pistol from my holster into the
+inside of my pelisse, for it seemed to me that there might be some wild
+work before us.
+
+The track which led to the Castle wound through a pitch-black fir-wood,
+where we could see nothing save the ragged patch of stars above our
+heads. Presently, however, it opened up, and there was the Castle right
+in front of us, about as far as a carbine would carry. It was a huge,
+uncouth place, and bore every mark of being exceedingly old, with
+turrets at every corner, and a square keep on the side which was nearest
+to us. In all its great shadow there was no sign of light save from a
+single window, and no sound came from it. To me there was something
+awful in its size and its silence, which corresponded so well with its
+sinister name. My companion pressed on eagerly, and I followed him along
+the ill-kept path which led to the gate.
+
+There was no bell or knocker upon the great iron-studded door, and it
+was only by pounding with the hilts of our sabres that we could attract
+attention. A thin, hawk-faced man, with a beard up to his temples,
+opened it at last. He carried a lantern in one hand, and in the other a
+chain which held an enormous black hound. His manner at the first moment
+was threatening, but the sight of our uniforms and of our faces turned
+it into one of sulky reserve.
+
+'The Baron Straubenthal does not receive visitors at so late an hour,'
+said he, speaking in very excellent French.
+
+'You can inform Baron Straubenthal that I have come eight hundred
+leagues to see him, and that I will not leave until I have done so,'
+said my companion. I could not myself have said it with a better voice
+and manner.
+
+The fellow took a sidelong look at us, and tugged at his black beard in
+his perplexity.
+
+'To tell the truth, gentlemen,' said he, 'the Baron has a cup or two of
+wine in him at this hour, and you would certainly find him a more
+entertaining companion if you were to come again in the morning.'
+
+He had opened the door a little wider as he spoke, and I saw by the
+light of the lamp in the hall behind him that three other rough fellows
+were standing there, one of whom held another of these monstrous hounds.
+Duroc must have seen it also, but it made no difference to his
+resolution.
+
+'Enough talk,' said he, pushing the man to one side. 'It is with your
+master that I have to deal.'
+
+The fellows in the hall made way for him as he strode in among them, so
+great is the power of one man who knows what he wants over several who
+are not sure of themselves. My companion tapped one of them upon the
+shoulder with as much assurance as though he owned him.
+
+'Show me to the Baron,' said he.
+
+The man shrugged his shoulders, and answered something in Polish. The
+fellow with the beard, who had shut and barred the front door, appeared
+to be the only one among them who could speak French.
+
+'Well, you shall have your way,' said he, with a sinister smile. 'You
+shall see the Baron. And perhaps, before you have finished, you will
+wish that you had taken my advice.'
+
+We followed him down the hall, which was stone-flagged and very
+spacious, with skins scattered upon the floor, and the heads of wild
+beasts upon the walls. At the farther end he threw open a door, and we
+entered.
+
+It was a small room, scantily furnished, with the same marks of neglect
+and decay which met us at every turn. The walls were hung with
+discoloured tapestry, which had come loose at one corner, so as to
+expose the rough stonework behind. A second door, hung with a curtain,
+faced us upon the other side. Between lay a square table, strewn with
+dirty dishes and the sordid remains of a meal. Several bottles were
+scattered over it. At the head of it, and facing us, there sat a huge
+man with a lion-like head and a great shock of orange-coloured hair. His
+beard was of the same glaring hue; matted and tangled and coarse as a
+horse's mane. I have seen some strange faces in my time, but never one
+more brutal than that, with its small, vicious, blue eyes, its white,
+crumpled cheeks, and the thick, hanging lip which protruded over his
+monstrous beard. His head swayed about on his shoulders, and he looked
+at us with the vague, dim gaze of a drunken man. Yet he was not so drunk
+but that our uniforms carried their message to him.
+
+'Well, my brave boys,' he hiccoughed. 'What is the latest news from
+Paris, eh? You're going to free Poland, I hear, and have meantime all
+become slaves yourselves--slaves to a little aristocrat with his grey
+coat and his three-cornered hat. No more citizens either, I am told, and
+nothing but monsieur and madame. My faith, some more heads will have to
+roll into the sawdust basket some of these mornings.'
+
+Duroc advanced in silence, and stood by the ruffian's side.
+
+'Jean Carabin,' said he.
+
+The Baron started, and the film of drunkenness seemed to be clearing
+from his eyes.
+
+'Jean Carabin,' said Duroc, once more.
+
+He sat up and grasped the arms of his chair.
+
+'What do you mean by repeating that name, young man?' he asked.
+
+'Jean Carabin, you are a man whom I have long wished to meet.'
+
+'Supposing that I once had such a name, how can it concern you, since
+you must have been a child when I bore it?'
+
+'My name is Duroc.'
+
+'Not the son of----?'
+
+'The son of the man you murdered.'
+
+The Baron tried to laugh, but there was terror in his eyes.
+
+'We must let bygones be bygones, young man,' he cried. 'It was our life
+or theirs in those days: the aristocrats or the people. Your father was
+of the Gironde. He fell. I was of the mountain. Most of my comrades
+fell. It was all the fortune of war. We must forget all this and learn
+to know each other better, you and I.' He held out a red, twitching hand
+as he spoke.
+
+'Enough,' said young Duroc. 'If I were to pass my sabre through you as
+you sit in that chair, I should do what is just and right. I dishonour
+my blade by crossing it with yours. And yet you are a Frenchman, and
+have even held a commission under the same flag as myself. Rise, then,
+and defend yourself!'
+
+'Tut, tut!' cried the Baron. 'It is all very well for you young
+bloods--'
+
+Duroc's patience could stand no more. He swung his open hand into the
+centre of the great orange beard. I saw a lip fringed with blood, and
+two glaring blue eyes above it.
+
+'You shall die for that blow.'
+
+'That is better,' said Duroc.
+
+'My sabre!' cried the other. 'I will not keep you waiting, I promise
+you!' and he hurried from the room.
+
+I have said that there was a second door covered with a curtain. Hardly
+had the Baron vanished when there ran from behind it a woman, young and
+beautiful. So swiftly and noiselessly did she move that she was between
+us in an instant, and it was only the shaking curtains which told us
+whence she had come.
+
+'I have seen it all,' she cried. 'Oh, sir, you have carried yourself
+splendidly.' She stooped to my companion's hand, and kissed it again and
+again ere he could disengage it from her grasp.
+
+'Nay, madame, why should you kiss my hand?' he cried.
+
+'Because it is the hand which struck him on his vile, lying mouth.
+Because it may be the hand which will avenge my mother. I am his
+step-daughter. The woman whose heart he broke was my mother. I loathe
+him, I fear him. Ah, there is his step!' In an instant she had vanished
+as suddenly as she had come. A moment later, the Baron entered with a
+drawn sword in his hand, and the fellow who had admitted us at his
+heels.
+
+'This is my secretary,' said he. 'He will be my friend in this affair.
+But we shall need more elbow-room than we can find here. Perhaps you
+will kindly come with me to a more spacious apartment.'
+
+It was evidently impossible to fight in a chamber which was blocked by a
+great table. We followed him out, therefore, into the dimly-lit hall. At
+the farther end a light was shining through an open door.
+
+'We shall find what we want in here,' said the man with the dark beard.
+It was a large, empty room, with rows of barrels and cases round the
+walls. A strong lamp stood upon a shelf in the corner. The floor was
+level and true, so that no swordsman could ask for more. Duroc drew his
+sabre and sprang into it. The Baron stood back with a bow and motioned
+me to follow my companion. Hardly were my heels over the threshold when
+the heavy door crashed behind us and the key screamed in the lock. We
+were taken in a trap.
+
+For a moment we could not realize it. Such incredible baseness was
+outside all our experiences. Then, as we understood how foolish we had
+been to trust for an instant a man with such a history, a flush of rage
+came over us, rage against his villainy and against our own stupidity.
+We rushed at the door together, beating it with our fists and kicking
+with our heavy boots. The sound of our blows and of our execrations must
+have resounded through the Castle. We called to this villain, hurling at
+him every name which might pierce even into his hardened soul. But the
+door was enormous--such a door as one finds in mediaeval castles--made
+of huge beams clamped together with iron. It was as easy to break as a
+square of the Old Guard. And our cries appeared to be of as little avail
+as our blows, for they only brought for answer the clattering echoes
+from the high roof above us. When you have done some soldiering, you
+soon learn to put up with what cannot be altered. It was I, then, who
+first recovered my calmness, and prevailed upon Duroc to join with me in
+examining the apartment which had become our dungeon.
+
+There was only one window, which had no glass in it, and was so narrow
+that one could not so much as get one's head through. It was high up,
+and Duroc had to stand upon a barrel in order to see from it.
+
+'What can you see?' I asked.
+
+'Fir-woods and an avenue of snow between them,' said he. 'Ah!' he gave a
+cry of surprise.
+
+I sprang upon the barrel beside him. There was, as he said, a long,
+clear strip of snow in front. A man was riding down it, flogging his
+horse and galloping like a madman. As we watched, he grew smaller and
+smaller, until he was swallowed up by the black shadows of the forest.
+
+'What does that mean?' asked Duroc.
+
+'No good for us,' said I. 'He may have gone for some brigands to cut
+our throats. Let us see if we cannot find a way out of this mouse-trap
+before the cat can arrive.'
+
+The one piece of good fortune in our favour was that beautiful lamp. It
+was nearly full of oil, and would last us until morning. In the dark our
+situation would have been far more difficult. By its light we proceeded
+to examine the packages and cases which lined the walls. In some places
+there was only a single line of them, while in one corner they were
+piled nearly to the ceiling. It seemed that we were in the storehouse of
+the Castle, for there were a great number of cheeses, vegetables of
+various kinds, bins full of dried fruits, and a line of wine barrels.
+One of these had a spigot in it, and as I had eaten little during the
+day, I was glad of a cup of claret and some food. As to Duroc, he would
+take nothing, but paced up and down the room in a fever of anger and
+impatience. 'I'll have him yet!' he cried, every now and then. 'The
+rascal shall not escape me!'
+
+This was all very well, but it seemed to me, as I sat on a great round
+cheese eating my supper, that this youngster was thinking rather too
+much of his own family affairs and too little of the fine scrape into
+which he had got me. After all, his father had been dead fourteen years,
+and nothing could set that right; but here was Etienne Gerard, the most
+dashing lieutenant in the whole Grand Army, in imminent danger of being
+cut off at the very outset of his brilliant career. Who was ever to know
+the heights to which I might have risen if I were knocked on the head in
+this hole-and-corner business, which had nothing whatever to do with
+France or the Emperor? I could not help thinking what a fool I had been,
+when I had a fine war before me and everything which a man could desire,
+to go off on a hare-brained expedition of this sort, as if it were not
+enough to have a quarter of a million Russians to fight against, without
+plunging into all sorts of private quarrels as well.
+
+'That is all very well,' I said at last, as I heard Duroc muttering his
+threats. 'You may do what you like to him when you get the upper hand.
+At present the question rather is, what is _he_ going to do to us?'
+
+'Let him do his worst!' cried the boy. 'I owe a duty to my father.'
+
+'That is mere foolishness,' said I. 'If you owe a duty to your father, I
+owe one to my mother, which is to get out of this business safe and
+sound.'
+
+My remark brought him to his senses.
+
+'I have thought too much of myself!' he cried. 'Forgive me, Monsieur
+Gerard. Give me your advice as to what I should do.'
+
+'Well,' said I, 'it is not for our health that they have shut us up here
+among the cheeses. They mean to make an end of us if they can. That is
+certain. They hope that no one knows that we have come here, and that
+none will trace us if we remain. Do your hussars know where you have
+gone to?'
+
+'I said nothing.'
+
+'Hum! It is clear that we cannot be starved here. They must come to us
+if they are to kill us. Behind a barricade of barrels we could hold our
+own against the five rascals whom we have seen. That is, probably, why
+they have sent that messenger for assistance.'
+
+'We must get out before he returns.'
+
+'Precisely, if we are to get out at all.'
+
+'Could we not burn down this door?' he cried.
+
+'Nothing could be easier,' said I. 'There are several casks of oil in
+the corner. My only objection is that we should ourselves be nicely
+toasted, like two little oyster pâtés.'
+
+'Can you not suggest something?' he cried, in despair. 'Ah, what is
+that?'
+
+There had been a low sound at our little window, and a shadow came
+between the stars and ourselves. A small, white hand was stretched into
+the lamplight. Something glittered between the fingers.
+
+'Quick! quick!' cried a woman's voice.
+
+We were on the barrel in an instant.
+
+'They have sent for the Cossacks. Your lives are at stake. Ah, I am
+lost! I am lost!'
+
+There was the sound of rushing steps, a hoarse oath, a blow, and the
+stars were once more twinkling through the window. We stood helpless
+upon the barrel with our blood cold with horror. Half a minute
+afterwards we heard a smothered scream, ending in a choke. A great door
+slammed somewhere in the silent night.
+
+'Those ruffians have seized her. They will kill her,' I cried.
+
+Duroc sprang down with the inarticulate shouts of one whose reason has
+left him. He struck the door so frantically with his naked hands that he
+left a blotch of blood with every blow.
+
+Here is the key!' I shouted, picking one from the floor. 'She must have
+thrown it in at the instant that she was torn away.'
+
+My companion snatched it from me with a shriek of joy. A moment later he
+dashed it down upon the boards. It was so small that it was lost in the
+enormous lock. Duroc sank upon one of the boxes with his head between
+his hands. He sobbed in his despair. I could have sobbed, too, when I
+thought of the woman and how helpless we were to save her.
+
+But I am not easily baffled. After all, this key must have been sent to
+us for a purpose. The lady could not bring us that of the door, because
+this murderous step-father of hers would most certainly have it in his
+pocket. Yet this other must have a meaning, or why should she risk her
+life to place it in our hands? It would say little for our wits if we
+could not find out what that meaning might be.
+
+I set to work moving all the cases out from the wall, and Duroc, gaining
+new hope from my courage, helped me with all his strength. It was no
+light task, for many of them were large and heavy. On we went, working
+like maniacs, slinging barrels, cheeses, and boxes pell-mell into the
+middle of the room. At last there only remained one huge barrel of
+vodka, which stood in the corner. With our united strength we rolled it
+out, and there was a little low wooden door in the wainscot behind it.
+The key fitted, and with a cry of delight we saw it swing open before
+us. With the lamp in my hand, I squeezed my way in, followed by my
+companion.
+
+We were in the powder-magazine of the Castle--a rough, walled cellar,
+with barrels all round it, and one with the top staved in in the centre.
+The powder from it lay in a black heap upon the floor. Beyond there was
+another door, but it was locked.
+
+'We are no better off than before,' cried Duroc. 'We have no key.'
+
+'We have a dozen!' I cried.
+
+'Where?'
+
+I pointed to the line of powder barrels.
+
+'You would blow this door open?'
+
+'Precisely.'
+
+'But you would explode the magazine.'
+
+It was true, but I was not at the end of my resources.
+
+'We will blow open the store-room door,' I cried.
+
+I ran back and seized a tin box which had been filled with candles. It
+was about the size of my busby--large enough to hold several pounds of
+powder. Duroc filled it while I cut off the end of a candle. When we had
+finished, it would have puzzled a colonel of engineers to make a better
+petard. I put three cheeses on the top of each other and placed it above
+them, so as to lean against the lock. Then we lit our candle-end and ran
+for shelter, shutting the door of the magazine behind us.
+
+It is no joke, my friends, to be among all those tons of powder, with
+the knowledge that if the flame of the explosion should penetrate
+through one thin door our blackened limbs would be shot higher than the
+Castle keep. Who could have believed that a half-inch of candle could
+take so long to burn? My ears were straining all the time for the
+thudding of the hoofs of the Cossacks who were coming to destroy us. I
+had almost made up my mind that the candle must have gone out when there
+was a smack like a bursting bomb, our door flew to bits, and pieces of
+cheese, with a shower of turnips, apples, and splinters of cases, were
+shot in among us. As we rushed out we had to stagger through an
+impenetrable smoke, with all sorts of débris beneath our feet, but there
+was a glimmering square where the dark door had been. The petard had
+done its work.
+
+In fact, it had done more for us than we had even ventured to hope. It
+had shattered gaolers as well as gaol. The first thing that I saw as I
+came out into the hall was a man with a butcher's axe in his hand, lying
+flat upon his back, with a gaping wound across his forehead. The second
+was a huge dog, with two of its legs broken, twisting in agony upon the
+floor. As it raised itself up I saw the two broken ends flapping like
+flails. At the same instant I heard a cry, and there was Duroc, thrown
+against the wall, with the other hound's teeth in his throat. He pushed
+it off with his left hand, while again and again he passed his sabre
+through its body, but it was not until I blew out its brains with my
+pistol that the iron jaws relaxed, and the fierce, bloodshot eyes were
+glazed in death.
+
+There was no time for us to pause. A woman's scream from in front--a
+scream of mortal terror--told us that even now we might be too late.
+There were two other men in the hall, but they cowered away from our
+drawn swords and furious faces. The blood was streaming from Duroc's
+neck and dyeing the grey fur of his pelisse. Such was the lad's fire,
+however, that he shot in front of me, and it was only over his shoulder
+that I caught a glimpse of the scene as we rushed into the chamber in
+which we had first seen the master of the Castle of Gloom.
+
+The Baron was standing in the middle of the room, his tangled mane
+bristling like an angry lion. He was, as I have said, a huge man with
+enormous shoulders; and as he stood there, with his face flushed with
+rage and his sword advanced, I could not but think that, in spite of all
+his villainies, he had a proper figure for a grenadier. The lady lay
+cowering in a chair behind him. A weal across one of her white arms and
+a dog-whip upon the floor were enough to show that our escape had hardly
+been in time to save her from his brutality. He gave a howl like a wolf
+as we broke in, and was upon us in an instant, hacking and driving, with
+a curse at every blow.
+
+I have already said that the room gave no space for swordsmanship. My
+young companion was in front of me in the narrow passage between the
+table and the wall, so that I could only look on without being able to
+aid him. The lad knew something of his weapon, and was as fierce and
+active as a wild cat, but in so narrow a space the weight and strength
+of the giant gave him the advantage. Besides, he was an admirable
+swordsman. His parade and riposte were as quick as lightning. Twice he
+touched Duroc upon the shoulder, and then, as the lad slipped on a
+lunge, he whirled up his sword to finish him before he could recover his
+feet. I was quicker than he, however, and took the cut upon the pommel
+of my sabre.
+
+'Excuse me,' said I, 'but you have still to deal with Etienne Gerard.'
+
+He drew back and leaned against the tapestry-covered wall, breathing in
+little, hoarse gasps, for his foul living was against him.
+
+'Take your breath,' said I. 'I will await your convenience.'
+
+'You have no cause of quarrel against me,' he panted.
+
+'I owe you some little attention,' said I, 'for having shut me up in
+your store-room. Besides, if all other were wanting, I see cause enough
+upon that lady's arm.'
+
+'Have your way, then!' he snarled, and leaped at me like a madman. For
+a minute I saw only the blazing blue eyes, and the red glazed point
+which stabbed and stabbed, rasping off to right or to left, and yet ever
+back at my throat and my breast. I had never thought that such good
+sword-play was to be found at Paris in the days of the Revolution. I do
+not suppose that in all my little affairs I have met six men who had a
+better knowledge of their weapon. But he knew that I was his master. He
+read death in my eyes, and I could see that he read it. The flush died
+from his face. His breath came in shorter and in thicker gasps. Yet he
+fought on, even after the final thrust had come, and died still hacking
+and cursing, with foul cries upon his lips, and his blood clotting upon
+his orange beard. I who speak to you have seen so many battles, that my
+old memory can scarce contain their names, and yet of all the terrible
+sights which these eyes have rested upon, there is none which I care to
+think of less than of that orange beard with the crimson stain in the
+centre, from which I had drawn my sword-point.
+
+It was only afterwards that I had time to think of all this. His
+monstrous body had hardly crashed down upon the floor before the woman
+in the corner sprang to her feet, clapping her hands together and
+screaming out in her delight. For my part I was disgusted to see a woman
+take such delight in a deed of blood, and I gave no thought as to the
+terrible wrongs which must have befallen her before she could so far
+forget the gentleness of her sex. It was on my tongue to tell her
+sharply to be silent, when a strange, choking smell took the breath from
+my nostrils, and a sudden, yellow glare brought out the figures upon the
+faded hangings.
+
+'Duroc, Duroc!' I shouted, tugging at his shoulder. 'The Castle is on
+fire!'
+
+The boy lay senseless upon the ground, exhausted by his wounds. I rushed
+out into the hall to see whence the danger came. It was our explosion
+which had set alight to the dry frame-work of the door. Inside the
+store-room some of the boxes were already blazing. I glanced in, and as
+I did so my blood was turned to water by the sight of the powder barrels
+beyond, and of the loose heap upon the floor. It might be seconds, it
+could not be more than minutes, before the flames would be at the edge
+of it. These eyes will be closed in death, my friends, before they cease
+to see those crawling lines of fire and the black heap beyond.
+
+How little I can remember what followed. Vaguely I can recall how I
+rushed into the chamber of death, how I seized Duroc by one limp hand
+and dragged him down the hall, the woman keeping pace with me and
+pulling at the other arm. Out of the gateway we rushed, and on down the
+snow-covered path until we were on the fringe of the fir forest. It was
+at that moment that I heard a crash behind me, and, glancing round, saw
+a great spout of fire shoot up into the wintry sky. An instant later
+there seemed to come a second crash, far louder than the first. I saw
+the fir trees and the stars whirling round me, and I fell unconscious
+across the body of my comrade.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was some weeks before I came to myself in the post-house of
+Arensdorf, and longer still before I could be told all that had befallen
+me. It was Duroc, already able to go soldiering, who came to my bedside
+and gave me an account of it. He it was who told me how a piece of
+timber had struck me on the head and laid me almost dead upon the
+ground. From him, too, I learned how the Polish girl had run to
+Arensdorf, how she had roused our hussars, and how she had only just
+brought them back in time to save us from the spears of the Cossacks who
+had been summoned from their bivouac by that same black-bearded
+secretary whom we had seen galloping so swiftly over the snow. As to the
+brave lady who had twice saved our lives, I could not learn very much
+about her at that moment from Duroc, but when I chanced to meet him in
+Paris two years later, after the campaign of Wagram, I was not very
+much surprised to find that I needed no introduction to his bride, and
+that by the queer turns of fortune he had himself, had he chosen to use
+it, that very name and title of the Baron Straubenthal, which showed him
+to be the owner of the blackened ruins of the Castle of Gloom.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote A: The term Brigadier is used throughout in its English and
+not in its French sense.]
+
+
+
+
+2. HOW THE BRIGADIER SLEW THE BROTHERS OF AJACCIO
+
+
+When the Emperor needed an agent he was always very ready to do me the
+honour of recalling the name of Etienne Gerard, though it occasionally
+escaped him when rewards were to be distributed. Still, I was a colonel
+at twenty-eight, and the chief of a brigade at thirty-one, so that I
+have no reason to be dissatisfied with my career. Had the wars lasted
+another two or three years I might have grasped my bâton, and the man
+who had his hand upon that was only one stride from a throne. Murat had
+changed his hussar's cap for a crown, and another light cavalry man
+might have done as much. However, all those dreams were driven away by
+Waterloo, and, although I was not able to write my name upon history, it
+is sufficiently well known by all who served with me in the great wars
+of the Empire.
+
+What I want to tell you tonight is about the very singular affair which
+first started me upon my rapid upward course, and which had the effect
+of establishing a secret bond between the Emperor and myself.
+
+There is just one little word of warning which I must give you before I
+begin. When you hear me speak, you must always bear in mind that you are
+listening to one who has seen history from the inside. I am talking
+about what my ears have heard and my eyes have seen, so you must not try
+to confute me by quoting the opinions of some student or man of the pen,
+who has written a book of history or memoirs. There is much which is
+unknown by such people, and much which never will be known by the world.
+For my own part, I could tell you some very surprising things were it
+discreet to do so. The facts which I am about to relate to you tonight
+were kept secret by me during the Emperor's lifetime, because I gave
+him my promise that it should be so, but I do not think that there can
+be any harm now in my telling the remarkable part which I played.
+
+You must know, then, that at the time of the Treaty of Tilsit I was a
+simple lieutenant in the 10th Hussars, without money or interest. It is
+true that my appearance and my gallantry were in my favour, and that I
+had already won a reputation as being one of the best swordsmen in the
+army; but amongst the host of brave men who surrounded the Emperor it
+needed more than this to insure a rapid career. I was confident,
+however, that my chance would come, though I never dreamed that it would
+take so remarkable a form.
+
+When the Emperor returned to Paris, after the declaration of peace in
+the year 1807, he spent much of his time with the Empress and the Court
+at Fontainebleau. It was the time when he was at the pinnacle of his
+career. He had in three successive campaigns humbled Austria, crushed
+Prussia, and made the Russians very glad to get upon the right side of
+the Niemen. The old Bulldog over the Channel was still growling, but he
+could not get very far from his kennel. If we could have made a
+perpetual peace at that moment, France would have taken a higher place
+than any nation since the days of the Romans. So I have heard the wise
+folk say, though for my part I had other things to think of. All the
+girls were glad to see the army back after its long absence, and you may
+be sure that I had my share of any favours that were going. You may
+judge how far I was a favourite in those days when I say that even now,
+in my sixtieth year--but why should I dwell upon that which is already
+sufficiently well known?
+
+Our regiment of hussars was quartered with the horse chasseurs of the
+guard at Fontainebleau. It is, as you know, but a little place, buried
+in the heart of the forest, and it was wonderful at this time to see it
+crowded with Grand Dukes and Electors and Princes, who thronged round
+Napoleon like puppies round their master, each hoping that some bone
+might be thrown to him. There was more German than French to be heard in
+the street, for those who had helped us in the late war had come to beg
+for a reward, and those who had opposed us had come to try and escape
+their punishment.
+
+And all the time our little man, with his pale face and his cold, grey
+eyes, was riding to the hunt every morning, silent and brooding, all of
+them following in his train, in the hope that some word would escape
+him. And then, when the humour seized him, he would throw a hundred
+square miles to that man, or tear as much off the other, round off one
+kingdom by a river, or cut off another by a chain of mountains. That was
+how he used to do business, this little artilleryman, whom we had raised
+so high with our sabres and our bayonets. He was very civil to us
+always, for he knew where his power came from. We knew also, and showed
+it by the way in which we carried ourselves. We were agreed, you
+understand, that he was the finest leader in the world, but we did not
+forget that he had the finest men to lead.
+
+Well, one day I was seated in my quarters playing cards with young
+Morat, of the horse chasseurs, when the door opened and in walked
+Lasalle, who was our Colonel. You know what a fine, swaggering fellow he
+was, and the sky-blue uniform of the Tenth suited him to a marvel. My
+faith, we youngsters were so taken by him that we all swore and diced
+and drank and played the deuce whether we liked it or no, just that we
+might resemble our Colonel! We forgot that it was not because he drank
+or gambled that the Emperor was going to make him the head of the light
+cavalry, but because he had the surest eye for the nature of a position
+or for the strength of a column, and the best judgment as to when
+infantry could be broken, or whether guns were exposed, of any man in
+the army. We were too young to understand all that, however, so we
+waxed our moustaches and clicked our spurs and let the ferrules of our
+scabbards wear out by trailing them along the pavement in the hope that
+we should all become Lasalles. When he came clanking into my quarters,
+both Morat and I sprang to our feet.
+
+'My boy,' said he, clapping me on the shoulder, 'the Emperor wants to
+see you at four o'clock.'
+
+The room whirled round me at the words, and I had to lean my hands upon
+the edge of the card-table.
+
+'What?' I cried. 'The Emperor!'
+
+'Precisely,' said he, smiling at my astonishment.
+
+'But the Emperor does not know of my existence, Colonel,' I protested.
+'Why should he send for me?'
+
+'Well, that's just what puzzles me,' cried Lasalle, twirling his
+moustache. 'If he wanted the help of a good sabre, why should he descend
+to one of my lieutenants when he might have found all that he needed at
+the head of the regiment? However,' he added, clapping me on the
+shoulder again in his hearty fashion, 'every man has his chance. I have
+had mine, otherwise I should not be Colonel of the Tenth. I must not
+grudge you yours. Forwards, my boy, and may it be the first step towards
+changing your busby for a cocked hat.'
+
+It was but two o'clock, so he left me, promising to come back and to
+accompany me to the palace. My faith, what a time I passed, and how many
+conjectures did I make as to what it was that the Emperor could want of
+me! I paced up and down my little room in a fever of anticipation.
+Sometimes I thought that perhaps he had heard of the guns which we had
+taken at Austerlitz; but, then, there were so many who had taken guns at
+Austerlitz, and two years had passed since the battle. Or it might be
+that he wished to reward me for my affair with the _aide-de-camp_ of the
+Russian Emperor. But then again a cold fit would seize me, and I would
+fancy that he had sent for me to reprimand me. There were a few duels
+which he might have taken in ill part, and there were one or two little
+jokes in Paris since the peace.
+
+But, no! I considered the words of Lasalle. 'If he had need of a brave
+man,' said Lasalle.
+
+It was obvious that my Colonel had some idea of what was in the wind. If
+he had not known that it was to my advantage, he would not have been so
+cruel as to congratulate me. My heart glowed with joy as this conviction
+grew upon me, and I sat down to write to my mother and to tell her that
+the Emperor was waiting, at that very moment, to have my opinion upon a
+matter of importance. It made me smile as I wrote it to think that,
+wonderful as it appeared to me, it would probably only confirm my mother
+in her opinion of the Emperor's good sense.
+
+At half-past three I heard a sabre come clanking against every step of
+my wooden stair. It was Lasalle, and with him was a lame gentleman, very
+neatly dressed in black with dapper ruffles and cuffs. We did not know
+many civilians, we of the army, but, my word, this was one whom we could
+not afford to ignore! I had only to glance at those twinkling eyes, the
+comical, upturned nose, and the straight, precise mouth, to know that I
+was in the presence of the one man in France whom even the Emperor had
+to consider.
+
+'This is Monsieur Etienne Gerard, Monsieur de Talleyrand,' said Lasalle.
+
+I saluted, and the statesman took me in from the top of my panache to
+the rowel of my spur, with a glance that played over me like a rapier
+point.
+
+'Have you explained to the lieutenant the circumstances under which he
+is summoned to the Emperor's presence?' he asked, in his dry, creaking
+voice.
+
+They were such a contrast, these two men, that I could not help glancing
+from one to the other of them: the black, sly politician, and the big,
+sky-blue hussar with one fist on his hip and the other on the hilt of
+his sabre. They both took their seats as I looked, Talleyrand without a
+sound, and Lasalle with a clash and a jingle like a prancing charger.
+
+'It's this way, youngster,' said he, in his brusque fashion; 'I was with
+the Emperor in his private cabinet this morning when a note was brought
+in to him. He opened it, and as he did so he gave such a start that it
+fluttered down on to the floor. I handed it up to him again, but he was
+staring at the wall in front of him as if he had seen a ghost. "Fratelli
+dell' Ajaccio," he muttered; and then again, "Fratelli dell' Ajaccio." I
+don't pretend to know more Italian than a man can pick up in two
+campaigns, and I could make nothing of this. It seemed to me that he had
+gone out of his mind; and you would have said so also, Monsieur de
+Talleyrand, if you had seen the look in his eyes. He read the note, and
+then he sat for half an hour or more without moving.'
+
+'And you?' asked Talleyrand.
+
+'Why, I stood there not knowing what I ought to do. Presently he seemed
+to come back to his senses.
+
+'"I suppose, Lasalle," said he, "that you have some gallant young
+officers in the Tenth?"
+
+'"They are all that, sire," I answered.
+
+'"If you had to pick one who was to be depended upon for action, but who
+would not think too much--you understand me, Lasalle--which would you
+select?" he asked.
+
+'I saw that he needed an agent who would not penetrate too deeply into
+his plans.
+
+'"I have one," said I, "who is all spurs and moustaches, with never a
+thought beyond women and horses."
+
+'"That is the man I want," said Napoleon. "Bring him to my private
+cabinet at four o'clock."
+
+'So, youngster, I came straight away to you at once, and mind that you
+do credit to the 10th Hussars.'
+
+I was by no means flattered by the reasons which had led to my Colonel's
+choice, and I must have shown as much in my face, for he roared with
+laughter and Talleyrand gave a dry chuckle also.
+
+'Just one word of advice before you go, Monsieur Gerard,' said he: 'you
+are now coming into troubled waters, and you might find a worse pilot
+than myself. We have none of us any idea as to what this little affair
+means, and, between ourselves, it is very important for us, who have the
+destinies of France upon our shoulders, to keep ourselves in touch with
+all that goes on. You understand me, Monsieur Gerard?'
+
+I had not the least idea what he was driving at, but I bowed and tried
+to look as if it was clear to me.
+
+'Act very guardedly, then, and say nothing to anybody,' said Talleyrand.
+'Colonel de Lasalle and I will not show ourselves in public with you,
+but we will await you here, and we will give you our advice when you
+have told us what has passed between the Emperor and yourself. It is
+time that you started now, for the Emperor never forgives
+unpunctuality.'
+
+Off I went on foot to the palace, which was only a hundred paces off. I
+made my way to the ante-chamber, where Duroc, with his grand new scarlet
+and gold coat, was fussing about among the crowd of people who were
+waiting. I heard him whisper to Monsieur de Caulaincourt that half of
+them were German Dukes who expected to be made Kings, and the other half
+German Dukes who expected to be made paupers. Duroc, when he heard my
+name, showed me straight in, and I found myself in the Emperor's
+presence.
+
+I had, of course, seen him in camp a hundred times, but I had never been
+face to face with him before. I have no doubt that if you had met him
+without knowing in the least who he was, you would simply have said that
+he was a sallow little fellow with a good forehead and fairly
+well-turned calves. His tight white cashmere breeches and white
+stockings showed off his legs to advantage. But even a stranger must
+have been struck by the singular look of his eyes, which could harden
+into an expression which would frighten a grenadier. It is said that
+even Auguereau, who was a man who had never known what fear was, quailed
+before Napoleon's gaze, at a time, too, when the Emperor was but an
+unknown soldier. He looked mildly enough at me, however, and motioned me
+to remain by the door. De Meneval was writing to his dictation, looking
+up at him between each sentence with his spaniel eyes.
+
+'That will do. You can go,' said the Emperor, abruptly. Then, when the
+secretary had left the room, he strode across with his hands behind his
+back, and he looked me up and down without a word. Though he was a small
+man himself, he was very fond of having fine-looking fellows about him,
+and so I think that my appearance gave him pleasure. For my own part, I
+raised one hand to the salute and held the other upon the hilt of my
+sabre, looking straight ahead of me, as a soldier should.
+
+'Well, Monsieur Gerard,' said he, at last, tapping his forefinger upon
+one of the brandebourgs of gold braid upon the front of my pelisse, 'I
+am informed that you are a very deserving young officer. Your Colonel
+gives me an excellent account of you.'
+
+I wished to make a brilliant reply, but I could think of nothing save
+Lasalle's phrase that I was all spurs and moustaches, so it ended in my
+saying nothing at all. The Emperor watched the struggle which must have
+shown itself upon my features, and when, finally, no answer came he did
+not appear to be displeased.
+
+'I believe that you are the very man that I want,' said he. 'Brave and
+clever men surround me upon every side. But a brave man who----' He did
+not finish his sentence, and for my own part I could not understand what
+he was driving at. I contented myself with assuring him that he could
+count upon me to the death.
+
+'You are, as I understand, a good swordsman?' said he.
+
+'Tolerable, sire,' I answered.
+
+'You were chosen by your regiment to fight the champion of the Hussars
+of Chambarant?' said he.
+
+I was not sorry to find that he knew so much of my exploits.
+
+'My comrades, sire, did me that honour,' said I.
+
+'And for the sake of practice you insulted six fencing masters in the
+week before your duel?'
+
+'I had the privilege of being out seven times in as many days, sire,'
+said I.
+
+'And escaped without a scratch?'
+
+'The fencing master of the 23rd Light Infantry touched me on the left
+elbow, sire.'
+
+'Let us have no more child's play of the sort, monsieur,' he cried,
+turning suddenly to that cold rage of his which was so appalling. 'Do
+you imagine that I place veteran soldiers in these positions that you
+may practise quarte and tierce upon them? How am I to face Europe if my
+soldiers turn their points upon each other? Another word of your
+duelling, and I break you between these fingers.'
+
+I saw his plump white hands flash before my eyes as he spoke, and his
+voice had turned to the most discordant hissing and growling. My word,
+my skin pringled all over as I listened to him, and I would gladly have
+changed my position for that of the first man in the steepest and
+narrowest breach that ever swallowed up a storming party. He turned to
+the table, drank off a cup of coffee, and then when he faced me again
+every trace of this storm had vanished, and he wore that singular smile
+which came from his lips but never from his eyes.
+
+'I have need of your services, Monsieur Gerard,' said he. 'I may be
+safer with a good sword at my side, and there are reasons why yours
+should be the one which I select. But first of all I must bind you to
+secrecy. Whilst I live what passes between us today must be known to
+none but ourselves.'
+
+I thought of Talleyrand and of Lasalle, but I promised.
+
+'In the next place, I do not want your opinions or conjectures, and I
+wish you to do exactly what you are told.'
+
+I bowed.
+
+'It is your sword that I need, and not your brains. I will do the
+thinking. Is that clear to you?'
+
+'Yes, sire.'
+
+'You know the Chancellor's Grove, in the forest?'
+
+I bowed.
+
+'You know also the large double fir-tree where the hounds assembled on
+Tuesday?'
+
+Had he known that I met a girl under it three times a week, he would not
+have asked me. I bowed once more without remark.
+
+'Very good. You will meet me there at ten o'clock tonight.'
+
+I had got past being surprised at anything which might happen. If he had
+asked me to take his place upon the imperial throne I could only have
+nodded my busby.
+
+'We shall then proceed into the wood together,' said the Emperor. 'You
+will be armed with a sword, but not with pistols. You must address no
+remark to me, and I shall say nothing to you. We will advance in
+silence. You understand?'
+
+'I understand, sire.'
+
+'After a time we shall see a man, or more probably two men, under a
+certain tree. We shall approach them together. If I signal to you to
+defend me, you will have your sword ready. If, on the other hand, I
+speak to these men, you will wait and see what happens. If you are
+called upon to draw, you must see that neither of them, in the event of
+there being two, escapes from us. I shall myself assist you.'
+
+'Sire,' I cried, 'I have no doubt that two would not be too many for my
+sword; but would it not be better that I should bring a comrade than
+that you should be forced to join in such a struggle?'
+
+'Ta, ta, ta,' said he. 'I was a soldier before I was an Emperor. Do you
+think, then, that artillerymen have not swords as well as the hussars?
+But I ordered you not to argue with me. You will do exactly what I tell
+you. If swords are once out, neither of these men is to get away alive.'
+
+'They shall not, sire,' said I.
+
+'Very good. I have no more instructions for you. You can go.'
+
+I turned to the door, and then an idea occurring to me I turned.
+
+'I have been thinking, sire--' said I.
+
+He sprang at me with the ferocity of a wild beast. I really thought he
+would have struck me.
+
+'Thinking!' he cried. 'You, _you_! Do you imagine I chose you out
+because you could think? Let me hear of your doing such a thing again!
+You, the one man--but, there! You meet me at the fir-tree at ten
+o'clock.'
+
+My faith, I was right glad to get out of the room. If I have a good
+horse under me, and a sword clanking against my stirrup-iron, I know
+where I am. And in all that relates to green fodder or dry, barley and
+oats and rye, and the handling of squadrons upon the march, there is no
+one who can teach me very much. But when I meet a Chamberlain and a
+Marshal of the Palace, and have to pick my words with an Emperor, and
+find that everybody hints instead of talking straight out, I feel like a
+troop-horse who has been put in a lady's calèche. It is not my trade,
+all this mincing and pretending. I have learned the manners of a
+gentleman, but never those of a courtier. I was right glad then to get
+into the fresh air again, and I ran away up to my quarters like a
+schoolboy who has just escaped from the seminary master.
+
+But as I opened the door, the very first thing that my eye rested upon
+was a long pair of sky-blue legs with hussar boots, and a short pair of
+black ones with knee breeches and buckles. They both sprang up together
+to greet me.
+
+'Well, what news?' they cried, the two of them.
+
+'None,' I answered.
+
+'The Emperor refused to see you?'
+
+'No, I have seen him.'
+
+'And what did he say?'
+
+'Monsieur de Talleyrand,' I answered, 'I regret to say that it is quite
+impossible for me to tell you anything about it. I have promised the
+Emperor.'
+
+'Pooh, pooh, my dear young man,' said he, sidling up to me, as a cat
+does when it is about to rub itself against you. 'This is all among
+friends, you understand, and goes no farther than these four walls.
+Besides, the Emperor never meant to include me in this promise.'
+
+'It is but a minute's walk to the palace, Monsieur de Talleyrand,' I
+answered; 'if it would not be troubling you too much to ask you to step
+up to it and bring back the Emperor's written statement that he did not
+mean to include you in this promise, I shall be happy to tell you every
+word that passed.'
+
+He showed his teeth at me then like the old fox that he was.
+
+'Monsieur Gerard appears to be a little puffed up,' said he. 'He is too
+young to see things in their just proportion. As he grows older he may
+understand that it is not always very discreet for a subaltern of
+cavalry to give such very abrupt refusals.'
+
+I did not know what to say to this, but Lasalle came to my aid in his
+downright fashion.
+
+'The lad is quite right,' said he. 'If I had known that there was a
+promise I should not have questioned him. You know very well, Monsieur
+de Talleyrand, that if he had answered you, you would have laughed in
+your sleeve and thought as much about him as I think of the bottle when
+the burgundy is gone. As for me, I promise you that the Tenth would have
+had no room for him, and that we should have lost our best swordsman if
+I had heard him give up the Emperor's secret.'
+
+But the statesman became only the more bitter when he saw that I had
+the support of my Colonel.
+
+'I have heard, Colonel de Lasalle,' said he, with an icy dignity, 'that
+your opinion is of great weight upon the subject of light cavalry.
+Should I have occasion to seek information about that branch of the
+army, I shall be very happy to apply to you. At present, however, the
+matter concerns diplomacy, and you will permit me to form my own views
+upon that question. As long as the welfare of France and the safety of
+the Emperor's person are largely committed to my care, I will use every
+means in my power to secure them, even if it should be against the
+Emperor's own temporary wishes. I have the honour, Colonel de Lasalle,
+to wish you a very good-day!'
+
+He shot a most unamiable glance in my direction, and, turning upon his
+heel, he walked with little, quick, noiseless steps out of the room.
+
+I could see from Lasalle's face that he did not at all relish finding
+himself at enmity with the powerful Minister. He rapped out an oath or
+two, and then, catching up his sabre and his cap, he clattered away down
+the stairs. As I looked out of the window I saw the two of them, the big
+blue man and the limping black one, going up the street together.
+Talleyrand was walking very rigidly, and Lasalle was waving his hands
+and talking, so I suppose he was trying to make his peace.
+
+The Emperor had told me not to think, and I endeavoured to obey him. I
+took up the cards from the table where Morat had left them, and I tried
+to work out a few combinations at écarté. But I could not remember which
+were trumps, and I threw them under the table in despair. Then I drew my
+sabre and practised giving point until I was weary, but it was all of no
+use at all. My mind _would_ work, in spite of myself. At ten o'clock I
+was to meet the Emperor in the forest. Of all extraordinary combinations
+of events in the whole world, surely this was the last which would have
+occurred to me when I rose from my couch that morning. But the
+responsibility--- the dreadful responsibility! It was all upon my
+shoulders. There was no one to halve it with me. It made me cold all
+over. Often as I have faced death upon the battle-field, I have never
+known what real fear was until that moment. But then I considered that
+after all I could but do my best like a brave and honourable gentleman,
+and above all obey the orders which I had received, to the very letter.
+And, if all went well, this would surely be the foundation of my
+fortunes. Thus, swaying between my fears and my hopes, I spent the long,
+long evening until it was time to keep my appointment.
+
+I put on my military overcoat, as I did not know how much of the night I
+might have to spend in the woods, and I fastened my sword outside it. I
+pulled off my hussar boots also, and wore a pair of shoes and gaiters,
+that I might be lighter upon my feet. Then I stole out of my quarters
+and made for the forest, feeling very much easier in my mind, for I am
+always at my best when the time of thought has passed and the moment for
+action arrived.
+
+I passed the barracks of the Chasseurs of the Guards, and the line of
+cafes all filled with uniforms. I caught a glimpse as I went by of the
+blue and gold of some of my comrades, amid the swarm of dark infantry
+coats and the light green of the Guides. There they sat, sipping their
+wine and smoking their cigars, little dreaming what their comrade had on
+hand. One of them, the chief of my squadron, caught sight of me in the
+lamplight, and came shouting after me into the street. I hurried on,
+however, pretending not to hear him, so he, with a curse at my deafness,
+went back at last to his wine bottle.
+
+It is not very hard to get into the forest at Fontainebleau. The
+scattered trees steal their way into the very streets, like the
+tirailleurs in front of a column. I turned into a path, which led to the
+edge of the woods, and then I pushed rapidly forward towards the old
+fir-tree. It was a place which, as I have hinted, I had my own reasons
+for knowing well, and I could only thank the Fates that it was not one
+of the nights upon which Léonie would be waiting for me. The poor child
+would have died of terror at sight of the Emperor. He might have been
+too harsh with her--and worse still, he might have been too kind.
+
+There was a half moon shining, and, as I came up to our trysting-place,
+I saw that I was not the first to arrive. The Emperor was pacing up and
+down, his hands behind him and his face sunk somewhat forward upon his
+breast. He wore a grey great-coat with a capote over his head. I had
+seen him in such a dress in our winter campaign in Poland, and it was
+said that he used it because the hood was such an excellent disguise. He
+was always fond, whether in the camp or in Paris, of walking round at
+night, and overhearing the talk in the cabarets or round the fires. His
+figure, however, and his way of carrying his head and his hands were so
+well known that he was always recognized, and then the talkers would say
+whatever they thought would please him best.
+
+My first thought was that he would be angry with me for having kept him
+waiting, but as I approached him, we heard the big church clock of
+Fontainebleau clang out the hour of ten. It was evident, therefore, that
+it was he who was too soon, and not I too late. I remembered his order
+that I should make no remark, so contented myself with halting within
+four paces of him, clicking my spurs together, grounding my sabre, and
+saluting. He glanced at me, and then without a word he turned and walked
+slowly through the forest, I keeping always about the same distance
+behind him. Once or twice he seemed to me to look apprehensively to
+right and to left, as if he feared that someone was observing us. I
+looked also, but although I have the keenest sight, it was quite
+impossible to see anything except the ragged patches of moonshine
+between the great black shadows of the trees. My ears are as quick as
+my eyes, and once or twice I thought that I heard a twig crack; but you
+know how many sounds there are in a forest at night, and how difficult
+it is even to say what direction they come from.
+
+We walked for rather more than a mile, and I knew exactly what our
+destination was, long before we got there. In the centre of one of the
+glades, there is the shattered stump of what must at some time have been
+a most gigantic tree. It is called the Abbot's Beech, and there are so
+many ghostly stories about it, that I know many a brave soldier who
+would not care about mounting sentinel over it. However, I cared as
+little for such folly as the Emperor did, so we crossed the glade and
+made straight for the old broken trunk. As we approached, I saw that two
+men were waiting for us beneath it.
+
+When I first caught sight of them they were standing rather behind it,
+as if they were not anxious to be seen, but as we came nearer they
+emerged from its shadow and walked forward to meet us. The Emperor
+glanced back at me, and slackened his pace a little so that I came
+within arm's length of him. You may think that I had my hilt well to the
+front, and that I had a very good look at these two people who were
+approaching us.
+
+The one was tall, remarkably so, and of very spare frame, while the
+other was rather below the usual height, and had a brisk, determined way
+of walking. They each wore black cloaks, which were slung right across
+their figures, and hung down upon one side, like the mantles of Murat's
+dragoons. They had flat black caps, like those I have since seen in
+Spain, which threw their faces into darkness, though I could see the
+gleam of their eyes from beneath them. With the moon behind them and
+their long black shadows walking in front, they were such figures as one
+might expect to meet at night near the Abbot's Beech. I can remember
+that they had a stealthy way of moving, and that as they approached, the
+moonshine formed two white diamonds between their legs and the legs of
+their shadows.
+
+The Emperor had paused, and these two strangers came to a stand also
+within a few paces of us. I had drawn up close to my companion's elbow,
+so that the four of us were facing each other without a word spoken. My
+eyes were particularly fixed upon the taller one, because he was
+slightly the nearer to me, and I became certain as I watched him that he
+was in the last state of nervousness. His lean figure was quivering all
+over, and I heard a quick, thin panting like that of a tired dog.
+Suddenly one of them gave a short, hissing signal. The tall man bent his
+back and his knees like a diver about to spring, but before he could
+move, I had jumped with drawn sabre in front of him. At the same instant
+the smaller man bounded past me, and buried a long poniard in the
+Emperor's heart.
+
+My God! the horror of that moment! It is a marvel that I did not drop
+dead myself. As in a dream, I saw the grey coat whirl convulsively
+round, and caught a glimpse in the moonlight of three inches of red
+point which jutted out from between the shoulders. Then down he fell
+with a dead man's gasp upon the grass, and the assassin, leaving his
+weapon buried in his victim, threw up both his hands and shrieked with
+joy. But I--I drove my sword through his midriff with such frantic
+force, that the mere blow of the hilt against the end of his breast-bone
+sent him six paces before he fell, and left my reeking blade ready for
+the other. I sprang round upon him with such a lust for blood upon me as
+I had never felt, and never have felt, in all my days. As I turned, a
+dagger flashed before my eyes, and I felt the cold wind of it pass my
+neck and the villain's wrist jar upon my shoulder. I shortened my sword,
+but he winced away from me, and an instant afterwards was in full
+flight, bounding like a deer across the glade in the moonlight.
+
+But he was not to escape me thus. I knew that the murderer's poniard
+had done its work. Young as I was, I had seen enough of war to know a
+mortal blow. I paused but for an instant to touch the cold hand.
+
+'Sire! Sire!' I cried, in an agony; and then as no sound came back and
+nothing moved, save an ever-widening dark circle in the moonlight, I
+knew that all was indeed over. I sprang madly to my feet, threw off my
+great-coat, and ran at the top of my speed after the remaining assassin.
+
+Ah, how I blessed the wisdom which had caused me to come in shoes and
+gaiters! And the happy thought which had thrown off my coat. He could
+not get rid of his mantle, this wretch, or else he was too frightened to
+think of it. So it was that I gained upon him from the beginning. He
+must have been out of his wits, for he never tried to bury himself in
+the darker parts of the woods, but he flew on from glade to glade, until
+he came to the heath-land which leads up to the great Fontainebleau
+quarry. There I had him in full sight, and knew that he could not escape
+me. He ran well, it is true--ran as a coward runs when his life is the
+stake. But I ran as Destiny runs when it gets behind a man's heels. Yard
+by yard I drew in upon him. He was rolling and staggering. I could hear
+the rasping and crackling of his breath. The great gulf of the quarry
+suddenly yawned in front of his path, and glancing at me over his
+shoulder, he gave a shriek of despair. The next instant he had vanished
+from my sight.
+
+Vanished utterly, you understand. I rushed to the spot, and gazed down
+into the black abyss. Had he hurled himself over? I had almost made up
+my mind that he had done so, when a gentle sound rising and falling came
+out of the darkness beneath me. It was his breathing once more, and it
+showed me where he must be. He was hiding in the tool-house.
+
+At the edge of the quarry and beneath the summit there is a small
+platform upon which stands a wooden hut for the use of the labourers.
+It was into this, then, that he had darted. Perhaps he had thought, the
+fool, that, in the darkness, I would not venture to follow him. He
+little knew Etienne Gerard. With a spring I was on the platform, with
+another I was through the doorway, and then, hearing him in the corner,
+I hurled myself down upon the top of him.
+
+He fought like a wild cat, but he never had a chance with his shorter
+weapon. I think that I must have transfixed him with that first mad
+lunge, for, though he struck and struck, his blows had no power in them,
+and presently his dagger tinkled down upon the floor. When I was sure
+that he was dead, I rose up and passed out into the moonlight. I climbed
+on to the heath again, and wandered across it as nearly out of my mind
+as a man could be.
+
+With the blood singing in my ears, and my naked sword still clutched in
+my hand, I walked aimlessly on until, looking round me, I found that I
+had come as far as the glade of the Abbot's Beech, and saw in the
+distance that gnarled stump which must ever be associated with the most
+terrible moment of my life. I sat down upon a fallen trunk with my sword
+across my knees and my head between my hands, and I tried to think about
+what had happened and what would happen in the future.
+
+The Emperor had committed himself to my care. The Emperor was dead.
+Those were the two thoughts which clanged in my head, until I had no
+room for any other ones. He had come with me and he was dead. I had done
+what he had ordered when living. I had revenged him when dead. But what
+of all that? The world would look upon me as responsible. They might
+even look upon me as the assassin. What could I prove? What witnesses
+had I? Might I not have been the accomplice of these wretches? Yes, yes,
+I was eternally dishonoured--the lowest, most despicable creature in all
+France. This, then, was the end of my fine military ambitions--of the
+hopes of my mother. I laughed bitterly at the thought. And what was I
+to do now? Was I to go into Fontainebleau, to wake up the palace, and to
+inform them that the great Emperor had been murdered within a pace of
+me? I could not do it--no, I could not do it! There was but one course
+for an honourable gentleman whom Fate had placed in so cruel a position.
+I would fall upon my dishonoured sword, and so share, since I could not
+avert, the Emperor's fate. I rose with my nerves strung to this last
+piteous deed, and as I did so, my eyes fell upon something which struck
+the breath from my lips. The Emperor was standing before me!
+
+He was not more than ten yards off, with the moon shining straight upon
+his cold, pale face. He wore his grey overcoat, but the hood was turned
+back, and the front open, so that I could see the green coat of the
+Guides, and the white breeches. His hands were clasped behind his back,
+and his chin sunk forward upon his breast, in the way that was usual
+with him.
+
+'Well,' said he, in his hardest and most abrupt voice, 'what account do
+you give of yourself?'
+
+I believe that, if he had stood in silence for another minute, my brain
+would have given way. But those sharp military accents were exactly what
+I needed to bring me to myself. Living or dead, here was the Emperor
+standing before me and asking me questions. I sprang to the salute.
+
+'You have killed one, I see,' said he, jerking his head towards the
+beech.
+
+'Yes, sire.'
+
+'And the other escaped?'
+
+'No, sire, I killed him also.'
+
+'What!' he cried. 'Do I understand that you have killed them both?' He
+approached me as he spoke with a smile which set his teeth gleaming in
+the moonlight.
+
+'One body lies there, sire,' I answered. 'The other is in the tool-house
+at the quarry.'
+
+'Then the Brothers of Ajaccio are no more,' he cried, and after a
+pause, as if speaking to himself: 'The shadow has passed me for ever.'
+Then he bent forward and laid his hand upon my shoulder.
+
+'You have done very well, my young friend,' said he. 'You have lived up
+to your reputation.'
+
+He was flesh and blood, then, this Emperor. I could feel the little,
+plump palm that rested upon me. And yet I could not get over what I had
+seen with my own eyes, and so I stared at him in such bewilderment that
+he broke once more into one of his smiles.
+
+'No, no, Monsieur Gerard,' said he, 'I am not a ghost, and you have not
+seen me killed. You will come here, and all will be clear to you.'
+
+He turned as he spoke, and led the way towards the great beech stump.
+
+The bodies were still lying upon the ground, and two men were standing
+beside them. As we approached I saw from the turbans that they were
+Roustem and Mustafa, the two Mameluke servants. The Emperor paused when
+he came to the grey figure upon the ground, and turning back the hood
+which shrouded the features, he showed a face which was very different
+from his own.
+
+'Here lies a faithful servant who has given up his life for his master,'
+said he. 'Monsieur de Goudin resembles me in figure and in manner, as
+you must admit.'
+
+What a delirium of joy came upon me when these few words made everything
+clear to me. He smiled again as he saw the delight which urged me to
+throw my arms round him and to embrace him, but he moved a step away, as
+if he had divined my impulse.
+
+'You are unhurt?' he asked.
+
+'I am unhurt, sire. But in another minute I should in my despair----'
+
+'Tut, tut!' he interrupted. 'You did very well. He should himself have
+been more on his guard. I saw everything which passed.'
+
+'You saw it, sire!'
+
+'You did not hear me follow you through the wood, then? I hardly lost
+sight of you from the moment that you left your quarters until poor De
+Goudin fell. The counterfeit Emperor was in front of you and the real
+one behind. You will now escort me back to the palace.'
+
+He whispered an order to his Mamelukes, who saluted in silence and
+remained where they were standing. For my part, I followed the Emperor
+with my pelisse bursting with pride. My word, I have always carried
+myself as a hussar should, but Lasalle himself never strutted and swung
+his dolman as I did that night. Who should clink his spurs and clatter
+his sabre if it were not I--I, Etienne Gerard--the confidant of the
+Emperor, the chosen swordsman of the light cavalry, the man who slew the
+would-be assassins of Napoleon? But he noticed my bearing and turned
+upon me like a blight.
+
+'Is that the way you carry yourself on a secret mission?' he hissed,
+with that cold glare in his eyes. 'Is it thus that you will make your
+comrades believe that nothing remarkable has occurred? Have done with
+this nonsense, monsieur, or you will find yourself transferred to the
+sappers, where you would have harder work and duller plumage.'
+
+That was the way with the Emperor. If ever he thought that anyone might
+have a claim upon him, he took the first opportunity to show him the
+gulf that lay between. I saluted and was silent, but I must confess to
+you that it hurt me after all that had passed between us. He led on to
+the palace, where we passed through the side door and up into his own
+cabinet. There were a couple of grenadiers at the staircase, and their
+eyes started out from under their fur caps, I promise you, when they saw
+a young lieutenant of hussars going up to the Emperor's room at
+midnight. I stood by the door, as I had done in the afternoon, while he
+flung himself down in an arm-chair, and remained silent so long that it
+seemed to me that he had forgotten all about me. I ventured at last upon
+a slight cough to remind him.
+
+'Ah, Monsieur Gerard,' said he, 'you are very curious, no doubt, as to
+the meaning of all this?'
+
+'I am quite content, sire, if it is your pleasure not to tell me,' I
+answered.
+
+'Ta, ta, ta,' said he impatiently. 'These are only words. The moment
+that you were outside that door you would begin making inquiries about
+what it means. In two days your brother officers would know about it, in
+three days it would be all over Fontainebleau, and it would be in Paris
+on the fourth. Now, if I tell you enough to appease your curiosity,
+there is some reasonable hope that you may be able to keep the matter to
+yourself.'
+
+He did not understand me, this Emperor, and yet I could only bow and be
+silent.
+
+'A few words will make it clear to you,' said he, speaking very swiftly
+and pacing up and down the room. 'They were Corsicans, these two men. I
+had known them in my youth. We had belonged to the same
+society--Brothers of Ajaccio, as we called ourselves. It was founded in
+the old Paoli days, you understand, and we had some strict rules of our
+own which were not infringed with impunity.'
+
+A very grim look came over his face as he spoke, and it seemed to me
+that all that was French had gone out of him, and that it was the pure
+Corsican, the man of strong passions and of strange revenges, who stood
+before me. His memory had gone back to those early days of his, and for
+five minutes, wrapped in thought, he paced up and down the room with his
+quick little tiger steps. Then with an impatient wave of his hands he
+came back to his palace and to me.
+
+'The rules of such a society,' he continued, 'are all very well for a
+private citizen. In the old days there was no more loyal brother than I.
+But circumstances change, and it would be neither for my welfare nor
+for that of France that I should now submit myself to them. They wanted
+to hold me to it, and so brought their fate upon their own heads. These
+were the two chiefs of the order, and they had come from Corsica to
+summon me to meet them at the spot which they named. I knew what such a
+summons meant. No man had ever returned from obeying one. On the other
+hand, if I did not go, I was sure that disaster would follow. I am a
+brother myself, you remember, and I know their ways.'
+
+Again there came that hardening of his mouth and cold glitter of his
+eyes.
+
+'You perceive my dilemma, Monsieur Gerard,' said he. 'How would you have
+acted yourself, under such circumstances?'
+
+'Given the word to the l0th Hussars, sire,' I cried. 'Patrols could have
+swept the woods from end to end, and brought these two rascals to your
+feet.'
+
+He smiled, but he shook his head.
+
+'I had very excellent reasons why I did not wish them taken alive,' said
+he. 'You can understand that an assassin's tongue might be as dangerous
+a weapon as an assassin's dagger. I will not disguise from you that I
+wished to avoid scandal at all cost. That was why I ordered you to take
+no pistols with you. That also is why my Mamelukes will remove all
+traces of the affair, and nothing more will be heard about it. I thought
+of all possible plans, and I am convinced that I selected the best one.
+Had I sent more than one guard with De Goudin into the woods, then the
+brothers would not have appeared. They would not change their plans nor
+miss their chance for the sake of a single man. It was Colonel Lasalle's
+accidental presence at the moment when I received the summons which led
+to my choosing one of his hussars for the mission. I selected you,
+Monsieur Gerard, because I wanted a man who could handle a sword, and
+who would not pry more deeply into the affair than I desired. I trust
+that, in this respect, you will justify my choice as well as you have
+done in your bravery and skill.'
+
+'Sire,' I answered, 'you may rely upon it.'
+
+'As long as I live,' said he, 'you never open your lips upon this
+subject.'
+
+'I dismiss it entirely from my mind, sire. I will efface it from my
+recollection as if it had never been. I will promise you to go out of
+your cabinet at this moment exactly as I was when I entered it at four
+o'clock.'
+
+'You cannot do that,' said the Emperor, smiling. 'You were a lieutenant
+at that time. You will permit me, Captain, to wish you a very
+good-night.'
+
+
+
+
+3. HOW THE BRIGADIER HELD THE KING
+
+
+Here, upon the lapel of my coat, you may see the ribbon of my
+decoration, but the medal itself I keep in a leathern pouch at home, and
+I never venture to take it out unless one of the modern peace generals,
+or some foreigner of distinction who finds himself in our little town,
+takes advantage of the opportunity to pay his respects to the well-known
+Brigadier Gerard. Then I place it upon my breast, and I give my
+moustache the old Marengo twist which brings a grey point into either
+eye. Yet with it all I fear that neither they, nor you either, my
+friends, will ever realize the man that I was. You know me only as a
+civilian--with an air and a manner, it is true--but still merely as a
+civilian. Had you seen me as I stood in the doorway of the inn at Alamo,
+on the 1st of July, in the year 1810, you would then have known what the
+hussar may attain to.
+
+For a month I had lingered in that accursed village, and all on account
+of a lance-thrust in my ankle, which made it impossible for me to put my
+foot to the ground. There were three besides myself at first: old
+Bouvet, of the Hussars of Bercheny, Jacques Regnier, of the Cuirassiers,
+and a funny little voltigeur captain whose name I forget; but they all
+got well and hurried on to the front, while I sat gnawing my fingers and
+tearing my hair, and even, I must confess, weeping from time to time as
+I thought of my Hussars of Conflans, and the deplorable condition in
+which they must find themselves when deprived of their colonel. I was
+not a chief of brigade yet, you understand, although I already carried
+myself like one, but I was the youngest colonel in the whole service,
+and my regiment was wife and children to me. It went to my heart that
+they should be so bereaved. It is true that Villaret, the senior major,
+was an excellent soldier; but still, even among the best there are
+degrees of merit.
+
+Ah, that happy July day of which I speak, when first I limped to the
+door and stood in the golden Spanish sunshine! It was but the evening
+before that I had heard from the regiment. They were at Pastores, on the
+other side of the mountains, face to face with the English--not forty
+miles from me by road. But how was I to get to them? The same thrust
+which had pierced my ankle had slain my charger. I took advice both from
+Gomez, the landlord, and from an old priest who had slept that night in
+the inn, but neither of them could do more than assure me that there was
+not so much as a colt left upon the whole countryside.
+
+The landlord would not hear of my crossing the mountains without an
+escort, for he assured me that El Cuchillo, the Spanish guerilla chief,
+was out that way with his band, and that it meant a death by torture to
+fall into his hands. The old priest observed, however, that he did not
+think a French hussar would be deterred by that, and if I had had any
+doubts, they would of course have been decided by his remark.
+
+But a horse! How was I to get one? I was standing in the doorway,
+plotting and planning, when I heard the clink of shoes, and, looking up,
+I saw a great bearded man, with a blue cloak frogged across in military
+fashion, coming towards me. He was riding a big black horse with one
+white stocking on his near fore-leg.
+
+'Halloa, comrade!' said I, as he came up to me.
+
+'Halloa!' said he.
+
+'I am Colonel Gerard, of the Hussars,' said I. 'I have lain here wounded
+for a month, and I am now ready to rejoin my regiment at Pastores.'
+
+'I am Monsieur Vidal, of the commissariat,' he answered, 'and I am
+myself upon my way to Pastores. I should be glad to have your company,
+Colonel, for I hear that the mountains are far from safe.'
+
+'Alas,' said I, 'I have no horse. But if you will sell me yours, I will
+promise that an escort of hussars shall be sent back for you.'
+
+He would not hear of it, and it was in vain that the landlord told him
+dreadful stories of the doings of El Cuchillo, and that I pointed out
+the duty which he owed to the army and to the country. He would not even
+argue, but called loudly for a cup of wine. I craftily asked him to
+dismount and to drink with me, but he must have seen something in my
+face, for he shook his head; and then, as I approached him with some
+thought of seizing him by the leg, he jerked his heels into his horse's
+flanks, and was off in a cloud of dust.
+
+My faith! it was enough to make a man mad to see this fellow riding away
+so gaily to join his beef-barrels, and his brandy-casks, and then to
+think of my five hundred beautiful hussars without their leader. I was
+gazing after him with bitter thoughts in my mind, when who should touch
+me on the elbow but the little priest whom I have mentioned.
+
+'It is I who can help you,' he said. 'I am myself travelling south.'
+
+I put my arms about him and, as my ankle gave way at the same moment, we
+nearly rolled upon the ground together.
+
+'Get me to Pastores,' I cried, 'and you shall have a rosary of golden
+beads.' I had taken one from the Convent of Spiritu Santo. It shows how
+necessary it is to take what you can when you are upon a campaign, and
+how the most unlikely things may become useful.
+
+'I will take you,' he said, in very excellent French, 'not because I
+hope for any reward, but because it is my way always to do what I can to
+serve my fellow-man, and that is why I am so beloved wherever I go.'
+
+With that he led me down the village to an old cow-house, in which we
+found a tumble-down sort of diligence, such as they used to run early
+in this century, between some of our remote villages. There were three
+old mules, too, none of which were strong enough to carry a man, but
+together they might draw the coach. The sight of their gaunt ribs and
+spavined legs gave me more delight than the whole two hundred and twenty
+hunters of the Emperor which I have seen in their stalls at
+Fontainebleau. In ten minutes the owner was harnessing them into the
+coach, with no very good will, however, for he was in mortal dread of
+this terrible Cuchillo. It was only by promising him riches in this
+world, while the priest threatened him with perdition in the next, that
+we at last got him safely upon the box with the reins between his
+fingers. Then he was in such a hurry to get off, out of fear lest we
+should find ourselves in the dark in the passes, that he hardly gave me
+time to renew my vows to the innkeeper's daughter. I cannot at this
+moment recall her name, but we wept together as we parted, and I can
+remember that she was a very beautiful woman. You will understand, my
+friends, that when a man like me, who has fought the men and kissed the
+women in fourteen separate kingdoms, gives a word of praise to the one
+or the other, it has a little meaning of its own.
+
+The little priest had seemed a trifle grave when we kissed good-bye, but
+he soon proved himself the best of companions in the diligence. All the
+way he amused me with tales of his little parish up in the mountains,
+and I in my turn told him stories about the camp; but, my faith, I had
+to pick my steps, for when I said a word too much he would fidget in his
+seat and his face would show the pain that I had given him. And of
+course it is not the act of a gentleman to talk in anything but a proper
+manner to a religious man, though, with all the care in the world, one's
+words may get out of hand sometimes.
+
+He had come from the north of Spain, as he told me, and was going to see
+his mother in a village of Estremadura, and as he spoke about her little
+peasant home, and her joy in seeing him, it brought my own mother so
+vividly to my thoughts that the tears started to my eyes. In his
+simplicity he showed me the little gifts which he was taking to her, and
+so kindly was his manner that I could readily believe him when he said
+he was loved wherever he went. He examined my own uniform with as much
+curiosity as a child, admiring the plume of my busby, and passing his
+fingers through the sable with which my dolman was trimmed. He drew my
+sword, too, and then when I told him how many men I had cut down with
+it, and set my finger on the notch made by the shoulder-bone of the
+Russian Emperor's aide-de-camp, he shuddered and placed the weapon under
+the leathern cushion, declaring that it made him sick to look at it.
+
+Well, we had been rolling and creaking on our way whilst this talk had
+been going forward, and as we reached the base of the mountains we could
+hear the rumbling of cannon far away upon the right. This came from
+Massena, who was, as I knew, besieging Ciudad Rodrigo. There was nothing
+I should have wished better than to have gone straight to him, for if,
+as some said, he had Jewish blood in his veins, he was the best Jew that
+I have heard of since Joshua's time. If you were in sight of his beaky
+nose and bold, black eyes, you were not likely to miss much of what was
+going on. Still, a siege is always a poor sort of a pick-and-shovel
+business, and there were better prospects with my hussars in front of
+the English. Every mile that passed, my heart grew lighter and lighter,
+until I found myself shouting and singing like a young ensign fresh from
+St Cyr, just to think of seeing all my fine horses and my gallant
+fellows once more.
+
+As we penetrated the mountains the road grew rougher and the pass more
+savage. At first we had met a few muleteers, but now the whole country
+seemed deserted, which is not to be wondered at when you think that the
+French, the English, and the guerillas had each in turn had command over
+it. So bleak and wild was it, one great brown wrinkled cliff succeeding
+another, and the pass growing narrower and narrower, that I ceased to
+look out, but sat in silence, thinking of this and that, of women whom I
+had loved and of horses which I had handled. I was suddenly brought back
+from my dreams, however, by observing the difficulties of my companion,
+who was trying with a sort of brad-awl, which he had drawn out, to bore
+a hole through the leathern strap which held up his water-flask. As he
+worked with twitching fingers the strap escaped his grasp, and the
+wooden bottle fell at my feet. I stooped to pick it up, and as I did so
+the priest silently leaped upon my shoulders and drove his brad-awl into
+my eye!
+
+My friends, I am, as you know, a man steeled to face every danger. When
+one has served from the affair of Zurich to that last fatal day of
+Waterloo, and has had the special medal, which I keep at home in a
+leathern pouch, one can afford to confess when one is frightened. It may
+console some of you, when your own nerves play you tricks, to remember
+that you have heard even me, Brigadier Gerard, say that I have been
+scared. And besides my terror at this horrible attack, and the maddening
+pain of my wound, there was a sudden feeling of loathing such as you
+might feel were some filthy tarantula to strike its fangs into you.
+
+I clutched the creature in both hands, and, hurling him on to the floor
+of the coach, I stamped on him with my heavy boots. He had drawn a
+pistol from the front of his soutane, but I kicked it out of his hand,
+and again I fell with my knees upon his chest. Then, for the first time,
+he screamed horribly, while I, half blinded, felt about for the sword
+which he had so cunningly concealed. My hand had just lighted upon it,
+and I was dashing the blood from my face to see where he lay that I
+might transfix him, when the whole coach turned partly over upon its
+side, and my weapon was jerked out of my grasp by the shock.
+
+Before I could recover myself the door was burst open, and I was
+dragged by the heels on to the road. But even as I was torn out on to
+the flint stones, and realized that thirty ruffians were standing around
+me, I was filled with joy, for my pelisse had been pulled over my head
+in the struggle and was covering one of my eyes, and it was with my
+wounded eye that I was seeing this gang of brigands. You see for
+yourself by this pucker and scar how the thin blade passed between
+socket and ball, but it was only at that moment, when I was dragged from
+the coach, that I understood that my sight was not gone for ever. The
+creature's intention, doubtless, was to drive it through into my brain,
+and indeed he loosened some portion of the inner bone of my head, so
+that I afterwards had more trouble from that wound than from any one of
+the seventeen which I have received.
+
+They dragged me out, these sons of dogs, with curses and execrations,
+beating me with their fists and kicking me as I lay upon the ground. I
+had frequently observed that the mountaineers wore cloth swathed round
+their feet, but never did I imagine that I should have so much cause to
+be thankful for it. Presently, seeing the blood upon my head, and that I
+lay quiet, they thought that I was unconscious, whereas I was storing
+every ugly face among them into my memory, so that I might see them all
+safely hanged if ever my chance came round. Brawny rascals they were,
+with yellow handkerchiefs round their heads, and great red sashes
+stuffed with weapons. They had rolled two rocks across the path, where
+it took a sharp turn, and it was these which had torn off one of the
+wheels of the coach and upset us. As to this reptile, who had acted the
+priest so cleverly and had told me so much of his parish and his mother,
+he, of course, had known where the ambuscade was laid, and had attempted
+to put me beyond all resistance at the moment when we reached it.
+
+I cannot tell you how frantic their rage was when they drew him out of
+the coach and saw the state to which I had reduced him. If he had not
+got all his deserts, he had, at least, something as a souvenir of his
+meeting with Etienne Gerard, for his legs dangled aimlessly about, and
+though the upper part of his body was convulsed with rage and pain, he
+sat straight down upon his feet when they tried to set him upright. But
+all the time his two little black eyes, which had seemed so kindly and
+so innocent in the coach, were glaring at me like a wounded cat, and he
+spat, and spat, and spat in my direction. My faith! when the wretches
+jerked me on to my feet again, and when I was dragged off up one of the
+mountain paths, I understood that a time was coming when I was to need
+all my courage and resource. My enemy was carried upon the shoulders of
+two men behind me, and I could hear his hissing and his reviling, first
+in one ear and then in the other, as I was hurried up the winding track.
+
+I suppose that it must have been for an hour that we ascended, and what
+with my wounded ankle and the pain from my eye, and the fear lest this
+wound should have spoiled my appearance, I have made no journey to which
+I look back with less pleasure. I have never been a good climber at any
+time, but it is astonishing what you can do, even with a stiff ankle,
+when you have a copper-coloured brigand at each elbow and a nine-inch
+blade within touch of your whiskers.
+
+We came at last to a place where the path wound over a ridge, and
+descended upon the other side through thick pine-trees into a valley
+which opened to the south. In time of peace I had little doubt that the
+villains were all smugglers, and that these were the secret paths by
+which they crossed the Portuguese frontier. There were many mule-tracks,
+and once I was surprised to see the marks of a large horse where a
+stream had softened the track. These were explained when, on reaching a
+place where there was a clearing in the fir wood, I saw the animal
+itself haltered to a fallen tree. My eyes had hardly rested upon it,
+when I recognized the great black limbs and the white near fore-leg. It
+was the very horse which I had begged for in the morning.
+
+What, then, had become of Commissariat Vidal? Was it possible that
+there was another Frenchman in as perilous a plight as myself? The
+thought had hardly entered my head when our party stopped and one of
+them uttered a peculiar cry. It was answered from among the brambles
+which lined the base of a cliff at one side of a clearing, and an
+instant later ten or a dozen more brigands came out from amongst them,
+and the two parties greeted each other. The new-comers surrounded my
+friend of the brad-awl with cries of grief and sympathy, and then,
+turning upon me, they brandished their knives and howled at me like the
+gang of assassins that they were. So frantic were their gestures that I
+was convinced that my end had come, and was just bracing myself to meet
+it in a manner which should be worthy of my past reputation, when one of
+them gave an order and I was dragged roughly across the little glade to
+the brambles from which this new band had emerged.
+
+A narrow pathway led through them to a deep grotto in the side of the
+cliff. The sun was already setting outside, and in the cave itself it
+would have been quite dark but for a pair of torches which blazed from a
+socket on either side. Between them there was sitting at a rude table a
+very singular-looking person, whom I saw instantly, from the respect
+with which the others addressed him, could be none other than the
+brigand chief who had received, on account of his dreadful character,
+the sinister name of El Cuchillo.
+
+The man whom I had injured had been carried in and placed upon the top
+of a barrel, his helpless legs dangling about in front of him, and his
+cat's eyes still darting glances of hatred at me. I understood, from the
+snatches of talk which I could follow between the chief and him, that he
+was the lieutenant of the band, and that part of his duties was to lie
+in wait with his smooth tongue and his peaceful garb for travellers like
+myself. When I thought of how many gallant officers may have been lured
+to their death by this monster of hypocrisy, it gave me a glow of
+pleasure to think that I had brought his villainies to an end--though I
+feared it would be at the price of a life which neither the Emperor nor
+the army could well spare.
+
+As the injured man still supported upon the barrel by two comrades, was
+explaining in Spanish all that had befallen him, I was held by several
+of the villains in front of the table at which the chief was seated, and
+had an excellent opportunity of observing him. I have seldom seen any
+man who was less like my idea of a brigand, and especially of a brigand
+with such a reputation that in a land of cruelty he had earned so dark a
+nickname. His face was bluff and broad and bland, with ruddy cheeks and
+comfortable little tufts of side-whiskers, which gave him the appearance
+of a well-to-do grocer of the Rue St Antoine. He had not any of those
+flaring sashes or gleaming weapons which distinguished his followers,
+but on the contrary he wore a good broadcloth coat like a respectable
+father of a family, and save for his brown leggings there was nothing to
+indicate a life among the mountains. His surroundings, too, corresponded
+with himself, and beside his snuff-box upon the table there stood a
+great brown book, which looked like a commercial ledger. Many other
+books were ranged along a plank between two powder-casks, and there was
+a great litter of papers, some of which had verses scribbled upon them.
+All this I took in while he, leaning indolently back in his chair, was
+listening to the report of his lieutenant. Having heard everything, he
+ordered the cripple to be carried out again, and I was left with my
+three guards, waiting to hear my fate. He took up his pen, and tapping
+his forehead with the handle of it, he pursed up his lips and looked out
+of the corner of his eyes at the roof of the grotto.
+
+'I suppose,' said he at last, speaking very excellent French, 'that you
+are not able to suggest a rhyme for the word Covilha.'
+
+I answered him that my acquaintance with the Spanish language was so
+limited that I was unable to oblige him.
+
+'It is a rich language,' said he, 'but less prolific in rhymes than
+either the German or the English. That is why our best work has been
+done in blank verse, a form of composition which is capable of reaching
+great heights. But I fear that such subjects are somewhat outside the
+range of a hussar.'
+
+I was about to answer that if they were good enough for a guerilla, they
+could not be too much for the light cavalry, but he was already stooping
+over his half-finished verse. Presently he threw down the pen with an
+exclamation of satisfaction, and declaimed a few lines which drew a cry
+of approval from the three ruffians who held me. His broad face blushed
+like a young girl who receives her first compliment.
+
+'The critics are in my favour, it appears,' said he; 'we amuse ourselves
+in our long evenings by singing our own ballads, you understand. I have
+some little facility in that direction, and I do not at all despair of
+seeing some of my poor efforts in print before long, and with "Madrid"
+upon the title-page, too. But we must get back to business. May I ask
+what your name is?'
+
+'Etienne Gerard.'
+
+'Rank?'
+
+'Colonel.'
+
+'Corps?'
+
+'The Third Hussars of Conflans.'
+
+'You are young for a colonel.'
+
+'My career has been an eventful one.'
+
+'Tut, that makes it the sadder,' said he, with his bland smile.
+
+I made no answer to that, but I tried to show him by my bearing that I
+was ready for the worst which could befall me.
+
+'By the way, I rather fancy that we have had some of your corps here,'
+said he, turning over the pages of his big brown register. 'We
+endeavour to keep a record of our operations. Here is a heading under
+June 24th. Have you not a young officer named Soubiron, a tall, slight
+youth with light hair?'
+
+'Certainly.'
+
+'I see that we buried him upon that date.'
+
+'Poor lad!' I cried. 'And how did he die?'
+
+'We buried him.'
+
+'But before you buried him?'
+
+'You misunderstand me, Colonel. He was not dead before we buried him.'
+
+'You buried him alive!'
+
+For a moment I was too stunned to act. Then I hurled myself upon the
+man, as he sat with that placid smile of his upon his lips, and I would
+have torn his throat out had the three wretches not dragged me away from
+him. Again and again I made for him, panting and cursing, shaking off
+this man and that, straining and wrenching, but never quite free. At
+last, with my jacket torn nearly off my back and blood dripping from my
+wrists, I was hauled backwards in the bight of a rope and cords passed
+round my ankles and my arms.
+
+'You sleek hound!' I cried. 'If ever I have you at my sword's point, I
+will teach you to maltreat one of my lads. You will find, you
+bloodthirsty beast, that my Emperor has long arms, and though you lie
+here like a rat in its hole, the time will come when he will tear you
+out of it, and you and your vermin will perish together.'
+
+My faith, I have a rough side to my tongue, and there was not a hard
+word that I had learned in fourteen campaigns which I did not let fly at
+him; but he sat with the handle of his pen tapping against his forehead
+and his eyes squinting up at the roof as if he had conceived the idea of
+some new stanza. It was this occupation of his which showed me how I
+might get my point into him.
+
+'You spawn!' said I; 'you think that you are safe here, but your life
+may be as short as that of your absurd verses, and God knows that it
+could not be shorter than that.'
+
+Ah, you should have seen him bound from his chair when I said the words.
+This vile monster, who dispensed death and torture as a grocer serves
+out his figs, had one raw nerve then which I could prod at pleasure. His
+face grew livid, and those little bourgeois side-whiskers quivered and
+thrilled with passion.
+
+'Very good, Colonel. You have said enough,' he cried, in a choking
+voice. 'You say that you have had a very distinguished career. I promise
+you also a very distinguished ending. Colonel Etienne Gerard of the
+Third Hussars shall have a death of his own.'
+
+'And I only beg,' said I, 'that you will not commemorate it in verse.' I
+had one or two little ironies to utter, but he cut me short by a furious
+gesture which caused my three guards to drag me from the cave.
+
+Our interview, which I have told you as nearly as I can remember it,
+must have lasted some time, for it was quite dark when we came out, and
+the moon was shining very clearly in the heavens. The brigands had
+lighted a great fire of the dried branches of the fir-trees; not, of
+course, for warmth, since the night was already very sultry, but to cook
+their evening meal. A huge copper pot hung over the blaze, and the
+rascals were lying all round in the yellow glare, so that the scene
+looked like one of those pictures which Junot stole out of Madrid. There
+are some soldiers who profess to care nothing for art and the like, but
+I have always been drawn towards it myself, in which respect I show my
+good taste and my breeding. I remember, for example, that when Lefebvre
+was selling the plunder after the fall of Danzig, I bought a very fine
+picture, called 'Nymphs Surprised in a Wood,' and I carried it with me
+through two campaigns, until my charger had the misfortune to put his
+hoof through it.
+
+I only tell you this, however, to show you that I was never a mere
+rough soldier like Rapp or Ney. As I lay in that brigands' camp, I had
+little time or inclination to think about such matters. They had thrown
+me down under a tree, the three villains squatting round and smoking
+their cigarettes within hands' touch of me. What to do I could not
+imagine. In my whole career I do not suppose that I have ten times been
+in as hopeless a situation. 'But courage,' thought I. 'Courage, my brave
+boy! You were not made a Colonel of Hussars at twenty-eight because you
+could dance a cotillon. You are a picked man, Etienne; a man who has
+come through more than two hundred affairs, and this little one is
+surely not going to be the last.' I began eagerly to glance about for
+some chance of escape, and as I did so I saw something which filled me
+with great astonishment.
+
+I have already told you that a large fire was burning in the centre of
+the glade. What with its glare, and what with the moonlight, everything
+was as clear as possible. On the other side of the glade there was a
+single tall fir-tree which attracted my attention because its trunk and
+lower branches were discoloured, as if a large fire had recently been
+lit underneath it. A clump of bushes grew in front of it which concealed
+the base. Well, as I looked towards it, I was surprised to see
+projecting above the bush, and fastened apparently to the tree, a pair
+of fine riding boots with the toes upwards. At first I thought that they
+were tied there, but as I looked harder I saw that they were secured by
+a great nail which was hammered through the foot of each. And then,
+suddenly, with a thrill of horror, I understood that these were not
+empty boots; and moving my head a little to the right, I was able to see
+who it was that had been fastened there, and why a fire had been lit
+beneath the tree. It is not pleasant to speak or to think of horrors, my
+friends, and I do not wish to give any of you bad dreams tonight--but I
+cannot take you among the Spanish guerillas without showing you what
+kind of men they were, and the sort of warfare that they waged. I will
+only say that I understood why Monsieur Vidal's horse was waiting
+masterless in the grove, and that I hoped he had met this terrible fate
+with sprightliness and courage, as a good Frenchman ought.
+
+It was not a very cheering sight for me, as you can imagine. When I had
+been with their chief in the grotto I had been so carried away by my
+rage at the cruel death of young Soubiron, who was one of the brightest
+lads who ever threw his thigh over a charger, that I had never given a
+thought to my own position. Perhaps it would have been more politic had
+I spoken the ruffian fair, but it was too late now. The cork was drawn
+and I must drain the wine. Besides, if the harmless commissariat man
+were put to such a death, what hope was there for me, who had snapped
+the spine of their lieutenant? No, I was doomed in any case, and it was
+as well perhaps that I should have put the best face on the matter. This
+beast could bear witness that Etienne Gerard had died as he had lived,
+and that one prisoner at least had not quailed before him. I lay there
+thinking of the various girls who would mourn for me, and of my dear old
+mother, and of the deplorable loss which I should be, both to my
+regiment and to the Emperor, and I am not ashamed to confess to you that
+I shed tears as I thought of the general consternation which my
+premature end would give rise to.
+
+But all the time I was taking the very keenest notice of everything
+which might possibly help me. I am not a man who would lie like a sick
+horse waiting for the farrier sergeant and the pole-axe. First I would
+give a little tug at my ankle cords, and then another at those which
+were round my wrists, and all the time that I was trying to loosen them
+I was peering round to see if I could find something which was in my
+favour. There was one thing which was very evident. A hussar is but half
+formed without a horse, and there was my other half quietly grazing
+within thirty yards of me. Then I observed yet another thing. The path
+by which we had come over the mountains was so steep that a horse could
+only be led across it slowly and with difficulty, but in the other
+direction the ground appeared to be more open, and to lead straight down
+into a gently-sloping valley. Had I but my feet in yonder stirrups and
+my sabre in my hand, a single bold dash might take me out of the power
+of these vermin of the rocks.
+
+I was still thinking it over and straining with my wrists and my ankles,
+when their chief came out from his grotto, and after some talk with his
+lieutenant, who lay groaning near the fire, they both nodded their heads
+and looked across at me. He then said some few words to the band, who
+clapped their hands and laughed uproariously. Things looked ominous, and
+I was delighted to feel that my hands were so far free that I could
+easily slip them through the cords if I wished. But with my ankles I
+feared that I could do nothing, for when I strained it brought such pain
+into my lance-wound that I had to gnaw my moustache to keep from crying
+out. I could only lie still, half-free and half-bound, and see what turn
+things were likely to take.
+
+For a little I could not make out what they were after. One of the
+rascals climbed up a well-grown fir-tree upon one side of the glade, and
+tied a rope round the top of the trunk. He then fastened another rope in
+the same fashion to a similar tree upon the other side. The two loose
+ends were now dangling down, and I waited with some curiosity, and just
+a little trepidation also, to see what they would do next. The whole
+band pulled upon one of the ropes until they had bent the strong young
+tree down into a semi-circle, and they then fastened it to a stump, so
+as to hold it so. When they had bent the other tree down in a similar
+fashion, the two summits were within a few feet of each other, though,
+as you understand, they would each spring back into their original
+position the instant that they were released. I already saw the
+diabolical plan which these miscreants had formed.
+
+'I presume that you are a strong man, Colonel,' said the chief, coming
+towards me with his hateful smile.
+
+'If you will have the kindness to loosen these cords,' I answered, 'I
+will show you how strong I am.'
+
+'We were all interested to see whether you were as strong as these two
+young saplings,' said he. 'It is our intention, you see, to tie one end
+of each rope round your ankles and then let the trees go. If you are
+stronger than the trees, then, of course, no harm would be done; if, on
+the other hand, the trees are stronger than you, why, in that case,
+Colonel, we may have a souvenir of you upon each side of our little
+glade.'
+
+He laughed as he spoke, and at the sight of it the whole forty of them
+laughed also. Even now if I am in my darker humour, or if I have a touch
+of my old Lithuanian ague, I see in my sleep that ring of dark, savage
+faces, with their cruel eyes, and the firelight flashing upon their
+strong white teeth.
+
+It is astonishing--and I have heard many make the same remark--how acute
+one's senses become at such a crisis as this. I am convinced that at no
+moment is one living so vividly, so acutely, as at the instant when a
+violent and foreseen death overtakes one. I could smell the resinous
+fagots, I could see every twig upon the ground, I could hear every
+rustle of the branches, as I have never smelled or seen or heard save at
+such times of danger. And so it was that long before anyone else, before
+even the time when the chief had addressed me, I had heard a low,
+monotonous sound, far away indeed, and yet coming nearer at every
+instant. At first it was but a murmur, a rumble, but by the time he had
+finished speaking, while the assassins were untying my ankles in order
+to lead me to the scene of my murder, I heard, as plainly as ever I
+heard anything in my life, the clinking of horseshoes and the jingling
+of bridle-chains, with the clank of sabres against stirrup-irons. Is it
+likely that I, who had lived with the light cavalry since the first hair
+shaded my lip, would mistake the sound of troopers on the march?
+
+'Help, comrades, help!' I shrieked, and though they struck me across
+the mouth and tried to drag me up to the trees, I kept on yelling, 'Help
+me, my brave boys! Help me, my children! They are murdering your
+colonel!'
+
+For the moment my wounds and my troubles had brought on a delirium, and
+I looked for nothing less than my five hundred hussars, kettle-drums and
+all, to appear at the opening of the glade.
+
+But that which really appeared was very different to anything which I
+had conceived. Into the clear space there came galloping a fine young
+man upon a most beautiful roan horse. He was fresh-faced and
+pleasant-looking, with the most debonair bearing in the world and the
+most gallant way of carrying himself--a way which reminded me somewhat
+of my own. He wore a singular coat which had once been red all over, but
+which was now stained to the colour of a withered oak-leaf wherever the
+weather could reach it. His shoulder-straps, however, were of golden
+lace, and he had a bright metal helmet upon his head, with a coquettish
+white plume upon one side of its crest. He trotted his horse up the
+glade, while behind him rode four cavaliers in the same dress--all
+clean-shaven, with round, comely faces, looking to me more like monks
+than dragoons. At a short, gruff order they halted with a rattle of
+arms, while their leader cantered forward, the fire beating upon his
+eager face and the beautiful head of his charger. I knew, of course, by
+the strange coats that they were English. It was the first sight that I
+had ever had of them, but from their stout bearing and their masterful
+way I could see at a glance that what I had always been told was true,
+and that they were excellent people to fight against.
+
+'Well, well, well!' cried the young officer, in sufficiently bad French,
+'what game are you up to here? Who was that who was yelling for help,
+and what are you trying to do to him?'
+
+It was at that moment that I learned to bless those months which
+Obriant, the descendant of the Irish kings, had spent in teaching me the
+tongue of the English. My ankles had just been freed, so that I had only
+to slip my hands out of the cords, and with a single rush I had flown
+across, picked up my sabre where it lay by the fire, and hurled myself
+on to the saddle of poor Vidal's horse. Yes, for all my wounded ankle, I
+never put foot to stirrup, but was in the seat in a single bound. I tore
+the halter from the tree, and before these villains could so much as
+snap a pistol at me I was beside the English officer.
+
+'I surrender to you, sir,' I cried; though I daresay my English was not
+very much better than his French. 'If you will look at that tree to the
+left you will see what these villains do to the honourable gentlemen who
+fall into their hands.'
+
+The fire had flared up at that moment, and there was poor Vidal exposed
+before them, as horrible an object as one could see in a nightmare.
+'Godam!' cried the officer, and 'Godam!' cried each of the four
+troopers, which is the same as with us when we cry 'Mon Dieu!' Out
+rasped the five swords, and the four men closed up. One, who wore a
+sergeant's chevrons, laughed and clapped me on the shoulder.
+
+'Fight for your skin, froggy,' said he.
+
+Ah, it was so fine to have a horse between my thighs and a weapon in my
+grip. I waved it above my head and shouted in my exultation. The chief
+had come forward with that odious smiling face of his.
+
+'Your excellency will observe that this Frenchman is our prisoner,' said
+he.
+
+'You are a rascally robber,' said the Englishman, shaking his sword at
+him. 'It is a disgrace to us to have such allies. By my faith, if Lord
+Wellington were of my mind we would swing you up on the nearest tree.'
+
+'But my prisoner?' said the brigand, in his suave voice.
+
+'He shall come with us to the British camp.'
+
+'Just a word in your ear before you take him.'
+
+He approached the young officer, and then turning as quick as a flash,
+he fired his pistol in my face. The bullet scored its way through my
+hair and burst a hole on each side of my busby. Seeing that he had
+missed me, he raised the pistol and was about to hurl it at me when the
+English sergeant, with a single back-handed cut, nearly severed his head
+from his body. His blood had not reached the ground, nor the last curse
+died on his lips, before the whole horde was upon us, but with a dozen
+bounds and as many slashes we were all safely out of the glade, and
+galloping down the winding track which led to the valley.
+
+It was not until we had left the ravine far behind us and were right out
+in the open fields that we ventured to halt, and to see what injuries we
+had sustained. For me, wounded and weary as I was, my heart was beating
+proudly, and my chest was nearly bursting my tunic to think that I,
+Etienne Gerard, had left this gang of murderers so much by which to
+remember me. My faith, they would think twice before they ventured again
+to lay hands upon one of the Third Hussars. So carried away was I that I
+made a small oration to these brave Englishmen, and told them who it was
+that they had helped to rescue. I would have spoken of glory also, and
+of the sympathies of brave men, but the officer cut me short.
+
+'That's all right,' said he. 'Any injuries, Sergeant?'
+
+'Trooper Jones's horse hit with a pistol bullet on the fetlock.'
+
+'Trooper Jones to go with us. Sergeant Halliday, with troopers Harvey
+and Smith, to keep to the right until they touch the vedettes of the
+German Hussars.'
+
+So these three jingled away together, while the officer and I, followed
+at some distance by the trooper whose horse had been wounded, rode
+straight down in the direction of the English camp. Very soon we had
+opened our hearts, for we each liked the other from the beginning. He
+was of the nobility, this brave lad, and he had been sent out scouting
+by Lord Wellington to see if there were any signs of our advancing
+through the mountains. It is one advantage of a wandering life like
+mine, that you learn to pick up those bits of knowledge which
+distinguish the man of the world. I have, for example, hardly ever met a
+Frenchman who could repeat an English title correctly. If I had not
+travelled I should not be able to say with confidence that this young
+man's real name was Milor the Hon. Sir Russell, Bart., this last being
+an honourable distinction, so that it was as the Bart that I usually
+addressed him, just as in Spanish one might say 'the Don.'
+
+As we rode beneath the moonlight in the lovely Spanish night, we spoke
+our minds to each other, as if we were brothers. We were both of an age,
+you see, both of the light cavalry also (the Sixteenth Light Dragoons
+was his regiment), and both with the same hopes and ambitions. Never
+have I learned to know a man so quickly as I did the Bart. He gave me
+the name of a girl whom he had loved at a garden called Vauxhall, and,
+for my own part, I spoke to him of little Coralie, of the Opera. He took
+a lock of hair from his bosom, and I a garter. Then we nearly quarrelled
+over hussar and dragoon, for he was absurdly proud of his regiment, and
+you should have seen him curl his lip and clap his hand to his hilt when
+I said that I hoped it might never be its misfortune to come in the way
+of the Third. Finally, he began to speak about what the English call
+sport, and he told such stories of the money which he had lost over
+which of two cocks could kill the other, or which of two men could
+strike the other the most in a fight for a prize, that I was filled with
+astonishment. He was ready to bet upon anything in the most wonderful
+manner, and when I chanced to see a shooting star he was anxious to bet
+that he would see more than me, twenty-five francs a star, and it was
+only when I explained that my purse was in the hands of the brigands
+that he would give over the idea.
+
+Well, we chatted away in this very amiable fashion until the day began
+to break, when suddenly we heard a great volley of musketry from
+somewhere in front of us. It was very rocky and broken ground, and I
+thought, although I could see nothing, that a general engagement had
+broken out. The Bart laughed at my idea, however, and explained that the
+sound came from the English camp, where every man emptied his piece each
+morning so as to make sure of having a dry priming.
+
+'In another mile we shall be up with the outposts,' said he.
+
+I glanced round at this, and I perceived that we had trotted along at so
+good a pace during the time that we were keeping up our pleasant chat,
+that the dragoon with the lame horse was altogether out of sight. I
+looked on every side, but in the whole of that vast rocky valley there
+was no one save only the Bart and I--both of us armed, you understand,
+and both of us well mounted. I began to ask myself whether after all it
+was quite necessary that I should ride that mile which would bring me to
+the British outposts.
+
+Now, I wish to be very clear with you on this point, my friends, for I
+would not have you think that I was acting dishonourably or ungratefully
+to the man who had helped me away from the brigands. You must remember
+that of all duties the strongest is that which a commanding officer owes
+to his men. You must also bear in mind that war is a game which is
+played under fixed rules, and when these rules are broken one must at
+once claim the forfeit. If, for example, I had given a parole, then I
+should have been an infamous wretch had I dreamed of escaping. But no
+parole had been asked of me. Out of over-confidence, and the chance of
+the lame horse dropping behind, the Bart had permitted me to get upon
+equal terms with him. Had it been I who had taken him, I should have
+used him as courteously as he had me, but, at the same time, I should
+have respected his enterprise so far as to have deprived him of his
+sword, and seen that I had at least one guard beside myself. I reined
+up my horse and explained this to him, asking him at the same time
+whether he saw any breach of honour in my leaving him.
+
+He thought about it, and several times repeated that which the English
+say when they mean 'Mon Dieu.'
+
+'You would give me the slip, would you?' said he.
+
+'If you can give no reason against it.'
+
+'The only reason that I can think of,' said the Bart, 'is that I should
+instantly cut your head off if you were to attempt it.'
+
+'Two can play at that game, my dear Bart,' said I.
+
+'Then we'll see who can play at it best,' he cried, pulling out his
+sword.
+
+I had drawn mine also, but I was quite determined not to hurt this
+admirable young man who had been my benefactor.
+
+'Consider,' said I, 'you say that I am your prisoner. I might with equal
+reason say that you are mine. We are alone here, and though I have no
+doubt that you are an excellent swordsman, you can hardly hope to hold
+your own against the best blade in the six light cavalry brigades.'
+
+His answer was a cut at my head. I parried and shore off half of his
+white plume. He thrust at my breast. I turned his point and cut away the
+other half of his cockade.
+
+'Curse your monkey-tricks!' he cried, as I wheeled my horse away from
+him.
+
+'Why should you strike at me?' said I. 'You see that I will not strike
+back.'
+
+'That's all very well,' said he; 'but you've got to come along with me
+to the camp.'
+
+'I shall never see the camp,' said I.
+
+'I'll lay you nine to four you do,' he cried, as he made at me, sword in
+hand.
+
+But those words of his put something new into my head. Could we not
+decide the matter in some better way than fighting? The Bart was
+placing me in such a position that I should have to hurt him, or he
+would certainly hurt me. I avoided his rush, though his sword-point was
+within an inch of my neck.
+
+'I have a proposal,' I cried. 'We shall throw dice as to which is the
+prisoner of the other.'
+
+He smiled at this. It appealed to his love of sport.
+
+'Where are your dice?' he cried.
+
+'I have none.'
+
+'Nor I. But I have cards.'
+
+'Cards let it be,' said I.
+
+'And the game?'
+
+'I leave it to you.'
+
+'Écarté, then--the best of three.'
+
+I could not help smiling as I agreed, for I do not suppose that there
+were three men in France who were my masters at the game. I told the
+Bart as much as we dismounted. He smiled also as he listened.
+
+'I was counted the best player at Watier's,' said he. 'With even luck
+you deserve to get off if you beat me.'
+
+So we tethered our two horses and sat down one on either side of a great
+flat rock. The Bart took a pack of cards out of his tunic, and I had
+only to see him shuffle to convince me that I had no novice to deal
+with. We cut, and the deal fell to him.
+
+My faith, it was a stake worth playing for. He wished to add a hundred
+gold pieces a game, but what was money when the fate of Colonel Etienne
+Gerard hung upon the cards? I felt as though all those who had reason to
+be interested in the game--my mother, my hussars, the Sixth Corps
+d'Armée, Ney, Massena, even the Emperor himself--were forming a ring
+round us in that desolate valley. Heavens, what a blow to one and all of
+them should the cards go against me! But I was confident, for my écarté
+play was as famous as my swordsmanship, and save old Bouvet of the
+Hussars of Bercheny, who won seventy-six out of one hundred and fifty
+games off me, I have always had the best of a series.
+
+The first game I won right off, though I must confess that the cards
+were with me, and that my adversary could have done no more. In the
+second, I never played better and saved a trick by a finesse, but the
+Bart voled me once, marked the king, and ran out in the second hand. My
+faith, we were so excited that he laid his helmet down beside him and I
+my busby.
+
+'I'll lay my roan mare against your black horse,' said he.
+
+'Done!' said I.
+
+'Sword against sword.'
+
+'Done!' said I.
+
+'Saddle, bridle, and stirrups!' he cried.
+
+'Done!' I shouted.
+
+I had caught this spirit of sport from him. I would have laid my hussars
+against his dragoons had they been ours to pledge.
+
+And then began the game of games. Oh, he played, this Englishman--he
+played in a way that was worthy of such a stake. But I, my friends, I
+was superb! Of the five which I had to make to win, I gained three on
+the first hand. The Bart bit his moustache and drummed his hands, while
+I already felt myself at the head of my dear little rascals. On the
+second, I turned the king, but lost two tricks--and my score was four to
+his two. When I saw my next hand I could not but give a cry of delight.
+'If I cannot gain my freedom on this,' thought I, 'I deserve to remain
+for ever in chains.'
+
+Give me the cards, landlord, and I will lay them out on the table for
+you.
+
+Here was my hand: knave and ace of clubs, queen and knave of diamonds,
+and king of hearts. Clubs were trumps, mark you, and I had but one point
+between me and freedom. He knew it was the crisis, and he undid his
+tunic. I threw my dolman on the ground. He led the ten of spades. I took
+it with my ace of trumps. One point in my favour. The correct play was
+to clear the trumps, and I led the knave. Down came the queen upon it,
+and the game was equal. He led the eight of spades, and I could only
+discard my queen of diamonds. Then came the seven of spades, and the
+hair stood straight up on my head. We each threw down a king at the
+final. He had won two points, and my beautiful hand had been mastered by
+his inferior one. I could have rolled on the ground as I thought of it.
+They used to play very good écarté at Watier's in the year '10. I say
+it--I, Brigadier Gerard.
+
+The last game was now four all. This next hand must settle it one way or
+the other. He undid his sash, and I put away my sword-belt. He was cool,
+this Englishman, and I tried to be so also, but the perspiration would
+trickle into my eyes. The deal lay with him, and I may confess to you,
+my friends, that my hands shook so that I could hardly pick my cards
+from the rock. But when I raised them, what was the first thing that my
+eyes rested upon? It was the king, the king, the glorious king of
+trumps! My mouth was open to declare it when the words were frozen upon
+my lips by the appearance of my comrade.
+
+He held his cards in his hand, but his jaw had fallen, and his eyes were
+staring over my shoulder with the most dreadful expression of
+consternation and surprise. I whisked round, and I was myself amazed at
+what I saw.
+
+Three men were standing quite close to us--fifteen mètres at the
+farthest. The middle one was of a good height, and yet not too
+tall--about the same height, in fact, that I am myself. He was clad in a
+dark uniform with a small cocked hat, and some sort of white plume upon
+the side. But I had little thought of his dress. It was his face, his
+gaunt cheeks, his beak-like nose, his masterful blue eyes, his thin,
+firm slit of a mouth which made one feel that this was a wonderful man,
+a man of a million. His brows were tied into a knot, and he cast such a
+glance at my poor Bart from under them that one by one the cards came
+fluttering down from his nerveless fingers. Of the two other men, one,
+who had a face as brown and hard as though it had been carved out of old
+oak, wore a bright red coat, while the other, a fine portly man with
+bushy side-whiskers, was in a blue jacket with gold facings. Some little
+distance behind, three orderlies were holding as many horses, and an
+escort of dragoons was waiting in the rear.
+
+'Heh, Crauford, what the deuce is this?' asked the thin man.
+
+'D'you hear, sir?' cried the man with the red coat. 'Lord Wellington
+wants to know what this means.'
+
+My poor Bart broke into an account of all that had occurred, but that
+rock-face never softened for an instant.
+
+'Pretty fine, 'pon my word, General Crauford,' he broke in. 'The
+discipline of this force must be maintained, sir. Report yourself at
+headquarters as a prisoner.'
+
+It was dreadful to me to see the Bart mount his horse and ride off with
+hanging head. I could not endure it. I threw myself before this English
+General. I pleaded with him for my friend. I told him how I, Colonel
+Gerard, would witness what a dashing young officer he was. Ah, my
+eloquence might have melted the hardest heart; I brought tears to my own
+eyes, but none to his. My voice broke, and I could say no more.
+
+'What weight do you put on your mules, sir, in the French service?' he
+asked. Yes, that was all this phlegmatic Englishman had to answer to
+these burning words of mine. That was his reply to what would have made
+a Frenchman weep upon my shoulder.
+
+'What weight on a mule?' asked the man with the red coat.
+
+'Two hundred and ten pounds,' said I.
+
+'Then you load them deucedly badly,' said Lord Wellington. 'Remove the
+prisoner to the rear.'
+
+His dragoons closed in upon me, and I--I was driven mad, as I thought
+that the game had been in my hands, and that I ought at that moment to
+be a free man. I held the cards up in front of the General.
+
+'See, my lord!' I cried; 'I played for my freedom and I won, for, as you
+perceive, I hold the king.'
+
+For the first time a slight smile softened his gaunt face.
+
+'On the contrary,' said he, as he mounted his horse, 'it is I who won,
+for, as you perceive, my King holds you.'
+
+
+
+
+4. HOW THE KING HELD THE BRIGADIER
+
+
+Murat was undoubtedly an excellent cavalry officer, but he had too much
+swagger, which spoils many a good soldier. Lasalle, too, was a very
+dashing leader, but he ruined himself with wine and folly. Now I,
+Etienne Gerard, was always totally devoid of swagger, and at the same
+time I was very abstemious, except, maybe, at the end of a campaign, or
+when I met an old comrade-in-arms. For these reasons I might, perhaps,
+had it not been for a certain diffidence, have claimed to be the most
+valuable officer in my own branch of the Service. It is true that I
+never rose to be more than a chief of brigade, but then, as everyone
+knows, no one had a chance of rising to the top unless he had the good
+fortune to be with the Emperor in his early campaigns. Except Lasalle,
+and Labau, and Drouet, I can hardly remember any one of the generals who
+had not already made his name before the Egyptian business. Even I, with
+all my brilliant qualities, could only attain the head of my brigade,
+and also the special medal of honour, which I received from the Emperor
+himself, and which I keep at home in a leathern pouch.
+
+But though I never rose higher than this, my qualities were very well
+known to those who had served with me, and also to the English. After
+they had captured me in the way which I described to you the other
+night, they kept a very good guard over me at Oporto, and I promise you
+that they did not give such a formidable opponent a chance of slipping
+through their fingers. It was on the 10th of August that I was escorted
+on board the transport which was to take us to England, and behold me
+before the end of the month in the great prison which had been built for
+us at Dartmoor!
+
+'L'hôtel Français, et Pension,' we used to call it, for you understand
+that we were all brave men there, and that we did not lose our spirits
+because we were in adversity.
+
+It was only those officers who refused to give their parole who were
+confined at Dartmoor, and most of the prisoners were seamen, or from the
+ranks. You ask me, perhaps, why it was that I did not give this parole,
+and so enjoy the same good treatment as most of my brother officers.
+Well, I had two reasons, and both of them were sufficiently strong.
+
+In the first place, I had so much confidence in myself, that I was quite
+convinced that I could escape. In the second, my family, though of good
+repute, has never been wealthy, and I could not bring myself to take
+anything from the small income of my mother. On the other hand, it would
+never do for a man like me to be outshone by the bourgeois society of an
+English country town, or to be without the means of showing courtesies
+and attentions to those ladies whom I should attract. It was for these
+reasons that I preferred to be buried in the dreadful prison of
+Dartmoor. I wish now to tell you of my adventures in England, and how
+far Milor Wellington's words were true when he said that his King would
+hold me.
+
+And first of all I may say that if it were not that I have set off to
+tell you about what befell myself, I could keep you here until morning
+with my stories about Dartmoor itself, and about the singular things
+which occurred there. It was one of the very strangest places in the
+whole world, for there, in the middle of that great desolate waste, were
+herded together seven or eight thousand men--warriors, you understand,
+men of experience and courage. Around there were a double wall and a
+ditch, and warders and soldiers; but, my faith! you could not coop men
+like that up like rabbits in a hutch! They would escape by twos and tens
+and twenties, and then the cannon would boom, and the search parties
+run, and we, who were left behind, would laugh and dance and shout
+'Vive l'Empereur' until the warders would turn their muskets upon us in
+their passion. And then we would have our little mutinies, too, and up
+would come the infantry and the guns from Plymouth, and that would set
+us yelling 'Vive l'Empereur' once more, as though we wished them to hear
+us in Paris. We had lively moments at Dartmoor, and we contrived that
+those who were about us should be lively also.
+
+You must know that the prisoners there had their own Courts of Justice,
+in which they tried their own cases, and inflicted their own
+punishments. Stealing and quarrelling were punished--but most of all
+treachery. When I came there first there was a man, Meunier, from
+Rheims, who had given information of some plot to escape. Well, that
+night, owing to some form or other which had to be gone through, they
+did not take him out from among the other prisoners, and though he wept
+and screamed, and grovelled upon the ground, they left him there amongst
+the comrades whom he had betrayed. That night there was a trial with a
+whispered accusation and a whispered defence, a gagged prisoner, and a
+judge whom none could see. In the morning, when they came for their man
+with papers for his release, there was not as much of him left as you
+could put upon your thumb-nail. They were ingenious people, these
+prisoners, and they had their own way of managing.
+
+We officers, however, lived in a separate wing, and a very singular
+group of people we were. They had left us our uniforms, so that there
+was hardly a corps which had served under Victor, or Massena, or Ney,
+which was not represented there, and some had been there from the time
+when Junot was beaten at Vimiera. We had chasseurs in their green
+tunics, and hussars, like myself, and blue-coated dragoons, and
+white-fronted lancers, and voltigeurs, and grenadiers, and the men of
+the artillery and engineers. But the greater part were naval officers,
+for the English had had the better of us upon the seas. I could never
+understand this until I journeyed myself from Oporto to Plymouth, when
+I lay for seven days upon my back, and could not have stirred had I seen
+the eagle of the regiment carried off before my eyes. It was in
+perfidious weather like this that Nelson took advantage of us.
+
+I had no sooner got into Dartmoor than I began to plan to get out again,
+and you can readily believe that, with wits sharpened by twelve years of
+warfare, it was not very long before I saw my way.
+
+You must know, in the first place, that I had a very great advantage in
+having some knowledge of the English language. I learned it during the
+months that I spent before Danzig, from Adjutant Obriant, of the
+Regiment Irlandais, who was sprung from the ancient kings of the
+country. I was quickly able to speak it with some facility, for I do not
+take long to master anything to which I set my mind. In three months I
+could not only express my meaning, but I could use the idioms of the
+people. It was Obriant who taught me to say 'Be jabers,' just as we
+might say 'Ma foi'; and also 'The curse of Crummle!' which means 'Ventre
+bleu!' Many a time I have seen the English smile with pleasure when they
+have heard me speak so much like one of themselves.
+
+We officers were put two in a cell, which was very little to my taste,
+for my room-mate was a tall, silent man named Beaumont, of the Flying
+Artillery, who had been taken by the English cavalry at Astorga.
+
+It is seldom I meet a man of whom I cannot make a friend, for my
+disposition and manners are--as you know them. But this fellow had never
+a smile for my jests, nor an ear for my sorrows, but would sit looking
+at me with his sullen eyes, until sometimes I thought that his two years
+of captivity had driven him crazy. Ah, how I longed that old Bouvet, or
+any of my comrades of the hussars, was there, instead of this mummy of a
+man. But such as he was I had to make the best of him, and it was very
+evident that no escape could be made unless he were my partner in it,
+for what could I possibly do without him observing me? I hinted at it,
+therefore, and then by degrees I spoke more plainly, until it seemed to
+me that I had prevailed upon him to share my lot.
+
+I tried the walls, and I tried the floor, and I tried the ceiling, but
+though I tapped and probed, they all appeared to be very thick and
+solid. The door was of iron, shutting with a spring lock, and provided
+with a small grating, through which a warder looked twice in every
+night. Within there were two beds, two stools, two washstands--nothing
+more. It was enough for my wants, for when had I had as much during
+those twelve years spent in camps? But how was I to get out? Night after
+night I thought of my five hundred hussars, and had dreadful nightmares,
+in which I fancied that the whole regiment needed shoeing, or that my
+horses were all bloated with green fodder, or that they were foundered
+from bogland, or that six squadrons were clubbed in the presence of the
+Emperor. Then I would awake in a cold sweat, and set to work picking and
+tapping at the walls once more; for I knew very well that there is no
+difficulty which cannot be overcome by a ready brain and a pair of
+cunning hands.
+
+There was a single window in our cell, which was too small to admit a
+child. It was further defended by a thick iron bar in the centre. It was
+not a very promising point of escape, as you will allow, but I became
+more and more convinced that our efforts must be directed towards it. To
+make matters worse, it only led out into the exercise yard, which was
+surrounded by two high walls. Still, as I said to my sullen comrade, it
+is time to talk of the Vistula when you are over the Rhine. I got a
+small piece of iron, therefore, from the fittings of my bed, and I set
+to work to loosen the plaster at the top and the bottom of the bar.
+Three hours I would work, and then leap into my bed upon the sound of
+the warder's step. Then another three hours, and then very often another
+yet, for I found that Beaumont was so slow and clumsy at it that it was
+on myself only that I could rely.
+
+I pictured to myself my Third of Hussars waiting just outside that
+window, with kettle-drums and standards and leopard-skin schabraques all
+complete. Then I would work like a madman, until my iron was crusted
+with blood, as if with rust. And so, night by night, I loosened that
+stony plaster, and hid it away in the stuffing of my pillow, until the
+hour came when the iron shook; and then with one good wrench it came off
+in my hand, and my first step had been made towards freedom.
+
+You will ask me what better off I was, since, as I have said, a child
+could not have fitted through the opening. I will tell you. I had gained
+two things--a tool and a weapon. With the one I might loosen the stone
+which flanked the window. With the other I might defend myself when I
+had scrambled through. So now I turned my attention to that stone, and I
+picked and picked with the sharpened end of my bar until I had worked
+out the mortar all round. You understand, of course, that during the day
+I replaced everything in its position, and that the warder was never
+permitted to see a speck upon the floor. At the end of three weeks I had
+separated the stone, and had the rapture of drawing it through, and
+seeing a hole left with ten stars shining through it, where there had
+been but four before. All was ready for us now, and I had replaced the
+stone, smearing the edges of it round with a little fat and soot, so as
+to hide the cracks where the mortar should have been. In three nights
+the moon would be gone, and that seemed the best time for our attempt.
+
+I had now no doubt at all about getting into the yards, but I had very
+considerable misgivings as to how I was to get out again. It would be
+too humiliating, after trying here, and trying there, to have to go back
+to my hole again in despair, or to be arrested by the guards outside,
+and thrown into those damp underground cells which are reserved for
+prisoners who are caught in escaping. I set to work, therefore, to plan
+what I should do. I have never, as you know, had the chance of showing
+what I could do as a general. Sometimes, after a glass or two of wine, I
+have found myself capable of thinking out surprising combinations, and
+have felt that if Napoleon had intrusted me with an army corps, things
+might have gone differently with him. But however that may be, there is
+no doubt that in the small stratagems of war, and in that quickness of
+invention which is so necessary for an officer of light cavalry, I could
+hold my own against anyone. It was now that I had need of it, and I felt
+sure that it would not fail me.
+
+The inner wall which I had to scale was built of bricks, 12ft. high,
+with a row of iron spikes, 3in. apart upon the top. The outer I had only
+caught a glimpse of once or twice, when the gate of the exercise yard
+was open. It appeared to be about the same height, and was also spiked
+at the top. The space between the walls was over twenty feet, and I had
+reason to believe that there were no sentries there, except at the
+gates. On the other hand, I knew that there was a line of soldiers
+outside. Behold the little nut, my friends, which I had to open with no
+crackers, save these two hands.
+
+One thing upon which I relied was the height of my comrade Beaumont. I
+have already said that he was a very tall man, six feet at least, and it
+seemed to me that if I could mount upon his shoulders, and get my hands
+upon the spikes, I could easily scale the wall. Could I pull my big
+companion up after me? That was the question, for when I set forth with
+a comrade, even though it be one for whom I bear no affection, nothing
+on earth would make me abandon him. If I climbed the wall and he could
+not follow me, I should be compelled to return to him. He did not seem
+to concern himself much about it, however, so I hoped that he had
+confidence in his own activity.
+
+Then another very important matter was the choice of the sentry who
+should be on duty in front of my window at the time of our attempt.
+They were changed every two hours to insure their vigilance, but I, who
+watched them closely each night out of my window, knew that there was a
+great difference between them. There were some who were so keen that a
+rat could not cross the yard unseen, while others thought only of their
+own ease, and could sleep as soundly leaning upon a musket as if they
+were at home upon a feather bed. There was one especially, a fat, heavy
+man, who would retire into the shadow of the wall and doze so
+comfortably during his two hours, that I have dropped pieces of plaster
+from my window at his very feet, without his observing it. By good luck,
+this fellow's watch was due from twelve to two upon the night which we
+had fixed upon for our enterprise.
+
+As the last day passed, I was so filled with nervous agitation that I
+could not control myself, but ran ceaselessly about my cell, like a
+mouse in a cage. Every moment I thought that the warder would detect the
+looseness of the bar, or that the sentry would observe the unmortared
+stone, which I could not conceal outside, as I did within. As for my
+companion, he sat brooding upon the end of his bed, looking at me in a
+sidelong fashion from time to time, and biting his nails like one who is
+deep in thought.
+
+'Courage, my friend!' I cried, slapping him upon the shoulder. 'You will
+see your guns before another month be past.'
+
+'That is very well,' said he. 'But whither will you fly when you get
+free?'
+
+'To the coast,' I answered. 'All comes right for a brave man, and I
+shall make straight for my regiment.'
+
+'You are more likely to make straight for the underground cells, or for
+the Portsmouth hulks,' said he.
+
+'A soldier takes his chances,' I remarked. 'It is only the poltroon who
+reckons always upon the worst.'
+
+I raised a flush in each of his sallow cheeks at that, and I was glad
+of it, for it was the first sign of spirit which I had ever observed in
+him. For a moment he put his hand out towards his water-jug, as though
+he would have hurled it at me, but then he shrugged his shoulders and
+sat in silence once more, biting his nails, and scowling down at the
+floor. I could not but think, as I looked at him, that perhaps I was
+doing the Flying Artillery a very bad service by bringing him back to
+them.
+
+I never in my life have known an evening pass as slowly as that one.
+Towards nightfall a wind sprang up, and as the darkness deepened it blew
+harder and harder, until a terrible gale was whistling over the moor. As
+I looked out of my window I could not catch a glimpse of a star, and the
+black clouds were flying low across the heavens. The rain was pouring
+down, and what with its hissing and splashing, and the howling and
+screaming of the wind, it was impossible for me to hear the steps of the
+sentinels. 'If I cannot hear them,' thought I, 'then it is unlikely that
+they can hear me'; and I waited with the utmost impatience until the
+time when the inspector should have come round for his nightly peep
+through our grating. Then having peered through the darkness, and seen
+nothing of the sentry, who was doubtless crouching in some corner out of
+the rain, I felt that the moment was come. I removed the bar, pulled out
+the stone, and motioned to my companion to pass through.
+
+'After you, Colonel,' said he.
+
+'Will you not go first?' I asked.
+
+'I had rather you showed me the way.'
+
+'Come after me, then, but come silently, as you value your life.'
+
+In the darkness I could hear the fellow's teeth chattering, and I
+wondered whether a man ever had such a partner in a desperate
+enterprise. I seized the bar, however, and mounting upon my stool, I
+thrust my head and shoulders into the hole. I had wriggled through as
+far as my waist, when my companion seized me suddenly by the knees, and
+yelled at the top of his voice: 'Help! Help! A prisoner is escaping!'
+
+Ah, my friends, what did I not feel at that moment! Of course, I saw in
+an instant the game of this vile creature. Why should he risk his skin
+in climbing walls when he might be sure of a free pardon from the
+English for having prevented the escape of one so much more
+distinguished than himself? I had recognized him as a poltroon and a
+sneak, but I had not understood the depth of baseness to which he could
+descend. One who has spent his life among gentlemen and men of honour
+does not think of such things until they happen.
+
+The blockhead did not seem to understand that he was lost more certainly
+than I. I writhed back in the darkness, and seizing him by the throat, I
+struck him twice with my iron bar. At the first blow he yelped as a
+little cur does when you tread upon its paw. At the second, down he fell
+with a groan upon the floor. Then I seated myself upon my bed, and
+waited resignedly for whatever punishment my gaolers might inflict upon
+me.
+
+But a minute passed and yet another, with no sound save the heavy,
+snoring breathing of the senseless wretch upon the floor. Was it
+possible, then, that amid the fury of the storm his warning cries had
+passed unheeded? At first it was but a tiny hope, another minute and it
+was probable, another and it was certain. There was no sound in the
+corridor, none in the courtyard. I wiped the cold sweat from my brow,
+and asked myself what I should do next.
+
+One thing seemed certain. The man on the floor must die. If I left him I
+could not tell how short a time it might be before he gave the alarm. I
+dare not strike a light, so I felt about in the darkness until my hand
+came upon something wet, which I knew to be his head. I raised my iron
+bar, but there was something, my friends, which prevented me from
+bringing it down. In the heat of fight I have slain many men--men of
+honour, too, who had done me no injury. Yet here was this wretch, a
+creature too foul to live, who had tried to work me so great a mischief,
+and yet I could not bring myself to crush his skull in. Such deeds are
+very well for a Spanish partida--or for that matter a sansculotte of the
+Faubourg St Antoine--but not for a soldier and a gentleman like me.
+
+However, the heavy breathing of the fellow made me hope that it might be
+a very long time before he recovered his senses. I gagged him,
+therefore, and bound him with strips of blanket to the bed, so that in
+his weakened condition there was good reason to think that, in any case,
+he might not get free before the next visit of the warder. But now again
+I was faced with new difficulties, for you will remember that I had
+relied upon his height to help me over the walls. I could have sat down
+and shed tears of despair had not the thought of my mother and of the
+Emperor come to sustain me. 'Courage!' said I. 'If it were anyone but
+Etienne Gerard he would be in a bad fix now; that is a young man who is
+not so easily caught.'
+
+I set to work therefore upon Beaumont's sheet as well as my own, and by
+tearing them into strips and then plaiting them together, I made a very
+excellent rope. This I tied securely to the centre of my iron bar, which
+was a little over a foot in length. Then I slipped out into the yard,
+where the rain was pouring and the wind screaming louder than ever. I
+kept in the shadow of the prison wall, but it was as black as the ace of
+spades, and I could not see my own hand in front of me. Unless I walked
+into the sentinel I felt that I had nothing to fear from him. When I had
+come under the wall I threw up my bar, and to my joy it stuck the very
+first time between the spikes at the top. I climbed up my rope, pulled
+it after me, and dropped down on the other side. Then I scaled the
+second wall, and was sitting astride among the spikes upon the top, when
+I saw something twinkle in the darkness beneath me. It was the bayonet
+of the sentinel below, and so close was it (the second wall being rather
+lower than the first) that I could easily, by leaning over, have
+unscrewed it from its socket. There he was, humming a tune to himself,
+and cuddling up against the wall to keep himself warm, little thinking
+that a desperate man within a few feet of him was within an ace of
+stabbing him to the heart with his own weapon. I was already bracing
+myself for the spring when the fellow, with an oath, shouldered his
+musket, and I heard his steps squelching through the mud as he resumed
+his beat. I slipped down my rope, and, leaving it hanging, I ran at the
+top of my speed across the moor.
+
+Heavens, how I ran! The wind buffeted my face and buzzed in my nostrils.
+The rain pringled upon my skin and hissed past my ears. I stumbled into
+holes. I tripped over bushes. I fell among brambles. I was torn and
+breathless and bleeding. My tongue was like leather, my feet like lead,
+and my heart beating like a kettle-drum. Still I ran, and I ran, and I
+ran.
+
+But I had not lost my head, my friends. Everything was done with a
+purpose. Our fugitives always made for the coast. I was determined to go
+inland, and the more so as I had told Beaumont the opposite. I would fly
+to the north, and they would seek me in the south. Perhaps you will ask
+me how I could tell which was which on such a night. I answer that it
+was by the wind. I had observed in the prison that it came from the
+north, and so, as long as I kept my face to it, I was going in the right
+direction.
+
+Well, I was rushing along in this fashion when, suddenly, I saw two
+yellow lights shining out of the darkness in front of me. I paused for a
+moment, uncertain what I should do. I was still in my hussar uniform,
+you understand, and it seemed to me that the very first thing that I
+should aim at was to get some dress which should not betray me. If these
+lights came from a cottage, it was probable enough that I might find
+what I wanted there. I approached, therefore, feeling very sorry that I
+had left my iron bar behind; for I was determined to fight to the death
+before I should be retaken.
+
+But very soon I found that there was no cottage there. The lights were
+two lamps hung upon each side of a carriage, and by their glare I saw
+that a broad road lay in front of me. Crouching among the bushes, I
+observed that there were two horses to the equipage, that a small
+post-boy was standing at their heads, and that one of the wheels was
+lying in the road beside him. I can see them now, my friends: the
+steaming creatures, the stunted lad with his hands to their bits, and
+the big, black coach, all shining with the rain, and balanced upon its
+three wheels. As I looked, the window was lowered, and a pretty little
+face under a bonnet peeped out from it.
+
+'What shall I do?' the lady cried to the post-boy, in a voice of
+despair. 'Sir Charles is certainly lost, and I shall have to spend the
+night upon the moor.'
+
+'Perhaps I can be of some assistance to madame,' said I, scrambling out
+from among the bushes into the glare of the lamps. A woman in distress
+is a sacred thing to me, and this one was beautiful. You must not forget
+that, although I was a colonel, I was only eight-and-twenty years of
+age.
+
+My word, how she screamed, and how the post-boy stared! You will
+understand that after that long race in the darkness, with my shako
+broken in, my face smeared with dirt, and my uniform all stained and
+torn with brambles, I was not entirely the sort of gentleman whom one
+would choose to meet in the middle of a lonely moor. Still, after the
+first surprise, she soon understood that I was her very humble servant,
+and I could even read in her pretty eyes that my manner and bearing had
+not failed to produce an impression upon her.
+
+'I am sorry to have startled you, madame,' said I. 'I chanced to
+overhear your remark, and I could not refrain from offering you my
+assistance.' I bowed as I spoke. You know my bow, and can realize what
+its effect was upon the lady.
+
+'I am much indebted to you, sir,' said she. 'We have had a terrible
+journey since we left Tavistock. Finally, one of our wheels came off,
+and here we are helpless in the middle of the moor. My husband, Sir
+Charles, has gone on to get help, and I much fear that he must have lost
+his way.'
+
+I was about to attempt some consolation, when I saw beside the lady a
+black travelling coat, faced with astrakhan, which her companion must
+have left behind him. It was exactly what I needed to conceal my
+uniform. It is true that I felt very much like a highway robber, but
+then, what would you have? Necessity has no law, and I was in an enemy's
+country.
+
+'I presume, madame, that this is your husband's coat,' I remarked. 'You
+will, I am sure, forgive me, if I am compelled to--' I pulled it through
+the window as I spoke.
+
+I could not bear to see the look of surprise and fear and disgust which
+came over her face.
+
+'Oh, I have been mistaken in you!' she cried. 'You came to rob me, then,
+and not to help me. You have the bearing of a gentleman, and yet you
+steal my husband's coat.'
+
+'Madame,' said I, 'I beg that you will not condemn me until you know
+everything. It is quite necessary that I should take this coat, but if
+you will have the goodness to tell me who it is who is fortunate enough
+to be your husband, I shall see that the coat is sent back to him.'
+
+Her face softened a little, though she still tried to look severe. 'My
+husband,' she answered, 'is Sir Charles Meredith, and he is travelling
+to Dartmoor Prison, upon important Government business. I only ask you,
+sir, to go upon your way, and to take nothing which belongs to him.'
+
+'There is only one thing which belongs to him that I covet,' said I.
+
+'And you have taken it from the carriage,' she cried.
+
+'No,' I answered. 'It still remains there.'
+
+She laughed in her frank English way.
+
+'If, instead of paying me compliments, you were to return my husband's
+coat--' she began.
+
+'Madame,' I answered, 'what you ask is quite impossible. If you will
+allow me to come into the carriage, I will explain to you how necessary
+this coat is to me.'
+
+Heaven knows into what foolishness I might have plunged myself had we
+not, at this instant, heard a faint halloa in the distance, which was
+answered by a shout from the little post-boy. In the rain and the
+darkness, I saw a lantern some distance from us, but approaching
+rapidly.
+
+'I am sorry, madame, that I am forced to leave you,' said I. 'You can
+assure your husband that I shall take every care of his coat.' Hurried
+as I was, I ventured to pause a moment to salute the lady's hand, which
+she snatched through the window with an admirable pretence of being
+offended at my presumption. Then, as the lantern was quite close to me,
+and the post-boy seemed inclined to interfere with my flight, I tucked
+my precious overcoat under my arm, and dashed off into the darkness.
+
+And now I set myself to the task of putting as broad a stretch of moor
+between the prison and myself as the remaining hours of darkness would
+allow. Setting my face to the wind once more, I ran until I fell from
+exhaustion. Then, after five minutes of panting among the heather, I
+made another start, until again my knees gave way beneath me. I was
+young and hard, with muscles of steel, and a frame which had been
+toughened by twelve years of camp and field. Thus I was able to keep up
+this wild flight for another three hours, during which I still guided
+myself, you understand, by keeping the wind in my face. At the end of
+that time I calculated that I had put nearly twenty miles between the
+prison and myself. Day was about to break, so I crouched down among the
+heather upon the top of one of those small hills which abound in that
+country, with the intention of hiding myself until nightfall. It was no
+new thing for me to sleep in the wind and the rain, so, wrapping myself
+up in my thick warm cloak, I soon sank into a doze.
+
+But it was not a refreshing slumber. I tossed and tumbled amid a series
+of vile dreams, in which everything seemed to go wrong with me. At last,
+I remember, I was charging an unshaken square of Hungarian Grenadiers,
+with a single squadron upon spent horses, just as I did at Elchingen. I
+stood in my stirrups to shout 'Vive l'Empereur!' and as I did so, there
+came the answering roar from my hussars, 'Vive l'Empereur!' I sprang
+from my rough bed, with the words still ringing in my ears, and then, as
+I rubbed my eyes, and wondered if I were mad, the same cry came again,
+five thousand voices in one long-drawn yell. I looked out from my screen
+of brambles, and saw in the clear light of morning the very last thing
+that I should either have expected or chosen.
+
+It was Dartmoor Prison! There it stretched, grim and hideous, within a
+furlong of me. Had I run on for a few more minutes in the dark, I should
+have butted my shako against the wall. I was so taken aback at the
+sight, that I could scarcely realize what had happened. Then it all
+became clear to me, and I struck my head with my hands in my despair.
+The wind had veered from north to south during the night, and I, keeping
+my face always towards it, had run ten miles out and ten miles in,
+winding up where I had started. When I thought of my hurry, my falls, my
+mad rushing and jumping, all ending in this, it seemed so absurd, that
+my grief changed suddenly to amusement, and I fell among the brambles,
+and laughed, and laughed, until my sides were sore. Then I rolled myself
+up in my cloak and considered seriously what I should do.
+
+One lesson which I have learned in my roaming life, my friends, is
+never to call anything a misfortune until you have seen the end of it.
+Is not every hour a fresh point of view? In this case I soon perceived
+that accident had done for me as much as the most profound cunning. My
+guards naturally commenced their search from the place where I had taken
+Sir Charles Meredith's coat, and from my hiding-place I could see them
+hurrying along the road to that point. Not one of them ever dreamed that
+I could have doubled back from there, and I lay quite undisturbed in the
+little bush-covered cup at the summit of my knoll. The prisoners had, of
+course, learned of my escape, and all day exultant yells, like that
+which had aroused me in the morning, resounded over the moor, bearing a
+welcome message of sympathy and companionship to my ears. How little did
+they dream that on the top of that very mound, which they could see from
+their windows, was lying the comrade whose escape they were celebrating?
+As for me--I could look down upon this poor herd of idle warriors, as
+they paced about the great exercise yard, or gathered in little groups,
+gesticulating joyfully over my success. Once I heard a howl of
+execration, and I saw Beaumont, his head all covered with bandages,
+being led across the yard by two of the warders. I cannot tell you the
+pleasure which this sight gave me, for it proved that I had not killed
+him, and also that the others knew the true story of what had passed.
+They had all known me too well to think that I could have abandoned him.
+
+All that long day I lay behind my screen of bushes, listening to the
+bells which struck the hours below.
+
+My pockets were filled with bread which I had saved out of my allowance,
+and on searching my borrowed overcoat I came upon a silver flask, full
+of excellent brandy and water, so that I was able to get through the day
+without hardship. The only other things in the pockets were a red silk
+handkerchief, a tortoise-shell snuff-box, and a blue envelope, with a
+red seal, addressed to the Governor of Dartmoor Prison. As to the first
+two, I determined to send them back when I should return the coat
+itself.
+
+The letter caused me more perplexity, for the Governor had always shown
+me every courtesy, and it offended my sense of honour that I should
+interfere with his correspondence. I had almost made up my mind to leave
+it under a stone upon the roadway within musket-shot of the gate. This
+would guide them in their search for me, however, and so, on the whole,
+I saw no better way than just to carry the letter with me in the hope
+that I might find some means of sending it back to him. Meanwhile I
+packed it safely away in my inner-most pocket.
+
+There was a warm sun to dry my clothes, and when night fell I was ready
+for my journey. I promise you that there were no mistakes this time. I
+took the stars for my guides, as every hussar should be taught to do,
+and I put eight good leagues between myself and the prison. My plan now
+was to obtain a complete suit of clothes from the first person whom I
+could waylay, and I should then find my way to the north coast, where
+there were many smugglers and fishermen who would be ready to earn the
+reward which was paid by the Emperor to those who brought escaping
+prisoners across the Channel. I had taken the panache from my shako so
+that it might escape notice, but even with my fine overcoat I feared
+that sooner or later my uniform would betray me. My first care must be
+to provide myself with a complete disguise.
+
+When day broke, I saw a river upon my right and a small town upon my
+left--the blue smoke reeking up above the moor. I should have liked well
+to have entered it, because it would have interested me to see something
+of the customs of the English, which differ very much from those of
+other nations. Much as I should have wished, however, to have seen them
+eat their raw meat and sell their wives, it would have been dangerous
+until I had got rid of my uniform. My cap, my moustache, and my speech
+would all help to betray me. I continued to travel towards the north
+therefore, looking about me continually, but never catching a glimpse of
+my pursuers.
+
+About midday I came to where, in a secluded valley, there stood a single
+small cottage without any other building in sight. It was a neat little
+house, with a rustic porch and a small garden in front of it, with a
+swarm of cocks and hens. I lay down among the ferns and watched it, for
+it seemed to be exactly the kind of place where I might obtain what I
+wanted. My bread was finished, and I was exceedingly hungry after my
+long journey; I determined, therefore, to make a short reconnaissance,
+and then to march up to this cottage, summon it to surrender, and help
+myself to all that I needed. It could at least provide me with a chicken
+and with an omelette. My mouth watered at the thought.
+
+As I lay there, wondering who could live in this lonely place, a brisk
+little fellow came out through the porch, accompanied by another older
+man, who carried two large clubs in his hands. These he handed to his
+young companion, who swung them up and down, and round and round, with
+extraordinary swiftness. The other, standing beside him, appeared to
+watch him with great attention, and occasionally to advise him. Finally
+he took a rope, and began skipping like a girl, the other still gravely
+observing him. As you may think, I was utterly puzzled as to what these
+people could be, and could only surmise that the one was a doctor, and
+the other a patient who had submitted himself to some singular method of
+treatment.
+
+Well, as I lay watching and wondering, the older man brought out a
+great-coat, and held it while the other put it on and buttoned it to his
+chin. The day was a warmish one, so that this proceeding amazed me even
+more than the other. 'At least,' thought I, 'it is evident that his
+exercise is over'; but, far from this being so, the man began to run, in
+spite of his heavy coat, and as it chanced, he came right over the moor
+in my direction. His companion had re-entered the house, so that this
+arrangement suited me admirably. I would take the small man's clothing,
+and hurry on to some village where I could buy provisions. The chickens
+were certainly tempting, but still there were at least two men in the
+house, so perhaps it would be wiser for me, since I had no arms, to keep
+away from it.
+
+I lay quietly then among the ferns. Presently I heard the steps of the
+runner, and there he was quite close to me, with his huge coat, and the
+perspiration running down his face. He seemed to be a very solid
+man--but small--so small that I feared that his clothes might be of
+little use to me. When I jumped out upon him he stopped running, and
+looked at me in the greatest astonishment.
+
+'Blow my dickey,' said he, 'give it a name, guv'nor! Is it a circus, or
+what?'
+
+That was how he talked, though I cannot pretend to tell you what he
+meant by it.
+
+'You will excuse me, sir,' said I, 'but I am under the necessity of
+asking you to give me your clothes.'
+
+'Give you what?' he cried.
+
+'Your clothes.'
+
+'Well, if this don't lick cock-fighting!' said he. 'What am I to give
+you my clothes for?'
+
+'Because I need them.'
+
+'And suppose I won't?'
+
+'Be jabers,' said I, 'I shall have no choice but to take them.'
+
+He stood with his hands in the pockets of his great-coat, and a most
+amused smile upon his square-jawed, clean-shaven face.
+
+'You'll take them, will you?' said he. 'You're a very leery cove, by the
+look of you, but I can tell you that you've got the wrong sow by the ear
+this time. I know who you are. You're a runaway Frenchy, from the prison
+yonder, as anyone could tell with half an eye. But you don't know who I
+am, else you wouldn't try such a plant as that. Why, man, I'm the
+Bristol Bustler, nine stone champion, and them's my training quarters
+down yonder.'
+
+He stared at me as if this announcement of his would have crushed me to
+the earth, but I smiled at him in my turn, and looked him up and down,
+with a twirl of my moustache.
+
+'You may be a very brave man, sir,' said I, 'but when I tell you that
+you are opposed to Colonel Etienne Gerard, of the Hussars of Conflans,
+you will see the necessity of giving up your clothes without further
+parley.'
+
+'Look here, mounseer, drop it!' he cried; 'this'll end by your getting
+pepper.'
+
+'Your clothes, sir, this instant!' I shouted, advancing fiercely upon
+him.
+
+For answer he threw off his heavy great-coat, and stood in a singular
+attitude, with one arm out, and the other across his chest, looking at
+me with a curious smile. For myself, I knew nothing of the methods of
+fighting which these people have, but on horse or on foot, with arms or
+without them, I am always ready to take my own part. You understand that
+a soldier cannot always choose his own methods, and that it is time to
+howl when you are living among wolves. I rushed at him, therefore, with
+a warlike shout, and kicked him with both my feet. At the same moment my
+heels flew into the air, I saw as many flashes as at Austerlitz, and the
+back of my head came down with a crash upon a stone. After that I can
+remember nothing more.
+
+When I came to myself I was lying upon a truckle-bed, in a bare,
+half-furnished room. My head was ringing like a bell, and when I put up
+my hand, there was a lump like a walnut over one of my eyes. My nose was
+full of a pungent smell, and I soon found that a strip of paper soaked
+in vinegar was fastened across my brow. At the other end of the room
+this terrible little man was sitting with his knee bare, and his
+elderly companion was rubbing it with some liniment. The latter seemed
+to be in the worst of tempers, and he kept up a continual scolding,
+which the other listened to with a gloomy face.
+
+'Never heard tell of such a thing in my life,' he was saying. 'In
+training for a month with all the weight of it on my shoulders, and then
+when I get you as fit as a trout, and within two days of fighting the
+likeliest man on the list, you let yourself into a by-battle with a
+foreigner.'
+
+'There, there! Stow your gab!' said the other, sulkily. 'You're a very
+good trainer, Jim, but you'd be better with less jaw.'
+
+'I should think it was time to jaw,' the elderly man answered. 'If this
+knee don't get well before next Wednesday, they'll have it that you
+fought a cross, and a pretty job you'll have next time you look for a
+backer.'
+
+'Fought a cross!' growled the other. 'I've won nineteen battles, and no
+man ever so much as dared to say the word "cross" in my hearin'. How the
+deuce was I to get out of it when the cove wanted the very clothes off
+my back?'
+
+'Tut, man; you knew that the beak and the guards were within a mile of
+you. You could have set them on to him as well then as now. You'd have
+got your clothes back again all right.'
+
+'Well, strike me!' said the Bustler. 'I don't often break my trainin',
+but when it comes to givin' up my clothes to a Frenchy who couldn't hit
+a dint in a pat o' butter, why, it's more than I can swaller.'
+
+'Pooh, man, what are the clothes worth? D'you know that Lord Rufton
+alone has five thousand pounds on you? When you jump the ropes on
+Wednesday, you'll carry every penny of fifty thousand into the ring. A
+pretty thing to turn up with a swollen knee and a story about a
+Frenchman!'
+
+'I never thought he'd ha' kicked,' said the Bustler.
+
+'I suppose you expected he'd fight Broughton's rules, and strict P.R.?
+Why, you silly, they don't know what fighting is in France.'
+
+'My friends,' said I, sitting up on my bed, 'I do not understand very
+much of what you say, but when you speak like that it is foolishness. We
+know so much about fighting in France, that we have paid our little
+visit to nearly every capital in Europe, and very soon we are coming to
+London. But we fight like soldiers, you understand, and not like gamins
+in the gutter. You strike me on the head. I kick you on the knee. It is
+child's play. But if you will give me a sword, and take another one, I
+will show you how we fight over the water.'
+
+They both stared at me in their solid, English way.
+
+'Well, I'm glad you're not dead, mounseer,' said the elder one at last.
+'There wasn't much sign of life in you when the Bustler and me carried
+you down. That head of yours ain't thick enough to stop the crook of the
+hardest hitter in Bristol.'
+
+'He's a game cove, too, and he came for me like a bantam,' said the
+other, still rubbing his knee. 'I got my old left-right in, and he went
+over as if he had been pole-axed. It wasn't my fault, mounseer. I told
+you you'd get pepper if you went on.'
+
+'Well, it's something to say all your life, that you've been handled by
+the finest light-weight in England,' said the older man, looking at me
+with an expression of congratulation upon his face. 'You've had him at
+his best, too--in the pink of condition, and trained by Jim Hunter.'
+
+'I am used to hard knocks,' said I, unbuttoning my tunic, and showing my
+two musket wounds. Then I bared my ankle also, and showed the place in
+my eye where the guerilla had stabbed me.
+
+'He can take his gruel,' said the Bustler.
+
+'What a glutton he'd have made for the middle-weights,' remarked the
+trainer; 'with six months' coaching he'd astonish the fancy. It's a pity
+he's got to go back to prison.'
+
+I did not like that last remark at all. I buttoned up my coat and rose
+from the bed.
+
+'I must ask you to let me continue my journey,' said I.
+
+'There's no help for it, mounseer,' the trainer answered. 'It's a hard
+thing to send such a man as you back to such a place, but business is
+business, and there's a twenty pound reward. They were here this
+morning, looking for you, and I expect they'll be round again.'
+
+His words turned my heart to lead.
+
+'Surely, you would not betray me!' I cried. 'I will send you twice
+twenty pounds on the day that I set foot upon France. I swear it upon
+the honour of a French gentleman.'
+
+But I only got head-shakes for a reply. I pleaded, I argued, I spoke of
+the English hospitality and the fellowship of brave men, but I might as
+well have been addressing the two great wooden clubs which stood
+balanced upon the floor in front of me. There was no sign of sympathy
+upon their bull-faces.
+
+'Business is business, mounseer,' the old trainer repeated. 'Besides,
+how am I to put the Bustler into the ring on Wednesday if he's jugged by
+the beak for aidin' and abettin' a prisoner of war? I've got to look
+after the Bustler, and I take no risks.'
+
+This, then, was the end of all my struggles and strivings. I was to be
+led back again like a poor silly sheep who has broken through the
+hurdles. They little knew me who could fancy that I should submit to
+such a fate. I had heard enough to tell me where the weak point of these
+two men was, and I showed, as I have often showed before, that Etienne
+Gerard is never so terrible as when all hope seems to have deserted him.
+With a single spring I seized one of the clubs and swung it over the
+head of the Bustler.
+
+'Come what may,' I cried, '_you_ shall be spoiled for Wednesday.'
+
+The fellow growled out an oath, and would have sprung at me, but the
+other flung his arms round him and pinned him to the chair.
+
+'Not if I know it, Bustler,' he screamed. 'None of your games while I am
+by. Get away out of this, Frenchy. We only want to see your back. Run
+away, run away, or he'll get loose!'
+
+It was good advice, I thought, and I ran to the door, but as I came out
+into the open air my head swam round and I had to lean against the porch
+to save myself from falling. Consider all that I had been through, the
+anxiety of my escape, the long, useless flight in the storm, the day
+spent amid wet ferns, with only bread for food, the second journey by
+night, and now the injuries which I had received in attempting to
+deprive the little man of his clothes. Was it wonderful that even I
+should reach the limits of my endurance?
+
+I stood there in my heavy coat and my poor battered shako, my chin upon
+my chest, and my eyelids over my eyes. I had done my best, and I could
+do no more. It was the sound of horses' hoofs which made me at last
+raise my head, and there was the grey-moustached Governor of Dartmoor
+Prison not ten paces in front of me, with six mounted warders behind
+him!
+
+'So, Colonel,' said he, with a bitter smile, 'we have found you once
+more.'
+
+When a brave man has done his utmost, and has failed, he shows his
+breeding by the manner in which he accepts his defeat. For me, I took
+the letter which I had in my pocket, and stepping forward, I handed it
+with such grace of manner as I could summon to the Governor.
+
+'It has been my misfortune, sir, to detain one of your letters,' said I.
+
+He looked at me in amazement, and beckoned to the warders to arrest me.
+Then he broke the seal of the letter. I saw a curious expression come
+over his face as he read it.
+
+'This must be the letter which Sir Charles Meredith lost,' said he.
+
+'It was in the pocket of his coat.'
+
+'You have carried it for two days?'
+
+'Since the night before last.'
+
+'And never looked at the contents?'
+
+I showed him by my manner that he had committed an indiscretion in
+asking a question which one gentleman should not have put to another.
+
+To my surprise he burst out into a roar of laughter.
+
+'Colonel,' said he, wiping the tears from his eyes, 'you have really
+given both yourself and us a great deal of unnecessary trouble. Allow me
+to read the letter which you carried with you in your flight.'
+
+And this was what I heard:--
+
+'On receipt of this you are directed to release Colonel Etienne Gerard,
+of the 3rd Hussars, who has been exchanged against Colonel Mason, of the
+Horse Artillery, now in Verdun.'
+
+And as he read it, he laughed again, and the warders laughed, and the
+two men from the cottage laughed, and then, as I heard this universal
+merriment, and thought of all my hopes and fears, and my struggles and
+dangers, what could a debonair soldier do but lean against the porch
+once more, and laugh as heartily as any of them? And of them all was it
+not I who had the best reason to laugh, since in front of me I could see
+my dear France, and my mother, and the Emperor, and my horsemen; while
+behind lay the gloomy prison, and the heavy hand of the English King?
+
+
+
+
+5. HOW THE BRIGADIER TOOK THE FIELD AGAINST THE MARSHAL MILLEFLEURS
+
+
+Massena was a thin, sour little fellow, and after his hunting accident
+he had only one eye, but when it looked out from under his cocked hat
+there was not much upon a field of battle which escaped it. He could
+stand in front of a battalion, and with a single sweep tell you if a
+buckle or a gaiter button were out of place. Neither the officers nor
+the men were very fond of him, for he was, as you know, a miser, and
+soldiers love that their leaders should be free-handed. At the same
+time, when it came to work they had a very high respect for him, and
+they would rather fight under him than under anyone except the Emperor
+himself, and Lannes, when he was alive. After all, if he had a tight
+grasp upon his money-bags, there was a day also, you must remember, when
+that same grip was upon Zurich and Genoa. He clutched on to his
+positions as he did to his strong box, and it took a very clever man to
+loosen him from either.
+
+When I received his summons I went gladly to his headquarters, for I was
+always a great favourite of his, and there was no officer of whom he
+thought more highly. That was the best of serving with those good old
+generals, that they knew enough to be able to pick out a fine soldier
+when they saw one. He was seated alone in his tent, with his chin upon
+his hand, and his brow as wrinkled as if he had been asked for a
+subscription. He smiled, however, when he saw me before him.
+
+'Good day, Colonel Gerard.'
+
+'Good day, Marshal.'
+
+'How is the Third of Hussars?'
+
+'Seven hundred incomparable men upon seven hundred excellent horses.'
+
+'And your wounds--are they healed?'
+
+'My wounds never heal, Marshal,' I answered.
+
+'And why?'
+
+'Because I have always new ones.'
+
+'General Rapp must look to his laurels,' said he, his face all breaking
+into wrinkles as he laughed. 'He has had twenty-one from the enemy's
+bullets, and as many from Larrey's knives and probes. Knowing that you
+were hurt, Colonel, I have spared you of late.'
+
+'Which hurt me most of all.'
+
+'Tut, tut! Since the English got behind these accursed lines of Torres
+Vedras, there has been little for us to do. You did not miss much during
+your imprisonment at Dartmoor. But now we are on the eve of action.'
+
+'We advance?'
+
+'No, retire.'
+
+My face must have shown my dismay. What, retire before this sacred dog
+of a Wellington--he who had listened unmoved to my words, and had sent
+me to his land of fogs? I could have sobbed as I thought of it.
+
+'What would you have?' cried Massena impatiently. 'When one is in check,
+it is necessary to move the king.'
+
+'Forwards,' I suggested.
+
+He shook his grizzled head.
+
+'The lines are not to be forced,' said he. 'I have already lost General
+St. Croix and more men than I can replace. On the other hand, we have
+been here at Santarem for nearly six months. There is not a pound of
+flour nor a jug of wine on the countryside. We must retire.'
+
+'There are flour and wine in Lisbon,' I persisted.
+
+'Tut, you speak as if an army could charge in and charge out again like
+your regiment of hussars. If Soult were here with thirty thousand
+men--but he will not come. I sent for you, however, Colonel Gerard, to
+say that I have a very singular and important expedition which I intend
+to place under your direction.'
+
+I pricked up my ears, as you can imagine. The Marshal unrolled a great
+map of the country and spread it upon the table. He flattened it out
+with his little, hairy hands.
+
+'This is Santarem,' he said pointing.
+
+I nodded.
+
+'And here, twenty-five miles to the east, is Almeixal, celebrated for
+its vintages and for its enormous Abbey.'
+
+Again I nodded; I could not think what was coming.
+
+'Have you heard of the Marshal Millefleurs?' asked Massena.
+
+'I have served with all the Marshals,' said I, 'but there is none of
+that name.'
+
+'It is but the nickname which the soldiers have given him,' said
+Massena. 'If you had not been away from us for some months, it would not
+be necessary for me to tell you about him. He is an Englishman, and a
+man of good breeding. It is on account of his manners that they have
+given him his title. I wish you to go to this polite Englishman at
+Almeixal.'
+
+'Yes, Marshal.'
+
+'And to hang him to the nearest tree.'
+
+'Certainly, Marshal.'
+
+I turned briskly upon my heels, but Massena recalled me before I could
+reach the opening of his tent.
+
+'One moment, Colonel,' said he; 'you had best learn how matters stand
+before you start. You must know, then, that this Marshal Millefleurs,
+whose real name is Alexis Morgan, is a man of very great ingenuity and
+bravery. He was an officer in the English Guards, but having been broken
+for cheating at cards, he left the army. In some manner he gathered a
+number of English deserters round him and took to the mountains. French
+stragglers and Portuguese brigands joined him, and he found himself at
+the head of five hundred men. With these he took possession of the
+Abbey of Almeixal, sent the monks about their business, fortified the
+place, and gathered in the plunder of all the country round.'
+
+'For which it is high time he was hanged,' said I, making once more for
+the door.
+
+'One instant!' cried the Marshal, smiling at my impatience. 'The worst
+remains behind. Only last week the Dowager Countess of La Ronda, the
+richest woman in Spain, was taken by these ruffians in the passes as she
+was journeying from King Joseph's Court to visit her grandson. She is
+now a prisoner in the Abbey, and is only protected by her----'
+
+'Grandmotherhood,' I suggested.
+
+'Her power of paying a ransom,' said Massena. 'You have three missions,
+then: To rescue this unfortunate lady; to punish this villain; and, if
+possible, to break up this nest of brigands. It will be a proof of the
+confidence which I have in you when I say that I can only spare you half
+a squadron with which to accomplish all this.'
+
+My word, I could hardly believe my ears! I thought that I should have
+had my regiment at the least.
+
+'I would give you more,' said he, 'but I commence my retreat today, and
+Wellington is so strong in horse that every trooper becomes of
+importance. I cannot spare you another man. You will see what you can
+do, and you will report yourself to me at Abrantes not later than
+tomorrow night.'
+
+It was very complimentary that he should rate my powers so high, but it
+was also a little embarrassing. I was to rescue an old lady, to hang an
+Englishman, and to break up a band of five hundred assassins--all with
+fifty men. But after all, the fifty men were Hussars of Conflans, and
+they had an Etienne Gerard to lead them. As I came out into the warm
+Portuguese sunshine my confidence had returned to me, and I had already
+begun to wonder whether the medal which I had so often deserved might
+not be waiting for me at Almeixal.
+
+You may be sure that I did not take my fifty men at hap-hazard. They
+were all old soldiers of the German wars, some of them with three
+stripes, and most of them with two. Oudet and Papilette, two of the best
+sub-officers in the regiment, were at their head. When I had them formed
+up in fours, all in silver grey and upon chestnut horses, with their
+leopard skin shabracks and their little red panaches, my heart beat high
+at the sight. I could not look at their weather-stained faces, with the
+great moustaches which bristled over their chin-straps, without feeling
+a glow of confidence, and, between ourselves, I have no doubt that that
+was exactly how they felt when they saw their young Colonel on his great
+black war-horse riding at their head.
+
+Well, when we got free of the camp and over the Tagus, I threw out my
+advance and my flankers, keeping my own place at the head of the main
+body. Looking back from the hills above Santarem, we could see the dark
+lines of Massena's army, with the flash and twinkle of the sabres and
+bayonets as he moved his regiments into position for their retreat. To
+the south lay the scattered red patches of the English outposts, and
+behind the grey smoke-cloud which rose from Wellington's camp--thick,
+oily smoke, which seemed to our poor starving fellows to bear with it
+the rich smell of seething camp-kettles. Away to the west lay a curve of
+blue sea flecked with the white sails of the English ships.
+
+You will understand that as we were riding to the east, our road lay
+away from both armies. Our own marauders, however, and the scouting
+parties of the English, covered the country, and it was necessary with
+my small troop that I should take every precaution. During the whole day
+we rode over desolate hill-sides, the lower portions covered by the
+budding vines, but the upper turning from green to grey, and jagged
+along the skyline like the back of a starved horse. Mountain streams
+crossed our path, running west to the Tagus, and once we came to a deep,
+strong river, which might have checked us had I not found the ford by
+observing where houses had been built opposite each other upon either
+bank. Between them, as every scout should know, you will find your ford.
+There was none to give us information, for neither man nor beast, nor
+any living thing except great clouds of crows, was to be seen during our
+journey.
+
+The sun was beginning to sink when we came to a valley clear in the
+centre, but shrouded by huge oak trees upon either side. We could not be
+more than a few miles from Almeixal, so it seemed to me to be best to
+keep among the groves, for the spring had been an early one and the
+leaves were already thick enough to conceal us. We were riding then in
+open order among the great trunks, when one of my flankers came
+galloping up.
+
+'There are English across the valley, Colonel,' he cried, as he saluted.
+
+'Cavalry or infantry?'
+
+'Dragoons, Colonel,' said he; 'I saw the gleam of their helmets, and
+heard the neigh of a horse.'
+
+Halting my men I hastened to the edge of the wood. There could be no
+doubt about it. A party of English cavalry was travelling in a line with
+us, and in the same direction. I caught a glimpse of their red coats and
+of their flashing arms glowing and twinkling among the tree-trunks.
+Once, as they passed through a small clearing, I could see their whole
+force, and I judged that they were of about the same strength as my
+own--a half squadron at the most.
+
+You who have heard some of my little adventures will give me credit for
+being quick in my decisions, and prompt in carrying them out. But here I
+must confess that I was in two minds. On the one hand there was the
+chance of a fine cavalry skirmish with the English. On the other hand,
+there was my mission at the Abbey of Almeixal, which seemed already to
+be so much above my power. If I were to lose any of my men, it was
+certain that I should be unable to carry out my orders. I was sitting
+my horse, with my chin in my gauntlet, looking across at the rippling
+gleams of light from the further wood, when suddenly one of these
+red-coated Englishmen rode out from the cover, pointing at me and
+breaking into a shrill whoop and halloa as if I had been a fox. Three
+others joined him, and one who was a bugler sounded a call, which
+brought the whole of them into the open. They were, as I had thought, a
+half squadron, and they formed a double line with a front of
+twenty-five, their officer--the one who had whooped at me--at their
+head.
+
+For my own part, I had instantly brought my own troopers into the same
+formation, so that there we were, hussars and dragoons, with only two
+hundred yards of grassy sward between us. They carried themselves well,
+those red-coated troopers, with their silver helmets, their high white
+plumes, and their long, gleaming swords; while, on the other hand, I am
+sure that they would acknowledge that they had never looked upon finer
+light horsemen than the fifty hussars of Conflans who were facing them.
+They were heavier, it is true, and they may have seemed the smarter, for
+Wellington used to make them burnish their metal work, which was not
+usual among us. On the other hand, it is well known that the English
+tunics were too tight for the sword-arm, which gave our men an
+advantage. As to bravery, foolish, inexperienced people of every nation
+always think that their own soldiers are braver than any others. There
+is no nation in the world which does not entertain this idea. But when
+one has seen as much as I have done, one understands that there is no
+very marked difference, and that although nations differ very much in
+discipline, they are all equally brave--except that the French have
+rather more courage than the rest.
+
+Well, the cork was drawn and the glasses ready, when suddenly the
+English officer raised his sword to me as if in a challenge, and
+cantered his horse across the grassland. My word, there is no finer
+sight upon earth than that of a gallant man upon a gallant steed! I
+could have halted there just to watch him as he came with such careless
+grace, his sabre down by his horse's shoulder, his head thrown back, his
+white plume tossing--youth and strength and courage, with the violet
+evening sky above and the oak trees behind. But it was not for me to
+stand and stare. Etienne Gerard may have his faults, but, my faith, he
+was never accused of being backward in taking his own part. The old
+horse, Rataplan, knew me so well that he had started off before ever I
+gave the first shake to the bridle.
+
+There are two things in this world that I am very slow to forget: the
+face of a pretty woman, and the legs of a fine horse. Well, as we drew
+together, I kept on saying, 'Where have I seen those great roan
+shoulders? Where have I seen that dainty fetlock?' Then suddenly I
+remembered, and as I looked up at the reckless eyes and the challenging
+smile, whom should I recognize but the man who had saved me from the
+brigands and played me for my freedom--he whose correct title was Milor
+the Hon. Sir Russell Bart!
+
+'Bart!' I shouted.
+
+He had his arm raised for a cut, and three parts of his body open to my
+point, for he did not know very much about the use of the sword. As I
+brought my hilt to the salute he dropped his hand and stared at me.
+
+'Halloa!' said he. 'It's Gerard!' You would have thought by his manner
+that I had met him by appointment. For my own part, I would have
+embraced him had he but come an inch of the way to meet me.
+
+'I thought we were in for some sport,' said he. 'I never dreamed that it
+was you.'
+
+I found this tone of disappointment somewhat irritating. Instead of
+being glad at having met a friend, he was sorry at having missed an
+enemy.
+
+'I should have been happy to join in your sport, my dear Bart,' said I.
+'But I really cannot turn my sword upon a man who saved my life.'
+
+'Tut, never mind about that.'
+
+'No, it is impossible. I should never forgive myself.'
+
+'You make too much of a trifle.'
+
+'My mother's one desire is to embrace you. If ever you should be in
+Gascony----'
+
+'Lord Wellington is coming there with 60,000 men.'
+
+'Then one of them will have a chance of surviving,' said I, laughing.
+'In the meantime, put your sword in your sheath!'
+
+Our horses were standing head to tail, and the Bart put out his hand and
+patted me on the thigh.
+
+'You're a good chap, Gerard,' said he. 'I only wish you had been born on
+the right side of the Channel.'
+
+'I was,' said I.
+
+'Poor devil!' he cried, with such an earnestness of pity that he set me
+laughing again. 'But look here, Gerard,' he continued; 'this is all very
+well, but it is not business, you know. I don't know what Massena would
+say to it, but our Chief would jump out of his riding-boots if he saw
+us. We weren't sent out here for a picnic--either of us.'
+
+'What would you have?'
+
+'Well, we had a little argument about our hussars and dragoons, if you
+remember. I've got fifty of the Sixteenth all chewing their carbine
+bullets behind me. You've got as many fine-looking boys over yonder, who
+seem to be fidgeting in their saddles. If you and I took the right
+flanks we should not spoil each other's beauty--though a little
+blood-letting is a friendly thing in this climate.'
+
+There seemed to me to be a good deal of sense in what he said. For the
+moment Mr Alexis Morgan and the Countess of La Ronda and the Abbey of
+Almeixal went right out of my head, and I could only think of the fine
+level turf and of the beautiful skirmish which we might have.
+
+'Very good, Bart,' said I. 'We have seen the front of your dragoons. We
+shall now have a look at their backs.'
+
+'Any betting?' he asked.
+
+'The stake,' said I, 'is nothing less than the honour of the Hussars of
+Conflans.'
+
+'Well, come on!' he answered. 'If we break you, well and good--if you
+break us, it will be all the better for Marshal Millefleurs.'
+
+When he said that I could only stare at him in astonishment.
+
+'Why for Marshal Millefleurs?' I asked.
+
+'It is the name of a rascal who lives out this way. My dragoons have
+been sent by Lord Wellington to see him safely hanged.'
+
+'Name of a name!' I cried. 'Why, my hussars have been sent by Massena
+for that very object.'
+
+We burst out laughing at that, and sheathed our swords. There was a
+whirr of steel from behind us as our troopers followed our example.
+
+'We are allies!' he cried.
+
+'For a day.'
+
+'We must join forces.'
+
+'There is no doubt of it.'
+
+And so, instead of fighting, we wheeled our half squadrons round and
+moved in two little columns down the valley, the shakos and the helmets
+turned inwards, and the men looking their neighbours up and down, like
+old fighting dogs with tattered ears who have learned to respect each
+other's teeth. The most were on the broad grin, but there were some on
+either side who looked black and challenging, especially the English
+sergeant and my own sub-officer Papilette. They were men of habit, you
+see, who could not change all their ways of thinking in a moment.
+Besides, Papilette had lost his only brother at Busaco. As for the Bart
+and me, we rode together at the head and chatted about all that had
+occurred to us since that famous game of écarté of which I have told
+you.
+
+For my own part, I spoke to him of my adventures in England. They are a
+very singular people, these English. Although he knew that I had been
+engaged in twelve campaigns, yet I am sure that the Bart thought more
+highly of me because I had had an affair with the Bristol Bustler. He
+told me, too, that the Colonel who presided over his court-martial for
+playing cards with a prisoner acquitted him of neglect of duty, but
+nearly broke him because he thought that he had not cleared his trumps
+before leading his suit. Yes, indeed, they are a singular people.
+
+At the end of the valley the road curved over some rising ground before
+winding down into another wider valley beyond. We called a halt when we
+came to the top; for there, right in front of us, at the distance of
+about three miles, was a scattered, grey town, with a single enormous
+building upon the flank of the mountain which overlooked it. We could
+not doubt that we were at last in sight of the Abbey that held the gang
+of rascals whom we had come to disperse. It was only now, I think, that
+we fully understood what a task lay in front of us, for the place was a
+veritable fortress, and it was evident that cavalry should never have
+been sent out upon such an errand.
+
+'That's got nothing to do with us,' said the Bart; Wellington and
+Massena can settle that between them.'
+
+'Courage!' I answered. 'Piré took Leipzig with fifty hussars.'
+
+'Had they been dragoons,' said the Bart, laughing, 'he would have had
+Berlin. But you are senior officer; give us a lead, and we'll see who
+will be the first to flinch.'
+
+'Well,' said I, 'whatever we do must be done at once, for my orders are
+to be on my way to Abrantes by tomorrow night. But we must have some
+information first, and here is someone who should be able to give it to
+us.'
+
+There was a square, whitewashed house standing by the roadside, which
+appeared, from the bush hanging over the door, to be one of those
+wayside tabernas which are provided for the muleteers. A lantern was
+hung in the porch, and by its light we saw two men, the one in the brown
+habit of a Capuchin monk, and the other girt with an apron, which showed
+him to be the landlord. They were conversing together so earnestly that
+we were upon them before they were aware of us. The innkeeper turned to
+fly, but one of the Englishmen seized him by the hair, and held him
+tight.
+
+'For mercy's sake, spare me,' he yelled. 'My house has been gutted by
+the French and harried by the English, and my feet have been burned by
+the brigands. I swear by the Virgin that I have neither money nor food
+in my inn, and the good Father Abbot, who is starving upon my doorstep,
+will be witness to it.'
+
+'Indeed, sir,' said the Capuchin, in excellent French, 'what this worthy
+man says is very true. He is one of the many victims to these cruel
+wars, although his loss is but a feather-weight compared to mine. Let
+him go,' he added, in English, to the trooper, 'he is too weak to fly,
+even if he desired to.'
+
+In the light of the lantern I saw that this monk was a magnificent man,
+dark and bearded, with the eyes of a hawk, and so tall that his cowl
+came up to Rataplan's ears. He wore the look of one who had been through
+much suffering, but he carried himself like a king, and we could form
+some opinion of his learning when we each heard him talk our own
+language as fluently as if he were born to it.
+
+'You have nothing to fear,' said I, to the trembling innkeeper. 'As to
+you, father, you are, if I am not mistaken, the very man who can give us
+the information which we require.'
+
+'All that I have is at your service, my son. But,' he added, with a wan
+smile, 'my Lenten fare is always somewhat meagre, and this year it has
+been such that I must ask you for a crust of bread if I am to have the
+strength to answer your questions.'
+
+We bore two days' rations in our haversacks, so that he soon had the
+little he asked for. It was dreadful to see the wolfish way in which he
+seized the piece of dried goat's flesh which I was able to offer him.
+
+'Time presses, and we must come to the point,' said I. 'We want your
+advice as to the weak points of yonder Abbey, and concerning the habits
+of the rascals who infest it.'
+
+He cried out something which I took to be Latin, with his hands clasped
+and his eyes upturned. 'The prayer of the just availeth much,' said he,
+'and yet I had not dared to hope that mine would have been so speedily
+answered. In me you see the unfortunate Abbot of Almeixal, who has been
+cast out by this rabble of three armies with their heretical leader. Oh!
+to think of what I have lost!' his voice broke, and the tears hung upon
+his lashes.
+
+'Cheer up, sir,' said the Bart. 'I'll lay nine to four that we have you
+back again by tomorrow night.'
+
+It is not of my own welfare that I think,' said he, 'nor even of that of
+my poor, scattered flock. But it is of the holy relics which are left in
+the sacrilegious hands of these robbers.'
+
+'It's even betting whether they would ever bother their heads about
+them,' said the Bart. 'But show us the way inside the gates, and we'll
+soon clear the place out for you.'
+
+In a few short words the good Abbot gave us the very points that we
+wished to know. But all that he said only made our task more formidable.
+The walls of the Abbey were forty feet high. The lower windows were
+barricaded, and the whole building loopholed for musketry fire. The gang
+preserved military discipline, and their sentries were too numerous for
+us to hope to take them by surprise. It was more than ever evident that
+a battalion of grenadiers and a couple of breaching pieces were what was
+needed. I raised my eyebrows, and the Bart began to whistle.
+
+'We must have a shot at it, come what may,' said he.
+
+The men had already dismounted, and, having watered their horses, were
+eating their suppers. For my own part I went into the sitting-room of
+the inn with the Abbot and the Bart, that we might talk about our plans.
+
+I had a little cognac in my _sauve vie_, and I divided it among us--just
+enough to wet our moustaches.
+
+'It is unlikely,' said I, 'that those rascals know anything about our
+coming. I have seen no signs of scouts along the road. My own plan is
+that we should conceal ourselves in some neighbouring wood, and then,
+when they open their gates, charge down upon them and take them by
+surprise.'
+
+The Bart was of opinion that this was the best that we could do, but,
+when we came to talk it over, the Abbot made us see that there were
+difficulties in the way.
+
+'Save on the side of the town, there is no place within a mile of the
+Abbey where you could shelter man or horse,' said he. 'As to the
+townsfolk, they are not to be trusted. I fear, my son, that your
+excellent plan would have little chance of success in the face of the
+vigilant guard which these men keep.'
+
+'I see no other way,' answered I. 'Hussars of Conflans are not so
+plentiful that I can afford to run half a squadron of them against a
+forty-foot wall with five hundred infantry behind it.'
+
+'I am a man of peace,' said the Abbot, 'and yet I may, perhaps, give a
+word of counsel. I know these villains and their ways. Who should do so
+better, seeing that I have stayed for a month in this lonely spot,
+looking down in weariness of heart at the Abbey which was my own? I will
+tell you now what I should myself do if I were in your place.'
+
+'Pray tell us, father,' we cried, both together.
+
+'You must know that bodies of deserters, both French and English, are
+continually coming in to them, carrying their weapons with them. Now,
+what is there to prevent you and your men from pretending to be such a
+body, and so making your way into the Abbey?'
+
+I was amazed at the simplicity of the thing, and I embraced the good
+Abbot. The Bart, however, had some objections to offer.
+
+'That is all very well,' said he, 'but if these fellows are as sharp as
+you say, it is not very likely that they are going to let a hundred
+armed strangers into their crib. From all I have heard of Mr Morgan, or
+Marshal Millefleurs, or whatever the rascal's name is, I give him credit
+for more sense than that.'
+
+'Well, then,' I cried, 'let us send fifty in, and let them at daybreak
+throw open the gates to the other fifty, who will be waiting outside.'
+
+We discussed the question at great length and with much foresight and
+discretion. If it had been Massena and Wellington instead of two young
+officers of light cavalry, we could not have weighed it all with more
+judgment. At last we agreed, the Bart and I, that one of us should
+indeed go with fifty men, under pretence of being deserters, and that in
+the early morning he should gain command of the gate and admit the
+others. The Abbot, it is true, was still of opinion that it was
+dangerous to divide our force, but finding that we were both of the same
+mind, he shrugged his shoulders and gave in.
+
+'There is only one thing that I would ask,' said he. 'If you lay hands
+upon this Marshal Millefleurs--this dog of a brigand--what will you do
+with him?'
+
+'Hang him,' I answered.
+
+'It is too easy a death,' cried the Capuchin, with a vindictive glow in
+his dark eyes. 'Had I my way with him--but, oh, what thoughts are these
+for a servant of God to harbour!' He clapped his hands to his forehead
+like one who is half demented by his troubles, and rushed out of the
+room.
+
+There was an important point which we had still to settle, and that was
+whether the French or the English party should have the honour of
+entering the Abbey first. My faith, it was asking a great deal of
+Etienne Gerard that he should give place to any man at such a time! But
+the poor Bart pleaded so hard, urging the few skirmishes which he had
+seen against my four-and-seventy engagements, that at last I consented
+that he should go. We had just clasped hands over the matter when there
+broke out such a shouting and cursing and yelling from the front of the
+inn, that out we rushed with our drawn sabres in our hands, convinced
+that the brigands were upon us.
+
+You may imagine our feelings when, by the light of the lantern which
+hung from the porch, we saw a score of our hussars and dragoons all
+mixed in one wild heap, red coats and blue, helmets and busbies,
+pommelling each other to their hearts' content. We flung ourselves upon
+them, imploring, threatening, tugging at a lace collar, or at a spurred
+heel, until, at last, we had dragged them all apart. There they stood,
+flushed and bleeding, glaring at each other, and all panting together
+like a line of troop horses after a ten-mile chase. It was only with our
+drawn swords that we could keep them from each other's throats. The poor
+Capuchin stood in the porch in his long brown habit, wringing his hands
+and calling upon all the saints for mercy.
+
+He was, indeed, as I found upon inquiry, the innocent cause of all the
+turmoil, for, not understanding how soldiers look upon such things, he
+had made some remark to the English sergeant that it was a pity that his
+squadron was not as good as the French. The words were not out of his
+mouth before a dragoon knocked down the nearest hussar, and then, in a
+moment, they all flew at each other like tigers. We would trust them no
+more after that, but the Bart moved his men to the front of the inn, and
+I mine to the back, the English all scowling and silent, and our fellows
+shaking their fists and chattering, each after the fashion of their own
+people.
+
+Well, as our plans were made, we thought it best to carry them out at
+once, lest some fresh cause of quarrel should break out between our
+followers. The Bart and his men rode off, therefore, he having first
+torn the lace from his sleeves, and the gorget and sash from his
+uniform, so that he might pass as a simple trooper. He explained to his
+men what it was that was expected of them, and though they did not raise
+a cry or wave their weapons as mine might have done, there was an
+expression upon their stolid and clean-shaven faces which filled me with
+confidence. Their tunics were left unbuttoned, their scabbards and
+helmets stained with dirt, and their harness badly fastened, so that
+they might look the part of deserters, without order or discipline. At
+six o'clock next morning they were to gain command of the main gate of
+the Abbey, while at that same hour my hussars were to gallop up to it
+from outside. The Bart and I pledged our words to it before he trotted
+off with his detachment. My sergeant, Papilette, with two troopers,
+followed the English at a distance, and returned in half an hour to say
+that, after some parley, and the flashing of lanterns upon them from the
+grille, they had been admitted into the Abbey.
+
+So far, then, all had gone well. It was a cloudy night with a sprinkling
+of rain, which was in our favour, as there was the less chance of our
+presence being discovered. My vedettes I placed two hundred yards in
+every direction, to guard against a surprise, and also to prevent any
+peasant who might stumble upon us from carrying the news to the Abbey.
+Oudin and Papilette were to take turns of duty, while the others with
+their horses had snug quarters in a great wooden granary. Having walked
+round and seen that all was as it should be, I flung myself upon the bed
+which the innkeeper had set apart for me, and fell into a dreamless
+sleep.
+
+No doubt you have heard my name mentioned as being the beau-ideal of a
+soldier, and that not only by friends and admirers like our
+fellow-townsfolk, but also by old officers of the great wars who have
+shared the fortunes of those famous campaigns with me. Truth and modesty
+compel me to say, however, that this is not so. There are some gifts
+which I lack--very few, no doubt--but, still, amid the vast armies of
+the Emperor there may have been some who were free from those blemishes
+which stood between me and perfection. Of bravery I say nothing. Those
+who have seen me in the field are best fitted to speak about that. I
+have often heard the soldiers discussing round the camp-fires as to who
+was the bravest man in the Grand Army. Some said Murat, and some said
+Lasalle, and some Ney; but for my own part, when they asked me, I merely
+shrugged my shoulders and smiled. It would have seemed mere conceit if I
+had answered that there was no man braver than Brigadier Gerard. At the
+same time, facts are facts, and a man knows best what his own feelings
+are. But there are other gifts besides bravery which are necessary for a
+soldier, and one of them is that he should be a light sleeper. Now, from
+my boyhood onwards, I have been hard to wake, and it was this which
+brought me to ruin upon that night.
+
+It may have been about two o'clock in the morning that I was suddenly
+conscious of a feeling of suffocation. I tried to call out, but there
+was something which prevented me from uttering a sound. I struggled to
+rise, but I could only flounder like a hamstrung horse. I was strapped
+at the ankles, strapped at the knees, and strapped again at the wrists.
+Only my eyes were free to move, and there at the foot of my couch, by
+the light of a Portuguese lamp, whom should I see but the Abbot and the
+innkeeper!
+
+The latter's heavy, white face had appeared to me when I looked upon it
+the evening before to express nothing but stupidity and terror. Now, on
+the contrary, every feature bespoke brutality and ferocity. Never have I
+seen a more dreadful-looking villain. In his hand he held a long,
+dull-coloured knife. The Abbot, on the other hand, was as polished and
+as dignified as ever. His Capuchin gown had been thrown open, however,
+and I saw beneath it a black, frogged coat, such as I have seen among
+the English officers. As our eyes met he leaned over the wooden end of
+the bed and laughed silently until it creaked again.
+
+'You will, I am sure, excuse my mirth, my dear Colonel Gerard,' said he.
+'The fact is, that the expression upon your face when you grasped the
+situation was just a little funny. I have no doubt that you are an
+excellent soldier, but I hardly think that you are fit to measure wits
+with the Marshal Millefleurs, as your fellows have been good enough to
+call me. You appear to have given me credit for singularly little
+intelligence, which argues, if I may be allowed to say so, a want of
+acuteness upon your own part. Indeed, with the single exception of my
+thick-headed compatriot, the British dragoon, I have never met anyone
+who was less competent to carry out such a mission.'
+
+You can imagine how I felt and how I looked, as I listened to this
+insolent harangue, which was all delivered in that flowery and
+condescending manner which had gained this rascal his nickname. I could
+say nothing, but they must have read my threat in my eyes, for the
+fellow who had played the part of the innkeeper whispered something to
+his companion.
+
+'No, no, my dear Chenier, he will be infinitely more valuable alive,'
+said he. 'By the way, Colonel, it is just as well that you are a sound
+sleeper, for my friend here, who is a little rough in his ways, would
+certainly have cut your throat if you had raised any alarm. I should
+recommend you to keep in his good graces, for Sergeant Chenier, late of
+the 7th Imperial Light Infantry, is a much more dangerous person than
+Captain Alexis Morgan, of His Majesty's foot-guards.'
+
+Chenier grinned and shook his knife at me, while I tried to look the
+loathing which I felt at the thought that a soldier of the Emperor could
+fall so low.
+
+'It may amuse you to know,' said the Marshal, in that soft, suave voice
+of his, 'that both your expeditions were watched from the time that you
+left your respective camps. I think that you will allow that Chenier and
+I played our parts with some subtlety. We had made every arrangement
+for your reception at the Abbey, though we had hoped to receive the
+whole squadron instead of half. When the gates are secured behind them,
+our visitors will find themselves in a very charming little mediaeval
+quadrangle, with no possible exit, commanded by musketry fire from a
+hundred windows. They may choose to be shot down; or they may choose to
+surrender. Between ourselves, I have not the slightest doubt that they
+have been wise enough to do the latter. But since you are naturally
+interested in the matter, we thought that you would care to come with us
+and to see for yourself. I think I can promise you that you will find
+your titled friend waiting for you at the Abbey with a face as long as
+your own.'
+
+The two villains began whispering together, debating, as far as I could
+hear, which was the best way of avoiding my vedettes.
+
+'I will make sure that it is all clear upon the other side of the barn,'
+said the Marshal at last. 'You will stay here, my good Chenier, and if
+the prisoner gives any trouble you will know what to do.'
+
+So we were left together, this murderous renegade and I--he sitting at
+the end of the bed, sharpening his knife upon his boot in the light of
+the single smoky little oil-lamp. As to me, I only wonder now, as I look
+back upon it, that I did not go mad with vexation and self-reproach as I
+lay helplessly upon the couch, unable to utter a word or move a finger,
+with the knowledge that my fifty gallant lads were so close to me, and
+yet with no means of letting them know the straits to which I was
+reduced. It was no new thing for me to be a prisoner; but to be taken by
+these renegades, and to be led into their Abbey in the midst of their
+jeers, befooled and out-witted by their insolent leaders--that was
+indeed more than I could endure. The knife of the butcher beside me
+would cut less deeply than that.
+
+I twitched softly at my wrists, and then at my ankles, but whichever of
+the two had secured me was no bungler at his work. I could not move
+either of them an inch. Then I tried to work the handkerchief down over
+my mouth, but the ruffian beside me raised his knife with such a
+threatening snarl that I had to desist. I was lying still looking at his
+bull neck, and wondering whether it would ever be my good fortune to fit
+it for a cravat, when I heard returning steps coming down the inn
+passage and up the stair. What word would the villain bring back? If he
+found it impossible to kidnap me, he would probably murder me where I
+lay. For my own part, I was indifferent which it might be, and I looked
+at the doorway with the contempt and defiance which I longed to put into
+words. But you can imagine my feelings, my dear friends, when, instead
+of the tall figure and dark, sneering face of the Capuchin, my eyes fell
+upon the grey pelisse and huge moustaches of my good little sub-officer,
+Papilette!
+
+The French soldier of those days had seen too much to be ever taken by
+surprise. His eyes had hardly rested upon my bound figure and the
+sinister face beside me before he had seen how the matter lay.
+
+'Sacred name of a dog!' he growled, and out flashed his great sabre.
+Chenier sprang forward at him with his knife, and then, thinking better
+of it, he darted back and stabbed frantically at my heart. For my own
+part, I had hurled myself off the bed on the side opposite to him, and
+the blade grazed my side before ripping its way through blanket and
+sheet. An instant later I heard the thud of a heavy fall, and then
+almost simultaneously a second object struck the floor--something
+lighter but harder, which rolled under the bed. I will not horrify you
+with details, my friends. Suffice it that Papilette was one of the
+strongest swordsmen in the regiment, and that his sabre was heavy and
+sharp. It left a red blotch upon my wrists and my ankles, as it cut the
+thongs which bound me.
+
+When I had thrown off my gag, the first use which I made of my lips was
+to kiss the sergeant's scarred cheeks. The next was to ask him if all
+was well with the command. Yes, they had had no alarms. Oudin had just
+relieved him, and he had come to report. Had he seen the Abbot? No, he
+had seen nothing of him. Then we must form a cordon and prevent his
+escape. I was hurrying out to give the orders, when I heard a slow and
+measured step enter the door below, and come creaking up the stairs.
+
+Papilette understood it all in an instant. 'You are not to kill him,' I
+whispered, and thrust him into the shadow on one side of the door; I
+crouched on the other. Up he came, up and up, and every footfall seemed
+to be upon my heart. The brown skirt of his gown was not over the
+threshold before we were both on him, like two wolves on a buck. Down we
+crashed, the three of us, he fighting like a tiger, and with such
+amazing strength that he might have broken away from the two of us.
+Thrice he got to his feet, and thrice we had him over again, until
+Papilette made him feel that there was a point to his sabre. He had
+sense enough then to know that the game was up, and to lie still while I
+lashed him with the very cords which had been round my own limbs.
+
+'There has been a fresh deal, my fine fellow,' said I, 'and you will
+find that I have some of the trumps in _my_ hand this time.'
+
+'Luck always comes to the aid of a fool,' he answered. 'Perhaps it is as
+well, otherwise the world would fall too completely into the power of
+the astute. So, you have killed Chenier, I see. He was an insubordinate
+dog, and always smelt abominably of garlic. Might I trouble you to lay
+me upon the bed? The floor of these Portuguese tabernas is hardly a
+fitting couch for anyone who has prejudices in favour of cleanliness.'
+
+I could not but admire the coolness of the man, and the way in which he
+preserved the same insolent air of condescension in spite of this sudden
+turning of the tables. I dispatched Papilette to summon a guard, whilst
+I stood over our prisoner with my drawn sword, never taking my eyes off
+him for an instant, for I must confess that I had conceived a great
+respect for his audacity and resource.
+
+'I trust,' said he, 'that your men will treat me in a becoming manner.'
+
+'You will get your deserts--you may depend upon that.'
+
+'I ask nothing more. You may not be aware of my exalted birth, but I am
+so placed that I cannot name my father without treason, nor my mother
+without a scandal. I cannot _claim_ Royal honours, but these things are
+so much more graceful when they are conceded without a claim. The thongs
+are cutting my skin. Might I beg you to loosen them?'
+
+'You do not give me credit for much intelligence,' I remarked, repeating
+his own words.
+
+'_Touché_,' he cried, like a pinked fencer. 'But here come your men, so
+it matters little whether you loosen them or not.'
+
+I ordered the gown to be stripped from him and placed him under a strong
+guard. Then, as morning was already breaking, I had to consider what my
+next step was to be. The poor Bart and his Englishmen had fallen victims
+to the deep scheme which might, had we adopted all the crafty
+suggestions of our adviser, have ended in the capture of the whole
+instead of the half of our force. I must extricate them if it were still
+possible. Then there was the old lady, the Countess of La Ronda, to be
+thought of. As to the Abbey, since its garrison was on the alert it was
+hopeless to think of capturing that. All turned now upon the value which
+they placed upon their leader. The game depended upon my playing that
+one card. I will tell you how boldly and how skilfully I played it.
+
+It was hardly light before my bugler blew the assembly, and out we
+trotted on to the plain. My prisoner was placed on horseback in the very
+centre of the troops. It chanced that there was a large tree just out of
+musket-shot from the main gate of the Abbey, and under this we halted.
+Had they opened the great doors in order to attack us, I should have
+charged home upon them; but, as I had expected, they stood upon the
+defensive, lining the long wall and pouring down a torrent of hootings
+and taunts and derisive laughter upon us. A few fired their muskets, but
+finding that we were out of reach they soon ceased to waste their
+powder. It was the strangest sight to see that mixture of uniforms,
+French, English, and Portuguese, cavalry, infantry, and artillery, all
+wagging their heads and shaking their fists at us.
+
+My word, their hubbub soon died away when we opened our ranks, and
+showed whom we had got in the midst of us! There was silence for a few
+seconds, and then such a howl of rage and grief! I could see some of
+them dancing like mad-men upon the wall. He must have been a singular
+person, this prisoner of ours, to have gained the affection of such a
+gang.
+
+I had brought a rope from the inn, and we slung it over the lower bough
+of the tree.
+
+'You will permit me, monsieur, to undo your collar,' said Papilette,
+with mock politeness.
+
+'If your hands are perfectly clean,' answered our prisoner, and set the
+whole half-squadron laughing.
+
+There was another yell from the wall, followed by a profound hush as the
+noose was tightened round Marshal Millefleurs' neck. Then came a shriek
+from a bugle, the Abbey gates flew open, and three men rushed out waving
+white cloths in their hands. Ah, how my heart bounded with joy at the
+sight of them. And yet I would not advance an inch to meet them, so that
+all the eagerness might seem to be upon their side. I allowed my
+trumpeter, however, to wave a handkerchief in reply, upon which the
+three envoys came running towards us. The Marshal, still pinioned, and
+with the rope round his neck, sat his horse with a half smile, as one
+who is slightly bored and yet strives out of courtesy not to show it.
+If I were in such a situation I could not wish to carry myself better,
+and surely I can say no more than that.
+
+They were a singular trio, these ambassadors. The one was a Portuguese
+caçadore in his dark uniform, the second a French chasseur in the
+lightest green, and the third a big English artilleryman in blue and
+gold. They saluted, all three, and the Frenchman did the talking.
+
+'We have thirty-seven English dragoons in our hands,' said he. 'We give
+you our most solemn oath that they shall all hang from the Abbey wall
+within five minutes of the death of our Marshal.'
+
+'Thirty-seven!' I cried. 'You have fifty-one.'
+
+'Fourteen were cut down before they could be secured.'
+
+'And the officer?'
+
+'He would not surrender his sword save with his life. It was not our
+fault. We would have saved him if we could.'
+
+Alas for my poor Bart! I had met him but twice, and yet he was a man
+very much after my heart. I have always had a regard for the English for
+the sake of that one friend. A braver man and a worse swordsman I have
+never met.
+
+I did not, as you may think, take these rascals' word for anything.
+Papilette was dispatched with one of them, and returned to say that it
+was too true. I had now to think of the living.
+
+'You will release the thirty-seven dragoons if I free your leader?'
+
+'We will give you ten of them.'
+
+'Up with him!' I cried.
+
+'Twenty,' shouted the chasseur.
+
+'No more words,' said I. 'Pull on the rope!'
+
+'All of them,' cried the envoy, as the cord tightened round the
+Marshal's neck.
+
+'With horses and arms?'
+
+They could see that I was not a man to jest with.
+
+'All complete,' said the chasseur, sulkily.
+
+'And the Countess of La Ronda as well?' said I.
+
+But here I met with firmer opposition. No threats of mine could induce
+them to give up the Countess. We tightened the cord. We moved the horse.
+We did all but leave the Marshal suspended. If once I broke his neck the
+dragoons were dead men. It was as precious to me as to them.
+
+'Allow me to remark,' said the Marshal, blandly, 'that you are exposing
+me to a risk of a quinsy. Do you not think, since there is a difference
+of opinion upon this point, that it would be an excellent idea to
+consult the lady herself? We would neither of us, I am sure, wish to
+override her own inclinations.'
+
+Nothing could be more satisfactory. You can imagine how quickly I
+grasped at so simple a solution. In ten minutes she was before us, a
+most stately dame, with her grey curls peeping out from under her
+mantilla. Her face was as yellow as though it reflected the countless
+doubloons of her treasury.
+
+'This gentleman,' said the Marshal, 'is exceedingly anxious to convey
+you to a place where you will never see us more. It is for you to decide
+whether you would wish to go with him, or whether you prefer to remain
+with me.'
+
+She was at his horse's side in an instant. 'My own Alexis,' she cried,
+'nothing can ever part us.'
+
+He looked at me with a sneer upon his handsome face.
+
+'By the way, you made a small slip of the tongue, my dear Colonel,' said
+he. 'Except by courtesy, no such person exists as the Dowager Countess
+of La Ronda. The lady whom I have the honour to present to you is my
+very dear wife, Mrs Alexis Morgan--or shall I say Madame la Marèchale
+Millefleurs?'
+
+It was at this moment that I came to the conclusion that I was dealing
+with the cleverest, and also the most unscrupulous, man whom I had ever
+met. As I looked upon this unfortunate old woman my soul was filled with
+wonder and disgust. As for her, her eyes were raised to his face with
+such a look as a young recruit might give to the Emperor.
+
+'So be it,' said I at last; 'give me the dragoons and let me go.'
+
+They were brought out with their horses and weapons, and the rope was
+taken from the Marshal's neck.
+
+'Good-bye, my dear Colonel,' said he. 'I am afraid that you will have
+rather a lame account to give of your mission, when you find your way
+back to Massena, though, from all I hear, he will probably be too busy
+to think of you. I am free to confess that you have extricated yourself
+from your difficulties with greater ability than I had given you credit
+for. I presume that there is nothing which I can do for you before you
+go?'
+
+'There is one thing.'
+
+'And that is?'
+
+'To give fitting burial to this young officer and his men.'
+
+'I pledge my word to it.'
+
+'And there is one other.'
+
+'Name it.'
+
+'To give me five minutes in the open with a sword in your hand and a
+horse between your legs.'
+
+'Tut, tut!' said he. 'I should either have to cut short your promising
+career, or else to bid adieu to my own bonny bride. It is unreasonable
+to ask such a request of a man in the first joys of matrimony.'
+
+I gathered my horsemen together and wheeled them into column.
+
+'Au revoir,' I cried, shaking my sword at him. 'The next time you may
+not escape so easily.'
+
+'Au revoir,' he answered. 'When you are weary of the Emperor, you will
+always find a commission waiting for you in the service of the Marshal
+Millefleurs.'
+
+
+
+
+6. HOW THE BRIGADIER PLAYED FOR A KINGDOM
+
+
+It has sometimes struck me that some of you, when you have heard me tell
+these little adventures of mine, may have gone away with the impression
+that I was conceited. There could not be a greater mistake than this,
+for I have always observed that really fine soldiers are free from this
+failing. It is true that I have had to depict myself sometimes as brave,
+sometimes as full of resource, always as interesting; but, then, it
+really was so, and I had to take the facts as I found them. It would be
+an unworthy affectation if I were to pretend that my career has been
+anything but a fine one. The incident which I will tell you tonight,
+however, is one which you will understand that only a modest man would
+describe. After all, when one has attained such a position as mine, one
+can afford to speak of what an ordinary man might be tempted to conceal.
+
+You must know, then, that after the Russian campaign the remains of our
+poor army were quartered along the western bank of the Elbe, where they
+might thaw their frozen blood and try, with the help of the good German
+beer, to put a little between their skin and their bones. There were
+some things which we could not hope to regain, for I daresay that three
+large commissariat fourgons would not have sufficed to carry the fingers
+and the toes which the army had shed during that retreat. Still, lean
+and crippled as we were, we had much to be thankful for when we thought
+of our poor comrades whom we had left behind, and of the snowfields--the
+horrible, horrible snowfields. To this day, my friends, I do not care to
+see red and white together. Even my red cap thrown down upon my white
+counterpane has given me dreams in which I have seen those monstrous
+plains, the reeling, tortured army, and the crimson smears which glared
+upon the snow behind them. You will coax no story out of me about that
+business, for the thought of it is enough to turn my wine to vinegar and
+my tobacco to straw.
+
+Of the half-million who crossed the Elbe in the autumn of the year '12
+about forty thousand infantry were left in the spring of '13. But they
+were terrible men, these forty thousand: men of iron, eaters of horses,
+and sleepers in the snow; filled, too, with rage and bitterness against
+the Russians. They would hold the Elbe until the great army of
+conscripts, which the Emperor was raising in France, should be ready to
+help them to cross it once more.
+
+But the cavalry was in a deplorable condition. My own hussars were at
+Borna, and when I paraded them first, I burst into tears at the sight of
+them. My fine men and my beautiful horses--it broke my heart to see the
+state to which they were reduced. 'But, courage,' I thought, 'they have
+lost much, but their Colonel is still left to them.' I set to work,
+therefore, to repair their disasters, and had already constructed two
+good squadrons, when an order came that all colonels of cavalry should
+repair instantly to the depôts of the regiments in France to organize
+the recruits and the remounts for the coming campaign.
+
+You will think, doubtless, that I was over-joyed at this chance of
+visiting home once more. I will not deny that it was a pleasure to me to
+know that I should see my mother again, and there were a few girls who
+would be very glad at the news; but there were others in the army who
+had a stronger claim. I would have given my place to any who had wives
+and children whom they might not see again. However, there is no arguing
+when the blue paper with the little red seal arrives, so within an hour
+I was off upon my great ride from the Elbe to the Vosges. At last I was
+to have a period of quiet. War lay behind my mare's tail and peace in
+front of her nostrils. So I thought, as the sound of the bugles died in
+the distance, and the long, white road curled away in front of me
+through plain and forest and mountain, with France somewhere beyond the
+blue haze which lay upon the horizon.
+
+It is interesting, but it is also fatiguing, to ride in the rear of an
+army. In the harvest time our soldiers could do without supplies, for
+they had been trained to pluck the grain in the fields as they passed,
+and to grind it for themselves in their bivouacs. It was at that time of
+year, therefore, that those swift marches were performed which were the
+wonder and the despair of Europe. But now the starving men had to be
+made robust once more, and I was forced to draw into the ditch
+continually as the Coburg sheep and the Bavarian bullocks came streaming
+past with waggon loads of Berlin beer and good French cognac. Sometimes,
+too, I would hear the dry rattle of the drums and the shrill whistle of
+the fifes, and long columns of our good little infantry men would swing
+past me with the white dust lying thick upon their blue tunics. These
+were old soldiers drawn from the garrisons of our German fortresses, for
+it was not until May that the new conscripts began to arrive from
+France.
+
+Well, I was rather tired of this eternal stopping and dodging, so that I
+was not sorry when I came to Altenburg to find that the road divided,
+and that I could take the southern and quieter branch. There were few
+wayfarers between there and Greiz, and the road wound through groves of
+oaks and beeches, which shot their branches across the path. You will
+think it strange that a Colonel of hussars should again and again pull
+up his horse in order to admire the beauty of the feathery branches and
+the little, green, new-budded leaves, but if you had spent six months
+among the fir trees of Russia you would be able to understand me.
+
+There was something, however, which pleased me very much less than the
+beauty of the forests, and that was the words and looks of the folk who
+lived in the woodland villages. We had always been excellent friends
+with the Germans, and during the last six years they had never seemed to
+bear us any malice for having made a little free with their country. We
+had shown kindnesses to the men and received them from the women, so
+that good, comfortable Germany was a second home to all of us. But now
+there was something which I could not understand in the behaviour of the
+people. The travellers made no answer to my salute; the foresters turned
+their heads away to avoid seeing me; and in the villages the folk would
+gather into knots in the roadway and would scowl at me as I passed. Even
+women would do this, and it was something new for me in those days to
+see anything but a smile in a woman's eyes when they were turned upon
+me.
+
+It was in the hamlet of Schmolin, just ten miles out of Altenburg, that
+the thing became most marked. I had stopped at the little inn there just
+to damp my moustache and to wash the dust out of poor Violette's throat.
+It was my way to give some little compliment, or possibly a kiss, to the
+maid who served me; but this one would have neither the one nor the
+other, but darted a glance at me like a bayonet-thrust. Then when I
+raised my glass to the folk who drank their beer by the door they turned
+their backs on me, save only one fellow, who cried, 'Here's a toast for
+you, boys! Here's to the letter T!' At that they all emptied their beer
+mugs and laughed; but it was not a laugh that had good-fellowship in it.
+
+I was turning this over in my head and wondering what their boorish
+conduct could mean, when I saw, as I rode from the village, a great T
+new carved upon a tree. I had already seen more than one in my morning's
+ride, but I had given no thought to them until the words of the
+beer-drinker gave them an importance. It chanced that a
+respectable-looking person was riding past me at the moment, so I turned
+to him for information.
+
+'Can you tell me, sir,' said I, 'what this letter T is?'
+
+He looked at it and then at me in the most singular fashion. 'Young
+man,' said he, 'it is not the letter N.' Then before I could ask further
+he clapped his spurs into his horses ribs and rode, stomach to earth,
+upon his way.
+
+At first his words had no particular significance in my mind, but as I
+trotted onwards Violette chanced to half turn her dainty head, and my
+eyes were caught by the gleam of the brazen N's at the end of the
+bridle-chain. It was the Emperor's mark. And those T's meant something
+which was opposite to it. Things had been happening in Germany, then,
+during our absence, and the giant sleeper had begun to stir. I thought
+of the mutinous faces that I had seen, and I felt that if I could only
+have looked into the hearts of these people I might have had some
+strange news to bring into France with me. It made me the more eager to
+get my remounts, and to see ten strong squadrons behind my kettle-drums
+once more.
+
+While these thoughts were passing through my head I had been alternately
+walking and trotting, as a man should who has a long journey before, and
+a willing horse beneath, him. The woods were very open at this point,
+and beside the road there lay a great heap of fagots. As I passed there
+came a sharp sound from among them, and, glancing round, I saw a face
+looking out at me--a hot, red face, like that of a man who is beside
+himself with excitement and anxiety. A second glance told me that it was
+the very person with whom I had talked an hour before in the village.
+
+'Come nearer!' he hissed. 'Nearer still! Now dismount and pretend to be
+mending the stirrup leather. Spies may be watching us, and it means
+death to me if I am seen helping you.'
+
+'Death!' I whispered. 'From whom?'
+
+'From the Tugendbund. From Lutzow's night-riders. You Frenchmen are
+living on a powder magazine, and the match has been struck that will
+fire it.'
+
+'But this is all strange to me,' said I, still fumbling at the leathers
+of my horse. 'What is this Tugendbund?'
+
+'It is the secret society which has planned the great rising which is to
+drive you out of Germany, just as you have been driven out of Russia.'
+
+'And these T's stand for it?'
+
+'They are the signal. I should have told you all this in the village,
+but I dared not be seen speaking with you. I galloped through the woods
+to cut you off, and concealed both my horse and myself.'
+
+'I am very much indebted to you,' said I, 'and the more so as you are
+the only German that I have met today from whom I have had common
+civility.'
+
+'All that I possess I have gained through contracting for the French
+armies,' said he. 'Your Emperor has been a good friend to me. But I beg
+that you will ride on now, for we have talked long enough. Beware only
+of Lutzow's night-riders!'
+
+'Banditti?' I asked.
+
+'All that is best in Germany,' said he. 'But for God's sake ride
+forwards, for I have risked my life and exposed my good name in order to
+carry you this warning.'
+
+Well, if I had been heavy with thought before, you can think how I felt
+after my strange talk with the man among the fagots. What came home to
+me even more than his words was his shivering, broken voice, his
+twitching face, and his eyes glancing swiftly to right and left, and
+opening in horror whenever a branch cracked upon a tree. It was clear
+that he was in the last extremity of terror, and it is possible that he
+had cause, for shortly after I had left him I heard a distant gunshot
+and a shouting from somewhere behind me. It may have been some sportsman
+halloaing to his dogs, but I never again heard of or saw the man who had
+given me my warning.
+
+I kept a good look-out after this, riding swiftly where the country was
+open, and slowly where there might be an ambuscade. It was serious for
+me, since 500 good miles of German soil lay in front of me; but somehow
+I did not take it very much to heart, for the Germans had always seemed
+to me to be a kindly, gentle people, whose hands closed more readily
+round a pipe-stem than a sword-hilt--not out of want of valour, you
+understand, but because they are genial, open souls, who would rather be
+on good terms with all men. I did not know then that beneath that homely
+surface there lurks a devilry as fierce as, and far more persistent
+than, that of the Castilian or the Italian.
+
+And it was not long before I had shown to me that there was something
+more serious abroad than rough words and hard looks. I had come to a
+spot where the road runs upwards through a wild tract of heath-land and
+vanishes into an oak wood. I may have been half-way up the hill when,
+looking forward, I saw something gleaming under the shadow of the
+tree-trunks, and a man came out with a coat which was so slashed and
+spangled with gold that he blazed like a fire in the sunlight. He
+appeared to be very drunk, for he reeled and staggered as he came
+towards me. One of his hands was held up to his ear and clutched a great
+red handkerchief, which was fixed to his neck.
+
+I had reined up the mare and was looking at him with some disgust, for
+it seemed strange to me that one who wore so gorgeous a uniform should
+show himself in such a state in broad daylight. For his part, he looked
+hard in my direction and came slowly onwards, stopping from time to time
+and swaying about as he gazed at me. Suddenly, as I again advanced, he
+screamed out his thanks to Christ, and, lurching forwards, he fell with
+a crash upon the dusty road. His hands flew forward with the fall, and I
+saw that what I had taken for a red cloth was a monstrous wound, which
+had left a great gap in his neck, from which a dark blood-clot hung,
+like an epaulette upon his shoulder.
+
+'My God!' I cried, as I sprang to his aid. 'And I thought that you were
+drunk!'
+
+'Not drunk, but dying,' said he. 'But thank Heaven that I have seen a
+French officer while I have still strength to speak.'
+
+I laid him among the heather and poured some brandy down his throat. All
+round us was the vast countryside, green and peaceful, with nothing
+living in sight save only the mutilated man beside me.
+
+'Who has done this?' I asked, 'and what are you? You are French, and yet
+the uniform is strange to me.'
+
+'It is that of the Emperor's new guard of honour. I am the Marquis of
+Château St Arnaud, and I am the ninth of my blood who has died in the
+service of France. I have been pursued and wounded by the night-riders
+of Lutzow, but I hid among the brushwood yonder, and waited in the hope
+that a Frenchman might pass. I could not be sure at first if you were
+friend or foe, but I felt that death was very near, and that I must take
+the chance.'
+
+'Keep your heart up, comrade,' said I; 'I have seen a man with a worse
+wound who has lived to boast of it.'
+
+'No, no,' he whispered; 'I am going fast.' He laid his hand upon mine as
+he spoke, and I saw that his finger-nails were already blue. 'But I have
+papers here in my tunic which you must carry at once to the Prince of
+Saxe-Felstein, at his Castle of Hof. He is still true to us, but the
+Princess is our deadly enemy. She is striving to make him declare
+against us. If he does so, it will determine all those who are wavering,
+for the King of Prussia is his uncle and the King of Bavaria his cousin.
+These papers will hold him to us if they can only reach him before he
+takes the last step. Place them in his hands tonight, and, perhaps, you
+will have saved all Germany for the Emperor. Had my horse not been shot,
+I might, wounded as I am----' He choked, and the cold hand tightened
+into a grip, which left mine as bloodless as itself. Then, with a groan,
+his head jerked back, and it was all over with him.
+
+Here was a fine start for my journey home. I was left with a commission
+of which I knew little, which would lead me to delay the pressing needs
+of my hussars, and which at the same time was of such importance that it
+was impossible for me to avoid it. I opened the Marquis's tunic, the
+brilliance of which had been devised by the Emperor in order to attract
+those young aristocrats from whom he hoped to raise these new regiments
+of his Guard. It was a small packet of papers which I drew out, tied up
+with silk, and addressed to the Prince of Saxe-Felstein. In the corner,
+in a sprawling, untidy hand, which I knew to be the Emperor's own, was
+written: 'Pressing and most important.' It was an order to me, those
+four words--an order as clear as if it had come straight from the firm
+lips with the cold grey eyes looking into mine. My troopers might wait
+for their horses, the dead Marquis might lie where I had laid him
+amongst the heather, but if the mare and her rider had a breath left in
+them the papers should reach the Prince that night.
+
+I should not have feared to ride by the road through the wood, for I
+have learned in Spain that the safest time to pass through a guerilla
+country is after an outrage, and that the moment of danger is when all
+is peaceful. When I came to look upon my map, however, I saw that Hof
+lay further to the south of me, and that I might reach it more directly
+by keeping to the moors. Off I set, therefore, and had not gone fifty
+yards before two carbine shots rang out of the brushwood and a bullet
+hummed past me like a bee. It was clear that the night-riders were
+bolder in their ways than the brigands of Spain, and that my mission
+would have ended where it had begun if I had kept to the road.
+
+It was a mad ride, that--a ride with a loose rein, girth-deep in heather
+and in gorse, plunging through bushes, flying down hill-sides, with my
+neck at the mercy of my dear little Violette. But she--she never
+slipped, she never faltered, as swift and as surefooted as if she knew
+that her rider carried the fate of all Germany beneath the buttons of
+his pelisse. And I--I had long borne the name of being the best
+horseman in the six brigades of light cavalry, but I never rode as I
+rode then. My friend the Bart had told me of how they hunt the fox in
+England, but the swiftest fox would have been captured by me that day.
+The wild pigeons which flew overhead did not take a straighter course
+than Violette and I below. As an officer, I have always been ready to
+sacrifice myself for my men, though the Emperor would not have thanked
+me for it, for he had many men, but only one--well, cavalry leaders of
+the first class are rare.
+
+But here I had an object which was indeed worth a sacrifice, and I
+thought no more of my life than of the clods of earth that flew from my
+darling's heels.
+
+We struck the road once more as the light was failing, and galloped into
+the little village of Lobenstein. But we had hardly got upon the
+cobblestones when off came one of the mare's shoes, and I had to lead
+her to the village smithy. His fire was low, and his day's work done, so
+that it would be an hour at the least before I could hope to push on to
+Hof. Cursing at the delay, I strode into the village inn and ordered a
+cold chicken and some wine to be served for my dinner. It was but a few
+miles to Hof, and I had every hope that I might deliver my papers to the
+Prince on that very night, and be on my way for France next morning with
+despatches for the Emperor in my bosom. I will tell you now what befell
+me in the inn of Lobenstein.
+
+The chicken had been served and the wine drawn, and I had turned upon
+both as a man may who has ridden such a ride, when I was aware of a
+murmur and a scuffling in the hall outside my door. At first I thought
+that it was some brawl between peasants in their cups, and I left them
+to settle their own affairs. But of a sudden there broke from among the
+low, sullen growl of the voices such a sound as would send Etienne
+Gerard leaping from his death-bed. It was the whimpering cry of a woman
+in pain. Down clattered my knife and my fork, and in an instant I was
+in the thick of the crowd which had gathered outside my door.
+
+The heavy-cheeked landlord was there and his flaxen-haired wife, the two
+men from the stables, a chambermaid, and two or three villagers. All of
+them, women and men, were flushed and angry, while there in the centre
+of them, with pale cheeks and terror in her eyes, stood the loveliest
+woman that ever a soldier would wish to look upon. With her queenly head
+thrown back, and a touch of defiance mingled with her fear, she looked
+as she gazed round her like a creature of a different race from the
+vile, coarse-featured crew who surrounded her. I had not taken two steps
+from my door before she sprang to meet me, her hand resting upon my arm
+and her blue eyes sparkling with joy and triumph.
+
+'A French soldier and gentleman!' she cried. 'Now at last I am safe.'
+
+'Yes, madam, you are safe,' said I, and I could not resist taking her
+hand in mine in order that I might reassure her. 'You have only to
+command me,' I added, kissing the hand as a sign that I meant what I was
+saying.
+
+'I am Polish,' she cried; 'the Countess Palotta is my name. They abuse
+me because I love the French. I do not know what they might have done to
+me had Heaven not sent you to my help.'
+
+I kissed her hand again lest she should doubt my intentions. Then I
+turned upon the crew with such an expression as I know how to assume. In
+an instant the hall was empty.
+
+'Countess,' said I, 'you are now under my protection. You are faint, and
+a glass of wine is necessary to restore you.' I offered her my arm and
+escorted her into my room, where she sat by my side at the table and
+took the refreshment which I offered her.
+
+How she blossomed out in my presence, this woman, like a flower before
+the sun! She lit up the room with her beauty. She must have read my
+admiration in my eyes, and it seemed to me that I also could see
+something of the sort in her own. Ah! my friends, I was no
+ordinary-looking man when I was in my thirtieth year. In the whole light
+cavalry it would have been hard to find a finer pair of whiskers.
+Murat's may have been a shade longer, but the best judges are agreed
+that Murat's were a shade too long. And then I had a manner. Some women
+are to be approached in one way and some in another, just as a siege is
+an affair of fascines and gabions in hard weather and of trenches in
+soft. But the man who can mix daring with timidity, who can be
+outrageous with an air of humility, and presumptuous with a tone of
+deference, that is the man whom mothers have to fear. For myself, I felt
+that I was the guardian of this lonely lady, and knowing what a
+dangerous man I had to deal with, I kept strict watch upon myself.
+Still, even a guardian has his privileges, and I did not neglect them.
+
+But her talk was as charming as her face. In a few words she explained
+that she was travelling to Poland, and that her brother who had been her
+escort had fallen ill upon the way. She had more than once met with
+ill-treatment from the country folk because she could not conceal her
+good-will towards the French. Then turning from her own affairs she
+questioned me about the army, and so came round to myself and my own
+exploits. They were familiar to her, she said, for she knew several of
+Poniatowski's officers, and they had spoken of my doings. Yet she would
+be glad to hear them from my own lips. Never have I had so delightful a
+conversation. Most women make the mistake of talking rather too much
+about their own affairs, but this one listened to my tales just as you
+are listening now, ever asking for more and more and more. The hours
+slipped rapidly by, and it was with horror that I heard the village
+clock strike eleven, and so learned that for four hours I had forgotten
+the Emperor's business.
+
+'Pardon me, my dear lady,' I cried, springing to my feet, 'but I must
+go on instantly to Hof.'
+
+She rose also, and looked at me with a pale, reproachful face. 'And me?'
+she said. 'What is to become of me?'
+
+'It is the Emperor's affair. I have already stayed far too long. My duty
+calls me, and I must go.'
+
+'You must go? And I must be abandoned alone to these savages? Oh, why
+did I ever meet you? Why did you ever teach me to rely upon your
+strength?' Her eyes glazed over, and in an instant she was sobbing upon
+my bosom.
+
+Here was a trying moment for a guardian! Here was a time when he had to
+keep a watch upon a forward young officer. But I was equal to it. I
+smoothed her rich brown hair and whispered such consolations as I could
+think of in her ear, with one arm round her, it is true, but that was to
+hold her lest she should faint. She turned her tear-stained face to
+mine. 'Water,' she whispered. 'For God's sake, water!'
+
+I saw that in another moment she would be senseless. I laid the drooping
+head upon the sofa, and then rushed furiously from the room, hunting
+from chamber to chamber for a carafe. It was some minutes before I could
+get one and hurry back with it. You can imagine my feelings to find the
+room empty and the lady gone.
+
+Not only was she gone, but her cap and silver-mounted riding switch
+which had lain upon the table were gone also. I rushed out and roared
+for the landlord. He knew nothing of the matter, had never seen the
+woman before, and did not care if he never saw her again. Had the
+peasants at the door seen anyone ride away? No, they had seen nobody. I
+searched here and searched there, until at last I chanced to find myself
+in front of a mirror, where I stood with my eyes staring and my jaw as
+far dropped as the chin-strap of my shako would allow.
+
+Four buttons of my pelisse were open, and it did not need me to put my
+hand up to know that my precious papers were gone. Oh! the depth of
+cunning that lurks in a woman's heart. She had robbed me, this creature,
+robbed me as she clung to my breast. Even while I smoothed her hair, and
+whispered kind words into her ear, her hands had been at work beneath my
+dolman. And here I was, at the very last step of my journey, without the
+power of carrying out this mission which had already deprived one good
+man of his life, and was likely to rob another one of his credit. What
+would the Emperor say when he heard that I had lost his despatches?
+Would the army believe it of Etienne Gerard? And when they heard that a
+woman's hand had coaxed them from me, what laughter there would be at
+mess-table and at camp-fire! I could have rolled upon the ground in my
+despair.
+
+But one thing was certain--all this affair of the fracas in the hall and
+the persecution of the so-called Countess was a piece of acting from the
+beginning. This villainous innkeeper must be in the plot. From him I
+might learn who she was and where my papers had gone. I snatched my
+sabre from the table and rushed out in search of him. But the scoundrel
+had guessed what I would do, and had made his preparations for me. It
+was in the corner of the yard that I found him, a blunderbuss in his
+hands and a mastiff held upon a leash by his son. The two stable-hands,
+with pitchforks, stood upon either side, and the wife held a great
+lantern behind him, so as to guide his aim.
+
+'Ride away, sir, ride away!' he cried, with a crackling voice. 'Your
+horse is at the door, and no one will meddle with you if you go your
+way; but if you come against us, you are alone against three brave men.'
+
+I had only the dog to fear, for the two forks and the blunderbuss were
+shaking about like branches in a wind. Still, I considered that, though
+I might force an answer with my sword-point at the throat of this fat
+rascal, still I should have no means of knowing whether that answer was
+the truth. It would be a struggle, then, with much to lose and nothing
+certain to gain. I looked them up and down, therefore, in a way that
+set their foolish weapons shaking worse than ever, and then, throwing
+myself upon my mare, I galloped away with the shrill laughter of the
+landlady jarring upon my ears.
+
+I had already formed my resolution. Although I had lost my papers, I
+could make a very good guess as to what their contents would be, and
+this I would say from my own lips to the Prince of Saxe-Felstein, as
+though the Emperor had commissioned me to convey it in that way. It was
+a bold stroke and a dangerous one, but if I went too far I could
+afterwards be disavowed. It was that or nothing, and when all Germany
+hung on the balance the game should not be lost if the nerve of one man
+could save it.
+
+It was midnight when I rode into Hof, but every window was blazing,
+which was enough it itself, in that sleepy country, to tell the ferment
+of excitement in which the people were. There was hooting and jeering as
+I rode through the crowded streets, and once a stone sang past my head,
+but I kept upon my way, neither slowing nor quickening my pace, until I
+came to the palace. It was lit from base to battlement, and the dark
+shadows, coming and going against the yellow glare, spoke of the turmoil
+within. For my part, I handed my mare to a groom at the gate, and
+striding in I demanded, in such a voice as an ambassador should have, to
+see the Prince instantly, upon business which would brook no delay.
+
+The hall was dark, but I was conscious as I entered of a buzz of
+innumerable voices, which hushed into silence as I loudly proclaimed my
+mission. Some great meeting was being held then--a meeting which, as my
+instincts told me, was to decide this very question of war and peace. It
+was possible that I might still be in time to turn the scale for the
+Emperor and for France. As to the major-domo, he looked blackly at me,
+and showing me into a small ante-chamber he left me. A minute later he
+returned to say that the Prince could not be disturbed at present, but
+that the Princess would take my message.
+
+The Princess! What use was there in giving it to her? Had I not been
+warned that she was German in heart and soul, and that it was she who
+was turning her husband and her State against us?
+
+'It is the Prince that I must see,' said I.
+
+'Nay, it is the Princess,' said a voice at the door, and a woman swept
+into the chamber. 'Von Rosen, you had best stay with us. Now, sir, what
+is it that you have to say to either Prince or Princess of
+Saxe-Felstein?'
+
+At the first sound of the voice I had sprung to my feet. At the first
+glance I had thrilled with anger. Not twice in a lifetime does one meet
+that noble figure, that queenly head, and those eyes as blue as the
+Garonne, and as chilling as her winter waters.
+
+'Time presses, sir!' she cried, with an impatient tap of her foot. 'What
+have you to say to me?'
+
+'What have I to say to you?' I cried. 'What can I say, save that you
+have taught me never to trust a woman more? You have ruined and
+dishonoured me for ever.'
+
+She looked with arched brows at her attendant.
+
+'Is this the raving of fever, or does it come from some less innocent
+cause?' said she. 'Perhaps a little blood-letting--'
+
+'Ah, you can act!' I cried. 'You have shown me that already.'
+
+'Do you mean that we have met before?'
+
+'I mean that you have robbed me within the last two hours.'
+
+'This is past all bearing,' she cried, with an admirable affectation of
+anger. 'You claim, as I understand, to be an ambassador, but there are
+limits to the privileges which such an office brings with it.'
+
+'You brazen it admirably,' said I. 'Your Highness will not make a fool
+of me twice in one night.' I sprang forward and, stooping down, caught
+up the hem of her dress. 'You would have done well to change it after
+you had ridden so far and so fast,' said I.
+
+It was like the dawn upon a snow-peak to see her ivory cheeks flush
+suddenly to crimson.
+
+'Insolent!' she cried. 'Call the foresters and have him thrust from the
+palace'
+
+'I will see the Prince first.'
+
+'You will never see the Prince. Ah! Hold him, Von Rosen, hold him.'
+
+She had forgotten the man with whom she had to deal--was it likely that
+I would wait until they could bring their rascals? She had shown me her
+cards too soon. Her game was to stand between me and her husband. Mine
+was to speak face to face with him at any cost. One spring took me out
+of the chamber. In another I had crossed the hall. An instant later I
+had burst into the great room from which the murmur of the meeting had
+come. At the far end I saw a figure upon a high chair under a daïs.
+Beneath him was a line of high dignitaries, and then on every side I saw
+vaguely the heads of a vast assembly. Into the centre of the room I
+strode, my sabre clanking, my shako under my arm.
+
+'I am the messenger of the Emperor,' I shouted. 'I bear his message to
+His Highness the Prince of Saxe-Felstein.'
+
+The man beneath the daïs raised his head, and I saw that his face was
+thin and wan, and that his back was bowed as though some huge burden was
+balanced between his shoulders.
+
+'Your name, sir?' he asked.
+
+'Colonel Etienne Gerard, of the Third Hussars.'
+
+Every face in the gathering was turned upon me, and I heard the rustle
+of the innumerable necks and saw countless eyes without meeting one
+friendly one amongst them. The woman had swept past me, and was
+whispering, with many shakes of her head and dartings of her hands, into
+the Prince's ear. For my own part I threw out my chest and curled my
+moustache, glancing round in my own debonair fashion at the assembly.
+They were men, all of them, professors from the college, a sprinkling of
+their students, soldiers, gentlemen, artisans, all very silent and
+serious. In one corner there sat a group of men in black, with
+riding-coats drawn over their shoulders. They leaned their heads to each
+other, whispering under their breath, and with every movement I caught
+the clank of their sabres or the clink of their spurs.
+
+'The Emperor's private letter to me informs me that it is the Marquis
+Château St Arnaud who is bearing his despatches,' said the Prince.
+
+'The Marquis has been foully murdered,' I answered, and a buzz rose up
+from the people as I spoke. Many heads were turned, I noticed, towards
+the dark men in the cloaks.
+
+'Where are your papers?' asked the Prince.
+
+'I have none.'
+
+A fierce clamour rose instantly around me. 'He is a spy! He plays a
+part!' they cried. 'Hang him!' roared a deep voice from the corner, and
+a dozen others took up the shout. For my part, I drew out my
+handkerchief and nicked the dust from the fur of my pelisse. The Prince
+held out his thin hands, and the tumult died away.
+
+'Where, then, are your credentials, and what is your message?'
+
+'My uniform is my credential, and my message is for your private ear.'
+
+He passed his hand over his forehead with the gesture of a weak man who
+is at his wits' end what to do. The Princess stood beside him with her
+hand upon his throne, and again whispered in his ear.
+
+'We are here in council together, some of my trusty subjects and
+myself,' said he. 'I have no secrets from them, and whatever message the
+Emperor may send to me at such a time concerns their interests no less
+than mine.'
+
+There was a hum of applause at this, and every eye was turned once more
+upon me. My faith, it was an awkward position in which I found myself,
+for it is one thing to address eight hundred hussars, and another to
+speak to such an audience on such a subject. But I fixed my eyes upon
+the Prince, and tried to say just what I should have said if we had been
+alone, shouting it out, too, as though I had my regiment on parade.
+
+'You have often expressed friendship for the Emperor,' I cried. 'It is
+now at last that this friendship is about to be tried. If you will stand
+firm, he will reward you as only he can reward. It is an easy thing for
+him to turn a Prince into a King and a province into a power. His eyes
+are fixed upon you, and though you can do little to harm him, you can
+ruin yourself. At this moment he is crossing the Rhine with two hundred
+thousand men. Every fortress in the country is in his hands. He will be
+upon you in a week, and if you have played him false, God help both you
+and your people. You think that he is weakened because a few of us got
+the chilblains last winter. Look there!' I cried, pointing to a great
+star which blazed through the window above the Prince's head. 'That is
+the Emperor's star. When it wanes, he will wane--but not before.'
+
+You would have been proud of me, my friends, if you could have seen and
+heard me, for I clashed my sabre as I spoke, and swung my dolman as
+though my regiment was picketed outside in the courtyard. They listened
+to me in silence, but the back of the Prince bowed more and more as
+though the burden which weighed upon it was greater than his strength.
+He looked round with haggard eyes.
+
+'We have heard a Frenchman speak for France,' said he. 'Let us have a
+German speak for Germany.'
+
+The folk glanced at each other, and whispered to their neighbours. My
+speech, as I think, had its effect, and no man wished to be the first to
+commit himself in the eyes of the Emperor. The Princess looked round
+her with blazing eyes, and her clear voice broke the silence.
+
+'Is a woman to give this Frenchman his answer?' she cried. 'Is it
+possible, then, that among the night-riders of Lutzow there is none who
+can use his tongue as well as his sabre?'
+
+Over went a table with a crash, and a young man had bounded upon one of
+the chairs. He had the face of one inspired--pale, eager, with wild hawk
+eyes, and tangled hair. His sword hung straight from his side, and his
+riding-boots were brown with mire.
+
+'It is Korner!' the people cried. 'It is young Korner, the poet! Ah, he
+will sing, he will sing.'
+
+And he sang! It was soft, at first, and dreamy, telling of old Germany,
+the mother of nations, of the rich, warm plains, and the grey cities,
+and the fame of dead heroes. But then verse after verse rang like a
+trumpet-call. It was of the Germany of now, the Germany which had been
+taken unawares and overthrown, but which was up again, and snapping the
+bonds upon her giant limbs. What was life that one should covet it? What
+was glorious death that one should shun it? The mother, the great
+mother, was calling. Her sigh was in the night wind. She was crying to
+her own children for help. Would they come? Would they come? Would they
+come?
+
+Ah, that terrible song, the spirit face and the ringing voice! Where
+were I, and France, and the Emperor? They did not shout, these
+people--they howled. They were up on the chairs and the tables. They
+were raving, sobbing, the tears running down their faces. Korner had
+sprung from the chair, and his comrades were round him with their sabres
+in the air. A flush had come into the pale face of the Prince, and he
+rose from his throne.
+
+'Colonel Gerard,' said he, 'you have heard the answer which you are to
+carry to your Emperor. The die is cast, my children. Your Prince and you
+must stand or fall together.'
+
+He bowed to show that all was over, and the people with a shout made
+for the door to carry the tidings into the town. For my own part, I had
+done all that a brave man might, and so I was not sorry to be carried
+out amid the stream. Why should I linger in the palace? I had had my
+answer and must carry it, such as it was. I wished neither to see Hof
+nor its people again until I entered it at the head of a vanguard. I
+turned from the throng, then, and walked silently and sadly in the
+direction in which they had led the mare.
+
+It was dark down there by the stables, and I was peering round for the
+hostler, when suddenly my two arms were seized from behind. There were
+hands at my wrists and at my throat, and I felt the cold muzzle of a
+pistol under my ear.
+
+'Keep your lips closed, you French dog,' whispered a fierce voice. 'We
+have him, captain.'
+
+'Have you the bridle?'
+
+'Here it is.'
+
+'Sling it over his head.'
+
+I felt the cold coil of leather tighten round my neck. An hostler with a
+stable lantern had come out and was gazing upon the scene. In its dim
+light I saw stern faces breaking everywhere through the gloom, with the
+black caps and dark cloaks of the night-riders.
+
+'What would you do with him, captain?' cried a voice.
+
+'Hang him at the palace gate.'
+
+'An ambassador?'
+
+'An ambassador without papers.'
+
+'But the Prince?'
+
+'Tut, man, do you not see that the Prince will then be committed to our
+side? He will be beyond all hope of forgiveness. At present he may swing
+round tomorrow as he has done before. He may eat his words, but a dead
+hussar is more than he can explain.'
+
+'No, no, Von Strelitz, we cannot do it,' said another voice.
+
+'Can we not? I shall show you that!' and there came a jerk on the
+bridle which nearly pulled me to the ground. At the same instant a sword
+flashed and the leather was cut through within two inches of my neck.
+
+'By Heaven, Korner, this is rank mutiny,' cried the captain. 'You may
+hang yourself before you are through with it.'
+
+'I have drawn my sword as a soldier and not as a brigand,' said the
+young poet. 'Blood may dim its blade, but never dishonour. Comrades,
+will you stand by and see this gentleman mishandled?'
+
+A dozen sabres flew from their sheaths, and it was evident that my
+friends and my foes were about equally balanced. But the angry voices
+and the gleam of steel had brought the folk running from all parts.
+
+'The Princess!' they cried. 'The Princess is coming!'
+
+And even as they spoke I saw her in front of us, her sweet face framed
+in the darkness. I had cause to hate her, for she had cheated and
+befooled me, and yet it thrilled me then and thrills me now to think
+that my arms have embraced her, and that I have felt the scent of her
+hair in my nostrils. I know not whether she lies under her German earth,
+or whether she still lingers, a grey-haired woman in her Castle of Hof,
+but she lives ever, young and lovely, in the heart and memory of Etienne
+Gerard.
+
+'For shame!' she cried, sweeping up to me, and tearing with her own
+hands the noose from my neck. 'You are fighting in God's own quarrel,
+and yet you would begin with such a devil's deed as this. This man is
+mine, and he who touches a hair of his head will answer for it to me.'
+
+They were glad enough to slink off into the darkness before those
+scornful eyes. Then she turned once more to me.
+
+'You can follow me, Colonel Gerard,' she said. 'I have a word that I
+would speak to you.'
+
+I walked behind her to the chamber into which I had originally been
+shown. She closed the door, and then looked at me with the archest
+twinkle in her eyes.
+
+'Is it not confiding of me to trust myself with you?' said she. 'You
+will remember that it is the Princess of Saxe-Felstein and not the poor
+Countess Palotta of Poland.'
+
+'Be the name what it might,' I answered, 'I helped a lady whom I
+believed to be in distress, and I have been robbed of my papers and
+almost of my honour as a reward.'
+
+'Colonel Gerard,' said she, 'we have been playing a game, you and I, and
+the stake was a heavy one. You have shown by delivering a message which
+was never given to you that you would stand at nothing in the cause of
+your country. My heart is German and yours is French, and I also would
+go all lengths, even to deceit and to theft, if at this crisis I could
+help my suffering fatherland. You see how frank I am.'
+
+'You tell me nothing that I have not seen.'
+
+'But now that the game is played and won, why should we bear malice? I
+will say this, that if ever I were in such a plight as that which I
+pretended in the inn of Lobenstein, I should never wish to meet a more
+gallant protector or a truer-hearted gentleman than Colonel Etienne
+Gerard. I had never thought that I could feel for a Frenchman as I felt
+for you when I slipped the papers from your breast.'
+
+'But you took them, none the less.'
+
+'They were necessary to me and to Germany. I knew the arguments which
+they contained and the effect which they would have upon the Prince. If
+they had reached him all would have been lost.'
+
+'Why should your Highness descend to such expedients when a score of
+these brigands, who wished to hang me at your castle gate, would have
+done the work as well?'
+
+'They are not brigands, but the best blood of Germany,' she cried,
+hotly. 'If you have been roughly used, you will remember the indignities
+to which every German has been subjected, from the Queen of Prussia
+downwards. As to why I did not have you waylaid upon the road, I may say
+that I had parties out on all sides, and that I was waiting at
+Lobenstein to hear of their success. When instead of their news you
+yourself arrived I was in despair, for there was only the one weak woman
+betwixt you and my husband. You see the straits to which I was driven
+before I used the weapon of my sex.'
+
+'I confess that you have conquered me, your Highness, and it only
+remains for me to leave you in possession of the field.'
+
+'But you will take your papers with you.' She held them out to me as she
+spoke. 'The Prince has crossed the Rubicon now, and nothing can bring
+him back. You can return these to the Emperor, and tell him that we
+refused to receive them. No one can accuse you then of having lost your
+despatches. Good-bye, Colonel Gerard, and the best I can wish you is
+that when you reach France you may remain there. In a year's time there
+will be no place for a Frenchman upon this side of the Rhine.'
+
+And thus it was that I played the Princess of Saxe-Felstein with all
+Germany for a stake, and lost my game to her. I had much to think of as
+I walked my poor, tired Violette along the highway which leads westward
+from Hof. But amid all the thoughts there came back to me always the
+proud, beautiful face of the German woman, and the voice of the
+soldier-poet as he sang from the chair. And I understood then that there
+was something terrible in this strong, patient Germany--this mother root
+of nations--and I saw that such a land, so old and so beloved, never
+could be conquered. And as I rode I saw that the dawn was breaking, and
+that the great star at which I had pointed through the palace window was
+dim and pale in the western sky.
+
+
+
+
+7. HOW THE BRIGADIER WON HIS MEDAL
+
+
+The Duke of Tarentum, or Macdonald, as his old comrades prefer to call
+him, was, as I could perceive, in the vilest of tempers. His grim,
+Scotch face was like one of those grotesque door-knockers which one sees
+in the Faubourg St Germain. We heard afterwards that the Emperor had
+said in jest that he would have sent him against Wellington in the
+South, but that he was afraid to trust him within the sound of the
+pipes. Major Charpentier and I could plainly see that he was smouldering
+with anger.
+
+'Brigadier Gerard of the Hussars,' said he, with the air of the corporal
+with the recruit.
+
+I saluted.
+
+'Major Charpentier of the Horse Grenadiers.'
+
+My companion answered to his name.
+
+'The Emperor has a mission for you.'
+
+Without more ado he flung open the door and announced us.
+
+I have seen Napoleon ten times on horseback to once on foot, and I think
+that he does wisely to show himself to the troops in this fashion, for
+he cuts a very good figure in the saddle. As we saw him now he was the
+shortest man out of six by a good hand's breadth, and yet I am no very
+big man myself, though I ride quite heavy enough for a hussar. It is
+evident, too, that his body is too long for his legs. With his big,
+round head, his curved shoulders, and his clean-shaven face, he is more
+like a Professor at the Sorbonne than the first soldier in France. Every
+man to his taste, but it seems to me that, if I could clap a pair of
+fine light cavalry whiskers, like my own, on to him, it would do him no
+harm. He has a firm mouth, however, and his eyes are remarkable. I have
+seen them once turned on me in anger, and I had rather ride at a square
+on a spent horse than face them again. I am not a man who is easily
+daunted, either.
+
+He was standing at the side of the room, away from the window, looking
+up at a great map of the country which was hung upon the wall. Berthier
+stood beside him, trying to look wise, and just as we entered, Napoleon
+snatched his sword impatiently from him and pointed with it on the map.
+He was talking fast and low, but I heard him say, 'The valley of the
+Meuse,' and twice he repeated 'Berlin.' As we entered, his aide-de-camp
+advanced to us, but the Emperor stopped him and beckoned us to his side.
+
+'You have not yet received the cross of honour, Brigadier Gerard?' he
+asked.
+
+I replied that I had not, and was about to add that it was not for want
+of having deserved it, when he cut me short in his decided fashion.
+
+'And you, Major?' he asked.
+
+'No, sire.'
+
+'Then you shall both have your opportunity now.'
+
+He led us to the great map upon the wall and placed the tip of
+Berthier's sword on Rheims.
+
+'I will be frank with you, gentlemen, as with two comrades. You have
+both been with me since Marengo, I believe?' He had a strangely pleasant
+smile, which used to light up his pale face with a kind of cold
+sunshine. 'Here at Rheims are our present headquarters on this the 14th
+of March. Very good. Here is Paris, distant by road a good twenty-five
+leagues. Blucher lies to the north, Schwarzenberg to the south.' He
+prodded at the map with the sword as he spoke.
+
+'Now,' said he, 'the further into the country these people march, the
+more completely I shall crush them. They are about to advance upon
+Paris. Very good. Let them do so. My brother, the King of Spain, will be
+there with a hundred thousand men. It is to him that I send you. You
+will hand him this letter, a copy of which I confide to each of you. It
+is to tell him that I am coming at once, in two days' time, with every
+man and horse and gun to his relief. I must give them forty-eight hours
+to recover. Then straight to Paris! You understand me, gentlemen?'
+
+Ah, if I could tell you the glow of pride which it gave me to be taken
+into the great man's confidence in this way. As he handed our letters to
+us I clicked my spurs and threw out my chest, smiling and nodding to let
+him know that I saw what he would be after. He smiled also, and rested
+his hand for a moment upon the cape of my dolman. I would have given
+half my arrears of pay if my mother could have seen me at that instant.
+
+'I will show you your route,' said he, turning back to the map. 'Your
+orders are to ride together as far as Bazoches. You will then separate,
+the one making for Paris by Oulchy and Neuilly, and the other to the
+north by Braine, Soissons, and Senlis. Have you anything to say,
+Brigadier Gerard?'
+
+I am a rough soldier, but I have words and ideas. I had begun to speak
+about glory and the peril of France when he cut me short.
+
+'And you, Major Charpentier?'
+
+'If we find our route unsafe, are we at liberty to choose another?' said
+he.
+
+'Soldiers do not choose, they obey.' He inclined his head to show that
+we were dismissed, and turned round to Berthier. I do not know what he
+said, but I heard them both laughing.
+
+Well, as you may think, we lost little time in getting upon our way. In
+half an hour we were riding down the High Street of Rheims, and it
+struck twelve o'clock as we passed the Cathedral. I had my little grey
+mare, Violette, the one which Sebastiani had wished to buy after
+Dresden. It is the fastest horse in the six brigades of light cavalry,
+and was only beaten by the Duke of Rovigo's racer from England. As to
+Charpentier, he had the kind of horse which a horse grenadier or a
+cuirassier would be likely to ride: a back like a bedstead, you
+understand, and legs like the posts. He is a hulking fellow himself, so
+that they looked a singular pair. And yet in his insane conceit he ogled
+the girls as they waved their handkerchiefs to me from the windows, and
+he twirled his ugly red moustache up into his eyes, just as if it were
+to him that their attention was addressed.
+
+When we came out of the town we passed through the French camp, and then
+across the battle-field of yesterday, which was still covered both by
+our own poor fellows and by the Russians. But of the two the camp was
+the sadder sight. Our army was thawing away. The Guards were all right,
+though the young guard was full of conscripts. The artillery and the
+heavy cavalry were also good if there were more of them, but the
+infantry privates with their under officers looked like schoolboys with
+their masters. And we had no reserves. When one considered that there
+were 80,000 Prussians to the north and 150,000 Russians and Austrians to
+the south, it might make even the bravest man grave.
+
+For my own part, I confess that I shed a tear until the thought came
+that the Emperor was still with us, and that on that very morning he had
+placed his hand upon my dolman and had promised me a medal of honour.
+This set me singing, and I spurred Violette on, until Charpentier had to
+beg me to have mercy on his great, snorting, panting camel. The road was
+beaten into paste and rutted two feet deep by the artillery, so that he
+was right in saying that it was not the place for a gallop.
+
+I have never been very friendly with this Charpentier; and now for
+twenty miles of the way I could not draw a word from him. He rode with
+his brows puckered and his chin upon his breast, like a man who is heavy
+with thought. More than once I asked him what was on his mind, thinking
+that, perhaps, with my quicker intelligence I might set the matter
+straight. His answer always was that it was his mission of which he was
+thinking, which surprised me, because, although I had never thought much
+of his intelligence, still it seemed to me to be impossible that anyone
+could be puzzled by so simple and soldierly a task.
+
+Well, we came at last to Bazoches, where he was to take the southern
+road and I the northern. He half turned in his saddle before he left me,
+and he looked at me with a singular expression of inquiry in his face.
+
+'What do you make of it, Brigadier?' he asked.
+
+'Of what?'
+
+'Of our mission.'
+
+'Surely it is plain enough.'
+
+'You think so? Why should the Emperor tell us his plans?'
+
+'Because he recognized our intelligence.'
+
+My companion laughed in a manner which I found annoying.
+
+'May I ask what you intend to do if you find these villages full of
+Prussians?' he asked.
+
+'I shall obey my orders.'
+
+'But you will be killed.'
+
+'Very possibly.'
+
+He laughed again, and so offensively that I clapped my hand to my sword.
+But before I could tell him what I thought of his stupidity and rudeness
+he had wheeled his horse, and was lumbering away down the other road. I
+saw his big fur cap vanish over the brow of the hill, and then I rode
+upon my way, wondering at his conduct. From time to time I put my hand
+to the breast of my tunic and felt the paper crackle beneath my fingers.
+Ah, my precious paper, which should be turned into the little silver
+medal for which I had yearned so long. All the way from Braine to
+Sermoise I was thinking of what my mother would say when she saw it.
+
+I stopped to give Violette a meal at a wayside auberge on the side of a
+hill not far from Soissons--a place surrounded by old oaks, and with so
+many crows that one could scarce hear one's own voice. It was from the
+innkeeper that I learned that Marmont had fallen back two days before,
+and that the Prussians were over the Aisne. An hour later, in the fading
+light, I saw two of their vedettes upon the hill to the right, and then,
+as darkness gathered, the heavens to the north were all glimmering from
+the lights of a bivouac.
+
+When I heard that Blucher had been there for two days, I was much
+surprised that the Emperor should not have known that the country
+through which he had ordered me to carry my precious letter was already
+occupied by the enemy. Still, I thought of the tone of his voice when he
+said to Charpentier that a soldier must not choose, but must obey. I
+should follow the route he had laid down for me as long as Violette
+could move a hoof or I a finger upon her bridle. All the way from
+Sermoise to Soissons, where the road dips up and down, curving among fir
+woods, I kept my pistol ready and my sword-belt braced, pushing on
+swiftly where the path was straight, and then coming slowly round the
+corners in the way we learned in Spain.
+
+When I came to the farmhouse which lies to the right of the road just
+after you cross the wooden bridge over the Crise, near where the great
+statue of the Virgin stands, a woman cried to me from the field, saying
+that the Prussians were in Soissons. A small party of their lancers, she
+said, had come in that very afternoon, and a whole division was expected
+before midnight. I did not wait to hear the end of her tale, but clapped
+spurs into Violette, and in five minutes was galloping her into the
+town.
+
+Three Uhlans were at the mouth of the main street, their horses
+tethered, and they gossiping together, each with a pipe as long as my
+sabre. I saw them well in the light of an open door, but of me they
+could have seen only the flash of Violette's grey side and the black
+flutter of my cloak. A moment later I flew through a stream of them
+rushing from an open gateway. Violette's shoulder sent one of them
+reeling, and I stabbed at another but missed him. Pang, pang, went two
+carbines, but I had flown round the curve of the street, and never so
+much as heard the hiss of the balls. Ah, we were great, both Violette
+and I. She lay down to it like a coursed hare, the fire flying from her
+hoofs. I stood in my stirrups and brandished my sword. Someone sprang
+for my bridle. I sliced him through the arm, and I heard him howling
+behind me. Two horsemen closed upon me. I cut one down and outpaced the
+other. A minute later I was clear of the town, and flying down a broad
+white road with the black poplars on either side. For a time I heard the
+rattle of hoofs behind me, but they died and died until I could not tell
+them from the throbbing of my own heart. Soon I pulled up and listened,
+but all was silent. They had given up the chase.
+
+Well, the first thing that I did was to dismount and to lead my mare
+into a small wood through which a stream ran. There I watered her and
+rubbed her down, giving her two pieces of sugar soaked in cognac from my
+flask. She was spent from the sharp chase, but it was wonderful to see
+how she came round with a half-hour's rest. When my thighs closed upon
+her again, I could tell by the spring and the swing of her that it would
+not be her fault if I did not win my way safe to Paris.
+
+I must have been well within the enemy's lines now, for I heard a number
+of them shouting one of their rough drinking songs out of a house by the
+roadside, and I went round by the fields to avoid it. At another time
+two men came out into the moonlight (for by this time it was a cloudless
+night) and shouted something in German, but I galloped on without
+heeding them, and they were afraid to fire, for their own hussars are
+dressed exactly as I was. It is best to take no notice at these times,
+and then they put you down as a deaf man.
+
+It was a lovely moon, and every tree threw a black bar across the road.
+I could see the countryside just as if it were daytime, and very
+peaceful it looked, save that there was a great fire raging somewhere in
+the north. In the silence of the night-time, and with the knowledge that
+danger was in front and behind me, the sight of that great distant fire
+was very striking and awesome. But I am not easily clouded, for I have
+seen too many singular things, so I hummed a tune between my teeth and
+thought of little Lisette, whom I might see in Paris. My mind was full
+of her when, trotting round a corner, I came straight upon half-a-dozen
+German dragoons, who were sitting round a brushwood fire by the
+roadside.
+
+I am an excellent soldier. I do not say this because I am prejudiced in
+my own favour, but because I really am so. I can weigh every chance in a
+moment, and decide with as much certainty as though I had brooded for a
+week. Now I saw like a flash that, come what might, I should be chased,
+and on a horse which had already done a long twelve leagues. But it was
+better to be chased onwards than to be chased back. On this moonlit
+night, with fresh horses behind me, I must take my risk in either case;
+but if I were to shake them off, I preferred that it should be near
+Senlis than near Soissons.
+
+All this flashed on me as if by instinct, you understand. My eyes had
+hardly rested on the bearded faces under the brass helmets before my
+rowels had touched Violette, and she was off with a rattle like a
+pas-de-charge. Oh, the shouting and rushing and stamping from behind us!
+Three of them fired and three swung themselves on to their horses. A
+bullet rapped on the crupper of my saddle with a noise like a stick on a
+door. Violette sprang madly forward, and I thought she had been wounded,
+but it was only a graze above the near fore-fetlock. Ah, the dear little
+mare, how I loved her when I felt her settle down into that long, easy
+gallop of hers, her hoofs going like a Spanish girl's castanets. I could
+not hold myself. I turned on my saddle and shouted and raved, 'Vive
+l'Empereur!' I screamed and laughed at the gust of oaths that came back
+to me.
+
+But it was not over yet. If she had been fresh she might have gained a
+mile in five. Now she could only hold her own with a very little over.
+There was one of them, a young boy of an officer, who was better mounted
+than the others. He drew ahead with every stride. Two hundred yards
+behind him were two troopers, but I saw every time that I glanced round
+that the distance between them was increasing. The other three who had
+waited to shoot were a long way in the rear.
+
+The officer's mount was a bay--a fine horse, though not to be spoken of
+with Violette; yet it was a powerful brute, and it seemed to me that in
+a few miles its freshness might tell. I waited until the lad was a long
+way in front of his comrades, and then I eased my mare down a little--a
+very, very little, so that he might think he was really catching me.
+When he came within pistol-shot of me I drew and cocked my own pistol,
+and laid my chin upon my shoulder to see what he would do. He did not
+offer to fire, and I soon discerned the cause. The silly boy had taken
+his pistols from his holsters when he had camped for the night. He
+wagged his sword at me now and roared some threat or other. He did not
+seem to understand that he was at my mercy. I eased Violette down until
+there was not the length of a long lance between the grey tail and the
+bay muzzle.
+
+'Rendez-vous!' he yelled.
+
+'I must compliment monsieur upon his French,' said I, resting the barrel
+of my pistol upon my bridle-arm, which I have always found best when
+shooting from the saddle. I aimed at his face, and could see, even in
+the moonlight, how white he grew when he understood that it was all up
+with him. But even as my finger pressed the trigger I thought of his
+mother, and I put my ball through his horse's shoulder. I fear he hurt
+himself in the fall, for it was a fearful crash, but I had my letter to
+think of, so I stretched the mare into a gallop once more.
+
+But they were not so easily shaken off, these brigands. The two troopers
+thought no more of their young officer than if he had been a recruit
+thrown in the riding-school. They left him to the others and thundered
+on after me. I had pulled up on the brow of a hill, thinking that I had
+heard the last of them; but, my faith, I soon saw there was no time for
+loitering, so away we went, the mare tossing her head and I my shako, to
+show what we thought of two dragoons who tried to catch a hussar. But at
+this moment, even while I laughed at the thought, my heart stood still
+within me, for there at the end of the long white road was a black patch
+of cavalry waiting to receive me. To a young soldier it might have
+seemed the shadow of the trees, but to me it was a troop of hussars,
+and, turn where I could, death seemed to be waiting for me.
+
+Well, I had the dragoons behind me and the hussars in front. Never since
+Moscow have I seemed to be in such peril. But for the honour of the
+brigade I had rather be cut down by a light cavalryman than by a heavy.
+I never drew bridle, therefore, or hesitated for an instant, but I let
+Violette have her head. I remember that I tried to pray as I rode, but I
+am a little out of practice at such things, and the only words I could
+remember were the prayer for fine weather which we used at the school on
+the evening before holidays. Even this seemed better than nothing, and I
+was pattering it out, when suddenly I heard French voices in front of
+me. Ah, mon Dieu, but the joy went through my heart like a musket-ball.
+They were ours--our own dear little rascals from the corps of Marmont.
+Round whisked my two dragoons and galloped for their lives, with the
+moon gleaming on their brass helmets, while I trotted up to my friends
+with no undue haste, for I would have them understand that though a
+hussar may fly, it is not in his nature to fly very fast. Yet I fear
+that Violette's heaving flanks and foam-spattered muzzle gave the lie
+to my careless bearing.
+
+Who should be at the head of the troop but old Bouvet, whom I saved at
+Leipzig! When he saw me his little pink eyes filled with tears, and,
+indeed, I could not but shed a few myself at the sight of his joy. I
+told him of my mission, but he laughed when I said that I must pass
+through Senlis.
+
+'The enemy is there,' said he. 'You cannot go.'
+
+'I prefer to go where the enemy is,' I answered.
+
+'But why not go straight to Paris with your despatch? Why should you
+choose to pass through the one place where you are almost sure to be
+taken or killed?'
+
+'A soldier does not choose--he obeys,' said I, just as I had heard
+Napoleon say it.
+
+Old Bouvet laughed in his wheezy way, until I had to give my moustachios
+a twirl and look him up and down in a manner which brought him to
+reason.
+
+'Well', said he, 'you had best come along with us, for we are all bound
+for Senlis. Our orders are to reconnoitre the place. A squadron of
+Poniatowski's Polish Lancers are in front of us. If you must ride
+through it, it is possible that we may be able to go with you.'
+
+So away we went, jingling and clanking through the quiet night until we
+came up with the Poles--fine old soldiers all of them, though a trifle
+heavy for their horses. It was a treat to see them, for they could not
+have carried themselves better if they had belonged to my own brigade.
+We rode together, until in the early morning we saw the lights of
+Senlis. A peasant was coming along with a cart, and from him we learned
+how things were going there.
+
+His information was certain, for his brother was the Mayor's coachman,
+and he had spoken with him late the night before. There was a single
+squadron of Cossacks--or a polk, as they call it in their frightful
+language--quartered upon the Mayor's house, which stands at the corner
+of the market-place, and is the largest building in the town. A whole
+division of Prussion infantry was encamped in the woods to the north,
+but only the Cossacks were in Senlis. Ah, what a chance to avenge
+ourselves upon these barbarians, whose cruelty to our poor countryfolk
+was the talk at every camp fire.
+
+We were into the town like a torrent, hacked down the vedettes, rode
+over the guard, and were smashing in the doors of the Mayor's house
+before they understood that there was a Frenchman within twenty miles of
+them. We saw horrid heads at the windows--heads bearded to the temples,
+with tangled hair and sheepskin caps, and silly, gaping mouths. 'Hourra!
+Hourra!' they shrieked, and fired with their carbines, but our fellows
+were into the house and at their throats before they had wiped the sleep
+out of their eyes. It was dreadful to see how the Poles flung themselves
+upon them, like starving wolves upon a herd of fat bucks--for, as you
+know, the Poles have a blood feud against the Cossacks. The most were
+killed in the upper rooms, whither they had fled for shelter, and the
+blood was pouring down into the hall like rain from a roof. They are
+terrible soldiers, these Poles, though I think they are a trifle heavy
+for their horses. Man for man, they are as big as Kellerman's
+cuirassiers. Their equipment is, of course, much lighter, since they are
+without the cuirass, back-plate, and helmet.
+
+Well, it was at this point that I made an error--a very serious error it
+must be admitted. Up to this moment I had carried out my mission in a
+manner which only my modesty prevents me from describing as remarkable.
+But now I did that which an official would condemn and a soldier excuse.
+
+There is no doubt that the mare was spent, but still it is true that I
+might have galloped on through Senlis and reached the country, where I
+should have had no enemy between me and Paris. But what hussar can ride
+past a fight and never draw rein? It is to ask too much of him.
+Besides, I thought that if Violette had an hour of rest I might have
+three hours the better at the other end. Then on the top of it came
+those heads at the windows, with their sheepskin hats and their
+barbarous cries. I sprang from my saddle, threw Violette's bridle over a
+rail-post, and ran into the house with the rest. It is true that I was
+too late to be of service, and that I was nearly wounded by a
+lance-thrust from one of these dying savages. Still, it is a pity to
+miss even the smallest affair, for one never knows what opportunity for
+advancement may present itself. I have seen more soldierly work in
+outpost skirmishes and little gallop-and-hack affairs of the kind than
+in any of the Emperor's big battles.
+
+When the house was cleared I took a bucket of water out for Violette,
+and our peasant guide showed me where the good Mayor kept his fodder. My
+faith, but the little sweetheart was ready for it. Then I sponged down
+her legs, and leaving her still tethered I went back into the house to
+find a mouthful for myself, so that I should not need to halt again
+until I was in Paris.
+
+And now I come to the part of my story which may seem singular to you,
+although I could tell you at least ten things every bit as queer which
+have happened to me in my lifetime. You can understand that, to a man
+who spends his life in scouting and vedette duties on the bloody ground
+which lies between two great armies, there are many chances of strange
+experiences. I'll tell you, however, exactly what occurred.
+
+Old Bouvet was waiting in the passage when I entered, and he asked me
+whether we might not crack a bottle of wine together. 'My faith, we must
+not be long,' said he. 'There are ten thousand of Theilmann's Prussians
+in the woods up yonder.'
+
+'Where is the wine?' I asked.
+
+'Ah, you may trust two hussars to find where the wine is,' said he, and
+taking a candle in his hand, he led the way down the stone stairs into
+the kitchen.
+
+When we got there we found another door, which opened on to a winding
+stair with the cellar at the bottom. The Cossacks had been there before
+us, as was easily seen by the broken bottles littered all over it.
+However, the Mayor was a _bon-vivant_, and I do not wish to have a
+better set of bins to pick from. Chambertin, Graves, Alicant, white wine
+and red, sparkling and still, they lay in pyramids peeping coyly out of
+sawdust. Old Bouvet stood with his candle looking here and peeping
+there, purring in his throat like a cat before a milk-pail. He had
+picked upon a Burgundy at last, and had his hand outstretched to the
+bottle when there came a roar of musketry from above us, a rush of feet,
+and such a yelping and screaming as I have never listened to. The
+Prussians were upon us!
+
+Bouvet is a brave man: I will say that for him. He flashed out his sword
+and away he clattered up the stone steps, his spurs clinking as he ran.
+I followed him, but just as we came out into the kitchen passage a
+tremendous shout told us that the house had been recaptured.
+
+'It is all over,' I cried, grasping at Bouvet's sleeve.
+
+'There is one more to die,' he shouted, and away he went like a madman
+up the second stair. In effect, I should have gone to my death also had
+I been in his place, for he had done very wrong in not throwing out his
+scouts to warn him if the Germans advanced upon him. For an instant I
+was about to rush up with him, and then I bethought myself that, after
+all, I had my own mission to think of, and that if I were taken the
+important letter of the Emperor would be sacrificed. I let Bouvet die
+alone, therefore, and I went down into the cellar again, closing the
+door behind me.
+
+Well, it was not a very rosy prospect down there either. Bouvet had
+dropped the candle when the alarm came, and I, pawing about in the
+darkness, could find nothing but broken bottles. At last I came upon
+the candle, which had rolled under the curve of a cask, but, try as I
+would with my tinderbox, I could not light it. The reason was that the
+wick had been wet in a puddle of wine, so suspecting that this might be
+the case, I cut the end off with my sword. Then I found that it lighted
+easily enough. But what to do I could not imagine. The scoundrels
+upstairs were shouting themselves hoarse, several hundred of them from
+the sound, and it was clear that some of them would soon want to moisten
+their throats. There would be an end to a dashing soldier, and of the
+mission and of the medal. I thought of my mother and I thought of the
+Emperor. It made me weep to think that the one would lose so excellent a
+son and the other the best light cavalry officer he ever had since
+Lasalle's time. But presently I dashed the tears from my eyes.
+'Courage!' I cried, striking myself upon the chest. 'Courage, my brave
+boy. Is it possible that one who has come safely from Moscow without so
+much as a frost-bite will die in a French wine-cellar?' At the thought I
+was up on my feet and clutching at the letter in my tunic, for the
+crackle of it gave me courage.
+
+My first plan was to set fire to the house, in the hope of escaping in
+the confusion. My second to get into an empty wine-cask. I was looking
+round to see if I could find one, when suddenly, in the corner, I espied
+a little low door, painted of the same grey colour as the wall, so that
+it was only a man with quick sight who would have noticed it. I pushed
+against it, and at first I imagined that it was locked. Presently,
+however, it gave a little, and then I understood that it was held by the
+pressure of something on the other side. I put my feet against a
+hogshead of wine, and I gave such a push that the door flew open and I
+came down with a crash upon my back, the candle flying out of my hands,
+so that I found myself in darkness once more. I picked myself up and
+stared through the black archway into the gloom beyond.
+
+There was a slight ray of light coming from some slit or grating. The
+dawn had broken outside, and I could dimly see the long, curving sides
+of several huge casks, which made me think that perhaps this was where
+the Mayor kept his reserves of wine while they were maturing. At any
+rate, it seemed to be a safer hiding-place than the outer cellar, so
+gathering up my candle, I was just closing the door behind me, when I
+suddenly saw something which filled me with amazement, and even, I
+confess, with the smallest little touch of fear.
+
+I have said that at the further end of the cellar there was a dim grey
+fan of light striking downwards from somewhere near the roof. Well, as I
+peered through the darkness, I suddenly saw a great, tall man skip into
+this belt of daylight, and then out again into the darkness at the
+further end. My word, I gave such a start that my shako nearly broke its
+chin-strap! It was only a glance, but, none the less, I had time to see
+that the fellow had a hairy Cossack cap on his head, and that he was a
+great, long-legged, broad-shouldered brigand, with a sabre at his waist.
+My faith, even Etienne Gerard was a little staggered at being left alone
+with such a creature in the dark.
+
+But only for a moment. 'Courage!' I thought. 'Am I not a hussar, a
+brigadier, too, at the age of thirty-one, and the chosen messenger of
+the Emperor?' After all, this skulker had more cause to be afraid of me
+than I of him. And then suddenly I understood that he was
+afraid--horribly afraid. I could read it from his quick step and his
+bent shoulders as he ran among the barrels, like a rat making for its
+hole. And, of course, it must have been he who had held the door against
+me, and not some packing-case or wine-cask as I had imagined. He was the
+pursued then, and I the pursuer. Aha, I felt my whiskers bristle as I
+advanced upon him through the darkness! He would find that he had no
+chicken to deal with, this robber from the North. For the moment I was
+magnificent.
+
+At first I had feared to light my candle lest I should make a mark of
+myself, but now, after cracking my shin over a box, and catching my
+spurs in some canvas, I thought the bolder course the wiser. I lit it,
+therefore, and then I advanced with long strides, my sword in my hand.
+'Come out, you rascal!' I cried. 'Nothing can save you. You will at last
+meet with your deserts.'
+
+I held my candle high, and presently I caught a glimpse of the man's
+head staring at me over a barrel. He had a gold chevron on his black
+cap, and the expression of his face told me in an instant that he was an
+officer and a man of refinement.
+
+'Monsieur,' he cried, in excellent French, 'I surrender myself on a
+promise of quarter. But if I do not have your promise, I will then sell
+my life as dearly as I can.'
+
+'Sir,' said I, 'a Frenchman knows how to treat an unfortunate enemy.
+Your life is safe.' With that he handed his sword over the top of the
+barrel, and I bowed with the candle on my heart. 'Whom have I the honour
+of capturing?' I asked.
+
+'I am the Count Boutkine, of the Emperor's own Don Cossacks,' said he.
+'I came out with my troop to reconnoitre Senlis, and as we found no sign
+of your people we determined to spend the night here.'
+
+'And would it be an indiscretion,' I asked, 'if I were to inquire how
+you came into the back cellar?'
+
+'Nothing more simple,' said he. 'It was our intention to start at early
+dawn. Feeling chilled after dressing, I thought that a cup of wine would
+do me no harm, so I came down to see what I could find. As I was
+rummaging about, the house was suddenly carried by assault so rapidly
+that by the time I had climbed the stairs it was all over. It only
+remained for me to save myself, so I came down here and hid myself in
+the back cellar, where you have found me.'
+
+I thought of how old Bouvet had behaved under the same conditions, and
+the tears sprang to my eyes as I contemplated the glory of France. Then
+I had to consider what I should do next. It was clear that this Russian
+Count, being in the back cellar while we were in the front one, had not
+heard the sounds which would have told him that the house was once again
+in the hands of his own allies. If he should once understand this the
+tables would be turned, and I should be his prisoner instead of he being
+mine. What was I to do? I was at my wits' end, when suddenly there came
+to me an idea so brilliant that I could not but be amazed at my own
+invention.
+
+'Count Boutkine,' said I, 'I find myself in a most difficult position.'
+
+'And why?' he asked.
+
+'Because I have promised you your life.'
+
+His jaw dropped a little.
+
+'You would not withdraw your promise?' he cried.
+
+'If the worst comes to the worst I can die in your defence,' said I;
+'but the difficulties are great.'
+
+'What is it, then?' he asked.
+
+'I will be frank with you,' said I. 'You must know that our fellows, and
+especially the Poles, are so incensed against the Cossacks that the mere
+sight of the uniform drives them mad. They precipitate themselves
+instantly upon the wearer and tear him limb from limb. Even their
+officers cannot restrain them.'
+
+The Russian grew pale at my words and the way in which I said them.
+
+'But this is terrible,' said he.
+
+'Horrible!' said I. 'If we were to go up together at this moment I
+cannot promise how far I could protect you.'
+
+'I am in your hands,' he cried. 'What would you suggest that we should
+do? Would it not be best that I should remain here?'
+
+'That worst of all.'
+
+'And why?'
+
+'Because our fellows will ransack the house presently, and then you
+would be cut to pieces. No, no, I must go and break it to them. But even
+then, when once they see that accursed uniform, I do not know what may
+happen.'
+
+'Should I then take the uniform off?'
+
+'Excellent!' I cried. 'Hold, we have it! You will take your uniform off
+and put on mine. That will make you sacred to every French soldier.'
+
+'It is not the French I fear so much as the Poles.'
+
+'But my uniform will be a safeguard against either.'
+
+'How can I thank you?' he cried. 'But you--what are you to wear?'
+
+'I will wear yours.'
+
+'And perhaps fall a victim to your generosity?'
+
+'It is my duty to take the risk,' I answered; 'but I have no fears. I
+will ascend in your uniform. A hundred swords will be turned upon me.
+"Hold!" I will shout, "I am the Brigadier Gerard!" Then they will see my
+face. They will know me. And I will tell them about you. Under the
+shield of these clothes you will be sacred.'
+
+His fingers trembled with eagerness as he tore off his tunic. His boots
+and breeches were much like my own, so there was no need to change them,
+but I gave him my hussar jacket, my dolman, my shako, my sword-belt, and
+my sabre-tasche, while I took in exchange his high sheepskin cap with
+the gold chevron, his fur-trimmed coat, and his crooked sword. Be it
+well understood that in changing the tunics I did not forget to change
+my thrice-precious letter also from my old one to my new.
+
+'With your leave,' said I, 'I shall now bind you to a barrel.'
+
+He made a great fuss over this, but I have learned in my soldiering
+never to throw away chances, and how could I tell that he might not,
+when my back was turned, see how the matter really stood, and break in
+upon my plans? He was leaning against a barrel at the time, so I ran six
+times round it with a rope, and then tied it with a big knot behind. If
+he wished to come upstairs he would, at least, have to carry a thousand
+litres of good French wine for a knapsack. I then shut the door of the
+back cellar behind me, so that he might not hear what was going forward,
+and tossing the candle away I ascended the kitchen stair.
+
+There were only about twenty steps, and yet, while I came up them, I
+seemed to have time to think of everything that I had ever hoped to do.
+It was the same feeling that I had at Eylau when I lay with my broken
+leg and saw the horse artillery galloping down upon me. Of course, I
+knew that if I were taken I should be shot instantly as being disguised
+within the enemy's lines. Still, it was a glorious death--in the direct
+service of the Emperor--and I reflected that there could not be less
+than five lines, and perhaps seven, in the _Moniteur_ about me. Palaret
+had eight lines, and I am sure that he had not so fine a career.
+
+When I made my way out into the hall, with all the nonchalance in my
+face and manner that I could assume, the very first thing that I saw was
+Bouvet's dead body, with his legs drawn up and a broken sword in his
+hand. I could see by the black smudge that he had been shot at close
+quarters. I should have wished to salute as I went by, for he was a
+gallant man, but I feared lest I should be seen, and so I passed on.
+
+The front of the hall was full of Prussian infantry, who were knocking
+loopholes in the wall, as though they expected that there might be yet
+another attack. Their officer, a little man, was running about giving
+directions. They were all too busy to take much notice of me, but
+another officer, who was standing by the door with a long pipe in his
+mouth, strode across and clapped me on the shoulder, pointing to the
+dead bodies of our poor hussars, and saying something which was meant
+for a jest, for his long beard opened and showed every fang in his head.
+I laughed heartily also, and said the only Russian words that I knew. I
+learned them from little Sophie, at Wilna, and they meant: 'If the night
+is fine we shall meet under the oak tree, but if it rains we shall meet
+in the byre.' It was all the same to this German, however, and I have no
+doubt that he gave me credit for saying something very witty indeed, for
+he roared laughing, and slapped me on my shoulder again. I nodded to him
+and marched out of the hall-door as coolly as if I were the commandant
+of the garrison.
+
+There were a hundred horses tethered about outside, most of them
+belonging to the Poles and hussars. Good little Violette was waiting
+with the others, and she whinnied when she saw me coming towards her.
+But I would not mount her. No. I was much too cunning for that. On the
+contrary, I chose the most shaggy little Cossack horse that I could see,
+and I sprang upon it with as much assurance as though it had belonged to
+my father before me. It had a great bag of plunder slung over its neck,
+and this I laid upon Violette's back, and led her along beside me. Never
+have you seen such a picture of the Cossack returning from the foray. It
+was superb.
+
+Well, the town was full of Prussians by this time. They lined the
+side-walks and pointed me out to each other, saying, as I could judge
+from their gestures, 'There goes one of those devils of Cossacks. They
+are the boys for foraging and plunder.'
+
+One or two officers spoke to me with an air of authority, but I shook my
+head and smiled, and said, 'If the night is fine we shall meet under the
+oak tree, but if it rains we shall meet in the byre,' at which they
+shrugged their shoulders and gave the matter up. In this way I worked
+along until I was beyond the northern outskirt of the town. I could see
+in the roadway two lancer vedettes with their black and white pennons,
+and I knew that when I was once past these I should be a free man once
+more. I made my pony trot, therefore, Violette rubbing her nose against
+my knee all the time, and looking up at me to ask how she had deserved
+that this hairy doormat of a creature should be preferred to her. I was
+not more than a hundred yards from the Uhlans when, suddenly, you can
+imagine my feelings when I saw a real Cossack coming galloping along the
+road towards me.
+
+Ah, my friend, you who read this, if you have any heart, you will feel
+for a man like me, who had gone through so many dangers and trials, only
+at this very last moment to be confronted with one which appeared to put
+an end to everything. I will confess that for a moment I lost heart, and
+was inclined to throw myself down in my despair, and to cry out that I
+had been betrayed. But, no; I was not beaten even now. I opened two
+buttons of my tunic so that I might get easily at the Emperor's message,
+for it was my fixed determination when all hope was gone to swallow the
+letter and then die sword in hand. Then I felt that my little, crooked
+sword was loose in its sheath, and I trotted on to where the vedettes
+were waiting. They seemed inclined to stop me, but I pointed to the
+other Cossack, who was still a couple of hundred yards off, and they,
+understanding that I merely wished to meet him, let me pass with a
+salute.
+
+I dug my spurs into my pony then, for if I were only far enough from the
+lancers I thought I might manage the Cossack without much difficulty. He
+was an officer, a large, bearded man, with a gold chevron in his cap,
+just the same as mine. As I advanced he unconsciously aided me by
+pulling up his horse, so that I had a fine start of the vedettes. On I
+came for him, and I could see wonder changing to suspicion in his brown
+eyes as he looked at me and at my pony, and at my equipment. I do not
+know what it was that was wrong, but he saw something which was as it
+should not be. He shouted out a question, and then when I gave no answer
+he pulled out his sword. I was glad in my heart to see him do so, for I
+had always rather fight than cut down an unsuspecting enemy. Now I made
+at him full tilt, and, parrying his cut, I got my point in just under
+the fourth button of his tunic. Down he went, and the weight of him
+nearly took me off my horse before I could disengage. I never glanced at
+him to see if he were living or dead, for I sprang off my pony and on to
+Violette, with a shake of my bridle and a kiss of my hand to the two
+Uhlans behind me. They galloped after me, shouting, but Violette had had
+her rest, and was just as fresh as when she started. I took the first
+side road to the west and then the first to the south, which would take
+me away from the enemy's country. On we went and on, every stride taking
+me further from my foes and nearer to my friends. At last, when I
+reached the end of a long stretch of road, and looking back from it
+could see no sign of any pursuers, I understood that my troubles were
+over.
+
+And it gave me a glow of happiness, as I rode, to think that I had done
+to the letter what the Emperor had ordered. What would he say when he
+saw me? What could he say which would do justice to the incredible way
+in which I had risen above every danger? He had ordered me to go through
+Sermoise, Soissons, and Senlis, little dreaming that they were all three
+occupied by the enemy. And yet I had done it. I had borne his letter in
+safety through each of these towns. Hussars, dragoons, lancers,
+Cossacks, and infantry--I had run the gauntlet of all of them, and had
+come out unharmed.
+
+When I had got as far as Dammartin I caught a first glimpse of our own
+outposts. There was a troop of dragoons in a field, and of course I
+could see from the horsehair crests that they were French. I galloped
+towards them in order to ask them if all was safe between there and
+Paris, and as I rode I felt such a pride at having won my way back to my
+friends again, that I could not refrain from waving my sword in the air.
+
+At this a young officer galloped out from among the dragoons, also
+brandishing his sword, and it warmed my heart to think that he should
+come riding with such ardour and enthusiasm to greet me. I made
+Violette caracole, and as we came together I brandished my sword more
+gallantly than ever, but you can imagine my feelings when he suddenly
+made a cut at me which would certainly have taken my head off if I had
+not fallen forward with my nose in Violette's mane. My faith, it
+whistled just over my cap like an east wind. Of course, it came from
+this accursed Cossack uniform which, in my excitement, I had forgotten
+all about, and this young dragoon had imagined that I was some Russian
+champion who was challenging the French cavalry. My word, he was a
+frightened man when he understood how near he had been to killing the
+celebrated Brigadier Gerard.
+
+Well, the road was clear, and about three o'clock in the afternoon I was
+at St Denis, though it took me a long two hours to get from there to
+Paris, for the road was blocked with commissariat waggons and guns of
+the artillery reserve, which was going north to Marmont and Mortier. You
+cannot conceive the excitement which my appearance in such a costume
+made in Paris, and when I came to the Rue de Rivoli I should think I had
+a quarter of a mile of folk riding or running behind me. Word had got
+about from the dragoons (two of whom had come with me), and everybody
+knew about my adventures and how I had come by my uniform. It was a
+triumph--men shouting and women waving their handkerchiefs and blowing
+kisses from the windows.
+
+Although I am a man singularly free from conceit, still I must confess
+that, on this one occasion, I could not restrain myself from showing
+that this reception gratified me. The Russian's coat had hung very loose
+upon me, but now I threw out my chest until it was as tight as a
+sausage-skin. And my little sweetheart of a mare tossed her mane and
+pawed with her front hoofs, frisking her tail about as though she said,
+'We've done it together this time. It is to us that commissions should
+be intrusted.' When I kissed her between the nostrils as I dismounted at
+the gate of the Tuileries, there was as much shouting as if a bulletin
+had been read from the Grand Army.
+
+I was hardly in costume to visit a King; but, after all, if one has a
+soldierly figure one can do without all that. I was shown up straight
+away to Joseph, whom I had often seen in Spain. He seemed as stout, as
+quiet, and as amiable as ever. Talleyrand was in the room with him, or I
+suppose I should call him the Duke of Benevento, but I confess that I
+like old names best. He read my letter when Joseph Buonaparte handed it
+to him, and then he looked at me with the strangest expression in those
+funny little, twinkling eyes of his.
+
+'Were you the only messenger?' he asked.
+
+'There was one other, sir,' said I. 'Major Charpentier, of the Horse
+Grenadiers.'
+
+'He has not yet arrived,' said the King of Spain.
+
+'If you had seen the legs of his horse, sire, you would not wonder at
+it,' I remarked.
+
+'There may be other reasons,' said Talleyrand, and he gave that singular
+smile of his.
+
+Well, they paid me a compliment or two, though they might have said a
+good deal more and yet have said too little. I bowed myself out, and
+very glad I was to get away, for I hate a Court as much as I love a
+camp. Away I went to my old friend Chaubert, in the Rue Miromesnil, and
+there I got his hussar uniform, which fitted me very well. He and
+Lisette and I supped together in his rooms, and all my dangers were
+forgotten. In the morning I found Violette ready for another
+twenty-league stretch. It was my intention to return instantly to the
+Emperor's headquarters, for I was, as you may well imagine, impatient to
+hear his words of praise, and to receive my reward.
+
+I need not say that I rode back by a safe route, for I had seen quite
+enough of Uhlans and Cossacks. I passed through Meaux and Château
+Thierry, and so in the evening I arrived at Rheims, where Napoleon was
+still lying. The bodies of our fellows and of St Prest's Russians had
+all been buried, and I could see changes in the camp also. The soldiers
+looked better cared for; some of the cavalry had received remounts, and
+everything was in excellent order. It was wonderful what a good general
+can effect in a couple of days.
+
+When I came to the headquarters I was shown straight into the Emperor's
+room. He was drinking coffee at a writing-table, with a big plan drawn
+out on paper in front of him. Berthier and Macdonald were leaning, one
+over each shoulder, and he was talking so quickly that I don't believe
+that either of them could catch a half of what he was saying. But when
+his eyes fell upon me he dropped the pen on to the chart, and he sprang
+up with a look in his pale face which struck me cold.
+
+'What the deuce are you doing here?' he shouted. When he was angry he
+had a voice like a peacock.
+
+'I have the honour to report to you, sire,' said I, 'that I have
+delivered your despatch safely to the King of Spain.'
+
+'What!' he yelled, and his two eyes transfixed me like bayonets. Oh,
+those dreadful eyes, shifting from grey to blue, like steel in the
+sunshine. I can see them now when I have a bad dream.
+
+'What has become of Charpentier?' he asked.
+
+'He is captured,' said Macdonald.
+
+'By whom?'
+
+'The Russians.'
+
+'The Cossacks?'
+
+'No, a single Cossack.'
+
+'He gave himself up?'
+
+'Without resistance.'
+
+'He is an intelligent officer. You will see that the medal of honour is
+awarded to him.'
+
+When I heard those words I had to rub my eyes to make sure that I was
+awake.
+
+'As to you,' cried the Emperor, taking a step forward as if he would
+have struck me, 'you brain of a hare, what do you think that you were
+sent upon this mission for? Do you conceive that I would send a really
+important message by such a hand as yours, and through every village
+which the enemy holds? How you came through them passes my
+comprehension; but if your fellow-messenger had had but as little sense
+as you, my whole plan of campaign would have been ruined. Can you not
+see, coglione, that this message contained false news, and that it was
+intended to deceive the enemy whilst I put a very different scheme into
+execution?'
+
+When I heard those cruel words and saw the angry, white face which
+glared at me, I had to hold the back of a chair, for my mind was failing
+me and my knees would hardly bear me up. But then I took courage as I
+reflected that I was an honourable gentleman, and that my whole life had
+been spent in toiling for this man and for my beloved country.
+
+'Sire,' said I, and the tears would trickle down my cheeks whilst I
+spoke, 'when you are dealing with a man like me you would find it wiser
+to deal openly. Had I known that you had wished the despatch to fall
+into the hands of the enemy, I would have seen that it came there. As I
+believed that I was to guard it, I was prepared to sacrifice my life for
+it. I do not believe, sire, that any man in the world ever met with more
+toils and perils than I have done in trying to carry out what I thought
+was your will.'
+
+I dashed the tears from my eyes as I spoke, and with such fire and
+spirit as I could command I gave him an account of it all, of my dash
+through Soissons, my brush with the dragoons, my adventure in Senlis, my
+rencontre with Count Boutkine in the cellar, my disguise, my meeting
+with the Cossack officer, my flight, and how at the last moment I was
+nearly cut down by a French dragoon. The Emperor, Berthier, and
+Macdonald listened with astonishment on their faces. When I had finished
+Napoleon stepped forward and he pinched me by the ear.
+
+'There, there!' said he. 'Forget anything which I may have said. I
+would have done better to trust you. You may go.'
+
+I turned to the door, and my hand was upon the handle, when the Emperor
+called upon me to stop.
+
+'You will see,' said he, turning to the Duke of Tarentum, 'that
+Brigadier Gerard has the special medal of honour, for I believe that if
+he has the thickest head he has also the stoutest heart in my army.'
+
+
+
+
+8. HOW THE BRIGADIER WAS TEMPTED BY THE DEVIL
+
+
+The spring is at hand, my friends. I can see the little green
+spear-heads breaking out once more upon the chestnut trees, and the cafe
+tables have all been moved into the sunshine. It is more pleasant to sit
+there, and yet I do not wish to tell my little stories to the whole
+town. You have heard my doings as a lieutenant, as a squadron officer,
+as a colonel, as the chief of a brigade. But now I suddenly become
+something higher and more important. I become history.
+
+If you have read of those closing years of the life of the Emperor which
+were spent in the Island of St Helena, you will remember that, again and
+again, he implored permission to send out one single letter which should
+be unopened by those who held him. Many times he made this request, and
+even went so far as to promise that he would provide for his own wants
+and cease to be an expense to the British Government if it were granted
+to him. But his guardians knew that he was a terrible man, this pale,
+fat gentleman in the straw hat, and they dared not grant him what he
+asked. Many have wondered who it was to whom he could have had anything
+so secret to say. Some have supposed that it was to his wife, and some
+that it was to his father-in-law; some that it was to the Emperor
+Alexander, and some to Marshal Soult. What will you think of me, my
+friends, when I tell you it was to me--to me, the Brigadier Gerard--that
+the Emperor wished to write? Yes, humble as you see me, with only my 100
+francs a month of half-pay between me and hunger, it is none the less
+true that I was always in the Emperor's mind, and that he would have
+given his left hand for five minutes' talk with me. I will tell you
+tonight how this came about.
+
+It was after the Battle of Fére-Champenoise where the conscripts in
+their blouses and their sabots made such a fine stand, that we, the more
+long-headed of us, began to understand that it was all over with us. Our
+reserve ammunition had been taken in the battle, and we were left with
+silent guns and empty caissons. Our cavalry, too, was in a deplorable
+condition, and my own brigade had been destroyed in the charge at
+Craonne. Then came the news that the enemy had taken Paris, that the
+citizens had mounted the white cockade; and finally, most terrible of
+all, that Marmont and his corps had gone over to the Bourbons. We looked
+at each other and asked how many more of our generals were going to turn
+against us. Already there were Jourdan, Marmont, Murat, Bernadotte, and
+Jomini--though nobody minded much about Jomini, for his pen was always
+sharper than his sword. We had been ready to fight Europe, but it looked
+now as though we were to fight Europe and half of France as well.
+
+We had come to Fontainebleau by a long, forced march, and there we were
+assembled, the poor remnants of us, the corps of Ney, the corps of my
+cousin Gerard, and the corps of Macdonald: twenty-five thousand in all,
+with seven thousand of the guard. But we had our prestige, which was
+worth fifty thousand, and our Emperor, who was worth fifty thousand
+more. He was always among us, serene, smiling, confident, taking his
+snuff and playing with his little riding-whip. Never in the days of his
+greatest victories have I admired him as much as I did during the
+Campaign of France.
+
+One evening I was with a few of my officers, drinking a glass of wine of
+Suresnes. I mention that it was wine of Suresnes just to show you that
+times were not very good with us. Suddenly I was disturbed by a message
+from Berthier that he wished to see me. When I speak of my old
+comrades-in-arms, I will, with your permission, leave out all the fine
+foreign titles which they had picked up during the wars. They are
+excellent for a Court, but you never heard them in the camp, for we
+could not afford to do away with our Ney, our Rapp, or our Soult--names
+which were as stirring to our ears as the blare of our trumpets blowing
+the reveille. It was Berthier, then, who sent to say that he wished to
+see me.
+
+He had a suite of rooms at the end of the gallery of Francis the First,
+not very far from those of the Emperor. In the ante-chamber were waiting
+two men whom I knew well: Colonel Despienne, of the 57th of the line,
+and Captain Tremeau, of the Voltigeurs. They were both old
+soldiers--Tremeau had carried a musket in Egypt--and they were also both
+famous in the army for their courage and their skill with weapons.
+Tremeau had become a little stiff in the wrist, but Despienne was
+capable at his best of making me exert myself. He was a tiny fellow,
+about three inches short of the proper height for a man--he was exactly
+three inches shorter than myself--but both with the sabre and with the
+small-sword he had several times almost held his own against me when we
+used to exhibit at Verron's Hall of Arms in the Palais Royal. You may
+think that it made us sniff something in the wind when we found three
+such men called together into one room. You cannot see the lettuce and
+dressing without suspecting a salad.
+
+'Name of a pipe!' said Tremeau, in his barrack-room fashion. 'Are we
+then expecting three champions of the Bourbons?'
+
+To all of us the idea appeared not improbable. Certainly in the whole
+army we were the very three who might have been chosen to meet them.
+
+'The Prince of Neufchâtel desires to speak with the Brigadier Gerard,'
+said a footman, appearing at the door.
+
+In I went, leaving my two companions consumed with impatience behind me.
+It was a small room, but very gorgeously furnished. Berthier was seated
+opposite to me at a little table, with a pen in his hand and a note-book
+open before him. He was looking weary and slovenly--very different from
+that Berthier who used to give the fashion to the army, and who had so
+often set us poorer officers tearing our hair by trimming his pelisse
+with fur one campaign, and with grey astrakhan the next. On his
+clean-shaven, comely face there was an expression of trouble, and he
+looked at me as I entered his chamber in a way which had in it something
+furtive and displeasing.
+
+'Chief of Brigade Gerard!' said he.
+
+'At your service, your Highness!' I answered.
+
+'I must ask you, before I go further, to promise me, upon your honour as
+a gentleman and a soldier, that what is about to pass between us shall
+never be mentioned to any third person.'
+
+My word, this was a fine beginning! I had no choice but to give the
+promise required.
+
+'You must know, then, that it is all over with the Emperor,' said he,
+looking down at the table and speaking very slowly, as if he had a hard
+task in getting out the words. 'Jourdan at Rouen and Marmont at Paris
+have both mounted the white cockade, and it is rumoured that Talleyrand
+has talked Ney into doing the same. It is evident that further
+resistance is useless, and that it can only bring misery upon our
+country. I wish to ask you, therefore, whether you are prepared to join
+me in laying hands upon the Emperor's person, and bringing the war to a
+conclusion by delivering him over to the allies?'
+
+I assure you that when I heard this infamous proposition put forward by
+the man who had been the earliest friend of the Emperor, and who had
+received greater favours from him than any of his followers, I could
+only stand and stare at him in amazement. For his part he tapped his
+pen-handle against his teeth, and looked at me with a slanting head.
+
+'Well?' he asked.
+
+'I am a little deaf on one side,' said I, coldly. 'There are some
+things which I cannot hear. I beg that you will permit me to return to
+my duties.'
+
+'Nay, but you must not be headstrong,' rising up and laying his hand
+upon my shoulder. 'You are aware that the Senate has declared against
+Napoleon, and that the Emperor Alexander refuses to treat with him.'
+
+'Sir,' I cried, with passion, 'I would have you know that I do not care
+the dregs of a wine-glass for the Senate or for the Emperor Alexander
+either.'
+
+'Then for what do you care?'
+
+'For my own honour and for the service of my glorious master, the
+Emperor Napoleon.'
+
+'That is all very well,' said Berthier, peevishly, shrugging his
+shoulders. 'Facts are facts, and as men of the world, we must look them
+in the face. Are we to stand against the will of the nation? Are we to
+have civil war on the top of all our misfortunes? And, besides, we are
+thinning away. Every hour comes the news of fresh desertions. We have
+still time to make our peace, and, indeed, to earn the highest regard,
+by giving up the Emperor.'
+
+I shook so with passion that my sabre clattered against my thigh.
+
+'Sir,' I cried, 'I never thought to have seen the day when a Marshal of
+France would have so far degraded himself as to put forward such a
+proposal. I leave you to your own conscience; but as for me, until I
+have the Emperor's own order, there shall always be the sword of Etienne
+Gerard between his enemies and himself.'
+
+I was so moved by my own words and by the fine position which I had
+taken up, that my voice broke, and I could hardly refrain from tears. I
+should have liked the whole army to have seen me as I stood with my head
+so proudly erect and my hand upon my heart proclaiming my devotion to
+the Emperor in his adversity. It was one of the supreme moments of my
+life.
+
+'Very good,' said Berthier, ringing a bell for the lackey. 'You will
+show the Chief of Brigade Gerard into the salon.'
+
+The footman led me into an inner room, where he desired me to be seated.
+For my own part, my only desire was to get away, and I could not
+understand why they should wish to detain me. When one has had no change
+of uniform during a whole winter's campaign, one does not feel at home
+in a palace.
+
+I had been there about a quarter of an hour when the footman opened the
+door again, and in came Colonel Despienne. Good heavens, what a sight he
+was! His face was as white as a guardsman's gaiters, his eyes
+projecting, the veins swollen upon his forehead, and every hair of his
+moustache bristling like those of an angry cat. He was too angry to
+speak, and could only shake his hands at the ceiling and make a gurgling
+in his throat. 'Parricide! Viper!' those were the words that I could
+catch as he stamped up and down the room.
+
+Of course it was evident to me that he had been subjected to the same
+infamous proposals as I had, and that he had received them in the same
+spirit. His lips were sealed to me, as mine were to him, by the promise
+which we had taken, but I contented myself with muttering 'Atrocious!
+Unspeakable!'--so that he might know that I was in agreement with him.
+
+Well, we were still there, he striding furiously up and down, and I
+seated in the corner, when suddenly a most extraordinary uproar broke
+out in the room which we had just quitted. There was a snarling,
+worrying growl, like that of a fierce dog which has got his grip. Then
+came a crash and a voice calling for help. In we rushed, the two of us,
+and, my faith, we were none too soon.
+
+Old Tremeau and Berthier were rolling together upon the floor, with the
+table upon the top of them. The Captain had one of his great, skinny
+yellow hands upon the Marshal's throat, and already his face was
+lead-coloured, and his eyes were starting from their sockets. As to
+Tremeau, he was beside himself, with foam upon the corners of his lips,
+and such a frantic expression upon him that I am convinced, had we not
+loosened his iron grip, finger by finger, that it would never have
+relaxed while the Marshal lived. His nails were white with the power of
+his grasp.
+
+'I have been tempted by the devil!' he cried, as he staggered to his
+feet. 'Yes, I have been tempted by the devil!'
+
+As to Berthier, he could only lean against the wall, and pant for a
+couple of minutes, putting his hands up to his throat and rolling his
+head about. Then, with an angry gesture, he turned to the heavy blue
+curtain which hung behind his chair.
+
+The curtain was torn to one side and the Emperor stepped out into the
+room. We sprang to the salute, we three old soldiers, but it was all
+like a scene in a dream to us, and our eyes were as far out as
+Berthier's had been. Napoleon was dressed in his green-coated chasseur
+uniform, and he held his little, silver-headed switch in his hand. He
+looked at us each in turn, with a smile upon his face--that frightful
+smile in which neither eyes nor brow joined--and each in turn had, I
+believe, a pringling on his skin, for that was the effect which the
+Emperor's gaze had upon most of us. Then he walked across to Berthier
+and put his hand upon his shoulder.
+
+'You must not quarrel with blows, my dear Prince,' said he; 'they are
+your title to nobility.' He spoke in that soft, caressing manner which
+he could assume. There was no one who could make the French tongue sound
+so pretty as the Emperor, and no one who could make it more harsh and
+terrible.
+
+'I believe he would have killed me,' cried Berthier, still rolling his
+head about.
+
+'Tut, tut! I should have come to your help had these officers not heard
+your cries. But I trust that you are not really hurt!' He spoke with
+earnestness, for he was in truth very fond of Berthier--more so than of
+any man, unless it were of poor Duroc.
+
+Berthier laughed, though not with a very good grace.
+
+'It is new for me to receive my injuries from French hands,' said he.
+
+'And yet it was in the cause of France,' returned the Emperor. Then,
+turning to us, he took old Tremeau by the ear. 'Ah, old grumbler,' said
+he, 'you were one of my Egyptian grenadiers, were you not, and had your
+musket of honour at Marengo. I remember you very well, my good friend.
+So the old fires are not yet extinguished! They still burn up when you
+think that your Emperor is wronged. And you, Colonel Despienne, you
+would not even listen to the tempter. And you, Gerard, your faithful
+sword is ever to be between me and my enemies. Well, well, I have had
+some traitors about me, but now at last we are beginning to see who are
+the true men.'
+
+You can fancy, my friends, the thrill of joy which it gave us when the
+greatest man in the whole world spoke to us in this fashion. Tremeau
+shook until I thought he would have fallen, and the tears ran down his
+gigantic moustache. If you had not seen it, you could never believe the
+influence which the Emperor had upon those coarse-grained, savage old
+veterans.
+
+'Well, my faithful friends,' said he, 'if you will follow me into this
+room, I will explain to you the meaning of this little farce which we
+have been acting. I beg, Berthier, that you will remain in this chamber,
+and so make sure that no one interrupts us.'
+
+It was new for us to be doing business, with a Marshal of France as
+sentry at the door. However, we followed the Emperor as we were ordered,
+and he led us into the recess of the window, gathering us around him and
+sinking his voice as he addressed us.
+
+'I have picked you out of the whole army,' said he, 'as being not only
+the most formidable but also the most faithful of my soldiers. I was
+convinced that you were all three men who would never waver in your
+fidelity to me. If I have ventured to put that fidelity to the proof,
+and to watch you while attempts were at my orders made upon your honour,
+it was only because, in the days when I have found the blackest treason
+amongst my own flesh and blood, it is necessary that I should be doubly
+circumspect. Suffice it that I am well convinced now that I can rely
+upon your valour.'
+
+'To the death, sire!' cried Tremeau, and we both repeated it after him.
+
+Napoleon drew us all yet a little closer to him, and sank his voice
+still lower.
+
+'What I say to you now I have said to no one--not to my wife or my
+brothers; only to you. It is all up with us, my friends. We have come to
+our last rally. The game is finished, and we must make provision
+accordingly.'
+
+My heart seemed to have changed to a nine-pounder ball as I listened to
+him. We had hoped against hope, but now when he, the man who was always
+serene and who always had reserves--when he, in that quiet, impassive
+voice of his, said that everything was over, we realized that the clouds
+had shut for ever, and the last gleam gone. Tremeau snarled and gripped
+at his sabre, Despienne ground his teeth, and for my own part I threw
+out my chest and clicked my heels to show the Emperor that there were
+some spirits which could rise to adversity.
+
+'My papers and my fortune must be secured,' whispered the Emperor. 'The
+whole course of the future may depend upon my having them safe. They are
+our base for the next attempt--for I am very sure that these poor
+Bourbons would find that my footstool is too large to make a throne for
+them. Where am I to keep these precious things? My belongings will be
+searched--so will the houses of my supporters. They must be secured and
+concealed by men whom I can trust with that which is more precious to me
+than my life. Out of the whole of France, you are those whom I have
+chosen for this sacred trust.
+
+'In the first place, I will tell you what these papers are. You shall
+not say that I have made you blind agents in the matter. They are the
+official proof of my divorce from Josephine, of my legal marriage to
+Marie Louise, and of the birth of my son and heir, the King of Rome. If
+we cannot prove each of these, the future claim of my family to the
+throne of France falls to the ground. Then there are securities to the
+value of forty millions of francs--an immense sum, my friends, but of no
+more value than this riding-switch when compared to the other papers of
+which I have spoken. I tell you these things that you may realize the
+enormous importance of the task which I am committing to your care.
+Listen, now, while I inform you where you are to get these papers, and
+what you are to do with them.
+
+'They were handed over to my trusty friend, the Countess Walewski, at
+Paris, this morning. At five o'clock she starts for Fontainebleau in her
+blue berline. She should reach here between half-past nine and ten. The
+papers will be concealed in the berline, in a hiding-place which none
+know but herself. She has been warned that her carriage will be stopped
+outside the town by three mounted officers, and she will hand the packet
+over to your care. You are the younger man, Gerard, but you are of the
+senior grade. I confide to your care this amethyst ring, which you will
+show the lady as a token of your mission, and which you will leave with
+her as a receipt for her papers.
+
+'Having received the packet, you will ride with it into the forest as
+far as the ruined dove-house--the Colombier. It is possible that I may
+meet you there--but if it seems to me to be dangerous, I will send my
+body-servant, Mustapha, whose directions you may take as being mine.
+There is no roof to the Colombier, and tonight will be a full moon. At
+the right of the entrance you will find three spades leaning against the
+wall. With these you will dig a hole three feet deep in the
+north-eastern corner--that is, in the corner to the left of the door,
+and nearest to Fontainebleau. Having buried the papers, you will replace
+the soil with great care, and you will then report to me at the palace.'
+
+These were the Emperor's directions, but given with an accuracy and
+minuteness of detail such as no one but himself could put into an order.
+When he had finished, he made us swear to keep his secret as long as he
+lived, and as long as the papers should remain buried. Again and again
+he made us swear it before he dismissed us from his presence.
+
+Colonel Despienne had quarters at the 'Sign of the Pheasant,' and it was
+there that we supped together. We were all three men who had been
+trained to take the strangest turns of fortune as part of our daily life
+and business, yet we were all flushed and moved by the extraordinary
+interview which we had had, and by the thought of the great adventure
+which lay before us. For my own part, it had been my fate three several
+times to take my orders from the lips of the Emperor himself, but
+neither the incident of the Ajaccio murderers nor the famous ride which
+I made to Paris appeared to offer such opportunities as this new and
+most intimate commission.
+
+'If things go right with the Emperor,' said Despienne, 'we shall all
+live to be marshals yet.'
+
+We drank with him to our future cocked hats and our bâtons.
+
+It was agreed between us that we should make our way separately to our
+rendezvous, which was to be the first mile-stone upon the Paris road. In
+this way we should avoid the gossip which might get about if three men
+who were so well known were to be seen riding out together. My little
+Violette had cast a shoe that morning, and the farrier was at work upon
+her when I returned, so that my comrades were already there when I
+arrived at the trysting-place. I had taken with me not only my sabre,
+but also my new pair of English rifled pistols, with a mallet for
+knocking in the charges. They had cost me a hundred and fifty francs at
+Trouvel's, in the Rue de Rivoli, but they would carry far further and
+straighter than the others. It was with one of them that I had saved old
+Bouvet's life at Leipzig.
+
+The night was cloudless, and there was a brilliant moon behind us, so
+that we always had three black horsemen riding down the white road in
+front of us. The country is so thickly wooded, however, that we could
+not see very far. The great palace clock had already struck ten, but
+there was no sign of the Countess. We began to fear that something might
+have prevented her from starting.
+
+And then suddenly we heard her in the distance. Very faint at first were
+the birr of wheels and the tat-tat-tat of the horses' feet. Then they
+grew louder and clearer and louder yet, until a pair of yellow lanterns
+swung round the curve, and in their light we saw the two big brown
+horses tearing along the high, blue carriage at the back of them. The
+postilion pulled them up panting and foaming within a few yards of us.
+In a moment we were at the window and had raised our hands in a salute
+to the beautiful pale face which looked out at us.
+
+'We are the three officers of the Emperor, madame,' said I, in a low
+voice, leaning my face down to the open window. 'You have already been
+warned that we should wait upon you.'
+
+The Countess had a very beautiful, cream-tinted complexion of a sort
+which I particularly admire, but she grew whiter and whiter as she
+looked up at me. Harsh lines deepened upon her face until she seemed,
+even as I looked at her, to turn from youth into age.
+
+'It is evident to me,' she said, 'that you are three impostors.'
+
+If she had struck me across the face with her delicate hand she could
+not have startled me more. It was not her words only, but the bitterness
+with which she hissed them out.
+
+'Indeed, madame,' said I. 'You do us less than justice. These are the
+Colonel Despienne and Captain Tremeau. For myself, my name is Brigadier
+Gerard, and I have only to mention it to assure anyone who has heard of
+me that----'
+
+'Oh, you villains!' she interrupted. 'You think that because I am only a
+woman I am very easily to be hoodwinked! You miserable impostors!'
+
+I looked at Despienne, who had turned white with anger, and at Tremeau,
+who was tugging at his moustache.
+
+'Madame,' said I, coldly, 'when the Emperor did us the honour to intrust
+us with this mission, he gave me this amethyst ring as a token. I had
+not thought that three honourable gentlemen would have needed such
+corroboration, but I can only confute your unworthy suspicions by
+placing it in your hands.'
+
+She held it up in the light of the carriage lamp, and the most dreadful
+expression of grief and of horror contorted her face.
+
+'It is his!' she screamed, and then, 'Oh, my God, what have I done? What
+have I done?'
+
+I felt that something terrible had befallen. 'Quick, madame, quick!' I
+cried. 'Give us the papers!'
+
+'I have already given them.'
+
+'Given them! To whom?'
+
+'To three officers.'
+
+'When?'
+
+'Within the half-hour.'
+
+'Where are they?'
+
+'God help me, I do not know. They stopped the berline, and I handed them
+over to them without hesitation, thinking that they had come from the
+Emperor.'
+
+It was a thunder-clap. But those are the moments when I am at my finest.
+
+'You remain here,' said I, to my comrades. 'If three horsemen pass you,
+stop them at any hazard. The lady will describe them to you. I will be
+with you presently.' One shake of the bridle, and I was flying into
+Fontainebleau as only Violette could have carried me. At the palace I
+flung myself off, rushed up the stairs, brushed aside the lackeys who
+would have stopped me, and pushed my way into the Emperor's own cabinet.
+He and Macdonald were busy with pencil and compasses over a chart. He
+looked up with an angry frown at my sudden entry, but his face changed
+colour when he saw that it was I.
+
+'You can leave us, Marshal,' said he, and then, the instant the door was
+closed: 'What news about the papers?'
+
+'They are gone!' said I, and in a few curt words I told him what had
+happened. His face was calm, but I saw the compasses quiver in his hand.
+
+'You must recover them, Gerard!' he cried. 'The destinies of my dynasty
+are at stake. Not a moment is to be lost! To horse, sir, to horse!'
+
+'Who are they, sire?'
+
+'I cannot tell. I am surrounded with treason. But they will take them to
+Paris. To whom should they carry them but to the villain Talleyrand?
+Yes, yes, they are on the Paris road, and may yet be overtaken. With the
+three best mounts in my stables and----'
+
+I did not wait to hear the end of the sentence. I was already clattering
+down the stairs. I am sure that five minutes had not passed before I was
+galloping Violette out of the town with the bridle of one of the
+Emperor's own Arab chargers in either hand. They wished me to take
+three, but I should have never dared to look my Violette in the face
+again. I feel that the spectacle must have been superb when I dashed up
+to my comrades and pulled the horses on to their haunches in the
+moonlight.
+
+'No one has passed?'
+
+'No one.'
+
+'Then they are on the Paris road. Quick! Up and after them!'
+
+They did not take long, those good soldiers. In a flash they were upon
+the Emperor's horses, and their own left masterless by the roadside.
+Then away we went upon our long chase, I in the centre, Despienne upon
+my right, and Tremeau a little behind, for he was the heavier man.
+Heavens, how we galloped! The twelve flying hoofs roared and roared
+along the hard, smooth road. Poplars and moon, black bars and silver
+streaks, for mile after mile our course lay along the same chequered
+track, with our shadows in front and our dust behind. We could hear the
+rasping of bolts and the creaking of shutters from the cottages as we
+thundered past them, but we were only three dark blurs upon the road by
+the time that the folk could look after us. It was just striking
+midnight as we raced into Corbail; but an hostler with a bucket in
+either hand was throwing his black shadow across the golden fan which
+was cast from the open door of the inn.
+
+'Three riders!' I gasped. 'Have they passed?'
+
+'I have just been watering their horses,' said he. 'I should think
+they----'
+
+'On, on, my friends!' and away we flew, striking fire from the
+cobblestones of the little town. A gendarme tried to stop up, but his
+voice was drowned by our rattle and clatter. The houses slid past, and
+we were out on the country road again, with a clear twenty miles between
+ourselves and Paris. How could they escape us, with the finest horses in
+France behind them? Not one of the three had turned a hair, but Violette
+was always a head and shoulders to the front. She was going within
+herself too, and I knew by the spring of her that I had only to let her
+stretch herself, and the Emperor's horses would see the colour of her
+tail.
+
+'There they are!' cried Despienne.
+
+'We have them!' growled Tremeau.
+
+'On, comrades, on!' I shouted, once more.
+
+A long stretch of white road lay before us in the moonlight. Far away
+down it we could see three cavaliers, lying low upon their horses'
+necks. Every instant they grew larger and clearer as we gained upon
+them. I could see quite plainly that the two upon either side were
+wrapped in mantles and rode upon chestnut horses, whilst the man between
+them was dressed in a chasseur uniform and mounted upon a grey. They
+were keeping abreast, but it was easy enough to see from the way in
+which he gathered his legs for each spring that the centre horse was far
+the fresher of the three. And the rider appeared to be the leader of the
+party, for we continually saw the glint of his face in the moonshine as
+he looked back to measure the distance between us. At first it was only
+a glimmer, then it was cut across with a moustache, and at last when we
+began to feel their dust in our throats I could give a name to my man.
+
+'Halt, Colonel de Montluc!' I shouted. 'Halt, in the Emperor's name!'
+
+I had known him for years as a daring officer and an unprincipled
+rascal. Indeed, there was a score between us, for he had shot my friend,
+Treville, at Warsaw, pulling his trigger, as some said, a good second
+before the drop of the handkerchief.
+
+Well, the words were hardly out of my mouth when his two comrades
+wheeled round and fired their pistols at us. I heard Despienne give a
+terrible cry, and at the same instant both Tremeau and I let drive at
+the same man. He fell forward with his hands swinging on each side of
+his horse's neck. His comrade spurred on to Tremeau, sabre in hand, and
+I heard the crash which comes when a strong cut is met by a stronger
+parry. For my own part I never turned my head, but I touched Violette
+with the spur for the first time and flew after the leader. That he
+should leave his comrades and fly was proof enough that I should leave
+mine and follow.
+
+He had gained a couple of hundred paces, but the good little mare set
+that right before we could have passed two milestones. It was in vain
+that he spurred and thrashed like a gunner driver on a soft road. His
+hat flew off with his exertions, and his bald head gleamed in the
+moonshine. But do what he might, he still heard the rattle of the hoofs
+growing louder and louder behind him. I could not have been twenty yards
+from him, and the shadow head was touching the shadow haunch, when he
+turned with a curse in his saddle and emptied both his pistols, one
+after the other, into Violette.
+
+I have been wounded myself so often that I have to stop and think before
+I can tell you the exact number of times. I have been hit by musket
+balls, by pistol bullets, and by bursting shells, besides being pierced
+by bayonet, lance, sabre, and finally by a brad-awl, which was the most
+painful of any. Yet out of all these injuries I have never known the
+same deadly sickness as came over me when I felt the poor, silent,
+patient creature, which I had come to love more than anything in the
+world except my mother and the Emperor, reel and stagger beneath me. I
+pulled my second pistol from my holster and fired point-blank between
+the fellow's broad shoulders. He slashed his horse across the flank with
+his whip, and for a moment I thought that I had missed him. But then on
+the green of his chasseur jacket I saw an ever-widening black smudge,
+and he began to sway in his saddle, very slightly at first, but more and
+more with every bound, until at last over he went, with his foot caught
+in the stirrup, and his shoulders thud-thud-thudding along the road,
+until the drag was too much for the tired horse, and I closed my hand
+upon the foam-spattered bridle-chain. As I pulled him up it eased the
+stirrup leather, and the spurred heel clinked loudly as it fell.
+
+'Your papers!' I cried, springing from my saddle. 'This instant!'
+
+But even as I said, it, the huddle of the green body and the fantastic
+sprawl of the limbs in the moonlight told me clearly enough that it was
+all over with him. My bullet had passed through his heart, and it was
+only his own iron will which had held him so long in the saddle. He had
+lived hard, this Montluc, and I will do him justice to say that he died
+hard also.
+
+But it was the papers--always the papers--of which I thought. I opened
+his tunic and I felt in his shirt. Then I searched his holsters and his
+sabre-tasche. Finally I dragged off his boots, and undid his horse's
+girth so as to hunt under the saddle. There was not a nook or crevice
+which I did not ransack. It was useless. They were not upon him.
+
+When this stunning blow came upon me I could have sat down by the
+roadside and wept. Fate seemed to be fighting against me, and that is an
+enemy from whom even a gallant hussar might not be ashamed to flinch. I
+stood with my arm over the neck of my poor wounded Violette, and I tried
+to think it all out, that I might act in the wisest way. I was aware
+that the Emperor had no great respect for my wits, and I longed to show
+him that he had done me an injustice. Montluc had not the papers. And
+yet Montluc had sacrificed his companions in order to make his escape. I
+could make nothing of that. On the other hand, it was clear that, if he
+had not got them, one or other of his comrades had. One of them was
+certainly dead. The other I had left fighting with Tremeau, and if he
+escaped from the old swordsman he had still to pass me. Clearly, my work
+lay behind me.
+
+I hammered fresh charges into my pistols after I had turned this over in
+my head. Then I put them back in the holsters, and I examined my little
+mare, she jerking her head and cocking her ears the while, as if to tell
+me that an old soldier like herself did not make a fuss about a scratch
+or two. The first shot had merely grazed her off-shoulder, leaving a
+skin-mark, as if she had brushed a wall. The second was more serious. It
+had passed through the muscle of her neck, but already it had ceased to
+bleed. I reflected that if she weakened I could mount Montluc's grey,
+and meanwhile I led him along beside us, for he was a fine horse, worth
+fifteen hundred francs at the least, and it seemed to me that no one had
+a better right to him than I.
+
+Well, I was all impatience now to get back to the others, and I had just
+given Violette her head, when suddenly I saw something glimmering in a
+field by the roadside. It was the brass-work upon the chasseur hat which
+had flown from Montluc's head; and at the sight of it a thought made me
+jump in the saddle. How could the hat have flown off? With its weight,
+would it not have simply dropped? And here it lay, fifteen paces from
+the roadway! Of course, he must have thrown it off when he had made sure
+that I would overtake him. And if he threw it off--I did not stop to
+reason any more, but sprang from the mare with my heart beating the
+_pas-de-charge_. Yes, it was all right this time. There, in the crown of
+the hat was stuffed a roll of papers in a parchment wrapper bound round
+with yellow ribbon. I pulled it out with the one hand and, holding the
+hat in the other, I danced for joy in the moonlight. The Emperor would
+see that he had not made a mistake when he put his affairs into the
+charge of Etienne Gerard.
+
+I had a safe pocket on the inside of my tunic just over my heart, where
+I kept a few little things which were dear to me, and into this I thrust
+my precious roll. Then I sprang upon Violette, and was pushing forward
+to see what had become of Tremeau, when I saw a horseman riding across
+the field in the distance. At the same instant I heard the sound of
+hoofs approaching me, and there in the moonlight was the Emperor upon
+his white charger, dressed in his grey overcoat and his three-cornered
+hat, just as I had seen him so often upon the field of battle.
+
+'Well!' he cried, in the sharp, sergeant-major way of his. 'Where are my
+papers?'
+
+I spurred forward and presented them without a word. He broke the ribbon
+and ran his eyes rapidly over them. Then, as we sat our horses head to
+tail, he threw his left arm across me with his hand upon my shoulder.
+Yes, my friends, simple as you see me, I have been embraced by my great
+master.
+
+'Gerard,' he cried, 'you are a marvel!'
+
+I did not wish to contradict him, and it brought a flush of joy upon my
+cheeks to know that he had done me justice at last.
+
+'Where is the thief, Gerard?' he asked.
+
+'Dead, sire.'
+
+'You killed him?'
+
+'He wounded my horse, sire, and would have escaped had I not shot him.'
+
+'Did you recognize him?'
+
+'De Montluc is his name, sire--a Colonel of Chasseurs.'
+
+'Tut,' said the Emperor. 'We have got the poor pawn, but the hand which
+plays the game is still out of our reach.' He sat in silent thought for
+a little, with his chin sunk upon his chest. 'Ah, Talleyrand,
+Talleyrand,' I heard him mutter, 'if I had been in your place and you in
+mine, you would have crushed a viper when you held it under your heel.
+For five years I have known you for what you are, and yet I have let you
+live to sting me. Never mind, my brave,' he continued, turning to me,
+'there will come a day of reckoning for everybody, and when it arrives,
+I promise you that my friends will be remembered as well as my enemies.'
+
+'Sire,' said I, for I had had time for thought as well as he, 'if your
+plans about these papers have been carried to the ears of your enemies,
+I trust you do not think that it was owing to any indiscretion upon the
+part of myself or of my comrades.'
+
+'It would be hardly reasonable for me to do so,' he answered, 'seeing
+that this plot was hatched in Paris, and that you only had your orders a
+few hours ago.'
+
+'Then how----?'
+
+'Enough,' he cried, sternly. 'You take an undue advantage of your
+position.'
+
+That was always the way with the Emperor. He would chat with you as with
+a friend and a brother, and then when he had wiled you into forgetting
+the gulf which lay between you, he would suddenly, with a word or with a
+look, remind you that it was as impassable as ever. When I have fondled
+my old hound until he has been encouraged to paw my knees, and I have
+then thrust him down again, it has made me think of the Emperor and his
+ways.
+
+He reined his horse round, and I followed him in silence and with a
+heavy heart. But when he spoke again his words were enough to drive all
+thought of myself out of my mind.
+
+'I could not sleep until I knew how you had fared,' said he. 'I have
+paid a price for my papers. There are not so many of my old soldiers
+left that I can afford to lose two in one night.'
+
+When he said 'two' it turned me cold.
+
+'Colonel Despienne was shot, sire,' I stammered.
+
+'And Captain Tremeau cut down. Had I been a few minutes earlier, I might
+have saved him. The other escaped across the fields.'
+
+I remembered that I had seen a horseman a moment before I had met the
+Emperor. He had taken to the fields to avoid me, but if I had known, and
+Violette been unwounded, the old soldier would not have gone unavenged.
+I was thinking sadly of his sword-play, and wondering whether it was his
+stiffening wrist which had been fatal to him, when Napoleon spoke again.
+
+'Yes, Brigadier,' said he, 'you are now the only man who will know where
+these papers are concealed.'
+
+It must have been imagination, my friends, but for an instant I may
+confess that it seemed to me that there was a tone in the Emperor's
+voice which was not altogether one of sorrow. But the dark thought had
+hardly time to form itself in my mind before he let me see that I was
+doing him an injustice.
+
+'Yes, I have paid a price for my papers,' he said, and I heard them
+crackle as he put his hand up to his bosom. 'No man has ever had more
+faithful servants--no man since the beginning of the world.'
+
+As he spoke we came upon the scene of the struggle. Colonel Despienne
+and the man whom we had shot lay together some distance down the road,
+while their horses grazed contentedly beneath the poplars. Captain
+Tremeau lay in front of us upon his back, with his arms and legs
+stretched out, and his sabre broken short off in his hand. His tunic was
+open, and a huge blood-clot hung like a dark handkerchief out of a slit
+in his white shirt. I could see the gleam of his clenched teeth from
+under his immense moustache.
+
+The Emperor sprang from his horse and bent down over the dead man.
+
+'He was with me since Rivoli,' said he, sadly. 'He was one of my old
+grumblers in Egypt.'
+
+And the voice brought the man back from the dead. I saw his eyelids
+shiver. He twitched his arm, and moved the sword-hilt a few inches. He
+was trying to raise it in salute. Then the mouth opened, and the hilt
+tinkled down on to the ground.
+
+'May we all die as gallantly,' said the Emperor, as he rose, and from my
+heart I added 'Amen.'
+
+There was a farm within fifty yards of where we were standing, and the
+farmer, roused from his sleep by the clatter of hoofs and the cracking
+of pistols, had rushed out to the roadside. We saw him now, dumb with
+fear and astonishment, staring open-eyed at the Emperor. It was to him
+that we committed the care of the four dead men and of the horses also.
+For my own part, I thought it best to leave Violette with him and to
+take De Montluc's grey with me, for he could not refuse to give me back
+my own mare, whilst there might be difficulties about the other.
+Besides, my little friend's wound had to be considered, and we had a
+long return ride before us.
+
+The Emperor did not at first talk much upon the way. Perhaps the deaths
+of Despienne and Tremeau still weighed heavily upon his spirits. He was
+always a reserved man, and in those times, when every hour brought him
+the news of some success of his enemies or defection of his friends, one
+could not expect him to be a merry companion. Nevertheless, when I
+reflected that he was carrying in his bosom those papers which he valued
+so highly, and which only a few hours ago appeared to be for ever lost,
+and when I further thought that it was I, Etienne Gerard, who had placed
+them there, I felt that I had deserved some little consideration. The
+same idea may have occurred to him, for when we had at last left the
+Paris high road, and had entered the forest, he began of his own accord
+to tell me that which I should have most liked to have asked him.
+
+'As to the papers,' said he, 'I have already told you that there is no
+one now, except you and me, who knows where they are to be concealed. My
+Mameluke carried the spades to the pigeon-house, but I have told him
+nothing. Our plans, however, for bringing the packet from Paris have
+been formed since Monday. There were three in the secret, a woman and
+two men. The woman I would trust with my life; which of the two men has
+betrayed us I do not know, but I think that I may promise to find out.'
+
+We were riding in the shadow of the trees at the time, and I could hear
+him slapping his riding-whip against his boot, and taking pinch after
+pinch of snuff, as was his way when he was excited.
+
+'You wonder, no doubt,' said he, after a pause, 'why these rascals did
+not stop the carriage at Paris instead of at the entrance to
+Fontainebleau.'
+
+In truth, the objection had not occurred to me, but I did not wish to
+appear to have less wits than he gave me credit for, so I answered that
+it was indeed surprising.
+
+'Had they done so they would have made a public scandal, and run a
+chance of missing their end. Short of taking the berline to pieces, they
+could not have discovered the hiding-place. He planned it well--he could
+always plan well--and he chose his agents well also. But mine were the
+better.'
+
+It is not for me to repeat to you, my friends, all that was said to me
+by the Emperor as we walked our horses amid the black shadows and
+through the moon-silvered glades of the great forest. Every word of it
+is impressed upon my memory, and before I pass away it is likely that I
+will place it all upon paper, so that others may read it in the days to
+come. He spoke freely of his past, and something also of his future; of
+the devotion of Macdonald, of the treason of Marmont, of the little King
+of Rome, concerning whom he talked with as much tenderness as any
+bourgeois father of a single child; and, finally, of his father-in-law,
+the Emperor of Austria, who would, he thought, stand between his enemies
+and himself. For myself, I dared not say a word, remembering how I had
+already brought a rebuke upon myself; but I rode by his side, hardly
+able to believe that this was indeed the great Emperor, the man whose
+glance sent a thrill through me, who was now pouring out his thoughts to
+me in short, eager sentences, the words rattling and racing like the
+hoofs of a galloping squadron. It is possible that, after the
+word-splittings and diplomacy of a Court, it was a relief to him to
+speak his mind to a plain soldier like myself.
+
+In this way the Emperor and I--even after years it sends a flush of
+pride into my cheeks to be able to put those words together--the Emperor
+and I walked our horses through the Forest of Fontainebleau, until we
+came at last to the Colombier. The three spades were propped against the
+wall upon the right-hand side of the ruined door, and at the sight of
+them the tears sprang to my eyes as I thought of the hands for which
+they were intended. The Emperor seized one and I another.
+
+'Quick!' said he. 'The dawn will be upon us before we get back to the
+palace.'
+
+We dug the hole, and placing the papers in one of my pistol holsters to
+screen them from the damp, we laid them at the bottom and covered them
+up. We then carefully removed all marks of the ground having been
+disturbed, and we placed a large stone upon the top. I dare say that
+since the Emperor was a young gunner, and helped to train his pieces
+against Toulon, he had not worked so hard with his hands. He was mopping
+his forehead with his silk handkerchief long before we had come to the
+end of our task.
+
+The first grey cold light of morning was stealing through the tree
+trunks when we came out together from the old pigeon-house. The Emperor
+laid his hand upon my shoulder as I stood ready to help him to mount.
+
+'We have left the papers there,' said he, solemnly, 'and I desire that
+you shall leave all thought of them there also. Let the recollection of
+them pass entirely from your mind, to be revived only when you receive a
+direct order under my own hand and seal. From this time onwards you
+forget all that has passed.'
+
+'I forget it, sire,' said I.
+
+We rode together to the edge of the town, where he desired that I should
+separate from him. I had saluted, and was turning my horse, when he
+called me back.
+
+'It is easy to mistake the points of the compass in the forest,' said
+he. 'Would you not say that it was in the north-eastern corner that we
+buried them?'
+
+'Buried what, sire?'
+
+'The papers, of course,' he cried, impatiently.
+
+'What papers, sire?'
+
+'Name of a name! Why, the papers that you have recovered for me.'
+
+'I am really at a loss to know what your Majesty is talking about.'
+
+He flushed with anger for a moment, and then he burst out laughing.
+
+'Very good, Brigadier!' he cried. 'I begin to believe that you are as
+good a diplomatist as you are a soldier, and I cannot say more than
+that.'
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+So that was my strange adventure in which I found myself the friend and
+confident agent of the Emperor. When he returned from Elba he refrained
+from digging up the papers until his position should be secure, and they
+still remained in the corner of the old pigeon-house after his exile to
+St Helena. It was at this time that he was desirous of getting them into
+the hands of his own supporters, and for that purpose he wrote me, as I
+afterwards learned, three letters, all of which were intercepted by his
+guardians. Finally, he offered to support himself and his own
+establishment--which he might very easily have done out of the gigantic
+sum which belonged to him--if they would only pass one of his letters
+unopened. This request was refused, and so, up to his death in '21, the
+papers still remained where I have told you. How they came to be dug up
+by Count Bertrand and myself, and who eventually obtained them, is a
+story which I would tell you, were it not that the end has not yet come.
+
+Some day you will hear of those papers, and you will see how, after he
+has been so long in his grave, that great man can still set Europe
+shaking. When that day comes, you will think of Etienne Gerard, and you
+will tell your children that you have heard the story from the lips of
+the man who was the only one living of all who took part in that strange
+history--the man who was tempted by Marshal Berthier, who led that wild
+pursuit upon the Paris road, who was honoured by the embrace of the
+Emperor, and who rode with him by moonlight in the Forest of
+Fontainebleau. The buds are bursting and the birds are calling, my
+friends. You may find better things to do in the sunlight than listening
+to the stories of an old, broken soldier. And yet you may well treasure
+what I say, for the buds will have burst and the birds sung in many
+seasons before France will see such another ruler as he whose servants
+we were proud to be.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Exploits Of Brigadier Gerard
+by Arthur Conan Doyle
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+
+Project Gutenberg's The Exploits Of Brigadier Gerard, by Arthur Conan Doyle
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Exploits Of Brigadier Gerard
+
+Author: Arthur Conan Doyle
+
+Release Date: February 23, 2004 [EBook #11247]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EXPLOITS OF BRIGADIER GERARD ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Garrett Alley, and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+  <h2>The Exploits of</h2>
+
+  <h1>BRIGADIER GERARD</h1>
+
+  <center>
+    SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
+  </center><br>
+  <br>
+
+
+
+  <p><i>This book is published by arrangement with the Estate of
+  the late Sir Arthur Conan Doyle</i></p>
+
+  <center><i>1896</i></center>
+
+
+  <hr>
+
+  <center>
+    <b>BY SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE</b>
+  </center>
+
+  <div class="list">
+    <ul>
+      <li><i>The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes</i></li>
+
+      <li><i>The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes</i></li>
+
+      <li><i>The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes</i></li>
+
+      <li><i>The Return of Sherlock Holmes</i></li>
+
+      <li><i>His Last Bow</i></li>
+
+      <li><i>The Hound of the Baskervilles</i></li>
+
+      <li><i>The Sign of Four</i></li>
+
+      <li><i>The Valley of Fear</i></li>
+
+      <li><i>Sir Nigel</i></li>
+
+      <li><i>The White Company</i></li>
+
+      <li><i>Micah Clarke</i></li>
+
+      <li><i>The Refugees</i></li>
+
+      <li><i>Rodney Stone</i></li>
+
+      <li><i>Uncle Bernac</i></li>
+
+      <li><i>Adventures of Gerard</i></li>
+
+      <li><i>The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard</i></li>
+
+      <li><i>The Lost World</i></li>
+
+      <li><i>The Tragedy of the Korosko</i></li>
+    </ul>
+  </div>
+
+  <center>
+    OMNIBUS VOLUMES
+  </center>
+
+  <div class="list">
+    <ul>
+      <li><i>Great Stories</i></li>
+
+      <li><i>The Conan Doyle Stories</i></li>
+
+      <li><i>The Sherlock Holmes Short Stories</i></li>
+
+      <li><i>The Sherlock Holmes Long Stories</i></li>
+
+      <li><i>The Historical Romances</i></li>
+
+      <li><i>The Complete Professor Challenger Stories</i></li>
+
+      <li><i>The Complete Napoleonic Stories</i></li>
+    </ul>
+  </div>
+  <hr>
+
+  <p><i>The Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle</i></p>
+
+  <p>by John Dickson Carr</p>
+  <hr>
+
+  <p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+  <p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+  <p>&nbsp;</p><a name="TOC"><!-- TOC --></a>
+
+  <h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+  <div class="list">
+    <ol>
+      <li><a href="#RULE_4_11">HOW THE BRIGADIER CAME TO THE CASTLE
+      OF GLOOM</a></li>
+
+      <li><a href="#RULE4_1">HOW THE BRIGADIER SLEW THE BROTHERS OF
+      AJACCIO</a></li>
+
+      <li><a href="#RULE4_2">HOW THE BRIGADIER HELD THE
+      KING</a></li>
+
+      <li><a href="#RULE4_3">HOW THE KING HELD THE
+      BRIGADIER</a></li>
+
+      <li><a href="#RULE4_4">HOW THE BRIGADIER TOOK THE FIELD
+      AGAINST THE MARSHAL MILLEFLEURS</a></li>
+
+      <li><a href="#RULE4_5">HOW THE BRIGADIER PLAYED FOR A
+      KINGDOM</a></li>
+
+      <li><a href="#RULE4_6">HOW THE BRIGADIER WON HIS
+      MEDAL</a></li>
+
+      <li><a href="#RULE4_7">HOW THE BRIGADIER WAS TEMPTED BY THE
+      DEVIL</a></li>
+    </ol>
+  </div>
+
+  <p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+  <p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+  <p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+  <p>&nbsp;</p><a name="RULE_4_11"><!-- RULE4 1 --></a>
+
+  <h2>1. HOW THE BRIGADIER CAME TO THE CASTLE OF GLOOM[<a href=
+  "#note-A">A</a>]</h2>
+
+  <p>You do very well, my friends, to treat me with some little
+  reverence, for in honouring me you are honouring both France and
+  yourselves. It is not merely an old, grey-moustached officer whom
+  you see eating his omelette or draining his glass, but it is a
+  fragment of history. In me you see one of the last of those
+  wonderful men, the men who were veterans when they were yet boys,
+  who learned to use a sword earlier than a razor, and who during a
+  hundred battles had never once let the enemy see the colour of
+  their knapsacks. For twenty years we were teaching Europe how to
+  fight, and even when they had learned their lesson it was only
+  the thermometer, and never the bayonet, which could break the
+  Grand Army down. Berlin, Naples, Vienna, Madrid, Lisbon,
+  Moscow&mdash;we stabled our horses in them all. Yes, my friends,
+  I say again that you do well to send your children to me with
+  flowers, for these ears have heard the trumpet calls of France,
+  and these eyes have seen her standards in lands where they may
+  never be seen again.</p>
+
+  <p>Even now, when I doze in my arm-chair, I can see those great
+  warriors stream before me&mdash;the green-jacketed chasseurs, the
+  giant cuirassiers, Poniatowsky's lancers, the white-mantled
+  dragoons, the nodding bearskins of the horse grenadiers. And then
+  there comes the thick, low rattle of the drums, and through
+  wreaths of dust and smoke I see the line of high bonnets, the row
+  of brown faces, the swing and toss of the long, red plumes amid
+  the sloping lines of steel. And there rides Ney with his red
+  head, and Lefebvre with his bulldog jaw, and Lannes with his
+  Gascon swagger; and then amidst the gleam of brass and the
+  flaunting feathers I catch a glimpse of <i>him</i>, the man with
+  the pale smile, the rounded shoulders, and the far-off eyes.
+  There is an end of my sleep, my friends, for up I spring from my
+  chair, with a cracked voice calling and a silly hand
+  outstretched, so that Madame Titaux has one more laugh at the old
+  fellow who lives among the shadows.</p>
+
+  <p>Although I was a full Chief of Brigade when the wars came to
+  an end, and had every hope of soon being made a General of
+  Division, it is still rather to my earlier days that I turn when
+  I wish to talk of the glories and the trials of a soldier's life.
+  For you will understand that when an officer has so many men and
+  horses under him, he has his mind full of recruits and remounts,
+  fodder and farriers, and quarters, so that even when he is not in
+  the face of the enemy, life is a very serious matter for him. But
+  when he is only a lieutenant or a captain he has nothing heavier
+  than his epaulettes upon his shoulders, so that he can clink his
+  spurs and swing his dolman, drain his glass and kiss his girl,
+  thinking of nothing save of enjoying a gallant life. That is the
+  time when he is likely to have adventures, and it is often to
+  that time that I shall turn in the stories which I may have for
+  you. So it will be tonight when I tell you of my visit to the
+  Castle of Gloom; of the strange mission of Sub-Lieutenant Duroc,
+  and of the horrible affair of the man who was once known as Jean
+  Carabin, and afterwards as the Baron Straubenthal.</p>
+
+  <p>You must know, then, that in the February of 1807, immediately
+  after the taking of Danzig, Major Legendre and I were
+  commissioned to bring four hundred remounts from Prussia into
+  Eastern Poland.</p>
+
+  <p>The hard weather, and especially the great battle at Eylau,
+  had killed so many of the horses that there was some danger of
+  our beautiful Tenth of Hussars becoming a battalion of light
+  infantry. We knew, therefore, both the Major and I, that we
+  should be very welcome at the front. We did not advance very
+  rapidly, however, for the snow was deep, the roads detestable,
+  and we had but twenty returning invalids to assist us. Besides,
+  it is impossible, when you have a daily change of forage, and
+  sometimes none at all, to move horses faster than a walk. I am
+  aware that in the story-books the cavalry whirls past at the
+  maddest of gallops; but for my own part, after twelve campaigns,
+  I should be very satisfied to know that my brigade could always
+  walk upon the march and trot in the presence of the enemy. This I
+  say of the hussars and chasseurs, mark you, so that it is far
+  more the case with cuirassiers or dragoons.</p>
+
+  <p>For myself I am fond of horses, and to have four hundred of
+  them, of every age and shade and character, all under my own
+  hands, was a very great pleasure to me. They were from Pomerania
+  for the most part, though some were from Normandy and some from
+  Alsace, and it amused us to notice that they differed in
+  character as much as the people of those provinces. We observed
+  also, what I have often proved since, that the nature of a horse
+  can be told by his colour, from the coquettish light bay, full of
+  fancies and nerves, to the hardy chestnut, and from the docile
+  roan to the pig-headed rusty-black. All this has nothing in the
+  world to do with my story, but how is an officer of cavalry to
+  get on with his tale when he finds four hundred horses waiting
+  for him at the outset? It is my habit, you see, to talk of that
+  which interests myself and so I hope that I may interest you.</p>
+
+  <p>We crossed the Vistula opposite Marienwerder, and had got as
+  far as Riesenberg, when Major Legendre came into my room in the
+  post-house with an open paper in his hand.</p>
+
+  <p>'You are to leave me,' said he, with despair upon his
+  face.</p>
+
+  <p>It was no very great grief to me to do that, for he was, if I
+  may say so, hardly worthy to have such a subaltern. I saluted,
+  however, in silence.</p>
+
+  <p>'It is an order from General Lasalle,' he continued; 'you are
+  to proceed to Rossel instantly, and to report yourself at the
+  headquarters of the regiment.'</p>
+
+  <p>No message could have pleased me better. I was already very
+  well thought of by my superior officers. It was evident to me,
+  therefore, that this sudden order meant that the regiment was
+  about to see service once more, and that Lasalle understood how
+  incomplete my squadron would be without me. It is true that it
+  came at an inconvenient moment, for the keeper of the post-house
+  had a daughter&mdash;one of those ivory-skinned, black-haired
+  Polish girls&mdash;with whom I had hoped to have some further
+  talk. Still, it is not for the pawn to argue when the fingers of
+  the player move him from the square; so down I went, saddled my
+  big black charger, Rataplan, and set off instantly upon my lonely
+  journey.</p>
+
+  <p>My word, it was a treat for those poor Poles and Jews, who
+  have so little to brighten their dull lives, to see such a
+  picture as that before their doors! The frosty morning air made
+  Rataplan's great black limbs and the beautiful curves of his back
+  and sides gleam and shimmer with every gambade. As for me, the
+  rattle of hoofs upon a road, and the jingle of bridle chains
+  which comes with every toss of a saucy head, would even now set
+  my blood dancing through my veins. You may think, then, how I
+  carried myself in my five-and-twentieth year&mdash;I, Etienne
+  Gerard, the picked horseman and surest blade in the ten regiments
+  of hussars. Blue was our colour in the Tenth&mdash;a sky-blue
+  dolman and pelisse with a scarlet front&mdash;and it was said of
+  us in the army that we could set a whole population running, the
+  women towards us, and the men away. There were bright eyes in the
+  Riesenberg windows that morning which seemed to beg me to tarry;
+  but what can a soldier do, save to kiss his hand and shake his
+  bridle as he rides upon his way?</p>
+
+  <p>It was a bleak season to ride through the poorest and ugliest
+  country in Europe, but there was a cloudless sky above, and a
+  bright, cold sun, which shimmered on the huge snowfields. My
+  breath reeked into the frosty air, and Rataplan sent up two
+  feathers of steam from his nostrils, while the icicles drooped
+  from the side-irons of his bit. I let him trot to warm his limbs,
+  while for my own part I had too much to think of to give much
+  heed to the cold. To north and south stretched the great plains,
+  mottled over with dark clumps of fir and lighter patches of
+  larch. A few cottages peeped out here and there, but it was only
+  three months since the Grand Army had passed that way, and you
+  know what that meant to a country. The Poles were our friends, it
+  was true, but out of a hundred thousand men, only the Guard had
+  waggons, and the rest had to live as best they might. It did not
+  surprise me, therefore, to see no signs of cattle and no smoke
+  from the silent houses. A weal had been left across the country
+  where the great host had passed, and it was said that even the
+  rats were starved wherever the Emperor had led his men.</p>
+
+  <p>By midday I had got as far as the village of Saalfeldt, but as
+  I was on the direct road for Osterode, where the Emperor was
+  wintering, and also for the main camp of the seven divisions of
+  infantry, the highway was choked with carriages and carts. What
+  with artillery caissons and waggons and couriers, and the
+  ever-thickening stream of recruits and stragglers, it seemed to
+  me that it would be a very long time before I should join my
+  comrades. The plains, however, were five feet deep in snow, so
+  there was nothing for it but to plod upon our way. It was with
+  joy, therefore, that I found a second road which branched away
+  from the other, trending through a fir-wood towards the north.
+  There was a small auberge at the cross-roads, and a patrol of the
+  Third Hussars of Conflans&mdash;the very regiment of which I was
+  afterwards colonel&mdash;were mounting their horses at the door.
+  On the steps stood their officer, a slight, pale young man, who
+  looked more like a young priest from a seminary than a leader of
+  the devil-may-care rascals before him.</p>
+
+  <p>'Good-day, sir,' said he, seeing that I pulled up my
+  horse.</p>
+
+  <p>'Good-day,' I answered. 'I am Lieutenant Etienne Gerard, of
+  the Tenth.'</p>
+
+  <p>I could see by his face that he had heard of me. Everybody had
+  heard of me since my duel with the six fencing masters. My
+  manner, however, served to put him at his ease with me.</p>
+
+  <p>'I am Sub-Lieutenant Duroc, of the Third,' said he.</p>
+
+  <p>'Newly joined?' I asked.</p>
+
+  <p>'Last week.'</p>
+
+  <p>I had thought as much, from his white face and from the way in
+  which he let his men lounge upon their horses. It was not so
+  long, however, since I had learned myself what it was like when a
+  schoolboy has to give orders to veteran troopers. It made me
+  blush, I remember, to shout abrupt commands to men who had seen
+  more battles than I had years, and it would have come more
+  natural for me to say, 'With your permission, we shall now wheel
+  into line,' or, 'If you think it best, we shall trot.' I did not
+  think the less of the lad, therefore, when I observed that his
+  men were somewhat out of hand, but I gave them a glance which
+  stiffened them in their saddles.</p>
+
+  <p>'May I ask, monsieur, whether you are going by this northern
+  road?' I asked.</p>
+
+  <p>'My orders are to patrol it as far as Arensdorf,' said he.</p>
+
+  <p>'Then I will, with your permission, ride so far with you,'
+  said I. 'It is very clear that the longer way will be the
+  faster.'</p>
+
+  <p>So it proved, for this road led away from the army into a
+  country which was given over to Cossacks and marauders, and it
+  was as bare as the other was crowded. Duroc and I rode in front,
+  with our six troopers clattering in the rear. He was a good boy,
+  this Duroc, with his head full of the nonsense that they teach at
+  St Cyr, knowing more about Alexander and Pompey than how to mix a
+  horse's fodder or care for a horse's feet. Still, he was, as I
+  have said, a good boy, unspoiled as yet by the camp. It pleased
+  me to hear him prattle away about his sister Marie and about his
+  mother in Amiens. Presently we found ourselves at the village of
+  Hayenau. Duroc rode up to the post-house and asked to see the
+  master.</p>
+
+  <p>'Can you tell me,' said he, 'whether the man who calls himself
+  the Baron Straubenthal lives in these parts?'</p>
+
+  <p>The postmaster shook his head, and we rode upon our way. I
+  took no notice of this, but when, at the next village, my comrade
+  repeated the same question, with the same result, I could not
+  help asking him who this Baron Straubenthal might be.</p>
+
+  <p>'He is a man,' said Duroc, with a sudden flush upon his boyish
+  face, 'to whom I have a very important message to convey.'</p>
+
+  <p>Well, this was not satisfactory, but there was something in my
+  companion's manner which told me that any further questioning
+  would be distasteful to him. I said nothing more, therefore, but
+  Duroc would still ask every peasant whom we met whether he could
+  give him any news of the Baron Straubenthal.</p>
+
+  <p>For my own part I was endeavouring, as an officer of light
+  cavalry should, to form an idea of the lay of the country, to
+  note the course of the streams, and to mark the places where
+  there should be fords. Every step was taking us farther from the
+  camp round the flanks of which we were travelling. Far to the
+  south a few plumes of grey smoke in the frosty air marked the
+  position of some of our outposts. To the north, however, there
+  was nothing between ourselves and the Russian winter quarters.
+  Twice on the extreme horizon I caught a glimpse of the glitter of
+  steel, and pointed it out to my companion. It was too distant for
+  us to tell whence it came, but we had little doubt that it was
+  from the lance-heads of marauding Cossacks.</p>
+
+  <p>The sun was just setting when we rode over a low hill and saw
+  a small village upon our right, and on our left a high black
+  castle, which jutted out from amongst the pine-woods. A farmer
+  with his cart was approaching us&mdash;a matted-haired, downcast
+  fellow, in a sheepskin jacket.</p>
+
+  <p>'What village is this?' asked Duroc.</p>
+
+  <p>'It is Arensdorf,' he answered, in his barbarous German
+  dialect.</p>
+
+  <p>'Then here I am to stay the night,' said my young companion.
+  Then, turning to the farmer, he asked his eternal question, 'Can
+  you tell me where the Baron Straubenthal lives?'</p>
+
+  <p>'Why, it is he who owns the Castle of Gloom,' said the farmer,
+  pointing to the dark turrets over the distant fir forest.</p>
+
+  <p>Duroc gave a shout like the sportsman who sees his game rising
+  in front of him. The lad seemed to have gone off his
+  head&mdash;his eyes shining, his face deathly white, and such a
+  grim set about his mouth as made the farmer shrink away from him.
+  I can see him now, leaning forward on his brown horse, with his
+  eager gaze fixed upon the great black tower.</p>
+
+  <p>'Why do you call it the Castle of Gloom?' I asked.</p>
+
+  <p>'Well, it's the name it bears upon the countryside,' said the
+  farmer. 'By all accounts there have been some black doings up
+  yonder. It's not for nothing that the wickedest man in Poland has
+  been living there these fourteen years past.'</p>
+
+  <p>'A Polish nobleman?' I asked.</p>
+
+  <p>'Nay, we breed no such men in Poland,' he answered.</p>
+
+  <p>'A Frenchman, then?' cried Duroc.</p>
+
+  <p>'They say that he came from France.'</p>
+
+  <p>'And with red hair?'</p>
+
+  <p>'As red as a fox.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Yes, yes, it is my man,' cried my companion, quivering all
+  over in his excitement. 'It is the hand of Providence which has
+  led me here. Who can say that there is not justice in this world?
+  Come, Monsieur Gerard, for I must see the men safely quartered
+  before I can attend to this private matter.'</p>
+
+  <p>He spurred on his horse, and ten minutes later we were at the
+  door of the inn of Arensdorf, where his men were to find their
+  quarters for the night.</p>
+
+  <p>Well, all this was no affair of mine, and I could not imagine
+  what the meaning of it might be. Rossel was still far off, but I
+  determined to ride on for a few hours and take my chance of some
+  wayside barn in which I could find shelter for Rataplan and
+  myself. I had mounted my horse, therefore, after tossing off a
+  cup of wine, when young Duroc came running out of the door and
+  laid his hand upon my knee.</p>
+
+  <p>'Monsieur Gerard,' he panted, 'I beg of you not to abandon me
+  like this!'</p>
+
+  <p>'My good sir,' said I, 'if you would tell me what is the
+  matter and what you would wish me to do, I should be better able
+  to tell you if I could be of any assistance to you.'</p>
+
+  <p>'You can be of the very greatest,' he cried. 'Indeed, from all
+  that I have heard of you, Monsieur Gerard, you are the one man
+  whom I should wish to have by my side tonight.'</p>
+
+  <p>'You forget that I am riding to join my regiment.'</p>
+
+  <p>'You cannot, in any case, reach it tonight. Tomorrow will
+  bring you to Rossel. By staying with me you will confer the very
+  greatest kindness upon me, and you will aid me in a matter which
+  concerns my own honour and the honour of my family. I am
+  compelled, however, to confess to you that some personal danger
+  may possibly be involved.'</p>
+
+  <p>It was a crafty thing for him to say. Of course, I sprang from
+  Rataplan's back and ordered the groom to lead him back into the
+  stables.</p>
+
+  <p>'Come into the inn,' said I, 'and let me know exactly what it
+  is that you wish me to do.'</p>
+
+  <p>He led the way into a sitting-room, and fastened the door lest
+  we should be interrupted. He was a well-grown lad, and as he
+  stood in the glare of the lamp, with the light beating upon his
+  earnest face and upon his uniform of silver grey, which suited
+  him to a marvel, I felt my heart warm towards him. Without going
+  so far as to say that he carried himself as I had done at his
+  age, there was at least similarity enough to make me feel in
+  sympathy with him.</p>
+
+  <p>'I can explain it all in a few words,' said he. 'If I have not
+  already satisfied your very natural curiosity, it is because the
+  subject is so painful a one to me that I can hardly bring myself
+  to allude to it. I cannot, however, ask for your assistance
+  without explaining to you exactly how the matter lies.</p>
+
+  <p>'You must know, then, that my father was the well-known
+  banker, Christophe Duroc, who was murdered by the people during
+  the September massacres. As you are aware, the mob took
+  possession of the prisons, chose three so-called judges to pass
+  sentence upon the unhappy aristocrats, and then tore them to
+  pieces when they were passed out into the street. My father had
+  been a benefactor of the poor all his life. There were many to
+  plead for him. He had the fever, too, and was carried in,
+  half-dead, upon a blanket. Two of the judges were in favour of
+  acquitting him; the third, a young Jacobin, whose huge body and
+  brutal mind had made him a leader among these wretches, dragged
+  him, with his own hands, from the litter, kicked him again and
+  again with his heavy boots, and hurled him out of the door, where
+  in an instant he was torn limb from limb under circumstances
+  which are too horrible for me to describe. This, as you perceive,
+  was murder, even under their own unlawful laws, for two of their
+  own judges had pronounced in my father's favour.</p>
+
+  <p>'Well, when the days of order came back again, my elder
+  brother began to make inquiries about this man. I was only a
+  child then, but it was a family matter, and it was discussed in
+  my presence. The fellow's name was Carabin. He was one of
+  Sansterre's Guard, and a noted duellist. A foreign lady named the
+  Baroness Straubenthal having been dragged before the Jacobins, he
+  had gained her liberty for her on the promise that she with her
+  money and estates should be his. He had married her, taken her
+  name and title, and escaped out of France at the time of the fall
+  of Robespierre. What had become of him we had no means of
+  learning.</p>
+
+  <p>'You will think, doubtless, that it would be easy for us to
+  find him, since we had both his name and his title. You must
+  remember, however, that the Revolution left us without money, and
+  that without money such a search is very difficult. Then came the
+  Empire, and it became more difficult still, for, as you are
+  aware, the Emperor considered that the 18th Brumaire brought all
+  accounts to a settlement, and that on that day a veil had been
+  drawn across the past. None the less, we kept our own family
+  story and our own family plans.</p>
+
+  <p>'My brother joined the army, and passed with it through all
+  Southern Europe, asking everywhere for the Baron Straubenthal.
+  Last October he was killed at Jena, with his mission still
+  unfulfilled. Then it became my turn, and I have the good fortune
+  to hear of the very man of whom I am in search at one of the
+  first Polish villages which I have to visit, and within a
+  fortnight of joining my regiment. And then, to make the matter
+  even better, I find myself in the company of one whose name is
+  never mentioned throughout the army save in connection with some
+  daring and generous deed.'</p>
+
+  <p>This was all very well, and I listened to it with the greatest
+  interest, but I was none the clearer as to what young Duroc
+  wished me to do.</p>
+
+  <p>'How can I be of service to you?' I asked.</p>
+
+  <p>'By coming up with me.'</p>
+
+  <p>'To the Castle?'</p>
+
+  <p>'Precisely.'</p>
+
+  <p>'When?'</p>
+
+  <p>'At once.'</p>
+
+  <p>'But what do you intend to do?'</p>
+
+  <p>'I shall know what to do. But I wish you to be with me, all
+  the same.'</p>
+
+  <p>Well, it was never in my nature to refuse an adventure, and,
+  besides, I had every sympathy with the lad's feelings. It is very
+  well to forgive one's enemies, but one wishes to give them
+  something to forgive also. I held out my hand to him,
+  therefore.</p>
+
+  <p>'I must be on my way for Rossel tomorrow morning, but tonight
+  I am yours,' said I.</p>
+
+  <p>We left our troopers in snug quarters, and, as it was but a
+  mile to the Castle, we did not disturb our horses. To tell the
+  truth, I hate to see a cavalry man walk, and I hold that just as
+  he is the most gallant thing upon earth when he has his
+  saddle-flaps between his knees, so he is the most clumsy when he
+  has to loop up his sabre and his sabre-tasche in one hand and
+  turn in his toes for fear of catching the rowels of his spurs.
+  Still, Duroc and I were of the age when one can carry things off,
+  and I dare swear that no woman at least would have quarrelled
+  with the appearance of the two young hussars, one in blue and one
+  in grey, who set out that night from the Arensdorf post-house. We
+  both carried our swords, and for my own part I slipped a pistol
+  from my holster into the inside of my pelisse, for it seemed to
+  me that there might be some wild work before us.</p>
+
+  <p>The track which led to the Castle wound through a pitch-black
+  fir-wood, where we could see nothing save the ragged patch of
+  stars above our heads. Presently, however, it opened up, and
+  there was the Castle right in front of us, about as far as a
+  carbine would carry. It was a huge, uncouth place, and bore every
+  mark of being exceedingly old, with turrets at every corner, and
+  a square keep on the side which was nearest to us. In all its
+  great shadow there was no sign of light save from a single
+  window, and no sound came from it. To me there was something
+  awful in its size and its silence, which corresponded so well
+  with its sinister name. My companion pressed on eagerly, and I
+  followed him along the ill-kept path which led to the gate.</p>
+
+  <p>There was no bell or knocker upon the great iron-studded door,
+  and it was only by pounding with the hilts of our sabres that we
+  could attract attention. A thin, hawk-faced man, with a beard up
+  to his temples, opened it at last. He carried a lantern in one
+  hand, and in the other a chain which held an enormous black
+  hound. His manner at the first moment was threatening, but the
+  sight of our uniforms and of our faces turned it into one of
+  sulky reserve.</p>
+
+  <p>'The Baron Straubenthal does not receive visitors at so late
+  an hour,' said he, speaking in very excellent French.</p>
+
+  <p>'You can inform Baron Straubenthal that I have come eight
+  hundred leagues to see him, and that I will not leave until I
+  have done so,' said my companion. I could not myself have said it
+  with a better voice and manner.</p>
+
+  <p>The fellow took a sidelong look at us, and tugged at his black
+  beard in his perplexity.</p>
+
+  <p>'To tell the truth, gentlemen,' said he, 'the Baron has a cup
+  or two of wine in him at this hour, and you would certainly find
+  him a more entertaining companion if you were to come again in
+  the morning.'</p>
+
+  <p>He had opened the door a little wider as he spoke, and I saw
+  by the light of the lamp in the hall behind him that three other
+  rough fellows were standing there, one of whom held another of
+  these monstrous hounds. Duroc must have seen it also, but it made
+  no difference to his resolution.</p>
+
+  <p>'Enough talk,' said he, pushing the man to one side. 'It is
+  with your master that I have to deal.'</p>
+
+  <p>The fellows in the hall made way for him as he strode in among
+  them, so great is the power of one man who knows what he wants
+  over several who are not sure of themselves. My companion tapped
+  one of them upon the shoulder with as much assurance as though he
+  owned him.</p>
+
+  <p>'Show me to the Baron,' said he.</p>
+
+  <p>The man shrugged his shoulders, and answered something in
+  Polish. The fellow with the beard, who had shut and barred the
+  front door, appeared to be the only one among them who could
+  speak French.</p>
+
+  <p>'Well, you shall have your way,' said he, with a sinister
+  smile. 'You shall see the Baron. And perhaps, before you have
+  finished, you will wish that you had taken my advice.'</p>
+
+  <p>We followed him down the hall, which was stone-flagged and
+  very spacious, with skins scattered upon the floor, and the heads
+  of wild beasts upon the walls. At the farther end he threw open a
+  door, and we entered.</p>
+
+  <p>It was a small room, scantily furnished, with the same marks
+  of neglect and decay which met us at every turn. The walls were
+  hung with discoloured tapestry, which had come loose at one
+  corner, so as to expose the rough stonework behind. A second
+  door, hung with a curtain, faced us upon the other side. Between
+  lay a square table, strewn with dirty dishes and the sordid
+  remains of a meal. Several bottles were scattered over it. At the
+  head of it, and facing us, there sat a huge man with a lion-like
+  head and a great shock of orange-coloured hair. His beard was of
+  the same glaring hue; matted and tangled and coarse as a horse's
+  mane. I have seen some strange faces in my time, but never one
+  more brutal than that, with its small, vicious, blue eyes, its
+  white, crumpled cheeks, and the thick, hanging lip which
+  protruded over his monstrous beard. His head swayed about on his
+  shoulders, and he looked at us with the vague, dim gaze of a
+  drunken man. Yet he was not so drunk but that our uniforms
+  carried their message to him.</p>
+
+  <p>'Well, my brave boys,' he hiccoughed. 'What is the latest news
+  from Paris, eh? You're going to free Poland, I hear, and have
+  meantime all become slaves yourselves&mdash;slaves to a little
+  aristocrat with his grey coat and his three-cornered hat. No more
+  citizens either, I am told, and nothing but monsieur and madame.
+  My faith, some more heads will have to roll into the sawdust
+  basket some of these mornings.'</p>
+
+  <p>Duroc advanced in silence, and stood by the ruffian's
+  side.</p>
+
+  <p>'Jean Carabin,' said he.</p>
+
+  <p>The Baron started, and the film of drunkenness seemed to be
+  clearing from his eyes.</p>
+
+  <p>'Jean Carabin,' said Duroc, once more.</p>
+
+  <p>He sat up and grasped the arms of his chair.</p>
+
+  <p>'What do you mean by repeating that name, young man?' he
+  asked.</p>
+
+  <p>'Jean Carabin, you are a man whom I have long wished to
+  meet.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Supposing that I once had such a name, how can it concern
+  you, since you must have been a child when I bore it?'</p>
+
+  <p>'My name is Duroc.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Not the son of&mdash;&mdash;?'</p>
+
+  <p>'The son of the man you murdered.'</p>
+
+  <p>The Baron tried to laugh, but there was terror in his
+  eyes.</p>
+
+  <p>'We must let bygones be bygones, young man,' he cried. 'It was
+  our life or theirs in those days: the aristocrats or the people.
+  Your father was of the Gironde. He fell. I was of the mountain.
+  Most of my comrades fell. It was all the fortune of war. We must
+  forget all this and learn to know each other better, you and I.'
+  He held out a red, twitching hand as he spoke.</p>
+
+  <p>'Enough,' said young Duroc. 'If I were to pass my sabre
+  through you as you sit in that chair, I should do what is just
+  and right. I dishonour my blade by crossing it with yours. And
+  yet you are a Frenchman, and have even held a commission under
+  the same flag as myself. Rise, then, and defend yourself!'</p>
+
+  <p>'Tut, tut!' cried the Baron. 'It is all very well for you
+  young bloods&mdash;'</p>
+
+  <p>Duroc's patience could stand no more. He swung his open hand
+  into the centre of the great orange beard. I saw a lip fringed
+  with blood, and two glaring blue eyes above it.</p>
+
+  <p>'You shall die for that blow.'</p>
+
+  <p>'That is better,' said Duroc.</p>
+
+  <p>'My sabre!' cried the other. 'I will not keep you waiting, I
+  promise you!' and he hurried from the room.</p>
+
+  <p>I have said that there was a second door covered with a
+  curtain. Hardly had the Baron vanished when there ran from behind
+  it a woman, young and beautiful. So swiftly and noiselessly did
+  she move that she was between us in an instant, and it was only
+  the shaking curtains which told us whence she had come.</p>
+
+  <p>'I have seen it all,' she cried. 'Oh, sir, you have carried
+  yourself splendidly.' She stooped to my companion's hand, and
+  kissed it again and again ere he could disengage it from her
+  grasp.</p>
+
+  <p>'Nay, madame, why should you kiss my hand?' he cried.</p>
+
+  <p>'Because it is the hand which struck him on his vile, lying
+  mouth. Because it may be the hand which will avenge my mother. I
+  am his step-daughter. The woman whose heart he broke was my
+  mother. I loathe him, I fear him. Ah, there is his step!' In an
+  instant she had vanished as suddenly as she had come. A moment
+  later, the Baron entered with a drawn sword in his hand, and the
+  fellow who had admitted us at his heels.</p>
+
+  <p>'This is my secretary,' said he. 'He will be my friend in this
+  affair. But we shall need more elbow-room than we can find here.
+  Perhaps you will kindly come with me to a more spacious
+  apartment.'</p>
+
+  <p>It was evidently impossible to fight in a chamber which was
+  blocked by a great table. We followed him out, therefore, into
+  the dimly-lit hall. At the farther end a light was shining
+  through an open door.</p>
+
+  <p>'We shall find what we want in here,' said the man with the
+  dark beard. It was a large, empty room, with rows of barrels and
+  cases round the walls. A strong lamp stood upon a shelf in the
+  corner. The floor was level and true, so that no swordsman could
+  ask for more. Duroc drew his sabre and sprang into it. The Baron
+  stood back with a bow and motioned me to follow my companion.
+  Hardly were my heels over the threshold when the heavy door
+  crashed behind us and the key screamed in the lock. We were taken
+  in a trap.</p>
+
+  <p>For a moment we could not realize it. Such incredible baseness
+  was outside all our experiences. Then, as we understood how
+  foolish we had been to trust for an instant a man with such a
+  history, a flush of rage came over us, rage against his villainy
+  and against our own stupidity. We rushed at the door together,
+  beating it with our fists and kicking with our heavy boots. The
+  sound of our blows and of our execrations must have resounded
+  through the Castle. We called to this villain, hurling at him
+  every name which might pierce even into his hardened soul. But
+  the door was enormous&mdash;such a door as one finds in mediaeval
+  castles&mdash;made of huge beams clamped together with iron. It
+  was as easy to break as a square of the Old Guard. And our cries
+  appeared to be of as little avail as our blows, for they only
+  brought for answer the clattering echoes from the high roof above
+  us. When you have done some soldiering, you soon learn to put up
+  with what cannot be altered. It was I, then, who first recovered
+  my calmness, and prevailed upon Duroc to join with me in
+  examining the apartment which had become our dungeon.</p>
+
+  <p>There was only one window, which had no glass in it, and was
+  so narrow that one could not so much as get one's head through.
+  It was high up, and Duroc had to stand upon a barrel in order to
+  see from it.</p>
+
+  <p>'What can you see?' I asked.</p>
+
+  <p>'Fir-woods and an avenue of snow between them,' said he. 'Ah!'
+  he gave a cry of surprise.</p>
+
+  <p>I sprang upon the barrel beside him. There was, as he said, a
+  long, clear strip of snow in front. A man was riding down it,
+  flogging his horse and galloping like a madman. As we watched, he
+  grew smaller and smaller, until he was swallowed up by the black
+  shadows of the forest.</p>
+
+  <p>'What does that mean?' asked Duroc.</p>
+
+  <p>'No good for us,' said I. 'He may have gone for some brigands
+  to cut our throats. Let us see if we cannot find a way out of
+  this mouse-trap before the cat can arrive.'</p>
+
+  <p>The one piece of good fortune in our favour was that beautiful
+  lamp. It was nearly full of oil, and would last us until morning.
+  In the dark our situation would have been far more difficult. By
+  its light we proceeded to examine the packages and cases which
+  lined the walls. In some places there was only a single line of
+  them, while in one corner they were piled nearly to the ceiling.
+  It seemed that we were in the storehouse of the Castle, for there
+  were a great number of cheeses, vegetables of various kinds, bins
+  full of dried fruits, and a line of wine barrels. One of these
+  had a spigot in it, and as I had eaten little during the day, I
+  was glad of a cup of claret and some food. As to Duroc, he would
+  take nothing, but paced up and down the room in a fever of anger
+  and impatience. 'I'll have him yet!' he cried, every now and
+  then. 'The rascal shall not escape me!'</p>
+
+  <p>This was all very well, but it seemed to me, as I sat on a
+  great round cheese eating my supper, that this youngster was
+  thinking rather too much of his own family affairs and too little
+  of the fine scrape into which he had got me. After all, his
+  father had been dead fourteen years, and nothing could set that
+  right; but here was Etienne Gerard, the most dashing lieutenant
+  in the whole Grand Army, in imminent danger of being cut off at
+  the very outset of his brilliant career. Who was ever to know the
+  heights to which I might have risen if I were knocked on the head
+  in this hole-and-corner business, which had nothing whatever to
+  do with France or the Emperor? I could not help thinking what a
+  fool I had been, when I had a fine war before me and everything
+  which a man could desire, to go off on a hare-brained expedition
+  of this sort, as if it were not enough to have a quarter of a
+  million Russians to fight against, without plunging into all
+  sorts of private quarrels as well.</p>
+
+  <p>'That is all very well,' I said at last, as I heard Duroc
+  muttering his threats. 'You may do what you like to him when you
+  get the upper hand. At present the question rather is, what is
+  <i>he</i> going to do to us?'</p>
+
+  <p>'Let him do his worst!' cried the boy. 'I owe a duty to my
+  father.'</p>
+
+  <p>'That is mere foolishness,' said I. 'If you owe a duty to your
+  father, I owe one to my mother, which is to get out of this
+  business safe and sound.'</p>
+
+  <p>My remark brought him to his senses.</p>
+
+  <p>'I have thought too much of myself!' he cried. 'Forgive me,
+  Monsieur Gerard. Give me your advice as to what I should do.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Well,' said I, 'it is not for our health that they have shut
+  us up here among the cheeses. They mean to make an end of us if
+  they can. That is certain. They hope that no one knows that we
+  have come here, and that none will trace us if we remain. Do your
+  hussars know where you have gone to?'</p>
+
+  <p>'I said nothing.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Hum! It is clear that we cannot be starved here. They must
+  come to us if they are to kill us. Behind a barricade of barrels
+  we could hold our own against the five rascals whom we have seen.
+  That is, probably, why they have sent that messenger for
+  assistance.'</p>
+
+  <p>'We must get out before he returns.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Precisely, if we are to get out at all.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Could we not burn down this door?' he cried.</p>
+
+  <p>'Nothing could be easier,' said I. 'There are several casks of
+  oil in the corner. My only objection is that we should ourselves
+  be nicely toasted, like two little oyster
+  p&acirc;t&eacute;s.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Can you not suggest something?' he cried, in despair. 'Ah,
+  what is that?'</p>
+
+  <p>There had been a low sound at our little window, and a shadow
+  came between the stars and ourselves. A small, white hand was
+  stretched into the lamplight. Something glittered between the
+  fingers.</p>
+
+  <p>'Quick! quick!' cried a woman's voice.</p>
+
+  <p>We were on the barrel in an instant.</p>
+
+  <p>'They have sent for the Cossacks. Your lives are at stake. Ah,
+  I am lost! I am lost!'</p>
+
+  <p>There was the sound of rushing steps, a hoarse oath, a blow,
+  and the stars were once more twinkling through the window. We
+  stood helpless upon the barrel with our blood cold with horror.
+  Half a minute afterwards we heard a smothered scream, ending in a
+  choke. A great door slammed somewhere in the silent night.</p>
+
+  <p>'Those ruffians have seized her. They will kill her,' I
+  cried.</p>
+
+  <p>Duroc sprang down with the inarticulate shouts of one whose
+  reason has left him. He struck the door so frantically with his
+  naked hands that he left a blotch of blood with every blow.</p>
+
+  <p>Here is the key!' I shouted, picking one from the floor. 'She
+  must have thrown it in at the instant that she was torn
+  away.'</p>
+
+  <p>My companion snatched it from me with a shriek of joy. A
+  moment later he dashed it down upon the boards. It was so small
+  that it was lost in the enormous lock. Duroc sank upon one of the
+  boxes with his head between his hands. He sobbed in his despair.
+  I could have sobbed, too, when I thought of the woman and how
+  helpless we were to save her.</p>
+
+  <p>But I am not easily baffled. After all, this key must have
+  been sent to us for a purpose. The lady could not bring us that
+  of the door, because this murderous step-father of hers would
+  most certainly have it in his pocket. Yet this other must have a
+  meaning, or why should she risk her life to place it in our
+  hands? It would say little for our wits if we could not find out
+  what that meaning might be.</p>
+
+  <p>I set to work moving all the cases out from the wall, and
+  Duroc, gaining new hope from my courage, helped me with all his
+  strength. It was no light task, for many of them were large and
+  heavy. On we went, working like maniacs, slinging barrels,
+  cheeses, and boxes pell-mell into the middle of the room. At last
+  there only remained one huge barrel of vodka, which stood in the
+  corner. With our united strength we rolled it out, and there was
+  a little low wooden door in the wainscot behind it. The key
+  fitted, and with a cry of delight we saw it swing open before us.
+  With the lamp in my hand, I squeezed my way in, followed by my
+  companion.</p>
+
+  <p>We were in the powder-magazine of the Castle&mdash;a rough,
+  walled cellar, with barrels all round it, and one with the top
+  staved in in the centre. The powder from it lay in a black heap
+  upon the floor. Beyond there was another door, but it was
+  locked.</p>
+
+  <p>'We are no better off than before,' cried Duroc. 'We have no
+  key.'</p>
+
+  <p>'We have a dozen!' I cried.</p>
+
+  <p>'Where?'</p>
+
+  <p>I pointed to the line of powder barrels.</p>
+
+  <p>'You would blow this door open?'</p>
+
+  <p>'Precisely.'</p>
+
+  <p>'But you would explode the magazine.'</p>
+
+  <p>It was true, but I was not at the end of my resources.</p>
+
+  <p>'We will blow open the store-room door,' I cried.</p>
+
+  <p>I ran back and seized a tin box which had been filled with
+  candles. It was about the size of my busby&mdash;large enough to
+  hold several pounds of powder. Duroc filled it while I cut off
+  the end of a candle. When we had finished, it would have puzzled
+  a colonel of engineers to make a better petard. I put three
+  cheeses on the top of each other and placed it above them, so as
+  to lean against the lock. Then we lit our candle-end and ran for
+  shelter, shutting the door of the magazine behind us.</p>
+
+  <p>It is no joke, my friends, to be among all those tons of
+  powder, with the knowledge that if the flame of the explosion
+  should penetrate through one thin door our blackened limbs would
+  be shot higher than the Castle keep. Who could have believed that
+  a half-inch of candle could take so long to burn? My ears were
+  straining all the time for the thudding of the hoofs of the
+  Cossacks who were coming to destroy us. I had almost made up my
+  mind that the candle must have gone out when there was a smack
+  like a bursting bomb, our door flew to bits, and pieces of
+  cheese, with a shower of turnips, apples, and splinters of cases,
+  were shot in among us. As we rushed out we had to stagger through
+  an impenetrable smoke, with all sorts of d&eacute;bris beneath
+  our feet, but there was a glimmering square where the dark door
+  had been. The petard had done its work.</p>
+
+  <p>In fact, it had done more for us than we had even ventured to
+  hope. It had shattered gaolers as well as gaol. The first thing
+  that I saw as I came out into the hall was a man with a butcher's
+  axe in his hand, lying flat upon his back, with a gaping wound
+  across his forehead. The second was a huge dog, with two of its
+  legs broken, twisting in agony upon the floor. As it raised
+  itself up I saw the two broken ends flapping like flails. At the
+  same instant I heard a cry, and there was Duroc, thrown against
+  the wall, with the other hound's teeth in his throat. He pushed
+  it off with his left hand, while again and again he passed his
+  sabre through its body, but it was not until I blew out its
+  brains with my pistol that the iron jaws relaxed, and the fierce,
+  bloodshot eyes were glazed in death.</p>
+
+  <p>There was no time for us to pause. A woman's scream from in
+  front&mdash;a scream of mortal terror&mdash;told us that even now
+  we might be too late. There were two other men in the hall, but
+  they cowered away from our drawn swords and furious faces. The
+  blood was streaming from Duroc's neck and dyeing the grey fur of
+  his pelisse. Such was the lad's fire, however, that he shot in
+  front of me, and it was only over his shoulder that I caught a
+  glimpse of the scene as we rushed into the chamber in which we
+  had first seen the master of the Castle of Gloom.</p>
+
+  <p>The Baron was standing in the middle of the room, his tangled
+  mane bristling like an angry lion. He was, as I have said, a huge
+  man with enormous shoulders; and as he stood there, with his face
+  flushed with rage and his sword advanced, I could not but think
+  that, in spite of all his villainies, he had a proper figure for
+  a grenadier. The lady lay cowering in a chair behind him. A weal
+  across one of her white arms and a dog-whip upon the floor were
+  enough to show that our escape had hardly been in time to save
+  her from his brutality. He gave a howl like a wolf as we broke
+  in, and was upon us in an instant, hacking and driving, with a
+  curse at every blow.</p>
+
+  <p>I have already said that the room gave no space for
+  swordsmanship. My young companion was in front of me in the
+  narrow passage between the table and the wall, so that I could
+  only look on without being able to aid him. The lad knew
+  something of his weapon, and was as fierce and active as a wild
+  cat, but in so narrow a space the weight and strength of the
+  giant gave him the advantage. Besides, he was an admirable
+  swordsman. His parade and riposte were as quick as lightning.
+  Twice he touched Duroc upon the shoulder, and then, as the lad
+  slipped on a lunge, he whirled up his sword to finish him before
+  he could recover his feet. I was quicker than he, however, and
+  took the cut upon the pommel of my sabre.</p>
+
+  <p>'Excuse me,' said I, 'but you have still to deal with Etienne
+  Gerard.'</p>
+
+  <p>He drew back and leaned against the tapestry-covered wall,
+  breathing in little, hoarse gasps, for his foul living was
+  against him.</p>
+
+  <p>'Take your breath,' said I. 'I will await your
+  convenience.'</p>
+
+  <p>'You have no cause of quarrel against me,' he panted.</p>
+
+  <p>'I owe you some little attention,' said I, 'for having shut me
+  up in your store-room. Besides, if all other were wanting, I see
+  cause enough upon that lady's arm.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Have your way, then!' he snarled, and leaped at me like a
+  madman. For a minute I saw only the blazing blue eyes, and the
+  red glazed point which stabbed and stabbed, rasping off to right
+  or to left, and yet ever back at my throat and my breast. I had
+  never thought that such good sword-play was to be found at Paris
+  in the days of the Revolution. I do not suppose that in all my
+  little affairs I have met six men who had a better knowledge of
+  their weapon. But he knew that I was his master. He read death in
+  my eyes, and I could see that he read it. The flush died from his
+  face. His breath came in shorter and in thicker gasps. Yet he
+  fought on, even after the final thrust had come, and died still
+  hacking and cursing, with foul cries upon his lips, and his blood
+  clotting upon his orange beard. I who speak to you have seen so
+  many battles, that my old memory can scarce contain their names,
+  and yet of all the terrible sights which these eyes have rested
+  upon, there is none which I care to think of less than of that
+  orange beard with the crimson stain in the centre, from which I
+  had drawn my sword-point.</p>
+
+  <p>It was only afterwards that I had time to think of all this.
+  His monstrous body had hardly crashed down upon the floor before
+  the woman in the corner sprang to her feet, clapping her hands
+  together and screaming out in her delight. For my part I was
+  disgusted to see a woman take such delight in a deed of blood,
+  and I gave no thought as to the terrible wrongs which must have
+  befallen her before she could so far forget the gentleness of her
+  sex. It was on my tongue to tell her sharply to be silent, when a
+  strange, choking smell took the breath from my nostrils, and a
+  sudden, yellow glare brought out the figures upon the faded
+  hangings.</p>
+
+  <p>'Duroc, Duroc!' I shouted, tugging at his shoulder. 'The
+  Castle is on fire!'</p>
+
+  <p>The boy lay senseless upon the ground, exhausted by his
+  wounds. I rushed out into the hall to see whence the danger came.
+  It was our explosion which had set alight to the dry frame-work
+  of the door. Inside the store-room some of the boxes were already
+  blazing. I glanced in, and as I did so my blood was turned to
+  water by the sight of the powder barrels beyond, and of the loose
+  heap upon the floor. It might be seconds, it could not be more
+  than minutes, before the flames would be at the edge of it. These
+  eyes will be closed in death, my friends, before they cease to
+  see those crawling lines of fire and the black heap beyond.</p>
+
+  <p>How little I can remember what followed. Vaguely I can recall
+  how I rushed into the chamber of death, how I seized Duroc by one
+  limp hand and dragged him down the hall, the woman keeping pace
+  with me and pulling at the other arm. Out of the gateway we
+  rushed, and on down the snow-covered path until we were on the
+  fringe of the fir forest. It was at that moment that I heard a
+  crash behind me, and, glancing round, saw a great spout of fire
+  shoot up into the wintry sky. An instant later there seemed to
+  come a second crash, far louder than the first. I saw the fir
+  trees and the stars whirling round me, and I fell unconscious
+  across the body of my comrade.</p>
+  <hr>
+
+  <p>It was some weeks before I came to myself in the post-house of
+  Arensdorf, and longer still before I could be told all that had
+  befallen me. It was Duroc, already able to go soldiering, who
+  came to my bedside and gave me an account of it. He it was who
+  told me how a piece of timber had struck me on the head and laid
+  me almost dead upon the ground. From him, too, I learned how the
+  Polish girl had run to Arensdorf, how she had roused our hussars,
+  and how she had only just brought them back in time to save us
+  from the spears of the Cossacks who had been summoned from their
+  bivouac by that same black-bearded secretary whom we had seen
+  galloping so swiftly over the snow. As to the brave lady who had
+  twice saved our lives, I could not learn very much about her at
+  that moment from Duroc, but when I chanced to meet him in Paris
+  two years later, after the campaign of Wagram, I was not very
+  much surprised to find that I needed no introduction to his
+  bride, and that by the queer turns of fortune he had himself, had
+  he chosen to use it, that very name and title of the Baron
+  Straubenthal, which showed him to be the owner of the blackened
+  ruins of the Castle of Gloom.</p>
+
+  <center>
+    FOOTNOTES:
+  </center>
+
+  <p><a name="note-A"><!-- Note Anchor A --></a>[Footnote A: The
+  term Brigadier is used throughout in its English and not in its
+  French sense.]</p>
+
+  <p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+  <p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+  <p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+  <p>&nbsp;</p><a name="RULE4_1"><!-- RULE4 1 --></a>
+
+  <h2>2. HOW THE BRIGADIER SLEW THE BROTHERS OF AJACCIO</h2>
+
+  <p>When the Emperor needed an agent he was always very ready to
+  do me the honour of recalling the name of Etienne Gerard, though
+  it occasionally escaped him when rewards were to be distributed.
+  Still, I was a colonel at twenty-eight, and the chief of a
+  brigade at thirty-one, so that I have no reason to be
+  dissatisfied with my career. Had the wars lasted another two or
+  three years I might have grasped my b&acirc;ton, and the man who
+  had his hand upon that was only one stride from a throne. Murat
+  had changed his hussar's cap for a crown, and another light
+  cavalry man might have done as much. However, all those dreams
+  were driven away by Waterloo, and, although I was not able to
+  write my name upon history, it is sufficiently well known by all
+  who served with me in the great wars of the Empire.</p>
+
+  <p>What I want to tell you tonight is about the very singular
+  affair which first started me upon my rapid upward course, and
+  which had the effect of establishing a secret bond between the
+  Emperor and myself.</p>
+
+  <p>There is just one little word of warning which I must give you
+  before I begin. When you hear me speak, you must always bear in
+  mind that you are listening to one who has seen history from the
+  inside. I am talking about what my ears have heard and my eyes
+  have seen, so you must not try to confute me by quoting the
+  opinions of some student or man of the pen, who has written a
+  book of history or memoirs. There is much which is unknown by
+  such people, and much which never will be known by the world. For
+  my own part, I could tell you some very surprising things were it
+  discreet to do so. The facts which I am about to relate to you
+  tonight were kept secret by me during the Emperor's lifetime,
+  because I gave him my promise that it should be so, but I do not
+  think that there can be any harm now in my telling the remarkable
+  part which I played.</p>
+
+  <p>You must know, then, that at the time of the Treaty of Tilsit
+  I was a simple lieutenant in the 10th Hussars, without money or
+  interest. It is true that my appearance and my gallantry were in
+  my favour, and that I had already won a reputation as being one
+  of the best swordsmen in the army; but amongst the host of brave
+  men who surrounded the Emperor it needed more than this to insure
+  a rapid career. I was confident, however, that my chance would
+  come, though I never dreamed that it would take so remarkable a
+  form.</p>
+
+  <p>When the Emperor returned to Paris, after the declaration of
+  peace in the year 1807, he spent much of his time with the
+  Empress and the Court at Fontainebleau. It was the time when he
+  was at the pinnacle of his career. He had in three successive
+  campaigns humbled Austria, crushed Prussia, and made the Russians
+  very glad to get upon the right side of the Niemen. The old
+  Bulldog over the Channel was still growling, but he could not get
+  very far from his kennel. If we could have made a perpetual peace
+  at that moment, France would have taken a higher place than any
+  nation since the days of the Romans. So I have heard the wise
+  folk say, though for my part I had other things to think of. All
+  the girls were glad to see the army back after its long absence,
+  and you may be sure that I had my share of any favours that were
+  going. You may judge how far I was a favourite in those days when
+  I say that even now, in my sixtieth year&mdash;but why should I
+  dwell upon that which is already sufficiently well known?</p>
+
+  <p>Our regiment of hussars was quartered with the horse chasseurs
+  of the guard at Fontainebleau. It is, as you know, but a little
+  place, buried in the heart of the forest, and it was wonderful at
+  this time to see it crowded with Grand Dukes and Electors and
+  Princes, who thronged round Napoleon like puppies round their
+  master, each hoping that some bone might be thrown to him. There
+  was more German than French to be heard in the street, for those
+  who had helped us in the late war had come to beg for a reward,
+  and those who had opposed us had come to try and escape their
+  punishment.</p>
+
+  <p>And all the time our little man, with his pale face and his
+  cold, grey eyes, was riding to the hunt every morning, silent and
+  brooding, all of them following in his train, in the hope that
+  some word would escape him. And then, when the humour seized him,
+  he would throw a hundred square miles to that man, or tear as
+  much off the other, round off one kingdom by a river, or cut off
+  another by a chain of mountains. That was how he used to do
+  business, this little artilleryman, whom we had raised so high
+  with our sabres and our bayonets. He was very civil to us always,
+  for he knew where his power came from. We knew also, and showed
+  it by the way in which we carried ourselves. We were agreed, you
+  understand, that he was the finest leader in the world, but we
+  did not forget that he had the finest men to lead.</p>
+
+  <p>Well, one day I was seated in my quarters playing cards with
+  young Morat, of the horse chasseurs, when the door opened and in
+  walked Lasalle, who was our Colonel. You know what a fine,
+  swaggering fellow he was, and the sky-blue uniform of the Tenth
+  suited him to a marvel. My faith, we youngsters were so taken by
+  him that we all swore and diced and drank and played the deuce
+  whether we liked it or no, just that we might resemble our
+  Colonel! We forgot that it was not because he drank or gambled
+  that the Emperor was going to make him the head of the light
+  cavalry, but because he had the surest eye for the nature of a
+  position or for the strength of a column, and the best judgment
+  as to when infantry could be broken, or whether guns were
+  exposed, of any man in the army. We were too young to understand
+  all that, however, so we waxed our moustaches and clicked our
+  spurs and let the ferrules of our scabbards wear out by trailing
+  them along the pavement in the hope that we should all become
+  Lasalles. When he came clanking into my quarters, both Morat and
+  I sprang to our feet.</p>
+
+  <p>'My boy,' said he, clapping me on the shoulder, 'the Emperor
+  wants to see you at four o'clock.'</p>
+
+  <p>The room whirled round me at the words, and I had to lean my
+  hands upon the edge of the card-table.</p>
+
+  <p>'What?' I cried. 'The Emperor!'</p>
+
+  <p>'Precisely,' said he, smiling at my astonishment.</p>
+
+  <p>'But the Emperor does not know of my existence, Colonel,' I
+  protested. 'Why should he send for me?'</p>
+
+  <p>'Well, that's just what puzzles me,' cried Lasalle, twirling
+  his moustache. 'If he wanted the help of a good sabre, why should
+  he descend to one of my lieutenants when he might have found all
+  that he needed at the head of the regiment? However,' he added,
+  clapping me on the shoulder again in his hearty fashion, 'every
+  man has his chance. I have had mine, otherwise I should not be
+  Colonel of the Tenth. I must not grudge you yours. Forwards, my
+  boy, and may it be the first step towards changing your busby for
+  a cocked hat.'</p>
+
+  <p>It was but two o'clock, so he left me, promising to come back
+  and to accompany me to the palace. My faith, what a time I
+  passed, and how many conjectures did I make as to what it was
+  that the Emperor could want of me! I paced up and down my little
+  room in a fever of anticipation. Sometimes I thought that perhaps
+  he had heard of the guns which we had taken at Austerlitz; but,
+  then, there were so many who had taken guns at Austerlitz, and
+  two years had passed since the battle. Or it might be that he
+  wished to reward me for my affair with the <i>aide-de-camp</i> of
+  the Russian Emperor. But then again a cold fit would seize me,
+  and I would fancy that he had sent for me to reprimand me. There
+  were a few duels which he might have taken in ill part, and there
+  were one or two little jokes in Paris since the peace.</p>
+
+  <p>But, no! I considered the words of Lasalle. 'If he had need of
+  a brave man,' said Lasalle.</p>
+
+  <p>It was obvious that my Colonel had some idea of what was in
+  the wind. If he had not known that it was to my advantage, he
+  would not have been so cruel as to congratulate me. My heart
+  glowed with joy as this conviction grew upon me, and I sat down
+  to write to my mother and to tell her that the Emperor was
+  waiting, at that very moment, to have my opinion upon a matter of
+  importance. It made me smile as I wrote it to think that,
+  wonderful as it appeared to me, it would probably only confirm my
+  mother in her opinion of the Emperor's good sense.</p>
+
+  <p>At half-past three I heard a sabre come clanking against every
+  step of my wooden stair. It was Lasalle, and with him was a lame
+  gentleman, very neatly dressed in black with dapper ruffles and
+  cuffs. We did not know many civilians, we of the army, but, my
+  word, this was one whom we could not afford to ignore! I had only
+  to glance at those twinkling eyes, the comical, upturned nose,
+  and the straight, precise mouth, to know that I was in the
+  presence of the one man in France whom even the Emperor had to
+  consider.</p>
+
+  <p>'This is Monsieur Etienne Gerard, Monsieur de Talleyrand,'
+  said Lasalle.</p>
+
+  <p>I saluted, and the statesman took me in from the top of my
+  panache to the rowel of my spur, with a glance that played over
+  me like a rapier point.</p>
+
+  <p>'Have you explained to the lieutenant the circumstances under
+  which he is summoned to the Emperor's presence?' he asked, in his
+  dry, creaking voice.</p>
+
+  <p>They were such a contrast, these two men, that I could not
+  help glancing from one to the other of them: the black, sly
+  politician, and the big, sky-blue hussar with one fist on his hip
+  and the other on the hilt of his sabre. They both took their
+  seats as I looked, Talleyrand without a sound, and Lasalle with a
+  clash and a jingle like a prancing charger.</p>
+
+  <p>'It's this way, youngster,' said he, in his brusque fashion;
+  'I was with the Emperor in his private cabinet this morning when
+  a note was brought in to him. He opened it, and as he did so he
+  gave such a start that it fluttered down on to the floor. I
+  handed it up to him again, but he was staring at the wall in
+  front of him as if he had seen a ghost. "Fratelli dell' Ajaccio,"
+  he muttered; and then again, "Fratelli dell' Ajaccio." I don't
+  pretend to know more Italian than a man can pick up in two
+  campaigns, and I could make nothing of this. It seemed to me that
+  he had gone out of his mind; and you would have said so also,
+  Monsieur de Talleyrand, if you had seen the look in his eyes. He
+  read the note, and then he sat for half an hour or more without
+  moving.'</p>
+
+  <p>'And you?' asked Talleyrand.</p>
+
+  <p>'Why, I stood there not knowing what I ought to do. Presently
+  he seemed to come back to his senses.</p>
+
+  <p>'"I suppose, Lasalle," said he, "that you have some gallant
+  young officers in the Tenth?"</p>
+
+  <p>'"They are all that, sire," I answered.</p>
+
+  <p>'"If you had to pick one who was to be depended upon for
+  action, but who would not think too much&mdash;you understand me,
+  Lasalle&mdash;which would you select?" he asked.</p>
+
+  <p>'I saw that he needed an agent who would not penetrate too
+  deeply into his plans.</p>
+
+  <p>'"I have one," said I, "who is all spurs and moustaches, with
+  never a thought beyond women and horses."</p>
+
+  <p>'"That is the man I want," said Napoleon. "Bring him to my
+  private cabinet at four o'clock."</p>
+
+  <p>'So, youngster, I came straight away to you at once, and mind
+  that you do credit to the 10th Hussars.'</p>
+
+  <p>I was by no means flattered by the reasons which had led to my
+  Colonel's choice, and I must have shown as much in my face, for
+  he roared with laughter and Talleyrand gave a dry chuckle
+  also.</p>
+
+  <p>'Just one word of advice before you go, Monsieur Gerard,' said
+  he: 'you are now coming into troubled waters, and you might find
+  a worse pilot than myself. We have none of us any idea as to what
+  this little affair means, and, between ourselves, it is very
+  important for us, who have the destinies of France upon our
+  shoulders, to keep ourselves in touch with all that goes on. You
+  understand me, Monsieur Gerard?'</p>
+
+  <p>I had not the least idea what he was driving at, but I bowed
+  and tried to look as if it was clear to me.</p>
+
+  <p>'Act very guardedly, then, and say nothing to anybody,' said
+  Talleyrand. 'Colonel de Lasalle and I will not show ourselves in
+  public with you, but we will await you here, and we will give you
+  our advice when you have told us what has passed between the
+  Emperor and yourself. It is time that you started now, for the
+  Emperor never forgives unpunctuality.'</p>
+
+  <p>Off I went on foot to the palace, which was only a hundred
+  paces off. I made my way to the ante-chamber, where Duroc, with
+  his grand new scarlet and gold coat, was fussing about among the
+  crowd of people who were waiting. I heard him whisper to Monsieur
+  de Caulaincourt that half of them were German Dukes who expected
+  to be made Kings, and the other half German Dukes who expected to
+  be made paupers. Duroc, when he heard my name, showed me straight
+  in, and I found myself in the Emperor's presence.</p>
+
+  <p>I had, of course, seen him in camp a hundred times, but I had
+  never been face to face with him before. I have no doubt that if
+  you had met him without knowing in the least who he was, you
+  would simply have said that he was a sallow little fellow with a
+  good forehead and fairly well-turned calves. His tight white
+  cashmere breeches and white stockings showed off his legs to
+  advantage. But even a stranger must have been struck by the
+  singular look of his eyes, which could harden into an expression
+  which would frighten a grenadier. It is said that even Auguereau,
+  who was a man who had never known what fear was, quailed before
+  Napoleon's gaze, at a time, too, when the Emperor was but an
+  unknown soldier. He looked mildly enough at me, however, and
+  motioned me to remain by the door. De Meneval was writing to his
+  dictation, looking up at him between each sentence with his
+  spaniel eyes.</p>
+
+  <p>'That will do. You can go,' said the Emperor, abruptly. Then,
+  when the secretary had left the room, he strode across with his
+  hands behind his back, and he looked me up and down without a
+  word. Though he was a small man himself, he was very fond of
+  having fine-looking fellows about him, and so I think that my
+  appearance gave him pleasure. For my own part, I raised one hand
+  to the salute and held the other upon the hilt of my sabre,
+  looking straight ahead of me, as a soldier should.</p>
+
+  <p>'Well, Monsieur Gerard,' said he, at last, tapping his
+  forefinger upon one of the brandebourgs of gold braid upon the
+  front of my pelisse, 'I am informed that you are a very deserving
+  young officer. Your Colonel gives me an excellent account of
+  you.'</p>
+
+  <p>I wished to make a brilliant reply, but I could think of
+  nothing save Lasalle's phrase that I was all spurs and
+  moustaches, so it ended in my saying nothing at all. The Emperor
+  watched the struggle which must have shown itself upon my
+  features, and when, finally, no answer came he did not appear to
+  be displeased.</p>
+
+  <p>'I believe that you are the very man that I want,' said he.
+  'Brave and clever men surround me upon every side. But a brave
+  man who&mdash;&mdash;' He did not finish his sentence, and for my
+  own part I could not understand what he was driving at. I
+  contented myself with assuring him that he could count upon me to
+  the death.</p>
+
+  <p>'You are, as I understand, a good swordsman?' said he.</p>
+
+  <p>'Tolerable, sire,' I answered.</p>
+
+  <p>'You were chosen by your regiment to fight the champion of the
+  Hussars of Chambarant?' said he.</p>
+
+  <p>I was not sorry to find that he knew so much of my
+  exploits.</p>
+
+  <p>'My comrades, sire, did me that honour,' said I.</p>
+
+  <p>'And for the sake of practice you insulted six fencing masters
+  in the week before your duel?'</p>
+
+  <p>'I had the privilege of being out seven times in as many days,
+  sire,' said I.</p>
+
+  <p>'And escaped without a scratch?'</p>
+
+  <p>'The fencing master of the 23rd Light Infantry touched me on
+  the left elbow, sire.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Let us have no more child's play of the sort, monsieur,' he
+  cried, turning suddenly to that cold rage of his which was so
+  appalling. 'Do you imagine that I place veteran soldiers in these
+  positions that you may practise quarte and tierce upon them? How
+  am I to face Europe if my soldiers turn their points upon each
+  other? Another word of your duelling, and I break you between
+  these fingers.'</p>
+
+  <p>I saw his plump white hands flash before my eyes as he spoke,
+  and his voice had turned to the most discordant hissing and
+  growling. My word, my skin pringled all over as I listened to
+  him, and I would gladly have changed my position for that of the
+  first man in the steepest and narrowest breach that ever
+  swallowed up a storming party. He turned to the table, drank off
+  a cup of coffee, and then when he faced me again every trace of
+  this storm had vanished, and he wore that singular smile which
+  came from his lips but never from his eyes.</p>
+
+  <p>'I have need of your services, Monsieur Gerard,' said he. 'I
+  may be safer with a good sword at my side, and there are reasons
+  why yours should be the one which I select. But first of all I
+  must bind you to secrecy. Whilst I live what passes between us
+  today must be known to none but ourselves.'</p>
+
+  <p>I thought of Talleyrand and of Lasalle, but I promised.</p>
+
+  <p>'In the next place, I do not want your opinions or
+  conjectures, and I wish you to do exactly what you are told.'</p>
+
+  <p>I bowed.</p>
+
+  <p>'It is your sword that I need, and not your brains. I will do
+  the thinking. Is that clear to you?'</p>
+
+  <p>'Yes, sire.'</p>
+
+  <p>'You know the Chancellor's Grove, in the forest?'</p>
+
+  <p>I bowed.</p>
+
+  <p>'You know also the large double fir-tree where the hounds
+  assembled on Tuesday?'</p>
+
+  <p>Had he known that I met a girl under it three times a week, he
+  would not have asked me. I bowed once more without remark.</p>
+
+  <p>'Very good. You will meet me there at ten o'clock
+  tonight.'</p>
+
+  <p>I had got past being surprised at anything which might happen.
+  If he had asked me to take his place upon the imperial throne I
+  could only have nodded my busby.</p>
+
+  <p>'We shall then proceed into the wood together,' said the
+  Emperor. 'You will be armed with a sword, but not with pistols.
+  You must address no remark to me, and I shall say nothing to you.
+  We will advance in silence. You understand?'</p>
+
+  <p>'I understand, sire.'</p>
+
+  <p>'After a time we shall see a man, or more probably two men,
+  under a certain tree. We shall approach them together. If I
+  signal to you to defend me, you will have your sword ready. If,
+  on the other hand, I speak to these men, you will wait and see
+  what happens. If you are called upon to draw, you must see that
+  neither of them, in the event of there being two, escapes from
+  us. I shall myself assist you.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Sire,' I cried, 'I have no doubt that two would not be too
+  many for my sword; but would it not be better that I should bring
+  a comrade than that you should be forced to join in such a
+  struggle?'</p>
+
+  <p>'Ta, ta, ta,' said he. 'I was a soldier before I was an
+  Emperor. Do you think, then, that artillerymen have not swords as
+  well as the hussars? But I ordered you not to argue with me. You
+  will do exactly what I tell you. If swords are once out, neither
+  of these men is to get away alive.'</p>
+
+  <p>'They shall not, sire,' said I.</p>
+
+  <p>'Very good. I have no more instructions for you. You can
+  go.'</p>
+
+  <p>I turned to the door, and then an idea occurring to me I
+  turned.</p>
+
+  <p>'I have been thinking, sire&mdash;' said I.</p>
+
+  <p>He sprang at me with the ferocity of a wild beast. I really
+  thought he would have struck me.</p>
+
+  <p>'Thinking!' he cried. 'You, <i>you</i>! Do you imagine I chose
+  you out because you could think? Let me hear of your doing such a
+  thing again! You, the one man&mdash;but, there! You meet me at
+  the fir-tree at ten o'clock.'</p>
+
+  <p>My faith, I was right glad to get out of the room. If I have a
+  good horse under me, and a sword clanking against my
+  stirrup-iron, I know where I am. And in all that relates to green
+  fodder or dry, barley and oats and rye, and the handling of
+  squadrons upon the march, there is no one who can teach me very
+  much. But when I meet a Chamberlain and a Marshal of the Palace,
+  and have to pick my words with an Emperor, and find that
+  everybody hints instead of talking straight out, I feel like a
+  troop-horse who has been put in a lady's cal&egrave;che. It is
+  not my trade, all this mincing and pretending. I have learned the
+  manners of a gentleman, but never those of a courtier. I was
+  right glad then to get into the fresh air again, and I ran away
+  up to my quarters like a schoolboy who has just escaped from the
+  seminary master.</p>
+
+  <p>But as I opened the door, the very first thing that my eye
+  rested upon was a long pair of sky-blue legs with hussar boots,
+  and a short pair of black ones with knee breeches and buckles.
+  They both sprang up together to greet me.</p>
+
+  <p>'Well, what news?' they cried, the two of them.</p>
+
+  <p>'None,' I answered.</p>
+
+  <p>'The Emperor refused to see you?'</p>
+
+  <p>'No, I have seen him.'</p>
+
+  <p>'And what did he say?'</p>
+
+  <p>'Monsieur de Talleyrand,' I answered, 'I regret to say that it
+  is quite impossible for me to tell you anything about it. I have
+  promised the Emperor.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Pooh, pooh, my dear young man,' said he, sidling up to me, as
+  a cat does when it is about to rub itself against you. 'This is
+  all among friends, you understand, and goes no farther than these
+  four walls. Besides, the Emperor never meant to include me in
+  this promise.'</p>
+
+  <p>'It is but a minute's walk to the palace, Monsieur de
+  Talleyrand,' I answered; 'if it would not be troubling you too
+  much to ask you to step up to it and bring back the Emperor's
+  written statement that he did not mean to include you in this
+  promise, I shall be happy to tell you every word that
+  passed.'</p>
+
+  <p>He showed his teeth at me then like the old fox that he
+  was.</p>
+
+  <p>'Monsieur Gerard appears to be a little puffed up,' said he.
+  'He is too young to see things in their just proportion. As he
+  grows older he may understand that it is not always very discreet
+  for a subaltern of cavalry to give such very abrupt
+  refusals.'</p>
+
+  <p>I did not know what to say to this, but Lasalle came to my aid
+  in his downright fashion.</p>
+
+  <p>'The lad is quite right,' said he. 'If I had known that there
+  was a promise I should not have questioned him. You know very
+  well, Monsieur de Talleyrand, that if he had answered you, you
+  would have laughed in your sleeve and thought as much about him
+  as I think of the bottle when the burgundy is gone. As for me, I
+  promise you that the Tenth would have had no room for him, and
+  that we should have lost our best swordsman if I had heard him
+  give up the Emperor's secret.'</p>
+
+  <p>But the statesman became only the more bitter when he saw that
+  I had the support of my Colonel.</p>
+
+  <p>'I have heard, Colonel de Lasalle,' said he, with an icy
+  dignity, 'that your opinion is of great weight upon the subject
+  of light cavalry. Should I have occasion to seek information
+  about that branch of the army, I shall be very happy to apply to
+  you. At present, however, the matter concerns diplomacy, and you
+  will permit me to form my own views upon that question. As long
+  as the welfare of France and the safety of the Emperor's person
+  are largely committed to my care, I will use every means in my
+  power to secure them, even if it should be against the Emperor's
+  own temporary wishes. I have the honour, Colonel de Lasalle, to
+  wish you a very good-day!'</p>
+
+  <p>He shot a most unamiable glance in my direction, and, turning
+  upon his heel, he walked with little, quick, noiseless steps out
+  of the room.</p>
+
+  <p>I could see from Lasalle's face that he did not at all relish
+  finding himself at enmity with the powerful Minister. He rapped
+  out an oath or two, and then, catching up his sabre and his cap,
+  he clattered away down the stairs. As I looked out of the window
+  I saw the two of them, the big blue man and the limping black
+  one, going up the street together. Talleyrand was walking very
+  rigidly, and Lasalle was waving his hands and talking, so I
+  suppose he was trying to make his peace.</p>
+
+  <p>The Emperor had told me not to think, and I endeavoured to
+  obey him. I took up the cards from the table where Morat had left
+  them, and I tried to work out a few combinations at
+  &eacute;cart&eacute;. But I could not remember which were trumps,
+  and I threw them under the table in despair. Then I drew my sabre
+  and practised giving point until I was weary, but it was all of
+  no use at all. My mind <i>would</i> work, in spite of myself. At
+  ten o'clock I was to meet the Emperor in the forest. Of all
+  extraordinary combinations of events in the whole world, surely
+  this was the last which would have occurred to me when I rose
+  from my couch that morning. But the responsibility&mdash;- the
+  dreadful responsibility! It was all upon my shoulders. There was
+  no one to halve it with me. It made me cold all over. Often as I
+  have faced death upon the battle-field, I have never known what
+  real fear was until that moment. But then I considered that after
+  all I could but do my best like a brave and honourable gentleman,
+  and above all obey the orders which I had received, to the very
+  letter. And, if all went well, this would surely be the
+  foundation of my fortunes. Thus, swaying between my fears and my
+  hopes, I spent the long, long evening until it was time to keep
+  my appointment.</p>
+
+  <p>I put on my military overcoat, as I did not know how much of
+  the night I might have to spend in the woods, and I fastened my
+  sword outside it. I pulled off my hussar boots also, and wore a
+  pair of shoes and gaiters, that I might be lighter upon my feet.
+  Then I stole out of my quarters and made for the forest, feeling
+  very much easier in my mind, for I am always at my best when the
+  time of thought has passed and the moment for action arrived.</p>
+
+  <p>I passed the barracks of the Chasseurs of the Guards, and the
+  line of cafes all filled with uniforms. I caught a glimpse as I
+  went by of the blue and gold of some of my comrades, amid the
+  swarm of dark infantry coats and the light green of the Guides.
+  There they sat, sipping their wine and smoking their cigars,
+  little dreaming what their comrade had on hand. One of them, the
+  chief of my squadron, caught sight of me in the lamplight, and
+  came shouting after me into the street. I hurried on, however,
+  pretending not to hear him, so he, with a curse at my deafness,
+  went back at last to his wine bottle.</p>
+
+  <p>It is not very hard to get into the forest at Fontainebleau.
+  The scattered trees steal their way into the very streets, like
+  the tirailleurs in front of a column. I turned into a path, which
+  led to the edge of the woods, and then I pushed rapidly forward
+  towards the old fir-tree. It was a place which, as I have hinted,
+  I had my own reasons for knowing well, and I could only thank the
+  Fates that it was not one of the nights upon which L&eacute;onie
+  would be waiting for me. The poor child would have died of terror
+  at sight of the Emperor. He might have been too harsh with
+  her&mdash;and worse still, he might have been too kind.</p>
+
+  <p>There was a half moon shining, and, as I came up to our
+  trysting-place, I saw that I was not the first to arrive. The
+  Emperor was pacing up and down, his hands behind him and his face
+  sunk somewhat forward upon his breast. He wore a grey great-coat
+  with a capote over his head. I had seen him in such a dress in
+  our winter campaign in Poland, and it was said that he used it
+  because the hood was such an excellent disguise. He was always
+  fond, whether in the camp or in Paris, of walking round at night,
+  and overhearing the talk in the cabarets or round the fires. His
+  figure, however, and his way of carrying his head and his hands
+  were so well known that he was always recognized, and then the
+  talkers would say whatever they thought would please him
+  best.</p>
+
+  <p>My first thought was that he would be angry with me for having
+  kept him waiting, but as I approached him, we heard the big
+  church clock of Fontainebleau clang out the hour of ten. It was
+  evident, therefore, that it was he who was too soon, and not I
+  too late. I remembered his order that I should make no remark, so
+  contented myself with halting within four paces of him, clicking
+  my spurs together, grounding my sabre, and saluting. He glanced
+  at me, and then without a word he turned and walked slowly
+  through the forest, I keeping always about the same distance
+  behind him. Once or twice he seemed to me to look apprehensively
+  to right and to left, as if he feared that someone was observing
+  us. I looked also, but although I have the keenest sight, it was
+  quite impossible to see anything except the ragged patches of
+  moonshine between the great black shadows of the trees. My ears
+  are as quick as my eyes, and once or twice I thought that I heard
+  a twig crack; but you know how many sounds there are in a forest
+  at night, and how difficult it is even to say what direction they
+  come from.</p>
+
+  <p>We walked for rather more than a mile, and I knew exactly what
+  our destination was, long before we got there. In the centre of
+  one of the glades, there is the shattered stump of what must at
+  some time have been a most gigantic tree. It is called the
+  Abbot's Beech, and there are so many ghostly stories about it,
+  that I know many a brave soldier who would not care about
+  mounting sentinel over it. However, I cared as little for such
+  folly as the Emperor did, so we crossed the glade and made
+  straight for the old broken trunk. As we approached, I saw that
+  two men were waiting for us beneath it.</p>
+
+  <p>When I first caught sight of them they were standing rather
+  behind it, as if they were not anxious to be seen, but as we came
+  nearer they emerged from its shadow and walked forward to meet
+  us. The Emperor glanced back at me, and slackened his pace a
+  little so that I came within arm's length of him. You may think
+  that I had my hilt well to the front, and that I had a very good
+  look at these two people who were approaching us.</p>
+
+  <p>The one was tall, remarkably so, and of very spare frame,
+  while the other was rather below the usual height, and had a
+  brisk, determined way of walking. They each wore black cloaks,
+  which were slung right across their figures, and hung down upon
+  one side, like the mantles of Murat's dragoons. They had flat
+  black caps, like those I have since seen in Spain, which threw
+  their faces into darkness, though I could see the gleam of their
+  eyes from beneath them. With the moon behind them and their long
+  black shadows walking in front, they were such figures as one
+  might expect to meet at night near the Abbot's Beech. I can
+  remember that they had a stealthy way of moving, and that as they
+  approached, the moonshine formed two white diamonds between their
+  legs and the legs of their shadows.</p>
+
+  <p>The Emperor had paused, and these two strangers came to a
+  stand also within a few paces of us. I had drawn up close to my
+  companion's elbow, so that the four of us were facing each other
+  without a word spoken. My eyes were particularly fixed upon the
+  taller one, because he was slightly the nearer to me, and I
+  became certain as I watched him that he was in the last state of
+  nervousness. His lean figure was quivering all over, and I heard
+  a quick, thin panting like that of a tired dog. Suddenly one of
+  them gave a short, hissing signal. The tall man bent his back and
+  his knees like a diver about to spring, but before he could move,
+  I had jumped with drawn sabre in front of him. At the same
+  instant the smaller man bounded past me, and buried a long
+  poniard in the Emperor's heart.</p>
+
+  <p>My God! the horror of that moment! It is a marvel that I did
+  not drop dead myself. As in a dream, I saw the grey coat whirl
+  convulsively round, and caught a glimpse in the moonlight of
+  three inches of red point which jutted out from between the
+  shoulders. Then down he fell with a dead man's gasp upon the
+  grass, and the assassin, leaving his weapon buried in his victim,
+  threw up both his hands and shrieked with joy. But I&mdash;I
+  drove my sword through his midriff with such frantic force, that
+  the mere blow of the hilt against the end of his breast-bone sent
+  him six paces before he fell, and left my reeking blade ready for
+  the other. I sprang round upon him with such a lust for blood
+  upon me as I had never felt, and never have felt, in all my days.
+  As I turned, a dagger flashed before my eyes, and I felt the cold
+  wind of it pass my neck and the villain's wrist jar upon my
+  shoulder. I shortened my sword, but he winced away from me, and
+  an instant afterwards was in full flight, bounding like a deer
+  across the glade in the moonlight.</p>
+
+  <p>But he was not to escape me thus. I knew that the murderer's
+  poniard had done its work. Young as I was, I had seen enough of
+  war to know a mortal blow. I paused but for an instant to touch
+  the cold hand.</p>
+
+  <p>'Sire! Sire!' I cried, in an agony; and then as no sound came
+  back and nothing moved, save an ever-widening dark circle in the
+  moonlight, I knew that all was indeed over. I sprang madly to my
+  feet, threw off my great-coat, and ran at the top of my speed
+  after the remaining assassin.</p>
+
+  <p>Ah, how I blessed the wisdom which had caused me to come in
+  shoes and gaiters! And the happy thought which had thrown off my
+  coat. He could not get rid of his mantle, this wretch, or else he
+  was too frightened to think of it. So it was that I gained upon
+  him from the beginning. He must have been out of his wits, for he
+  never tried to bury himself in the darker parts of the woods, but
+  he flew on from glade to glade, until he came to the heath-land
+  which leads up to the great Fontainebleau quarry. There I had him
+  in full sight, and knew that he could not escape me. He ran well,
+  it is true&mdash;ran as a coward runs when his life is the stake.
+  But I ran as Destiny runs when it gets behind a man's heels. Yard
+  by yard I drew in upon him. He was rolling and staggering. I
+  could hear the rasping and crackling of his breath. The great
+  gulf of the quarry suddenly yawned in front of his path, and
+  glancing at me over his shoulder, he gave a shriek of despair.
+  The next instant he had vanished from my sight.</p>
+
+  <p>Vanished utterly, you understand. I rushed to the spot, and
+  gazed down into the black abyss. Had he hurled himself over? I
+  had almost made up my mind that he had done so, when a gentle
+  sound rising and falling came out of the darkness beneath me. It
+  was his breathing once more, and it showed me where he must be.
+  He was hiding in the tool-house.</p>
+
+  <p>At the edge of the quarry and beneath the summit there is a
+  small platform upon which stands a wooden hut for the use of the
+  labourers. It was into this, then, that he had darted. Perhaps he
+  had thought, the fool, that, in the darkness, I would not venture
+  to follow him. He little knew Etienne Gerard. With a spring I was
+  on the platform, with another I was through the doorway, and
+  then, hearing him in the corner, I hurled myself down upon the
+  top of him.</p>
+
+  <p>He fought like a wild cat, but he never had a chance with his
+  shorter weapon. I think that I must have transfixed him with that
+  first mad lunge, for, though he struck and struck, his blows had
+  no power in them, and presently his dagger tinkled down upon the
+  floor. When I was sure that he was dead, I rose up and passed out
+  into the moonlight. I climbed on to the heath again, and wandered
+  across it as nearly out of my mind as a man could be.</p>
+
+  <p>With the blood singing in my ears, and my naked sword still
+  clutched in my hand, I walked aimlessly on until, looking round
+  me, I found that I had come as far as the glade of the Abbot's
+  Beech, and saw in the distance that gnarled stump which must ever
+  be associated with the most terrible moment of my life. I sat
+  down upon a fallen trunk with my sword across my knees and my
+  head between my hands, and I tried to think about what had
+  happened and what would happen in the future.</p>
+
+  <p>The Emperor had committed himself to my care. The Emperor was
+  dead. Those were the two thoughts which clanged in my head, until
+  I had no room for any other ones. He had come with me and he was
+  dead. I had done what he had ordered when living. I had revenged
+  him when dead. But what of all that? The world would look upon me
+  as responsible. They might even look upon me as the assassin.
+  What could I prove? What witnesses had I? Might I not have been
+  the accomplice of these wretches? Yes, yes, I was eternally
+  dishonoured&mdash;the lowest, most despicable creature in all
+  France. This, then, was the end of my fine military
+  ambitions&mdash;of the hopes of my mother. I laughed bitterly at
+  the thought. And what was I to do now? Was I to go into
+  Fontainebleau, to wake up the palace, and to inform them that the
+  great Emperor had been murdered within a pace of me? I could not
+  do it&mdash;no, I could not do it! There was but one course for
+  an honourable gentleman whom Fate had placed in so cruel a
+  position. I would fall upon my dishonoured sword, and so share,
+  since I could not avert, the Emperor's fate. I rose with my
+  nerves strung to this last piteous deed, and as I did so, my eyes
+  fell upon something which struck the breath from my lips. The
+  Emperor was standing before me!</p>
+
+  <p>He was not more than ten yards off, with the moon shining
+  straight upon his cold, pale face. He wore his grey overcoat, but
+  the hood was turned back, and the front open, so that I could see
+  the green coat of the Guides, and the white breeches. His hands
+  were clasped behind his back, and his chin sunk forward upon his
+  breast, in the way that was usual with him.</p>
+
+  <p>'Well,' said he, in his hardest and most abrupt voice, 'what
+  account do you give of yourself?'</p>
+
+  <p>I believe that, if he had stood in silence for another minute,
+  my brain would have given way. But those sharp military accents
+  were exactly what I needed to bring me to myself. Living or dead,
+  here was the Emperor standing before me and asking me questions.
+  I sprang to the salute.</p>
+
+  <p>'You have killed one, I see,' said he, jerking his head
+  towards the beech.</p>
+
+  <p>'Yes, sire.'</p>
+
+  <p>'And the other escaped?'</p>
+
+  <p>'No, sire, I killed him also.'</p>
+
+  <p>'What!' he cried. 'Do I understand that you have killed them
+  both?' He approached me as he spoke with a smile which set his
+  teeth gleaming in the moonlight.</p>
+
+  <p>'One body lies there, sire,' I answered. 'The other is in the
+  tool-house at the quarry.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Then the Brothers of Ajaccio are no more,' he cried, and
+  after a pause, as if speaking to himself: 'The shadow has passed
+  me for ever.' Then he bent forward and laid his hand upon my
+  shoulder.</p>
+
+  <p>'You have done very well, my young friend,' said he. 'You have
+  lived up to your reputation.'</p>
+
+  <p>He was flesh and blood, then, this Emperor. I could feel the
+  little, plump palm that rested upon me. And yet I could not get
+  over what I had seen with my own eyes, and so I stared at him in
+  such bewilderment that he broke once more into one of his
+  smiles.</p>
+
+  <p>'No, no, Monsieur Gerard,' said he, 'I am not a ghost, and you
+  have not seen me killed. You will come here, and all will be
+  clear to you.'</p>
+
+  <p>He turned as he spoke, and led the way towards the great beech
+  stump.</p>
+
+  <p>The bodies were still lying upon the ground, and two men were
+  standing beside them. As we approached I saw from the turbans
+  that they were Roustem and Mustafa, the two Mameluke servants.
+  The Emperor paused when he came to the grey figure upon the
+  ground, and turning back the hood which shrouded the features, he
+  showed a face which was very different from his own.</p>
+
+  <p>'Here lies a faithful servant who has given up his life for
+  his master,' said he. 'Monsieur de Goudin resembles me in figure
+  and in manner, as you must admit.'</p>
+
+  <p>What a delirium of joy came upon me when these few words made
+  everything clear to me. He smiled again as he saw the delight
+  which urged me to throw my arms round him and to embrace him, but
+  he moved a step away, as if he had divined my impulse.</p>
+
+  <p>'You are unhurt?' he asked.</p>
+
+  <p>'I am unhurt, sire. But in another minute I should in my
+  despair&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+  <p>'Tut, tut!' he interrupted. 'You did very well. He should
+  himself have been more on his guard. I saw everything which
+  passed.'</p>
+
+  <p>'You saw it, sire!'</p>
+
+  <p>'You did not hear me follow you through the wood, then? I
+  hardly lost sight of you from the moment that you left your
+  quarters until poor De Goudin fell. The counterfeit Emperor was
+  in front of you and the real one behind. You will now escort me
+  back to the palace.'</p>
+
+  <p>He whispered an order to his Mamelukes, who saluted in silence
+  and remained where they were standing. For my part, I followed
+  the Emperor with my pelisse bursting with pride. My word, I have
+  always carried myself as a hussar should, but Lasalle himself
+  never strutted and swung his dolman as I did that night. Who
+  should clink his spurs and clatter his sabre if it were not
+  I&mdash;I, Etienne Gerard&mdash;the confidant of the Emperor, the
+  chosen swordsman of the light cavalry, the man who slew the
+  would-be assassins of Napoleon? But he noticed my bearing and
+  turned upon me like a blight.</p>
+
+  <p>'Is that the way you carry yourself on a secret mission?' he
+  hissed, with that cold glare in his eyes. 'Is it thus that you
+  will make your comrades believe that nothing remarkable has
+  occurred? Have done with this nonsense, monsieur, or you will
+  find yourself transferred to the sappers, where you would have
+  harder work and duller plumage.'</p>
+
+  <p>That was the way with the Emperor. If ever he thought that
+  anyone might have a claim upon him, he took the first opportunity
+  to show him the gulf that lay between. I saluted and was silent,
+  but I must confess to you that it hurt me after all that had
+  passed between us. He led on to the palace, where we passed
+  through the side door and up into his own cabinet. There were a
+  couple of grenadiers at the staircase, and their eyes started out
+  from under their fur caps, I promise you, when they saw a young
+  lieutenant of hussars going up to the Emperor's room at midnight.
+  I stood by the door, as I had done in the afternoon, while he
+  flung himself down in an arm-chair, and remained silent so long
+  that it seemed to me that he had forgotten all about me. I
+  ventured at last upon a slight cough to remind him.</p>
+
+  <p>'Ah, Monsieur Gerard,' said he, 'you are very curious, no
+  doubt, as to the meaning of all this?'</p>
+
+  <p>'I am quite content, sire, if it is your pleasure not to tell
+  me,' I answered.</p>
+
+  <p>'Ta, ta, ta,' said he impatiently. 'These are only words. The
+  moment that you were outside that door you would begin making
+  inquiries about what it means. In two days your brother officers
+  would know about it, in three days it would be all over
+  Fontainebleau, and it would be in Paris on the fourth. Now, if I
+  tell you enough to appease your curiosity, there is some
+  reasonable hope that you may be able to keep the matter to
+  yourself.'</p>
+
+  <p>He did not understand me, this Emperor, and yet I could only
+  bow and be silent.</p>
+
+  <p>'A few words will make it clear to you,' said he, speaking
+  very swiftly and pacing up and down the room. 'They were
+  Corsicans, these two men. I had known them in my youth. We had
+  belonged to the same society&mdash;Brothers of Ajaccio, as we
+  called ourselves. It was founded in the old Paoli days, you
+  understand, and we had some strict rules of our own which were
+  not infringed with impunity.'</p>
+
+  <p>A very grim look came over his face as he spoke, and it seemed
+  to me that all that was French had gone out of him, and that it
+  was the pure Corsican, the man of strong passions and of strange
+  revenges, who stood before me. His memory had gone back to those
+  early days of his, and for five minutes, wrapped in thought, he
+  paced up and down the room with his quick little tiger steps.
+  Then with an impatient wave of his hands he came back to his
+  palace and to me.</p>
+
+  <p>'The rules of such a society,' he continued, 'are all very
+  well for a private citizen. In the old days there was no more
+  loyal brother than I. But circumstances change, and it would be
+  neither for my welfare nor for that of France that I should now
+  submit myself to them. They wanted to hold me to it, and so
+  brought their fate upon their own heads. These were the two
+  chiefs of the order, and they had come from Corsica to summon me
+  to meet them at the spot which they named. I knew what such a
+  summons meant. No man had ever returned from obeying one. On the
+  other hand, if I did not go, I was sure that disaster would
+  follow. I am a brother myself, you remember, and I know their
+  ways.'</p>
+
+  <p>Again there came that hardening of his mouth and cold glitter
+  of his eyes.</p>
+
+  <p>'You perceive my dilemma, Monsieur Gerard,' said he. 'How
+  would you have acted yourself, under such circumstances?'</p>
+
+  <p>'Given the word to the l0th Hussars, sire,' I cried. 'Patrols
+  could have swept the woods from end to end, and brought these two
+  rascals to your feet.'</p>
+
+  <p>He smiled, but he shook his head.</p>
+
+  <p>'I had very excellent reasons why I did not wish them taken
+  alive,' said he. 'You can understand that an assassin's tongue
+  might be as dangerous a weapon as an assassin's dagger. I will
+  not disguise from you that I wished to avoid scandal at all cost.
+  That was why I ordered you to take no pistols with you. That also
+  is why my Mamelukes will remove all traces of the affair, and
+  nothing more will be heard about it. I thought of all possible
+  plans, and I am convinced that I selected the best one. Had I
+  sent more than one guard with De Goudin into the woods, then the
+  brothers would not have appeared. They would not change their
+  plans nor miss their chance for the sake of a single man. It was
+  Colonel Lasalle's accidental presence at the moment when I
+  received the summons which led to my choosing one of his hussars
+  for the mission. I selected you, Monsieur Gerard, because I
+  wanted a man who could handle a sword, and who would not pry more
+  deeply into the affair than I desired. I trust that, in this
+  respect, you will justify my choice as well as you have done in
+  your bravery and skill.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Sire,' I answered, 'you may rely upon it.'</p>
+
+  <p>'As long as I live,' said he, 'you never open your lips upon
+  this subject.'</p>
+
+  <p>'I dismiss it entirely from my mind, sire. I will efface it
+  from my recollection as if it had never been. I will promise you
+  to go out of your cabinet at this moment exactly as I was when I
+  entered it at four o'clock.'</p>
+
+  <p>'You cannot do that,' said the Emperor, smiling. 'You were a
+  lieutenant at that time. You will permit me, Captain, to wish you
+  a very good-night.'</p>
+
+  <p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+  <p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+  <p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+  <p>&nbsp;</p><a name="RULE4_2"><!-- RULE4 2 --></a>
+
+  <h2>3. HOW THE BRIGADIER HELD THE KING</h2>
+
+  <p>Here, upon the lapel of my coat, you may see the ribbon of my
+  decoration, but the medal itself I keep in a leathern pouch at
+  home, and I never venture to take it out unless one of the modern
+  peace generals, or some foreigner of distinction who finds
+  himself in our little town, takes advantage of the opportunity to
+  pay his respects to the well-known Brigadier Gerard. Then I place
+  it upon my breast, and I give my moustache the old Marengo twist
+  which brings a grey point into either eye. Yet with it all I fear
+  that neither they, nor you either, my friends, will ever realize
+  the man that I was. You know me only as a civilian&mdash;with an
+  air and a manner, it is true&mdash;but still merely as a
+  civilian. Had you seen me as I stood in the doorway of the inn at
+  Alamo, on the 1st of July, in the year 1810, you would then have
+  known what the hussar may attain to.</p>
+
+  <p>For a month I had lingered in that accursed village, and all
+  on account of a lance-thrust in my ankle, which made it
+  impossible for me to put my foot to the ground. There were three
+  besides myself at first: old Bouvet, of the Hussars of Bercheny,
+  Jacques Regnier, of the Cuirassiers, and a funny little voltigeur
+  captain whose name I forget; but they all got well and hurried on
+  to the front, while I sat gnawing my fingers and tearing my hair,
+  and even, I must confess, weeping from time to time as I thought
+  of my Hussars of Conflans, and the deplorable condition in which
+  they must find themselves when deprived of their colonel. I was
+  not a chief of brigade yet, you understand, although I already
+  carried myself like one, but I was the youngest colonel in the
+  whole service, and my regiment was wife and children to me. It
+  went to my heart that they should be so bereaved. It is true that
+  Villaret, the senior major, was an excellent soldier; but still,
+  even among the best there are degrees of merit.</p>
+
+  <p>Ah, that happy July day of which I speak, when first I limped
+  to the door and stood in the golden Spanish sunshine! It was but
+  the evening before that I had heard from the regiment. They were
+  at Pastores, on the other side of the mountains, face to face
+  with the English&mdash;not forty miles from me by road. But how
+  was I to get to them? The same thrust which had pierced my ankle
+  had slain my charger. I took advice both from Gomez, the
+  landlord, and from an old priest who had slept that night in the
+  inn, but neither of them could do more than assure me that there
+  was not so much as a colt left upon the whole countryside.</p>
+
+  <p>The landlord would not hear of my crossing the mountains
+  without an escort, for he assured me that El Cuchillo, the
+  Spanish guerilla chief, was out that way with his band, and that
+  it meant a death by torture to fall into his hands. The old
+  priest observed, however, that he did not think a French hussar
+  would be deterred by that, and if I had had any doubts, they
+  would of course have been decided by his remark.</p>
+
+  <p>But a horse! How was I to get one? I was standing in the
+  doorway, plotting and planning, when I heard the clink of shoes,
+  and, looking up, I saw a great bearded man, with a blue cloak
+  frogged across in military fashion, coming towards me. He was
+  riding a big black horse with one white stocking on his near
+  fore-leg.</p>
+
+  <p>'Halloa, comrade!' said I, as he came up to me.</p>
+
+  <p>'Halloa!' said he.</p>
+
+  <p>'I am Colonel Gerard, of the Hussars,' said I. 'I have lain
+  here wounded for a month, and I am now ready to rejoin my
+  regiment at Pastores.'</p>
+
+  <p>'I am Monsieur Vidal, of the commissariat,' he answered, 'and
+  I am myself upon my way to Pastores. I should be glad to have
+  your company, Colonel, for I hear that the mountains are far from
+  safe.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Alas,' said I, 'I have no horse. But if you will sell me
+  yours, I will promise that an escort of hussars shall be sent
+  back for you.'</p>
+
+  <p>He would not hear of it, and it was in vain that the landlord
+  told him dreadful stories of the doings of El Cuchillo, and that
+  I pointed out the duty which he owed to the army and to the
+  country. He would not even argue, but called loudly for a cup of
+  wine. I craftily asked him to dismount and to drink with me, but
+  he must have seen something in my face, for he shook his head;
+  and then, as I approached him with some thought of seizing him by
+  the leg, he jerked his heels into his horse's flanks, and was off
+  in a cloud of dust.</p>
+
+  <p>My faith! it was enough to make a man mad to see this fellow
+  riding away so gaily to join his beef-barrels, and his
+  brandy-casks, and then to think of my five hundred beautiful
+  hussars without their leader. I was gazing after him with bitter
+  thoughts in my mind, when who should touch me on the elbow but
+  the little priest whom I have mentioned.</p>
+
+  <p>'It is I who can help you,' he said. 'I am myself travelling
+  south.'</p>
+
+  <p>I put my arms about him and, as my ankle gave way at the same
+  moment, we nearly rolled upon the ground together.</p>
+
+  <p>'Get me to Pastores,' I cried, 'and you shall have a rosary of
+  golden beads.' I had taken one from the Convent of Spiritu Santo.
+  It shows how necessary it is to take what you can when you are
+  upon a campaign, and how the most unlikely things may become
+  useful.</p>
+
+  <p>'I will take you,' he said, in very excellent French, 'not
+  because I hope for any reward, but because it is my way always to
+  do what I can to serve my fellow-man, and that is why I am so
+  beloved wherever I go.'</p>
+
+  <p>With that he led me down the village to an old cow-house, in
+  which we found a tumble-down sort of diligence, such as they used
+  to run early in this century, between some of our remote
+  villages. There were three old mules, too, none of which were
+  strong enough to carry a man, but together they might draw the
+  coach. The sight of their gaunt ribs and spavined legs gave me
+  more delight than the whole two hundred and twenty hunters of the
+  Emperor which I have seen in their stalls at Fontainebleau. In
+  ten minutes the owner was harnessing them into the coach, with no
+  very good will, however, for he was in mortal dread of this
+  terrible Cuchillo. It was only by promising him riches in this
+  world, while the priest threatened him with perdition in the
+  next, that we at last got him safely upon the box with the reins
+  between his fingers. Then he was in such a hurry to get off, out
+  of fear lest we should find ourselves in the dark in the passes,
+  that he hardly gave me time to renew my vows to the innkeeper's
+  daughter. I cannot at this moment recall her name, but we wept
+  together as we parted, and I can remember that she was a very
+  beautiful woman. You will understand, my friends, that when a man
+  like me, who has fought the men and kissed the women in fourteen
+  separate kingdoms, gives a word of praise to the one or the
+  other, it has a little meaning of its own.</p>
+
+  <p>The little priest had seemed a trifle grave when we kissed
+  good-bye, but he soon proved himself the best of companions in
+  the diligence. All the way he amused me with tales of his little
+  parish up in the mountains, and I in my turn told him stories
+  about the camp; but, my faith, I had to pick my steps, for when I
+  said a word too much he would fidget in his seat and his face
+  would show the pain that I had given him. And of course it is not
+  the act of a gentleman to talk in anything but a proper manner to
+  a religious man, though, with all the care in the world, one's
+  words may get out of hand sometimes.</p>
+
+  <p>He had come from the north of Spain, as he told me, and was
+  going to see his mother in a village of Estremadura, and as he
+  spoke about her little peasant home, and her joy in seeing him,
+  it brought my own mother so vividly to my thoughts that the tears
+  started to my eyes. In his simplicity he showed me the little
+  gifts which he was taking to her, and so kindly was his manner
+  that I could readily believe him when he said he was loved
+  wherever he went. He examined my own uniform with as much
+  curiosity as a child, admiring the plume of my busby, and passing
+  his fingers through the sable with which my dolman was trimmed.
+  He drew my sword, too, and then when I told him how many men I
+  had cut down with it, and set my finger on the notch made by the
+  shoulder-bone of the Russian Emperor's aide-de-camp, he shuddered
+  and placed the weapon under the leathern cushion, declaring that
+  it made him sick to look at it.</p>
+
+  <p>Well, we had been rolling and creaking on our way whilst this
+  talk had been going forward, and as we reached the base of the
+  mountains we could hear the rumbling of cannon far away upon the
+  right. This came from Massena, who was, as I knew, besieging
+  Ciudad Rodrigo. There was nothing I should have wished better
+  than to have gone straight to him, for if, as some said, he had
+  Jewish blood in his veins, he was the best Jew that I have heard
+  of since Joshua's time. If you were in sight of his beaky nose
+  and bold, black eyes, you were not likely to miss much of what
+  was going on. Still, a siege is always a poor sort of a
+  pick-and-shovel business, and there were better prospects with my
+  hussars in front of the English. Every mile that passed, my heart
+  grew lighter and lighter, until I found myself shouting and
+  singing like a young ensign fresh from St Cyr, just to think of
+  seeing all my fine horses and my gallant fellows once more.</p>
+
+  <p>As we penetrated the mountains the road grew rougher and the
+  pass more savage. At first we had met a few muleteers, but now
+  the whole country seemed deserted, which is not to be wondered at
+  when you think that the French, the English, and the guerillas
+  had each in turn had command over it. So bleak and wild was it,
+  one great brown wrinkled cliff succeeding another, and the pass
+  growing narrower and narrower, that I ceased to look out, but sat
+  in silence, thinking of this and that, of women whom I had loved
+  and of horses which I had handled. I was suddenly brought back
+  from my dreams, however, by observing the difficulties of my
+  companion, who was trying with a sort of brad-awl, which he had
+  drawn out, to bore a hole through the leathern strap which held
+  up his water-flask. As he worked with twitching fingers the strap
+  escaped his grasp, and the wooden bottle fell at my feet. I
+  stooped to pick it up, and as I did so the priest silently leaped
+  upon my shoulders and drove his brad-awl into my eye!</p>
+
+  <p>My friends, I am, as you know, a man steeled to face every
+  danger. When one has served from the affair of Zurich to that
+  last fatal day of Waterloo, and has had the special medal, which
+  I keep at home in a leathern pouch, one can afford to confess
+  when one is frightened. It may console some of you, when your own
+  nerves play you tricks, to remember that you have heard even me,
+  Brigadier Gerard, say that I have been scared. And besides my
+  terror at this horrible attack, and the maddening pain of my
+  wound, there was a sudden feeling of loathing such as you might
+  feel were some filthy tarantula to strike its fangs into you.</p>
+
+  <p>I clutched the creature in both hands, and, hurling him on to
+  the floor of the coach, I stamped on him with my heavy boots. He
+  had drawn a pistol from the front of his soutane, but I kicked it
+  out of his hand, and again I fell with my knees upon his chest.
+  Then, for the first time, he screamed horribly, while I, half
+  blinded, felt about for the sword which he had so cunningly
+  concealed. My hand had just lighted upon it, and I was dashing
+  the blood from my face to see where he lay that I might transfix
+  him, when the whole coach turned partly over upon its side, and
+  my weapon was jerked out of my grasp by the shock.</p>
+
+  <p>Before I could recover myself the door was burst open, and I
+  was dragged by the heels on to the road. But even as I was torn
+  out on to the flint stones, and realized that thirty ruffians
+  were standing around me, I was filled with joy, for my pelisse
+  had been pulled over my head in the struggle and was covering one
+  of my eyes, and it was with my wounded eye that I was seeing this
+  gang of brigands. You see for yourself by this pucker and scar
+  how the thin blade passed between socket and ball, but it was
+  only at that moment, when I was dragged from the coach, that I
+  understood that my sight was not gone for ever. The creature's
+  intention, doubtless, was to drive it through into my brain, and
+  indeed he loosened some portion of the inner bone of my head, so
+  that I afterwards had more trouble from that wound than from any
+  one of the seventeen which I have received.</p>
+
+  <p>They dragged me out, these sons of dogs, with curses and
+  execrations, beating me with their fists and kicking me as I lay
+  upon the ground. I had frequently observed that the mountaineers
+  wore cloth swathed round their feet, but never did I imagine that
+  I should have so much cause to be thankful for it. Presently,
+  seeing the blood upon my head, and that I lay quiet, they thought
+  that I was unconscious, whereas I was storing every ugly face
+  among them into my memory, so that I might see them all safely
+  hanged if ever my chance came round. Brawny rascals they were,
+  with yellow handkerchiefs round their heads, and great red sashes
+  stuffed with weapons. They had rolled two rocks across the path,
+  where it took a sharp turn, and it was these which had torn off
+  one of the wheels of the coach and upset us. As to this reptile,
+  who had acted the priest so cleverly and had told me so much of
+  his parish and his mother, he, of course, had known where the
+  ambuscade was laid, and had attempted to put me beyond all
+  resistance at the moment when we reached it.</p>
+
+  <p>I cannot tell you how frantic their rage was when they drew
+  him out of the coach and saw the state to which I had reduced
+  him. If he had not got all his deserts, he had, at least,
+  something as a souvenir of his meeting with Etienne Gerard, for
+  his legs dangled aimlessly about, and though the upper part of
+  his body was convulsed with rage and pain, he sat straight down
+  upon his feet when they tried to set him upright. But all the
+  time his two little black eyes, which had seemed so kindly and so
+  innocent in the coach, were glaring at me like a wounded cat, and
+  he spat, and spat, and spat in my direction. My faith! when the
+  wretches jerked me on to my feet again, and when I was dragged
+  off up one of the mountain paths, I understood that a time was
+  coming when I was to need all my courage and resource. My enemy
+  was carried upon the shoulders of two men behind me, and I could
+  hear his hissing and his reviling, first in one ear and then in
+  the other, as I was hurried up the winding track.</p>
+
+  <p>I suppose that it must have been for an hour that we ascended,
+  and what with my wounded ankle and the pain from my eye, and the
+  fear lest this wound should have spoiled my appearance, I have
+  made no journey to which I look back with less pleasure. I have
+  never been a good climber at any time, but it is astonishing what
+  you can do, even with a stiff ankle, when you have a
+  copper-coloured brigand at each elbow and a nine-inch blade
+  within touch of your whiskers.</p>
+
+  <p>We came at last to a place where the path wound over a ridge,
+  and descended upon the other side through thick pine-trees into a
+  valley which opened to the south. In time of peace I had little
+  doubt that the villains were all smugglers, and that these were
+  the secret paths by which they crossed the Portuguese frontier.
+  There were many mule-tracks, and once I was surprised to see the
+  marks of a large horse where a stream had softened the track.
+  These were explained when, on reaching a place where there was a
+  clearing in the fir wood, I saw the animal itself haltered to a
+  fallen tree. My eyes had hardly rested upon it, when I recognized
+  the great black limbs and the white near fore-leg. It was the
+  very horse which I had begged for in the morning.</p>
+
+  <p>What, then, had become of Commissariat Vidal? Was it possible
+  that there was another Frenchman in as perilous a plight as
+  myself? The thought had hardly entered my head when our party
+  stopped and one of them uttered a peculiar cry. It was answered
+  from among the brambles which lined the base of a cliff at one
+  side of a clearing, and an instant later ten or a dozen more
+  brigands came out from amongst them, and the two parties greeted
+  each other. The new-comers surrounded my friend of the brad-awl
+  with cries of grief and sympathy, and then, turning upon me, they
+  brandished their knives and howled at me like the gang of
+  assassins that they were. So frantic were their gestures that I
+  was convinced that my end had come, and was just bracing myself
+  to meet it in a manner which should be worthy of my past
+  reputation, when one of them gave an order and I was dragged
+  roughly across the little glade to the brambles from which this
+  new band had emerged.</p>
+
+  <p>A narrow pathway led through them to a deep grotto in the side
+  of the cliff. The sun was already setting outside, and in the
+  cave itself it would have been quite dark but for a pair of
+  torches which blazed from a socket on either side. Between them
+  there was sitting at a rude table a very singular-looking person,
+  whom I saw instantly, from the respect with which the others
+  addressed him, could be none other than the brigand chief who had
+  received, on account of his dreadful character, the sinister name
+  of El Cuchillo.</p>
+
+  <p>The man whom I had injured had been carried in and placed upon
+  the top of a barrel, his helpless legs dangling about in front of
+  him, and his cat's eyes still darting glances of hatred at me. I
+  understood, from the snatches of talk which I could follow
+  between the chief and him, that he was the lieutenant of the
+  band, and that part of his duties was to lie in wait with his
+  smooth tongue and his peaceful garb for travellers like myself.
+  When I thought of how many gallant officers may have been lured
+  to their death by this monster of hypocrisy, it gave me a glow of
+  pleasure to think that I had brought his villainies to an
+  end&mdash;though I feared it would be at the price of a life
+  which neither the Emperor nor the army could well spare.</p>
+
+  <p>As the injured man still supported upon the barrel by two
+  comrades, was explaining in Spanish all that had befallen him, I
+  was held by several of the villains in front of the table at
+  which the chief was seated, and had an excellent opportunity of
+  observing him. I have seldom seen any man who was less like my
+  idea of a brigand, and especially of a brigand with such a
+  reputation that in a land of cruelty he had earned so dark a
+  nickname. His face was bluff and broad and bland, with ruddy
+  cheeks and comfortable little tufts of side-whiskers, which gave
+  him the appearance of a well-to-do grocer of the Rue St Antoine.
+  He had not any of those flaring sashes or gleaming weapons which
+  distinguished his followers, but on the contrary he wore a good
+  broadcloth coat like a respectable father of a family, and save
+  for his brown leggings there was nothing to indicate a life among
+  the mountains. His surroundings, too, corresponded with himself,
+  and beside his snuff-box upon the table there stood a great brown
+  book, which looked like a commercial ledger. Many other books
+  were ranged along a plank between two powder-casks, and there was
+  a great litter of papers, some of which had verses scribbled upon
+  them. All this I took in while he, leaning indolently back in his
+  chair, was listening to the report of his lieutenant. Having
+  heard everything, he ordered the cripple to be carried out again,
+  and I was left with my three guards, waiting to hear my fate. He
+  took up his pen, and tapping his forehead with the handle of it,
+  he pursed up his lips and looked out of the corner of his eyes at
+  the roof of the grotto.</p>
+
+  <p>'I suppose,' said he at last, speaking very excellent French,
+  'that you are not able to suggest a rhyme for the word
+  Covilha.'</p>
+
+  <p>I answered him that my acquaintance with the Spanish language
+  was so limited that I was unable to oblige him.</p>
+
+  <p>'It is a rich language,' said he, 'but less prolific in rhymes
+  than either the German or the English. That is why our best work
+  has been done in blank verse, a form of composition which is
+  capable of reaching great heights. But I fear that such subjects
+  are somewhat outside the range of a hussar.'</p>
+
+  <p>I was about to answer that if they were good enough for a
+  guerilla, they could not be too much for the light cavalry, but
+  he was already stooping over his half-finished verse. Presently
+  he threw down the pen with an exclamation of satisfaction, and
+  declaimed a few lines which drew a cry of approval from the three
+  ruffians who held me. His broad face blushed like a young girl
+  who receives her first compliment.</p>
+
+  <p>'The critics are in my favour, it appears,' said he; 'we amuse
+  ourselves in our long evenings by singing our own ballads, you
+  understand. I have some little facility in that direction, and I
+  do not at all despair of seeing some of my poor efforts in print
+  before long, and with "Madrid" upon the title-page, too. But we
+  must get back to business. May I ask what your name is?'</p>
+
+  <p>'Etienne Gerard.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Rank?'</p>
+
+  <p>'Colonel.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Corps?'</p>
+
+  <p>'The Third Hussars of Conflans.'</p>
+
+  <p>'You are young for a colonel.'</p>
+
+  <p>'My career has been an eventful one.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Tut, that makes it the sadder,' said he, with his bland
+  smile.</p>
+
+  <p>I made no answer to that, but I tried to show him by my
+  bearing that I was ready for the worst which could befall me.</p>
+
+  <p>'By the way, I rather fancy that we have had some of your
+  corps here,' said he, turning over the pages of his big brown
+  register. 'We endeavour to keep a record of our operations. Here
+  is a heading under June 24th. Have you not a young officer named
+  Soubiron, a tall, slight youth with light hair?'</p>
+
+  <p>'Certainly.'</p>
+
+  <p>'I see that we buried him upon that date.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Poor lad!' I cried. 'And how did he die?'</p>
+
+  <p>'We buried him.'</p>
+
+  <p>'But before you buried him?'</p>
+
+  <p>'You misunderstand me, Colonel. He was not dead before we
+  buried him.'</p>
+
+  <p>'You buried him alive!'</p>
+
+  <p>For a moment I was too stunned to act. Then I hurled myself
+  upon the man, as he sat with that placid smile of his upon his
+  lips, and I would have torn his throat out had the three wretches
+  not dragged me away from him. Again and again I made for him,
+  panting and cursing, shaking off this man and that, straining and
+  wrenching, but never quite free. At last, with my jacket torn
+  nearly off my back and blood dripping from my wrists, I was
+  hauled backwards in the bight of a rope and cords passed round my
+  ankles and my arms.</p>
+
+  <p>'You sleek hound!' I cried. 'If ever I have you at my sword's
+  point, I will teach you to maltreat one of my lads. You will
+  find, you bloodthirsty beast, that my Emperor has long arms, and
+  though you lie here like a rat in its hole, the time will come
+  when he will tear you out of it, and you and your vermin will
+  perish together.'</p>
+
+  <p>My faith, I have a rough side to my tongue, and there was not
+  a hard word that I had learned in fourteen campaigns which I did
+  not let fly at him; but he sat with the handle of his pen tapping
+  against his forehead and his eyes squinting up at the roof as if
+  he had conceived the idea of some new stanza. It was this
+  occupation of his which showed me how I might get my point into
+  him.</p>
+
+  <p>'You spawn!' said I; 'you think that you are safe here, but
+  your life may be as short as that of your absurd verses, and God
+  knows that it could not be shorter than that.'</p>
+
+  <p>Ah, you should have seen him bound from his chair when I said
+  the words. This vile monster, who dispensed death and torture as
+  a grocer serves out his figs, had one raw nerve then which I
+  could prod at pleasure. His face grew livid, and those little
+  bourgeois side-whiskers quivered and thrilled with passion.</p>
+
+  <p>'Very good, Colonel. You have said enough,' he cried, in a
+  choking voice. 'You say that you have had a very distinguished
+  career. I promise you also a very distinguished ending. Colonel
+  Etienne Gerard of the Third Hussars shall have a death of his
+  own.'</p>
+
+  <p>'And I only beg,' said I, 'that you will not commemorate it in
+  verse.' I had one or two little ironies to utter, but he cut me
+  short by a furious gesture which caused my three guards to drag
+  me from the cave.</p>
+
+  <p>Our interview, which I have told you as nearly as I can
+  remember it, must have lasted some time, for it was quite dark
+  when we came out, and the moon was shining very clearly in the
+  heavens. The brigands had lighted a great fire of the dried
+  branches of the fir-trees; not, of course, for warmth, since the
+  night was already very sultry, but to cook their evening meal. A
+  huge copper pot hung over the blaze, and the rascals were lying
+  all round in the yellow glare, so that the scene looked like one
+  of those pictures which Junot stole out of Madrid. There are some
+  soldiers who profess to care nothing for art and the like, but I
+  have always been drawn towards it myself, in which respect I show
+  my good taste and my breeding. I remember, for example, that when
+  Lefebvre was selling the plunder after the fall of Danzig, I
+  bought a very fine picture, called 'Nymphs Surprised in a Wood,'
+  and I carried it with me through two campaigns, until my charger
+  had the misfortune to put his hoof through it.</p>
+
+  <p>I only tell you this, however, to show you that I was never a
+  mere rough soldier like Rapp or Ney. As I lay in that brigands'
+  camp, I had little time or inclination to think about such
+  matters. They had thrown me down under a tree, the three villains
+  squatting round and smoking their cigarettes within hands' touch
+  of me. What to do I could not imagine. In my whole career I do
+  not suppose that I have ten times been in as hopeless a
+  situation. 'But courage,' thought I. 'Courage, my brave boy! You
+  were not made a Colonel of Hussars at twenty-eight because you
+  could dance a cotillon. You are a picked man, Etienne; a man who
+  has come through more than two hundred affairs, and this little
+  one is surely not going to be the last.' I began eagerly to
+  glance about for some chance of escape, and as I did so I saw
+  something which filled me with great astonishment.</p>
+
+  <p>I have already told you that a large fire was burning in the
+  centre of the glade. What with its glare, and what with the
+  moonlight, everything was as clear as possible. On the other side
+  of the glade there was a single tall fir-tree which attracted my
+  attention because its trunk and lower branches were discoloured,
+  as if a large fire had recently been lit underneath it. A clump
+  of bushes grew in front of it which concealed the base. Well, as
+  I looked towards it, I was surprised to see projecting above the
+  bush, and fastened apparently to the tree, a pair of fine riding
+  boots with the toes upwards. At first I thought that they were
+  tied there, but as I looked harder I saw that they were secured
+  by a great nail which was hammered through the foot of each. And
+  then, suddenly, with a thrill of horror, I understood that these
+  were not empty boots; and moving my head a little to the right, I
+  was able to see who it was that had been fastened there, and why
+  a fire had been lit beneath the tree. It is not pleasant to speak
+  or to think of horrors, my friends, and I do not wish to give any
+  of you bad dreams tonight&mdash;but I cannot take you among the
+  Spanish guerillas without showing you what kind of men they were,
+  and the sort of warfare that they waged. I will only say that I
+  understood why Monsieur Vidal's horse was waiting masterless in
+  the grove, and that I hoped he had met this terrible fate with
+  sprightliness and courage, as a good Frenchman ought.</p>
+
+  <p>It was not a very cheering sight for me, as you can imagine.
+  When I had been with their chief in the grotto I had been so
+  carried away by my rage at the cruel death of young Soubiron, who
+  was one of the brightest lads who ever threw his thigh over a
+  charger, that I had never given a thought to my own position.
+  Perhaps it would have been more politic had I spoken the ruffian
+  fair, but it was too late now. The cork was drawn and I must
+  drain the wine. Besides, if the harmless commissariat man were
+  put to such a death, what hope was there for me, who had snapped
+  the spine of their lieutenant? No, I was doomed in any case, and
+  it was as well perhaps that I should have put the best face on
+  the matter. This beast could bear witness that Etienne Gerard had
+  died as he had lived, and that one prisoner at least had not
+  quailed before him. I lay there thinking of the various girls who
+  would mourn for me, and of my dear old mother, and of the
+  deplorable loss which I should be, both to my regiment and to the
+  Emperor, and I am not ashamed to confess to you that I shed tears
+  as I thought of the general consternation which my premature end
+  would give rise to.</p>
+
+  <p>But all the time I was taking the very keenest notice of
+  everything which might possibly help me. I am not a man who would
+  lie like a sick horse waiting for the farrier sergeant and the
+  pole-axe. First I would give a little tug at my ankle cords, and
+  then another at those which were round my wrists, and all the
+  time that I was trying to loosen them I was peering round to see
+  if I could find something which was in my favour. There was one
+  thing which was very evident. A hussar is but half formed without
+  a horse, and there was my other half quietly grazing within
+  thirty yards of me. Then I observed yet another thing. The path
+  by which we had come over the mountains was so steep that a horse
+  could only be led across it slowly and with difficulty, but in
+  the other direction the ground appeared to be more open, and to
+  lead straight down into a gently-sloping valley. Had I but my
+  feet in yonder stirrups and my sabre in my hand, a single bold
+  dash might take me out of the power of these vermin of the
+  rocks.</p>
+
+  <p>I was still thinking it over and straining with my wrists and
+  my ankles, when their chief came out from his grotto, and after
+  some talk with his lieutenant, who lay groaning near the fire,
+  they both nodded their heads and looked across at me. He then
+  said some few words to the band, who clapped their hands and
+  laughed uproariously. Things looked ominous, and I was delighted
+  to feel that my hands were so far free that I could easily slip
+  them through the cords if I wished. But with my ankles I feared
+  that I could do nothing, for when I strained it brought such pain
+  into my lance-wound that I had to gnaw my moustache to keep from
+  crying out. I could only lie still, half-free and half-bound, and
+  see what turn things were likely to take.</p>
+
+  <p>For a little I could not make out what they were after. One of
+  the rascals climbed up a well-grown fir-tree upon one side of the
+  glade, and tied a rope round the top of the trunk. He then
+  fastened another rope in the same fashion to a similar tree upon
+  the other side. The two loose ends were now dangling down, and I
+  waited with some curiosity, and just a little trepidation also,
+  to see what they would do next. The whole band pulled upon one of
+  the ropes until they had bent the strong young tree down into a
+  semi-circle, and they then fastened it to a stump, so as to hold
+  it so. When they had bent the other tree down in a similar
+  fashion, the two summits were within a few feet of each other,
+  though, as you understand, they would each spring back into their
+  original position the instant that they were released. I already
+  saw the diabolical plan which these miscreants had formed.</p>
+
+  <p>'I presume that you are a strong man, Colonel,' said the
+  chief, coming towards me with his hateful smile.</p>
+
+  <p>'If you will have the kindness to loosen these cords,' I
+  answered, 'I will show you how strong I am.'</p>
+
+  <p>'We were all interested to see whether you were as strong as
+  these two young saplings,' said he. 'It is our intention, you
+  see, to tie one end of each rope round your ankles and then let
+  the trees go. If you are stronger than the trees, then, of
+  course, no harm would be done; if, on the other hand, the trees
+  are stronger than you, why, in that case, Colonel, we may have a
+  souvenir of you upon each side of our little glade.'</p>
+
+  <p>He laughed as he spoke, and at the sight of it the whole forty
+  of them laughed also. Even now if I am in my darker humour, or if
+  I have a touch of my old Lithuanian ague, I see in my sleep that
+  ring of dark, savage faces, with their cruel eyes, and the
+  firelight flashing upon their strong white teeth.</p>
+
+  <p>It is astonishing&mdash;and I have heard many make the same
+  remark&mdash;how acute one's senses become at such a crisis as
+  this. I am convinced that at no moment is one living so vividly,
+  so acutely, as at the instant when a violent and foreseen death
+  overtakes one. I could smell the resinous fagots, I could see
+  every twig upon the ground, I could hear every rustle of the
+  branches, as I have never smelled or seen or heard save at such
+  times of danger. And so it was that long before anyone else,
+  before even the time when the chief had addressed me, I had heard
+  a low, monotonous sound, far away indeed, and yet coming nearer
+  at every instant. At first it was but a murmur, a rumble, but by
+  the time he had finished speaking, while the assassins were
+  untying my ankles in order to lead me to the scene of my murder,
+  I heard, as plainly as ever I heard anything in my life, the
+  clinking of horseshoes and the jingling of bridle-chains, with
+  the clank of sabres against stirrup-irons. Is it likely that I,
+  who had lived with the light cavalry since the first hair shaded
+  my lip, would mistake the sound of troopers on the march?</p>
+
+  <p>'Help, comrades, help!' I shrieked, and though they struck me
+  across the mouth and tried to drag me up to the trees, I kept on
+  yelling, 'Help me, my brave boys! Help me, my children! They are
+  murdering your colonel!'</p>
+
+  <p>For the moment my wounds and my troubles had brought on a
+  delirium, and I looked for nothing less than my five hundred
+  hussars, kettle-drums and all, to appear at the opening of the
+  glade.</p>
+
+  <p>But that which really appeared was very different to anything
+  which I had conceived. Into the clear space there came galloping
+  a fine young man upon a most beautiful roan horse. He was
+  fresh-faced and pleasant-looking, with the most debonair bearing
+  in the world and the most gallant way of carrying himself&mdash;a
+  way which reminded me somewhat of my own. He wore a singular coat
+  which had once been red all over, but which was now stained to
+  the colour of a withered oak-leaf wherever the weather could
+  reach it. His shoulder-straps, however, were of golden lace, and
+  he had a bright metal helmet upon his head, with a coquettish
+  white plume upon one side of its crest. He trotted his horse up
+  the glade, while behind him rode four cavaliers in the same
+  dress&mdash;all clean-shaven, with round, comely faces, looking
+  to me more like monks than dragoons. At a short, gruff order they
+  halted with a rattle of arms, while their leader cantered
+  forward, the fire beating upon his eager face and the beautiful
+  head of his charger. I knew, of course, by the strange coats that
+  they were English. It was the first sight that I had ever had of
+  them, but from their stout bearing and their masterful way I
+  could see at a glance that what I had always been told was true,
+  and that they were excellent people to fight against.</p>
+
+  <p>'Well, well, well!' cried the young officer, in sufficiently
+  bad French, 'what game are you up to here? Who was that who was
+  yelling for help, and what are you trying to do to him?'</p>
+
+  <p>It was at that moment that I learned to bless those months
+  which Obriant, the descendant of the Irish kings, had spent in
+  teaching me the tongue of the English. My ankles had just been
+  freed, so that I had only to slip my hands out of the cords, and
+  with a single rush I had flown across, picked up my sabre where
+  it lay by the fire, and hurled myself on to the saddle of poor
+  Vidal's horse. Yes, for all my wounded ankle, I never put foot to
+  stirrup, but was in the seat in a single bound. I tore the halter
+  from the tree, and before these villains could so much as snap a
+  pistol at me I was beside the English officer.</p>
+
+  <p>'I surrender to you, sir,' I cried; though I daresay my
+  English was not very much better than his French. 'If you will
+  look at that tree to the left you will see what these villains do
+  to the honourable gentlemen who fall into their hands.'</p>
+
+  <p>The fire had flared up at that moment, and there was poor
+  Vidal exposed before them, as horrible an object as one could see
+  in a nightmare. 'Godam!' cried the officer, and 'Godam!' cried
+  each of the four troopers, which is the same as with us when we
+  cry 'Mon Dieu!' Out rasped the five swords, and the four men
+  closed up. One, who wore a sergeant's chevrons, laughed and
+  clapped me on the shoulder.</p>
+
+  <p>'Fight for your skin, froggy,' said he.</p>
+
+  <p>Ah, it was so fine to have a horse between my thighs and a
+  weapon in my grip. I waved it above my head and shouted in my
+  exultation. The chief had come forward with that odious smiling
+  face of his.</p>
+
+  <p>'Your excellency will observe that this Frenchman is our
+  prisoner,' said he.</p>
+
+  <p>'You are a rascally robber,' said the Englishman, shaking his
+  sword at him. 'It is a disgrace to us to have such allies. By my
+  faith, if Lord Wellington were of my mind we would swing you up
+  on the nearest tree.'</p>
+
+  <p>'But my prisoner?' said the brigand, in his suave voice.</p>
+
+  <p>'He shall come with us to the British camp.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Just a word in your ear before you take him.'</p>
+
+  <p>He approached the young officer, and then turning as quick as
+  a flash, he fired his pistol in my face. The bullet scored its
+  way through my hair and burst a hole on each side of my busby.
+  Seeing that he had missed me, he raised the pistol and was about
+  to hurl it at me when the English sergeant, with a single
+  back-handed cut, nearly severed his head from his body. His blood
+  had not reached the ground, nor the last curse died on his lips,
+  before the whole horde was upon us, but with a dozen bounds and
+  as many slashes we were all safely out of the glade, and
+  galloping down the winding track which led to the valley.</p>
+
+  <p>It was not until we had left the ravine far behind us and were
+  right out in the open fields that we ventured to halt, and to see
+  what injuries we had sustained. For me, wounded and weary as I
+  was, my heart was beating proudly, and my chest was nearly
+  bursting my tunic to think that I, Etienne Gerard, had left this
+  gang of murderers so much by which to remember me. My faith, they
+  would think twice before they ventured again to lay hands upon
+  one of the Third Hussars. So carried away was I that I made a
+  small oration to these brave Englishmen, and told them who it was
+  that they had helped to rescue. I would have spoken of glory
+  also, and of the sympathies of brave men, but the officer cut me
+  short.</p>
+
+  <p>'That's all right,' said he. 'Any injuries, Sergeant?'</p>
+
+  <p>'Trooper Jones's horse hit with a pistol bullet on the
+  fetlock.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Trooper Jones to go with us. Sergeant Halliday, with troopers
+  Harvey and Smith, to keep to the right until they touch the
+  vedettes of the German Hussars.'</p>
+
+  <p>So these three jingled away together, while the officer and I,
+  followed at some distance by the trooper whose horse had been
+  wounded, rode straight down in the direction of the English camp.
+  Very soon we had opened our hearts, for we each liked the other
+  from the beginning. He was of the nobility, this brave lad, and
+  he had been sent out scouting by Lord Wellington to see if there
+  were any signs of our advancing through the mountains. It is one
+  advantage of a wandering life like mine, that you learn to pick
+  up those bits of knowledge which distinguish the man of the
+  world. I have, for example, hardly ever met a Frenchman who could
+  repeat an English title correctly. If I had not travelled I
+  should not be able to say with confidence that this young man's
+  real name was Milor the Hon. Sir Russell, Bart., this last being
+  an honourable distinction, so that it was as the Bart that I
+  usually addressed him, just as in Spanish one might say 'the
+  Don.'</p>
+
+  <p>As we rode beneath the moonlight in the lovely Spanish night,
+  we spoke our minds to each other, as if we were brothers. We were
+  both of an age, you see, both of the light cavalry also (the
+  Sixteenth Light Dragoons was his regiment), and both with the
+  same hopes and ambitions. Never have I learned to know a man so
+  quickly as I did the Bart. He gave me the name of a girl whom he
+  had loved at a garden called Vauxhall, and, for my own part, I
+  spoke to him of little Coralie, of the Opera. He took a lock of
+  hair from his bosom, and I a garter. Then we nearly quarrelled
+  over hussar and dragoon, for he was absurdly proud of his
+  regiment, and you should have seen him curl his lip and clap his
+  hand to his hilt when I said that I hoped it might never be its
+  misfortune to come in the way of the Third. Finally, he began to
+  speak about what the English call sport, and he told such stories
+  of the money which he had lost over which of two cocks could kill
+  the other, or which of two men could strike the other the most in
+  a fight for a prize, that I was filled with astonishment. He was
+  ready to bet upon anything in the most wonderful manner, and when
+  I chanced to see a shooting star he was anxious to bet that he
+  would see more than me, twenty-five francs a star, and it was
+  only when I explained that my purse was in the hands of the
+  brigands that he would give over the idea.</p>
+
+  <p>Well, we chatted away in this very amiable fashion until the
+  day began to break, when suddenly we heard a great volley of
+  musketry from somewhere in front of us. It was very rocky and
+  broken ground, and I thought, although I could see nothing, that
+  a general engagement had broken out. The Bart laughed at my idea,
+  however, and explained that the sound came from the English camp,
+  where every man emptied his piece each morning so as to make sure
+  of having a dry priming.</p>
+
+  <p>'In another mile we shall be up with the outposts,' said
+  he.</p>
+
+  <p>I glanced round at this, and I perceived that we had trotted
+  along at so good a pace during the time that we were keeping up
+  our pleasant chat, that the dragoon with the lame horse was
+  altogether out of sight. I looked on every side, but in the whole
+  of that vast rocky valley there was no one save only the Bart and
+  I&mdash;both of us armed, you understand, and both of us well
+  mounted. I began to ask myself whether after all it was quite
+  necessary that I should ride that mile which would bring me to
+  the British outposts.</p>
+
+  <p>Now, I wish to be very clear with you on this point, my
+  friends, for I would not have you think that I was acting
+  dishonourably or ungratefully to the man who had helped me away
+  from the brigands. You must remember that of all duties the
+  strongest is that which a commanding officer owes to his men. You
+  must also bear in mind that war is a game which is played under
+  fixed rules, and when these rules are broken one must at once
+  claim the forfeit. If, for example, I had given a parole, then I
+  should have been an infamous wretch had I dreamed of escaping.
+  But no parole had been asked of me. Out of over-confidence, and
+  the chance of the lame horse dropping behind, the Bart had
+  permitted me to get upon equal terms with him. Had it been I who
+  had taken him, I should have used him as courteously as he had
+  me, but, at the same time, I should have respected his enterprise
+  so far as to have deprived him of his sword, and seen that I had
+  at least one guard beside myself. I reined up my horse and
+  explained this to him, asking him at the same time whether he saw
+  any breach of honour in my leaving him.</p>
+
+  <p>He thought about it, and several times repeated that which the
+  English say when they mean 'Mon Dieu.'</p>
+
+  <p>'You would give me the slip, would you?' said he.</p>
+
+  <p>'If you can give no reason against it.'</p>
+
+  <p>'The only reason that I can think of,' said the Bart, 'is that
+  I should instantly cut your head off if you were to attempt
+  it.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Two can play at that game, my dear Bart,' said I.</p>
+
+  <p>'Then we'll see who can play at it best,' he cried, pulling
+  out his sword.</p>
+
+  <p>I had drawn mine also, but I was quite determined not to hurt
+  this admirable young man who had been my benefactor.</p>
+
+  <p>'Consider,' said I, 'you say that I am your prisoner. I might
+  with equal reason say that you are mine. We are alone here, and
+  though I have no doubt that you are an excellent swordsman, you
+  can hardly hope to hold your own against the best blade in the
+  six light cavalry brigades.'</p>
+
+  <p>His answer was a cut at my head. I parried and shore off half
+  of his white plume. He thrust at my breast. I turned his point
+  and cut away the other half of his cockade.</p>
+
+  <p>'Curse your monkey-tricks!' he cried, as I wheeled my horse
+  away from him.</p>
+
+  <p>'Why should you strike at me?' said I. 'You see that I will
+  not strike back.'</p>
+
+  <p>'That's all very well,' said he; 'but you've got to come along
+  with me to the camp.'</p>
+
+  <p>'I shall never see the camp,' said I.</p>
+
+  <p>'I'll lay you nine to four you do,' he cried, as he made at
+  me, sword in hand.</p>
+
+  <p>But those words of his put something new into my head. Could
+  we not decide the matter in some better way than fighting? The
+  Bart was placing me in such a position that I should have to hurt
+  him, or he would certainly hurt me. I avoided his rush, though
+  his sword-point was within an inch of my neck.</p>
+
+  <p>'I have a proposal,' I cried. 'We shall throw dice as to which
+  is the prisoner of the other.'</p>
+
+  <p>He smiled at this. It appealed to his love of sport.</p>
+
+  <p>'Where are your dice?' he cried.</p>
+
+  <p>'I have none.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Nor I. But I have cards.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Cards let it be,' said I.</p>
+
+  <p>'And the game?'</p>
+
+  <p>'I leave it to you.'</p>
+
+  <p>'&Eacute;cart&eacute;, then&mdash;the best of three.'</p>
+
+  <p>I could not help smiling as I agreed, for I do not suppose
+  that there were three men in France who were my masters at the
+  game. I told the Bart as much as we dismounted. He smiled also as
+  he listened.</p>
+
+  <p>'I was counted the best player at Watier's,' said he. 'With
+  even luck you deserve to get off if you beat me.'</p>
+
+  <p>So we tethered our two horses and sat down one on either side
+  of a great flat rock. The Bart took a pack of cards out of his
+  tunic, and I had only to see him shuffle to convince me that I
+  had no novice to deal with. We cut, and the deal fell to him.</p>
+
+  <p>My faith, it was a stake worth playing for. He wished to add a
+  hundred gold pieces a game, but what was money when the fate of
+  Colonel Etienne Gerard hung upon the cards? I felt as though all
+  those who had reason to be interested in the game&mdash;my
+  mother, my hussars, the Sixth Corps d'Arm&eacute;e, Ney, Massena,
+  even the Emperor himself&mdash;were forming a ring round us in
+  that desolate valley. Heavens, what a blow to one and all of them
+  should the cards go against me! But I was confident, for my
+  &eacute;cart&eacute; play was as famous as my swordsmanship, and
+  save old Bouvet of the Hussars of Bercheny, who won seventy-six
+  out of one hundred and fifty games off me, I have always had the
+  best of a series.</p>
+
+  <p>The first game I won right off, though I must confess that the
+  cards were with me, and that my adversary could have done no
+  more. In the second, I never played better and saved a trick by a
+  finesse, but the Bart voled me once, marked the king, and ran out
+  in the second hand. My faith, we were so excited that he laid his
+  helmet down beside him and I my busby.</p>
+
+  <p>'I'll lay my roan mare against your black horse,' said he.</p>
+
+  <p>'Done!' said I.</p>
+
+  <p>'Sword against sword.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Done!' said I.</p>
+
+  <p>'Saddle, bridle, and stirrups!' he cried.</p>
+
+  <p>'Done!' I shouted.</p>
+
+  <p>I had caught this spirit of sport from him. I would have laid
+  my hussars against his dragoons had they been ours to pledge.</p>
+
+  <p>And then began the game of games. Oh, he played, this
+  Englishman&mdash;he played in a way that was worthy of such a
+  stake. But I, my friends, I was superb! Of the five which I had
+  to make to win, I gained three on the first hand. The Bart bit
+  his moustache and drummed his hands, while I already felt myself
+  at the head of my dear little rascals. On the second, I turned
+  the king, but lost two tricks&mdash;and my score was four to his
+  two. When I saw my next hand I could not but give a cry of
+  delight. 'If I cannot gain my freedom on this,' thought I, 'I
+  deserve to remain for ever in chains.'</p>
+
+  <p>Give me the cards, landlord, and I will lay them out on the
+  table for you.</p>
+
+  <p>Here was my hand: knave and ace of clubs, queen and knave of
+  diamonds, and king of hearts. Clubs were trumps, mark you, and I
+  had but one point between me and freedom. He knew it was the
+  crisis, and he undid his tunic. I threw my dolman on the ground.
+  He led the ten of spades. I took it with my ace of trumps. One
+  point in my favour. The correct play was to clear the trumps, and
+  I led the knave. Down came the queen upon it, and the game was
+  equal. He led the eight of spades, and I could only discard my
+  queen of diamonds. Then came the seven of spades, and the hair
+  stood straight up on my head. We each threw down a king at the
+  final. He had won two points, and my beautiful hand had been
+  mastered by his inferior one. I could have rolled on the ground
+  as I thought of it. They used to play very good
+  &eacute;cart&eacute; at Watier's in the year '10. I say
+  it&mdash;I, Brigadier Gerard.</p>
+
+  <p>The last game was now four all. This next hand must settle it
+  one way or the other. He undid his sash, and I put away my
+  sword-belt. He was cool, this Englishman, and I tried to be so
+  also, but the perspiration would trickle into my eyes. The deal
+  lay with him, and I may confess to you, my friends, that my hands
+  shook so that I could hardly pick my cards from the rock. But
+  when I raised them, what was the first thing that my eyes rested
+  upon? It was the king, the king, the glorious king of trumps! My
+  mouth was open to declare it when the words were frozen upon my
+  lips by the appearance of my comrade.</p>
+
+  <p>He held his cards in his hand, but his jaw had fallen, and his
+  eyes were staring over my shoulder with the most dreadful
+  expression of consternation and surprise. I whisked round, and I
+  was myself amazed at what I saw.</p>
+
+  <p>Three men were standing quite close to us&mdash;fifteen
+  m&egrave;tres at the farthest. The middle one was of a good
+  height, and yet not too tall&mdash;about the same height, in
+  fact, that I am myself. He was clad in a dark uniform with a
+  small cocked hat, and some sort of white plume upon the side. But
+  I had little thought of his dress. It was his face, his gaunt
+  cheeks, his beak-like nose, his masterful blue eyes, his thin,
+  firm slit of a mouth which made one feel that this was a
+  wonderful man, a man of a million. His brows were tied into a
+  knot, and he cast such a glance at my poor Bart from under them
+  that one by one the cards came fluttering down from his nerveless
+  fingers. Of the two other men, one, who had a face as brown and
+  hard as though it had been carved out of old oak, wore a bright
+  red coat, while the other, a fine portly man with bushy
+  side-whiskers, was in a blue jacket with gold facings. Some
+  little distance behind, three orderlies were holding as many
+  horses, and an escort of dragoons was waiting in the rear.</p>
+
+  <p>'Heh, Crauford, what the deuce is this?' asked the thin
+  man.</p>
+
+  <p>'D'you hear, sir?' cried the man with the red coat. 'Lord
+  Wellington wants to know what this means.'</p>
+
+  <p>My poor Bart broke into an account of all that had occurred,
+  but that rock-face never softened for an instant.</p>
+
+  <p>'Pretty fine, 'pon my word, General Crauford,' he broke in.
+  'The discipline of this force must be maintained, sir. Report
+  yourself at headquarters as a prisoner.'</p>
+
+  <p>It was dreadful to me to see the Bart mount his horse and ride
+  off with hanging head. I could not endure it. I threw myself
+  before this English General. I pleaded with him for my friend. I
+  told him how I, Colonel Gerard, would witness what a dashing
+  young officer he was. Ah, my eloquence might have melted the
+  hardest heart; I brought tears to my own eyes, but none to his.
+  My voice broke, and I could say no more.</p>
+
+  <p>'What weight do you put on your mules, sir, in the French
+  service?' he asked. Yes, that was all this phlegmatic Englishman
+  had to answer to these burning words of mine. That was his reply
+  to what would have made a Frenchman weep upon my shoulder.</p>
+
+  <p>'What weight on a mule?' asked the man with the red coat.</p>
+
+  <p>'Two hundred and ten pounds,' said I.</p>
+
+  <p>'Then you load them deucedly badly,' said Lord Wellington.
+  'Remove the prisoner to the rear.'</p>
+
+  <p>His dragoons closed in upon me, and I&mdash;I was driven mad,
+  as I thought that the game had been in my hands, and that I ought
+  at that moment to be a free man. I held the cards up in front of
+  the General.</p>
+
+  <p>'See, my lord!' I cried; 'I played for my freedom and I won,
+  for, as you perceive, I hold the king.'</p>
+
+  <p>For the first time a slight smile softened his gaunt face.</p>
+
+  <p>'On the contrary,' said he, as he mounted his horse, 'it is I
+  who won, for, as you perceive, my King holds you.'</p>
+
+  <p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+  <p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+  <p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+  <p>&nbsp;</p><a name="RULE4_3"><!-- RULE4 3 --></a>
+
+  <h2>4. HOW THE KING HELD THE BRIGADIER</h2>
+
+  <p>Murat was undoubtedly an excellent cavalry officer, but he had
+  too much swagger, which spoils many a good soldier. Lasalle, too,
+  was a very dashing leader, but he ruined himself with wine and
+  folly. Now I, Etienne Gerard, was always totally devoid of
+  swagger, and at the same time I was very abstemious, except,
+  maybe, at the end of a campaign, or when I met an old
+  comrade-in-arms. For these reasons I might, perhaps, had it not
+  been for a certain diffidence, have claimed to be the most
+  valuable officer in my own branch of the Service. It is true that
+  I never rose to be more than a chief of brigade, but then, as
+  everyone knows, no one had a chance of rising to the top unless
+  he had the good fortune to be with the Emperor in his early
+  campaigns. Except Lasalle, and Labau, and Drouet, I can hardly
+  remember any one of the generals who had not already made his
+  name before the Egyptian business. Even I, with all my brilliant
+  qualities, could only attain the head of my brigade, and also the
+  special medal of honour, which I received from the Emperor
+  himself, and which I keep at home in a leathern pouch.</p>
+
+  <p>But though I never rose higher than this, my qualities were
+  very well known to those who had served with me, and also to the
+  English. After they had captured me in the way which I described
+  to you the other night, they kept a very good guard over me at
+  Oporto, and I promise you that they did not give such a
+  formidable opponent a chance of slipping through their fingers.
+  It was on the 10th of August that I was escorted on board the
+  transport which was to take us to England, and behold me before
+  the end of the month in the great prison which had been built for
+  us at Dartmoor!</p>
+
+  <p>'L'h&ocirc;tel Fran&ccedil;ais, et Pension,' we used to call
+  it, for you understand that we were all brave men there, and that
+  we did not lose our spirits because we were in adversity.</p>
+
+  <p>It was only those officers who refused to give their parole
+  who were confined at Dartmoor, and most of the prisoners were
+  seamen, or from the ranks. You ask me, perhaps, why it was that I
+  did not give this parole, and so enjoy the same good treatment as
+  most of my brother officers. Well, I had two reasons, and both of
+  them were sufficiently strong.</p>
+
+  <p>In the first place, I had so much confidence in myself, that I
+  was quite convinced that I could escape. In the second, my
+  family, though of good repute, has never been wealthy, and I
+  could not bring myself to take anything from the small income of
+  my mother. On the other hand, it would never do for a man like me
+  to be outshone by the bourgeois society of an English country
+  town, or to be without the means of showing courtesies and
+  attentions to those ladies whom I should attract. It was for
+  these reasons that I preferred to be buried in the dreadful
+  prison of Dartmoor. I wish now to tell you of my adventures in
+  England, and how far Milor Wellington's words were true when he
+  said that his King would hold me.</p>
+
+  <p>And first of all I may say that if it were not that I have set
+  off to tell you about what befell myself, I could keep you here
+  until morning with my stories about Dartmoor itself, and about
+  the singular things which occurred there. It was one of the very
+  strangest places in the whole world, for there, in the middle of
+  that great desolate waste, were herded together seven or eight
+  thousand men&mdash;warriors, you understand, men of experience
+  and courage. Around there were a double wall and a ditch, and
+  warders and soldiers; but, my faith! you could not coop men like
+  that up like rabbits in a hutch! They would escape by twos and
+  tens and twenties, and then the cannon would boom, and the search
+  parties run, and we, who were left behind, would laugh and dance
+  and shout 'Vive l'Empereur' until the warders would turn their
+  muskets upon us in their passion. And then we would have our
+  little mutinies, too, and up would come the infantry and the guns
+  from Plymouth, and that would set us yelling 'Vive l'Empereur'
+  once more, as though we wished them to hear us in Paris. We had
+  lively moments at Dartmoor, and we contrived that those who were
+  about us should be lively also.</p>
+
+  <p>You must know that the prisoners there had their own Courts of
+  Justice, in which they tried their own cases, and inflicted their
+  own punishments. Stealing and quarrelling were punished&mdash;but
+  most of all treachery. When I came there first there was a man,
+  Meunier, from Rheims, who had given information of some plot to
+  escape. Well, that night, owing to some form or other which had
+  to be gone through, they did not take him out from among the
+  other prisoners, and though he wept and screamed, and grovelled
+  upon the ground, they left him there amongst the comrades whom he
+  had betrayed. That night there was a trial with a whispered
+  accusation and a whispered defence, a gagged prisoner, and a
+  judge whom none could see. In the morning, when they came for
+  their man with papers for his release, there was not as much of
+  him left as you could put upon your thumb-nail. They were
+  ingenious people, these prisoners, and they had their own way of
+  managing.</p>
+
+  <p>We officers, however, lived in a separate wing, and a very
+  singular group of people we were. They had left us our uniforms,
+  so that there was hardly a corps which had served under Victor,
+  or Massena, or Ney, which was not represented there, and some had
+  been there from the time when Junot was beaten at Vimiera. We had
+  chasseurs in their green tunics, and hussars, like myself, and
+  blue-coated dragoons, and white-fronted lancers, and voltigeurs,
+  and grenadiers, and the men of the artillery and engineers. But
+  the greater part were naval officers, for the English had had the
+  better of us upon the seas. I could never understand this until I
+  journeyed myself from Oporto to Plymouth, when I lay for seven
+  days upon my back, and could not have stirred had I seen the
+  eagle of the regiment carried off before my eyes. It was in
+  perfidious weather like this that Nelson took advantage of
+  us.</p>
+
+  <p>I had no sooner got into Dartmoor than I began to plan to get
+  out again, and you can readily believe that, with wits sharpened
+  by twelve years of warfare, it was not very long before I saw my
+  way.</p>
+
+  <p>You must know, in the first place, that I had a very great
+  advantage in having some knowledge of the English language. I
+  learned it during the months that I spent before Danzig, from
+  Adjutant Obriant, of the Regiment Irlandais, who was sprung from
+  the ancient kings of the country. I was quickly able to speak it
+  with some facility, for I do not take long to master anything to
+  which I set my mind. In three months I could not only express my
+  meaning, but I could use the idioms of the people. It was Obriant
+  who taught me to say 'Be jabers,' just as we might say 'Ma foi';
+  and also 'The curse of Crummle!' which means 'Ventre bleu!' Many
+  a time I have seen the English smile with pleasure when they have
+  heard me speak so much like one of themselves.</p>
+
+  <p>We officers were put two in a cell, which was very little to
+  my taste, for my room-mate was a tall, silent man named Beaumont,
+  of the Flying Artillery, who had been taken by the English
+  cavalry at Astorga.</p>
+
+  <p>It is seldom I meet a man of whom I cannot make a friend, for
+  my disposition and manners are&mdash;as you know them. But this
+  fellow had never a smile for my jests, nor an ear for my sorrows,
+  but would sit looking at me with his sullen eyes, until sometimes
+  I thought that his two years of captivity had driven him crazy.
+  Ah, how I longed that old Bouvet, or any of my comrades of the
+  hussars, was there, instead of this mummy of a man. But such as
+  he was I had to make the best of him, and it was very evident
+  that no escape could be made unless he were my partner in it, for
+  what could I possibly do without him observing me? I hinted at
+  it, therefore, and then by degrees I spoke more plainly, until it
+  seemed to me that I had prevailed upon him to share my lot.</p>
+
+  <p>I tried the walls, and I tried the floor, and I tried the
+  ceiling, but though I tapped and probed, they all appeared to be
+  very thick and solid. The door was of iron, shutting with a
+  spring lock, and provided with a small grating, through which a
+  warder looked twice in every night. Within there were two beds,
+  two stools, two washstands&mdash;nothing more. It was enough for
+  my wants, for when had I had as much during those twelve years
+  spent in camps? But how was I to get out? Night after night I
+  thought of my five hundred hussars, and had dreadful nightmares,
+  in which I fancied that the whole regiment needed shoeing, or
+  that my horses were all bloated with green fodder, or that they
+  were foundered from bogland, or that six squadrons were clubbed
+  in the presence of the Emperor. Then I would awake in a cold
+  sweat, and set to work picking and tapping at the walls once
+  more; for I knew very well that there is no difficulty which
+  cannot be overcome by a ready brain and a pair of cunning
+  hands.</p>
+
+  <p>There was a single window in our cell, which was too small to
+  admit a child. It was further defended by a thick iron bar in the
+  centre. It was not a very promising point of escape, as you will
+  allow, but I became more and more convinced that our efforts must
+  be directed towards it. To make matters worse, it only led out
+  into the exercise yard, which was surrounded by two high walls.
+  Still, as I said to my sullen comrade, it is time to talk of the
+  Vistula when you are over the Rhine. I got a small piece of iron,
+  therefore, from the fittings of my bed, and I set to work to
+  loosen the plaster at the top and the bottom of the bar. Three
+  hours I would work, and then leap into my bed upon the sound of
+  the warder's step. Then another three hours, and then very often
+  another yet, for I found that Beaumont was so slow and clumsy at
+  it that it was on myself only that I could rely.</p>
+
+  <p>I pictured to myself my Third of Hussars waiting just outside
+  that window, with kettle-drums and standards and leopard-skin
+  schabraques all complete. Then I would work like a madman, until
+  my iron was crusted with blood, as if with rust. And so, night by
+  night, I loosened that stony plaster, and hid it away in the
+  stuffing of my pillow, until the hour came when the iron shook;
+  and then with one good wrench it came off in my hand, and my
+  first step had been made towards freedom.</p>
+
+  <p>You will ask me what better off I was, since, as I have said,
+  a child could not have fitted through the opening. I will tell
+  you. I had gained two things&mdash;a tool and a weapon. With the
+  one I might loosen the stone which flanked the window. With the
+  other I might defend myself when I had scrambled through. So now
+  I turned my attention to that stone, and I picked and picked with
+  the sharpened end of my bar until I had worked out the mortar all
+  round. You understand, of course, that during the day I replaced
+  everything in its position, and that the warder was never
+  permitted to see a speck upon the floor. At the end of three
+  weeks I had separated the stone, and had the rapture of drawing
+  it through, and seeing a hole left with ten stars shining through
+  it, where there had been but four before. All was ready for us
+  now, and I had replaced the stone, smearing the edges of it round
+  with a little fat and soot, so as to hide the cracks where the
+  mortar should have been. In three nights the moon would be gone,
+  and that seemed the best time for our attempt.</p>
+
+  <p>I had now no doubt at all about getting into the yards, but I
+  had very considerable misgivings as to how I was to get out
+  again. It would be too humiliating, after trying here, and trying
+  there, to have to go back to my hole again in despair, or to be
+  arrested by the guards outside, and thrown into those damp
+  underground cells which are reserved for prisoners who are caught
+  in escaping. I set to work, therefore, to plan what I should do.
+  I have never, as you know, had the chance of showing what I could
+  do as a general. Sometimes, after a glass or two of wine, I have
+  found myself capable of thinking out surprising combinations, and
+  have felt that if Napoleon had intrusted me with an army corps,
+  things might have gone differently with him. But however that may
+  be, there is no doubt that in the small stratagems of war, and in
+  that quickness of invention which is so necessary for an officer
+  of light cavalry, I could hold my own against anyone. It was now
+  that I had need of it, and I felt sure that it would not fail
+  me.</p>
+
+  <p>The inner wall which I had to scale was built of bricks, 12ft.
+  high, with a row of iron spikes, 3in. apart upon the top. The
+  outer I had only caught a glimpse of once or twice, when the gate
+  of the exercise yard was open. It appeared to be about the same
+  height, and was also spiked at the top. The space between the
+  walls was over twenty feet, and I had reason to believe that
+  there were no sentries there, except at the gates. On the other
+  hand, I knew that there was a line of soldiers outside. Behold
+  the little nut, my friends, which I had to open with no crackers,
+  save these two hands.</p>
+
+  <p>One thing upon which I relied was the height of my comrade
+  Beaumont. I have already said that he was a very tall man, six
+  feet at least, and it seemed to me that if I could mount upon his
+  shoulders, and get my hands upon the spikes, I could easily scale
+  the wall. Could I pull my big companion up after me? That was the
+  question, for when I set forth with a comrade, even though it be
+  one for whom I bear no affection, nothing on earth would make me
+  abandon him. If I climbed the wall and he could not follow me, I
+  should be compelled to return to him. He did not seem to concern
+  himself much about it, however, so I hoped that he had confidence
+  in his own activity.</p>
+
+  <p>Then another very important matter was the choice of the
+  sentry who should be on duty in front of my window at the time of
+  our attempt. They were changed every two hours to insure their
+  vigilance, but I, who watched them closely each night out of my
+  window, knew that there was a great difference between them.
+  There were some who were so keen that a rat could not cross the
+  yard unseen, while others thought only of their own ease, and
+  could sleep as soundly leaning upon a musket as if they were at
+  home upon a feather bed. There was one especially, a fat, heavy
+  man, who would retire into the shadow of the wall and doze so
+  comfortably during his two hours, that I have dropped pieces of
+  plaster from my window at his very feet, without his observing
+  it. By good luck, this fellow's watch was due from twelve to two
+  upon the night which we had fixed upon for our enterprise.</p>
+
+  <p>As the last day passed, I was so filled with nervous agitation
+  that I could not control myself, but ran ceaselessly about my
+  cell, like a mouse in a cage. Every moment I thought that the
+  warder would detect the looseness of the bar, or that the sentry
+  would observe the unmortared stone, which I could not conceal
+  outside, as I did within. As for my companion, he sat brooding
+  upon the end of his bed, looking at me in a sidelong fashion from
+  time to time, and biting his nails like one who is deep in
+  thought.</p>
+
+  <p>'Courage, my friend!' I cried, slapping him upon the shoulder.
+  'You will see your guns before another month be past.'</p>
+
+  <p>'That is very well,' said he. 'But whither will you fly when
+  you get free?'</p>
+
+  <p>'To the coast,' I answered. 'All comes right for a brave man,
+  and I shall make straight for my regiment.'</p>
+
+  <p>'You are more likely to make straight for the underground
+  cells, or for the Portsmouth hulks,' said he.</p>
+
+  <p>'A soldier takes his chances,' I remarked. 'It is only the
+  poltroon who reckons always upon the worst.'</p>
+
+  <p>I raised a flush in each of his sallow cheeks at that, and I
+  was glad of it, for it was the first sign of spirit which I had
+  ever observed in him. For a moment he put his hand out towards
+  his water-jug, as though he would have hurled it at me, but then
+  he shrugged his shoulders and sat in silence once more, biting
+  his nails, and scowling down at the floor. I could not but think,
+  as I looked at him, that perhaps I was doing the Flying Artillery
+  a very bad service by bringing him back to them.</p>
+
+  <p>I never in my life have known an evening pass as slowly as
+  that one. Towards nightfall a wind sprang up, and as the darkness
+  deepened it blew harder and harder, until a terrible gale was
+  whistling over the moor. As I looked out of my window I could not
+  catch a glimpse of a star, and the black clouds were flying low
+  across the heavens. The rain was pouring down, and what with its
+  hissing and splashing, and the howling and screaming of the wind,
+  it was impossible for me to hear the steps of the sentinels. 'If
+  I cannot hear them,' thought I, 'then it is unlikely that they
+  can hear me'; and I waited with the utmost impatience until the
+  time when the inspector should have come round for his nightly
+  peep through our grating. Then having peered through the
+  darkness, and seen nothing of the sentry, who was doubtless
+  crouching in some corner out of the rain, I felt that the moment
+  was come. I removed the bar, pulled out the stone, and motioned
+  to my companion to pass through.</p>
+
+  <p>'After you, Colonel,' said he.</p>
+
+  <p>'Will you not go first?' I asked.</p>
+
+  <p>'I had rather you showed me the way.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Come after me, then, but come silently, as you value your
+  life.'</p>
+
+  <p>In the darkness I could hear the fellow's teeth chattering,
+  and I wondered whether a man ever had such a partner in a
+  desperate enterprise. I seized the bar, however, and mounting
+  upon my stool, I thrust my head and shoulders into the hole. I
+  had wriggled through as far as my waist, when my companion seized
+  me suddenly by the knees, and yelled at the top of his voice:
+  'Help! Help! A prisoner is escaping!'</p>
+
+  <p>Ah, my friends, what did I not feel at that moment! Of course,
+  I saw in an instant the game of this vile creature. Why should he
+  risk his skin in climbing walls when he might be sure of a free
+  pardon from the English for having prevented the escape of one so
+  much more distinguished than himself? I had recognized him as a
+  poltroon and a sneak, but I had not understood the depth of
+  baseness to which he could descend. One who has spent his life
+  among gentlemen and men of honour does not think of such things
+  until they happen.</p>
+
+  <p>The blockhead did not seem to understand that he was lost more
+  certainly than I. I writhed back in the darkness, and seizing him
+  by the throat, I struck him twice with my iron bar. At the first
+  blow he yelped as a little cur does when you tread upon its paw.
+  At the second, down he fell with a groan upon the floor. Then I
+  seated myself upon my bed, and waited resignedly for whatever
+  punishment my gaolers might inflict upon me.</p>
+
+  <p>But a minute passed and yet another, with no sound save the
+  heavy, snoring breathing of the senseless wretch upon the floor.
+  Was it possible, then, that amid the fury of the storm his
+  warning cries had passed unheeded? At first it was but a tiny
+  hope, another minute and it was probable, another and it was
+  certain. There was no sound in the corridor, none in the
+  courtyard. I wiped the cold sweat from my brow, and asked myself
+  what I should do next.</p>
+
+  <p>One thing seemed certain. The man on the floor must die. If I
+  left him I could not tell how short a time it might be before he
+  gave the alarm. I dare not strike a light, so I felt about in the
+  darkness until my hand came upon something wet, which I knew to
+  be his head. I raised my iron bar, but there was something, my
+  friends, which prevented me from bringing it down. In the heat of
+  fight I have slain many men&mdash;men of honour, too, who had
+  done me no injury. Yet here was this wretch, a creature too foul
+  to live, who had tried to work me so great a mischief, and yet I
+  could not bring myself to crush his skull in. Such deeds are very
+  well for a Spanish partida&mdash;or for that matter a sansculotte
+  of the Faubourg St Antoine&mdash;but not for a soldier and a
+  gentleman like me.</p>
+
+  <p>However, the heavy breathing of the fellow made me hope that
+  it might be a very long time before he recovered his senses. I
+  gagged him, therefore, and bound him with strips of blanket to
+  the bed, so that in his weakened condition there was good reason
+  to think that, in any case, he might not get free before the next
+  visit of the warder. But now again I was faced with new
+  difficulties, for you will remember that I had relied upon his
+  height to help me over the walls. I could have sat down and shed
+  tears of despair had not the thought of my mother and of the
+  Emperor come to sustain me. 'Courage!' said I. 'If it were anyone
+  but Etienne Gerard he would be in a bad fix now; that is a young
+  man who is not so easily caught.'</p>
+
+  <p>I set to work therefore upon Beaumont's sheet as well as my
+  own, and by tearing them into strips and then plaiting them
+  together, I made a very excellent rope. This I tied securely to
+  the centre of my iron bar, which was a little over a foot in
+  length. Then I slipped out into the yard, where the rain was
+  pouring and the wind screaming louder than ever. I kept in the
+  shadow of the prison wall, but it was as black as the ace of
+  spades, and I could not see my own hand in front of me. Unless I
+  walked into the sentinel I felt that I had nothing to fear from
+  him. When I had come under the wall I threw up my bar, and to my
+  joy it stuck the very first time between the spikes at the top. I
+  climbed up my rope, pulled it after me, and dropped down on the
+  other side. Then I scaled the second wall, and was sitting
+  astride among the spikes upon the top, when I saw something
+  twinkle in the darkness beneath me. It was the bayonet of the
+  sentinel below, and so close was it (the second wall being rather
+  lower than the first) that I could easily, by leaning over, have
+  unscrewed it from its socket. There he was, humming a tune to
+  himself, and cuddling up against the wall to keep himself warm,
+  little thinking that a desperate man within a few feet of him was
+  within an ace of stabbing him to the heart with his own weapon. I
+  was already bracing myself for the spring when the fellow, with
+  an oath, shouldered his musket, and I heard his steps squelching
+  through the mud as he resumed his beat. I slipped down my rope,
+  and, leaving it hanging, I ran at the top of my speed across the
+  moor.</p>
+
+  <p>Heavens, how I ran! The wind buffeted my face and buzzed in my
+  nostrils. The rain pringled upon my skin and hissed past my ears.
+  I stumbled into holes. I tripped over bushes. I fell among
+  brambles. I was torn and breathless and bleeding. My tongue was
+  like leather, my feet like lead, and my heart beating like a
+  kettle-drum. Still I ran, and I ran, and I ran.</p>
+
+  <p>But I had not lost my head, my friends. Everything was done
+  with a purpose. Our fugitives always made for the coast. I was
+  determined to go inland, and the more so as I had told Beaumont
+  the opposite. I would fly to the north, and they would seek me in
+  the south. Perhaps you will ask me how I could tell which was
+  which on such a night. I answer that it was by the wind. I had
+  observed in the prison that it came from the north, and so, as
+  long as I kept my face to it, I was going in the right
+  direction.</p>
+
+  <p>Well, I was rushing along in this fashion when, suddenly, I
+  saw two yellow lights shining out of the darkness in front of me.
+  I paused for a moment, uncertain what I should do. I was still in
+  my hussar uniform, you understand, and it seemed to me that the
+  very first thing that I should aim at was to get some dress which
+  should not betray me. If these lights came from a cottage, it was
+  probable enough that I might find what I wanted there. I
+  approached, therefore, feeling very sorry that I had left my iron
+  bar behind; for I was determined to fight to the death before I
+  should be retaken.</p>
+
+  <p>But very soon I found that there was no cottage there. The
+  lights were two lamps hung upon each side of a carriage, and by
+  their glare I saw that a broad road lay in front of me. Crouching
+  among the bushes, I observed that there were two horses to the
+  equipage, that a small post-boy was standing at their heads, and
+  that one of the wheels was lying in the road beside him. I can
+  see them now, my friends: the steaming creatures, the stunted lad
+  with his hands to their bits, and the big, black coach, all
+  shining with the rain, and balanced upon its three wheels. As I
+  looked, the window was lowered, and a pretty little face under a
+  bonnet peeped out from it.</p>
+
+  <p>'What shall I do?' the lady cried to the post-boy, in a voice
+  of despair. 'Sir Charles is certainly lost, and I shall have to
+  spend the night upon the moor.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Perhaps I can be of some assistance to madame,' said I,
+  scrambling out from among the bushes into the glare of the lamps.
+  A woman in distress is a sacred thing to me, and this one was
+  beautiful. You must not forget that, although I was a colonel, I
+  was only eight-and-twenty years of age.</p>
+
+  <p>My word, how she screamed, and how the post-boy stared! You
+  will understand that after that long race in the darkness, with
+  my shako broken in, my face smeared with dirt, and my uniform all
+  stained and torn with brambles, I was not entirely the sort of
+  gentleman whom one would choose to meet in the middle of a lonely
+  moor. Still, after the first surprise, she soon understood that I
+  was her very humble servant, and I could even read in her pretty
+  eyes that my manner and bearing had not failed to produce an
+  impression upon her.</p>
+
+  <p>'I am sorry to have startled you, madame,' said I. 'I chanced
+  to overhear your remark, and I could not refrain from offering
+  you my assistance.' I bowed as I spoke. You know my bow, and can
+  realize what its effect was upon the lady.</p>
+
+  <p>'I am much indebted to you, sir,' said she. 'We have had a
+  terrible journey since we left Tavistock. Finally, one of our
+  wheels came off, and here we are helpless in the middle of the
+  moor. My husband, Sir Charles, has gone on to get help, and I
+  much fear that he must have lost his way.'</p>
+
+  <p>I was about to attempt some consolation, when I saw beside the
+  lady a black travelling coat, faced with astrakhan, which her
+  companion must have left behind him. It was exactly what I needed
+  to conceal my uniform. It is true that I felt very much like a
+  highway robber, but then, what would you have? Necessity has no
+  law, and I was in an enemy's country.</p>
+
+  <p>'I presume, madame, that this is your husband's coat,' I
+  remarked. 'You will, I am sure, forgive me, if I am compelled
+  to&mdash;' I pulled it through the window as I spoke.</p>
+
+  <p>I could not bear to see the look of surprise and fear and
+  disgust which came over her face.</p>
+
+  <p>'Oh, I have been mistaken in you!' she cried. 'You came to rob
+  me, then, and not to help me. You have the bearing of a
+  gentleman, and yet you steal my husband's coat.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Madame,' said I, 'I beg that you will not condemn me until
+  you know everything. It is quite necessary that I should take
+  this coat, but if you will have the goodness to tell me who it is
+  who is fortunate enough to be your husband, I shall see that the
+  coat is sent back to him.'</p>
+
+  <p>Her face softened a little, though she still tried to look
+  severe. 'My husband,' she answered, 'is Sir Charles Meredith, and
+  he is travelling to Dartmoor Prison, upon important Government
+  business. I only ask you, sir, to go upon your way, and to take
+  nothing which belongs to him.'</p>
+
+  <p>'There is only one thing which belongs to him that I covet,'
+  said I.</p>
+
+  <p>'And you have taken it from the carriage,' she cried.</p>
+
+  <p>'No,' I answered. 'It still remains there.'</p>
+
+  <p>She laughed in her frank English way.</p>
+
+  <p>'If, instead of paying me compliments, you were to return my
+  husband's coat&mdash;' she began.</p>
+
+  <p>'Madame,' I answered, 'what you ask is quite impossible. If
+  you will allow me to come into the carriage, I will explain to
+  you how necessary this coat is to me.'</p>
+
+  <p>Heaven knows into what foolishness I might have plunged myself
+  had we not, at this instant, heard a faint halloa in the
+  distance, which was answered by a shout from the little post-boy.
+  In the rain and the darkness, I saw a lantern some distance from
+  us, but approaching rapidly.</p>
+
+  <p>'I am sorry, madame, that I am forced to leave you,' said I.
+  'You can assure your husband that I shall take every care of his
+  coat.' Hurried as I was, I ventured to pause a moment to salute
+  the lady's hand, which she snatched through the window with an
+  admirable pretence of being offended at my presumption. Then, as
+  the lantern was quite close to me, and the post-boy seemed
+  inclined to interfere with my flight, I tucked my precious
+  overcoat under my arm, and dashed off into the darkness.</p>
+
+  <p>And now I set myself to the task of putting as broad a stretch
+  of moor between the prison and myself as the remaining hours of
+  darkness would allow. Setting my face to the wind once more, I
+  ran until I fell from exhaustion. Then, after five minutes of
+  panting among the heather, I made another start, until again my
+  knees gave way beneath me. I was young and hard, with muscles of
+  steel, and a frame which had been toughened by twelve years of
+  camp and field. Thus I was able to keep up this wild flight for
+  another three hours, during which I still guided myself, you
+  understand, by keeping the wind in my face. At the end of that
+  time I calculated that I had put nearly twenty miles between the
+  prison and myself. Day was about to break, so I crouched down
+  among the heather upon the top of one of those small hills which
+  abound in that country, with the intention of hiding myself until
+  nightfall. It was no new thing for me to sleep in the wind and
+  the rain, so, wrapping myself up in my thick warm cloak, I soon
+  sank into a doze.</p>
+
+  <p>But it was not a refreshing slumber. I tossed and tumbled amid
+  a series of vile dreams, in which everything seemed to go wrong
+  with me. At last, I remember, I was charging an unshaken square
+  of Hungarian Grenadiers, with a single squadron upon spent
+  horses, just as I did at Elchingen. I stood in my stirrups to
+  shout 'Vive l'Empereur!' and as I did so, there came the
+  answering roar from my hussars, 'Vive l'Empereur!' I sprang from
+  my rough bed, with the words still ringing in my ears, and then,
+  as I rubbed my eyes, and wondered if I were mad, the same cry
+  came again, five thousand voices in one long-drawn yell. I looked
+  out from my screen of brambles, and saw in the clear light of
+  morning the very last thing that I should either have expected or
+  chosen.</p>
+
+  <p>It was Dartmoor Prison! There it stretched, grim and hideous,
+  within a furlong of me. Had I run on for a few more minutes in
+  the dark, I should have butted my shako against the wall. I was
+  so taken aback at the sight, that I could scarcely realize what
+  had happened. Then it all became clear to me, and I struck my
+  head with my hands in my despair. The wind had veered from north
+  to south during the night, and I, keeping my face always towards
+  it, had run ten miles out and ten miles in, winding up where I
+  had started. When I thought of my hurry, my falls, my mad rushing
+  and jumping, all ending in this, it seemed so absurd, that my
+  grief changed suddenly to amusement, and I fell among the
+  brambles, and laughed, and laughed, until my sides were sore.
+  Then I rolled myself up in my cloak and considered seriously what
+  I should do.</p>
+
+  <p>One lesson which I have learned in my roaming life, my
+  friends, is never to call anything a misfortune until you have
+  seen the end of it. Is not every hour a fresh point of view? In
+  this case I soon perceived that accident had done for me as much
+  as the most profound cunning. My guards naturally commenced their
+  search from the place where I had taken Sir Charles Meredith's
+  coat, and from my hiding-place I could see them hurrying along
+  the road to that point. Not one of them ever dreamed that I could
+  have doubled back from there, and I lay quite undisturbed in the
+  little bush-covered cup at the summit of my knoll. The prisoners
+  had, of course, learned of my escape, and all day exultant yells,
+  like that which had aroused me in the morning, resounded over the
+  moor, bearing a welcome message of sympathy and companionship to
+  my ears. How little did they dream that on the top of that very
+  mound, which they could see from their windows, was lying the
+  comrade whose escape they were celebrating? As for me&mdash;I
+  could look down upon this poor herd of idle warriors, as they
+  paced about the great exercise yard, or gathered in little
+  groups, gesticulating joyfully over my success. Once I heard a
+  howl of execration, and I saw Beaumont, his head all covered with
+  bandages, being led across the yard by two of the warders. I
+  cannot tell you the pleasure which this sight gave me, for it
+  proved that I had not killed him, and also that the others knew
+  the true story of what had passed. They had all known me too well
+  to think that I could have abandoned him.</p>
+
+  <p>All that long day I lay behind my screen of bushes, listening
+  to the bells which struck the hours below.</p>
+
+  <p>My pockets were filled with bread which I had saved out of my
+  allowance, and on searching my borrowed overcoat I came upon a
+  silver flask, full of excellent brandy and water, so that I was
+  able to get through the day without hardship. The only other
+  things in the pockets were a red silk handkerchief, a
+  tortoise-shell snuff-box, and a blue envelope, with a red seal,
+  addressed to the Governor of Dartmoor Prison. As to the first
+  two, I determined to send them back when I should return the coat
+  itself.</p>
+
+  <p>The letter caused me more perplexity, for the Governor had
+  always shown me every courtesy, and it offended my sense of
+  honour that I should interfere with his correspondence. I had
+  almost made up my mind to leave it under a stone upon the roadway
+  within musket-shot of the gate. This would guide them in their
+  search for me, however, and so, on the whole, I saw no better way
+  than just to carry the letter with me in the hope that I might
+  find some means of sending it back to him. Meanwhile I packed it
+  safely away in my inner-most pocket.</p>
+
+  <p>There was a warm sun to dry my clothes, and when night fell I
+  was ready for my journey. I promise you that there were no
+  mistakes this time. I took the stars for my guides, as every
+  hussar should be taught to do, and I put eight good leagues
+  between myself and the prison. My plan now was to obtain a
+  complete suit of clothes from the first person whom I could
+  waylay, and I should then find my way to the north coast, where
+  there were many smugglers and fishermen who would be ready to
+  earn the reward which was paid by the Emperor to those who
+  brought escaping prisoners across the Channel. I had taken the
+  panache from my shako so that it might escape notice, but even
+  with my fine overcoat I feared that sooner or later my uniform
+  would betray me. My first care must be to provide myself with a
+  complete disguise.</p>
+
+  <p>When day broke, I saw a river upon my right and a small town
+  upon my left&mdash;the blue smoke reeking up above the moor. I
+  should have liked well to have entered it, because it would have
+  interested me to see something of the customs of the English,
+  which differ very much from those of other nations. Much as I
+  should have wished, however, to have seen them eat their raw meat
+  and sell their wives, it would have been dangerous until I had
+  got rid of my uniform. My cap, my moustache, and my speech would
+  all help to betray me. I continued to travel towards the north
+  therefore, looking about me continually, but never catching a
+  glimpse of my pursuers.</p>
+
+  <p>About midday I came to where, in a secluded valley, there
+  stood a single small cottage without any other building in sight.
+  It was a neat little house, with a rustic porch and a small
+  garden in front of it, with a swarm of cocks and hens. I lay down
+  among the ferns and watched it, for it seemed to be exactly the
+  kind of place where I might obtain what I wanted. My bread was
+  finished, and I was exceedingly hungry after my long journey; I
+  determined, therefore, to make a short reconnaissance, and then
+  to march up to this cottage, summon it to surrender, and help
+  myself to all that I needed. It could at least provide me with a
+  chicken and with an omelette. My mouth watered at the
+  thought.</p>
+
+  <p>As I lay there, wondering who could live in this lonely place,
+  a brisk little fellow came out through the porch, accompanied by
+  another older man, who carried two large clubs in his hands.
+  These he handed to his young companion, who swung them up and
+  down, and round and round, with extraordinary swiftness. The
+  other, standing beside him, appeared to watch him with great
+  attention, and occasionally to advise him. Finally he took a
+  rope, and began skipping like a girl, the other still gravely
+  observing him. As you may think, I was utterly puzzled as to what
+  these people could be, and could only surmise that the one was a
+  doctor, and the other a patient who had submitted himself to some
+  singular method of treatment.</p>
+
+  <p>Well, as I lay watching and wondering, the older man brought
+  out a great-coat, and held it while the other put it on and
+  buttoned it to his chin. The day was a warmish one, so that this
+  proceeding amazed me even more than the other. 'At least,'
+  thought I, 'it is evident that his exercise is over'; but, far
+  from this being so, the man began to run, in spite of his heavy
+  coat, and as it chanced, he came right over the moor in my
+  direction. His companion had re-entered the house, so that this
+  arrangement suited me admirably. I would take the small man's
+  clothing, and hurry on to some village where I could buy
+  provisions. The chickens were certainly tempting, but still there
+  were at least two men in the house, so perhaps it would be wiser
+  for me, since I had no arms, to keep away from it.</p>
+
+  <p>I lay quietly then among the ferns. Presently I heard the
+  steps of the runner, and there he was quite close to me, with his
+  huge coat, and the perspiration running down his face. He seemed
+  to be a very solid man&mdash;but small&mdash;so small that I
+  feared that his clothes might be of little use to me. When I
+  jumped out upon him he stopped running, and looked at me in the
+  greatest astonishment.</p>
+
+  <p>'Blow my dickey,' said he, 'give it a name, guv'nor! Is it a
+  circus, or what?'</p>
+
+  <p>That was how he talked, though I cannot pretend to tell you
+  what he meant by it.</p>
+
+  <p>'You will excuse me, sir,' said I, 'but I am under the
+  necessity of asking you to give me your clothes.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Give you what?' he cried.</p>
+
+  <p>'Your clothes.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Well, if this don't lick cock-fighting!' said he. 'What am I
+  to give you my clothes for?'</p>
+
+  <p>'Because I need them.'</p>
+
+  <p>'And suppose I won't?'</p>
+
+  <p>'Be jabers,' said I, 'I shall have no choice but to take
+  them.'</p>
+
+  <p>He stood with his hands in the pockets of his great-coat, and
+  a most amused smile upon his square-jawed, clean-shaven face.</p>
+
+  <p>'You'll take them, will you?' said he. 'You're a very leery
+  cove, by the look of you, but I can tell you that you've got the
+  wrong sow by the ear this time. I know who you are. You're a
+  runaway Frenchy, from the prison yonder, as anyone could tell
+  with half an eye. But you don't know who I am, else you wouldn't
+  try such a plant as that. Why, man, I'm the Bristol Bustler, nine
+  stone champion, and them's my training quarters down yonder.'</p>
+
+  <p>He stared at me as if this announcement of his would have
+  crushed me to the earth, but I smiled at him in my turn, and
+  looked him up and down, with a twirl of my moustache.</p>
+
+  <p>'You may be a very brave man, sir,' said I, 'but when I tell
+  you that you are opposed to Colonel Etienne Gerard, of the
+  Hussars of Conflans, you will see the necessity of giving up your
+  clothes without further parley.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Look here, mounseer, drop it!' he cried; 'this'll end by your
+  getting pepper.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Your clothes, sir, this instant!' I shouted, advancing
+  fiercely upon him.</p>
+
+  <p>For answer he threw off his heavy great-coat, and stood in a
+  singular attitude, with one arm out, and the other across his
+  chest, looking at me with a curious smile. For myself, I knew
+  nothing of the methods of fighting which these people have, but
+  on horse or on foot, with arms or without them, I am always ready
+  to take my own part. You understand that a soldier cannot always
+  choose his own methods, and that it is time to howl when you are
+  living among wolves. I rushed at him, therefore, with a warlike
+  shout, and kicked him with both my feet. At the same moment my
+  heels flew into the air, I saw as many flashes as at Austerlitz,
+  and the back of my head came down with a crash upon a stone.
+  After that I can remember nothing more.</p>
+
+  <p>When I came to myself I was lying upon a truckle-bed, in a
+  bare, half-furnished room. My head was ringing like a bell, and
+  when I put up my hand, there was a lump like a walnut over one of
+  my eyes. My nose was full of a pungent smell, and I soon found
+  that a strip of paper soaked in vinegar was fastened across my
+  brow. At the other end of the room this terrible little man was
+  sitting with his knee bare, and his elderly companion was rubbing
+  it with some liniment. The latter seemed to be in the worst of
+  tempers, and he kept up a continual scolding, which the other
+  listened to with a gloomy face.</p>
+
+  <p>'Never heard tell of such a thing in my life,' he was saying.
+  'In training for a month with all the weight of it on my
+  shoulders, and then when I get you as fit as a trout, and within
+  two days of fighting the likeliest man on the list, you let
+  yourself into a by-battle with a foreigner.'</p>
+
+  <p>'There, there! Stow your gab!' said the other, sulkily.
+  'You're a very good trainer, Jim, but you'd be better with less
+  jaw.'</p>
+
+  <p>'I should think it was time to jaw,' the elderly man answered.
+  'If this knee don't get well before next Wednesday, they'll have
+  it that you fought a cross, and a pretty job you'll have next
+  time you look for a backer.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Fought a cross!' growled the other. 'I've won nineteen
+  battles, and no man ever so much as dared to say the word "cross"
+  in my hearin'. How the deuce was I to get out of it when the cove
+  wanted the very clothes off my back?'</p>
+
+  <p>'Tut, man; you knew that the beak and the guards were within a
+  mile of you. You could have set them on to him as well then as
+  now. You'd have got your clothes back again all right.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Well, strike me!' said the Bustler. 'I don't often break my
+  trainin', but when it comes to givin' up my clothes to a Frenchy
+  who couldn't hit a dint in a pat o' butter, why, it's more than I
+  can swaller.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Pooh, man, what are the clothes worth? D'you know that Lord
+  Rufton alone has five thousand pounds on you? When you jump the
+  ropes on Wednesday, you'll carry every penny of fifty thousand
+  into the ring. A pretty thing to turn up with a swollen knee and
+  a story about a Frenchman!'</p>
+
+  <p>'I never thought he'd ha' kicked,' said the Bustler.</p>
+
+  <p>'I suppose you expected he'd fight Broughton's rules, and
+  strict P.R.? Why, you silly, they don't know what fighting is in
+  France.'</p>
+
+  <p>'My friends,' said I, sitting up on my bed, 'I do not
+  understand very much of what you say, but when you speak like
+  that it is foolishness. We know so much about fighting in France,
+  that we have paid our little visit to nearly every capital in
+  Europe, and very soon we are coming to London. But we fight like
+  soldiers, you understand, and not like gamins in the gutter. You
+  strike me on the head. I kick you on the knee. It is child's
+  play. But if you will give me a sword, and take another one, I
+  will show you how we fight over the water.'</p>
+
+  <p>They both stared at me in their solid, English way.</p>
+
+  <p>'Well, I'm glad you're not dead, mounseer,' said the elder one
+  at last. 'There wasn't much sign of life in you when the Bustler
+  and me carried you down. That head of yours ain't thick enough to
+  stop the crook of the hardest hitter in Bristol.'</p>
+
+  <p>'He's a game cove, too, and he came for me like a bantam,'
+  said the other, still rubbing his knee. 'I got my old left-right
+  in, and he went over as if he had been pole-axed. It wasn't my
+  fault, mounseer. I told you you'd get pepper if you went on.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Well, it's something to say all your life, that you've been
+  handled by the finest light-weight in England,' said the older
+  man, looking at me with an expression of congratulation upon his
+  face. 'You've had him at his best, too&mdash;in the pink of
+  condition, and trained by Jim Hunter.'</p>
+
+  <p>'I am used to hard knocks,' said I, unbuttoning my tunic, and
+  showing my two musket wounds. Then I bared my ankle also, and
+  showed the place in my eye where the guerilla had stabbed me.</p>
+
+  <p>'He can take his gruel,' said the Bustler.</p>
+
+  <p>'What a glutton he'd have made for the middle-weights,'
+  remarked the trainer; 'with six months' coaching he'd astonish
+  the fancy. It's a pity he's got to go back to prison.'</p>
+
+  <p>I did not like that last remark at all. I buttoned up my coat
+  and rose from the bed.</p>
+
+  <p>'I must ask you to let me continue my journey,' said I.</p>
+
+  <p>'There's no help for it, mounseer,' the trainer answered.
+  'It's a hard thing to send such a man as you back to such a
+  place, but business is business, and there's a twenty pound
+  reward. They were here this morning, looking for you, and I
+  expect they'll be round again.'</p>
+
+  <p>His words turned my heart to lead.</p>
+
+  <p>'Surely, you would not betray me!' I cried. 'I will send you
+  twice twenty pounds on the day that I set foot upon France. I
+  swear it upon the honour of a French gentleman.'</p>
+
+  <p>But I only got head-shakes for a reply. I pleaded, I argued, I
+  spoke of the English hospitality and the fellowship of brave men,
+  but I might as well have been addressing the two great wooden
+  clubs which stood balanced upon the floor in front of me. There
+  was no sign of sympathy upon their bull-faces.</p>
+
+  <p>'Business is business, mounseer,' the old trainer repeated.
+  'Besides, how am I to put the Bustler into the ring on Wednesday
+  if he's jugged by the beak for aidin' and abettin' a prisoner of
+  war? I've got to look after the Bustler, and I take no
+  risks.'</p>
+
+  <p>This, then, was the end of all my struggles and strivings. I
+  was to be led back again like a poor silly sheep who has broken
+  through the hurdles. They little knew me who could fancy that I
+  should submit to such a fate. I had heard enough to tell me where
+  the weak point of these two men was, and I showed, as I have
+  often showed before, that Etienne Gerard is never so terrible as
+  when all hope seems to have deserted him. With a single spring I
+  seized one of the clubs and swung it over the head of the
+  Bustler.</p>
+
+  <p>'Come what may,' I cried, '<i>you</i> shall be spoiled for
+  Wednesday.'</p>
+
+  <p>The fellow growled out an oath, and would have sprung at me,
+  but the other flung his arms round him and pinned him to the
+  chair.</p>
+
+  <p>'Not if I know it, Bustler,' he screamed. 'None of your games
+  while I am by. Get away out of this, Frenchy. We only want to see
+  your back. Run away, run away, or he'll get loose!'</p>
+
+  <p>It was good advice, I thought, and I ran to the door, but as I
+  came out into the open air my head swam round and I had to lean
+  against the porch to save myself from falling. Consider all that
+  I had been through, the anxiety of my escape, the long, useless
+  flight in the storm, the day spent amid wet ferns, with only
+  bread for food, the second journey by night, and now the injuries
+  which I had received in attempting to deprive the little man of
+  his clothes. Was it wonderful that even I should reach the limits
+  of my endurance?</p>
+
+  <p>I stood there in my heavy coat and my poor battered shako, my
+  chin upon my chest, and my eyelids over my eyes. I had done my
+  best, and I could do no more. It was the sound of horses' hoofs
+  which made me at last raise my head, and there was the
+  grey-moustached Governor of Dartmoor Prison not ten paces in
+  front of me, with six mounted warders behind him!</p>
+
+  <p>'So, Colonel,' said he, with a bitter smile, 'we have found
+  you once more.'</p>
+
+  <p>When a brave man has done his utmost, and has failed, he shows
+  his breeding by the manner in which he accepts his defeat. For
+  me, I took the letter which I had in my pocket, and stepping
+  forward, I handed it with such grace of manner as I could summon
+  to the Governor.</p>
+
+  <p>'It has been my misfortune, sir, to detain one of your
+  letters,' said I.</p>
+
+  <p>He looked at me in amazement, and beckoned to the warders to
+  arrest me. Then he broke the seal of the letter. I saw a curious
+  expression come over his face as he read it.</p>
+
+  <p>'This must be the letter which Sir Charles Meredith lost,'
+  said he.</p>
+
+  <p>'It was in the pocket of his coat.'</p>
+
+  <p>'You have carried it for two days?'</p>
+
+  <p>'Since the night before last.'</p>
+
+  <p>'And never looked at the contents?'</p>
+
+  <p>I showed him by my manner that he had committed an
+  indiscretion in asking a question which one gentleman should not
+  have put to another.</p>
+
+  <p>To my surprise he burst out into a roar of laughter.</p>
+
+  <p>'Colonel,' said he, wiping the tears from his eyes, 'you have
+  really given both yourself and us a great deal of unnecessary
+  trouble. Allow me to read the letter which you carried with you
+  in your flight.'</p>
+
+  <p>And this was what I heard:&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>'On receipt of this you are directed to release Colonel
+  Etienne Gerard, of the 3rd Hussars, who has been exchanged
+  against Colonel Mason, of the Horse Artillery, now in
+  Verdun.'</p>
+
+  <p>And as he read it, he laughed again, and the warders laughed,
+  and the two men from the cottage laughed, and then, as I heard
+  this universal merriment, and thought of all my hopes and fears,
+  and my struggles and dangers, what could a debonair soldier do
+  but lean against the porch once more, and laugh as heartily as
+  any of them? And of them all was it not I who had the best reason
+  to laugh, since in front of me I could see my dear France, and my
+  mother, and the Emperor, and my horsemen; while behind lay the
+  gloomy prison, and the heavy hand of the English King?</p>
+
+  <p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+  <p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+  <p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+  <p>&nbsp;</p><a name="RULE4_4"><!-- RULE4 4 --></a>
+
+  <h2>5. HOW THE BRIGADIER TOOK THE FIELD AGAINST THE MARSHAL
+  MILLEFLEURS</h2>
+
+  <p>Massena was a thin, sour little fellow, and after his hunting
+  accident he had only one eye, but when it looked out from under
+  his cocked hat there was not much upon a field of battle which
+  escaped it. He could stand in front of a battalion, and with a
+  single sweep tell you if a buckle or a gaiter button were out of
+  place. Neither the officers nor the men were very fond of him,
+  for he was, as you know, a miser, and soldiers love that their
+  leaders should be free-handed. At the same time, when it came to
+  work they had a very high respect for him, and they would rather
+  fight under him than under anyone except the Emperor himself, and
+  Lannes, when he was alive. After all, if he had a tight grasp
+  upon his money-bags, there was a day also, you must remember,
+  when that same grip was upon Zurich and Genoa. He clutched on to
+  his positions as he did to his strong box, and it took a very
+  clever man to loosen him from either.</p>
+
+  <p>When I received his summons I went gladly to his headquarters,
+  for I was always a great favourite of his, and there was no
+  officer of whom he thought more highly. That was the best of
+  serving with those good old generals, that they knew enough to be
+  able to pick out a fine soldier when they saw one. He was seated
+  alone in his tent, with his chin upon his hand, and his brow as
+  wrinkled as if he had been asked for a subscription. He smiled,
+  however, when he saw me before him.</p>
+
+  <p>'Good day, Colonel Gerard.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Good day, Marshal.'</p>
+
+  <p>'How is the Third of Hussars?'</p>
+
+  <p>'Seven hundred incomparable men upon seven hundred excellent
+  horses.'</p>
+
+  <p>'And your wounds&mdash;are they healed?'</p>
+
+  <p>'My wounds never heal, Marshal,' I answered.</p>
+
+  <p>'And why?'</p>
+
+  <p>'Because I have always new ones.'</p>
+
+  <p>'General Rapp must look to his laurels,' said he, his face all
+  breaking into wrinkles as he laughed. 'He has had twenty-one from
+  the enemy's bullets, and as many from Larrey's knives and probes.
+  Knowing that you were hurt, Colonel, I have spared you of
+  late.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Which hurt me most of all.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Tut, tut! Since the English got behind these accursed lines
+  of Torres Vedras, there has been little for us to do. You did not
+  miss much during your imprisonment at Dartmoor. But now we are on
+  the eve of action.'</p>
+
+  <p>'We advance?'</p>
+
+  <p>'No, retire.'</p>
+
+  <p>My face must have shown my dismay. What, retire before this
+  sacred dog of a Wellington&mdash;he who had listened unmoved to
+  my words, and had sent me to his land of fogs? I could have
+  sobbed as I thought of it.</p>
+
+  <p>'What would you have?' cried Massena impatiently. 'When one is
+  in check, it is necessary to move the king.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Forwards,' I suggested.</p>
+
+  <p>He shook his grizzled head.</p>
+
+  <p>'The lines are not to be forced,' said he. 'I have already
+  lost General St. Croix and more men than I can replace. On the
+  other hand, we have been here at Santarem for nearly six months.
+  There is not a pound of flour nor a jug of wine on the
+  countryside. We must retire.'</p>
+
+  <p>'There are flour and wine in Lisbon,' I persisted.</p>
+
+  <p>'Tut, you speak as if an army could charge in and charge out
+  again like your regiment of hussars. If Soult were here with
+  thirty thousand men&mdash;but he will not come. I sent for you,
+  however, Colonel Gerard, to say that I have a very singular and
+  important expedition which I intend to place under your
+  direction.'</p>
+
+  <p>I pricked up my ears, as you can imagine. The Marshal unrolled
+  a great map of the country and spread it upon the table. He
+  flattened it out with his little, hairy hands.</p>
+
+  <p>'This is Santarem,' he said pointing.</p>
+
+  <p>I nodded.</p>
+
+  <p>'And here, twenty-five miles to the east, is Almeixal,
+  celebrated for its vintages and for its enormous Abbey.'</p>
+
+  <p>Again I nodded; I could not think what was coming.</p>
+
+  <p>'Have you heard of the Marshal Millefleurs?' asked
+  Massena.</p>
+
+  <p>'I have served with all the Marshals,' said I, 'but there is
+  none of that name.'</p>
+
+  <p>'It is but the nickname which the soldiers have given him,'
+  said Massena. 'If you had not been away from us for some months,
+  it would not be necessary for me to tell you about him. He is an
+  Englishman, and a man of good breeding. It is on account of his
+  manners that they have given him his title. I wish you to go to
+  this polite Englishman at Almeixal.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Yes, Marshal.'</p>
+
+  <p>'And to hang him to the nearest tree.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Certainly, Marshal.'</p>
+
+  <p>I turned briskly upon my heels, but Massena recalled me before
+  I could reach the opening of his tent.</p>
+
+  <p>'One moment, Colonel,' said he; 'you had best learn how
+  matters stand before you start. You must know, then, that this
+  Marshal Millefleurs, whose real name is Alexis Morgan, is a man
+  of very great ingenuity and bravery. He was an officer in the
+  English Guards, but having been broken for cheating at cards, he
+  left the army. In some manner he gathered a number of English
+  deserters round him and took to the mountains. French stragglers
+  and Portuguese brigands joined him, and he found himself at the
+  head of five hundred men. With these he took possession of the
+  Abbey of Almeixal, sent the monks about their business, fortified
+  the place, and gathered in the plunder of all the country
+  round.'</p>
+
+  <p>'For which it is high time he was hanged,' said I, making once
+  more for the door.</p>
+
+  <p>'One instant!' cried the Marshal, smiling at my impatience.
+  'The worst remains behind. Only last week the Dowager Countess of
+  La Ronda, the richest woman in Spain, was taken by these ruffians
+  in the passes as she was journeying from King Joseph's Court to
+  visit her grandson. She is now a prisoner in the Abbey, and is
+  only protected by her&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+  <p>'Grandmotherhood,' I suggested.</p>
+
+  <p>'Her power of paying a ransom,' said Massena. 'You have three
+  missions, then: To rescue this unfortunate lady; to punish this
+  villain; and, if possible, to break up this nest of brigands. It
+  will be a proof of the confidence which I have in you when I say
+  that I can only spare you half a squadron with which to
+  accomplish all this.'</p>
+
+  <p>My word, I could hardly believe my ears! I thought that I
+  should have had my regiment at the least.</p>
+
+  <p>'I would give you more,' said he, 'but I commence my retreat
+  today, and Wellington is so strong in horse that every trooper
+  becomes of importance. I cannot spare you another man. You will
+  see what you can do, and you will report yourself to me at
+  Abrantes not later than tomorrow night.'</p>
+
+  <p>It was very complimentary that he should rate my powers so
+  high, but it was also a little embarrassing. I was to rescue an
+  old lady, to hang an Englishman, and to break up a band of five
+  hundred assassins&mdash;all with fifty men. But after all, the
+  fifty men were Hussars of Conflans, and they had an Etienne
+  Gerard to lead them. As I came out into the warm Portuguese
+  sunshine my confidence had returned to me, and I had already
+  begun to wonder whether the medal which I had so often deserved
+  might not be waiting for me at Almeixal.</p>
+
+  <p>You may be sure that I did not take my fifty men at
+  hap-hazard. They were all old soldiers of the German wars, some
+  of them with three stripes, and most of them with two. Oudet and
+  Papilette, two of the best sub-officers in the regiment, were at
+  their head. When I had them formed up in fours, all in silver
+  grey and upon chestnut horses, with their leopard skin shabracks
+  and their little red panaches, my heart beat high at the sight. I
+  could not look at their weather-stained faces, with the great
+  moustaches which bristled over their chin-straps, without feeling
+  a glow of confidence, and, between ourselves, I have no doubt
+  that that was exactly how they felt when they saw their young
+  Colonel on his great black war-horse riding at their head.</p>
+
+  <p>Well, when we got free of the camp and over the Tagus, I threw
+  out my advance and my flankers, keeping my own place at the head
+  of the main body. Looking back from the hills above Santarem, we
+  could see the dark lines of Massena's army, with the flash and
+  twinkle of the sabres and bayonets as he moved his regiments into
+  position for their retreat. To the south lay the scattered red
+  patches of the English outposts, and behind the grey smoke-cloud
+  which rose from Wellington's camp&mdash;thick, oily smoke, which
+  seemed to our poor starving fellows to bear with it the rich
+  smell of seething camp-kettles. Away to the west lay a curve of
+  blue sea flecked with the white sails of the English ships.</p>
+
+  <p>You will understand that as we were riding to the east, our
+  road lay away from both armies. Our own marauders, however, and
+  the scouting parties of the English, covered the country, and it
+  was necessary with my small troop that I should take every
+  precaution. During the whole day we rode over desolate
+  hill-sides, the lower portions covered by the budding vines, but
+  the upper turning from green to grey, and jagged along the
+  skyline like the back of a starved horse. Mountain streams
+  crossed our path, running west to the Tagus, and once we came to
+  a deep, strong river, which might have checked us had I not found
+  the ford by observing where houses had been built opposite each
+  other upon either bank. Between them, as every scout should know,
+  you will find your ford. There was none to give us information,
+  for neither man nor beast, nor any living thing except great
+  clouds of crows, was to be seen during our journey.</p>
+
+  <p>The sun was beginning to sink when we came to a valley clear
+  in the centre, but shrouded by huge oak trees upon either side.
+  We could not be more than a few miles from Almeixal, so it seemed
+  to me to be best to keep among the groves, for the spring had
+  been an early one and the leaves were already thick enough to
+  conceal us. We were riding then in open order among the great
+  trunks, when one of my flankers came galloping up.</p>
+
+  <p>'There are English across the valley, Colonel,' he cried, as
+  he saluted.</p>
+
+  <p>'Cavalry or infantry?'</p>
+
+  <p>'Dragoons, Colonel,' said he; 'I saw the gleam of their
+  helmets, and heard the neigh of a horse.'</p>
+
+  <p>Halting my men I hastened to the edge of the wood. There could
+  be no doubt about it. A party of English cavalry was travelling
+  in a line with us, and in the same direction. I caught a glimpse
+  of their red coats and of their flashing arms glowing and
+  twinkling among the tree-trunks. Once, as they passed through a
+  small clearing, I could see their whole force, and I judged that
+  they were of about the same strength as my own&mdash;a half
+  squadron at the most.</p>
+
+  <p>You who have heard some of my little adventures will give me
+  credit for being quick in my decisions, and prompt in carrying
+  them out. But here I must confess that I was in two minds. On the
+  one hand there was the chance of a fine cavalry skirmish with the
+  English. On the other hand, there was my mission at the Abbey of
+  Almeixal, which seemed already to be so much above my power. If I
+  were to lose any of my men, it was certain that I should be
+  unable to carry out my orders. I was sitting my horse, with my
+  chin in my gauntlet, looking across at the rippling gleams of
+  light from the further wood, when suddenly one of these
+  red-coated Englishmen rode out from the cover, pointing at me and
+  breaking into a shrill whoop and halloa as if I had been a fox.
+  Three others joined him, and one who was a bugler sounded a call,
+  which brought the whole of them into the open. They were, as I
+  had thought, a half squadron, and they formed a double line with
+  a front of twenty-five, their officer&mdash;the one who had
+  whooped at me&mdash;at their head.</p>
+
+  <p>For my own part, I had instantly brought my own troopers into
+  the same formation, so that there we were, hussars and dragoons,
+  with only two hundred yards of grassy sward between us. They
+  carried themselves well, those red-coated troopers, with their
+  silver helmets, their high white plumes, and their long, gleaming
+  swords; while, on the other hand, I am sure that they would
+  acknowledge that they had never looked upon finer light horsemen
+  than the fifty hussars of Conflans who were facing them. They
+  were heavier, it is true, and they may have seemed the smarter,
+  for Wellington used to make them burnish their metal work, which
+  was not usual among us. On the other hand, it is well known that
+  the English tunics were too tight for the sword-arm, which gave
+  our men an advantage. As to bravery, foolish, inexperienced
+  people of every nation always think that their own soldiers are
+  braver than any others. There is no nation in the world which
+  does not entertain this idea. But when one has seen as much as I
+  have done, one understands that there is no very marked
+  difference, and that although nations differ very much in
+  discipline, they are all equally brave&mdash;except that the
+  French have rather more courage than the rest.</p>
+
+  <p>Well, the cork was drawn and the glasses ready, when suddenly
+  the English officer raised his sword to me as if in a challenge,
+  and cantered his horse across the grassland. My word, there is no
+  finer sight upon earth than that of a gallant man upon a gallant
+  steed! I could have halted there just to watch him as he came
+  with such careless grace, his sabre down by his horse's shoulder,
+  his head thrown back, his white plume tossing&mdash;youth and
+  strength and courage, with the violet evening sky above and the
+  oak trees behind. But it was not for me to stand and stare.
+  Etienne Gerard may have his faults, but, my faith, he was never
+  accused of being backward in taking his own part. The old horse,
+  Rataplan, knew me so well that he had started off before ever I
+  gave the first shake to the bridle.</p>
+
+  <p>There are two things in this world that I am very slow to
+  forget: the face of a pretty woman, and the legs of a fine horse.
+  Well, as we drew together, I kept on saying, 'Where have I seen
+  those great roan shoulders? Where have I seen that dainty
+  fetlock?' Then suddenly I remembered, and as I looked up at the
+  reckless eyes and the challenging smile, whom should I recognize
+  but the man who had saved me from the brigands and played me for
+  my freedom&mdash;he whose correct title was Milor the Hon. Sir
+  Russell Bart!</p>
+
+  <p>'Bart!' I shouted.</p>
+
+  <p>He had his arm raised for a cut, and three parts of his body
+  open to my point, for he did not know very much about the use of
+  the sword. As I brought my hilt to the salute he dropped his hand
+  and stared at me.</p>
+
+  <p>'Halloa!' said he. 'It's Gerard!' You would have thought by
+  his manner that I had met him by appointment. For my own part, I
+  would have embraced him had he but come an inch of the way to
+  meet me.</p>
+
+  <p>'I thought we were in for some sport,' said he. 'I never
+  dreamed that it was you.'</p>
+
+  <p>I found this tone of disappointment somewhat irritating.
+  Instead of being glad at having met a friend, he was sorry at
+  having missed an enemy.</p>
+
+  <p>'I should have been happy to join in your sport, my dear
+  Bart,' said I. 'But I really cannot turn my sword upon a man who
+  saved my life.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Tut, never mind about that.'</p>
+
+  <p>'No, it is impossible. I should never forgive myself.'</p>
+
+  <p>'You make too much of a trifle.'</p>
+
+  <p>'My mother's one desire is to embrace you. If ever you should
+  be in Gascony&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+  <p>'Lord Wellington is coming there with 60,000 men.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Then one of them will have a chance of surviving,' said I,
+  laughing. 'In the meantime, put your sword in your sheath!'</p>
+
+  <p>Our horses were standing head to tail, and the Bart put out
+  his hand and patted me on the thigh.</p>
+
+  <p>'You're a good chap, Gerard,' said he. 'I only wish you had
+  been born on the right side of the Channel.'</p>
+
+  <p>'I was,' said I.</p>
+
+  <p>'Poor devil!' he cried, with such an earnestness of pity that
+  he set me laughing again. 'But look here, Gerard,' he continued;
+  'this is all very well, but it is not business, you know. I don't
+  know what Massena would say to it, but our Chief would jump out
+  of his riding-boots if he saw us. We weren't sent out here for a
+  picnic&mdash;either of us.'</p>
+
+  <p>'What would you have?'</p>
+
+  <p>'Well, we had a little argument about our hussars and
+  dragoons, if you remember. I've got fifty of the Sixteenth all
+  chewing their carbine bullets behind me. You've got as many
+  fine-looking boys over yonder, who seem to be fidgeting in their
+  saddles. If you and I took the right flanks we should not spoil
+  each other's beauty&mdash;though a little blood-letting is a
+  friendly thing in this climate.'</p>
+
+  <p>There seemed to me to be a good deal of sense in what he said.
+  For the moment Mr Alexis Morgan and the Countess of La Ronda and
+  the Abbey of Almeixal went right out of my head, and I could only
+  think of the fine level turf and of the beautiful skirmish which
+  we might have.</p>
+
+  <p>'Very good, Bart,' said I. 'We have seen the front of your
+  dragoons. We shall now have a look at their backs.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Any betting?' he asked.</p>
+
+  <p>'The stake,' said I, 'is nothing less than the honour of the
+  Hussars of Conflans.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Well, come on!' he answered. 'If we break you, well and
+  good&mdash;if you break us, it will be all the better for Marshal
+  Millefleurs.'</p>
+
+  <p>When he said that I could only stare at him in
+  astonishment.</p>
+
+  <p>'Why for Marshal Millefleurs?' I asked.</p>
+
+  <p>'It is the name of a rascal who lives out this way. My
+  dragoons have been sent by Lord Wellington to see him safely
+  hanged.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Name of a name!' I cried. 'Why, my hussars have been sent by
+  Massena for that very object.'</p>
+
+  <p>We burst out laughing at that, and sheathed our swords. There
+  was a whirr of steel from behind us as our troopers followed our
+  example.</p>
+
+  <p>'We are allies!' he cried.</p>
+
+  <p>'For a day.'</p>
+
+  <p>'We must join forces.'</p>
+
+  <p>'There is no doubt of it.'</p>
+
+  <p>And so, instead of fighting, we wheeled our half squadrons
+  round and moved in two little columns down the valley, the shakos
+  and the helmets turned inwards, and the men looking their
+  neighbours up and down, like old fighting dogs with tattered ears
+  who have learned to respect each other's teeth. The most were on
+  the broad grin, but there were some on either side who looked
+  black and challenging, especially the English sergeant and my own
+  sub-officer Papilette. They were men of habit, you see, who could
+  not change all their ways of thinking in a moment. Besides,
+  Papilette had lost his only brother at Busaco. As for the Bart
+  and me, we rode together at the head and chatted about all that
+  had occurred to us since that famous game of &eacute;cart&eacute;
+  of which I have told you.</p>
+
+  <p>For my own part, I spoke to him of my adventures in England.
+  They are a very singular people, these English. Although he knew
+  that I had been engaged in twelve campaigns, yet I am sure that
+  the Bart thought more highly of me because I had had an affair
+  with the Bristol Bustler. He told me, too, that the Colonel who
+  presided over his court-martial for playing cards with a prisoner
+  acquitted him of neglect of duty, but nearly broke him because he
+  thought that he had not cleared his trumps before leading his
+  suit. Yes, indeed, they are a singular people.</p>
+
+  <p>At the end of the valley the road curved over some rising
+  ground before winding down into another wider valley beyond. We
+  called a halt when we came to the top; for there, right in front
+  of us, at the distance of about three miles, was a scattered,
+  grey town, with a single enormous building upon the flank of the
+  mountain which overlooked it. We could not doubt that we were at
+  last in sight of the Abbey that held the gang of rascals whom we
+  had come to disperse. It was only now, I think, that we fully
+  understood what a task lay in front of us, for the place was a
+  veritable fortress, and it was evident that cavalry should never
+  have been sent out upon such an errand.</p>
+
+  <p>'That's got nothing to do with us,' said the Bart; Wellington
+  and Massena can settle that between them.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Courage!' I answered. 'Pir&eacute; took Leipzig with fifty
+  hussars.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Had they been dragoons,' said the Bart, laughing, 'he would
+  have had Berlin. But you are senior officer; give us a lead, and
+  we'll see who will be the first to flinch.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Well,' said I, 'whatever we do must be done at once, for my
+  orders are to be on my way to Abrantes by tomorrow night. But we
+  must have some information first, and here is someone who should
+  be able to give it to us.'</p>
+
+  <p>There was a square, whitewashed house standing by the
+  roadside, which appeared, from the bush hanging over the door, to
+  be one of those wayside tabernas which are provided for the
+  muleteers. A lantern was hung in the porch, and by its light we
+  saw two men, the one in the brown habit of a Capuchin monk, and
+  the other girt with an apron, which showed him to be the
+  landlord. They were conversing together so earnestly that we were
+  upon them before they were aware of us. The innkeeper turned to
+  fly, but one of the Englishmen seized him by the hair, and held
+  him tight.</p>
+
+  <p>'For mercy's sake, spare me,' he yelled. 'My house has been
+  gutted by the French and harried by the English, and my feet have
+  been burned by the brigands. I swear by the Virgin that I have
+  neither money nor food in my inn, and the good Father Abbot, who
+  is starving upon my doorstep, will be witness to it.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Indeed, sir,' said the Capuchin, in excellent French, 'what
+  this worthy man says is very true. He is one of the many victims
+  to these cruel wars, although his loss is but a feather-weight
+  compared to mine. Let him go,' he added, in English, to the
+  trooper, 'he is too weak to fly, even if he desired to.'</p>
+
+  <p>In the light of the lantern I saw that this monk was a
+  magnificent man, dark and bearded, with the eyes of a hawk, and
+  so tall that his cowl came up to Rataplan's ears. He wore the
+  look of one who had been through much suffering, but he carried
+  himself like a king, and we could form some opinion of his
+  learning when we each heard him talk our own language as fluently
+  as if he were born to it.</p>
+
+  <p>'You have nothing to fear,' said I, to the trembling
+  innkeeper. 'As to you, father, you are, if I am not mistaken, the
+  very man who can give us the information which we require.'</p>
+
+  <p>'All that I have is at your service, my son. But,' he added,
+  with a wan smile, 'my Lenten fare is always somewhat meagre, and
+  this year it has been such that I must ask you for a crust of
+  bread if I am to have the strength to answer your questions.'</p>
+
+  <p>We bore two days' rations in our haversacks, so that he soon
+  had the little he asked for. It was dreadful to see the wolfish
+  way in which he seized the piece of dried goat's flesh which I
+  was able to offer him.</p>
+
+  <p>'Time presses, and we must come to the point,' said I. 'We
+  want your advice as to the weak points of yonder Abbey, and
+  concerning the habits of the rascals who infest it.'</p>
+
+  <p>He cried out something which I took to be Latin, with his
+  hands clasped and his eyes upturned. 'The prayer of the just
+  availeth much,' said he, 'and yet I had not dared to hope that
+  mine would have been so speedily answered. In me you see the
+  unfortunate Abbot of Almeixal, who has been cast out by this
+  rabble of three armies with their heretical leader. Oh! to think
+  of what I have lost!' his voice broke, and the tears hung upon
+  his lashes.</p>
+
+  <p>'Cheer up, sir,' said the Bart. 'I'll lay nine to four that we
+  have you back again by tomorrow night.'</p>
+
+  <p>It is not of my own welfare that I think,' said he, 'nor even
+  of that of my poor, scattered flock. But it is of the holy relics
+  which are left in the sacrilegious hands of these robbers.'</p>
+
+  <p>'It's even betting whether they would ever bother their heads
+  about them,' said the Bart. 'But show us the way inside the
+  gates, and we'll soon clear the place out for you.'</p>
+
+  <p>In a few short words the good Abbot gave us the very points
+  that we wished to know. But all that he said only made our task
+  more formidable. The walls of the Abbey were forty feet high. The
+  lower windows were barricaded, and the whole building loopholed
+  for musketry fire. The gang preserved military discipline, and
+  their sentries were too numerous for us to hope to take them by
+  surprise. It was more than ever evident that a battalion of
+  grenadiers and a couple of breaching pieces were what was needed.
+  I raised my eyebrows, and the Bart began to whistle.</p>
+
+  <p>'We must have a shot at it, come what may,' said he.</p>
+
+  <p>The men had already dismounted, and, having watered their
+  horses, were eating their suppers. For my own part I went into
+  the sitting-room of the inn with the Abbot and the Bart, that we
+  might talk about our plans.</p>
+
+  <p>I had a little cognac in my <i>sauve vie</i>, and I divided it
+  among us&mdash;just enough to wet our moustaches.</p>
+
+  <p>'It is unlikely,' said I, 'that those rascals know anything
+  about our coming. I have seen no signs of scouts along the road.
+  My own plan is that we should conceal ourselves in some
+  neighbouring wood, and then, when they open their gates, charge
+  down upon them and take them by surprise.'</p>
+
+  <p>The Bart was of opinion that this was the best that we could
+  do, but, when we came to talk it over, the Abbot made us see that
+  there were difficulties in the way.</p>
+
+  <p>'Save on the side of the town, there is no place within a mile
+  of the Abbey where you could shelter man or horse,' said he. 'As
+  to the townsfolk, they are not to be trusted. I fear, my son,
+  that your excellent plan would have little chance of success in
+  the face of the vigilant guard which these men keep.'</p>
+
+  <p>'I see no other way,' answered I. 'Hussars of Conflans are not
+  so plentiful that I can afford to run half a squadron of them
+  against a forty-foot wall with five hundred infantry behind
+  it.'</p>
+
+  <p>'I am a man of peace,' said the Abbot, 'and yet I may,
+  perhaps, give a word of counsel. I know these villains and their
+  ways. Who should do so better, seeing that I have stayed for a
+  month in this lonely spot, looking down in weariness of heart at
+  the Abbey which was my own? I will tell you now what I should
+  myself do if I were in your place.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Pray tell us, father,' we cried, both together.</p>
+
+  <p>'You must know that bodies of deserters, both French and
+  English, are continually coming in to them, carrying their
+  weapons with them. Now, what is there to prevent you and your men
+  from pretending to be such a body, and so making your way into
+  the Abbey?'</p>
+
+  <p>I was amazed at the simplicity of the thing, and I embraced
+  the good Abbot. The Bart, however, had some objections to
+  offer.</p>
+
+  <p>'That is all very well,' said he, 'but if these fellows are as
+  sharp as you say, it is not very likely that they are going to
+  let a hundred armed strangers into their crib. From all I have
+  heard of Mr Morgan, or Marshal Millefleurs, or whatever the
+  rascal's name is, I give him credit for more sense than
+  that.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Well, then,' I cried, 'let us send fifty in, and let them at
+  daybreak throw open the gates to the other fifty, who will be
+  waiting outside.'</p>
+
+  <p>We discussed the question at great length and with much
+  foresight and discretion. If it had been Massena and Wellington
+  instead of two young officers of light cavalry, we could not have
+  weighed it all with more judgment. At last we agreed, the Bart
+  and I, that one of us should indeed go with fifty men, under
+  pretence of being deserters, and that in the early morning he
+  should gain command of the gate and admit the others. The Abbot,
+  it is true, was still of opinion that it was dangerous to divide
+  our force, but finding that we were both of the same mind, he
+  shrugged his shoulders and gave in.</p>
+
+  <p>'There is only one thing that I would ask,' said he. 'If you
+  lay hands upon this Marshal Millefleurs&mdash;this dog of a
+  brigand&mdash;what will you do with him?'</p>
+
+  <p>'Hang him,' I answered.</p>
+
+  <p>'It is too easy a death,' cried the Capuchin, with a
+  vindictive glow in his dark eyes. 'Had I my way with
+  him&mdash;but, oh, what thoughts are these for a servant of God
+  to harbour!' He clapped his hands to his forehead like one who is
+  half demented by his troubles, and rushed out of the room.</p>
+
+  <p>There was an important point which we had still to settle, and
+  that was whether the French or the English party should have the
+  honour of entering the Abbey first. My faith, it was asking a
+  great deal of Etienne Gerard that he should give place to any man
+  at such a time! But the poor Bart pleaded so hard, urging the few
+  skirmishes which he had seen against my four-and-seventy
+  engagements, that at last I consented that he should go. We had
+  just clasped hands over the matter when there broke out such a
+  shouting and cursing and yelling from the front of the inn, that
+  out we rushed with our drawn sabres in our hands, convinced that
+  the brigands were upon us.</p>
+
+  <p>You may imagine our feelings when, by the light of the lantern
+  which hung from the porch, we saw a score of our hussars and
+  dragoons all mixed in one wild heap, red coats and blue, helmets
+  and busbies, pommelling each other to their hearts' content. We
+  flung ourselves upon them, imploring, threatening, tugging at a
+  lace collar, or at a spurred heel, until, at last, we had dragged
+  them all apart. There they stood, flushed and bleeding, glaring
+  at each other, and all panting together like a line of troop
+  horses after a ten-mile chase. It was only with our drawn swords
+  that we could keep them from each other's throats. The poor
+  Capuchin stood in the porch in his long brown habit, wringing his
+  hands and calling upon all the saints for mercy.</p>
+
+  <p>He was, indeed, as I found upon inquiry, the innocent cause of
+  all the turmoil, for, not understanding how soldiers look upon
+  such things, he had made some remark to the English sergeant that
+  it was a pity that his squadron was not as good as the French.
+  The words were not out of his mouth before a dragoon knocked down
+  the nearest hussar, and then, in a moment, they all flew at each
+  other like tigers. We would trust them no more after that, but
+  the Bart moved his men to the front of the inn, and I mine to the
+  back, the English all scowling and silent, and our fellows
+  shaking their fists and chattering, each after the fashion of
+  their own people.</p>
+
+  <p>Well, as our plans were made, we thought it best to carry them
+  out at once, lest some fresh cause of quarrel should break out
+  between our followers. The Bart and his men rode off, therefore,
+  he having first torn the lace from his sleeves, and the gorget
+  and sash from his uniform, so that he might pass as a simple
+  trooper. He explained to his men what it was that was expected of
+  them, and though they did not raise a cry or wave their weapons
+  as mine might have done, there was an expression upon their
+  stolid and clean-shaven faces which filled me with confidence.
+  Their tunics were left unbuttoned, their scabbards and helmets
+  stained with dirt, and their harness badly fastened, so that they
+  might look the part of deserters, without order or discipline. At
+  six o'clock next morning they were to gain command of the main
+  gate of the Abbey, while at that same hour my hussars were to
+  gallop up to it from outside. The Bart and I pledged our words to
+  it before he trotted off with his detachment. My sergeant,
+  Papilette, with two troopers, followed the English at a distance,
+  and returned in half an hour to say that, after some parley, and
+  the flashing of lanterns upon them from the grille, they had been
+  admitted into the Abbey.</p>
+
+  <p>So far, then, all had gone well. It was a cloudy night with a
+  sprinkling of rain, which was in our favour, as there was the
+  less chance of our presence being discovered. My vedettes I
+  placed two hundred yards in every direction, to guard against a
+  surprise, and also to prevent any peasant who might stumble upon
+  us from carrying the news to the Abbey. Oudin and Papilette were
+  to take turns of duty, while the others with their horses had
+  snug quarters in a great wooden granary. Having walked round and
+  seen that all was as it should be, I flung myself upon the bed
+  which the innkeeper had set apart for me, and fell into a
+  dreamless sleep.</p>
+
+  <p>No doubt you have heard my name mentioned as being the
+  beau-ideal of a soldier, and that not only by friends and
+  admirers like our fellow-townsfolk, but also by old officers of
+  the great wars who have shared the fortunes of those famous
+  campaigns with me. Truth and modesty compel me to say, however,
+  that this is not so. There are some gifts which I lack&mdash;very
+  few, no doubt&mdash;but, still, amid the vast armies of the
+  Emperor there may have been some who were free from those
+  blemishes which stood between me and perfection. Of bravery I say
+  nothing. Those who have seen me in the field are best fitted to
+  speak about that. I have often heard the soldiers discussing
+  round the camp-fires as to who was the bravest man in the Grand
+  Army. Some said Murat, and some said Lasalle, and some Ney; but
+  for my own part, when they asked me, I merely shrugged my
+  shoulders and smiled. It would have seemed mere conceit if I had
+  answered that there was no man braver than Brigadier Gerard. At
+  the same time, facts are facts, and a man knows best what his own
+  feelings are. But there are other gifts besides bravery which are
+  necessary for a soldier, and one of them is that he should be a
+  light sleeper. Now, from my boyhood onwards, I have been hard to
+  wake, and it was this which brought me to ruin upon that
+  night.</p>
+
+  <p>It may have been about two o'clock in the morning that I was
+  suddenly conscious of a feeling of suffocation. I tried to call
+  out, but there was something which prevented me from uttering a
+  sound. I struggled to rise, but I could only flounder like a
+  hamstrung horse. I was strapped at the ankles, strapped at the
+  knees, and strapped again at the wrists. Only my eyes were free
+  to move, and there at the foot of my couch, by the light of a
+  Portuguese lamp, whom should I see but the Abbot and the
+  innkeeper!</p>
+
+  <p>The latter's heavy, white face had appeared to me when I
+  looked upon it the evening before to express nothing but
+  stupidity and terror. Now, on the contrary, every feature bespoke
+  brutality and ferocity. Never have I seen a more dreadful-looking
+  villain. In his hand he held a long, dull-coloured knife. The
+  Abbot, on the other hand, was as polished and as dignified as
+  ever. His Capuchin gown had been thrown open, however, and I saw
+  beneath it a black, frogged coat, such as I have seen among the
+  English officers. As our eyes met he leaned over the wooden end
+  of the bed and laughed silently until it creaked again.</p>
+
+  <p>'You will, I am sure, excuse my mirth, my dear Colonel
+  Gerard,' said he. 'The fact is, that the expression upon your
+  face when you grasped the situation was just a little funny. I
+  have no doubt that you are an excellent soldier, but I hardly
+  think that you are fit to measure wits with the Marshal
+  Millefleurs, as your fellows have been good enough to call me.
+  You appear to have given me credit for singularly little
+  intelligence, which argues, if I may be allowed to say so, a want
+  of acuteness upon your own part. Indeed, with the single
+  exception of my thick-headed compatriot, the British dragoon, I
+  have never met anyone who was less competent to carry out such a
+  mission.'</p>
+
+  <p>You can imagine how I felt and how I looked, as I listened to
+  this insolent harangue, which was all delivered in that flowery
+  and condescending manner which had gained this rascal his
+  nickname. I could say nothing, but they must have read my threat
+  in my eyes, for the fellow who had played the part of the
+  innkeeper whispered something to his companion.</p>
+
+  <p>'No, no, my dear Chenier, he will be infinitely more valuable
+  alive,' said he. 'By the way, Colonel, it is just as well that
+  you are a sound sleeper, for my friend here, who is a little
+  rough in his ways, would certainly have cut your throat if you
+  had raised any alarm. I should recommend you to keep in his good
+  graces, for Sergeant Chenier, late of the 7th Imperial Light
+  Infantry, is a much more dangerous person than Captain Alexis
+  Morgan, of His Majesty's foot-guards.'</p>
+
+  <p>Chenier grinned and shook his knife at me, while I tried to
+  look the loathing which I felt at the thought that a soldier of
+  the Emperor could fall so low.</p>
+
+  <p>'It may amuse you to know,' said the Marshal, in that soft,
+  suave voice of his, 'that both your expeditions were watched from
+  the time that you left your respective camps. I think that you
+  will allow that Chenier and I played our parts with some
+  subtlety. We had made every arrangement for your reception at the
+  Abbey, though we had hoped to receive the whole squadron instead
+  of half. When the gates are secured behind them, our visitors
+  will find themselves in a very charming little mediaeval
+  quadrangle, with no possible exit, commanded by musketry fire
+  from a hundred windows. They may choose to be shot down; or they
+  may choose to surrender. Between ourselves, I have not the
+  slightest doubt that they have been wise enough to do the latter.
+  But since you are naturally interested in the matter, we thought
+  that you would care to come with us and to see for yourself. I
+  think I can promise you that you will find your titled friend
+  waiting for you at the Abbey with a face as long as your
+  own.'</p>
+
+  <p>The two villains began whispering together, debating, as far
+  as I could hear, which was the best way of avoiding my
+  vedettes.</p>
+
+  <p>'I will make sure that it is all clear upon the other side of
+  the barn,' said the Marshal at last. 'You will stay here, my good
+  Chenier, and if the prisoner gives any trouble you will know what
+  to do.'</p>
+
+  <p>So we were left together, this murderous renegade and
+  I&mdash;he sitting at the end of the bed, sharpening his knife
+  upon his boot in the light of the single smoky little oil-lamp.
+  As to me, I only wonder now, as I look back upon it, that I did
+  not go mad with vexation and self-reproach as I lay helplessly
+  upon the couch, unable to utter a word or move a finger, with the
+  knowledge that my fifty gallant lads were so close to me, and yet
+  with no means of letting them know the straits to which I was
+  reduced. It was no new thing for me to be a prisoner; but to be
+  taken by these renegades, and to be led into their Abbey in the
+  midst of their jeers, befooled and out-witted by their insolent
+  leaders&mdash;that was indeed more than I could endure. The knife
+  of the butcher beside me would cut less deeply than that.</p>
+
+  <p>I twitched softly at my wrists, and then at my ankles, but
+  whichever of the two had secured me was no bungler at his work. I
+  could not move either of them an inch. Then I tried to work the
+  handkerchief down over my mouth, but the ruffian beside me raised
+  his knife with such a threatening snarl that I had to desist. I
+  was lying still looking at his bull neck, and wondering whether
+  it would ever be my good fortune to fit it for a cravat, when I
+  heard returning steps coming down the inn passage and up the
+  stair. What word would the villain bring back? If he found it
+  impossible to kidnap me, he would probably murder me where I lay.
+  For my own part, I was indifferent which it might be, and I
+  looked at the doorway with the contempt and defiance which I
+  longed to put into words. But you can imagine my feelings, my
+  dear friends, when, instead of the tall figure and dark, sneering
+  face of the Capuchin, my eyes fell upon the grey pelisse and huge
+  moustaches of my good little sub-officer, Papilette!</p>
+
+  <p>The French soldier of those days had seen too much to be ever
+  taken by surprise. His eyes had hardly rested upon my bound
+  figure and the sinister face beside me before he had seen how the
+  matter lay.</p>
+
+  <p>'Sacred name of a dog!' he growled, and out flashed his great
+  sabre. Chenier sprang forward at him with his knife, and then,
+  thinking better of it, he darted back and stabbed frantically at
+  my heart. For my own part, I had hurled myself off the bed on the
+  side opposite to him, and the blade grazed my side before ripping
+  its way through blanket and sheet. An instant later I heard the
+  thud of a heavy fall, and then almost simultaneously a second
+  object struck the floor&mdash;something lighter but harder, which
+  rolled under the bed. I will not horrify you with details, my
+  friends. Suffice it that Papilette was one of the strongest
+  swordsmen in the regiment, and that his sabre was heavy and
+  sharp. It left a red blotch upon my wrists and my ankles, as it
+  cut the thongs which bound me.</p>
+
+  <p>When I had thrown off my gag, the first use which I made of my
+  lips was to kiss the sergeant's scarred cheeks. The next was to
+  ask him if all was well with the command. Yes, they had had no
+  alarms. Oudin had just relieved him, and he had come to report.
+  Had he seen the Abbot? No, he had seen nothing of him. Then we
+  must form a cordon and prevent his escape. I was hurrying out to
+  give the orders, when I heard a slow and measured step enter the
+  door below, and come creaking up the stairs.</p>
+
+  <p>Papilette understood it all in an instant. 'You are not to
+  kill him,' I whispered, and thrust him into the shadow on one
+  side of the door; I crouched on the other. Up he came, up and up,
+  and every footfall seemed to be upon my heart. The brown skirt of
+  his gown was not over the threshold before we were both on him,
+  like two wolves on a buck. Down we crashed, the three of us, he
+  fighting like a tiger, and with such amazing strength that he
+  might have broken away from the two of us. Thrice he got to his
+  feet, and thrice we had him over again, until Papilette made him
+  feel that there was a point to his sabre. He had sense enough
+  then to know that the game was up, and to lie still while I
+  lashed him with the very cords which had been round my own
+  limbs.</p>
+
+  <p>'There has been a fresh deal, my fine fellow,' said I, 'and
+  you will find that I have some of the trumps in <i>my</i> hand
+  this time.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Luck always comes to the aid of a fool,' he answered.
+  'Perhaps it is as well, otherwise the world would fall too
+  completely into the power of the astute. So, you have killed
+  Chenier, I see. He was an insubordinate dog, and always smelt
+  abominably of garlic. Might I trouble you to lay me upon the bed?
+  The floor of these Portuguese tabernas is hardly a fitting couch
+  for anyone who has prejudices in favour of cleanliness.'</p>
+
+  <p>I could not but admire the coolness of the man, and the way in
+  which he preserved the same insolent air of condescension in
+  spite of this sudden turning of the tables. I dispatched
+  Papilette to summon a guard, whilst I stood over our prisoner
+  with my drawn sword, never taking my eyes off him for an instant,
+  for I must confess that I had conceived a great respect for his
+  audacity and resource.</p>
+
+  <p>'I trust,' said he, 'that your men will treat me in a becoming
+  manner.'</p>
+
+  <p>'You will get your deserts&mdash;you may depend upon
+  that.'</p>
+
+  <p>'I ask nothing more. You may not be aware of my exalted birth,
+  but I am so placed that I cannot name my father without treason,
+  nor my mother without a scandal. I cannot <i>claim</i> Royal
+  honours, but these things are so much more graceful when they are
+  conceded without a claim. The thongs are cutting my skin. Might I
+  beg you to loosen them?'</p>
+
+  <p>'You do not give me credit for much intelligence,' I remarked,
+  repeating his own words.</p>
+
+  <p>'<i>Touch&eacute;</i>,' he cried, like a pinked fencer. 'But
+  here come your men, so it matters little whether you loosen them
+  or not.'</p>
+
+  <p>I ordered the gown to be stripped from him and placed him
+  under a strong guard. Then, as morning was already breaking, I
+  had to consider what my next step was to be. The poor Bart and
+  his Englishmen had fallen victims to the deep scheme which might,
+  had we adopted all the crafty suggestions of our adviser, have
+  ended in the capture of the whole instead of the half of our
+  force. I must extricate them if it were still possible. Then
+  there was the old lady, the Countess of La Ronda, to be thought
+  of. As to the Abbey, since its garrison was on the alert it was
+  hopeless to think of capturing that. All turned now upon the
+  value which they placed upon their leader. The game depended upon
+  my playing that one card. I will tell you how boldly and how
+  skilfully I played it.</p>
+
+  <p>It was hardly light before my bugler blew the assembly, and
+  out we trotted on to the plain. My prisoner was placed on
+  horseback in the very centre of the troops. It chanced that there
+  was a large tree just out of musket-shot from the main gate of
+  the Abbey, and under this we halted. Had they opened the great
+  doors in order to attack us, I should have charged home upon
+  them; but, as I had expected, they stood upon the defensive,
+  lining the long wall and pouring down a torrent of hootings and
+  taunts and derisive laughter upon us. A few fired their muskets,
+  but finding that we were out of reach they soon ceased to waste
+  their powder. It was the strangest sight to see that mixture of
+  uniforms, French, English, and Portuguese, cavalry, infantry, and
+  artillery, all wagging their heads and shaking their fists at
+  us.</p>
+
+  <p>My word, their hubbub soon died away when we opened our ranks,
+  and showed whom we had got in the midst of us! There was silence
+  for a few seconds, and then such a howl of rage and grief! I
+  could see some of them dancing like mad-men upon the wall. He
+  must have been a singular person, this prisoner of ours, to have
+  gained the affection of such a gang.</p>
+
+  <p>I had brought a rope from the inn, and we slung it over the
+  lower bough of the tree.</p>
+
+  <p>'You will permit me, monsieur, to undo your collar,' said
+  Papilette, with mock politeness.</p>
+
+  <p>'If your hands are perfectly clean,' answered our prisoner,
+  and set the whole half-squadron laughing.</p>
+
+  <p>There was another yell from the wall, followed by a profound
+  hush as the noose was tightened round Marshal Millefleurs' neck.
+  Then came a shriek from a bugle, the Abbey gates flew open, and
+  three men rushed out waving white cloths in their hands. Ah, how
+  my heart bounded with joy at the sight of them. And yet I would
+  not advance an inch to meet them, so that all the eagerness might
+  seem to be upon their side. I allowed my trumpeter, however, to
+  wave a handkerchief in reply, upon which the three envoys came
+  running towards us. The Marshal, still pinioned, and with the
+  rope round his neck, sat his horse with a half smile, as one who
+  is slightly bored and yet strives out of courtesy not to show it.
+  If I were in such a situation I could not wish to carry myself
+  better, and surely I can say no more than that.</p>
+
+  <p>They were a singular trio, these ambassadors. The one was a
+  Portuguese ca&ccedil;adore in his dark uniform, the second a
+  French chasseur in the lightest green, and the third a big
+  English artilleryman in blue and gold. They saluted, all three,
+  and the Frenchman did the talking.</p>
+
+  <p>'We have thirty-seven English dragoons in our hands,' said he.
+  'We give you our most solemn oath that they shall all hang from
+  the Abbey wall within five minutes of the death of our
+  Marshal.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Thirty-seven!' I cried. 'You have fifty-one.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Fourteen were cut down before they could be secured.'</p>
+
+  <p>'And the officer?'</p>
+
+  <p>'He would not surrender his sword save with his life. It was
+  not our fault. We would have saved him if we could.'</p>
+
+  <p>Alas for my poor Bart! I had met him but twice, and yet he was
+  a man very much after my heart. I have always had a regard for
+  the English for the sake of that one friend. A braver man and a
+  worse swordsman I have never met.</p>
+
+  <p>I did not, as you may think, take these rascals' word for
+  anything. Papilette was dispatched with one of them, and returned
+  to say that it was too true. I had now to think of the
+  living.</p>
+
+  <p>'You will release the thirty-seven dragoons if I free your
+  leader?'</p>
+
+  <p>'We will give you ten of them.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Up with him!' I cried.</p>
+
+  <p>'Twenty,' shouted the chasseur.</p>
+
+  <p>'No more words,' said I. 'Pull on the rope!'</p>
+
+  <p>'All of them,' cried the envoy, as the cord tightened round
+  the Marshal's neck.</p>
+
+  <p>'With horses and arms?'</p>
+
+  <p>They could see that I was not a man to jest with.</p>
+
+  <p>'All complete,' said the chasseur, sulkily.</p>
+
+  <p>'And the Countess of La Ronda as well?' said I.</p>
+
+  <p>But here I met with firmer opposition. No threats of mine
+  could induce them to give up the Countess. We tightened the cord.
+  We moved the horse. We did all but leave the Marshal suspended.
+  If once I broke his neck the dragoons were dead men. It was as
+  precious to me as to them.</p>
+
+  <p>'Allow me to remark,' said the Marshal, blandly, 'that you are
+  exposing me to a risk of a quinsy. Do you not think, since there
+  is a difference of opinion upon this point, that it would be an
+  excellent idea to consult the lady herself? We would neither of
+  us, I am sure, wish to override her own inclinations.'</p>
+
+  <p>Nothing could be more satisfactory. You can imagine how
+  quickly I grasped at so simple a solution. In ten minutes she was
+  before us, a most stately dame, with her grey curls peeping out
+  from under her mantilla. Her face was as yellow as though it
+  reflected the countless doubloons of her treasury.</p>
+
+  <p>'This gentleman,' said the Marshal, 'is exceedingly anxious to
+  convey you to a place where you will never see us more. It is for
+  you to decide whether you would wish to go with him, or whether
+  you prefer to remain with me.'</p>
+
+  <p>She was at his horse's side in an instant. 'My own Alexis,'
+  she cried, 'nothing can ever part us.'</p>
+
+  <p>He looked at me with a sneer upon his handsome face.</p>
+
+  <p>'By the way, you made a small slip of the tongue, my dear
+  Colonel,' said he. 'Except by courtesy, no such person exists as
+  the Dowager Countess of La Ronda. The lady whom I have the honour
+  to present to you is my very dear wife, Mrs Alexis
+  Morgan&mdash;or shall I say Madame la Mar&egrave;chale
+  Millefleurs?'</p>
+
+  <p>It was at this moment that I came to the conclusion that I was
+  dealing with the cleverest, and also the most unscrupulous, man
+  whom I had ever met. As I looked upon this unfortunate old woman
+  my soul was filled with wonder and disgust. As for her, her eyes
+  were raised to his face with such a look as a young recruit might
+  give to the Emperor.</p>
+
+  <p>'So be it,' said I at last; 'give me the dragoons and let me
+  go.'</p>
+
+  <p>They were brought out with their horses and weapons, and the
+  rope was taken from the Marshal's neck.</p>
+
+  <p>'Good-bye, my dear Colonel,' said he. 'I am afraid that you
+  will have rather a lame account to give of your mission, when you
+  find your way back to Massena, though, from all I hear, he will
+  probably be too busy to think of you. I am free to confess that
+  you have extricated yourself from your difficulties with greater
+  ability than I had given you credit for. I presume that there is
+  nothing which I can do for you before you go?'</p>
+
+  <p>'There is one thing.'</p>
+
+  <p>'And that is?'</p>
+
+  <p>'To give fitting burial to this young officer and his
+  men.'</p>
+
+  <p>'I pledge my word to it.'</p>
+
+  <p>'And there is one other.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Name it.'</p>
+
+  <p>'To give me five minutes in the open with a sword in your hand
+  and a horse between your legs.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Tut, tut!' said he. 'I should either have to cut short your
+  promising career, or else to bid adieu to my own bonny bride. It
+  is unreasonable to ask such a request of a man in the first joys
+  of matrimony.'</p>
+
+  <p>I gathered my horsemen together and wheeled them into
+  column.</p>
+
+  <p>'Au revoir,' I cried, shaking my sword at him. 'The next time
+  you may not escape so easily.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Au revoir,' he answered. 'When you are weary of the Emperor,
+  you will always find a commission waiting for you in the service
+  of the Marshal Millefleurs.'</p>
+
+  <p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+  <p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+  <p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+  <p>&nbsp;</p><a name="RULE4_5"><!-- RULE4 5 --></a>
+
+  <h2>6. HOW THE BRIGADIER PLAYED FOR A KINGDOM</h2>
+
+  <p>It has sometimes struck me that some of you, when you have
+  heard me tell these little adventures of mine, may have gone away
+  with the impression that I was conceited. There could not be a
+  greater mistake than this, for I have always observed that really
+  fine soldiers are free from this failing. It is true that I have
+  had to depict myself sometimes as brave, sometimes as full of
+  resource, always as interesting; but, then, it really was so, and
+  I had to take the facts as I found them. It would be an unworthy
+  affectation if I were to pretend that my career has been anything
+  but a fine one. The incident which I will tell you tonight,
+  however, is one which you will understand that only a modest man
+  would describe. After all, when one has attained such a position
+  as mine, one can afford to speak of what an ordinary man might be
+  tempted to conceal.</p>
+
+  <p>You must know, then, that after the Russian campaign the
+  remains of our poor army were quartered along the western bank of
+  the Elbe, where they might thaw their frozen blood and try, with
+  the help of the good German beer, to put a little between their
+  skin and their bones. There were some things which we could not
+  hope to regain, for I daresay that three large commissariat
+  fourgons would not have sufficed to carry the fingers and the
+  toes which the army had shed during that retreat. Still, lean and
+  crippled as we were, we had much to be thankful for when we
+  thought of our poor comrades whom we had left behind, and of the
+  snowfields&mdash;the horrible, horrible snowfields. To this day,
+  my friends, I do not care to see red and white together. Even my
+  red cap thrown down upon my white counterpane has given me dreams
+  in which I have seen those monstrous plains, the reeling,
+  tortured army, and the crimson smears which glared upon the snow
+  behind them. You will coax no story out of me about that
+  business, for the thought of it is enough to turn my wine to
+  vinegar and my tobacco to straw.</p>
+
+  <p>Of the half-million who crossed the Elbe in the autumn of the
+  year '12 about forty thousand infantry were left in the spring of
+  '13. But they were terrible men, these forty thousand: men of
+  iron, eaters of horses, and sleepers in the snow; filled, too,
+  with rage and bitterness against the Russians. They would hold
+  the Elbe until the great army of conscripts, which the Emperor
+  was raising in France, should be ready to help them to cross it
+  once more.</p>
+
+  <p>But the cavalry was in a deplorable condition. My own hussars
+  were at Borna, and when I paraded them first, I burst into tears
+  at the sight of them. My fine men and my beautiful
+  horses&mdash;it broke my heart to see the state to which they
+  were reduced. 'But, courage,' I thought, 'they have lost much,
+  but their Colonel is still left to them.' I set to work,
+  therefore, to repair their disasters, and had already constructed
+  two good squadrons, when an order came that all colonels of
+  cavalry should repair instantly to the dep&ocirc;ts of the
+  regiments in France to organize the recruits and the remounts for
+  the coming campaign.</p>
+
+  <p>You will think, doubtless, that I was over-joyed at this
+  chance of visiting home once more. I will not deny that it was a
+  pleasure to me to know that I should see my mother again, and
+  there were a few girls who would be very glad at the news; but
+  there were others in the army who had a stronger claim. I would
+  have given my place to any who had wives and children whom they
+  might not see again. However, there is no arguing when the blue
+  paper with the little red seal arrives, so within an hour I was
+  off upon my great ride from the Elbe to the Vosges. At last I was
+  to have a period of quiet. War lay behind my mare's tail and
+  peace in front of her nostrils. So I thought, as the sound of the
+  bugles died in the distance, and the long, white road curled away
+  in front of me through plain and forest and mountain, with France
+  somewhere beyond the blue haze which lay upon the horizon.</p>
+
+  <p>It is interesting, but it is also fatiguing, to ride in the
+  rear of an army. In the harvest time our soldiers could do
+  without supplies, for they had been trained to pluck the grain in
+  the fields as they passed, and to grind it for themselves in
+  their bivouacs. It was at that time of year, therefore, that
+  those swift marches were performed which were the wonder and the
+  despair of Europe. But now the starving men had to be made robust
+  once more, and I was forced to draw into the ditch continually as
+  the Coburg sheep and the Bavarian bullocks came streaming past
+  with waggon loads of Berlin beer and good French cognac.
+  Sometimes, too, I would hear the dry rattle of the drums and the
+  shrill whistle of the fifes, and long columns of our good little
+  infantry men would swing past me with the white dust lying thick
+  upon their blue tunics. These were old soldiers drawn from the
+  garrisons of our German fortresses, for it was not until May that
+  the new conscripts began to arrive from France.</p>
+
+  <p>Well, I was rather tired of this eternal stopping and dodging,
+  so that I was not sorry when I came to Altenburg to find that the
+  road divided, and that I could take the southern and quieter
+  branch. There were few wayfarers between there and Greiz, and the
+  road wound through groves of oaks and beeches, which shot their
+  branches across the path. You will think it strange that a
+  Colonel of hussars should again and again pull up his horse in
+  order to admire the beauty of the feathery branches and the
+  little, green, new-budded leaves, but if you had spent six months
+  among the fir trees of Russia you would be able to understand
+  me.</p>
+
+  <p>There was something, however, which pleased me very much less
+  than the beauty of the forests, and that was the words and looks
+  of the folk who lived in the woodland villages. We had always
+  been excellent friends with the Germans, and during the last six
+  years they had never seemed to bear us any malice for having made
+  a little free with their country. We had shown kindnesses to the
+  men and received them from the women, so that good, comfortable
+  Germany was a second home to all of us. But now there was
+  something which I could not understand in the behaviour of the
+  people. The travellers made no answer to my salute; the foresters
+  turned their heads away to avoid seeing me; and in the villages
+  the folk would gather into knots in the roadway and would scowl
+  at me as I passed. Even women would do this, and it was something
+  new for me in those days to see anything but a smile in a woman's
+  eyes when they were turned upon me.</p>
+
+  <p>It was in the hamlet of Schmolin, just ten miles out of
+  Altenburg, that the thing became most marked. I had stopped at
+  the little inn there just to damp my moustache and to wash the
+  dust out of poor Violette's throat. It was my way to give some
+  little compliment, or possibly a kiss, to the maid who served me;
+  but this one would have neither the one nor the other, but darted
+  a glance at me like a bayonet-thrust. Then when I raised my glass
+  to the folk who drank their beer by the door they turned their
+  backs on me, save only one fellow, who cried, 'Here's a toast for
+  you, boys! Here's to the letter T!' At that they all emptied
+  their beer mugs and laughed; but it was not a laugh that had
+  good-fellowship in it.</p>
+
+  <p>I was turning this over in my head and wondering what their
+  boorish conduct could mean, when I saw, as I rode from the
+  village, a great T new carved upon a tree. I had already seen
+  more than one in my morning's ride, but I had given no thought to
+  them until the words of the beer-drinker gave them an importance.
+  It chanced that a respectable-looking person was riding past me
+  at the moment, so I turned to him for information.</p>
+
+  <p>'Can you tell me, sir,' said I, 'what this letter T is?'</p>
+
+  <p>He looked at it and then at me in the most singular fashion.
+  'Young man,' said he, 'it is not the letter N.' Then before I
+  could ask further he clapped his spurs into his horses ribs and
+  rode, stomach to earth, upon his way.</p>
+
+  <p>At first his words had no particular significance in my mind,
+  but as I trotted onwards Violette chanced to half turn her dainty
+  head, and my eyes were caught by the gleam of the brazen N's at
+  the end of the bridle-chain. It was the Emperor's mark. And those
+  T's meant something which was opposite to it. Things had been
+  happening in Germany, then, during our absence, and the giant
+  sleeper had begun to stir. I thought of the mutinous faces that I
+  had seen, and I felt that if I could only have looked into the
+  hearts of these people I might have had some strange news to
+  bring into France with me. It made me the more eager to get my
+  remounts, and to see ten strong squadrons behind my kettle-drums
+  once more.</p>
+
+  <p>While these thoughts were passing through my head I had been
+  alternately walking and trotting, as a man should who has a long
+  journey before, and a willing horse beneath, him. The woods were
+  very open at this point, and beside the road there lay a great
+  heap of fagots. As I passed there came a sharp sound from among
+  them, and, glancing round, I saw a face looking out at me&mdash;a
+  hot, red face, like that of a man who is beside himself with
+  excitement and anxiety. A second glance told me that it was the
+  very person with whom I had talked an hour before in the
+  village.</p>
+
+  <p>'Come nearer!' he hissed. 'Nearer still! Now dismount and
+  pretend to be mending the stirrup leather. Spies may be watching
+  us, and it means death to me if I am seen helping you.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Death!' I whispered. 'From whom?'</p>
+
+  <p>'From the Tugendbund. From Lutzow's night-riders. You
+  Frenchmen are living on a powder magazine, and the match has been
+  struck that will fire it.'</p>
+
+  <p>'But this is all strange to me,' said I, still fumbling at the
+  leathers of my horse. 'What is this Tugendbund?'</p>
+
+  <p>'It is the secret society which has planned the great rising
+  which is to drive you out of Germany, just as you have been
+  driven out of Russia.'</p>
+
+  <p>'And these T's stand for it?'</p>
+
+  <p>'They are the signal. I should have told you all this in the
+  village, but I dared not be seen speaking with you. I galloped
+  through the woods to cut you off, and concealed both my horse and
+  myself.'</p>
+
+  <p>'I am very much indebted to you,' said I, 'and the more so as
+  you are the only German that I have met today from whom I have
+  had common civility.'</p>
+
+  <p>'All that I possess I have gained through contracting for the
+  French armies,' said he. 'Your Emperor has been a good friend to
+  me. But I beg that you will ride on now, for we have talked long
+  enough. Beware only of Lutzow's night-riders!'</p>
+
+  <p>'Banditti?' I asked.</p>
+
+  <p>'All that is best in Germany,' said he. 'But for God's sake
+  ride forwards, for I have risked my life and exposed my good name
+  in order to carry you this warning.'</p>
+
+  <p>Well, if I had been heavy with thought before, you can think
+  how I felt after my strange talk with the man among the fagots.
+  What came home to me even more than his words was his shivering,
+  broken voice, his twitching face, and his eyes glancing swiftly
+  to right and left, and opening in horror whenever a branch
+  cracked upon a tree. It was clear that he was in the last
+  extremity of terror, and it is possible that he had cause, for
+  shortly after I had left him I heard a distant gunshot and a
+  shouting from somewhere behind me. It may have been some
+  sportsman halloaing to his dogs, but I never again heard of or
+  saw the man who had given me my warning.</p>
+
+  <p>I kept a good look-out after this, riding swiftly where the
+  country was open, and slowly where there might be an ambuscade.
+  It was serious for me, since 500 good miles of German soil lay in
+  front of me; but somehow I did not take it very much to heart,
+  for the Germans had always seemed to me to be a kindly, gentle
+  people, whose hands closed more readily round a pipe-stem than a
+  sword-hilt&mdash;not out of want of valour, you understand, but
+  because they are genial, open souls, who would rather be on good
+  terms with all men. I did not know then that beneath that homely
+  surface there lurks a devilry as fierce as, and far more
+  persistent than, that of the Castilian or the Italian.</p>
+
+  <p>And it was not long before I had shown to me that there was
+  something more serious abroad than rough words and hard looks. I
+  had come to a spot where the road runs upwards through a wild
+  tract of heath-land and vanishes into an oak wood. I may have
+  been half-way up the hill when, looking forward, I saw something
+  gleaming under the shadow of the tree-trunks, and a man came out
+  with a coat which was so slashed and spangled with gold that he
+  blazed like a fire in the sunlight. He appeared to be very drunk,
+  for he reeled and staggered as he came towards me. One of his
+  hands was held up to his ear and clutched a great red
+  handkerchief, which was fixed to his neck.</p>
+
+  <p>I had reined up the mare and was looking at him with some
+  disgust, for it seemed strange to me that one who wore so
+  gorgeous a uniform should show himself in such a state in broad
+  daylight. For his part, he looked hard in my direction and came
+  slowly onwards, stopping from time to time and swaying about as
+  he gazed at me. Suddenly, as I again advanced, he screamed out
+  his thanks to Christ, and, lurching forwards, he fell with a
+  crash upon the dusty road. His hands flew forward with the fall,
+  and I saw that what I had taken for a red cloth was a monstrous
+  wound, which had left a great gap in his neck, from which a dark
+  blood-clot hung, like an epaulette upon his shoulder.</p>
+
+  <p>'My God!' I cried, as I sprang to his aid. 'And I thought that
+  you were drunk!'</p>
+
+  <p>'Not drunk, but dying,' said he. 'But thank Heaven that I have
+  seen a French officer while I have still strength to speak.'</p>
+
+  <p>I laid him among the heather and poured some brandy down his
+  throat. All round us was the vast countryside, green and
+  peaceful, with nothing living in sight save only the mutilated
+  man beside me.</p>
+
+  <p>'Who has done this?' I asked, 'and what are you? You are
+  French, and yet the uniform is strange to me.'</p>
+
+  <p>'It is that of the Emperor's new guard of honour. I am the
+  Marquis of Ch&acirc;teau St Arnaud, and I am the ninth of my
+  blood who has died in the service of France. I have been pursued
+  and wounded by the night-riders of Lutzow, but I hid among the
+  brushwood yonder, and waited in the hope that a Frenchman might
+  pass. I could not be sure at first if you were friend or foe, but
+  I felt that death was very near, and that I must take the
+  chance.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Keep your heart up, comrade,' said I; 'I have seen a man with
+  a worse wound who has lived to boast of it.'</p>
+
+  <p>'No, no,' he whispered; 'I am going fast.' He laid his hand
+  upon mine as he spoke, and I saw that his finger-nails were
+  already blue. 'But I have papers here in my tunic which you must
+  carry at once to the Prince of Saxe-Felstein, at his Castle of
+  Hof. He is still true to us, but the Princess is our deadly
+  enemy. She is striving to make him declare against us. If he does
+  so, it will determine all those who are wavering, for the King of
+  Prussia is his uncle and the King of Bavaria his cousin. These
+  papers will hold him to us if they can only reach him before he
+  takes the last step. Place them in his hands tonight, and,
+  perhaps, you will have saved all Germany for the Emperor. Had my
+  horse not been shot, I might, wounded as I am&mdash;&mdash;' He
+  choked, and the cold hand tightened into a grip, which left mine
+  as bloodless as itself. Then, with a groan, his head jerked back,
+  and it was all over with him.</p>
+
+  <p>Here was a fine start for my journey home. I was left with a
+  commission of which I knew little, which would lead me to delay
+  the pressing needs of my hussars, and which at the same time was
+  of such importance that it was impossible for me to avoid it. I
+  opened the Marquis's tunic, the brilliance of which had been
+  devised by the Emperor in order to attract those young
+  aristocrats from whom he hoped to raise these new regiments of
+  his Guard. It was a small packet of papers which I drew out, tied
+  up with silk, and addressed to the Prince of Saxe-Felstein. In
+  the corner, in a sprawling, untidy hand, which I knew to be the
+  Emperor's own, was written: 'Pressing and most important.' It was
+  an order to me, those four words&mdash;an order as clear as if it
+  had come straight from the firm lips with the cold grey eyes
+  looking into mine. My troopers might wait for their horses, the
+  dead Marquis might lie where I had laid him amongst the heather,
+  but if the mare and her rider had a breath left in them the
+  papers should reach the Prince that night.</p>
+
+  <p>I should not have feared to ride by the road through the wood,
+  for I have learned in Spain that the safest time to pass through
+  a guerilla country is after an outrage, and that the moment of
+  danger is when all is peaceful. When I came to look upon my map,
+  however, I saw that Hof lay further to the south of me, and that
+  I might reach it more directly by keeping to the moors. Off I
+  set, therefore, and had not gone fifty yards before two carbine
+  shots rang out of the brushwood and a bullet hummed past me like
+  a bee. It was clear that the night-riders were bolder in their
+  ways than the brigands of Spain, and that my mission would have
+  ended where it had begun if I had kept to the road.</p>
+
+  <p>It was a mad ride, that&mdash;a ride with a loose rein,
+  girth-deep in heather and in gorse, plunging through bushes,
+  flying down hill-sides, with my neck at the mercy of my dear
+  little Violette. But she&mdash;she never slipped, she never
+  faltered, as swift and as surefooted as if she knew that her
+  rider carried the fate of all Germany beneath the buttons of his
+  pelisse. And I&mdash;I had long borne the name of being the best
+  horseman in the six brigades of light cavalry, but I never rode
+  as I rode then. My friend the Bart had told me of how they hunt
+  the fox in England, but the swiftest fox would have been captured
+  by me that day. The wild pigeons which flew overhead did not take
+  a straighter course than Violette and I below. As an officer, I
+  have always been ready to sacrifice myself for my men, though the
+  Emperor would not have thanked me for it, for he had many men,
+  but only one&mdash;well, cavalry leaders of the first class are
+  rare.</p>
+
+  <p>But here I had an object which was indeed worth a sacrifice,
+  and I thought no more of my life than of the clods of earth that
+  flew from my darling's heels.</p>
+
+  <p>We struck the road once more as the light was failing, and
+  galloped into the little village of Lobenstein. But we had hardly
+  got upon the cobblestones when off came one of the mare's shoes,
+  and I had to lead her to the village smithy. His fire was low,
+  and his day's work done, so that it would be an hour at the least
+  before I could hope to push on to Hof. Cursing at the delay, I
+  strode into the village inn and ordered a cold chicken and some
+  wine to be served for my dinner. It was but a few miles to Hof,
+  and I had every hope that I might deliver my papers to the Prince
+  on that very night, and be on my way for France next morning with
+  despatches for the Emperor in my bosom. I will tell you now what
+  befell me in the inn of Lobenstein.</p>
+
+  <p>The chicken had been served and the wine drawn, and I had
+  turned upon both as a man may who has ridden such a ride, when I
+  was aware of a murmur and a scuffling in the hall outside my
+  door. At first I thought that it was some brawl between peasants
+  in their cups, and I left them to settle their own affairs. But
+  of a sudden there broke from among the low, sullen growl of the
+  voices such a sound as would send Etienne Gerard leaping from his
+  death-bed. It was the whimpering cry of a woman in pain. Down
+  clattered my knife and my fork, and in an instant I was in the
+  thick of the crowd which had gathered outside my door.</p>
+
+  <p>The heavy-cheeked landlord was there and his flaxen-haired
+  wife, the two men from the stables, a chambermaid, and two or
+  three villagers. All of them, women and men, were flushed and
+  angry, while there in the centre of them, with pale cheeks and
+  terror in her eyes, stood the loveliest woman that ever a soldier
+  would wish to look upon. With her queenly head thrown back, and a
+  touch of defiance mingled with her fear, she looked as she gazed
+  round her like a creature of a different race from the vile,
+  coarse-featured crew who surrounded her. I had not taken two
+  steps from my door before she sprang to meet me, her hand resting
+  upon my arm and her blue eyes sparkling with joy and triumph.</p>
+
+  <p>'A French soldier and gentleman!' she cried. 'Now at last I am
+  safe.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Yes, madam, you are safe,' said I, and I could not resist
+  taking her hand in mine in order that I might reassure her. 'You
+  have only to command me,' I added, kissing the hand as a sign
+  that I meant what I was saying.</p>
+
+  <p>'I am Polish,' she cried; 'the Countess Palotta is my name.
+  They abuse me because I love the French. I do not know what they
+  might have done to me had Heaven not sent you to my help.'</p>
+
+  <p>I kissed her hand again lest she should doubt my intentions.
+  Then I turned upon the crew with such an expression as I know how
+  to assume. In an instant the hall was empty.</p>
+
+  <p>'Countess,' said I, 'you are now under my protection. You are
+  faint, and a glass of wine is necessary to restore you.' I
+  offered her my arm and escorted her into my room, where she sat
+  by my side at the table and took the refreshment which I offered
+  her.</p>
+
+  <p>How she blossomed out in my presence, this woman, like a
+  flower before the sun! She lit up the room with her beauty. She
+  must have read my admiration in my eyes, and it seemed to me that
+  I also could see something of the sort in her own. Ah! my
+  friends, I was no ordinary-looking man when I was in my thirtieth
+  year. In the whole light cavalry it would have been hard to find
+  a finer pair of whiskers. Murat's may have been a shade longer,
+  but the best judges are agreed that Murat's were a shade too
+  long. And then I had a manner. Some women are to be approached in
+  one way and some in another, just as a siege is an affair of
+  fascines and gabions in hard weather and of trenches in soft. But
+  the man who can mix daring with timidity, who can be outrageous
+  with an air of humility, and presumptuous with a tone of
+  deference, that is the man whom mothers have to fear. For myself,
+  I felt that I was the guardian of this lonely lady, and knowing
+  what a dangerous man I had to deal with, I kept strict watch upon
+  myself. Still, even a guardian has his privileges, and I did not
+  neglect them.</p>
+
+  <p>But her talk was as charming as her face. In a few words she
+  explained that she was travelling to Poland, and that her brother
+  who had been her escort had fallen ill upon the way. She had more
+  than once met with ill-treatment from the country folk because
+  she could not conceal her good-will towards the French. Then
+  turning from her own affairs she questioned me about the army,
+  and so came round to myself and my own exploits. They were
+  familiar to her, she said, for she knew several of Poniatowski's
+  officers, and they had spoken of my doings. Yet she would be glad
+  to hear them from my own lips. Never have I had so delightful a
+  conversation. Most women make the mistake of talking rather too
+  much about their own affairs, but this one listened to my tales
+  just as you are listening now, ever asking for more and more and
+  more. The hours slipped rapidly by, and it was with horror that I
+  heard the village clock strike eleven, and so learned that for
+  four hours I had forgotten the Emperor's business.</p>
+
+  <p>'Pardon me, my dear lady,' I cried, springing to my feet, 'but
+  I must go on instantly to Hof.'</p>
+
+  <p>She rose also, and looked at me with a pale, reproachful face.
+  'And me?' she said. 'What is to become of me?'</p>
+
+  <p>'It is the Emperor's affair. I have already stayed far too
+  long. My duty calls me, and I must go.'</p>
+
+  <p>'You must go? And I must be abandoned alone to these savages?
+  Oh, why did I ever meet you? Why did you ever teach me to rely
+  upon your strength?' Her eyes glazed over, and in an instant she
+  was sobbing upon my bosom.</p>
+
+  <p>Here was a trying moment for a guardian! Here was a time when
+  he had to keep a watch upon a forward young officer. But I was
+  equal to it. I smoothed her rich brown hair and whispered such
+  consolations as I could think of in her ear, with one arm round
+  her, it is true, but that was to hold her lest she should faint.
+  She turned her tear-stained face to mine. 'Water,' she whispered.
+  'For God's sake, water!'</p>
+
+  <p>I saw that in another moment she would be senseless. I laid
+  the drooping head upon the sofa, and then rushed furiously from
+  the room, hunting from chamber to chamber for a carafe. It was
+  some minutes before I could get one and hurry back with it. You
+  can imagine my feelings to find the room empty and the lady
+  gone.</p>
+
+  <p>Not only was she gone, but her cap and silver-mounted riding
+  switch which had lain upon the table were gone also. I rushed out
+  and roared for the landlord. He knew nothing of the matter, had
+  never seen the woman before, and did not care if he never saw her
+  again. Had the peasants at the door seen anyone ride away? No,
+  they had seen nobody. I searched here and searched there, until
+  at last I chanced to find myself in front of a mirror, where I
+  stood with my eyes staring and my jaw as far dropped as the
+  chin-strap of my shako would allow.</p>
+
+  <p>Four buttons of my pelisse were open, and it did not need me
+  to put my hand up to know that my precious papers were gone. Oh!
+  the depth of cunning that lurks in a woman's heart. She had
+  robbed me, this creature, robbed me as she clung to my breast.
+  Even while I smoothed her hair, and whispered kind words into her
+  ear, her hands had been at work beneath my dolman. And here I
+  was, at the very last step of my journey, without the power of
+  carrying out this mission which had already deprived one good man
+  of his life, and was likely to rob another one of his credit.
+  What would the Emperor say when he heard that I had lost his
+  despatches? Would the army believe it of Etienne Gerard? And when
+  they heard that a woman's hand had coaxed them from me, what
+  laughter there would be at mess-table and at camp-fire! I could
+  have rolled upon the ground in my despair.</p>
+
+  <p>But one thing was certain&mdash;all this affair of the fracas
+  in the hall and the persecution of the so-called Countess was a
+  piece of acting from the beginning. This villainous innkeeper
+  must be in the plot. From him I might learn who she was and where
+  my papers had gone. I snatched my sabre from the table and rushed
+  out in search of him. But the scoundrel had guessed what I would
+  do, and had made his preparations for me. It was in the corner of
+  the yard that I found him, a blunderbuss in his hands and a
+  mastiff held upon a leash by his son. The two stable-hands, with
+  pitchforks, stood upon either side, and the wife held a great
+  lantern behind him, so as to guide his aim.</p>
+
+  <p>'Ride away, sir, ride away!' he cried, with a crackling voice.
+  'Your horse is at the door, and no one will meddle with you if
+  you go your way; but if you come against us, you are alone
+  against three brave men.'</p>
+
+  <p>I had only the dog to fear, for the two forks and the
+  blunderbuss were shaking about like branches in a wind. Still, I
+  considered that, though I might force an answer with my
+  sword-point at the throat of this fat rascal, still I should have
+  no means of knowing whether that answer was the truth. It would
+  be a struggle, then, with much to lose and nothing certain to
+  gain. I looked them up and down, therefore, in a way that set
+  their foolish weapons shaking worse than ever, and then, throwing
+  myself upon my mare, I galloped away with the shrill laughter of
+  the landlady jarring upon my ears.</p>
+
+  <p>I had already formed my resolution. Although I had lost my
+  papers, I could make a very good guess as to what their contents
+  would be, and this I would say from my own lips to the Prince of
+  Saxe-Felstein, as though the Emperor had commissioned me to
+  convey it in that way. It was a bold stroke and a dangerous one,
+  but if I went too far I could afterwards be disavowed. It was
+  that or nothing, and when all Germany hung on the balance the
+  game should not be lost if the nerve of one man could save
+  it.</p>
+
+  <p>It was midnight when I rode into Hof, but every window was
+  blazing, which was enough it itself, in that sleepy country, to
+  tell the ferment of excitement in which the people were. There
+  was hooting and jeering as I rode through the crowded streets,
+  and once a stone sang past my head, but I kept upon my way,
+  neither slowing nor quickening my pace, until I came to the
+  palace. It was lit from base to battlement, and the dark shadows,
+  coming and going against the yellow glare, spoke of the turmoil
+  within. For my part, I handed my mare to a groom at the gate, and
+  striding in I demanded, in such a voice as an ambassador should
+  have, to see the Prince instantly, upon business which would
+  brook no delay.</p>
+
+  <p>The hall was dark, but I was conscious as I entered of a buzz
+  of innumerable voices, which hushed into silence as I loudly
+  proclaimed my mission. Some great meeting was being held
+  then&mdash;a meeting which, as my instincts told me, was to
+  decide this very question of war and peace. It was possible that
+  I might still be in time to turn the scale for the Emperor and
+  for France. As to the major-domo, he looked blackly at me, and
+  showing me into a small ante-chamber he left me. A minute later
+  he returned to say that the Prince could not be disturbed at
+  present, but that the Princess would take my message.</p>
+
+  <p>The Princess! What use was there in giving it to her? Had I
+  not been warned that she was German in heart and soul, and that
+  it was she who was turning her husband and her State against
+  us?</p>
+
+  <p>'It is the Prince that I must see,' said I.</p>
+
+  <p>'Nay, it is the Princess,' said a voice at the door, and a
+  woman swept into the chamber. 'Von Rosen, you had best stay with
+  us. Now, sir, what is it that you have to say to either Prince or
+  Princess of Saxe-Felstein?'</p>
+
+  <p>At the first sound of the voice I had sprung to my feet. At
+  the first glance I had thrilled with anger. Not twice in a
+  lifetime does one meet that noble figure, that queenly head, and
+  those eyes as blue as the Garonne, and as chilling as her winter
+  waters.</p>
+
+  <p>'Time presses, sir!' she cried, with an impatient tap of her
+  foot. 'What have you to say to me?'</p>
+
+  <p>'What have I to say to you?' I cried. 'What can I say, save
+  that you have taught me never to trust a woman more? You have
+  ruined and dishonoured me for ever.'</p>
+
+  <p>She looked with arched brows at her attendant.</p>
+
+  <p>'Is this the raving of fever, or does it come from some less
+  innocent cause?' said she. 'Perhaps a little
+  blood-letting&mdash;'</p>
+
+  <p>'Ah, you can act!' I cried. 'You have shown me that
+  already.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Do you mean that we have met before?'</p>
+
+  <p>'I mean that you have robbed me within the last two
+  hours.'</p>
+
+  <p>'This is past all bearing,' she cried, with an admirable
+  affectation of anger. 'You claim, as I understand, to be an
+  ambassador, but there are limits to the privileges which such an
+  office brings with it.'</p>
+
+  <p>'You brazen it admirably,' said I. 'Your Highness will not
+  make a fool of me twice in one night.' I sprang forward and,
+  stooping down, caught up the hem of her dress. 'You would have
+  done well to change it after you had ridden so far and so fast,'
+  said I.</p>
+
+  <p>It was like the dawn upon a snow-peak to see her ivory cheeks
+  flush suddenly to crimson.</p>
+
+  <p>'Insolent!' she cried. 'Call the foresters and have him thrust
+  from the palace'</p>
+
+  <p>'I will see the Prince first.'</p>
+
+  <p>'You will never see the Prince. Ah! Hold him, Von Rosen, hold
+  him.'</p>
+
+  <p>She had forgotten the man with whom she had to deal&mdash;was
+  it likely that I would wait until they could bring their rascals?
+  She had shown me her cards too soon. Her game was to stand
+  between me and her husband. Mine was to speak face to face with
+  him at any cost. One spring took me out of the chamber. In
+  another I had crossed the hall. An instant later I had burst into
+  the great room from which the murmur of the meeting had come. At
+  the far end I saw a figure upon a high chair under a da&iuml;s.
+  Beneath him was a line of high dignitaries, and then on every
+  side I saw vaguely the heads of a vast assembly. Into the centre
+  of the room I strode, my sabre clanking, my shako under my
+  arm.</p>
+
+  <p>'I am the messenger of the Emperor,' I shouted. 'I bear his
+  message to His Highness the Prince of Saxe-Felstein.'</p>
+
+  <p>The man beneath the da&iuml;s raised his head, and I saw that
+  his face was thin and wan, and that his back was bowed as though
+  some huge burden was balanced between his shoulders.</p>
+
+  <p>'Your name, sir?' he asked.</p>
+
+  <p>'Colonel Etienne Gerard, of the Third Hussars.'</p>
+
+  <p>Every face in the gathering was turned upon me, and I heard
+  the rustle of the innumerable necks and saw countless eyes
+  without meeting one friendly one amongst them. The woman had
+  swept past me, and was whispering, with many shakes of her head
+  and dartings of her hands, into the Prince's ear. For my own part
+  I threw out my chest and curled my moustache, glancing round in
+  my own debonair fashion at the assembly. They were men, all of
+  them, professors from the college, a sprinkling of their
+  students, soldiers, gentlemen, artisans, all very silent and
+  serious. In one corner there sat a group of men in black, with
+  riding-coats drawn over their shoulders. They leaned their heads
+  to each other, whispering under their breath, and with every
+  movement I caught the clank of their sabres or the clink of their
+  spurs.</p>
+
+  <p>'The Emperor's private letter to me informs me that it is the
+  Marquis Ch&acirc;teau St Arnaud who is bearing his despatches,'
+  said the Prince.</p>
+
+  <p>'The Marquis has been foully murdered,' I answered, and a buzz
+  rose up from the people as I spoke. Many heads were turned, I
+  noticed, towards the dark men in the cloaks.</p>
+
+  <p>'Where are your papers?' asked the Prince.</p>
+
+  <p>'I have none.'</p>
+
+  <p>A fierce clamour rose instantly around me. 'He is a spy! He
+  plays a part!' they cried. 'Hang him!' roared a deep voice from
+  the corner, and a dozen others took up the shout. For my part, I
+  drew out my handkerchief and nicked the dust from the fur of my
+  pelisse. The Prince held out his thin hands, and the tumult died
+  away.</p>
+
+  <p>'Where, then, are your credentials, and what is your
+  message?'</p>
+
+  <p>'My uniform is my credential, and my message is for your
+  private ear.'</p>
+
+  <p>He passed his hand over his forehead with the gesture of a
+  weak man who is at his wits' end what to do. The Princess stood
+  beside him with her hand upon his throne, and again whispered in
+  his ear.</p>
+
+  <p>'We are here in council together, some of my trusty subjects
+  and myself,' said he. 'I have no secrets from them, and whatever
+  message the Emperor may send to me at such a time concerns their
+  interests no less than mine.'</p>
+
+  <p>There was a hum of applause at this, and every eye was turned
+  once more upon me. My faith, it was an awkward position in which
+  I found myself, for it is one thing to address eight hundred
+  hussars, and another to speak to such an audience on such a
+  subject. But I fixed my eyes upon the Prince, and tried to say
+  just what I should have said if we had been alone, shouting it
+  out, too, as though I had my regiment on parade.</p>
+
+  <p>'You have often expressed friendship for the Emperor,' I
+  cried. 'It is now at last that this friendship is about to be
+  tried. If you will stand firm, he will reward you as only he can
+  reward. It is an easy thing for him to turn a Prince into a King
+  and a province into a power. His eyes are fixed upon you, and
+  though you can do little to harm him, you can ruin yourself. At
+  this moment he is crossing the Rhine with two hundred thousand
+  men. Every fortress in the country is in his hands. He will be
+  upon you in a week, and if you have played him false, God help
+  both you and your people. You think that he is weakened because a
+  few of us got the chilblains last winter. Look there!' I cried,
+  pointing to a great star which blazed through the window above
+  the Prince's head. 'That is the Emperor's star. When it wanes, he
+  will wane&mdash;but not before.'</p>
+
+  <p>You would have been proud of me, my friends, if you could have
+  seen and heard me, for I clashed my sabre as I spoke, and swung
+  my dolman as though my regiment was picketed outside in the
+  courtyard. They listened to me in silence, but the back of the
+  Prince bowed more and more as though the burden which weighed
+  upon it was greater than his strength. He looked round with
+  haggard eyes.</p>
+
+  <p>'We have heard a Frenchman speak for France,' said he. 'Let us
+  have a German speak for Germany.'</p>
+
+  <p>The folk glanced at each other, and whispered to their
+  neighbours. My speech, as I think, had its effect, and no man
+  wished to be the first to commit himself in the eyes of the
+  Emperor. The Princess looked round her with blazing eyes, and her
+  clear voice broke the silence.</p>
+
+  <p>'Is a woman to give this Frenchman his answer?' she cried. 'Is
+  it possible, then, that among the night-riders of Lutzow there is
+  none who can use his tongue as well as his sabre?'</p>
+
+  <p>Over went a table with a crash, and a young man had bounded
+  upon one of the chairs. He had the face of one
+  inspired&mdash;pale, eager, with wild hawk eyes, and tangled
+  hair. His sword hung straight from his side, and his riding-boots
+  were brown with mire.</p>
+
+  <p>'It is Korner!' the people cried. 'It is young Korner, the
+  poet! Ah, he will sing, he will sing.'</p>
+
+  <p>And he sang! It was soft, at first, and dreamy, telling of old
+  Germany, the mother of nations, of the rich, warm plains, and the
+  grey cities, and the fame of dead heroes. But then verse after
+  verse rang like a trumpet-call. It was of the Germany of now, the
+  Germany which had been taken unawares and overthrown, but which
+  was up again, and snapping the bonds upon her giant limbs. What
+  was life that one should covet it? What was glorious death that
+  one should shun it? The mother, the great mother, was calling.
+  Her sigh was in the night wind. She was crying to her own
+  children for help. Would they come? Would they come? Would they
+  come?</p>
+
+  <p>Ah, that terrible song, the spirit face and the ringing voice!
+  Where were I, and France, and the Emperor? They did not shout,
+  these people&mdash;they howled. They were up on the chairs and
+  the tables. They were raving, sobbing, the tears running down
+  their faces. Korner had sprung from the chair, and his comrades
+  were round him with their sabres in the air. A flush had come
+  into the pale face of the Prince, and he rose from his
+  throne.</p>
+
+  <p>'Colonel Gerard,' said he, 'you have heard the answer which
+  you are to carry to your Emperor. The die is cast, my children.
+  Your Prince and you must stand or fall together.'</p>
+
+  <p>He bowed to show that all was over, and the people with a
+  shout made for the door to carry the tidings into the town. For
+  my own part, I had done all that a brave man might, and so I was
+  not sorry to be carried out amid the stream. Why should I linger
+  in the palace? I had had my answer and must carry it, such as it
+  was. I wished neither to see Hof nor its people again until I
+  entered it at the head of a vanguard. I turned from the throng,
+  then, and walked silently and sadly in the direction in which
+  they had led the mare.</p>
+
+  <p>It was dark down there by the stables, and I was peering round
+  for the hostler, when suddenly my two arms were seized from
+  behind. There were hands at my wrists and at my throat, and I
+  felt the cold muzzle of a pistol under my ear.</p>
+
+  <p>'Keep your lips closed, you French dog,' whispered a fierce
+  voice. 'We have him, captain.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Have you the bridle?'</p>
+
+  <p>'Here it is.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Sling it over his head.'</p>
+
+  <p>I felt the cold coil of leather tighten round my neck. An
+  hostler with a stable lantern had come out and was gazing upon
+  the scene. In its dim light I saw stern faces breaking everywhere
+  through the gloom, with the black caps and dark cloaks of the
+  night-riders.</p>
+
+  <p>'What would you do with him, captain?' cried a voice.</p>
+
+  <p>'Hang him at the palace gate.'</p>
+
+  <p>'An ambassador?'</p>
+
+  <p>'An ambassador without papers.'</p>
+
+  <p>'But the Prince?'</p>
+
+  <p>'Tut, man, do you not see that the Prince will then be
+  committed to our side? He will be beyond all hope of forgiveness.
+  At present he may swing round tomorrow as he has done before. He
+  may eat his words, but a dead hussar is more than he can
+  explain.'</p>
+
+  <p>'No, no, Von Strelitz, we cannot do it,' said another
+  voice.</p>
+
+  <p>'Can we not? I shall show you that!' and there came a jerk on
+  the bridle which nearly pulled me to the ground. At the same
+  instant a sword flashed and the leather was cut through within
+  two inches of my neck.</p>
+
+  <p>'By Heaven, Korner, this is rank mutiny,' cried the captain.
+  'You may hang yourself before you are through with it.'</p>
+
+  <p>'I have drawn my sword as a soldier and not as a brigand,'
+  said the young poet. 'Blood may dim its blade, but never
+  dishonour. Comrades, will you stand by and see this gentleman
+  mishandled?'</p>
+
+  <p>A dozen sabres flew from their sheaths, and it was evident
+  that my friends and my foes were about equally balanced. But the
+  angry voices and the gleam of steel had brought the folk running
+  from all parts.</p>
+
+  <p>'The Princess!' they cried. 'The Princess is coming!'</p>
+
+  <p>And even as they spoke I saw her in front of us, her sweet
+  face framed in the darkness. I had cause to hate her, for she had
+  cheated and befooled me, and yet it thrilled me then and thrills
+  me now to think that my arms have embraced her, and that I have
+  felt the scent of her hair in my nostrils. I know not whether she
+  lies under her German earth, or whether she still lingers, a
+  grey-haired woman in her Castle of Hof, but she lives ever, young
+  and lovely, in the heart and memory of Etienne Gerard.</p>
+
+  <p>'For shame!' she cried, sweeping up to me, and tearing with
+  her own hands the noose from my neck. 'You are fighting in God's
+  own quarrel, and yet you would begin with such a devil's deed as
+  this. This man is mine, and he who touches a hair of his head
+  will answer for it to me.'</p>
+
+  <p>They were glad enough to slink off into the darkness before
+  those scornful eyes. Then she turned once more to me.</p>
+
+  <p>'You can follow me, Colonel Gerard,' she said. 'I have a word
+  that I would speak to you.'</p>
+
+  <p>I walked behind her to the chamber into which I had originally
+  been shown. She closed the door, and then looked at me with the
+  archest twinkle in her eyes.</p>
+
+  <p>'Is it not confiding of me to trust myself with you?' said
+  she. 'You will remember that it is the Princess of Saxe-Felstein
+  and not the poor Countess Palotta of Poland.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Be the name what it might,' I answered, 'I helped a lady whom
+  I believed to be in distress, and I have been robbed of my papers
+  and almost of my honour as a reward.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Colonel Gerard,' said she, 'we have been playing a game, you
+  and I, and the stake was a heavy one. You have shown by
+  delivering a message which was never given to you that you would
+  stand at nothing in the cause of your country. My heart is German
+  and yours is French, and I also would go all lengths, even to
+  deceit and to theft, if at this crisis I could help my suffering
+  fatherland. You see how frank I am.'</p>
+
+  <p>'You tell me nothing that I have not seen.'</p>
+
+  <p>'But now that the game is played and won, why should we bear
+  malice? I will say this, that if ever I were in such a plight as
+  that which I pretended in the inn of Lobenstein, I should never
+  wish to meet a more gallant protector or a truer-hearted
+  gentleman than Colonel Etienne Gerard. I had never thought that I
+  could feel for a Frenchman as I felt for you when I slipped the
+  papers from your breast.'</p>
+
+  <p>'But you took them, none the less.'</p>
+
+  <p>'They were necessary to me and to Germany. I knew the
+  arguments which they contained and the effect which they would
+  have upon the Prince. If they had reached him all would have been
+  lost.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Why should your Highness descend to such expedients when a
+  score of these brigands, who wished to hang me at your castle
+  gate, would have done the work as well?'</p>
+
+  <p>'They are not brigands, but the best blood of Germany,' she
+  cried, hotly. 'If you have been roughly used, you will remember
+  the indignities to which every German has been subjected, from
+  the Queen of Prussia downwards. As to why I did not have you
+  waylaid upon the road, I may say that I had parties out on all
+  sides, and that I was waiting at Lobenstein to hear of their
+  success. When instead of their news you yourself arrived I was in
+  despair, for there was only the one weak woman betwixt you and my
+  husband. You see the straits to which I was driven before I used
+  the weapon of my sex.'</p>
+
+  <p>'I confess that you have conquered me, your Highness, and it
+  only remains for me to leave you in possession of the field.'</p>
+
+  <p>'But you will take your papers with you.' She held them out to
+  me as she spoke. 'The Prince has crossed the Rubicon now, and
+  nothing can bring him back. You can return these to the Emperor,
+  and tell him that we refused to receive them. No one can accuse
+  you then of having lost your despatches. Good-bye, Colonel
+  Gerard, and the best I can wish you is that when you reach France
+  you may remain there. In a year's time there will be no place for
+  a Frenchman upon this side of the Rhine.'</p>
+
+  <p>And thus it was that I played the Princess of Saxe-Felstein
+  with all Germany for a stake, and lost my game to her. I had much
+  to think of as I walked my poor, tired Violette along the highway
+  which leads westward from Hof. But amid all the thoughts there
+  came back to me always the proud, beautiful face of the German
+  woman, and the voice of the soldier-poet as he sang from the
+  chair. And I understood then that there was something terrible in
+  this strong, patient Germany&mdash;this mother root of
+  nations&mdash;and I saw that such a land, so old and so beloved,
+  never could be conquered. And as I rode I saw that the dawn was
+  breaking, and that the great star at which I had pointed through
+  the palace window was dim and pale in the western sky.</p>
+
+  <p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+  <p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+  <p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+  <p>&nbsp;</p><a name="RULE4_6"><!-- RULE4 6 --></a>
+
+  <h2>7. HOW THE BRIGADIER WON HIS MEDAL</h2>
+
+  <p>The Duke of Tarentum, or Macdonald, as his old comrades prefer
+  to call him, was, as I could perceive, in the vilest of tempers.
+  His grim, Scotch face was like one of those grotesque
+  door-knockers which one sees in the Faubourg St Germain. We heard
+  afterwards that the Emperor had said in jest that he would have
+  sent him against Wellington in the South, but that he was afraid
+  to trust him within the sound of the pipes. Major Charpentier and
+  I could plainly see that he was smouldering with anger.</p>
+
+  <p>'Brigadier Gerard of the Hussars,' said he, with the air of
+  the corporal with the recruit.</p>
+
+  <p>I saluted.</p>
+
+  <p>'Major Charpentier of the Horse Grenadiers.'</p>
+
+  <p>My companion answered to his name.</p>
+
+  <p>'The Emperor has a mission for you.'</p>
+
+  <p>Without more ado he flung open the door and announced us.</p>
+
+  <p>I have seen Napoleon ten times on horseback to once on foot,
+  and I think that he does wisely to show himself to the troops in
+  this fashion, for he cuts a very good figure in the saddle. As we
+  saw him now he was the shortest man out of six by a good hand's
+  breadth, and yet I am no very big man myself, though I ride quite
+  heavy enough for a hussar. It is evident, too, that his body is
+  too long for his legs. With his big, round head, his curved
+  shoulders, and his clean-shaven face, he is more like a Professor
+  at the Sorbonne than the first soldier in France. Every man to
+  his taste, but it seems to me that, if I could clap a pair of
+  fine light cavalry whiskers, like my own, on to him, it would do
+  him no harm. He has a firm mouth, however, and his eyes are
+  remarkable. I have seen them once turned on me in anger, and I
+  had rather ride at a square on a spent horse than face them
+  again. I am not a man who is easily daunted, either.</p>
+
+  <p>He was standing at the side of the room, away from the window,
+  looking up at a great map of the country which was hung upon the
+  wall. Berthier stood beside him, trying to look wise, and just as
+  we entered, Napoleon snatched his sword impatiently from him and
+  pointed with it on the map. He was talking fast and low, but I
+  heard him say, 'The valley of the Meuse,' and twice he repeated
+  'Berlin.' As we entered, his aide-de-camp advanced to us, but the
+  Emperor stopped him and beckoned us to his side.</p>
+
+  <p>'You have not yet received the cross of honour, Brigadier
+  Gerard?' he asked.</p>
+
+  <p>I replied that I had not, and was about to add that it was not
+  for want of having deserved it, when he cut me short in his
+  decided fashion.</p>
+
+  <p>'And you, Major?' he asked.</p>
+
+  <p>'No, sire.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Then you shall both have your opportunity now.'</p>
+
+  <p>He led us to the great map upon the wall and placed the tip of
+  Berthier's sword on Rheims.</p>
+
+  <p>'I will be frank with you, gentlemen, as with two comrades.
+  You have both been with me since Marengo, I believe?' He had a
+  strangely pleasant smile, which used to light up his pale face
+  with a kind of cold sunshine. 'Here at Rheims are our present
+  headquarters on this the 14th of March. Very good. Here is Paris,
+  distant by road a good twenty-five leagues. Blucher lies to the
+  north, Schwarzenberg to the south.' He prodded at the map with
+  the sword as he spoke.</p>
+
+  <p>'Now,' said he, 'the further into the country these people
+  march, the more completely I shall crush them. They are about to
+  advance upon Paris. Very good. Let them do so. My brother, the
+  King of Spain, will be there with a hundred thousand men. It is
+  to him that I send you. You will hand him this letter, a copy of
+  which I confide to each of you. It is to tell him that I am
+  coming at once, in two days' time, with every man and horse and
+  gun to his relief. I must give them forty-eight hours to recover.
+  Then straight to Paris! You understand me, gentlemen?'</p>
+
+  <p>Ah, if I could tell you the glow of pride which it gave me to
+  be taken into the great man's confidence in this way. As he
+  handed our letters to us I clicked my spurs and threw out my
+  chest, smiling and nodding to let him know that I saw what he
+  would be after. He smiled also, and rested his hand for a moment
+  upon the cape of my dolman. I would have given half my arrears of
+  pay if my mother could have seen me at that instant.</p>
+
+  <p>'I will show you your route,' said he, turning back to the
+  map. 'Your orders are to ride together as far as Bazoches. You
+  will then separate, the one making for Paris by Oulchy and
+  Neuilly, and the other to the north by Braine, Soissons, and
+  Senlis. Have you anything to say, Brigadier Gerard?'</p>
+
+  <p>I am a rough soldier, but I have words and ideas. I had begun
+  to speak about glory and the peril of France when he cut me
+  short.</p>
+
+  <p>'And you, Major Charpentier?'</p>
+
+  <p>'If we find our route unsafe, are we at liberty to choose
+  another?' said he.</p>
+
+  <p>'Soldiers do not choose, they obey.' He inclined his head to
+  show that we were dismissed, and turned round to Berthier. I do
+  not know what he said, but I heard them both laughing.</p>
+
+  <p>Well, as you may think, we lost little time in getting upon
+  our way. In half an hour we were riding down the High Street of
+  Rheims, and it struck twelve o'clock as we passed the Cathedral.
+  I had my little grey mare, Violette, the one which Sebastiani had
+  wished to buy after Dresden. It is the fastest horse in the six
+  brigades of light cavalry, and was only beaten by the Duke of
+  Rovigo's racer from England. As to Charpentier, he had the kind
+  of horse which a horse grenadier or a cuirassier would be likely
+  to ride: a back like a bedstead, you understand, and legs like
+  the posts. He is a hulking fellow himself, so that they looked a
+  singular pair. And yet in his insane conceit he ogled the girls
+  as they waved their handkerchiefs to me from the windows, and he
+  twirled his ugly red moustache up into his eyes, just as if it
+  were to him that their attention was addressed.</p>
+
+  <p>When we came out of the town we passed through the French
+  camp, and then across the battle-field of yesterday, which was
+  still covered both by our own poor fellows and by the Russians.
+  But of the two the camp was the sadder sight. Our army was
+  thawing away. The Guards were all right, though the young guard
+  was full of conscripts. The artillery and the heavy cavalry were
+  also good if there were more of them, but the infantry privates
+  with their under officers looked like schoolboys with their
+  masters. And we had no reserves. When one considered that there
+  were 80,000 Prussians to the north and 150,000 Russians and
+  Austrians to the south, it might make even the bravest man
+  grave.</p>
+
+  <p>For my own part, I confess that I shed a tear until the
+  thought came that the Emperor was still with us, and that on that
+  very morning he had placed his hand upon my dolman and had
+  promised me a medal of honour. This set me singing, and I spurred
+  Violette on, until Charpentier had to beg me to have mercy on his
+  great, snorting, panting camel. The road was beaten into paste
+  and rutted two feet deep by the artillery, so that he was right
+  in saying that it was not the place for a gallop.</p>
+
+  <p>I have never been very friendly with this Charpentier; and now
+  for twenty miles of the way I could not draw a word from him. He
+  rode with his brows puckered and his chin upon his breast, like a
+  man who is heavy with thought. More than once I asked him what
+  was on his mind, thinking that, perhaps, with my quicker
+  intelligence I might set the matter straight. His answer always
+  was that it was his mission of which he was thinking, which
+  surprised me, because, although I had never thought much of his
+  intelligence, still it seemed to me to be impossible that anyone
+  could be puzzled by so simple and soldierly a task.</p>
+
+  <p>Well, we came at last to Bazoches, where he was to take the
+  southern road and I the northern. He half turned in his saddle
+  before he left me, and he looked at me with a singular expression
+  of inquiry in his face.</p>
+
+  <p>'What do you make of it, Brigadier?' he asked.</p>
+
+  <p>'Of what?'</p>
+
+  <p>'Of our mission.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Surely it is plain enough.'</p>
+
+  <p>'You think so? Why should the Emperor tell us his plans?'</p>
+
+  <p>'Because he recognized our intelligence.'</p>
+
+  <p>My companion laughed in a manner which I found annoying.</p>
+
+  <p>'May I ask what you intend to do if you find these villages
+  full of Prussians?' he asked.</p>
+
+  <p>'I shall obey my orders.'</p>
+
+  <p>'But you will be killed.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Very possibly.'</p>
+
+  <p>He laughed again, and so offensively that I clapped my hand to
+  my sword. But before I could tell him what I thought of his
+  stupidity and rudeness he had wheeled his horse, and was
+  lumbering away down the other road. I saw his big fur cap vanish
+  over the brow of the hill, and then I rode upon my way, wondering
+  at his conduct. From time to time I put my hand to the breast of
+  my tunic and felt the paper crackle beneath my fingers. Ah, my
+  precious paper, which should be turned into the little silver
+  medal for which I had yearned so long. All the way from Braine to
+  Sermoise I was thinking of what my mother would say when she saw
+  it.</p>
+
+  <p>I stopped to give Violette a meal at a wayside auberge on the
+  side of a hill not far from Soissons&mdash;a place surrounded by
+  old oaks, and with so many crows that one could scarce hear one's
+  own voice. It was from the innkeeper that I learned that Marmont
+  had fallen back two days before, and that the Prussians were over
+  the Aisne. An hour later, in the fading light, I saw two of their
+  vedettes upon the hill to the right, and then, as darkness
+  gathered, the heavens to the north were all glimmering from the
+  lights of a bivouac.</p>
+
+  <p>When I heard that Blucher had been there for two days, I was
+  much surprised that the Emperor should not have known that the
+  country through which he had ordered me to carry my precious
+  letter was already occupied by the enemy. Still, I thought of the
+  tone of his voice when he said to Charpentier that a soldier must
+  not choose, but must obey. I should follow the route he had laid
+  down for me as long as Violette could move a hoof or I a finger
+  upon her bridle. All the way from Sermoise to Soissons, where the
+  road dips up and down, curving among fir woods, I kept my pistol
+  ready and my sword-belt braced, pushing on swiftly where the path
+  was straight, and then coming slowly round the corners in the way
+  we learned in Spain.</p>
+
+  <p>When I came to the farmhouse which lies to the right of the
+  road just after you cross the wooden bridge over the Crise, near
+  where the great statue of the Virgin stands, a woman cried to me
+  from the field, saying that the Prussians were in Soissons. A
+  small party of their lancers, she said, had come in that very
+  afternoon, and a whole division was expected before midnight. I
+  did not wait to hear the end of her tale, but clapped spurs into
+  Violette, and in five minutes was galloping her into the
+  town.</p>
+
+  <p>Three Uhlans were at the mouth of the main street, their
+  horses tethered, and they gossiping together, each with a pipe as
+  long as my sabre. I saw them well in the light of an open door,
+  but of me they could have seen only the flash of Violette's grey
+  side and the black flutter of my cloak. A moment later I flew
+  through a stream of them rushing from an open gateway. Violette's
+  shoulder sent one of them reeling, and I stabbed at another but
+  missed him. Pang, pang, went two carbines, but I had flown round
+  the curve of the street, and never so much as heard the hiss of
+  the balls. Ah, we were great, both Violette and I. She lay down
+  to it like a coursed hare, the fire flying from her hoofs. I
+  stood in my stirrups and brandished my sword. Someone sprang for
+  my bridle. I sliced him through the arm, and I heard him howling
+  behind me. Two horsemen closed upon me. I cut one down and
+  outpaced the other. A minute later I was clear of the town, and
+  flying down a broad white road with the black poplars on either
+  side. For a time I heard the rattle of hoofs behind me, but they
+  died and died until I could not tell them from the throbbing of
+  my own heart. Soon I pulled up and listened, but all was silent.
+  They had given up the chase.</p>
+
+  <p>Well, the first thing that I did was to dismount and to lead
+  my mare into a small wood through which a stream ran. There I
+  watered her and rubbed her down, giving her two pieces of sugar
+  soaked in cognac from my flask. She was spent from the sharp
+  chase, but it was wonderful to see how she came round with a
+  half-hour's rest. When my thighs closed upon her again, I could
+  tell by the spring and the swing of her that it would not be her
+  fault if I did not win my way safe to Paris.</p>
+
+  <p>I must have been well within the enemy's lines now, for I
+  heard a number of them shouting one of their rough drinking songs
+  out of a house by the roadside, and I went round by the fields to
+  avoid it. At another time two men came out into the moonlight
+  (for by this time it was a cloudless night) and shouted something
+  in German, but I galloped on without heeding them, and they were
+  afraid to fire, for their own hussars are dressed exactly as I
+  was. It is best to take no notice at these times, and then they
+  put you down as a deaf man.</p>
+
+  <p>It was a lovely moon, and every tree threw a black bar across
+  the road. I could see the countryside just as if it were daytime,
+  and very peaceful it looked, save that there was a great fire
+  raging somewhere in the north. In the silence of the night-time,
+  and with the knowledge that danger was in front and behind me,
+  the sight of that great distant fire was very striking and
+  awesome. But I am not easily clouded, for I have seen too many
+  singular things, so I hummed a tune between my teeth and thought
+  of little Lisette, whom I might see in Paris. My mind was full of
+  her when, trotting round a corner, I came straight upon
+  half-a-dozen German dragoons, who were sitting round a brushwood
+  fire by the roadside.</p>
+
+  <p>I am an excellent soldier. I do not say this because I am
+  prejudiced in my own favour, but because I really am so. I can
+  weigh every chance in a moment, and decide with as much certainty
+  as though I had brooded for a week. Now I saw like a flash that,
+  come what might, I should be chased, and on a horse which had
+  already done a long twelve leagues. But it was better to be
+  chased onwards than to be chased back. On this moonlit night,
+  with fresh horses behind me, I must take my risk in either case;
+  but if I were to shake them off, I preferred that it should be
+  near Senlis than near Soissons.</p>
+
+  <p>All this flashed on me as if by instinct, you understand. My
+  eyes had hardly rested on the bearded faces under the brass
+  helmets before my rowels had touched Violette, and she was off
+  with a rattle like a pas-de-charge. Oh, the shouting and rushing
+  and stamping from behind us! Three of them fired and three swung
+  themselves on to their horses. A bullet rapped on the crupper of
+  my saddle with a noise like a stick on a door. Violette sprang
+  madly forward, and I thought she had been wounded, but it was
+  only a graze above the near fore-fetlock. Ah, the dear little
+  mare, how I loved her when I felt her settle down into that long,
+  easy gallop of hers, her hoofs going like a Spanish girl's
+  castanets. I could not hold myself. I turned on my saddle and
+  shouted and raved, 'Vive l'Empereur!' I screamed and laughed at
+  the gust of oaths that came back to me.</p>
+
+  <p>But it was not over yet. If she had been fresh she might have
+  gained a mile in five. Now she could only hold her own with a
+  very little over. There was one of them, a young boy of an
+  officer, who was better mounted than the others. He drew ahead
+  with every stride. Two hundred yards behind him were two
+  troopers, but I saw every time that I glanced round that the
+  distance between them was increasing. The other three who had
+  waited to shoot were a long way in the rear.</p>
+
+  <p>The officer's mount was a bay&mdash;a fine horse, though not
+  to be spoken of with Violette; yet it was a powerful brute, and
+  it seemed to me that in a few miles its freshness might tell. I
+  waited until the lad was a long way in front of his comrades, and
+  then I eased my mare down a little&mdash;a very, very little, so
+  that he might think he was really catching me. When he came
+  within pistol-shot of me I drew and cocked my own pistol, and
+  laid my chin upon my shoulder to see what he would do. He did not
+  offer to fire, and I soon discerned the cause. The silly boy had
+  taken his pistols from his holsters when he had camped for the
+  night. He wagged his sword at me now and roared some threat or
+  other. He did not seem to understand that he was at my mercy. I
+  eased Violette down until there was not the length of a long
+  lance between the grey tail and the bay muzzle.</p>
+
+  <p>'Rendez-vous!' he yelled.</p>
+
+  <p>'I must compliment monsieur upon his French,' said I, resting
+  the barrel of my pistol upon my bridle-arm, which I have always
+  found best when shooting from the saddle. I aimed at his face,
+  and could see, even in the moonlight, how white he grew when he
+  understood that it was all up with him. But even as my finger
+  pressed the trigger I thought of his mother, and I put my ball
+  through his horse's shoulder. I fear he hurt himself in the fall,
+  for it was a fearful crash, but I had my letter to think of, so I
+  stretched the mare into a gallop once more.</p>
+
+  <p>But they were not so easily shaken off, these brigands. The
+  two troopers thought no more of their young officer than if he
+  had been a recruit thrown in the riding-school. They left him to
+  the others and thundered on after me. I had pulled up on the brow
+  of a hill, thinking that I had heard the last of them; but, my
+  faith, I soon saw there was no time for loitering, so away we
+  went, the mare tossing her head and I my shako, to show what we
+  thought of two dragoons who tried to catch a hussar. But at this
+  moment, even while I laughed at the thought, my heart stood still
+  within me, for there at the end of the long white road was a
+  black patch of cavalry waiting to receive me. To a young soldier
+  it might have seemed the shadow of the trees, but to me it was a
+  troop of hussars, and, turn where I could, death seemed to be
+  waiting for me.</p>
+
+  <p>Well, I had the dragoons behind me and the hussars in front.
+  Never since Moscow have I seemed to be in such peril. But for the
+  honour of the brigade I had rather be cut down by a light
+  cavalryman than by a heavy. I never drew bridle, therefore, or
+  hesitated for an instant, but I let Violette have her head. I
+  remember that I tried to pray as I rode, but I am a little out of
+  practice at such things, and the only words I could remember were
+  the prayer for fine weather which we used at the school on the
+  evening before holidays. Even this seemed better than nothing,
+  and I was pattering it out, when suddenly I heard French voices
+  in front of me. Ah, mon Dieu, but the joy went through my heart
+  like a musket-ball. They were ours&mdash;our own dear little
+  rascals from the corps of Marmont. Round whisked my two dragoons
+  and galloped for their lives, with the moon gleaming on their
+  brass helmets, while I trotted up to my friends with no undue
+  haste, for I would have them understand that though a hussar may
+  fly, it is not in his nature to fly very fast. Yet I fear that
+  Violette's heaving flanks and foam-spattered muzzle gave the lie
+  to my careless bearing.</p>
+
+  <p>Who should be at the head of the troop but old Bouvet, whom I
+  saved at Leipzig! When he saw me his little pink eyes filled with
+  tears, and, indeed, I could not but shed a few myself at the
+  sight of his joy. I told him of my mission, but he laughed when I
+  said that I must pass through Senlis.</p>
+
+  <p>'The enemy is there,' said he. 'You cannot go.'</p>
+
+  <p>'I prefer to go where the enemy is,' I answered.</p>
+
+  <p>'But why not go straight to Paris with your despatch? Why
+  should you choose to pass through the one place where you are
+  almost sure to be taken or killed?'</p>
+
+  <p>'A soldier does not choose&mdash;he obeys,' said I, just as I
+  had heard Napoleon say it.</p>
+
+  <p>Old Bouvet laughed in his wheezy way, until I had to give my
+  moustachios a twirl and look him up and down in a manner which
+  brought him to reason.</p>
+
+  <p>'Well', said he, 'you had best come along with us, for we are
+  all bound for Senlis. Our orders are to reconnoitre the place. A
+  squadron of Poniatowski's Polish Lancers are in front of us. If
+  you must ride through it, it is possible that we may be able to
+  go with you.'</p>
+
+  <p>So away we went, jingling and clanking through the quiet night
+  until we came up with the Poles&mdash;fine old soldiers all of
+  them, though a trifle heavy for their horses. It was a treat to
+  see them, for they could not have carried themselves better if
+  they had belonged to my own brigade. We rode together, until in
+  the early morning we saw the lights of Senlis. A peasant was
+  coming along with a cart, and from him we learned how things were
+  going there.</p>
+
+  <p>His information was certain, for his brother was the Mayor's
+  coachman, and he had spoken with him late the night before. There
+  was a single squadron of Cossacks&mdash;or a polk, as they call
+  it in their frightful language&mdash;quartered upon the Mayor's
+  house, which stands at the corner of the market-place, and is the
+  largest building in the town. A whole division of Prussion
+  infantry was encamped in the woods to the north, but only the
+  Cossacks were in Senlis. Ah, what a chance to avenge ourselves
+  upon these barbarians, whose cruelty to our poor countryfolk was
+  the talk at every camp fire.</p>
+
+  <p>We were into the town like a torrent, hacked down the
+  vedettes, rode over the guard, and were smashing in the doors of
+  the Mayor's house before they understood that there was a
+  Frenchman within twenty miles of them. We saw horrid heads at the
+  windows&mdash;heads bearded to the temples, with tangled hair and
+  sheepskin caps, and silly, gaping mouths. 'Hourra! Hourra!' they
+  shrieked, and fired with their carbines, but our fellows were
+  into the house and at their throats before they had wiped the
+  sleep out of their eyes. It was dreadful to see how the Poles
+  flung themselves upon them, like starving wolves upon a herd of
+  fat bucks&mdash;for, as you know, the Poles have a blood feud
+  against the Cossacks. The most were killed in the upper rooms,
+  whither they had fled for shelter, and the blood was pouring down
+  into the hall like rain from a roof. They are terrible soldiers,
+  these Poles, though I think they are a trifle heavy for their
+  horses. Man for man, they are as big as Kellerman's cuirassiers.
+  Their equipment is, of course, much lighter, since they are
+  without the cuirass, back-plate, and helmet.</p>
+
+  <p>Well, it was at this point that I made an error&mdash;a very
+  serious error it must be admitted. Up to this moment I had
+  carried out my mission in a manner which only my modesty prevents
+  me from describing as remarkable. But now I did that which an
+  official would condemn and a soldier excuse.</p>
+
+  <p>There is no doubt that the mare was spent, but still it is
+  true that I might have galloped on through Senlis and reached the
+  country, where I should have had no enemy between me and Paris.
+  But what hussar can ride past a fight and never draw rein? It is
+  to ask too much of him. Besides, I thought that if Violette had
+  an hour of rest I might have three hours the better at the other
+  end. Then on the top of it came those heads at the windows, with
+  their sheepskin hats and their barbarous cries. I sprang from my
+  saddle, threw Violette's bridle over a rail-post, and ran into
+  the house with the rest. It is true that I was too late to be of
+  service, and that I was nearly wounded by a lance-thrust from one
+  of these dying savages. Still, it is a pity to miss even the
+  smallest affair, for one never knows what opportunity for
+  advancement may present itself. I have seen more soldierly work
+  in outpost skirmishes and little gallop-and-hack affairs of the
+  kind than in any of the Emperor's big battles.</p>
+
+  <p>When the house was cleared I took a bucket of water out for
+  Violette, and our peasant guide showed me where the good Mayor
+  kept his fodder. My faith, but the little sweetheart was ready
+  for it. Then I sponged down her legs, and leaving her still
+  tethered I went back into the house to find a mouthful for
+  myself, so that I should not need to halt again until I was in
+  Paris.</p>
+
+  <p>And now I come to the part of my story which may seem singular
+  to you, although I could tell you at least ten things every bit
+  as queer which have happened to me in my lifetime. You can
+  understand that, to a man who spends his life in scouting and
+  vedette duties on the bloody ground which lies between two great
+  armies, there are many chances of strange experiences. I'll tell
+  you, however, exactly what occurred.</p>
+
+  <p>Old Bouvet was waiting in the passage when I entered, and he
+  asked me whether we might not crack a bottle of wine together.
+  'My faith, we must not be long,' said he. 'There are ten thousand
+  of Theilmann's Prussians in the woods up yonder.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Where is the wine?' I asked.</p>
+
+  <p>'Ah, you may trust two hussars to find where the wine is,'
+  said he, and taking a candle in his hand, he led the way down the
+  stone stairs into the kitchen.</p>
+
+  <p>When we got there we found another door, which opened on to a
+  winding stair with the cellar at the bottom. The Cossacks had
+  been there before us, as was easily seen by the broken bottles
+  littered all over it. However, the Mayor was a <i>bon-vivant</i>,
+  and I do not wish to have a better set of bins to pick from.
+  Chambertin, Graves, Alicant, white wine and red, sparkling and
+  still, they lay in pyramids peeping coyly out of sawdust. Old
+  Bouvet stood with his candle looking here and peeping there,
+  purring in his throat like a cat before a milk-pail. He had
+  picked upon a Burgundy at last, and had his hand outstretched to
+  the bottle when there came a roar of musketry from above us, a
+  rush of feet, and such a yelping and screaming as I have never
+  listened to. The Prussians were upon us!</p>
+
+  <p>Bouvet is a brave man: I will say that for him. He flashed out
+  his sword and away he clattered up the stone steps, his spurs
+  clinking as he ran. I followed him, but just as we came out into
+  the kitchen passage a tremendous shout told us that the house had
+  been recaptured.</p>
+
+  <p>'It is all over,' I cried, grasping at Bouvet's sleeve.</p>
+
+  <p>'There is one more to die,' he shouted, and away he went like
+  a madman up the second stair. In effect, I should have gone to my
+  death also had I been in his place, for he had done very wrong in
+  not throwing out his scouts to warn him if the Germans advanced
+  upon him. For an instant I was about to rush up with him, and
+  then I bethought myself that, after all, I had my own mission to
+  think of, and that if I were taken the important letter of the
+  Emperor would be sacrificed. I let Bouvet die alone, therefore,
+  and I went down into the cellar again, closing the door behind
+  me.</p>
+
+  <p>Well, it was not a very rosy prospect down there either.
+  Bouvet had dropped the candle when the alarm came, and I, pawing
+  about in the darkness, could find nothing but broken bottles. At
+  last I came upon the candle, which had rolled under the curve of
+  a cask, but, try as I would with my tinderbox, I could not light
+  it. The reason was that the wick had been wet in a puddle of
+  wine, so suspecting that this might be the case, I cut the end
+  off with my sword. Then I found that it lighted easily enough.
+  But what to do I could not imagine. The scoundrels upstairs were
+  shouting themselves hoarse, several hundred of them from the
+  sound, and it was clear that some of them would soon want to
+  moisten their throats. There would be an end to a dashing
+  soldier, and of the mission and of the medal. I thought of my
+  mother and I thought of the Emperor. It made me weep to think
+  that the one would lose so excellent a son and the other the best
+  light cavalry officer he ever had since Lasalle's time. But
+  presently I dashed the tears from my eyes. 'Courage!' I cried,
+  striking myself upon the chest. 'Courage, my brave boy. Is it
+  possible that one who has come safely from Moscow without so much
+  as a frost-bite will die in a French wine-cellar?' At the thought
+  I was up on my feet and clutching at the letter in my tunic, for
+  the crackle of it gave me courage.</p>
+
+  <p>My first plan was to set fire to the house, in the hope of
+  escaping in the confusion. My second to get into an empty
+  wine-cask. I was looking round to see if I could find one, when
+  suddenly, in the corner, I espied a little low door, painted of
+  the same grey colour as the wall, so that it was only a man with
+  quick sight who would have noticed it. I pushed against it, and
+  at first I imagined that it was locked. Presently, however, it
+  gave a little, and then I understood that it was held by the
+  pressure of something on the other side. I put my feet against a
+  hogshead of wine, and I gave such a push that the door flew open
+  and I came down with a crash upon my back, the candle flying out
+  of my hands, so that I found myself in darkness once more. I
+  picked myself up and stared through the black archway into the
+  gloom beyond.</p>
+
+  <p>There was a slight ray of light coming from some slit or
+  grating. The dawn had broken outside, and I could dimly see the
+  long, curving sides of several huge casks, which made me think
+  that perhaps this was where the Mayor kept his reserves of wine
+  while they were maturing. At any rate, it seemed to be a safer
+  hiding-place than the outer cellar, so gathering up my candle, I
+  was just closing the door behind me, when I suddenly saw
+  something which filled me with amazement, and even, I confess,
+  with the smallest little touch of fear.</p>
+
+  <p>I have said that at the further end of the cellar there was a
+  dim grey fan of light striking downwards from somewhere near the
+  roof. Well, as I peered through the darkness, I suddenly saw a
+  great, tall man skip into this belt of daylight, and then out
+  again into the darkness at the further end. My word, I gave such
+  a start that my shako nearly broke its chin-strap! It was only a
+  glance, but, none the less, I had time to see that the fellow had
+  a hairy Cossack cap on his head, and that he was a great,
+  long-legged, broad-shouldered brigand, with a sabre at his waist.
+  My faith, even Etienne Gerard was a little staggered at being
+  left alone with such a creature in the dark.</p>
+
+  <p>But only for a moment. 'Courage!' I thought. 'Am I not a
+  hussar, a brigadier, too, at the age of thirty-one, and the
+  chosen messenger of the Emperor?' After all, this skulker had
+  more cause to be afraid of me than I of him. And then suddenly I
+  understood that he was afraid&mdash;horribly afraid. I could read
+  it from his quick step and his bent shoulders as he ran among the
+  barrels, like a rat making for its hole. And, of course, it must
+  have been he who had held the door against me, and not some
+  packing-case or wine-cask as I had imagined. He was the pursued
+  then, and I the pursuer. Aha, I felt my whiskers bristle as I
+  advanced upon him through the darkness! He would find that he had
+  no chicken to deal with, this robber from the North. For the
+  moment I was magnificent.</p>
+
+  <p>At first I had feared to light my candle lest I should make a
+  mark of myself, but now, after cracking my shin over a box, and
+  catching my spurs in some canvas, I thought the bolder course the
+  wiser. I lit it, therefore, and then I advanced with long
+  strides, my sword in my hand. 'Come out, you rascal!' I cried.
+  'Nothing can save you. You will at last meet with your
+  deserts.'</p>
+
+  <p>I held my candle high, and presently I caught a glimpse of the
+  man's head staring at me over a barrel. He had a gold chevron on
+  his black cap, and the expression of his face told me in an
+  instant that he was an officer and a man of refinement.</p>
+
+  <p>'Monsieur,' he cried, in excellent French, 'I surrender myself
+  on a promise of quarter. But if I do not have your promise, I
+  will then sell my life as dearly as I can.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Sir,' said I, 'a Frenchman knows how to treat an unfortunate
+  enemy. Your life is safe.' With that he handed his sword over the
+  top of the barrel, and I bowed with the candle on my heart. 'Whom
+  have I the honour of capturing?' I asked.</p>
+
+  <p>'I am the Count Boutkine, of the Emperor's own Don Cossacks,'
+  said he. 'I came out with my troop to reconnoitre Senlis, and as
+  we found no sign of your people we determined to spend the night
+  here.'</p>
+
+  <p>'And would it be an indiscretion,' I asked, 'if I were to
+  inquire how you came into the back cellar?'</p>
+
+  <p>'Nothing more simple,' said he. 'It was our intention to start
+  at early dawn. Feeling chilled after dressing, I thought that a
+  cup of wine would do me no harm, so I came down to see what I
+  could find. As I was rummaging about, the house was suddenly
+  carried by assault so rapidly that by the time I had climbed the
+  stairs it was all over. It only remained for me to save myself,
+  so I came down here and hid myself in the back cellar, where you
+  have found me.'</p>
+
+  <p>I thought of how old Bouvet had behaved under the same
+  conditions, and the tears sprang to my eyes as I contemplated the
+  glory of France. Then I had to consider what I should do next. It
+  was clear that this Russian Count, being in the back cellar while
+  we were in the front one, had not heard the sounds which would
+  have told him that the house was once again in the hands of his
+  own allies. If he should once understand this the tables would be
+  turned, and I should be his prisoner instead of he being mine.
+  What was I to do? I was at my wits' end, when suddenly there came
+  to me an idea so brilliant that I could not but be amazed at my
+  own invention.</p>
+
+  <p>'Count Boutkine,' said I, 'I find myself in a most difficult
+  position.'</p>
+
+  <p>'And why?' he asked.</p>
+
+  <p>'Because I have promised you your life.'</p>
+
+  <p>His jaw dropped a little.</p>
+
+  <p>'You would not withdraw your promise?' he cried.</p>
+
+  <p>'If the worst comes to the worst I can die in your defence,'
+  said I; 'but the difficulties are great.'</p>
+
+  <p>'What is it, then?' he asked.</p>
+
+  <p>'I will be frank with you,' said I. 'You must know that our
+  fellows, and especially the Poles, are so incensed against the
+  Cossacks that the mere sight of the uniform drives them mad. They
+  precipitate themselves instantly upon the wearer and tear him
+  limb from limb. Even their officers cannot restrain them.'</p>
+
+  <p>The Russian grew pale at my words and the way in which I said
+  them.</p>
+
+  <p>'But this is terrible,' said he.</p>
+
+  <p>'Horrible!' said I. 'If we were to go up together at this
+  moment I cannot promise how far I could protect you.'</p>
+
+  <p>'I am in your hands,' he cried. 'What would you suggest that
+  we should do? Would it not be best that I should remain
+  here?'</p>
+
+  <p>'That worst of all.'</p>
+
+  <p>'And why?'</p>
+
+  <p>'Because our fellows will ransack the house presently, and
+  then you would be cut to pieces. No, no, I must go and break it
+  to them. But even then, when once they see that accursed uniform,
+  I do not know what may happen.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Should I then take the uniform off?'</p>
+
+  <p>'Excellent!' I cried. 'Hold, we have it! You will take your
+  uniform off and put on mine. That will make you sacred to every
+  French soldier.'</p>
+
+  <p>'It is not the French I fear so much as the Poles.'</p>
+
+  <p>'But my uniform will be a safeguard against either.'</p>
+
+  <p>'How can I thank you?' he cried. 'But you&mdash;what are you
+  to wear?'</p>
+
+  <p>'I will wear yours.'</p>
+
+  <p>'And perhaps fall a victim to your generosity?'</p>
+
+  <p>'It is my duty to take the risk,' I answered; 'but I have no
+  fears. I will ascend in your uniform. A hundred swords will be
+  turned upon me. "Hold!" I will shout, "I am the Brigadier
+  Gerard!" Then they will see my face. They will know me. And I
+  will tell them about you. Under the shield of these clothes you
+  will be sacred.'</p>
+
+  <p>His fingers trembled with eagerness as he tore off his tunic.
+  His boots and breeches were much like my own, so there was no
+  need to change them, but I gave him my hussar jacket, my dolman,
+  my shako, my sword-belt, and my sabre-tasche, while I took in
+  exchange his high sheepskin cap with the gold chevron, his
+  fur-trimmed coat, and his crooked sword. Be it well understood
+  that in changing the tunics I did not forget to change my
+  thrice-precious letter also from my old one to my new.</p>
+
+  <p>'With your leave,' said I, 'I shall now bind you to a
+  barrel.'</p>
+
+  <p>He made a great fuss over this, but I have learned in my
+  soldiering never to throw away chances, and how could I tell that
+  he might not, when my back was turned, see how the matter really
+  stood, and break in upon my plans? He was leaning against a
+  barrel at the time, so I ran six times round it with a rope, and
+  then tied it with a big knot behind. If he wished to come
+  upstairs he would, at least, have to carry a thousand litres of
+  good French wine for a knapsack. I then shut the door of the back
+  cellar behind me, so that he might not hear what was going
+  forward, and tossing the candle away I ascended the kitchen
+  stair.</p>
+
+  <p>There were only about twenty steps, and yet, while I came up
+  them, I seemed to have time to think of everything that I had
+  ever hoped to do. It was the same feeling that I had at Eylau
+  when I lay with my broken leg and saw the horse artillery
+  galloping down upon me. Of course, I knew that if I were taken I
+  should be shot instantly as being disguised within the enemy's
+  lines. Still, it was a glorious death&mdash;in the direct service
+  of the Emperor&mdash;and I reflected that there could not be less
+  than five lines, and perhaps seven, in the <i>Moniteur</i> about
+  me. Palaret had eight lines, and I am sure that he had not so
+  fine a career.</p>
+
+  <p>When I made my way out into the hall, with all the nonchalance
+  in my face and manner that I could assume, the very first thing
+  that I saw was Bouvet's dead body, with his legs drawn up and a
+  broken sword in his hand. I could see by the black smudge that he
+  had been shot at close quarters. I should have wished to salute
+  as I went by, for he was a gallant man, but I feared lest I
+  should be seen, and so I passed on.</p>
+
+  <p>The front of the hall was full of Prussian infantry, who were
+  knocking loopholes in the wall, as though they expected that
+  there might be yet another attack. Their officer, a little man,
+  was running about giving directions. They were all too busy to
+  take much notice of me, but another officer, who was standing by
+  the door with a long pipe in his mouth, strode across and clapped
+  me on the shoulder, pointing to the dead bodies of our poor
+  hussars, and saying something which was meant for a jest, for his
+  long beard opened and showed every fang in his head. I laughed
+  heartily also, and said the only Russian words that I knew. I
+  learned them from little Sophie, at Wilna, and they meant: 'If
+  the night is fine we shall meet under the oak tree, but if it
+  rains we shall meet in the byre.' It was all the same to this
+  German, however, and I have no doubt that he gave me credit for
+  saying something very witty indeed, for he roared laughing, and
+  slapped me on my shoulder again. I nodded to him and marched out
+  of the hall-door as coolly as if I were the commandant of the
+  garrison.</p>
+
+  <p>There were a hundred horses tethered about outside, most of
+  them belonging to the Poles and hussars. Good little Violette was
+  waiting with the others, and she whinnied when she saw me coming
+  towards her. But I would not mount her. No. I was much too
+  cunning for that. On the contrary, I chose the most shaggy little
+  Cossack horse that I could see, and I sprang upon it with as much
+  assurance as though it had belonged to my father before me. It
+  had a great bag of plunder slung over its neck, and this I laid
+  upon Violette's back, and led her along beside me. Never have you
+  seen such a picture of the Cossack returning from the foray. It
+  was superb.</p>
+
+  <p>Well, the town was full of Prussians by this time. They lined
+  the side-walks and pointed me out to each other, saying, as I
+  could judge from their gestures, 'There goes one of those devils
+  of Cossacks. They are the boys for foraging and plunder.'</p>
+
+  <p>One or two officers spoke to me with an air of authority, but
+  I shook my head and smiled, and said, 'If the night is fine we
+  shall meet under the oak tree, but if it rains we shall meet in
+  the byre,' at which they shrugged their shoulders and gave the
+  matter up. In this way I worked along until I was beyond the
+  northern outskirt of the town. I could see in the roadway two
+  lancer vedettes with their black and white pennons, and I knew
+  that when I was once past these I should be a free man once more.
+  I made my pony trot, therefore, Violette rubbing her nose against
+  my knee all the time, and looking up at me to ask how she had
+  deserved that this hairy doormat of a creature should be
+  preferred to her. I was not more than a hundred yards from the
+  Uhlans when, suddenly, you can imagine my feelings when I saw a
+  real Cossack coming galloping along the road towards me.</p>
+
+  <p>Ah, my friend, you who read this, if you have any heart, you
+  will feel for a man like me, who had gone through so many dangers
+  and trials, only at this very last moment to be confronted with
+  one which appeared to put an end to everything. I will confess
+  that for a moment I lost heart, and was inclined to throw myself
+  down in my despair, and to cry out that I had been betrayed. But,
+  no; I was not beaten even now. I opened two buttons of my tunic
+  so that I might get easily at the Emperor's message, for it was
+  my fixed determination when all hope was gone to swallow the
+  letter and then die sword in hand. Then I felt that my little,
+  crooked sword was loose in its sheath, and I trotted on to where
+  the vedettes were waiting. They seemed inclined to stop me, but I
+  pointed to the other Cossack, who was still a couple of hundred
+  yards off, and they, understanding that I merely wished to meet
+  him, let me pass with a salute.</p>
+
+  <p>I dug my spurs into my pony then, for if I were only far
+  enough from the lancers I thought I might manage the Cossack
+  without much difficulty. He was an officer, a large, bearded man,
+  with a gold chevron in his cap, just the same as mine. As I
+  advanced he unconsciously aided me by pulling up his horse, so
+  that I had a fine start of the vedettes. On I came for him, and I
+  could see wonder changing to suspicion in his brown eyes as he
+  looked at me and at my pony, and at my equipment. I do not know
+  what it was that was wrong, but he saw something which was as it
+  should not be. He shouted out a question, and then when I gave no
+  answer he pulled out his sword. I was glad in my heart to see him
+  do so, for I had always rather fight than cut down an
+  unsuspecting enemy. Now I made at him full tilt, and, parrying
+  his cut, I got my point in just under the fourth button of his
+  tunic. Down he went, and the weight of him nearly took me off my
+  horse before I could disengage. I never glanced at him to see if
+  he were living or dead, for I sprang off my pony and on to
+  Violette, with a shake of my bridle and a kiss of my hand to the
+  two Uhlans behind me. They galloped after me, shouting, but
+  Violette had had her rest, and was just as fresh as when she
+  started. I took the first side road to the west and then the
+  first to the south, which would take me away from the enemy's
+  country. On we went and on, every stride taking me further from
+  my foes and nearer to my friends. At last, when I reached the end
+  of a long stretch of road, and looking back from it could see no
+  sign of any pursuers, I understood that my troubles were
+  over.</p>
+
+  <p>And it gave me a glow of happiness, as I rode, to think that I
+  had done to the letter what the Emperor had ordered. What would
+  he say when he saw me? What could he say which would do justice
+  to the incredible way in which I had risen above every danger? He
+  had ordered me to go through Sermoise, Soissons, and Senlis,
+  little dreaming that they were all three occupied by the enemy.
+  And yet I had done it. I had borne his letter in safety through
+  each of these towns. Hussars, dragoons, lancers, Cossacks, and
+  infantry&mdash;I had run the gauntlet of all of them, and had
+  come out unharmed.</p>
+
+  <p>When I had got as far as Dammartin I caught a first glimpse of
+  our own outposts. There was a troop of dragoons in a field, and
+  of course I could see from the horsehair crests that they were
+  French. I galloped towards them in order to ask them if all was
+  safe between there and Paris, and as I rode I felt such a pride
+  at having won my way back to my friends again, that I could not
+  refrain from waving my sword in the air.</p>
+
+  <p>At this a young officer galloped out from among the dragoons,
+  also brandishing his sword, and it warmed my heart to think that
+  he should come riding with such ardour and enthusiasm to greet
+  me. I made Violette caracole, and as we came together I
+  brandished my sword more gallantly than ever, but you can imagine
+  my feelings when he suddenly made a cut at me which would
+  certainly have taken my head off if I had not fallen forward with
+  my nose in Violette's mane. My faith, it whistled just over my
+  cap like an east wind. Of course, it came from this accursed
+  Cossack uniform which, in my excitement, I had forgotten all
+  about, and this young dragoon had imagined that I was some
+  Russian champion who was challenging the French cavalry. My word,
+  he was a frightened man when he understood how near he had been
+  to killing the celebrated Brigadier Gerard.</p>
+
+  <p>Well, the road was clear, and about three o'clock in the
+  afternoon I was at St Denis, though it took me a long two hours
+  to get from there to Paris, for the road was blocked with
+  commissariat waggons and guns of the artillery reserve, which was
+  going north to Marmont and Mortier. You cannot conceive the
+  excitement which my appearance in such a costume made in Paris,
+  and when I came to the Rue de Rivoli I should think I had a
+  quarter of a mile of folk riding or running behind me. Word had
+  got about from the dragoons (two of whom had come with me), and
+  everybody knew about my adventures and how I had come by my
+  uniform. It was a triumph&mdash;men shouting and women waving
+  their handkerchiefs and blowing kisses from the windows.</p>
+
+  <p>Although I am a man singularly free from conceit, still I must
+  confess that, on this one occasion, I could not restrain myself
+  from showing that this reception gratified me. The Russian's coat
+  had hung very loose upon me, but now I threw out my chest until
+  it was as tight as a sausage-skin. And my little sweetheart of a
+  mare tossed her mane and pawed with her front hoofs, frisking her
+  tail about as though she said, 'We've done it together this time.
+  It is to us that commissions should be intrusted.' When I kissed
+  her between the nostrils as I dismounted at the gate of the
+  Tuileries, there was as much shouting as if a bulletin had been
+  read from the Grand Army.</p>
+
+  <p>I was hardly in costume to visit a King; but, after all, if
+  one has a soldierly figure one can do without all that. I was
+  shown up straight away to Joseph, whom I had often seen in Spain.
+  He seemed as stout, as quiet, and as amiable as ever. Talleyrand
+  was in the room with him, or I suppose I should call him the Duke
+  of Benevento, but I confess that I like old names best. He read
+  my letter when Joseph Buonaparte handed it to him, and then he
+  looked at me with the strangest expression in those funny little,
+  twinkling eyes of his.</p>
+
+  <p>'Were you the only messenger?' he asked.</p>
+
+  <p>'There was one other, sir,' said I. 'Major Charpentier, of the
+  Horse Grenadiers.'</p>
+
+  <p>'He has not yet arrived,' said the King of Spain.</p>
+
+  <p>'If you had seen the legs of his horse, sire, you would not
+  wonder at it,' I remarked.</p>
+
+  <p>'There may be other reasons,' said Talleyrand, and he gave
+  that singular smile of his.</p>
+
+  <p>Well, they paid me a compliment or two, though they might have
+  said a good deal more and yet have said too little. I bowed
+  myself out, and very glad I was to get away, for I hate a Court
+  as much as I love a camp. Away I went to my old friend Chaubert,
+  in the Rue Miromesnil, and there I got his hussar uniform, which
+  fitted me very well. He and Lisette and I supped together in his
+  rooms, and all my dangers were forgotten. In the morning I found
+  Violette ready for another twenty-league stretch. It was my
+  intention to return instantly to the Emperor's headquarters, for
+  I was, as you may well imagine, impatient to hear his words of
+  praise, and to receive my reward.</p>
+
+  <p>I need not say that I rode back by a safe route, for I had
+  seen quite enough of Uhlans and Cossacks. I passed through Meaux
+  and Ch&acirc;teau Thierry, and so in the evening I arrived at
+  Rheims, where Napoleon was still lying. The bodies of our fellows
+  and of St Prest's Russians had all been buried, and I could see
+  changes in the camp also. The soldiers looked better cared for;
+  some of the cavalry had received remounts, and everything was in
+  excellent order. It was wonderful what a good general can effect
+  in a couple of days.</p>
+
+  <p>When I came to the headquarters I was shown straight into the
+  Emperor's room. He was drinking coffee at a writing-table, with a
+  big plan drawn out on paper in front of him. Berthier and
+  Macdonald were leaning, one over each shoulder, and he was
+  talking so quickly that I don't believe that either of them could
+  catch a half of what he was saying. But when his eyes fell upon
+  me he dropped the pen on to the chart, and he sprang up with a
+  look in his pale face which struck me cold.</p>
+
+  <p>'What the deuce are you doing here?' he shouted. When he was
+  angry he had a voice like a peacock.</p>
+
+  <p>'I have the honour to report to you, sire,' said I, 'that I
+  have delivered your despatch safely to the King of Spain.'</p>
+
+  <p>'What!' he yelled, and his two eyes transfixed me like
+  bayonets. Oh, those dreadful eyes, shifting from grey to blue,
+  like steel in the sunshine. I can see them now when I have a bad
+  dream.</p>
+
+  <p>'What has become of Charpentier?' he asked.</p>
+
+  <p>'He is captured,' said Macdonald.</p>
+
+  <p>'By whom?'</p>
+
+  <p>'The Russians.'</p>
+
+  <p>'The Cossacks?'</p>
+
+  <p>'No, a single Cossack.'</p>
+
+  <p>'He gave himself up?'</p>
+
+  <p>'Without resistance.'</p>
+
+  <p>'He is an intelligent officer. You will see that the medal of
+  honour is awarded to him.'</p>
+
+  <p>When I heard those words I had to rub my eyes to make sure
+  that I was awake.</p>
+
+  <p>'As to you,' cried the Emperor, taking a step forward as if he
+  would have struck me, 'you brain of a hare, what do you think
+  that you were sent upon this mission for? Do you conceive that I
+  would send a really important message by such a hand as yours,
+  and through every village which the enemy holds? How you came
+  through them passes my comprehension; but if your
+  fellow-messenger had had but as little sense as you, my whole
+  plan of campaign would have been ruined. Can you not see,
+  coglione, that this message contained false news, and that it was
+  intended to deceive the enemy whilst I put a very different
+  scheme into execution?'</p>
+
+  <p>When I heard those cruel words and saw the angry, white face
+  which glared at me, I had to hold the back of a chair, for my
+  mind was failing me and my knees would hardly bear me up. But
+  then I took courage as I reflected that I was an honourable
+  gentleman, and that my whole life had been spent in toiling for
+  this man and for my beloved country.</p>
+
+  <p>'Sire,' said I, and the tears would trickle down my cheeks
+  whilst I spoke, 'when you are dealing with a man like me you
+  would find it wiser to deal openly. Had I known that you had
+  wished the despatch to fall into the hands of the enemy, I would
+  have seen that it came there. As I believed that I was to guard
+  it, I was prepared to sacrifice my life for it. I do not believe,
+  sire, that any man in the world ever met with more toils and
+  perils than I have done in trying to carry out what I thought was
+  your will.'</p>
+
+  <p>I dashed the tears from my eyes as I spoke, and with such fire
+  and spirit as I could command I gave him an account of it all, of
+  my dash through Soissons, my brush with the dragoons, my
+  adventure in Senlis, my rencontre with Count Boutkine in the
+  cellar, my disguise, my meeting with the Cossack officer, my
+  flight, and how at the last moment I was nearly cut down by a
+  French dragoon. The Emperor, Berthier, and Macdonald listened
+  with astonishment on their faces. When I had finished Napoleon
+  stepped forward and he pinched me by the ear.</p>
+
+  <p>'There, there!' said he. 'Forget anything which I may have
+  said. I would have done better to trust you. You may go.'</p>
+
+  <p>I turned to the door, and my hand was upon the handle, when
+  the Emperor called upon me to stop.</p>
+
+  <p>'You will see,' said he, turning to the Duke of Tarentum,
+  'that Brigadier Gerard has the special medal of honour, for I
+  believe that if he has the thickest head he has also the stoutest
+  heart in my army.'</p>
+
+  <p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+  <p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+  <p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+  <p>&nbsp;</p><a name="RULE4_7"><!-- RULE4 7 --></a>
+
+  <h2>8. HOW THE BRIGADIER WAS TEMPTED BY THE DEVIL</h2>
+
+  <p>The spring is at hand, my friends. I can see the little green
+  spear-heads breaking out once more upon the chestnut trees, and
+  the cafe tables have all been moved into the sunshine. It is more
+  pleasant to sit there, and yet I do not wish to tell my little
+  stories to the whole town. You have heard my doings as a
+  lieutenant, as a squadron officer, as a colonel, as the chief of
+  a brigade. But now I suddenly become something higher and more
+  important. I become history.</p>
+
+  <p>If you have read of those closing years of the life of the
+  Emperor which were spent in the Island of St Helena, you will
+  remember that, again and again, he implored permission to send
+  out one single letter which should be unopened by those who held
+  him. Many times he made this request, and even went so far as to
+  promise that he would provide for his own wants and cease to be
+  an expense to the British Government if it were granted to him.
+  But his guardians knew that he was a terrible man, this pale, fat
+  gentleman in the straw hat, and they dared not grant him what he
+  asked. Many have wondered who it was to whom he could have had
+  anything so secret to say. Some have supposed that it was to his
+  wife, and some that it was to his father-in-law; some that it was
+  to the Emperor Alexander, and some to Marshal Soult. What will
+  you think of me, my friends, when I tell you it was to
+  me&mdash;to me, the Brigadier Gerard&mdash;that the Emperor
+  wished to write? Yes, humble as you see me, with only my 100
+  francs a month of half-pay between me and hunger, it is none the
+  less true that I was always in the Emperor's mind, and that he
+  would have given his left hand for five minutes' talk with me. I
+  will tell you tonight how this came about.</p>
+
+  <p>It was after the Battle of F&eacute;re-Champenoise where the
+  conscripts in their blouses and their sabots made such a fine
+  stand, that we, the more long-headed of us, began to understand
+  that it was all over with us. Our reserve ammunition had been
+  taken in the battle, and we were left with silent guns and empty
+  caissons. Our cavalry, too, was in a deplorable condition, and my
+  own brigade had been destroyed in the charge at Craonne. Then
+  came the news that the enemy had taken Paris, that the citizens
+  had mounted the white cockade; and finally, most terrible of all,
+  that Marmont and his corps had gone over to the Bourbons. We
+  looked at each other and asked how many more of our generals were
+  going to turn against us. Already there were Jourdan, Marmont,
+  Murat, Bernadotte, and Jomini&mdash;though nobody minded much
+  about Jomini, for his pen was always sharper than his sword. We
+  had been ready to fight Europe, but it looked now as though we
+  were to fight Europe and half of France as well.</p>
+
+  <p>We had come to Fontainebleau by a long, forced march, and
+  there we were assembled, the poor remnants of us, the corps of
+  Ney, the corps of my cousin Gerard, and the corps of Macdonald:
+  twenty-five thousand in all, with seven thousand of the guard.
+  But we had our prestige, which was worth fifty thousand, and our
+  Emperor, who was worth fifty thousand more. He was always among
+  us, serene, smiling, confident, taking his snuff and playing with
+  his little riding-whip. Never in the days of his greatest
+  victories have I admired him as much as I did during the Campaign
+  of France.</p>
+
+  <p>One evening I was with a few of my officers, drinking a glass
+  of wine of Suresnes. I mention that it was wine of Suresnes just
+  to show you that times were not very good with us. Suddenly I was
+  disturbed by a message from Berthier that he wished to see me.
+  When I speak of my old comrades-in-arms, I will, with your
+  permission, leave out all the fine foreign titles which they had
+  picked up during the wars. They are excellent for a Court, but
+  you never heard them in the camp, for we could not afford to do
+  away with our Ney, our Rapp, or our Soult&mdash;names which were
+  as stirring to our ears as the blare of our trumpets blowing the
+  reveille. It was Berthier, then, who sent to say that he wished
+  to see me.</p>
+
+  <p>He had a suite of rooms at the end of the gallery of Francis
+  the First, not very far from those of the Emperor. In the
+  ante-chamber were waiting two men whom I knew well: Colonel
+  Despienne, of the 57th of the line, and Captain Tremeau, of the
+  Voltigeurs. They were both old soldiers&mdash;Tremeau had carried
+  a musket in Egypt&mdash;and they were also both famous in the
+  army for their courage and their skill with weapons. Tremeau had
+  become a little stiff in the wrist, but Despienne was capable at
+  his best of making me exert myself. He was a tiny fellow, about
+  three inches short of the proper height for a man&mdash;he was
+  exactly three inches shorter than myself&mdash;but both with the
+  sabre and with the small-sword he had several times almost held
+  his own against me when we used to exhibit at Verron's Hall of
+  Arms in the Palais Royal. You may think that it made us sniff
+  something in the wind when we found three such men called
+  together into one room. You cannot see the lettuce and dressing
+  without suspecting a salad.</p>
+
+  <p>'Name of a pipe!' said Tremeau, in his barrack-room fashion.
+  'Are we then expecting three champions of the Bourbons?'</p>
+
+  <p>To all of us the idea appeared not improbable. Certainly in
+  the whole army we were the very three who might have been chosen
+  to meet them.</p>
+
+  <p>'The Prince of Neufch&acirc;tel desires to speak with the
+  Brigadier Gerard,' said a footman, appearing at the door.</p>
+
+  <p>In I went, leaving my two companions consumed with impatience
+  behind me. It was a small room, but very gorgeously furnished.
+  Berthier was seated opposite to me at a little table, with a pen
+  in his hand and a note-book open before him. He was looking weary
+  and slovenly&mdash;very different from that Berthier who used to
+  give the fashion to the army, and who had so often set us poorer
+  officers tearing our hair by trimming his pelisse with fur one
+  campaign, and with grey astrakhan the next. On his clean-shaven,
+  comely face there was an expression of trouble, and he looked at
+  me as I entered his chamber in a way which had in it something
+  furtive and displeasing.</p>
+
+  <p>'Chief of Brigade Gerard!' said he.</p>
+
+  <p>'At your service, your Highness!' I answered.</p>
+
+  <p>'I must ask you, before I go further, to promise me, upon your
+  honour as a gentleman and a soldier, that what is about to pass
+  between us shall never be mentioned to any third person.'</p>
+
+  <p>My word, this was a fine beginning! I had no choice but to
+  give the promise required.</p>
+
+  <p>'You must know, then, that it is all over with the Emperor,'
+  said he, looking down at the table and speaking very slowly, as
+  if he had a hard task in getting out the words. 'Jourdan at Rouen
+  and Marmont at Paris have both mounted the white cockade, and it
+  is rumoured that Talleyrand has talked Ney into doing the same.
+  It is evident that further resistance is useless, and that it can
+  only bring misery upon our country. I wish to ask you, therefore,
+  whether you are prepared to join me in laying hands upon the
+  Emperor's person, and bringing the war to a conclusion by
+  delivering him over to the allies?'</p>
+
+  <p>I assure you that when I heard this infamous proposition put
+  forward by the man who had been the earliest friend of the
+  Emperor, and who had received greater favours from him than any
+  of his followers, I could only stand and stare at him in
+  amazement. For his part he tapped his pen-handle against his
+  teeth, and looked at me with a slanting head.</p>
+
+  <p>'Well?' he asked.</p>
+
+  <p>'I am a little deaf on one side,' said I, coldly. 'There are
+  some things which I cannot hear. I beg that you will permit me to
+  return to my duties.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Nay, but you must not be headstrong,' rising up and laying
+  his hand upon my shoulder. 'You are aware that the Senate has
+  declared against Napoleon, and that the Emperor Alexander refuses
+  to treat with him.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Sir,' I cried, with passion, 'I would have you know that I do
+  not care the dregs of a wine-glass for the Senate or for the
+  Emperor Alexander either.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Then for what do you care?'</p>
+
+  <p>'For my own honour and for the service of my glorious master,
+  the Emperor Napoleon.'</p>
+
+  <p>'That is all very well,' said Berthier, peevishly, shrugging
+  his shoulders. 'Facts are facts, and as men of the world, we must
+  look them in the face. Are we to stand against the will of the
+  nation? Are we to have civil war on the top of all our
+  misfortunes? And, besides, we are thinning away. Every hour comes
+  the news of fresh desertions. We have still time to make our
+  peace, and, indeed, to earn the highest regard, by giving up the
+  Emperor.'</p>
+
+  <p>I shook so with passion that my sabre clattered against my
+  thigh.</p>
+
+  <p>'Sir,' I cried, 'I never thought to have seen the day when a
+  Marshal of France would have so far degraded himself as to put
+  forward such a proposal. I leave you to your own conscience; but
+  as for me, until I have the Emperor's own order, there shall
+  always be the sword of Etienne Gerard between his enemies and
+  himself.'</p>
+
+  <p>I was so moved by my own words and by the fine position which
+  I had taken up, that my voice broke, and I could hardly refrain
+  from tears. I should have liked the whole army to have seen me as
+  I stood with my head so proudly erect and my hand upon my heart
+  proclaiming my devotion to the Emperor in his adversity. It was
+  one of the supreme moments of my life.</p>
+
+  <p>'Very good,' said Berthier, ringing a bell for the lackey.
+  'You will show the Chief of Brigade Gerard into the salon.'</p>
+
+  <p>The footman led me into an inner room, where he desired me to
+  be seated. For my own part, my only desire was to get away, and I
+  could not understand why they should wish to detain me. When one
+  has had no change of uniform during a whole winter's campaign,
+  one does not feel at home in a palace.</p>
+
+  <p>I had been there about a quarter of an hour when the footman
+  opened the door again, and in came Colonel Despienne. Good
+  heavens, what a sight he was! His face was as white as a
+  guardsman's gaiters, his eyes projecting, the veins swollen upon
+  his forehead, and every hair of his moustache bristling like
+  those of an angry cat. He was too angry to speak, and could only
+  shake his hands at the ceiling and make a gurgling in his throat.
+  'Parricide! Viper!' those were the words that I could catch as he
+  stamped up and down the room.</p>
+
+  <p>Of course it was evident to me that he had been subjected to
+  the same infamous proposals as I had, and that he had received
+  them in the same spirit. His lips were sealed to me, as mine were
+  to him, by the promise which we had taken, but I contented myself
+  with muttering 'Atrocious! Unspeakable!'&mdash;so that he might
+  know that I was in agreement with him.</p>
+
+  <p>Well, we were still there, he striding furiously up and down,
+  and I seated in the corner, when suddenly a most extraordinary
+  uproar broke out in the room which we had just quitted. There was
+  a snarling, worrying growl, like that of a fierce dog which has
+  got his grip. Then came a crash and a voice calling for help. In
+  we rushed, the two of us, and, my faith, we were none too
+  soon.</p>
+
+  <p>Old Tremeau and Berthier were rolling together upon the floor,
+  with the table upon the top of them. The Captain had one of his
+  great, skinny yellow hands upon the Marshal's throat, and already
+  his face was lead-coloured, and his eyes were starting from their
+  sockets. As to Tremeau, he was beside himself, with foam upon the
+  corners of his lips, and such a frantic expression upon him that
+  I am convinced, had we not loosened his iron grip, finger by
+  finger, that it would never have relaxed while the Marshal lived.
+  His nails were white with the power of his grasp.</p>
+
+  <p>'I have been tempted by the devil!' he cried, as he staggered
+  to his feet. 'Yes, I have been tempted by the devil!'</p>
+
+  <p>As to Berthier, he could only lean against the wall, and pant
+  for a couple of minutes, putting his hands up to his throat and
+  rolling his head about. Then, with an angry gesture, he turned to
+  the heavy blue curtain which hung behind his chair.</p>
+
+  <p>The curtain was torn to one side and the Emperor stepped out
+  into the room. We sprang to the salute, we three old soldiers,
+  but it was all like a scene in a dream to us, and our eyes were
+  as far out as Berthier's had been. Napoleon was dressed in his
+  green-coated chasseur uniform, and he held his little,
+  silver-headed switch in his hand. He looked at us each in turn,
+  with a smile upon his face&mdash;that frightful smile in which
+  neither eyes nor brow joined&mdash;and each in turn had, I
+  believe, a pringling on his skin, for that was the effect which
+  the Emperor's gaze had upon most of us. Then he walked across to
+  Berthier and put his hand upon his shoulder.</p>
+
+  <p>'You must not quarrel with blows, my dear Prince,' said he;
+  'they are your title to nobility.' He spoke in that soft,
+  caressing manner which he could assume. There was no one who
+  could make the French tongue sound so pretty as the Emperor, and
+  no one who could make it more harsh and terrible.</p>
+
+  <p>'I believe he would have killed me,' cried Berthier, still
+  rolling his head about.</p>
+
+  <p>'Tut, tut! I should have come to your help had these officers
+  not heard your cries. But I trust that you are not really hurt!'
+  He spoke with earnestness, for he was in truth very fond of
+  Berthier&mdash;more so than of any man, unless it were of poor
+  Duroc.</p>
+
+  <p>Berthier laughed, though not with a very good grace.</p>
+
+  <p>'It is new for me to receive my injuries from French hands,'
+  said he.</p>
+
+  <p>'And yet it was in the cause of France,' returned the Emperor.
+  Then, turning to us, he took old Tremeau by the ear. 'Ah, old
+  grumbler,' said he, 'you were one of my Egyptian grenadiers, were
+  you not, and had your musket of honour at Marengo. I remember you
+  very well, my good friend. So the old fires are not yet
+  extinguished! They still burn up when you think that your Emperor
+  is wronged. And you, Colonel Despienne, you would not even listen
+  to the tempter. And you, Gerard, your faithful sword is ever to
+  be between me and my enemies. Well, well, I have had some
+  traitors about me, but now at last we are beginning to see who
+  are the true men.'</p>
+
+  <p>You can fancy, my friends, the thrill of joy which it gave us
+  when the greatest man in the whole world spoke to us in this
+  fashion. Tremeau shook until I thought he would have fallen, and
+  the tears ran down his gigantic moustache. If you had not seen
+  it, you could never believe the influence which the Emperor had
+  upon those coarse-grained, savage old veterans.</p>
+
+  <p>'Well, my faithful friends,' said he, 'if you will follow me
+  into this room, I will explain to you the meaning of this little
+  farce which we have been acting. I beg, Berthier, that you will
+  remain in this chamber, and so make sure that no one interrupts
+  us.'</p>
+
+  <p>It was new for us to be doing business, with a Marshal of
+  France as sentry at the door. However, we followed the Emperor as
+  we were ordered, and he led us into the recess of the window,
+  gathering us around him and sinking his voice as he addressed
+  us.</p>
+
+  <p>'I have picked you out of the whole army,' said he, 'as being
+  not only the most formidable but also the most faithful of my
+  soldiers. I was convinced that you were all three men who would
+  never waver in your fidelity to me. If I have ventured to put
+  that fidelity to the proof, and to watch you while attempts were
+  at my orders made upon your honour, it was only because, in the
+  days when I have found the blackest treason amongst my own flesh
+  and blood, it is necessary that I should be doubly circumspect.
+  Suffice it that I am well convinced now that I can rely upon your
+  valour.'</p>
+
+  <p>'To the death, sire!' cried Tremeau, and we both repeated it
+  after him.</p>
+
+  <p>Napoleon drew us all yet a little closer to him, and sank his
+  voice still lower.</p>
+
+  <p>'What I say to you now I have said to no one&mdash;not to my
+  wife or my brothers; only to you. It is all up with us, my
+  friends. We have come to our last rally. The game is finished,
+  and we must make provision accordingly.'</p>
+
+  <p>My heart seemed to have changed to a nine-pounder ball as I
+  listened to him. We had hoped against hope, but now when he, the
+  man who was always serene and who always had reserves&mdash;when
+  he, in that quiet, impassive voice of his, said that everything
+  was over, we realized that the clouds had shut for ever, and the
+  last gleam gone. Tremeau snarled and gripped at his sabre,
+  Despienne ground his teeth, and for my own part I threw out my
+  chest and clicked my heels to show the Emperor that there were
+  some spirits which could rise to adversity.</p>
+
+  <p>'My papers and my fortune must be secured,' whispered the
+  Emperor. 'The whole course of the future may depend upon my
+  having them safe. They are our base for the next
+  attempt&mdash;for I am very sure that these poor Bourbons would
+  find that my footstool is too large to make a throne for them.
+  Where am I to keep these precious things? My belongings will be
+  searched&mdash;so will the houses of my supporters. They must be
+  secured and concealed by men whom I can trust with that which is
+  more precious to me than my life. Out of the whole of France, you
+  are those whom I have chosen for this sacred trust.</p>
+
+  <p>'In the first place, I will tell you what these papers are.
+  You shall not say that I have made you blind agents in the
+  matter. They are the official proof of my divorce from Josephine,
+  of my legal marriage to Marie Louise, and of the birth of my son
+  and heir, the King of Rome. If we cannot prove each of these, the
+  future claim of my family to the throne of France falls to the
+  ground. Then there are securities to the value of forty millions
+  of francs&mdash;an immense sum, my friends, but of no more value
+  than this riding-switch when compared to the other papers of
+  which I have spoken. I tell you these things that you may realize
+  the enormous importance of the task which I am committing to your
+  care. Listen, now, while I inform you where you are to get these
+  papers, and what you are to do with them.</p>
+
+  <p>'They were handed over to my trusty friend, the Countess
+  Walewski, at Paris, this morning. At five o'clock she starts for
+  Fontainebleau in her blue berline. She should reach here between
+  half-past nine and ten. The papers will be concealed in the
+  berline, in a hiding-place which none know but herself. She has
+  been warned that her carriage will be stopped outside the town by
+  three mounted officers, and she will hand the packet over to your
+  care. You are the younger man, Gerard, but you are of the senior
+  grade. I confide to your care this amethyst ring, which you will
+  show the lady as a token of your mission, and which you will
+  leave with her as a receipt for her papers.</p>
+
+  <p>'Having received the packet, you will ride with it into the
+  forest as far as the ruined dove-house&mdash;the Colombier. It is
+  possible that I may meet you there&mdash;but if it seems to me to
+  be dangerous, I will send my body-servant, Mustapha, whose
+  directions you may take as being mine. There is no roof to the
+  Colombier, and tonight will be a full moon. At the right of the
+  entrance you will find three spades leaning against the wall.
+  With these you will dig a hole three feet deep in the
+  north-eastern corner&mdash;that is, in the corner to the left of
+  the door, and nearest to Fontainebleau. Having buried the papers,
+  you will replace the soil with great care, and you will then
+  report to me at the palace.'</p>
+
+  <p>These were the Emperor's directions, but given with an
+  accuracy and minuteness of detail such as no one but himself
+  could put into an order. When he had finished, he made us swear
+  to keep his secret as long as he lived, and as long as the papers
+  should remain buried. Again and again he made us swear it before
+  he dismissed us from his presence.</p>
+
+  <p>Colonel Despienne had quarters at the 'Sign of the Pheasant,'
+  and it was there that we supped together. We were all three men
+  who had been trained to take the strangest turns of fortune as
+  part of our daily life and business, yet we were all flushed and
+  moved by the extraordinary interview which we had had, and by the
+  thought of the great adventure which lay before us. For my own
+  part, it had been my fate three several times to take my orders
+  from the lips of the Emperor himself, but neither the incident of
+  the Ajaccio murderers nor the famous ride which I made to Paris
+  appeared to offer such opportunities as this new and most
+  intimate commission.</p>
+
+  <p>'If things go right with the Emperor,' said Despienne, 'we
+  shall all live to be marshals yet.'</p>
+
+  <p>We drank with him to our future cocked hats and our
+  b&acirc;tons.</p>
+
+  <p>It was agreed between us that we should make our way
+  separately to our rendezvous, which was to be the first
+  mile-stone upon the Paris road. In this way we should avoid the
+  gossip which might get about if three men who were so well known
+  were to be seen riding out together. My little Violette had cast
+  a shoe that morning, and the farrier was at work upon her when I
+  returned, so that my comrades were already there when I arrived
+  at the trysting-place. I had taken with me not only my sabre, but
+  also my new pair of English rifled pistols, with a mallet for
+  knocking in the charges. They had cost me a hundred and fifty
+  francs at Trouvel's, in the Rue de Rivoli, but they would carry
+  far further and straighter than the others. It was with one of
+  them that I had saved old Bouvet's life at Leipzig.</p>
+
+  <p>The night was cloudless, and there was a brilliant moon behind
+  us, so that we always had three black horsemen riding down the
+  white road in front of us. The country is so thickly wooded,
+  however, that we could not see very far. The great palace clock
+  had already struck ten, but there was no sign of the Countess. We
+  began to fear that something might have prevented her from
+  starting.</p>
+
+  <p>And then suddenly we heard her in the distance. Very faint at
+  first were the birr of wheels and the tat-tat-tat of the horses'
+  feet. Then they grew louder and clearer and louder yet, until a
+  pair of yellow lanterns swung round the curve, and in their light
+  we saw the two big brown horses tearing along the high, blue
+  carriage at the back of them. The postilion pulled them up
+  panting and foaming within a few yards of us. In a moment we were
+  at the window and had raised our hands in a salute to the
+  beautiful pale face which looked out at us.</p>
+
+  <p>'We are the three officers of the Emperor, madame,' said I, in
+  a low voice, leaning my face down to the open window. 'You have
+  already been warned that we should wait upon you.'</p>
+
+  <p>The Countess had a very beautiful, cream-tinted complexion of
+  a sort which I particularly admire, but she grew whiter and
+  whiter as she looked up at me. Harsh lines deepened upon her face
+  until she seemed, even as I looked at her, to turn from youth
+  into age.</p>
+
+  <p>'It is evident to me,' she said, 'that you are three
+  impostors.'</p>
+
+  <p>If she had struck me across the face with her delicate hand
+  she could not have startled me more. It was not her words only,
+  but the bitterness with which she hissed them out.</p>
+
+  <p>'Indeed, madame,' said I. 'You do us less than justice. These
+  are the Colonel Despienne and Captain Tremeau. For myself, my
+  name is Brigadier Gerard, and I have only to mention it to assure
+  anyone who has heard of me that&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+  <p>'Oh, you villains!' she interrupted. 'You think that because I
+  am only a woman I am very easily to be hoodwinked! You miserable
+  impostors!'</p>
+
+  <p>I looked at Despienne, who had turned white with anger, and at
+  Tremeau, who was tugging at his moustache.</p>
+
+  <p>'Madame,' said I, coldly, 'when the Emperor did us the honour
+  to intrust us with this mission, he gave me this amethyst ring as
+  a token. I had not thought that three honourable gentlemen would
+  have needed such corroboration, but I can only confute your
+  unworthy suspicions by placing it in your hands.'</p>
+
+  <p>She held it up in the light of the carriage lamp, and the most
+  dreadful expression of grief and of horror contorted her
+  face.</p>
+
+  <p>'It is his!' she screamed, and then, 'Oh, my God, what have I
+  done? What have I done?'</p>
+
+  <p>I felt that something terrible had befallen. 'Quick, madame,
+  quick!' I cried. 'Give us the papers!'</p>
+
+  <p>'I have already given them.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Given them! To whom?'</p>
+
+  <p>'To three officers.'</p>
+
+  <p>'When?'</p>
+
+  <p>'Within the half-hour.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Where are they?'</p>
+
+  <p>'God help me, I do not know. They stopped the berline, and I
+  handed them over to them without hesitation, thinking that they
+  had come from the Emperor.'</p>
+
+  <p>It was a thunder-clap. But those are the moments when I am at
+  my finest.</p>
+
+  <p>'You remain here,' said I, to my comrades. 'If three horsemen
+  pass you, stop them at any hazard. The lady will describe them to
+  you. I will be with you presently.' One shake of the bridle, and
+  I was flying into Fontainebleau as only Violette could have
+  carried me. At the palace I flung myself off, rushed up the
+  stairs, brushed aside the lackeys who would have stopped me, and
+  pushed my way into the Emperor's own cabinet. He and Macdonald
+  were busy with pencil and compasses over a chart. He looked up
+  with an angry frown at my sudden entry, but his face changed
+  colour when he saw that it was I.</p>
+
+  <p>'You can leave us, Marshal,' said he, and then, the instant
+  the door was closed: 'What news about the papers?'</p>
+
+  <p>'They are gone!' said I, and in a few curt words I told him
+  what had happened. His face was calm, but I saw the compasses
+  quiver in his hand.</p>
+
+  <p>'You must recover them, Gerard!' he cried. 'The destinies of
+  my dynasty are at stake. Not a moment is to be lost! To horse,
+  sir, to horse!'</p>
+
+  <p>'Who are they, sire?'</p>
+
+  <p>'I cannot tell. I am surrounded with treason. But they will
+  take them to Paris. To whom should they carry them but to the
+  villain Talleyrand? Yes, yes, they are on the Paris road, and may
+  yet be overtaken. With the three best mounts in my stables
+  and&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+  <p>I did not wait to hear the end of the sentence. I was already
+  clattering down the stairs. I am sure that five minutes had not
+  passed before I was galloping Violette out of the town with the
+  bridle of one of the Emperor's own Arab chargers in either hand.
+  They wished me to take three, but I should have never dared to
+  look my Violette in the face again. I feel that the spectacle
+  must have been superb when I dashed up to my comrades and pulled
+  the horses on to their haunches in the moonlight.</p>
+
+  <p>'No one has passed?'</p>
+
+  <p>'No one.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Then they are on the Paris road. Quick! Up and after
+  them!'</p>
+
+  <p>They did not take long, those good soldiers. In a flash they
+  were upon the Emperor's horses, and their own left masterless by
+  the roadside. Then away we went upon our long chase, I in the
+  centre, Despienne upon my right, and Tremeau a little behind, for
+  he was the heavier man. Heavens, how we galloped! The twelve
+  flying hoofs roared and roared along the hard, smooth road.
+  Poplars and moon, black bars and silver streaks, for mile after
+  mile our course lay along the same chequered track, with our
+  shadows in front and our dust behind. We could hear the rasping
+  of bolts and the creaking of shutters from the cottages as we
+  thundered past them, but we were only three dark blurs upon the
+  road by the time that the folk could look after us. It was just
+  striking midnight as we raced into Corbail; but an hostler with a
+  bucket in either hand was throwing his black shadow across the
+  golden fan which was cast from the open door of the inn.</p>
+
+  <p>'Three riders!' I gasped. 'Have they passed?'</p>
+
+  <p>'I have just been watering their horses,' said he. 'I should
+  think they&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+  <p>'On, on, my friends!' and away we flew, striking fire from the
+  cobblestones of the little town. A gendarme tried to stop up, but
+  his voice was drowned by our rattle and clatter. The houses slid
+  past, and we were out on the country road again, with a clear
+  twenty miles between ourselves and Paris. How could they escape
+  us, with the finest horses in France behind them? Not one of the
+  three had turned a hair, but Violette was always a head and
+  shoulders to the front. She was going within herself too, and I
+  knew by the spring of her that I had only to let her stretch
+  herself, and the Emperor's horses would see the colour of her
+  tail.</p>
+
+  <p>'There they are!' cried Despienne.</p>
+
+  <p>'We have them!' growled Tremeau.</p>
+
+  <p>'On, comrades, on!' I shouted, once more.</p>
+
+  <p>A long stretch of white road lay before us in the moonlight.
+  Far away down it we could see three cavaliers, lying low upon
+  their horses' necks. Every instant they grew larger and clearer
+  as we gained upon them. I could see quite plainly that the two
+  upon either side were wrapped in mantles and rode upon chestnut
+  horses, whilst the man between them was dressed in a chasseur
+  uniform and mounted upon a grey. They were keeping abreast, but
+  it was easy enough to see from the way in which he gathered his
+  legs for each spring that the centre horse was far the fresher of
+  the three. And the rider appeared to be the leader of the party,
+  for we continually saw the glint of his face in the moonshine as
+  he looked back to measure the distance between us. At first it
+  was only a glimmer, then it was cut across with a moustache, and
+  at last when we began to feel their dust in our throats I could
+  give a name to my man.</p>
+
+  <p>'Halt, Colonel de Montluc!' I shouted. 'Halt, in the Emperor's
+  name!'</p>
+
+  <p>I had known him for years as a daring officer and an
+  unprincipled rascal. Indeed, there was a score between us, for he
+  had shot my friend, Treville, at Warsaw, pulling his trigger, as
+  some said, a good second before the drop of the handkerchief.</p>
+
+  <p>Well, the words were hardly out of my mouth when his two
+  comrades wheeled round and fired their pistols at us. I heard
+  Despienne give a terrible cry, and at the same instant both
+  Tremeau and I let drive at the same man. He fell forward with his
+  hands swinging on each side of his horse's neck. His comrade
+  spurred on to Tremeau, sabre in hand, and I heard the crash which
+  comes when a strong cut is met by a stronger parry. For my own
+  part I never turned my head, but I touched Violette with the spur
+  for the first time and flew after the leader. That he should
+  leave his comrades and fly was proof enough that I should leave
+  mine and follow.</p>
+
+  <p>He had gained a couple of hundred paces, but the good little
+  mare set that right before we could have passed two milestones.
+  It was in vain that he spurred and thrashed like a gunner driver
+  on a soft road. His hat flew off with his exertions, and his bald
+  head gleamed in the moonshine. But do what he might, he still
+  heard the rattle of the hoofs growing louder and louder behind
+  him. I could not have been twenty yards from him, and the shadow
+  head was touching the shadow haunch, when he turned with a curse
+  in his saddle and emptied both his pistols, one after the other,
+  into Violette.</p>
+
+  <p>I have been wounded myself so often that I have to stop and
+  think before I can tell you the exact number of times. I have
+  been hit by musket balls, by pistol bullets, and by bursting
+  shells, besides being pierced by bayonet, lance, sabre, and
+  finally by a brad-awl, which was the most painful of any. Yet out
+  of all these injuries I have never known the same deadly sickness
+  as came over me when I felt the poor, silent, patient creature,
+  which I had come to love more than anything in the world except
+  my mother and the Emperor, reel and stagger beneath me. I pulled
+  my second pistol from my holster and fired point-blank between
+  the fellow's broad shoulders. He slashed his horse across the
+  flank with his whip, and for a moment I thought that I had missed
+  him. But then on the green of his chasseur jacket I saw an
+  ever-widening black smudge, and he began to sway in his saddle,
+  very slightly at first, but more and more with every bound, until
+  at last over he went, with his foot caught in the stirrup, and
+  his shoulders thud-thud-thudding along the road, until the drag
+  was too much for the tired horse, and I closed my hand upon the
+  foam-spattered bridle-chain. As I pulled him up it eased the
+  stirrup leather, and the spurred heel clinked loudly as it
+  fell.</p>
+
+  <p>'Your papers!' I cried, springing from my saddle. 'This
+  instant!'</p>
+
+  <p>But even as I said, it, the huddle of the green body and the
+  fantastic sprawl of the limbs in the moonlight told me clearly
+  enough that it was all over with him. My bullet had passed
+  through his heart, and it was only his own iron will which had
+  held him so long in the saddle. He had lived hard, this Montluc,
+  and I will do him justice to say that he died hard also.</p>
+
+  <p>But it was the papers&mdash;always the papers&mdash;of which I
+  thought. I opened his tunic and I felt in his shirt. Then I
+  searched his holsters and his sabre-tasche. Finally I dragged off
+  his boots, and undid his horse's girth so as to hunt under the
+  saddle. There was not a nook or crevice which I did not ransack.
+  It was useless. They were not upon him.</p>
+
+  <p>When this stunning blow came upon me I could have sat down by
+  the roadside and wept. Fate seemed to be fighting against me, and
+  that is an enemy from whom even a gallant hussar might not be
+  ashamed to flinch. I stood with my arm over the neck of my poor
+  wounded Violette, and I tried to think it all out, that I might
+  act in the wisest way. I was aware that the Emperor had no great
+  respect for my wits, and I longed to show him that he had done me
+  an injustice. Montluc had not the papers. And yet Montluc had
+  sacrificed his companions in order to make his escape. I could
+  make nothing of that. On the other hand, it was clear that, if he
+  had not got them, one or other of his comrades had. One of them
+  was certainly dead. The other I had left fighting with Tremeau,
+  and if he escaped from the old swordsman he had still to pass me.
+  Clearly, my work lay behind me.</p>
+
+  <p>I hammered fresh charges into my pistols after I had turned
+  this over in my head. Then I put them back in the holsters, and I
+  examined my little mare, she jerking her head and cocking her
+  ears the while, as if to tell me that an old soldier like herself
+  did not make a fuss about a scratch or two. The first shot had
+  merely grazed her off-shoulder, leaving a skin-mark, as if she
+  had brushed a wall. The second was more serious. It had passed
+  through the muscle of her neck, but already it had ceased to
+  bleed. I reflected that if she weakened I could mount Montluc's
+  grey, and meanwhile I led him along beside us, for he was a fine
+  horse, worth fifteen hundred francs at the least, and it seemed
+  to me that no one had a better right to him than I.</p>
+
+  <p>Well, I was all impatience now to get back to the others, and
+  I had just given Violette her head, when suddenly I saw something
+  glimmering in a field by the roadside. It was the brass-work upon
+  the chasseur hat which had flown from Montluc's head; and at the
+  sight of it a thought made me jump in the saddle. How could the
+  hat have flown off? With its weight, would it not have simply
+  dropped? And here it lay, fifteen paces from the roadway! Of
+  course, he must have thrown it off when he had made sure that I
+  would overtake him. And if he threw it off&mdash;I did not stop
+  to reason any more, but sprang from the mare with my heart
+  beating the <i>pas-de-charge</i>. Yes, it was all right this
+  time. There, in the crown of the hat was stuffed a roll of papers
+  in a parchment wrapper bound round with yellow ribbon. I pulled
+  it out with the one hand and, holding the hat in the other, I
+  danced for joy in the moonlight. The Emperor would see that he
+  had not made a mistake when he put his affairs into the charge of
+  Etienne Gerard.</p>
+
+  <p>I had a safe pocket on the inside of my tunic just over my
+  heart, where I kept a few little things which were dear to me,
+  and into this I thrust my precious roll. Then I sprang upon
+  Violette, and was pushing forward to see what had become of
+  Tremeau, when I saw a horseman riding across the field in the
+  distance. At the same instant I heard the sound of hoofs
+  approaching me, and there in the moonlight was the Emperor upon
+  his white charger, dressed in his grey overcoat and his
+  three-cornered hat, just as I had seen him so often upon the
+  field of battle.</p>
+
+  <p>'Well!' he cried, in the sharp, sergeant-major way of his.
+  'Where are my papers?'</p>
+
+  <p>I spurred forward and presented them without a word. He broke
+  the ribbon and ran his eyes rapidly over them. Then, as we sat
+  our horses head to tail, he threw his left arm across me with his
+  hand upon my shoulder. Yes, my friends, simple as you see me, I
+  have been embraced by my great master.</p>
+
+  <p>'Gerard,' he cried, 'you are a marvel!'</p>
+
+  <p>I did not wish to contradict him, and it brought a flush of
+  joy upon my cheeks to know that he had done me justice at
+  last.</p>
+
+  <p>'Where is the thief, Gerard?' he asked.</p>
+
+  <p>'Dead, sire.'</p>
+
+  <p>'You killed him?'</p>
+
+  <p>'He wounded my horse, sire, and would have escaped had I not
+  shot him.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Did you recognize him?'</p>
+
+  <p>'De Montluc is his name, sire&mdash;a Colonel of
+  Chasseurs.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Tut,' said the Emperor. 'We have got the poor pawn, but the
+  hand which plays the game is still out of our reach.' He sat in
+  silent thought for a little, with his chin sunk upon his chest.
+  'Ah, Talleyrand, Talleyrand,' I heard him mutter, 'if I had been
+  in your place and you in mine, you would have crushed a viper
+  when you held it under your heel. For five years I have known you
+  for what you are, and yet I have let you live to sting me. Never
+  mind, my brave,' he continued, turning to me, 'there will come a
+  day of reckoning for everybody, and when it arrives, I promise
+  you that my friends will be remembered as well as my
+  enemies.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Sire,' said I, for I had had time for thought as well as he,
+  'if your plans about these papers have been carried to the ears
+  of your enemies, I trust you do not think that it was owing to
+  any indiscretion upon the part of myself or of my comrades.'</p>
+
+  <p>'It would be hardly reasonable for me to do so,' he answered,
+  'seeing that this plot was hatched in Paris, and that you only
+  had your orders a few hours ago.'</p>
+
+  <p>'Then how&mdash;&mdash;?'</p>
+
+  <p>'Enough,' he cried, sternly. 'You take an undue advantage of
+  your position.'</p>
+
+  <p>That was always the way with the Emperor. He would chat with
+  you as with a friend and a brother, and then when he had wiled
+  you into forgetting the gulf which lay between you, he would
+  suddenly, with a word or with a look, remind you that it was as
+  impassable as ever. When I have fondled my old hound until he has
+  been encouraged to paw my knees, and I have then thrust him down
+  again, it has made me think of the Emperor and his ways.</p>
+
+  <p>He reined his horse round, and I followed him in silence and
+  with a heavy heart. But when he spoke again his words were enough
+  to drive all thought of myself out of my mind.</p>
+
+  <p>'I could not sleep until I knew how you had fared,' said he.
+  'I have paid a price for my papers. There are not so many of my
+  old soldiers left that I can afford to lose two in one
+  night.'</p>
+
+  <p>When he said 'two' it turned me cold.</p>
+
+  <p>'Colonel Despienne was shot, sire,' I stammered.</p>
+
+  <p>'And Captain Tremeau cut down. Had I been a few minutes
+  earlier, I might have saved him. The other escaped across the
+  fields.'</p>
+
+  <p>I remembered that I had seen a horseman a moment before I had
+  met the Emperor. He had taken to the fields to avoid me, but if I
+  had known, and Violette been unwounded, the old soldier would not
+  have gone unavenged. I was thinking sadly of his sword-play, and
+  wondering whether it was his stiffening wrist which had been
+  fatal to him, when Napoleon spoke again.</p>
+
+  <p>'Yes, Brigadier,' said he, 'you are now the only man who will
+  know where these papers are concealed.'</p>
+
+  <p>It must have been imagination, my friends, but for an instant
+  I may confess that it seemed to me that there was a tone in the
+  Emperor's voice which was not altogether one of sorrow. But the
+  dark thought had hardly time to form itself in my mind before he
+  let me see that I was doing him an injustice.</p>
+
+  <p>'Yes, I have paid a price for my papers,' he said, and I heard
+  them crackle as he put his hand up to his bosom. 'No man has ever
+  had more faithful servants&mdash;no man since the beginning of
+  the world.'</p>
+
+  <p>As he spoke we came upon the scene of the struggle. Colonel
+  Despienne and the man whom we had shot lay together some distance
+  down the road, while their horses grazed contentedly beneath the
+  poplars. Captain Tremeau lay in front of us upon his back, with
+  his arms and legs stretched out, and his sabre broken short off
+  in his hand. His tunic was open, and a huge blood-clot hung like
+  a dark handkerchief out of a slit in his white shirt. I could see
+  the gleam of his clenched teeth from under his immense
+  moustache.</p>
+
+  <p>The Emperor sprang from his horse and bent down over the dead
+  man.</p>
+
+  <p>'He was with me since Rivoli,' said he, sadly. 'He was one of
+  my old grumblers in Egypt.'</p>
+
+  <p>And the voice brought the man back from the dead. I saw his
+  eyelids shiver. He twitched his arm, and moved the sword-hilt a
+  few inches. He was trying to raise it in salute. Then the mouth
+  opened, and the hilt tinkled down on to the ground.</p>
+
+  <p>'May we all die as gallantly,' said the Emperor, as he rose,
+  and from my heart I added 'Amen.'</p>
+
+  <p>There was a farm within fifty yards of where we were standing,
+  and the farmer, roused from his sleep by the clatter of hoofs and
+  the cracking of pistols, had rushed out to the roadside. We saw
+  him now, dumb with fear and astonishment, staring open-eyed at
+  the Emperor. It was to him that we committed the care of the four
+  dead men and of the horses also. For my own part, I thought it
+  best to leave Violette with him and to take De Montluc's grey
+  with me, for he could not refuse to give me back my own mare,
+  whilst there might be difficulties about the other. Besides, my
+  little friend's wound had to be considered, and we had a long
+  return ride before us.</p>
+
+  <p>The Emperor did not at first talk much upon the way. Perhaps
+  the deaths of Despienne and Tremeau still weighed heavily upon
+  his spirits. He was always a reserved man, and in those times,
+  when every hour brought him the news of some success of his
+  enemies or defection of his friends, one could not expect him to
+  be a merry companion. Nevertheless, when I reflected that he was
+  carrying in his bosom those papers which he valued so highly, and
+  which only a few hours ago appeared to be for ever lost, and when
+  I further thought that it was I, Etienne Gerard, who had placed
+  them there, I felt that I had deserved some little consideration.
+  The same idea may have occurred to him, for when we had at last
+  left the Paris high road, and had entered the forest, he began of
+  his own accord to tell me that which I should have most liked to
+  have asked him.</p>
+
+  <p>'As to the papers,' said he, 'I have already told you that
+  there is no one now, except you and me, who knows where they are
+  to be concealed. My Mameluke carried the spades to the
+  pigeon-house, but I have told him nothing. Our plans, however,
+  for bringing the packet from Paris have been formed since Monday.
+  There were three in the secret, a woman and two men. The woman I
+  would trust with my life; which of the two men has betrayed us I
+  do not know, but I think that I may promise to find out.'</p>
+
+  <p>We were riding in the shadow of the trees at the time, and I
+  could hear him slapping his riding-whip against his boot, and
+  taking pinch after pinch of snuff, as was his way when he was
+  excited.</p>
+
+  <p>'You wonder, no doubt,' said he, after a pause, 'why these
+  rascals did not stop the carriage at Paris instead of at the
+  entrance to Fontainebleau.'</p>
+
+  <p>In truth, the objection had not occurred to me, but I did not
+  wish to appear to have less wits than he gave me credit for, so I
+  answered that it was indeed surprising.</p>
+
+  <p>'Had they done so they would have made a public scandal, and
+  run a chance of missing their end. Short of taking the berline to
+  pieces, they could not have discovered the hiding-place. He
+  planned it well&mdash;he could always plan well&mdash;and he
+  chose his agents well also. But mine were the better.'</p>
+
+  <p>It is not for me to repeat to you, my friends, all that was
+  said to me by the Emperor as we walked our horses amid the black
+  shadows and through the moon-silvered glades of the great forest.
+  Every word of it is impressed upon my memory, and before I pass
+  away it is likely that I will place it all upon paper, so that
+  others may read it in the days to come. He spoke freely of his
+  past, and something also of his future; of the devotion of
+  Macdonald, of the treason of Marmont, of the little King of Rome,
+  concerning whom he talked with as much tenderness as any
+  bourgeois father of a single child; and, finally, of his
+  father-in-law, the Emperor of Austria, who would, he thought,
+  stand between his enemies and himself. For myself, I dared not
+  say a word, remembering how I had already brought a rebuke upon
+  myself; but I rode by his side, hardly able to believe that this
+  was indeed the great Emperor, the man whose glance sent a thrill
+  through me, who was now pouring out his thoughts to me in short,
+  eager sentences, the words rattling and racing like the hoofs of
+  a galloping squadron. It is possible that, after the
+  word-splittings and diplomacy of a Court, it was a relief to him
+  to speak his mind to a plain soldier like myself.</p>
+
+  <p>In this way the Emperor and I&mdash;even after years it sends
+  a flush of pride into my cheeks to be able to put those words
+  together&mdash;the Emperor and I walked our horses through the
+  Forest of Fontainebleau, until we came at last to the Colombier.
+  The three spades were propped against the wall upon the
+  right-hand side of the ruined door, and at the sight of them the
+  tears sprang to my eyes as I thought of the hands for which they
+  were intended. The Emperor seized one and I another.</p>
+
+  <p>'Quick!' said he. 'The dawn will be upon us before we get back
+  to the palace.'</p>
+
+  <p>We dug the hole, and placing the papers in one of my pistol
+  holsters to screen them from the damp, we laid them at the bottom
+  and covered them up. We then carefully removed all marks of the
+  ground having been disturbed, and we placed a large stone upon
+  the top. I dare say that since the Emperor was a young gunner,
+  and helped to train his pieces against Toulon, he had not worked
+  so hard with his hands. He was mopping his forehead with his silk
+  handkerchief long before we had come to the end of our task.</p>
+
+  <p>The first grey cold light of morning was stealing through the
+  tree trunks when we came out together from the old pigeon-house.
+  The Emperor laid his hand upon my shoulder as I stood ready to
+  help him to mount.</p>
+
+  <p>'We have left the papers there,' said he, solemnly, 'and I
+  desire that you shall leave all thought of them there also. Let
+  the recollection of them pass entirely from your mind, to be
+  revived only when you receive a direct order under my own hand
+  and seal. From this time onwards you forget all that has
+  passed.'</p>
+
+  <p>'I forget it, sire,' said I.</p>
+
+  <p>We rode together to the edge of the town, where he desired
+  that I should separate from him. I had saluted, and was turning
+  my horse, when he called me back.</p>
+
+  <p>'It is easy to mistake the points of the compass in the
+  forest,' said he. 'Would you not say that it was in the
+  north-eastern corner that we buried them?'</p>
+
+  <p>'Buried what, sire?'</p>
+
+  <p>'The papers, of course,' he cried, impatiently.</p>
+
+  <p>'What papers, sire?'</p>
+
+  <p>'Name of a name! Why, the papers that you have recovered for
+  me.'</p>
+
+  <p>'I am really at a loss to know what your Majesty is talking
+  about.'</p>
+
+  <p>He flushed with anger for a moment, and then he burst out
+  laughing.</p>
+
+  <p>'Very good, Brigadier!' he cried. 'I begin to believe that you
+  are as good a diplomatist as you are a soldier, and I cannot say
+  more than that.'</p>
+  <hr>
+
+  <p>So that was my strange adventure in which I found myself the
+  friend and confident agent of the Emperor. When he returned from
+  Elba he refrained from digging up the papers until his position
+  should be secure, and they still remained in the corner of the
+  old pigeon-house after his exile to St Helena. It was at this
+  time that he was desirous of getting them into the hands of his
+  own supporters, and for that purpose he wrote me, as I afterwards
+  learned, three letters, all of which were intercepted by his
+  guardians. Finally, he offered to support himself and his own
+  establishment&mdash;which he might very easily have done out of
+  the gigantic sum which belonged to him&mdash;if they would only
+  pass one of his letters unopened. This request was refused, and
+  so, up to his death in '21, the papers still remained where I
+  have told you. How they came to be dug up by Count Bertrand and
+  myself, and who eventually obtained them, is a story which I
+  would tell you, were it not that the end has not yet come.</p>
+
+  <p>Some day you will hear of those papers, and you will see how,
+  after he has been so long in his grave, that great man can still
+  set Europe shaking. When that day comes, you will think of
+  Etienne Gerard, and you will tell your children that you have
+  heard the story from the lips of the man who was the only one
+  living of all who took part in that strange history&mdash;the man
+  who was tempted by Marshal Berthier, who led that wild pursuit
+  upon the Paris road, who was honoured by the embrace of the
+  Emperor, and who rode with him by moonlight in the Forest of
+  Fontainebleau. The buds are bursting and the birds are calling,
+  my friends. You may find better things to do in the sunlight than
+  listening to the stories of an old, broken soldier. And yet you
+  may well treasure what I say, for the buds will have burst and
+  the birds sung in many seasons before France will see such
+  another ruler as he whose servants we were proud to be.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Exploits Of Brigadier Gerard
+by Arthur Conan Doyle
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+Project Gutenberg's The Exploits Of Brigadier Gerard, by Arthur Conan Doyle
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Exploits Of Brigadier Gerard
+
+Author: Arthur Conan Doyle
+
+Release Date: February 23, 2004 [EBook #11247]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EXPLOITS OF BRIGADIER GERARD ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Garrett Alley, and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+The Exploits of BRIGADIER GERARD
+
+
+SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
+
+
+
+
+_This book is published by arrangement with the Estate of the late Sir
+Arthur Conan Doyle_
+
+
+
+1896
+
+
+
+BY SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
+
+_The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes_
+_The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes_
+_The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes_
+_The Return of Sherlock Holmes_
+_His Last Bow_
+_The Hound of the Baskervilles_
+_The Sign of Four_
+_The Valley of Fear_
+_Sir Nigel_
+_The White Company_
+_Micah Clarke_
+_The Refugees_
+_Rodney Stone_
+_Uncle Bernac_
+_Adventures of Gerard_
+_The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard_
+_The Lost World_
+_The Tragedy of the Korosko_
+
+
+OMNIBUS VOLUMES
+
+_Great Stories_
+_The Conan Doyle Stories_
+_The Sherlock Holmes Short Stories_
+_The Sherlock Holmes Long Stories_
+_The Historical Romances_
+_The Complete Professor Challenger Stories_
+_The Complete Napoleonic Stories_
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle_
+
+by John Dickson Carr
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+1. How the Brigadier came to the Castle of Gloom
+
+2. How the Brigadier slew the brothers of Ajaccio
+
+3. How the Brigadier held the King
+
+4. How the King held the Brigadier
+
+5. How the Brigadier took the field against the Marshal Millefleurs
+
+6. How the Brigadier played for a kingdom
+
+7. How the Brigadier won his Medal
+
+8. How the Brigadier was tempted by the Devil
+
+
+
+
+1. HOW THE BRIGADIER CAME TO THE CASTLE OF GLOOM[A]
+
+
+You do very well, my friends, to treat me with some little reverence,
+for in honouring me you are honouring both France and yourselves. It is
+not merely an old, grey-moustached officer whom you see eating his
+omelette or draining his glass, but it is a fragment of history. In me
+you see one of the last of those wonderful men, the men who were
+veterans when they were yet boys, who learned to use a sword earlier
+than a razor, and who during a hundred battles had never once let the
+enemy see the colour of their knapsacks. For twenty years we were
+teaching Europe how to fight, and even when they had learned their
+lesson it was only the thermometer, and never the bayonet, which could
+break the Grand Army down. Berlin, Naples, Vienna, Madrid, Lisbon,
+Moscow--we stabled our horses in them all. Yes, my friends, I say again
+that you do well to send your children to me with flowers, for these
+ears have heard the trumpet calls of France, and these eyes have seen
+her standards in lands where they may never be seen again.
+
+Even now, when I doze in my arm-chair, I can see those great warriors
+stream before me--the green-jacketed chasseurs, the giant cuirassiers,
+Poniatowsky's lancers, the white-mantled dragoons, the nodding bearskins
+of the horse grenadiers. And then there comes the thick, low rattle of
+the drums, and through wreaths of dust and smoke I see the line of high
+bonnets, the row of brown faces, the swing and toss of the long, red
+plumes amid the sloping lines of steel. And there rides Ney with his red
+head, and Lefebvre with his bulldog jaw, and Lannes with his Gascon
+swagger; and then amidst the gleam of brass and the flaunting feathers I
+catch a glimpse of _him_, the man with the pale smile, the rounded
+shoulders, and the far-off eyes. There is an end of my sleep, my
+friends, for up I spring from my chair, with a cracked voice calling and
+a silly hand outstretched, so that Madame Titaux has one more laugh at
+the old fellow who lives among the shadows.
+
+Although I was a full Chief of Brigade when the wars came to an end, and
+had every hope of soon being made a General of Division, it is still
+rather to my earlier days that I turn when I wish to talk of the glories
+and the trials of a soldier's life. For you will understand that when an
+officer has so many men and horses under him, he has his mind full of
+recruits and remounts, fodder and farriers, and quarters, so that even
+when he is not in the face of the enemy, life is a very serious matter
+for him. But when he is only a lieutenant or a captain he has nothing
+heavier than his epaulettes upon his shoulders, so that he can clink his
+spurs and swing his dolman, drain his glass and kiss his girl, thinking
+of nothing save of enjoying a gallant life. That is the time when he is
+likely to have adventures, and it is often to that time that I shall
+turn in the stories which I may have for you. So it will be tonight when
+I tell you of my visit to the Castle of Gloom; of the strange mission of
+Sub-Lieutenant Duroc, and of the horrible affair of the man who was once
+known as Jean Carabin, and afterwards as the Baron Straubenthal.
+
+You must know, then, that in the February of 1807, immediately after the
+taking of Danzig, Major Legendre and I were commissioned to bring four
+hundred remounts from Prussia into Eastern Poland.
+
+The hard weather, and especially the great battle at Eylau, had killed
+so many of the horses that there was some danger of our beautiful Tenth
+of Hussars becoming a battalion of light infantry. We knew, therefore,
+both the Major and I, that we should be very welcome at the front. We
+did not advance very rapidly, however, for the snow was deep, the roads
+detestable, and we had but twenty returning invalids to assist us.
+Besides, it is impossible, when you have a daily change of forage, and
+sometimes none at all, to move horses faster than a walk. I am aware
+that in the story-books the cavalry whirls past at the maddest of
+gallops; but for my own part, after twelve campaigns, I should be very
+satisfied to know that my brigade could always walk upon the march and
+trot in the presence of the enemy. This I say of the hussars and
+chasseurs, mark you, so that it is far more the case with cuirassiers or
+dragoons.
+
+For myself I am fond of horses, and to have four hundred of them, of
+every age and shade and character, all under my own hands, was a very
+great pleasure to me. They were from Pomerania for the most part, though
+some were from Normandy and some from Alsace, and it amused us to notice
+that they differed in character as much as the people of those
+provinces. We observed also, what I have often proved since, that the
+nature of a horse can be told by his colour, from the coquettish light
+bay, full of fancies and nerves, to the hardy chestnut, and from the
+docile roan to the pig-headed rusty-black. All this has nothing in the
+world to do with my story, but how is an officer of cavalry to get on
+with his tale when he finds four hundred horses waiting for him at the
+outset? It is my habit, you see, to talk of that which interests myself
+and so I hope that I may interest you.
+
+We crossed the Vistula opposite Marienwerder, and had got as far as
+Riesenberg, when Major Legendre came into my room in the post-house with
+an open paper in his hand.
+
+'You are to leave me,' said he, with despair upon his face.
+
+It was no very great grief to me to do that, for he was, if I may say
+so, hardly worthy to have such a subaltern. I saluted, however, in
+silence.
+
+'It is an order from General Lasalle,' he continued; 'you are to
+proceed to Rossel instantly, and to report yourself at the headquarters
+of the regiment.'
+
+No message could have pleased me better. I was already very well thought
+of by my superior officers. It was evident to me, therefore, that this
+sudden order meant that the regiment was about to see service once more,
+and that Lasalle understood how incomplete my squadron would be without
+me. It is true that it came at an inconvenient moment, for the keeper of
+the post-house had a daughter--one of those ivory-skinned, black-haired
+Polish girls--with whom I had hoped to have some further talk. Still, it
+is not for the pawn to argue when the fingers of the player move him
+from the square; so down I went, saddled my big black charger, Rataplan,
+and set off instantly upon my lonely journey.
+
+My word, it was a treat for those poor Poles and Jews, who have so
+little to brighten their dull lives, to see such a picture as that
+before their doors! The frosty morning air made Rataplan's great black
+limbs and the beautiful curves of his back and sides gleam and shimmer
+with every gambade. As for me, the rattle of hoofs upon a road, and the
+jingle of bridle chains which comes with every toss of a saucy head,
+would even now set my blood dancing through my veins. You may think,
+then, how I carried myself in my five-and-twentieth year--I, Etienne
+Gerard, the picked horseman and surest blade in the ten regiments of
+hussars. Blue was our colour in the Tenth--a sky-blue dolman and pelisse
+with a scarlet front--and it was said of us in the army that we could
+set a whole population running, the women towards us, and the men away.
+There were bright eyes in the Riesenberg windows that morning which
+seemed to beg me to tarry; but what can a soldier do, save to kiss his
+hand and shake his bridle as he rides upon his way?
+
+It was a bleak season to ride through the poorest and ugliest country in
+Europe, but there was a cloudless sky above, and a bright, cold sun,
+which shimmered on the huge snowfields. My breath reeked into the
+frosty air, and Rataplan sent up two feathers of steam from his
+nostrils, while the icicles drooped from the side-irons of his bit. I
+let him trot to warm his limbs, while for my own part I had too much to
+think of to give much heed to the cold. To north and south stretched the
+great plains, mottled over with dark clumps of fir and lighter patches
+of larch. A few cottages peeped out here and there, but it was only
+three months since the Grand Army had passed that way, and you know what
+that meant to a country. The Poles were our friends, it was true, but
+out of a hundred thousand men, only the Guard had waggons, and the rest
+had to live as best they might. It did not surprise me, therefore, to
+see no signs of cattle and no smoke from the silent houses. A weal had
+been left across the country where the great host had passed, and it was
+said that even the rats were starved wherever the Emperor had led his
+men.
+
+By midday I had got as far as the village of Saalfeldt, but as I was on
+the direct road for Osterode, where the Emperor was wintering, and also
+for the main camp of the seven divisions of infantry, the highway was
+choked with carriages and carts. What with artillery caissons and
+waggons and couriers, and the ever-thickening stream of recruits and
+stragglers, it seemed to me that it would be a very long time before I
+should join my comrades. The plains, however, were five feet deep in
+snow, so there was nothing for it but to plod upon our way. It was with
+joy, therefore, that I found a second road which branched away from the
+other, trending through a fir-wood towards the north. There was a small
+auberge at the cross-roads, and a patrol of the Third Hussars of
+Conflans--the very regiment of which I was afterwards colonel--were
+mounting their horses at the door. On the steps stood their officer, a
+slight, pale young man, who looked more like a young priest from a
+seminary than a leader of the devil-may-care rascals before him.
+
+'Good-day, sir,' said he, seeing that I pulled up my horse.
+
+'Good-day,' I answered. 'I am Lieutenant Etienne Gerard, of the Tenth.'
+
+I could see by his face that he had heard of me. Everybody had heard of
+me since my duel with the six fencing masters. My manner, however,
+served to put him at his ease with me.
+
+'I am Sub-Lieutenant Duroc, of the Third,' said he.
+
+'Newly joined?' I asked.
+
+'Last week.'
+
+I had thought as much, from his white face and from the way in which he
+let his men lounge upon their horses. It was not so long, however, since
+I had learned myself what it was like when a schoolboy has to give
+orders to veteran troopers. It made me blush, I remember, to shout
+abrupt commands to men who had seen more battles than I had years, and
+it would have come more natural for me to say, 'With your permission, we
+shall now wheel into line,' or, 'If you think it best, we shall trot.' I
+did not think the less of the lad, therefore, when I observed that his
+men were somewhat out of hand, but I gave them a glance which stiffened
+them in their saddles.
+
+'May I ask, monsieur, whether you are going by this northern road?' I
+asked.
+
+'My orders are to patrol it as far as Arensdorf,' said he.
+
+'Then I will, with your permission, ride so far with you,' said I. 'It
+is very clear that the longer way will be the faster.'
+
+So it proved, for this road led away from the army into a country which
+was given over to Cossacks and marauders, and it was as bare as the
+other was crowded. Duroc and I rode in front, with our six troopers
+clattering in the rear. He was a good boy, this Duroc, with his head
+full of the nonsense that they teach at St Cyr, knowing more about
+Alexander and Pompey than how to mix a horse's fodder or care for a
+horse's feet. Still, he was, as I have said, a good boy, unspoiled as
+yet by the camp. It pleased me to hear him prattle away about his
+sister Marie and about his mother in Amiens. Presently we found
+ourselves at the village of Hayenau. Duroc rode up to the post-house and
+asked to see the master.
+
+'Can you tell me,' said he, 'whether the man who calls himself the Baron
+Straubenthal lives in these parts?'
+
+The postmaster shook his head, and we rode upon our way. I took no
+notice of this, but when, at the next village, my comrade repeated the
+same question, with the same result, I could not help asking him who
+this Baron Straubenthal might be.
+
+'He is a man,' said Duroc, with a sudden flush upon his boyish face, 'to
+whom I have a very important message to convey.'
+
+Well, this was not satisfactory, but there was something in my
+companion's manner which told me that any further questioning would be
+distasteful to him. I said nothing more, therefore, but Duroc would
+still ask every peasant whom we met whether he could give him any news
+of the Baron Straubenthal.
+
+For my own part I was endeavouring, as an officer of light cavalry
+should, to form an idea of the lay of the country, to note the course of
+the streams, and to mark the places where there should be fords. Every
+step was taking us farther from the camp round the flanks of which we
+were travelling. Far to the south a few plumes of grey smoke in the
+frosty air marked the position of some of our outposts. To the north,
+however, there was nothing between ourselves and the Russian winter
+quarters. Twice on the extreme horizon I caught a glimpse of the glitter
+of steel, and pointed it out to my companion. It was too distant for us
+to tell whence it came, but we had little doubt that it was from the
+lance-heads of marauding Cossacks.
+
+The sun was just setting when we rode over a low hill and saw a small
+village upon our right, and on our left a high black castle, which
+jutted out from amongst the pine-woods. A farmer with his cart was
+approaching us--a matted-haired, downcast fellow, in a sheepskin jacket.
+
+'What village is this?' asked Duroc.
+
+'It is Arensdorf,' he answered, in his barbarous German dialect.
+
+'Then here I am to stay the night,' said my young companion. Then,
+turning to the farmer, he asked his eternal question, 'Can you tell me
+where the Baron Straubenthal lives?'
+
+'Why, it is he who owns the Castle of Gloom,' said the farmer, pointing
+to the dark turrets over the distant fir forest.
+
+Duroc gave a shout like the sportsman who sees his game rising in front
+of him. The lad seemed to have gone off his head--his eyes shining, his
+face deathly white, and such a grim set about his mouth as made the
+farmer shrink away from him. I can see him now, leaning forward on his
+brown horse, with his eager gaze fixed upon the great black tower.
+
+'Why do you call it the Castle of Gloom?' I asked.
+
+'Well, it's the name it bears upon the countryside,' said the farmer.
+'By all accounts there have been some black doings up yonder. It's not
+for nothing that the wickedest man in Poland has been living there these
+fourteen years past.'
+
+'A Polish nobleman?' I asked.
+
+'Nay, we breed no such men in Poland,' he answered.
+
+'A Frenchman, then?' cried Duroc.
+
+'They say that he came from France.'
+
+'And with red hair?'
+
+'As red as a fox.'
+
+'Yes, yes, it is my man,' cried my companion, quivering all over in his
+excitement. 'It is the hand of Providence which has led me here. Who can
+say that there is not justice in this world? Come, Monsieur Gerard, for
+I must see the men safely quartered before I can attend to this private
+matter.'
+
+He spurred on his horse, and ten minutes later we were at the door of
+the inn of Arensdorf, where his men were to find their quarters for the
+night.
+
+Well, all this was no affair of mine, and I could not imagine what the
+meaning of it might be. Rossel was still far off, but I determined to
+ride on for a few hours and take my chance of some wayside barn in which
+I could find shelter for Rataplan and myself. I had mounted my horse,
+therefore, after tossing off a cup of wine, when young Duroc came
+running out of the door and laid his hand upon my knee.
+
+'Monsieur Gerard,' he panted, 'I beg of you not to abandon me like
+this!'
+
+'My good sir,' said I, 'if you would tell me what is the matter and what
+you would wish me to do, I should be better able to tell you if I could
+be of any assistance to you.'
+
+'You can be of the very greatest,' he cried. 'Indeed, from all that I
+have heard of you, Monsieur Gerard, you are the one man whom I should
+wish to have by my side tonight.'
+
+'You forget that I am riding to join my regiment.'
+
+'You cannot, in any case, reach it tonight. Tomorrow will bring you to
+Rossel. By staying with me you will confer the very greatest kindness
+upon me, and you will aid me in a matter which concerns my own honour
+and the honour of my family. I am compelled, however, to confess to you
+that some personal danger may possibly be involved.'
+
+It was a crafty thing for him to say. Of course, I sprang from
+Rataplan's back and ordered the groom to lead him back into the stables.
+
+'Come into the inn,' said I, 'and let me know exactly what it is that
+you wish me to do.'
+
+He led the way into a sitting-room, and fastened the door lest we should
+be interrupted. He was a well-grown lad, and as he stood in the glare of
+the lamp, with the light beating upon his earnest face and upon his
+uniform of silver grey, which suited him to a marvel, I felt my heart
+warm towards him. Without going so far as to say that he carried himself
+as I had done at his age, there was at least similarity enough to make
+me feel in sympathy with him.
+
+'I can explain it all in a few words,' said he. 'If I have not already
+satisfied your very natural curiosity, it is because the subject is so
+painful a one to me that I can hardly bring myself to allude to it. I
+cannot, however, ask for your assistance without explaining to you
+exactly how the matter lies.
+
+'You must know, then, that my father was the well-known banker,
+Christophe Duroc, who was murdered by the people during the September
+massacres. As you are aware, the mob took possession of the prisons,
+chose three so-called judges to pass sentence upon the unhappy
+aristocrats, and then tore them to pieces when they were passed out into
+the street. My father had been a benefactor of the poor all his life.
+There were many to plead for him. He had the fever, too, and was carried
+in, half-dead, upon a blanket. Two of the judges were in favour of
+acquitting him; the third, a young Jacobin, whose huge body and brutal
+mind had made him a leader among these wretches, dragged him, with his
+own hands, from the litter, kicked him again and again with his heavy
+boots, and hurled him out of the door, where in an instant he was torn
+limb from limb under circumstances which are too horrible for me to
+describe. This, as you perceive, was murder, even under their own
+unlawful laws, for two of their own judges had pronounced in my father's
+favour.
+
+'Well, when the days of order came back again, my elder brother began to
+make inquiries about this man. I was only a child then, but it was a
+family matter, and it was discussed in my presence. The fellow's name
+was Carabin. He was one of Sansterre's Guard, and a noted duellist. A
+foreign lady named the Baroness Straubenthal having been dragged before
+the Jacobins, he had gained her liberty for her on the promise that she
+with her money and estates should be his. He had married her, taken her
+name and title, and escaped out of France at the time of the fall of
+Robespierre. What had become of him we had no means of learning.
+
+'You will think, doubtless, that it would be easy for us to find him,
+since we had both his name and his title. You must remember, however,
+that the Revolution left us without money, and that without money such a
+search is very difficult. Then came the Empire, and it became more
+difficult still, for, as you are aware, the Emperor considered that the
+18th Brumaire brought all accounts to a settlement, and that on that day
+a veil had been drawn across the past. None the less, we kept our own
+family story and our own family plans.
+
+'My brother joined the army, and passed with it through all Southern
+Europe, asking everywhere for the Baron Straubenthal. Last October he
+was killed at Jena, with his mission still unfulfilled. Then it became
+my turn, and I have the good fortune to hear of the very man of whom I
+am in search at one of the first Polish villages which I have to visit,
+and within a fortnight of joining my regiment. And then, to make the
+matter even better, I find myself in the company of one whose name is
+never mentioned throughout the army save in connection with some daring
+and generous deed.'
+
+This was all very well, and I listened to it with the greatest interest,
+but I was none the clearer as to what young Duroc wished me to do.
+
+'How can I be of service to you?' I asked.
+
+'By coming up with me.'
+
+'To the Castle?'
+
+'Precisely.'
+
+'When?'
+
+'At once.'
+
+'But what do you intend to do?'
+
+'I shall know what to do. But I wish you to be with me, all the same.'
+
+Well, it was never in my nature to refuse an adventure, and, besides, I
+had every sympathy with the lad's feelings. It is very well to forgive
+one's enemies, but one wishes to give them something to forgive also. I
+held out my hand to him, therefore.
+
+'I must be on my way for Rossel tomorrow morning, but tonight I am
+yours,' said I.
+
+We left our troopers in snug quarters, and, as it was but a mile to the
+Castle, we did not disturb our horses. To tell the truth, I hate to see
+a cavalry man walk, and I hold that just as he is the most gallant thing
+upon earth when he has his saddle-flaps between his knees, so he is the
+most clumsy when he has to loop up his sabre and his sabre-tasche in one
+hand and turn in his toes for fear of catching the rowels of his spurs.
+Still, Duroc and I were of the age when one can carry things off, and I
+dare swear that no woman at least would have quarrelled with the
+appearance of the two young hussars, one in blue and one in grey, who
+set out that night from the Arensdorf post-house. We both carried our
+swords, and for my own part I slipped a pistol from my holster into the
+inside of my pelisse, for it seemed to me that there might be some wild
+work before us.
+
+The track which led to the Castle wound through a pitch-black fir-wood,
+where we could see nothing save the ragged patch of stars above our
+heads. Presently, however, it opened up, and there was the Castle right
+in front of us, about as far as a carbine would carry. It was a huge,
+uncouth place, and bore every mark of being exceedingly old, with
+turrets at every corner, and a square keep on the side which was nearest
+to us. In all its great shadow there was no sign of light save from a
+single window, and no sound came from it. To me there was something
+awful in its size and its silence, which corresponded so well with its
+sinister name. My companion pressed on eagerly, and I followed him along
+the ill-kept path which led to the gate.
+
+There was no bell or knocker upon the great iron-studded door, and it
+was only by pounding with the hilts of our sabres that we could attract
+attention. A thin, hawk-faced man, with a beard up to his temples,
+opened it at last. He carried a lantern in one hand, and in the other a
+chain which held an enormous black hound. His manner at the first moment
+was threatening, but the sight of our uniforms and of our faces turned
+it into one of sulky reserve.
+
+'The Baron Straubenthal does not receive visitors at so late an hour,'
+said he, speaking in very excellent French.
+
+'You can inform Baron Straubenthal that I have come eight hundred
+leagues to see him, and that I will not leave until I have done so,'
+said my companion. I could not myself have said it with a better voice
+and manner.
+
+The fellow took a sidelong look at us, and tugged at his black beard in
+his perplexity.
+
+'To tell the truth, gentlemen,' said he, 'the Baron has a cup or two of
+wine in him at this hour, and you would certainly find him a more
+entertaining companion if you were to come again in the morning.'
+
+He had opened the door a little wider as he spoke, and I saw by the
+light of the lamp in the hall behind him that three other rough fellows
+were standing there, one of whom held another of these monstrous hounds.
+Duroc must have seen it also, but it made no difference to his
+resolution.
+
+'Enough talk,' said he, pushing the man to one side. 'It is with your
+master that I have to deal.'
+
+The fellows in the hall made way for him as he strode in among them, so
+great is the power of one man who knows what he wants over several who
+are not sure of themselves. My companion tapped one of them upon the
+shoulder with as much assurance as though he owned him.
+
+'Show me to the Baron,' said he.
+
+The man shrugged his shoulders, and answered something in Polish. The
+fellow with the beard, who had shut and barred the front door, appeared
+to be the only one among them who could speak French.
+
+'Well, you shall have your way,' said he, with a sinister smile. 'You
+shall see the Baron. And perhaps, before you have finished, you will
+wish that you had taken my advice.'
+
+We followed him down the hall, which was stone-flagged and very
+spacious, with skins scattered upon the floor, and the heads of wild
+beasts upon the walls. At the farther end he threw open a door, and we
+entered.
+
+It was a small room, scantily furnished, with the same marks of neglect
+and decay which met us at every turn. The walls were hung with
+discoloured tapestry, which had come loose at one corner, so as to
+expose the rough stonework behind. A second door, hung with a curtain,
+faced us upon the other side. Between lay a square table, strewn with
+dirty dishes and the sordid remains of a meal. Several bottles were
+scattered over it. At the head of it, and facing us, there sat a huge
+man with a lion-like head and a great shock of orange-coloured hair. His
+beard was of the same glaring hue; matted and tangled and coarse as a
+horse's mane. I have seen some strange faces in my time, but never one
+more brutal than that, with its small, vicious, blue eyes, its white,
+crumpled cheeks, and the thick, hanging lip which protruded over his
+monstrous beard. His head swayed about on his shoulders, and he looked
+at us with the vague, dim gaze of a drunken man. Yet he was not so drunk
+but that our uniforms carried their message to him.
+
+'Well, my brave boys,' he hiccoughed. 'What is the latest news from
+Paris, eh? You're going to free Poland, I hear, and have meantime all
+become slaves yourselves--slaves to a little aristocrat with his grey
+coat and his three-cornered hat. No more citizens either, I am told, and
+nothing but monsieur and madame. My faith, some more heads will have to
+roll into the sawdust basket some of these mornings.'
+
+Duroc advanced in silence, and stood by the ruffian's side.
+
+'Jean Carabin,' said he.
+
+The Baron started, and the film of drunkenness seemed to be clearing
+from his eyes.
+
+'Jean Carabin,' said Duroc, once more.
+
+He sat up and grasped the arms of his chair.
+
+'What do you mean by repeating that name, young man?' he asked.
+
+'Jean Carabin, you are a man whom I have long wished to meet.'
+
+'Supposing that I once had such a name, how can it concern you, since
+you must have been a child when I bore it?'
+
+'My name is Duroc.'
+
+'Not the son of----?'
+
+'The son of the man you murdered.'
+
+The Baron tried to laugh, but there was terror in his eyes.
+
+'We must let bygones be bygones, young man,' he cried. 'It was our life
+or theirs in those days: the aristocrats or the people. Your father was
+of the Gironde. He fell. I was of the mountain. Most of my comrades
+fell. It was all the fortune of war. We must forget all this and learn
+to know each other better, you and I.' He held out a red, twitching hand
+as he spoke.
+
+'Enough,' said young Duroc. 'If I were to pass my sabre through you as
+you sit in that chair, I should do what is just and right. I dishonour
+my blade by crossing it with yours. And yet you are a Frenchman, and
+have even held a commission under the same flag as myself. Rise, then,
+and defend yourself!'
+
+'Tut, tut!' cried the Baron. 'It is all very well for you young
+bloods--'
+
+Duroc's patience could stand no more. He swung his open hand into the
+centre of the great orange beard. I saw a lip fringed with blood, and
+two glaring blue eyes above it.
+
+'You shall die for that blow.'
+
+'That is better,' said Duroc.
+
+'My sabre!' cried the other. 'I will not keep you waiting, I promise
+you!' and he hurried from the room.
+
+I have said that there was a second door covered with a curtain. Hardly
+had the Baron vanished when there ran from behind it a woman, young and
+beautiful. So swiftly and noiselessly did she move that she was between
+us in an instant, and it was only the shaking curtains which told us
+whence she had come.
+
+'I have seen it all,' she cried. 'Oh, sir, you have carried yourself
+splendidly.' She stooped to my companion's hand, and kissed it again and
+again ere he could disengage it from her grasp.
+
+'Nay, madame, why should you kiss my hand?' he cried.
+
+'Because it is the hand which struck him on his vile, lying mouth.
+Because it may be the hand which will avenge my mother. I am his
+step-daughter. The woman whose heart he broke was my mother. I loathe
+him, I fear him. Ah, there is his step!' In an instant she had vanished
+as suddenly as she had come. A moment later, the Baron entered with a
+drawn sword in his hand, and the fellow who had admitted us at his
+heels.
+
+'This is my secretary,' said he. 'He will be my friend in this affair.
+But we shall need more elbow-room than we can find here. Perhaps you
+will kindly come with me to a more spacious apartment.'
+
+It was evidently impossible to fight in a chamber which was blocked by a
+great table. We followed him out, therefore, into the dimly-lit hall. At
+the farther end a light was shining through an open door.
+
+'We shall find what we want in here,' said the man with the dark beard.
+It was a large, empty room, with rows of barrels and cases round the
+walls. A strong lamp stood upon a shelf in the corner. The floor was
+level and true, so that no swordsman could ask for more. Duroc drew his
+sabre and sprang into it. The Baron stood back with a bow and motioned
+me to follow my companion. Hardly were my heels over the threshold when
+the heavy door crashed behind us and the key screamed in the lock. We
+were taken in a trap.
+
+For a moment we could not realize it. Such incredible baseness was
+outside all our experiences. Then, as we understood how foolish we had
+been to trust for an instant a man with such a history, a flush of rage
+came over us, rage against his villainy and against our own stupidity.
+We rushed at the door together, beating it with our fists and kicking
+with our heavy boots. The sound of our blows and of our execrations must
+have resounded through the Castle. We called to this villain, hurling at
+him every name which might pierce even into his hardened soul. But the
+door was enormous--such a door as one finds in mediaeval castles--made
+of huge beams clamped together with iron. It was as easy to break as a
+square of the Old Guard. And our cries appeared to be of as little avail
+as our blows, for they only brought for answer the clattering echoes
+from the high roof above us. When you have done some soldiering, you
+soon learn to put up with what cannot be altered. It was I, then, who
+first recovered my calmness, and prevailed upon Duroc to join with me in
+examining the apartment which had become our dungeon.
+
+There was only one window, which had no glass in it, and was so narrow
+that one could not so much as get one's head through. It was high up,
+and Duroc had to stand upon a barrel in order to see from it.
+
+'What can you see?' I asked.
+
+'Fir-woods and an avenue of snow between them,' said he. 'Ah!' he gave a
+cry of surprise.
+
+I sprang upon the barrel beside him. There was, as he said, a long,
+clear strip of snow in front. A man was riding down it, flogging his
+horse and galloping like a madman. As we watched, he grew smaller and
+smaller, until he was swallowed up by the black shadows of the forest.
+
+'What does that mean?' asked Duroc.
+
+'No good for us,' said I. 'He may have gone for some brigands to cut
+our throats. Let us see if we cannot find a way out of this mouse-trap
+before the cat can arrive.'
+
+The one piece of good fortune in our favour was that beautiful lamp. It
+was nearly full of oil, and would last us until morning. In the dark our
+situation would have been far more difficult. By its light we proceeded
+to examine the packages and cases which lined the walls. In some places
+there was only a single line of them, while in one corner they were
+piled nearly to the ceiling. It seemed that we were in the storehouse of
+the Castle, for there were a great number of cheeses, vegetables of
+various kinds, bins full of dried fruits, and a line of wine barrels.
+One of these had a spigot in it, and as I had eaten little during the
+day, I was glad of a cup of claret and some food. As to Duroc, he would
+take nothing, but paced up and down the room in a fever of anger and
+impatience. 'I'll have him yet!' he cried, every now and then. 'The
+rascal shall not escape me!'
+
+This was all very well, but it seemed to me, as I sat on a great round
+cheese eating my supper, that this youngster was thinking rather too
+much of his own family affairs and too little of the fine scrape into
+which he had got me. After all, his father had been dead fourteen years,
+and nothing could set that right; but here was Etienne Gerard, the most
+dashing lieutenant in the whole Grand Army, in imminent danger of being
+cut off at the very outset of his brilliant career. Who was ever to know
+the heights to which I might have risen if I were knocked on the head in
+this hole-and-corner business, which had nothing whatever to do with
+France or the Emperor? I could not help thinking what a fool I had been,
+when I had a fine war before me and everything which a man could desire,
+to go off on a hare-brained expedition of this sort, as if it were not
+enough to have a quarter of a million Russians to fight against, without
+plunging into all sorts of private quarrels as well.
+
+'That is all very well,' I said at last, as I heard Duroc muttering his
+threats. 'You may do what you like to him when you get the upper hand.
+At present the question rather is, what is _he_ going to do to us?'
+
+'Let him do his worst!' cried the boy. 'I owe a duty to my father.'
+
+'That is mere foolishness,' said I. 'If you owe a duty to your father, I
+owe one to my mother, which is to get out of this business safe and
+sound.'
+
+My remark brought him to his senses.
+
+'I have thought too much of myself!' he cried. 'Forgive me, Monsieur
+Gerard. Give me your advice as to what I should do.'
+
+'Well,' said I, 'it is not for our health that they have shut us up here
+among the cheeses. They mean to make an end of us if they can. That is
+certain. They hope that no one knows that we have come here, and that
+none will trace us if we remain. Do your hussars know where you have
+gone to?'
+
+'I said nothing.'
+
+'Hum! It is clear that we cannot be starved here. They must come to us
+if they are to kill us. Behind a barricade of barrels we could hold our
+own against the five rascals whom we have seen. That is, probably, why
+they have sent that messenger for assistance.'
+
+'We must get out before he returns.'
+
+'Precisely, if we are to get out at all.'
+
+'Could we not burn down this door?' he cried.
+
+'Nothing could be easier,' said I. 'There are several casks of oil in
+the corner. My only objection is that we should ourselves be nicely
+toasted, like two little oyster pates.'
+
+'Can you not suggest something?' he cried, in despair. 'Ah, what is
+that?'
+
+There had been a low sound at our little window, and a shadow came
+between the stars and ourselves. A small, white hand was stretched into
+the lamplight. Something glittered between the fingers.
+
+'Quick! quick!' cried a woman's voice.
+
+We were on the barrel in an instant.
+
+'They have sent for the Cossacks. Your lives are at stake. Ah, I am
+lost! I am lost!'
+
+There was the sound of rushing steps, a hoarse oath, a blow, and the
+stars were once more twinkling through the window. We stood helpless
+upon the barrel with our blood cold with horror. Half a minute
+afterwards we heard a smothered scream, ending in a choke. A great door
+slammed somewhere in the silent night.
+
+'Those ruffians have seized her. They will kill her,' I cried.
+
+Duroc sprang down with the inarticulate shouts of one whose reason has
+left him. He struck the door so frantically with his naked hands that he
+left a blotch of blood with every blow.
+
+Here is the key!' I shouted, picking one from the floor. 'She must have
+thrown it in at the instant that she was torn away.'
+
+My companion snatched it from me with a shriek of joy. A moment later he
+dashed it down upon the boards. It was so small that it was lost in the
+enormous lock. Duroc sank upon one of the boxes with his head between
+his hands. He sobbed in his despair. I could have sobbed, too, when I
+thought of the woman and how helpless we were to save her.
+
+But I am not easily baffled. After all, this key must have been sent to
+us for a purpose. The lady could not bring us that of the door, because
+this murderous step-father of hers would most certainly have it in his
+pocket. Yet this other must have a meaning, or why should she risk her
+life to place it in our hands? It would say little for our wits if we
+could not find out what that meaning might be.
+
+I set to work moving all the cases out from the wall, and Duroc, gaining
+new hope from my courage, helped me with all his strength. It was no
+light task, for many of them were large and heavy. On we went, working
+like maniacs, slinging barrels, cheeses, and boxes pell-mell into the
+middle of the room. At last there only remained one huge barrel of
+vodka, which stood in the corner. With our united strength we rolled it
+out, and there was a little low wooden door in the wainscot behind it.
+The key fitted, and with a cry of delight we saw it swing open before
+us. With the lamp in my hand, I squeezed my way in, followed by my
+companion.
+
+We were in the powder-magazine of the Castle--a rough, walled cellar,
+with barrels all round it, and one with the top staved in in the centre.
+The powder from it lay in a black heap upon the floor. Beyond there was
+another door, but it was locked.
+
+'We are no better off than before,' cried Duroc. 'We have no key.'
+
+'We have a dozen!' I cried.
+
+'Where?'
+
+I pointed to the line of powder barrels.
+
+'You would blow this door open?'
+
+'Precisely.'
+
+'But you would explode the magazine.'
+
+It was true, but I was not at the end of my resources.
+
+'We will blow open the store-room door,' I cried.
+
+I ran back and seized a tin box which had been filled with candles. It
+was about the size of my busby--large enough to hold several pounds of
+powder. Duroc filled it while I cut off the end of a candle. When we had
+finished, it would have puzzled a colonel of engineers to make a better
+petard. I put three cheeses on the top of each other and placed it above
+them, so as to lean against the lock. Then we lit our candle-end and ran
+for shelter, shutting the door of the magazine behind us.
+
+It is no joke, my friends, to be among all those tons of powder, with
+the knowledge that if the flame of the explosion should penetrate
+through one thin door our blackened limbs would be shot higher than the
+Castle keep. Who could have believed that a half-inch of candle could
+take so long to burn? My ears were straining all the time for the
+thudding of the hoofs of the Cossacks who were coming to destroy us. I
+had almost made up my mind that the candle must have gone out when there
+was a smack like a bursting bomb, our door flew to bits, and pieces of
+cheese, with a shower of turnips, apples, and splinters of cases, were
+shot in among us. As we rushed out we had to stagger through an
+impenetrable smoke, with all sorts of debris beneath our feet, but there
+was a glimmering square where the dark door had been. The petard had
+done its work.
+
+In fact, it had done more for us than we had even ventured to hope. It
+had shattered gaolers as well as gaol. The first thing that I saw as I
+came out into the hall was a man with a butcher's axe in his hand, lying
+flat upon his back, with a gaping wound across his forehead. The second
+was a huge dog, with two of its legs broken, twisting in agony upon the
+floor. As it raised itself up I saw the two broken ends flapping like
+flails. At the same instant I heard a cry, and there was Duroc, thrown
+against the wall, with the other hound's teeth in his throat. He pushed
+it off with his left hand, while again and again he passed his sabre
+through its body, but it was not until I blew out its brains with my
+pistol that the iron jaws relaxed, and the fierce, bloodshot eyes were
+glazed in death.
+
+There was no time for us to pause. A woman's scream from in front--a
+scream of mortal terror--told us that even now we might be too late.
+There were two other men in the hall, but they cowered away from our
+drawn swords and furious faces. The blood was streaming from Duroc's
+neck and dyeing the grey fur of his pelisse. Such was the lad's fire,
+however, that he shot in front of me, and it was only over his shoulder
+that I caught a glimpse of the scene as we rushed into the chamber in
+which we had first seen the master of the Castle of Gloom.
+
+The Baron was standing in the middle of the room, his tangled mane
+bristling like an angry lion. He was, as I have said, a huge man with
+enormous shoulders; and as he stood there, with his face flushed with
+rage and his sword advanced, I could not but think that, in spite of all
+his villainies, he had a proper figure for a grenadier. The lady lay
+cowering in a chair behind him. A weal across one of her white arms and
+a dog-whip upon the floor were enough to show that our escape had hardly
+been in time to save her from his brutality. He gave a howl like a wolf
+as we broke in, and was upon us in an instant, hacking and driving, with
+a curse at every blow.
+
+I have already said that the room gave no space for swordsmanship. My
+young companion was in front of me in the narrow passage between the
+table and the wall, so that I could only look on without being able to
+aid him. The lad knew something of his weapon, and was as fierce and
+active as a wild cat, but in so narrow a space the weight and strength
+of the giant gave him the advantage. Besides, he was an admirable
+swordsman. His parade and riposte were as quick as lightning. Twice he
+touched Duroc upon the shoulder, and then, as the lad slipped on a
+lunge, he whirled up his sword to finish him before he could recover his
+feet. I was quicker than he, however, and took the cut upon the pommel
+of my sabre.
+
+'Excuse me,' said I, 'but you have still to deal with Etienne Gerard.'
+
+He drew back and leaned against the tapestry-covered wall, breathing in
+little, hoarse gasps, for his foul living was against him.
+
+'Take your breath,' said I. 'I will await your convenience.'
+
+'You have no cause of quarrel against me,' he panted.
+
+'I owe you some little attention,' said I, 'for having shut me up in
+your store-room. Besides, if all other were wanting, I see cause enough
+upon that lady's arm.'
+
+'Have your way, then!' he snarled, and leaped at me like a madman. For
+a minute I saw only the blazing blue eyes, and the red glazed point
+which stabbed and stabbed, rasping off to right or to left, and yet ever
+back at my throat and my breast. I had never thought that such good
+sword-play was to be found at Paris in the days of the Revolution. I do
+not suppose that in all my little affairs I have met six men who had a
+better knowledge of their weapon. But he knew that I was his master. He
+read death in my eyes, and I could see that he read it. The flush died
+from his face. His breath came in shorter and in thicker gasps. Yet he
+fought on, even after the final thrust had come, and died still hacking
+and cursing, with foul cries upon his lips, and his blood clotting upon
+his orange beard. I who speak to you have seen so many battles, that my
+old memory can scarce contain their names, and yet of all the terrible
+sights which these eyes have rested upon, there is none which I care to
+think of less than of that orange beard with the crimson stain in the
+centre, from which I had drawn my sword-point.
+
+It was only afterwards that I had time to think of all this. His
+monstrous body had hardly crashed down upon the floor before the woman
+in the corner sprang to her feet, clapping her hands together and
+screaming out in her delight. For my part I was disgusted to see a woman
+take such delight in a deed of blood, and I gave no thought as to the
+terrible wrongs which must have befallen her before she could so far
+forget the gentleness of her sex. It was on my tongue to tell her
+sharply to be silent, when a strange, choking smell took the breath from
+my nostrils, and a sudden, yellow glare brought out the figures upon the
+faded hangings.
+
+'Duroc, Duroc!' I shouted, tugging at his shoulder. 'The Castle is on
+fire!'
+
+The boy lay senseless upon the ground, exhausted by his wounds. I rushed
+out into the hall to see whence the danger came. It was our explosion
+which had set alight to the dry frame-work of the door. Inside the
+store-room some of the boxes were already blazing. I glanced in, and as
+I did so my blood was turned to water by the sight of the powder barrels
+beyond, and of the loose heap upon the floor. It might be seconds, it
+could not be more than minutes, before the flames would be at the edge
+of it. These eyes will be closed in death, my friends, before they cease
+to see those crawling lines of fire and the black heap beyond.
+
+How little I can remember what followed. Vaguely I can recall how I
+rushed into the chamber of death, how I seized Duroc by one limp hand
+and dragged him down the hall, the woman keeping pace with me and
+pulling at the other arm. Out of the gateway we rushed, and on down the
+snow-covered path until we were on the fringe of the fir forest. It was
+at that moment that I heard a crash behind me, and, glancing round, saw
+a great spout of fire shoot up into the wintry sky. An instant later
+there seemed to come a second crash, far louder than the first. I saw
+the fir trees and the stars whirling round me, and I fell unconscious
+across the body of my comrade.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was some weeks before I came to myself in the post-house of
+Arensdorf, and longer still before I could be told all that had befallen
+me. It was Duroc, already able to go soldiering, who came to my bedside
+and gave me an account of it. He it was who told me how a piece of
+timber had struck me on the head and laid me almost dead upon the
+ground. From him, too, I learned how the Polish girl had run to
+Arensdorf, how she had roused our hussars, and how she had only just
+brought them back in time to save us from the spears of the Cossacks who
+had been summoned from their bivouac by that same black-bearded
+secretary whom we had seen galloping so swiftly over the snow. As to the
+brave lady who had twice saved our lives, I could not learn very much
+about her at that moment from Duroc, but when I chanced to meet him in
+Paris two years later, after the campaign of Wagram, I was not very
+much surprised to find that I needed no introduction to his bride, and
+that by the queer turns of fortune he had himself, had he chosen to use
+it, that very name and title of the Baron Straubenthal, which showed him
+to be the owner of the blackened ruins of the Castle of Gloom.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote A: The term Brigadier is used throughout in its English and
+not in its French sense.]
+
+
+
+
+2. HOW THE BRIGADIER SLEW THE BROTHERS OF AJACCIO
+
+
+When the Emperor needed an agent he was always very ready to do me the
+honour of recalling the name of Etienne Gerard, though it occasionally
+escaped him when rewards were to be distributed. Still, I was a colonel
+at twenty-eight, and the chief of a brigade at thirty-one, so that I
+have no reason to be dissatisfied with my career. Had the wars lasted
+another two or three years I might have grasped my baton, and the man
+who had his hand upon that was only one stride from a throne. Murat had
+changed his hussar's cap for a crown, and another light cavalry man
+might have done as much. However, all those dreams were driven away by
+Waterloo, and, although I was not able to write my name upon history, it
+is sufficiently well known by all who served with me in the great wars
+of the Empire.
+
+What I want to tell you tonight is about the very singular affair which
+first started me upon my rapid upward course, and which had the effect
+of establishing a secret bond between the Emperor and myself.
+
+There is just one little word of warning which I must give you before I
+begin. When you hear me speak, you must always bear in mind that you are
+listening to one who has seen history from the inside. I am talking
+about what my ears have heard and my eyes have seen, so you must not try
+to confute me by quoting the opinions of some student or man of the pen,
+who has written a book of history or memoirs. There is much which is
+unknown by such people, and much which never will be known by the world.
+For my own part, I could tell you some very surprising things were it
+discreet to do so. The facts which I am about to relate to you tonight
+were kept secret by me during the Emperor's lifetime, because I gave
+him my promise that it should be so, but I do not think that there can
+be any harm now in my telling the remarkable part which I played.
+
+You must know, then, that at the time of the Treaty of Tilsit I was a
+simple lieutenant in the 10th Hussars, without money or interest. It is
+true that my appearance and my gallantry were in my favour, and that I
+had already won a reputation as being one of the best swordsmen in the
+army; but amongst the host of brave men who surrounded the Emperor it
+needed more than this to insure a rapid career. I was confident,
+however, that my chance would come, though I never dreamed that it would
+take so remarkable a form.
+
+When the Emperor returned to Paris, after the declaration of peace in
+the year 1807, he spent much of his time with the Empress and the Court
+at Fontainebleau. It was the time when he was at the pinnacle of his
+career. He had in three successive campaigns humbled Austria, crushed
+Prussia, and made the Russians very glad to get upon the right side of
+the Niemen. The old Bulldog over the Channel was still growling, but he
+could not get very far from his kennel. If we could have made a
+perpetual peace at that moment, France would have taken a higher place
+than any nation since the days of the Romans. So I have heard the wise
+folk say, though for my part I had other things to think of. All the
+girls were glad to see the army back after its long absence, and you may
+be sure that I had my share of any favours that were going. You may
+judge how far I was a favourite in those days when I say that even now,
+in my sixtieth year--but why should I dwell upon that which is already
+sufficiently well known?
+
+Our regiment of hussars was quartered with the horse chasseurs of the
+guard at Fontainebleau. It is, as you know, but a little place, buried
+in the heart of the forest, and it was wonderful at this time to see it
+crowded with Grand Dukes and Electors and Princes, who thronged round
+Napoleon like puppies round their master, each hoping that some bone
+might be thrown to him. There was more German than French to be heard in
+the street, for those who had helped us in the late war had come to beg
+for a reward, and those who had opposed us had come to try and escape
+their punishment.
+
+And all the time our little man, with his pale face and his cold, grey
+eyes, was riding to the hunt every morning, silent and brooding, all of
+them following in his train, in the hope that some word would escape
+him. And then, when the humour seized him, he would throw a hundred
+square miles to that man, or tear as much off the other, round off one
+kingdom by a river, or cut off another by a chain of mountains. That was
+how he used to do business, this little artilleryman, whom we had raised
+so high with our sabres and our bayonets. He was very civil to us
+always, for he knew where his power came from. We knew also, and showed
+it by the way in which we carried ourselves. We were agreed, you
+understand, that he was the finest leader in the world, but we did not
+forget that he had the finest men to lead.
+
+Well, one day I was seated in my quarters playing cards with young
+Morat, of the horse chasseurs, when the door opened and in walked
+Lasalle, who was our Colonel. You know what a fine, swaggering fellow he
+was, and the sky-blue uniform of the Tenth suited him to a marvel. My
+faith, we youngsters were so taken by him that we all swore and diced
+and drank and played the deuce whether we liked it or no, just that we
+might resemble our Colonel! We forgot that it was not because he drank
+or gambled that the Emperor was going to make him the head of the light
+cavalry, but because he had the surest eye for the nature of a position
+or for the strength of a column, and the best judgment as to when
+infantry could be broken, or whether guns were exposed, of any man in
+the army. We were too young to understand all that, however, so we
+waxed our moustaches and clicked our spurs and let the ferrules of our
+scabbards wear out by trailing them along the pavement in the hope that
+we should all become Lasalles. When he came clanking into my quarters,
+both Morat and I sprang to our feet.
+
+'My boy,' said he, clapping me on the shoulder, 'the Emperor wants to
+see you at four o'clock.'
+
+The room whirled round me at the words, and I had to lean my hands upon
+the edge of the card-table.
+
+'What?' I cried. 'The Emperor!'
+
+'Precisely,' said he, smiling at my astonishment.
+
+'But the Emperor does not know of my existence, Colonel,' I protested.
+'Why should he send for me?'
+
+'Well, that's just what puzzles me,' cried Lasalle, twirling his
+moustache. 'If he wanted the help of a good sabre, why should he descend
+to one of my lieutenants when he might have found all that he needed at
+the head of the regiment? However,' he added, clapping me on the
+shoulder again in his hearty fashion, 'every man has his chance. I have
+had mine, otherwise I should not be Colonel of the Tenth. I must not
+grudge you yours. Forwards, my boy, and may it be the first step towards
+changing your busby for a cocked hat.'
+
+It was but two o'clock, so he left me, promising to come back and to
+accompany me to the palace. My faith, what a time I passed, and how many
+conjectures did I make as to what it was that the Emperor could want of
+me! I paced up and down my little room in a fever of anticipation.
+Sometimes I thought that perhaps he had heard of the guns which we had
+taken at Austerlitz; but, then, there were so many who had taken guns at
+Austerlitz, and two years had passed since the battle. Or it might be
+that he wished to reward me for my affair with the _aide-de-camp_ of the
+Russian Emperor. But then again a cold fit would seize me, and I would
+fancy that he had sent for me to reprimand me. There were a few duels
+which he might have taken in ill part, and there were one or two little
+jokes in Paris since the peace.
+
+But, no! I considered the words of Lasalle. 'If he had need of a brave
+man,' said Lasalle.
+
+It was obvious that my Colonel had some idea of what was in the wind. If
+he had not known that it was to my advantage, he would not have been so
+cruel as to congratulate me. My heart glowed with joy as this conviction
+grew upon me, and I sat down to write to my mother and to tell her that
+the Emperor was waiting, at that very moment, to have my opinion upon a
+matter of importance. It made me smile as I wrote it to think that,
+wonderful as it appeared to me, it would probably only confirm my mother
+in her opinion of the Emperor's good sense.
+
+At half-past three I heard a sabre come clanking against every step of
+my wooden stair. It was Lasalle, and with him was a lame gentleman, very
+neatly dressed in black with dapper ruffles and cuffs. We did not know
+many civilians, we of the army, but, my word, this was one whom we could
+not afford to ignore! I had only to glance at those twinkling eyes, the
+comical, upturned nose, and the straight, precise mouth, to know that I
+was in the presence of the one man in France whom even the Emperor had
+to consider.
+
+'This is Monsieur Etienne Gerard, Monsieur de Talleyrand,' said Lasalle.
+
+I saluted, and the statesman took me in from the top of my panache to
+the rowel of my spur, with a glance that played over me like a rapier
+point.
+
+'Have you explained to the lieutenant the circumstances under which he
+is summoned to the Emperor's presence?' he asked, in his dry, creaking
+voice.
+
+They were such a contrast, these two men, that I could not help glancing
+from one to the other of them: the black, sly politician, and the big,
+sky-blue hussar with one fist on his hip and the other on the hilt of
+his sabre. They both took their seats as I looked, Talleyrand without a
+sound, and Lasalle with a clash and a jingle like a prancing charger.
+
+'It's this way, youngster,' said he, in his brusque fashion; 'I was with
+the Emperor in his private cabinet this morning when a note was brought
+in to him. He opened it, and as he did so he gave such a start that it
+fluttered down on to the floor. I handed it up to him again, but he was
+staring at the wall in front of him as if he had seen a ghost. "Fratelli
+dell' Ajaccio," he muttered; and then again, "Fratelli dell' Ajaccio." I
+don't pretend to know more Italian than a man can pick up in two
+campaigns, and I could make nothing of this. It seemed to me that he had
+gone out of his mind; and you would have said so also, Monsieur de
+Talleyrand, if you had seen the look in his eyes. He read the note, and
+then he sat for half an hour or more without moving.'
+
+'And you?' asked Talleyrand.
+
+'Why, I stood there not knowing what I ought to do. Presently he seemed
+to come back to his senses.
+
+'"I suppose, Lasalle," said he, "that you have some gallant young
+officers in the Tenth?"
+
+'"They are all that, sire," I answered.
+
+'"If you had to pick one who was to be depended upon for action, but who
+would not think too much--you understand me, Lasalle--which would you
+select?" he asked.
+
+'I saw that he needed an agent who would not penetrate too deeply into
+his plans.
+
+'"I have one," said I, "who is all spurs and moustaches, with never a
+thought beyond women and horses."
+
+'"That is the man I want," said Napoleon. "Bring him to my private
+cabinet at four o'clock."
+
+'So, youngster, I came straight away to you at once, and mind that you
+do credit to the 10th Hussars.'
+
+I was by no means flattered by the reasons which had led to my Colonel's
+choice, and I must have shown as much in my face, for he roared with
+laughter and Talleyrand gave a dry chuckle also.
+
+'Just one word of advice before you go, Monsieur Gerard,' said he: 'you
+are now coming into troubled waters, and you might find a worse pilot
+than myself. We have none of us any idea as to what this little affair
+means, and, between ourselves, it is very important for us, who have the
+destinies of France upon our shoulders, to keep ourselves in touch with
+all that goes on. You understand me, Monsieur Gerard?'
+
+I had not the least idea what he was driving at, but I bowed and tried
+to look as if it was clear to me.
+
+'Act very guardedly, then, and say nothing to anybody,' said Talleyrand.
+'Colonel de Lasalle and I will not show ourselves in public with you,
+but we will await you here, and we will give you our advice when you
+have told us what has passed between the Emperor and yourself. It is
+time that you started now, for the Emperor never forgives
+unpunctuality.'
+
+Off I went on foot to the palace, which was only a hundred paces off. I
+made my way to the ante-chamber, where Duroc, with his grand new scarlet
+and gold coat, was fussing about among the crowd of people who were
+waiting. I heard him whisper to Monsieur de Caulaincourt that half of
+them were German Dukes who expected to be made Kings, and the other half
+German Dukes who expected to be made paupers. Duroc, when he heard my
+name, showed me straight in, and I found myself in the Emperor's
+presence.
+
+I had, of course, seen him in camp a hundred times, but I had never been
+face to face with him before. I have no doubt that if you had met him
+without knowing in the least who he was, you would simply have said that
+he was a sallow little fellow with a good forehead and fairly
+well-turned calves. His tight white cashmere breeches and white
+stockings showed off his legs to advantage. But even a stranger must
+have been struck by the singular look of his eyes, which could harden
+into an expression which would frighten a grenadier. It is said that
+even Auguereau, who was a man who had never known what fear was, quailed
+before Napoleon's gaze, at a time, too, when the Emperor was but an
+unknown soldier. He looked mildly enough at me, however, and motioned me
+to remain by the door. De Meneval was writing to his dictation, looking
+up at him between each sentence with his spaniel eyes.
+
+'That will do. You can go,' said the Emperor, abruptly. Then, when the
+secretary had left the room, he strode across with his hands behind his
+back, and he looked me up and down without a word. Though he was a small
+man himself, he was very fond of having fine-looking fellows about him,
+and so I think that my appearance gave him pleasure. For my own part, I
+raised one hand to the salute and held the other upon the hilt of my
+sabre, looking straight ahead of me, as a soldier should.
+
+'Well, Monsieur Gerard,' said he, at last, tapping his forefinger upon
+one of the brandebourgs of gold braid upon the front of my pelisse, 'I
+am informed that you are a very deserving young officer. Your Colonel
+gives me an excellent account of you.'
+
+I wished to make a brilliant reply, but I could think of nothing save
+Lasalle's phrase that I was all spurs and moustaches, so it ended in my
+saying nothing at all. The Emperor watched the struggle which must have
+shown itself upon my features, and when, finally, no answer came he did
+not appear to be displeased.
+
+'I believe that you are the very man that I want,' said he. 'Brave and
+clever men surround me upon every side. But a brave man who----' He did
+not finish his sentence, and for my own part I could not understand what
+he was driving at. I contented myself with assuring him that he could
+count upon me to the death.
+
+'You are, as I understand, a good swordsman?' said he.
+
+'Tolerable, sire,' I answered.
+
+'You were chosen by your regiment to fight the champion of the Hussars
+of Chambarant?' said he.
+
+I was not sorry to find that he knew so much of my exploits.
+
+'My comrades, sire, did me that honour,' said I.
+
+'And for the sake of practice you insulted six fencing masters in the
+week before your duel?'
+
+'I had the privilege of being out seven times in as many days, sire,'
+said I.
+
+'And escaped without a scratch?'
+
+'The fencing master of the 23rd Light Infantry touched me on the left
+elbow, sire.'
+
+'Let us have no more child's play of the sort, monsieur,' he cried,
+turning suddenly to that cold rage of his which was so appalling. 'Do
+you imagine that I place veteran soldiers in these positions that you
+may practise quarte and tierce upon them? How am I to face Europe if my
+soldiers turn their points upon each other? Another word of your
+duelling, and I break you between these fingers.'
+
+I saw his plump white hands flash before my eyes as he spoke, and his
+voice had turned to the most discordant hissing and growling. My word,
+my skin pringled all over as I listened to him, and I would gladly have
+changed my position for that of the first man in the steepest and
+narrowest breach that ever swallowed up a storming party. He turned to
+the table, drank off a cup of coffee, and then when he faced me again
+every trace of this storm had vanished, and he wore that singular smile
+which came from his lips but never from his eyes.
+
+'I have need of your services, Monsieur Gerard,' said he. 'I may be
+safer with a good sword at my side, and there are reasons why yours
+should be the one which I select. But first of all I must bind you to
+secrecy. Whilst I live what passes between us today must be known to
+none but ourselves.'
+
+I thought of Talleyrand and of Lasalle, but I promised.
+
+'In the next place, I do not want your opinions or conjectures, and I
+wish you to do exactly what you are told.'
+
+I bowed.
+
+'It is your sword that I need, and not your brains. I will do the
+thinking. Is that clear to you?'
+
+'Yes, sire.'
+
+'You know the Chancellor's Grove, in the forest?'
+
+I bowed.
+
+'You know also the large double fir-tree where the hounds assembled on
+Tuesday?'
+
+Had he known that I met a girl under it three times a week, he would not
+have asked me. I bowed once more without remark.
+
+'Very good. You will meet me there at ten o'clock tonight.'
+
+I had got past being surprised at anything which might happen. If he had
+asked me to take his place upon the imperial throne I could only have
+nodded my busby.
+
+'We shall then proceed into the wood together,' said the Emperor. 'You
+will be armed with a sword, but not with pistols. You must address no
+remark to me, and I shall say nothing to you. We will advance in
+silence. You understand?'
+
+'I understand, sire.'
+
+'After a time we shall see a man, or more probably two men, under a
+certain tree. We shall approach them together. If I signal to you to
+defend me, you will have your sword ready. If, on the other hand, I
+speak to these men, you will wait and see what happens. If you are
+called upon to draw, you must see that neither of them, in the event of
+there being two, escapes from us. I shall myself assist you.'
+
+'Sire,' I cried, 'I have no doubt that two would not be too many for my
+sword; but would it not be better that I should bring a comrade than
+that you should be forced to join in such a struggle?'
+
+'Ta, ta, ta,' said he. 'I was a soldier before I was an Emperor. Do you
+think, then, that artillerymen have not swords as well as the hussars?
+But I ordered you not to argue with me. You will do exactly what I tell
+you. If swords are once out, neither of these men is to get away alive.'
+
+'They shall not, sire,' said I.
+
+'Very good. I have no more instructions for you. You can go.'
+
+I turned to the door, and then an idea occurring to me I turned.
+
+'I have been thinking, sire--' said I.
+
+He sprang at me with the ferocity of a wild beast. I really thought he
+would have struck me.
+
+'Thinking!' he cried. 'You, _you_! Do you imagine I chose you out
+because you could think? Let me hear of your doing such a thing again!
+You, the one man--but, there! You meet me at the fir-tree at ten
+o'clock.'
+
+My faith, I was right glad to get out of the room. If I have a good
+horse under me, and a sword clanking against my stirrup-iron, I know
+where I am. And in all that relates to green fodder or dry, barley and
+oats and rye, and the handling of squadrons upon the march, there is no
+one who can teach me very much. But when I meet a Chamberlain and a
+Marshal of the Palace, and have to pick my words with an Emperor, and
+find that everybody hints instead of talking straight out, I feel like a
+troop-horse who has been put in a lady's caleche. It is not my trade,
+all this mincing and pretending. I have learned the manners of a
+gentleman, but never those of a courtier. I was right glad then to get
+into the fresh air again, and I ran away up to my quarters like a
+schoolboy who has just escaped from the seminary master.
+
+But as I opened the door, the very first thing that my eye rested upon
+was a long pair of sky-blue legs with hussar boots, and a short pair of
+black ones with knee breeches and buckles. They both sprang up together
+to greet me.
+
+'Well, what news?' they cried, the two of them.
+
+'None,' I answered.
+
+'The Emperor refused to see you?'
+
+'No, I have seen him.'
+
+'And what did he say?'
+
+'Monsieur de Talleyrand,' I answered, 'I regret to say that it is quite
+impossible for me to tell you anything about it. I have promised the
+Emperor.'
+
+'Pooh, pooh, my dear young man,' said he, sidling up to me, as a cat
+does when it is about to rub itself against you. 'This is all among
+friends, you understand, and goes no farther than these four walls.
+Besides, the Emperor never meant to include me in this promise.'
+
+'It is but a minute's walk to the palace, Monsieur de Talleyrand,' I
+answered; 'if it would not be troubling you too much to ask you to step
+up to it and bring back the Emperor's written statement that he did not
+mean to include you in this promise, I shall be happy to tell you every
+word that passed.'
+
+He showed his teeth at me then like the old fox that he was.
+
+'Monsieur Gerard appears to be a little puffed up,' said he. 'He is too
+young to see things in their just proportion. As he grows older he may
+understand that it is not always very discreet for a subaltern of
+cavalry to give such very abrupt refusals.'
+
+I did not know what to say to this, but Lasalle came to my aid in his
+downright fashion.
+
+'The lad is quite right,' said he. 'If I had known that there was a
+promise I should not have questioned him. You know very well, Monsieur
+de Talleyrand, that if he had answered you, you would have laughed in
+your sleeve and thought as much about him as I think of the bottle when
+the burgundy is gone. As for me, I promise you that the Tenth would have
+had no room for him, and that we should have lost our best swordsman if
+I had heard him give up the Emperor's secret.'
+
+But the statesman became only the more bitter when he saw that I had
+the support of my Colonel.
+
+'I have heard, Colonel de Lasalle,' said he, with an icy dignity, 'that
+your opinion is of great weight upon the subject of light cavalry.
+Should I have occasion to seek information about that branch of the
+army, I shall be very happy to apply to you. At present, however, the
+matter concerns diplomacy, and you will permit me to form my own views
+upon that question. As long as the welfare of France and the safety of
+the Emperor's person are largely committed to my care, I will use every
+means in my power to secure them, even if it should be against the
+Emperor's own temporary wishes. I have the honour, Colonel de Lasalle,
+to wish you a very good-day!'
+
+He shot a most unamiable glance in my direction, and, turning upon his
+heel, he walked with little, quick, noiseless steps out of the room.
+
+I could see from Lasalle's face that he did not at all relish finding
+himself at enmity with the powerful Minister. He rapped out an oath or
+two, and then, catching up his sabre and his cap, he clattered away down
+the stairs. As I looked out of the window I saw the two of them, the big
+blue man and the limping black one, going up the street together.
+Talleyrand was walking very rigidly, and Lasalle was waving his hands
+and talking, so I suppose he was trying to make his peace.
+
+The Emperor had told me not to think, and I endeavoured to obey him. I
+took up the cards from the table where Morat had left them, and I tried
+to work out a few combinations at ecarte. But I could not remember which
+were trumps, and I threw them under the table in despair. Then I drew my
+sabre and practised giving point until I was weary, but it was all of no
+use at all. My mind _would_ work, in spite of myself. At ten o'clock I
+was to meet the Emperor in the forest. Of all extraordinary combinations
+of events in the whole world, surely this was the last which would have
+occurred to me when I rose from my couch that morning. But the
+responsibility--- the dreadful responsibility! It was all upon my
+shoulders. There was no one to halve it with me. It made me cold all
+over. Often as I have faced death upon the battle-field, I have never
+known what real fear was until that moment. But then I considered that
+after all I could but do my best like a brave and honourable gentleman,
+and above all obey the orders which I had received, to the very letter.
+And, if all went well, this would surely be the foundation of my
+fortunes. Thus, swaying between my fears and my hopes, I spent the long,
+long evening until it was time to keep my appointment.
+
+I put on my military overcoat, as I did not know how much of the night I
+might have to spend in the woods, and I fastened my sword outside it. I
+pulled off my hussar boots also, and wore a pair of shoes and gaiters,
+that I might be lighter upon my feet. Then I stole out of my quarters
+and made for the forest, feeling very much easier in my mind, for I am
+always at my best when the time of thought has passed and the moment for
+action arrived.
+
+I passed the barracks of the Chasseurs of the Guards, and the line of
+cafes all filled with uniforms. I caught a glimpse as I went by of the
+blue and gold of some of my comrades, amid the swarm of dark infantry
+coats and the light green of the Guides. There they sat, sipping their
+wine and smoking their cigars, little dreaming what their comrade had on
+hand. One of them, the chief of my squadron, caught sight of me in the
+lamplight, and came shouting after me into the street. I hurried on,
+however, pretending not to hear him, so he, with a curse at my deafness,
+went back at last to his wine bottle.
+
+It is not very hard to get into the forest at Fontainebleau. The
+scattered trees steal their way into the very streets, like the
+tirailleurs in front of a column. I turned into a path, which led to the
+edge of the woods, and then I pushed rapidly forward towards the old
+fir-tree. It was a place which, as I have hinted, I had my own reasons
+for knowing well, and I could only thank the Fates that it was not one
+of the nights upon which Leonie would be waiting for me. The poor child
+would have died of terror at sight of the Emperor. He might have been
+too harsh with her--and worse still, he might have been too kind.
+
+There was a half moon shining, and, as I came up to our trysting-place,
+I saw that I was not the first to arrive. The Emperor was pacing up and
+down, his hands behind him and his face sunk somewhat forward upon his
+breast. He wore a grey great-coat with a capote over his head. I had
+seen him in such a dress in our winter campaign in Poland, and it was
+said that he used it because the hood was such an excellent disguise. He
+was always fond, whether in the camp or in Paris, of walking round at
+night, and overhearing the talk in the cabarets or round the fires. His
+figure, however, and his way of carrying his head and his hands were so
+well known that he was always recognized, and then the talkers would say
+whatever they thought would please him best.
+
+My first thought was that he would be angry with me for having kept him
+waiting, but as I approached him, we heard the big church clock of
+Fontainebleau clang out the hour of ten. It was evident, therefore, that
+it was he who was too soon, and not I too late. I remembered his order
+that I should make no remark, so contented myself with halting within
+four paces of him, clicking my spurs together, grounding my sabre, and
+saluting. He glanced at me, and then without a word he turned and walked
+slowly through the forest, I keeping always about the same distance
+behind him. Once or twice he seemed to me to look apprehensively to
+right and to left, as if he feared that someone was observing us. I
+looked also, but although I have the keenest sight, it was quite
+impossible to see anything except the ragged patches of moonshine
+between the great black shadows of the trees. My ears are as quick as
+my eyes, and once or twice I thought that I heard a twig crack; but you
+know how many sounds there are in a forest at night, and how difficult
+it is even to say what direction they come from.
+
+We walked for rather more than a mile, and I knew exactly what our
+destination was, long before we got there. In the centre of one of the
+glades, there is the shattered stump of what must at some time have been
+a most gigantic tree. It is called the Abbot's Beech, and there are so
+many ghostly stories about it, that I know many a brave soldier who
+would not care about mounting sentinel over it. However, I cared as
+little for such folly as the Emperor did, so we crossed the glade and
+made straight for the old broken trunk. As we approached, I saw that two
+men were waiting for us beneath it.
+
+When I first caught sight of them they were standing rather behind it,
+as if they were not anxious to be seen, but as we came nearer they
+emerged from its shadow and walked forward to meet us. The Emperor
+glanced back at me, and slackened his pace a little so that I came
+within arm's length of him. You may think that I had my hilt well to the
+front, and that I had a very good look at these two people who were
+approaching us.
+
+The one was tall, remarkably so, and of very spare frame, while the
+other was rather below the usual height, and had a brisk, determined way
+of walking. They each wore black cloaks, which were slung right across
+their figures, and hung down upon one side, like the mantles of Murat's
+dragoons. They had flat black caps, like those I have since seen in
+Spain, which threw their faces into darkness, though I could see the
+gleam of their eyes from beneath them. With the moon behind them and
+their long black shadows walking in front, they were such figures as one
+might expect to meet at night near the Abbot's Beech. I can remember
+that they had a stealthy way of moving, and that as they approached, the
+moonshine formed two white diamonds between their legs and the legs of
+their shadows.
+
+The Emperor had paused, and these two strangers came to a stand also
+within a few paces of us. I had drawn up close to my companion's elbow,
+so that the four of us were facing each other without a word spoken. My
+eyes were particularly fixed upon the taller one, because he was
+slightly the nearer to me, and I became certain as I watched him that he
+was in the last state of nervousness. His lean figure was quivering all
+over, and I heard a quick, thin panting like that of a tired dog.
+Suddenly one of them gave a short, hissing signal. The tall man bent his
+back and his knees like a diver about to spring, but before he could
+move, I had jumped with drawn sabre in front of him. At the same instant
+the smaller man bounded past me, and buried a long poniard in the
+Emperor's heart.
+
+My God! the horror of that moment! It is a marvel that I did not drop
+dead myself. As in a dream, I saw the grey coat whirl convulsively
+round, and caught a glimpse in the moonlight of three inches of red
+point which jutted out from between the shoulders. Then down he fell
+with a dead man's gasp upon the grass, and the assassin, leaving his
+weapon buried in his victim, threw up both his hands and shrieked with
+joy. But I--I drove my sword through his midriff with such frantic
+force, that the mere blow of the hilt against the end of his breast-bone
+sent him six paces before he fell, and left my reeking blade ready for
+the other. I sprang round upon him with such a lust for blood upon me as
+I had never felt, and never have felt, in all my days. As I turned, a
+dagger flashed before my eyes, and I felt the cold wind of it pass my
+neck and the villain's wrist jar upon my shoulder. I shortened my sword,
+but he winced away from me, and an instant afterwards was in full
+flight, bounding like a deer across the glade in the moonlight.
+
+But he was not to escape me thus. I knew that the murderer's poniard
+had done its work. Young as I was, I had seen enough of war to know a
+mortal blow. I paused but for an instant to touch the cold hand.
+
+'Sire! Sire!' I cried, in an agony; and then as no sound came back and
+nothing moved, save an ever-widening dark circle in the moonlight, I
+knew that all was indeed over. I sprang madly to my feet, threw off my
+great-coat, and ran at the top of my speed after the remaining assassin.
+
+Ah, how I blessed the wisdom which had caused me to come in shoes and
+gaiters! And the happy thought which had thrown off my coat. He could
+not get rid of his mantle, this wretch, or else he was too frightened to
+think of it. So it was that I gained upon him from the beginning. He
+must have been out of his wits, for he never tried to bury himself in
+the darker parts of the woods, but he flew on from glade to glade, until
+he came to the heath-land which leads up to the great Fontainebleau
+quarry. There I had him in full sight, and knew that he could not escape
+me. He ran well, it is true--ran as a coward runs when his life is the
+stake. But I ran as Destiny runs when it gets behind a man's heels. Yard
+by yard I drew in upon him. He was rolling and staggering. I could hear
+the rasping and crackling of his breath. The great gulf of the quarry
+suddenly yawned in front of his path, and glancing at me over his
+shoulder, he gave a shriek of despair. The next instant he had vanished
+from my sight.
+
+Vanished utterly, you understand. I rushed to the spot, and gazed down
+into the black abyss. Had he hurled himself over? I had almost made up
+my mind that he had done so, when a gentle sound rising and falling came
+out of the darkness beneath me. It was his breathing once more, and it
+showed me where he must be. He was hiding in the tool-house.
+
+At the edge of the quarry and beneath the summit there is a small
+platform upon which stands a wooden hut for the use of the labourers.
+It was into this, then, that he had darted. Perhaps he had thought, the
+fool, that, in the darkness, I would not venture to follow him. He
+little knew Etienne Gerard. With a spring I was on the platform, with
+another I was through the doorway, and then, hearing him in the corner,
+I hurled myself down upon the top of him.
+
+He fought like a wild cat, but he never had a chance with his shorter
+weapon. I think that I must have transfixed him with that first mad
+lunge, for, though he struck and struck, his blows had no power in them,
+and presently his dagger tinkled down upon the floor. When I was sure
+that he was dead, I rose up and passed out into the moonlight. I climbed
+on to the heath again, and wandered across it as nearly out of my mind
+as a man could be.
+
+With the blood singing in my ears, and my naked sword still clutched in
+my hand, I walked aimlessly on until, looking round me, I found that I
+had come as far as the glade of the Abbot's Beech, and saw in the
+distance that gnarled stump which must ever be associated with the most
+terrible moment of my life. I sat down upon a fallen trunk with my sword
+across my knees and my head between my hands, and I tried to think about
+what had happened and what would happen in the future.
+
+The Emperor had committed himself to my care. The Emperor was dead.
+Those were the two thoughts which clanged in my head, until I had no
+room for any other ones. He had come with me and he was dead. I had done
+what he had ordered when living. I had revenged him when dead. But what
+of all that? The world would look upon me as responsible. They might
+even look upon me as the assassin. What could I prove? What witnesses
+had I? Might I not have been the accomplice of these wretches? Yes, yes,
+I was eternally dishonoured--the lowest, most despicable creature in all
+France. This, then, was the end of my fine military ambitions--of the
+hopes of my mother. I laughed bitterly at the thought. And what was I
+to do now? Was I to go into Fontainebleau, to wake up the palace, and to
+inform them that the great Emperor had been murdered within a pace of
+me? I could not do it--no, I could not do it! There was but one course
+for an honourable gentleman whom Fate had placed in so cruel a position.
+I would fall upon my dishonoured sword, and so share, since I could not
+avert, the Emperor's fate. I rose with my nerves strung to this last
+piteous deed, and as I did so, my eyes fell upon something which struck
+the breath from my lips. The Emperor was standing before me!
+
+He was not more than ten yards off, with the moon shining straight upon
+his cold, pale face. He wore his grey overcoat, but the hood was turned
+back, and the front open, so that I could see the green coat of the
+Guides, and the white breeches. His hands were clasped behind his back,
+and his chin sunk forward upon his breast, in the way that was usual
+with him.
+
+'Well,' said he, in his hardest and most abrupt voice, 'what account do
+you give of yourself?'
+
+I believe that, if he had stood in silence for another minute, my brain
+would have given way. But those sharp military accents were exactly what
+I needed to bring me to myself. Living or dead, here was the Emperor
+standing before me and asking me questions. I sprang to the salute.
+
+'You have killed one, I see,' said he, jerking his head towards the
+beech.
+
+'Yes, sire.'
+
+'And the other escaped?'
+
+'No, sire, I killed him also.'
+
+'What!' he cried. 'Do I understand that you have killed them both?' He
+approached me as he spoke with a smile which set his teeth gleaming in
+the moonlight.
+
+'One body lies there, sire,' I answered. 'The other is in the tool-house
+at the quarry.'
+
+'Then the Brothers of Ajaccio are no more,' he cried, and after a
+pause, as if speaking to himself: 'The shadow has passed me for ever.'
+Then he bent forward and laid his hand upon my shoulder.
+
+'You have done very well, my young friend,' said he. 'You have lived up
+to your reputation.'
+
+He was flesh and blood, then, this Emperor. I could feel the little,
+plump palm that rested upon me. And yet I could not get over what I had
+seen with my own eyes, and so I stared at him in such bewilderment that
+he broke once more into one of his smiles.
+
+'No, no, Monsieur Gerard,' said he, 'I am not a ghost, and you have not
+seen me killed. You will come here, and all will be clear to you.'
+
+He turned as he spoke, and led the way towards the great beech stump.
+
+The bodies were still lying upon the ground, and two men were standing
+beside them. As we approached I saw from the turbans that they were
+Roustem and Mustafa, the two Mameluke servants. The Emperor paused when
+he came to the grey figure upon the ground, and turning back the hood
+which shrouded the features, he showed a face which was very different
+from his own.
+
+'Here lies a faithful servant who has given up his life for his master,'
+said he. 'Monsieur de Goudin resembles me in figure and in manner, as
+you must admit.'
+
+What a delirium of joy came upon me when these few words made everything
+clear to me. He smiled again as he saw the delight which urged me to
+throw my arms round him and to embrace him, but he moved a step away, as
+if he had divined my impulse.
+
+'You are unhurt?' he asked.
+
+'I am unhurt, sire. But in another minute I should in my despair----'
+
+'Tut, tut!' he interrupted. 'You did very well. He should himself have
+been more on his guard. I saw everything which passed.'
+
+'You saw it, sire!'
+
+'You did not hear me follow you through the wood, then? I hardly lost
+sight of you from the moment that you left your quarters until poor De
+Goudin fell. The counterfeit Emperor was in front of you and the real
+one behind. You will now escort me back to the palace.'
+
+He whispered an order to his Mamelukes, who saluted in silence and
+remained where they were standing. For my part, I followed the Emperor
+with my pelisse bursting with pride. My word, I have always carried
+myself as a hussar should, but Lasalle himself never strutted and swung
+his dolman as I did that night. Who should clink his spurs and clatter
+his sabre if it were not I--I, Etienne Gerard--the confidant of the
+Emperor, the chosen swordsman of the light cavalry, the man who slew the
+would-be assassins of Napoleon? But he noticed my bearing and turned
+upon me like a blight.
+
+'Is that the way you carry yourself on a secret mission?' he hissed,
+with that cold glare in his eyes. 'Is it thus that you will make your
+comrades believe that nothing remarkable has occurred? Have done with
+this nonsense, monsieur, or you will find yourself transferred to the
+sappers, where you would have harder work and duller plumage.'
+
+That was the way with the Emperor. If ever he thought that anyone might
+have a claim upon him, he took the first opportunity to show him the
+gulf that lay between. I saluted and was silent, but I must confess to
+you that it hurt me after all that had passed between us. He led on to
+the palace, where we passed through the side door and up into his own
+cabinet. There were a couple of grenadiers at the staircase, and their
+eyes started out from under their fur caps, I promise you, when they saw
+a young lieutenant of hussars going up to the Emperor's room at
+midnight. I stood by the door, as I had done in the afternoon, while he
+flung himself down in an arm-chair, and remained silent so long that it
+seemed to me that he had forgotten all about me. I ventured at last upon
+a slight cough to remind him.
+
+'Ah, Monsieur Gerard,' said he, 'you are very curious, no doubt, as to
+the meaning of all this?'
+
+'I am quite content, sire, if it is your pleasure not to tell me,' I
+answered.
+
+'Ta, ta, ta,' said he impatiently. 'These are only words. The moment
+that you were outside that door you would begin making inquiries about
+what it means. In two days your brother officers would know about it, in
+three days it would be all over Fontainebleau, and it would be in Paris
+on the fourth. Now, if I tell you enough to appease your curiosity,
+there is some reasonable hope that you may be able to keep the matter to
+yourself.'
+
+He did not understand me, this Emperor, and yet I could only bow and be
+silent.
+
+'A few words will make it clear to you,' said he, speaking very swiftly
+and pacing up and down the room. 'They were Corsicans, these two men. I
+had known them in my youth. We had belonged to the same
+society--Brothers of Ajaccio, as we called ourselves. It was founded in
+the old Paoli days, you understand, and we had some strict rules of our
+own which were not infringed with impunity.'
+
+A very grim look came over his face as he spoke, and it seemed to me
+that all that was French had gone out of him, and that it was the pure
+Corsican, the man of strong passions and of strange revenges, who stood
+before me. His memory had gone back to those early days of his, and for
+five minutes, wrapped in thought, he paced up and down the room with his
+quick little tiger steps. Then with an impatient wave of his hands he
+came back to his palace and to me.
+
+'The rules of such a society,' he continued, 'are all very well for a
+private citizen. In the old days there was no more loyal brother than I.
+But circumstances change, and it would be neither for my welfare nor
+for that of France that I should now submit myself to them. They wanted
+to hold me to it, and so brought their fate upon their own heads. These
+were the two chiefs of the order, and they had come from Corsica to
+summon me to meet them at the spot which they named. I knew what such a
+summons meant. No man had ever returned from obeying one. On the other
+hand, if I did not go, I was sure that disaster would follow. I am a
+brother myself, you remember, and I know their ways.'
+
+Again there came that hardening of his mouth and cold glitter of his
+eyes.
+
+'You perceive my dilemma, Monsieur Gerard,' said he. 'How would you have
+acted yourself, under such circumstances?'
+
+'Given the word to the l0th Hussars, sire,' I cried. 'Patrols could have
+swept the woods from end to end, and brought these two rascals to your
+feet.'
+
+He smiled, but he shook his head.
+
+'I had very excellent reasons why I did not wish them taken alive,' said
+he. 'You can understand that an assassin's tongue might be as dangerous
+a weapon as an assassin's dagger. I will not disguise from you that I
+wished to avoid scandal at all cost. That was why I ordered you to take
+no pistols with you. That also is why my Mamelukes will remove all
+traces of the affair, and nothing more will be heard about it. I thought
+of all possible plans, and I am convinced that I selected the best one.
+Had I sent more than one guard with De Goudin into the woods, then the
+brothers would not have appeared. They would not change their plans nor
+miss their chance for the sake of a single man. It was Colonel Lasalle's
+accidental presence at the moment when I received the summons which led
+to my choosing one of his hussars for the mission. I selected you,
+Monsieur Gerard, because I wanted a man who could handle a sword, and
+who would not pry more deeply into the affair than I desired. I trust
+that, in this respect, you will justify my choice as well as you have
+done in your bravery and skill.'
+
+'Sire,' I answered, 'you may rely upon it.'
+
+'As long as I live,' said he, 'you never open your lips upon this
+subject.'
+
+'I dismiss it entirely from my mind, sire. I will efface it from my
+recollection as if it had never been. I will promise you to go out of
+your cabinet at this moment exactly as I was when I entered it at four
+o'clock.'
+
+'You cannot do that,' said the Emperor, smiling. 'You were a lieutenant
+at that time. You will permit me, Captain, to wish you a very
+good-night.'
+
+
+
+
+3. HOW THE BRIGADIER HELD THE KING
+
+
+Here, upon the lapel of my coat, you may see the ribbon of my
+decoration, but the medal itself I keep in a leathern pouch at home, and
+I never venture to take it out unless one of the modern peace generals,
+or some foreigner of distinction who finds himself in our little town,
+takes advantage of the opportunity to pay his respects to the well-known
+Brigadier Gerard. Then I place it upon my breast, and I give my
+moustache the old Marengo twist which brings a grey point into either
+eye. Yet with it all I fear that neither they, nor you either, my
+friends, will ever realize the man that I was. You know me only as a
+civilian--with an air and a manner, it is true--but still merely as a
+civilian. Had you seen me as I stood in the doorway of the inn at Alamo,
+on the 1st of July, in the year 1810, you would then have known what the
+hussar may attain to.
+
+For a month I had lingered in that accursed village, and all on account
+of a lance-thrust in my ankle, which made it impossible for me to put my
+foot to the ground. There were three besides myself at first: old
+Bouvet, of the Hussars of Bercheny, Jacques Regnier, of the Cuirassiers,
+and a funny little voltigeur captain whose name I forget; but they all
+got well and hurried on to the front, while I sat gnawing my fingers and
+tearing my hair, and even, I must confess, weeping from time to time as
+I thought of my Hussars of Conflans, and the deplorable condition in
+which they must find themselves when deprived of their colonel. I was
+not a chief of brigade yet, you understand, although I already carried
+myself like one, but I was the youngest colonel in the whole service,
+and my regiment was wife and children to me. It went to my heart that
+they should be so bereaved. It is true that Villaret, the senior major,
+was an excellent soldier; but still, even among the best there are
+degrees of merit.
+
+Ah, that happy July day of which I speak, when first I limped to the
+door and stood in the golden Spanish sunshine! It was but the evening
+before that I had heard from the regiment. They were at Pastores, on the
+other side of the mountains, face to face with the English--not forty
+miles from me by road. But how was I to get to them? The same thrust
+which had pierced my ankle had slain my charger. I took advice both from
+Gomez, the landlord, and from an old priest who had slept that night in
+the inn, but neither of them could do more than assure me that there was
+not so much as a colt left upon the whole countryside.
+
+The landlord would not hear of my crossing the mountains without an
+escort, for he assured me that El Cuchillo, the Spanish guerilla chief,
+was out that way with his band, and that it meant a death by torture to
+fall into his hands. The old priest observed, however, that he did not
+think a French hussar would be deterred by that, and if I had had any
+doubts, they would of course have been decided by his remark.
+
+But a horse! How was I to get one? I was standing in the doorway,
+plotting and planning, when I heard the clink of shoes, and, looking up,
+I saw a great bearded man, with a blue cloak frogged across in military
+fashion, coming towards me. He was riding a big black horse with one
+white stocking on his near fore-leg.
+
+'Halloa, comrade!' said I, as he came up to me.
+
+'Halloa!' said he.
+
+'I am Colonel Gerard, of the Hussars,' said I. 'I have lain here wounded
+for a month, and I am now ready to rejoin my regiment at Pastores.'
+
+'I am Monsieur Vidal, of the commissariat,' he answered, 'and I am
+myself upon my way to Pastores. I should be glad to have your company,
+Colonel, for I hear that the mountains are far from safe.'
+
+'Alas,' said I, 'I have no horse. But if you will sell me yours, I will
+promise that an escort of hussars shall be sent back for you.'
+
+He would not hear of it, and it was in vain that the landlord told him
+dreadful stories of the doings of El Cuchillo, and that I pointed out
+the duty which he owed to the army and to the country. He would not even
+argue, but called loudly for a cup of wine. I craftily asked him to
+dismount and to drink with me, but he must have seen something in my
+face, for he shook his head; and then, as I approached him with some
+thought of seizing him by the leg, he jerked his heels into his horse's
+flanks, and was off in a cloud of dust.
+
+My faith! it was enough to make a man mad to see this fellow riding away
+so gaily to join his beef-barrels, and his brandy-casks, and then to
+think of my five hundred beautiful hussars without their leader. I was
+gazing after him with bitter thoughts in my mind, when who should touch
+me on the elbow but the little priest whom I have mentioned.
+
+'It is I who can help you,' he said. 'I am myself travelling south.'
+
+I put my arms about him and, as my ankle gave way at the same moment, we
+nearly rolled upon the ground together.
+
+'Get me to Pastores,' I cried, 'and you shall have a rosary of golden
+beads.' I had taken one from the Convent of Spiritu Santo. It shows how
+necessary it is to take what you can when you are upon a campaign, and
+how the most unlikely things may become useful.
+
+'I will take you,' he said, in very excellent French, 'not because I
+hope for any reward, but because it is my way always to do what I can to
+serve my fellow-man, and that is why I am so beloved wherever I go.'
+
+With that he led me down the village to an old cow-house, in which we
+found a tumble-down sort of diligence, such as they used to run early
+in this century, between some of our remote villages. There were three
+old mules, too, none of which were strong enough to carry a man, but
+together they might draw the coach. The sight of their gaunt ribs and
+spavined legs gave me more delight than the whole two hundred and twenty
+hunters of the Emperor which I have seen in their stalls at
+Fontainebleau. In ten minutes the owner was harnessing them into the
+coach, with no very good will, however, for he was in mortal dread of
+this terrible Cuchillo. It was only by promising him riches in this
+world, while the priest threatened him with perdition in the next, that
+we at last got him safely upon the box with the reins between his
+fingers. Then he was in such a hurry to get off, out of fear lest we
+should find ourselves in the dark in the passes, that he hardly gave me
+time to renew my vows to the innkeeper's daughter. I cannot at this
+moment recall her name, but we wept together as we parted, and I can
+remember that she was a very beautiful woman. You will understand, my
+friends, that when a man like me, who has fought the men and kissed the
+women in fourteen separate kingdoms, gives a word of praise to the one
+or the other, it has a little meaning of its own.
+
+The little priest had seemed a trifle grave when we kissed good-bye, but
+he soon proved himself the best of companions in the diligence. All the
+way he amused me with tales of his little parish up in the mountains,
+and I in my turn told him stories about the camp; but, my faith, I had
+to pick my steps, for when I said a word too much he would fidget in his
+seat and his face would show the pain that I had given him. And of
+course it is not the act of a gentleman to talk in anything but a proper
+manner to a religious man, though, with all the care in the world, one's
+words may get out of hand sometimes.
+
+He had come from the north of Spain, as he told me, and was going to see
+his mother in a village of Estremadura, and as he spoke about her little
+peasant home, and her joy in seeing him, it brought my own mother so
+vividly to my thoughts that the tears started to my eyes. In his
+simplicity he showed me the little gifts which he was taking to her, and
+so kindly was his manner that I could readily believe him when he said
+he was loved wherever he went. He examined my own uniform with as much
+curiosity as a child, admiring the plume of my busby, and passing his
+fingers through the sable with which my dolman was trimmed. He drew my
+sword, too, and then when I told him how many men I had cut down with
+it, and set my finger on the notch made by the shoulder-bone of the
+Russian Emperor's aide-de-camp, he shuddered and placed the weapon under
+the leathern cushion, declaring that it made him sick to look at it.
+
+Well, we had been rolling and creaking on our way whilst this talk had
+been going forward, and as we reached the base of the mountains we could
+hear the rumbling of cannon far away upon the right. This came from
+Massena, who was, as I knew, besieging Ciudad Rodrigo. There was nothing
+I should have wished better than to have gone straight to him, for if,
+as some said, he had Jewish blood in his veins, he was the best Jew that
+I have heard of since Joshua's time. If you were in sight of his beaky
+nose and bold, black eyes, you were not likely to miss much of what was
+going on. Still, a siege is always a poor sort of a pick-and-shovel
+business, and there were better prospects with my hussars in front of
+the English. Every mile that passed, my heart grew lighter and lighter,
+until I found myself shouting and singing like a young ensign fresh from
+St Cyr, just to think of seeing all my fine horses and my gallant
+fellows once more.
+
+As we penetrated the mountains the road grew rougher and the pass more
+savage. At first we had met a few muleteers, but now the whole country
+seemed deserted, which is not to be wondered at when you think that the
+French, the English, and the guerillas had each in turn had command over
+it. So bleak and wild was it, one great brown wrinkled cliff succeeding
+another, and the pass growing narrower and narrower, that I ceased to
+look out, but sat in silence, thinking of this and that, of women whom I
+had loved and of horses which I had handled. I was suddenly brought back
+from my dreams, however, by observing the difficulties of my companion,
+who was trying with a sort of brad-awl, which he had drawn out, to bore
+a hole through the leathern strap which held up his water-flask. As he
+worked with twitching fingers the strap escaped his grasp, and the
+wooden bottle fell at my feet. I stooped to pick it up, and as I did so
+the priest silently leaped upon my shoulders and drove his brad-awl into
+my eye!
+
+My friends, I am, as you know, a man steeled to face every danger. When
+one has served from the affair of Zurich to that last fatal day of
+Waterloo, and has had the special medal, which I keep at home in a
+leathern pouch, one can afford to confess when one is frightened. It may
+console some of you, when your own nerves play you tricks, to remember
+that you have heard even me, Brigadier Gerard, say that I have been
+scared. And besides my terror at this horrible attack, and the maddening
+pain of my wound, there was a sudden feeling of loathing such as you
+might feel were some filthy tarantula to strike its fangs into you.
+
+I clutched the creature in both hands, and, hurling him on to the floor
+of the coach, I stamped on him with my heavy boots. He had drawn a
+pistol from the front of his soutane, but I kicked it out of his hand,
+and again I fell with my knees upon his chest. Then, for the first time,
+he screamed horribly, while I, half blinded, felt about for the sword
+which he had so cunningly concealed. My hand had just lighted upon it,
+and I was dashing the blood from my face to see where he lay that I
+might transfix him, when the whole coach turned partly over upon its
+side, and my weapon was jerked out of my grasp by the shock.
+
+Before I could recover myself the door was burst open, and I was
+dragged by the heels on to the road. But even as I was torn out on to
+the flint stones, and realized that thirty ruffians were standing around
+me, I was filled with joy, for my pelisse had been pulled over my head
+in the struggle and was covering one of my eyes, and it was with my
+wounded eye that I was seeing this gang of brigands. You see for
+yourself by this pucker and scar how the thin blade passed between
+socket and ball, but it was only at that moment, when I was dragged from
+the coach, that I understood that my sight was not gone for ever. The
+creature's intention, doubtless, was to drive it through into my brain,
+and indeed he loosened some portion of the inner bone of my head, so
+that I afterwards had more trouble from that wound than from any one of
+the seventeen which I have received.
+
+They dragged me out, these sons of dogs, with curses and execrations,
+beating me with their fists and kicking me as I lay upon the ground. I
+had frequently observed that the mountaineers wore cloth swathed round
+their feet, but never did I imagine that I should have so much cause to
+be thankful for it. Presently, seeing the blood upon my head, and that I
+lay quiet, they thought that I was unconscious, whereas I was storing
+every ugly face among them into my memory, so that I might see them all
+safely hanged if ever my chance came round. Brawny rascals they were,
+with yellow handkerchiefs round their heads, and great red sashes
+stuffed with weapons. They had rolled two rocks across the path, where
+it took a sharp turn, and it was these which had torn off one of the
+wheels of the coach and upset us. As to this reptile, who had acted the
+priest so cleverly and had told me so much of his parish and his mother,
+he, of course, had known where the ambuscade was laid, and had attempted
+to put me beyond all resistance at the moment when we reached it.
+
+I cannot tell you how frantic their rage was when they drew him out of
+the coach and saw the state to which I had reduced him. If he had not
+got all his deserts, he had, at least, something as a souvenir of his
+meeting with Etienne Gerard, for his legs dangled aimlessly about, and
+though the upper part of his body was convulsed with rage and pain, he
+sat straight down upon his feet when they tried to set him upright. But
+all the time his two little black eyes, which had seemed so kindly and
+so innocent in the coach, were glaring at me like a wounded cat, and he
+spat, and spat, and spat in my direction. My faith! when the wretches
+jerked me on to my feet again, and when I was dragged off up one of the
+mountain paths, I understood that a time was coming when I was to need
+all my courage and resource. My enemy was carried upon the shoulders of
+two men behind me, and I could hear his hissing and his reviling, first
+in one ear and then in the other, as I was hurried up the winding track.
+
+I suppose that it must have been for an hour that we ascended, and what
+with my wounded ankle and the pain from my eye, and the fear lest this
+wound should have spoiled my appearance, I have made no journey to which
+I look back with less pleasure. I have never been a good climber at any
+time, but it is astonishing what you can do, even with a stiff ankle,
+when you have a copper-coloured brigand at each elbow and a nine-inch
+blade within touch of your whiskers.
+
+We came at last to a place where the path wound over a ridge, and
+descended upon the other side through thick pine-trees into a valley
+which opened to the south. In time of peace I had little doubt that the
+villains were all smugglers, and that these were the secret paths by
+which they crossed the Portuguese frontier. There were many mule-tracks,
+and once I was surprised to see the marks of a large horse where a
+stream had softened the track. These were explained when, on reaching a
+place where there was a clearing in the fir wood, I saw the animal
+itself haltered to a fallen tree. My eyes had hardly rested upon it,
+when I recognized the great black limbs and the white near fore-leg. It
+was the very horse which I had begged for in the morning.
+
+What, then, had become of Commissariat Vidal? Was it possible that
+there was another Frenchman in as perilous a plight as myself? The
+thought had hardly entered my head when our party stopped and one of
+them uttered a peculiar cry. It was answered from among the brambles
+which lined the base of a cliff at one side of a clearing, and an
+instant later ten or a dozen more brigands came out from amongst them,
+and the two parties greeted each other. The new-comers surrounded my
+friend of the brad-awl with cries of grief and sympathy, and then,
+turning upon me, they brandished their knives and howled at me like the
+gang of assassins that they were. So frantic were their gestures that I
+was convinced that my end had come, and was just bracing myself to meet
+it in a manner which should be worthy of my past reputation, when one of
+them gave an order and I was dragged roughly across the little glade to
+the brambles from which this new band had emerged.
+
+A narrow pathway led through them to a deep grotto in the side of the
+cliff. The sun was already setting outside, and in the cave itself it
+would have been quite dark but for a pair of torches which blazed from a
+socket on either side. Between them there was sitting at a rude table a
+very singular-looking person, whom I saw instantly, from the respect
+with which the others addressed him, could be none other than the
+brigand chief who had received, on account of his dreadful character,
+the sinister name of El Cuchillo.
+
+The man whom I had injured had been carried in and placed upon the top
+of a barrel, his helpless legs dangling about in front of him, and his
+cat's eyes still darting glances of hatred at me. I understood, from the
+snatches of talk which I could follow between the chief and him, that he
+was the lieutenant of the band, and that part of his duties was to lie
+in wait with his smooth tongue and his peaceful garb for travellers like
+myself. When I thought of how many gallant officers may have been lured
+to their death by this monster of hypocrisy, it gave me a glow of
+pleasure to think that I had brought his villainies to an end--though I
+feared it would be at the price of a life which neither the Emperor nor
+the army could well spare.
+
+As the injured man still supported upon the barrel by two comrades, was
+explaining in Spanish all that had befallen him, I was held by several
+of the villains in front of the table at which the chief was seated, and
+had an excellent opportunity of observing him. I have seldom seen any
+man who was less like my idea of a brigand, and especially of a brigand
+with such a reputation that in a land of cruelty he had earned so dark a
+nickname. His face was bluff and broad and bland, with ruddy cheeks and
+comfortable little tufts of side-whiskers, which gave him the appearance
+of a well-to-do grocer of the Rue St Antoine. He had not any of those
+flaring sashes or gleaming weapons which distinguished his followers,
+but on the contrary he wore a good broadcloth coat like a respectable
+father of a family, and save for his brown leggings there was nothing to
+indicate a life among the mountains. His surroundings, too, corresponded
+with himself, and beside his snuff-box upon the table there stood a
+great brown book, which looked like a commercial ledger. Many other
+books were ranged along a plank between two powder-casks, and there was
+a great litter of papers, some of which had verses scribbled upon them.
+All this I took in while he, leaning indolently back in his chair, was
+listening to the report of his lieutenant. Having heard everything, he
+ordered the cripple to be carried out again, and I was left with my
+three guards, waiting to hear my fate. He took up his pen, and tapping
+his forehead with the handle of it, he pursed up his lips and looked out
+of the corner of his eyes at the roof of the grotto.
+
+'I suppose,' said he at last, speaking very excellent French, 'that you
+are not able to suggest a rhyme for the word Covilha.'
+
+I answered him that my acquaintance with the Spanish language was so
+limited that I was unable to oblige him.
+
+'It is a rich language,' said he, 'but less prolific in rhymes than
+either the German or the English. That is why our best work has been
+done in blank verse, a form of composition which is capable of reaching
+great heights. But I fear that such subjects are somewhat outside the
+range of a hussar.'
+
+I was about to answer that if they were good enough for a guerilla, they
+could not be too much for the light cavalry, but he was already stooping
+over his half-finished verse. Presently he threw down the pen with an
+exclamation of satisfaction, and declaimed a few lines which drew a cry
+of approval from the three ruffians who held me. His broad face blushed
+like a young girl who receives her first compliment.
+
+'The critics are in my favour, it appears,' said he; 'we amuse ourselves
+in our long evenings by singing our own ballads, you understand. I have
+some little facility in that direction, and I do not at all despair of
+seeing some of my poor efforts in print before long, and with "Madrid"
+upon the title-page, too. But we must get back to business. May I ask
+what your name is?'
+
+'Etienne Gerard.'
+
+'Rank?'
+
+'Colonel.'
+
+'Corps?'
+
+'The Third Hussars of Conflans.'
+
+'You are young for a colonel.'
+
+'My career has been an eventful one.'
+
+'Tut, that makes it the sadder,' said he, with his bland smile.
+
+I made no answer to that, but I tried to show him by my bearing that I
+was ready for the worst which could befall me.
+
+'By the way, I rather fancy that we have had some of your corps here,'
+said he, turning over the pages of his big brown register. 'We
+endeavour to keep a record of our operations. Here is a heading under
+June 24th. Have you not a young officer named Soubiron, a tall, slight
+youth with light hair?'
+
+'Certainly.'
+
+'I see that we buried him upon that date.'
+
+'Poor lad!' I cried. 'And how did he die?'
+
+'We buried him.'
+
+'But before you buried him?'
+
+'You misunderstand me, Colonel. He was not dead before we buried him.'
+
+'You buried him alive!'
+
+For a moment I was too stunned to act. Then I hurled myself upon the
+man, as he sat with that placid smile of his upon his lips, and I would
+have torn his throat out had the three wretches not dragged me away from
+him. Again and again I made for him, panting and cursing, shaking off
+this man and that, straining and wrenching, but never quite free. At
+last, with my jacket torn nearly off my back and blood dripping from my
+wrists, I was hauled backwards in the bight of a rope and cords passed
+round my ankles and my arms.
+
+'You sleek hound!' I cried. 'If ever I have you at my sword's point, I
+will teach you to maltreat one of my lads. You will find, you
+bloodthirsty beast, that my Emperor has long arms, and though you lie
+here like a rat in its hole, the time will come when he will tear you
+out of it, and you and your vermin will perish together.'
+
+My faith, I have a rough side to my tongue, and there was not a hard
+word that I had learned in fourteen campaigns which I did not let fly at
+him; but he sat with the handle of his pen tapping against his forehead
+and his eyes squinting up at the roof as if he had conceived the idea of
+some new stanza. It was this occupation of his which showed me how I
+might get my point into him.
+
+'You spawn!' said I; 'you think that you are safe here, but your life
+may be as short as that of your absurd verses, and God knows that it
+could not be shorter than that.'
+
+Ah, you should have seen him bound from his chair when I said the words.
+This vile monster, who dispensed death and torture as a grocer serves
+out his figs, had one raw nerve then which I could prod at pleasure. His
+face grew livid, and those little bourgeois side-whiskers quivered and
+thrilled with passion.
+
+'Very good, Colonel. You have said enough,' he cried, in a choking
+voice. 'You say that you have had a very distinguished career. I promise
+you also a very distinguished ending. Colonel Etienne Gerard of the
+Third Hussars shall have a death of his own.'
+
+'And I only beg,' said I, 'that you will not commemorate it in verse.' I
+had one or two little ironies to utter, but he cut me short by a furious
+gesture which caused my three guards to drag me from the cave.
+
+Our interview, which I have told you as nearly as I can remember it,
+must have lasted some time, for it was quite dark when we came out, and
+the moon was shining very clearly in the heavens. The brigands had
+lighted a great fire of the dried branches of the fir-trees; not, of
+course, for warmth, since the night was already very sultry, but to cook
+their evening meal. A huge copper pot hung over the blaze, and the
+rascals were lying all round in the yellow glare, so that the scene
+looked like one of those pictures which Junot stole out of Madrid. There
+are some soldiers who profess to care nothing for art and the like, but
+I have always been drawn towards it myself, in which respect I show my
+good taste and my breeding. I remember, for example, that when Lefebvre
+was selling the plunder after the fall of Danzig, I bought a very fine
+picture, called 'Nymphs Surprised in a Wood,' and I carried it with me
+through two campaigns, until my charger had the misfortune to put his
+hoof through it.
+
+I only tell you this, however, to show you that I was never a mere
+rough soldier like Rapp or Ney. As I lay in that brigands' camp, I had
+little time or inclination to think about such matters. They had thrown
+me down under a tree, the three villains squatting round and smoking
+their cigarettes within hands' touch of me. What to do I could not
+imagine. In my whole career I do not suppose that I have ten times been
+in as hopeless a situation. 'But courage,' thought I. 'Courage, my brave
+boy! You were not made a Colonel of Hussars at twenty-eight because you
+could dance a cotillon. You are a picked man, Etienne; a man who has
+come through more than two hundred affairs, and this little one is
+surely not going to be the last.' I began eagerly to glance about for
+some chance of escape, and as I did so I saw something which filled me
+with great astonishment.
+
+I have already told you that a large fire was burning in the centre of
+the glade. What with its glare, and what with the moonlight, everything
+was as clear as possible. On the other side of the glade there was a
+single tall fir-tree which attracted my attention because its trunk and
+lower branches were discoloured, as if a large fire had recently been
+lit underneath it. A clump of bushes grew in front of it which concealed
+the base. Well, as I looked towards it, I was surprised to see
+projecting above the bush, and fastened apparently to the tree, a pair
+of fine riding boots with the toes upwards. At first I thought that they
+were tied there, but as I looked harder I saw that they were secured by
+a great nail which was hammered through the foot of each. And then,
+suddenly, with a thrill of horror, I understood that these were not
+empty boots; and moving my head a little to the right, I was able to see
+who it was that had been fastened there, and why a fire had been lit
+beneath the tree. It is not pleasant to speak or to think of horrors, my
+friends, and I do not wish to give any of you bad dreams tonight--but I
+cannot take you among the Spanish guerillas without showing you what
+kind of men they were, and the sort of warfare that they waged. I will
+only say that I understood why Monsieur Vidal's horse was waiting
+masterless in the grove, and that I hoped he had met this terrible fate
+with sprightliness and courage, as a good Frenchman ought.
+
+It was not a very cheering sight for me, as you can imagine. When I had
+been with their chief in the grotto I had been so carried away by my
+rage at the cruel death of young Soubiron, who was one of the brightest
+lads who ever threw his thigh over a charger, that I had never given a
+thought to my own position. Perhaps it would have been more politic had
+I spoken the ruffian fair, but it was too late now. The cork was drawn
+and I must drain the wine. Besides, if the harmless commissariat man
+were put to such a death, what hope was there for me, who had snapped
+the spine of their lieutenant? No, I was doomed in any case, and it was
+as well perhaps that I should have put the best face on the matter. This
+beast could bear witness that Etienne Gerard had died as he had lived,
+and that one prisoner at least had not quailed before him. I lay there
+thinking of the various girls who would mourn for me, and of my dear old
+mother, and of the deplorable loss which I should be, both to my
+regiment and to the Emperor, and I am not ashamed to confess to you that
+I shed tears as I thought of the general consternation which my
+premature end would give rise to.
+
+But all the time I was taking the very keenest notice of everything
+which might possibly help me. I am not a man who would lie like a sick
+horse waiting for the farrier sergeant and the pole-axe. First I would
+give a little tug at my ankle cords, and then another at those which
+were round my wrists, and all the time that I was trying to loosen them
+I was peering round to see if I could find something which was in my
+favour. There was one thing which was very evident. A hussar is but half
+formed without a horse, and there was my other half quietly grazing
+within thirty yards of me. Then I observed yet another thing. The path
+by which we had come over the mountains was so steep that a horse could
+only be led across it slowly and with difficulty, but in the other
+direction the ground appeared to be more open, and to lead straight down
+into a gently-sloping valley. Had I but my feet in yonder stirrups and
+my sabre in my hand, a single bold dash might take me out of the power
+of these vermin of the rocks.
+
+I was still thinking it over and straining with my wrists and my ankles,
+when their chief came out from his grotto, and after some talk with his
+lieutenant, who lay groaning near the fire, they both nodded their heads
+and looked across at me. He then said some few words to the band, who
+clapped their hands and laughed uproariously. Things looked ominous, and
+I was delighted to feel that my hands were so far free that I could
+easily slip them through the cords if I wished. But with my ankles I
+feared that I could do nothing, for when I strained it brought such pain
+into my lance-wound that I had to gnaw my moustache to keep from crying
+out. I could only lie still, half-free and half-bound, and see what turn
+things were likely to take.
+
+For a little I could not make out what they were after. One of the
+rascals climbed up a well-grown fir-tree upon one side of the glade, and
+tied a rope round the top of the trunk. He then fastened another rope in
+the same fashion to a similar tree upon the other side. The two loose
+ends were now dangling down, and I waited with some curiosity, and just
+a little trepidation also, to see what they would do next. The whole
+band pulled upon one of the ropes until they had bent the strong young
+tree down into a semi-circle, and they then fastened it to a stump, so
+as to hold it so. When they had bent the other tree down in a similar
+fashion, the two summits were within a few feet of each other, though,
+as you understand, they would each spring back into their original
+position the instant that they were released. I already saw the
+diabolical plan which these miscreants had formed.
+
+'I presume that you are a strong man, Colonel,' said the chief, coming
+towards me with his hateful smile.
+
+'If you will have the kindness to loosen these cords,' I answered, 'I
+will show you how strong I am.'
+
+'We were all interested to see whether you were as strong as these two
+young saplings,' said he. 'It is our intention, you see, to tie one end
+of each rope round your ankles and then let the trees go. If you are
+stronger than the trees, then, of course, no harm would be done; if, on
+the other hand, the trees are stronger than you, why, in that case,
+Colonel, we may have a souvenir of you upon each side of our little
+glade.'
+
+He laughed as he spoke, and at the sight of it the whole forty of them
+laughed also. Even now if I am in my darker humour, or if I have a touch
+of my old Lithuanian ague, I see in my sleep that ring of dark, savage
+faces, with their cruel eyes, and the firelight flashing upon their
+strong white teeth.
+
+It is astonishing--and I have heard many make the same remark--how acute
+one's senses become at such a crisis as this. I am convinced that at no
+moment is one living so vividly, so acutely, as at the instant when a
+violent and foreseen death overtakes one. I could smell the resinous
+fagots, I could see every twig upon the ground, I could hear every
+rustle of the branches, as I have never smelled or seen or heard save at
+such times of danger. And so it was that long before anyone else, before
+even the time when the chief had addressed me, I had heard a low,
+monotonous sound, far away indeed, and yet coming nearer at every
+instant. At first it was but a murmur, a rumble, but by the time he had
+finished speaking, while the assassins were untying my ankles in order
+to lead me to the scene of my murder, I heard, as plainly as ever I
+heard anything in my life, the clinking of horseshoes and the jingling
+of bridle-chains, with the clank of sabres against stirrup-irons. Is it
+likely that I, who had lived with the light cavalry since the first hair
+shaded my lip, would mistake the sound of troopers on the march?
+
+'Help, comrades, help!' I shrieked, and though they struck me across
+the mouth and tried to drag me up to the trees, I kept on yelling, 'Help
+me, my brave boys! Help me, my children! They are murdering your
+colonel!'
+
+For the moment my wounds and my troubles had brought on a delirium, and
+I looked for nothing less than my five hundred hussars, kettle-drums and
+all, to appear at the opening of the glade.
+
+But that which really appeared was very different to anything which I
+had conceived. Into the clear space there came galloping a fine young
+man upon a most beautiful roan horse. He was fresh-faced and
+pleasant-looking, with the most debonair bearing in the world and the
+most gallant way of carrying himself--a way which reminded me somewhat
+of my own. He wore a singular coat which had once been red all over, but
+which was now stained to the colour of a withered oak-leaf wherever the
+weather could reach it. His shoulder-straps, however, were of golden
+lace, and he had a bright metal helmet upon his head, with a coquettish
+white plume upon one side of its crest. He trotted his horse up the
+glade, while behind him rode four cavaliers in the same dress--all
+clean-shaven, with round, comely faces, looking to me more like monks
+than dragoons. At a short, gruff order they halted with a rattle of
+arms, while their leader cantered forward, the fire beating upon his
+eager face and the beautiful head of his charger. I knew, of course, by
+the strange coats that they were English. It was the first sight that I
+had ever had of them, but from their stout bearing and their masterful
+way I could see at a glance that what I had always been told was true,
+and that they were excellent people to fight against.
+
+'Well, well, well!' cried the young officer, in sufficiently bad French,
+'what game are you up to here? Who was that who was yelling for help,
+and what are you trying to do to him?'
+
+It was at that moment that I learned to bless those months which
+Obriant, the descendant of the Irish kings, had spent in teaching me the
+tongue of the English. My ankles had just been freed, so that I had only
+to slip my hands out of the cords, and with a single rush I had flown
+across, picked up my sabre where it lay by the fire, and hurled myself
+on to the saddle of poor Vidal's horse. Yes, for all my wounded ankle, I
+never put foot to stirrup, but was in the seat in a single bound. I tore
+the halter from the tree, and before these villains could so much as
+snap a pistol at me I was beside the English officer.
+
+'I surrender to you, sir,' I cried; though I daresay my English was not
+very much better than his French. 'If you will look at that tree to the
+left you will see what these villains do to the honourable gentlemen who
+fall into their hands.'
+
+The fire had flared up at that moment, and there was poor Vidal exposed
+before them, as horrible an object as one could see in a nightmare.
+'Godam!' cried the officer, and 'Godam!' cried each of the four
+troopers, which is the same as with us when we cry 'Mon Dieu!' Out
+rasped the five swords, and the four men closed up. One, who wore a
+sergeant's chevrons, laughed and clapped me on the shoulder.
+
+'Fight for your skin, froggy,' said he.
+
+Ah, it was so fine to have a horse between my thighs and a weapon in my
+grip. I waved it above my head and shouted in my exultation. The chief
+had come forward with that odious smiling face of his.
+
+'Your excellency will observe that this Frenchman is our prisoner,' said
+he.
+
+'You are a rascally robber,' said the Englishman, shaking his sword at
+him. 'It is a disgrace to us to have such allies. By my faith, if Lord
+Wellington were of my mind we would swing you up on the nearest tree.'
+
+'But my prisoner?' said the brigand, in his suave voice.
+
+'He shall come with us to the British camp.'
+
+'Just a word in your ear before you take him.'
+
+He approached the young officer, and then turning as quick as a flash,
+he fired his pistol in my face. The bullet scored its way through my
+hair and burst a hole on each side of my busby. Seeing that he had
+missed me, he raised the pistol and was about to hurl it at me when the
+English sergeant, with a single back-handed cut, nearly severed his head
+from his body. His blood had not reached the ground, nor the last curse
+died on his lips, before the whole horde was upon us, but with a dozen
+bounds and as many slashes we were all safely out of the glade, and
+galloping down the winding track which led to the valley.
+
+It was not until we had left the ravine far behind us and were right out
+in the open fields that we ventured to halt, and to see what injuries we
+had sustained. For me, wounded and weary as I was, my heart was beating
+proudly, and my chest was nearly bursting my tunic to think that I,
+Etienne Gerard, had left this gang of murderers so much by which to
+remember me. My faith, they would think twice before they ventured again
+to lay hands upon one of the Third Hussars. So carried away was I that I
+made a small oration to these brave Englishmen, and told them who it was
+that they had helped to rescue. I would have spoken of glory also, and
+of the sympathies of brave men, but the officer cut me short.
+
+'That's all right,' said he. 'Any injuries, Sergeant?'
+
+'Trooper Jones's horse hit with a pistol bullet on the fetlock.'
+
+'Trooper Jones to go with us. Sergeant Halliday, with troopers Harvey
+and Smith, to keep to the right until they touch the vedettes of the
+German Hussars.'
+
+So these three jingled away together, while the officer and I, followed
+at some distance by the trooper whose horse had been wounded, rode
+straight down in the direction of the English camp. Very soon we had
+opened our hearts, for we each liked the other from the beginning. He
+was of the nobility, this brave lad, and he had been sent out scouting
+by Lord Wellington to see if there were any signs of our advancing
+through the mountains. It is one advantage of a wandering life like
+mine, that you learn to pick up those bits of knowledge which
+distinguish the man of the world. I have, for example, hardly ever met a
+Frenchman who could repeat an English title correctly. If I had not
+travelled I should not be able to say with confidence that this young
+man's real name was Milor the Hon. Sir Russell, Bart., this last being
+an honourable distinction, so that it was as the Bart that I usually
+addressed him, just as in Spanish one might say 'the Don.'
+
+As we rode beneath the moonlight in the lovely Spanish night, we spoke
+our minds to each other, as if we were brothers. We were both of an age,
+you see, both of the light cavalry also (the Sixteenth Light Dragoons
+was his regiment), and both with the same hopes and ambitions. Never
+have I learned to know a man so quickly as I did the Bart. He gave me
+the name of a girl whom he had loved at a garden called Vauxhall, and,
+for my own part, I spoke to him of little Coralie, of the Opera. He took
+a lock of hair from his bosom, and I a garter. Then we nearly quarrelled
+over hussar and dragoon, for he was absurdly proud of his regiment, and
+you should have seen him curl his lip and clap his hand to his hilt when
+I said that I hoped it might never be its misfortune to come in the way
+of the Third. Finally, he began to speak about what the English call
+sport, and he told such stories of the money which he had lost over
+which of two cocks could kill the other, or which of two men could
+strike the other the most in a fight for a prize, that I was filled with
+astonishment. He was ready to bet upon anything in the most wonderful
+manner, and when I chanced to see a shooting star he was anxious to bet
+that he would see more than me, twenty-five francs a star, and it was
+only when I explained that my purse was in the hands of the brigands
+that he would give over the idea.
+
+Well, we chatted away in this very amiable fashion until the day began
+to break, when suddenly we heard a great volley of musketry from
+somewhere in front of us. It was very rocky and broken ground, and I
+thought, although I could see nothing, that a general engagement had
+broken out. The Bart laughed at my idea, however, and explained that the
+sound came from the English camp, where every man emptied his piece each
+morning so as to make sure of having a dry priming.
+
+'In another mile we shall be up with the outposts,' said he.
+
+I glanced round at this, and I perceived that we had trotted along at so
+good a pace during the time that we were keeping up our pleasant chat,
+that the dragoon with the lame horse was altogether out of sight. I
+looked on every side, but in the whole of that vast rocky valley there
+was no one save only the Bart and I--both of us armed, you understand,
+and both of us well mounted. I began to ask myself whether after all it
+was quite necessary that I should ride that mile which would bring me to
+the British outposts.
+
+Now, I wish to be very clear with you on this point, my friends, for I
+would not have you think that I was acting dishonourably or ungratefully
+to the man who had helped me away from the brigands. You must remember
+that of all duties the strongest is that which a commanding officer owes
+to his men. You must also bear in mind that war is a game which is
+played under fixed rules, and when these rules are broken one must at
+once claim the forfeit. If, for example, I had given a parole, then I
+should have been an infamous wretch had I dreamed of escaping. But no
+parole had been asked of me. Out of over-confidence, and the chance of
+the lame horse dropping behind, the Bart had permitted me to get upon
+equal terms with him. Had it been I who had taken him, I should have
+used him as courteously as he had me, but, at the same time, I should
+have respected his enterprise so far as to have deprived him of his
+sword, and seen that I had at least one guard beside myself. I reined
+up my horse and explained this to him, asking him at the same time
+whether he saw any breach of honour in my leaving him.
+
+He thought about it, and several times repeated that which the English
+say when they mean 'Mon Dieu.'
+
+'You would give me the slip, would you?' said he.
+
+'If you can give no reason against it.'
+
+'The only reason that I can think of,' said the Bart, 'is that I should
+instantly cut your head off if you were to attempt it.'
+
+'Two can play at that game, my dear Bart,' said I.
+
+'Then we'll see who can play at it best,' he cried, pulling out his
+sword.
+
+I had drawn mine also, but I was quite determined not to hurt this
+admirable young man who had been my benefactor.
+
+'Consider,' said I, 'you say that I am your prisoner. I might with equal
+reason say that you are mine. We are alone here, and though I have no
+doubt that you are an excellent swordsman, you can hardly hope to hold
+your own against the best blade in the six light cavalry brigades.'
+
+His answer was a cut at my head. I parried and shore off half of his
+white plume. He thrust at my breast. I turned his point and cut away the
+other half of his cockade.
+
+'Curse your monkey-tricks!' he cried, as I wheeled my horse away from
+him.
+
+'Why should you strike at me?' said I. 'You see that I will not strike
+back.'
+
+'That's all very well,' said he; 'but you've got to come along with me
+to the camp.'
+
+'I shall never see the camp,' said I.
+
+'I'll lay you nine to four you do,' he cried, as he made at me, sword in
+hand.
+
+But those words of his put something new into my head. Could we not
+decide the matter in some better way than fighting? The Bart was
+placing me in such a position that I should have to hurt him, or he
+would certainly hurt me. I avoided his rush, though his sword-point was
+within an inch of my neck.
+
+'I have a proposal,' I cried. 'We shall throw dice as to which is the
+prisoner of the other.'
+
+He smiled at this. It appealed to his love of sport.
+
+'Where are your dice?' he cried.
+
+'I have none.'
+
+'Nor I. But I have cards.'
+
+'Cards let it be,' said I.
+
+'And the game?'
+
+'I leave it to you.'
+
+'Ecarte, then--the best of three.'
+
+I could not help smiling as I agreed, for I do not suppose that there
+were three men in France who were my masters at the game. I told the
+Bart as much as we dismounted. He smiled also as he listened.
+
+'I was counted the best player at Watier's,' said he. 'With even luck
+you deserve to get off if you beat me.'
+
+So we tethered our two horses and sat down one on either side of a great
+flat rock. The Bart took a pack of cards out of his tunic, and I had
+only to see him shuffle to convince me that I had no novice to deal
+with. We cut, and the deal fell to him.
+
+My faith, it was a stake worth playing for. He wished to add a hundred
+gold pieces a game, but what was money when the fate of Colonel Etienne
+Gerard hung upon the cards? I felt as though all those who had reason to
+be interested in the game--my mother, my hussars, the Sixth Corps
+d'Armee, Ney, Massena, even the Emperor himself--were forming a ring
+round us in that desolate valley. Heavens, what a blow to one and all of
+them should the cards go against me! But I was confident, for my ecarte
+play was as famous as my swordsmanship, and save old Bouvet of the
+Hussars of Bercheny, who won seventy-six out of one hundred and fifty
+games off me, I have always had the best of a series.
+
+The first game I won right off, though I must confess that the cards
+were with me, and that my adversary could have done no more. In the
+second, I never played better and saved a trick by a finesse, but the
+Bart voled me once, marked the king, and ran out in the second hand. My
+faith, we were so excited that he laid his helmet down beside him and I
+my busby.
+
+'I'll lay my roan mare against your black horse,' said he.
+
+'Done!' said I.
+
+'Sword against sword.'
+
+'Done!' said I.
+
+'Saddle, bridle, and stirrups!' he cried.
+
+'Done!' I shouted.
+
+I had caught this spirit of sport from him. I would have laid my hussars
+against his dragoons had they been ours to pledge.
+
+And then began the game of games. Oh, he played, this Englishman--he
+played in a way that was worthy of such a stake. But I, my friends, I
+was superb! Of the five which I had to make to win, I gained three on
+the first hand. The Bart bit his moustache and drummed his hands, while
+I already felt myself at the head of my dear little rascals. On the
+second, I turned the king, but lost two tricks--and my score was four to
+his two. When I saw my next hand I could not but give a cry of delight.
+'If I cannot gain my freedom on this,' thought I, 'I deserve to remain
+for ever in chains.'
+
+Give me the cards, landlord, and I will lay them out on the table for
+you.
+
+Here was my hand: knave and ace of clubs, queen and knave of diamonds,
+and king of hearts. Clubs were trumps, mark you, and I had but one point
+between me and freedom. He knew it was the crisis, and he undid his
+tunic. I threw my dolman on the ground. He led the ten of spades. I took
+it with my ace of trumps. One point in my favour. The correct play was
+to clear the trumps, and I led the knave. Down came the queen upon it,
+and the game was equal. He led the eight of spades, and I could only
+discard my queen of diamonds. Then came the seven of spades, and the
+hair stood straight up on my head. We each threw down a king at the
+final. He had won two points, and my beautiful hand had been mastered by
+his inferior one. I could have rolled on the ground as I thought of it.
+They used to play very good ecarte at Watier's in the year '10. I say
+it--I, Brigadier Gerard.
+
+The last game was now four all. This next hand must settle it one way or
+the other. He undid his sash, and I put away my sword-belt. He was cool,
+this Englishman, and I tried to be so also, but the perspiration would
+trickle into my eyes. The deal lay with him, and I may confess to you,
+my friends, that my hands shook so that I could hardly pick my cards
+from the rock. But when I raised them, what was the first thing that my
+eyes rested upon? It was the king, the king, the glorious king of
+trumps! My mouth was open to declare it when the words were frozen upon
+my lips by the appearance of my comrade.
+
+He held his cards in his hand, but his jaw had fallen, and his eyes were
+staring over my shoulder with the most dreadful expression of
+consternation and surprise. I whisked round, and I was myself amazed at
+what I saw.
+
+Three men were standing quite close to us--fifteen metres at the
+farthest. The middle one was of a good height, and yet not too
+tall--about the same height, in fact, that I am myself. He was clad in a
+dark uniform with a small cocked hat, and some sort of white plume upon
+the side. But I had little thought of his dress. It was his face, his
+gaunt cheeks, his beak-like nose, his masterful blue eyes, his thin,
+firm slit of a mouth which made one feel that this was a wonderful man,
+a man of a million. His brows were tied into a knot, and he cast such a
+glance at my poor Bart from under them that one by one the cards came
+fluttering down from his nerveless fingers. Of the two other men, one,
+who had a face as brown and hard as though it had been carved out of old
+oak, wore a bright red coat, while the other, a fine portly man with
+bushy side-whiskers, was in a blue jacket with gold facings. Some little
+distance behind, three orderlies were holding as many horses, and an
+escort of dragoons was waiting in the rear.
+
+'Heh, Crauford, what the deuce is this?' asked the thin man.
+
+'D'you hear, sir?' cried the man with the red coat. 'Lord Wellington
+wants to know what this means.'
+
+My poor Bart broke into an account of all that had occurred, but that
+rock-face never softened for an instant.
+
+'Pretty fine, 'pon my word, General Crauford,' he broke in. 'The
+discipline of this force must be maintained, sir. Report yourself at
+headquarters as a prisoner.'
+
+It was dreadful to me to see the Bart mount his horse and ride off with
+hanging head. I could not endure it. I threw myself before this English
+General. I pleaded with him for my friend. I told him how I, Colonel
+Gerard, would witness what a dashing young officer he was. Ah, my
+eloquence might have melted the hardest heart; I brought tears to my own
+eyes, but none to his. My voice broke, and I could say no more.
+
+'What weight do you put on your mules, sir, in the French service?' he
+asked. Yes, that was all this phlegmatic Englishman had to answer to
+these burning words of mine. That was his reply to what would have made
+a Frenchman weep upon my shoulder.
+
+'What weight on a mule?' asked the man with the red coat.
+
+'Two hundred and ten pounds,' said I.
+
+'Then you load them deucedly badly,' said Lord Wellington. 'Remove the
+prisoner to the rear.'
+
+His dragoons closed in upon me, and I--I was driven mad, as I thought
+that the game had been in my hands, and that I ought at that moment to
+be a free man. I held the cards up in front of the General.
+
+'See, my lord!' I cried; 'I played for my freedom and I won, for, as you
+perceive, I hold the king.'
+
+For the first time a slight smile softened his gaunt face.
+
+'On the contrary,' said he, as he mounted his horse, 'it is I who won,
+for, as you perceive, my King holds you.'
+
+
+
+
+4. HOW THE KING HELD THE BRIGADIER
+
+
+Murat was undoubtedly an excellent cavalry officer, but he had too much
+swagger, which spoils many a good soldier. Lasalle, too, was a very
+dashing leader, but he ruined himself with wine and folly. Now I,
+Etienne Gerard, was always totally devoid of swagger, and at the same
+time I was very abstemious, except, maybe, at the end of a campaign, or
+when I met an old comrade-in-arms. For these reasons I might, perhaps,
+had it not been for a certain diffidence, have claimed to be the most
+valuable officer in my own branch of the Service. It is true that I
+never rose to be more than a chief of brigade, but then, as everyone
+knows, no one had a chance of rising to the top unless he had the good
+fortune to be with the Emperor in his early campaigns. Except Lasalle,
+and Labau, and Drouet, I can hardly remember any one of the generals who
+had not already made his name before the Egyptian business. Even I, with
+all my brilliant qualities, could only attain the head of my brigade,
+and also the special medal of honour, which I received from the Emperor
+himself, and which I keep at home in a leathern pouch.
+
+But though I never rose higher than this, my qualities were very well
+known to those who had served with me, and also to the English. After
+they had captured me in the way which I described to you the other
+night, they kept a very good guard over me at Oporto, and I promise you
+that they did not give such a formidable opponent a chance of slipping
+through their fingers. It was on the 10th of August that I was escorted
+on board the transport which was to take us to England, and behold me
+before the end of the month in the great prison which had been built for
+us at Dartmoor!
+
+'L'hotel Francais, et Pension,' we used to call it, for you understand
+that we were all brave men there, and that we did not lose our spirits
+because we were in adversity.
+
+It was only those officers who refused to give their parole who were
+confined at Dartmoor, and most of the prisoners were seamen, or from the
+ranks. You ask me, perhaps, why it was that I did not give this parole,
+and so enjoy the same good treatment as most of my brother officers.
+Well, I had two reasons, and both of them were sufficiently strong.
+
+In the first place, I had so much confidence in myself, that I was quite
+convinced that I could escape. In the second, my family, though of good
+repute, has never been wealthy, and I could not bring myself to take
+anything from the small income of my mother. On the other hand, it would
+never do for a man like me to be outshone by the bourgeois society of an
+English country town, or to be without the means of showing courtesies
+and attentions to those ladies whom I should attract. It was for these
+reasons that I preferred to be buried in the dreadful prison of
+Dartmoor. I wish now to tell you of my adventures in England, and how
+far Milor Wellington's words were true when he said that his King would
+hold me.
+
+And first of all I may say that if it were not that I have set off to
+tell you about what befell myself, I could keep you here until morning
+with my stories about Dartmoor itself, and about the singular things
+which occurred there. It was one of the very strangest places in the
+whole world, for there, in the middle of that great desolate waste, were
+herded together seven or eight thousand men--warriors, you understand,
+men of experience and courage. Around there were a double wall and a
+ditch, and warders and soldiers; but, my faith! you could not coop men
+like that up like rabbits in a hutch! They would escape by twos and tens
+and twenties, and then the cannon would boom, and the search parties
+run, and we, who were left behind, would laugh and dance and shout
+'Vive l'Empereur' until the warders would turn their muskets upon us in
+their passion. And then we would have our little mutinies, too, and up
+would come the infantry and the guns from Plymouth, and that would set
+us yelling 'Vive l'Empereur' once more, as though we wished them to hear
+us in Paris. We had lively moments at Dartmoor, and we contrived that
+those who were about us should be lively also.
+
+You must know that the prisoners there had their own Courts of Justice,
+in which they tried their own cases, and inflicted their own
+punishments. Stealing and quarrelling were punished--but most of all
+treachery. When I came there first there was a man, Meunier, from
+Rheims, who had given information of some plot to escape. Well, that
+night, owing to some form or other which had to be gone through, they
+did not take him out from among the other prisoners, and though he wept
+and screamed, and grovelled upon the ground, they left him there amongst
+the comrades whom he had betrayed. That night there was a trial with a
+whispered accusation and a whispered defence, a gagged prisoner, and a
+judge whom none could see. In the morning, when they came for their man
+with papers for his release, there was not as much of him left as you
+could put upon your thumb-nail. They were ingenious people, these
+prisoners, and they had their own way of managing.
+
+We officers, however, lived in a separate wing, and a very singular
+group of people we were. They had left us our uniforms, so that there
+was hardly a corps which had served under Victor, or Massena, or Ney,
+which was not represented there, and some had been there from the time
+when Junot was beaten at Vimiera. We had chasseurs in their green
+tunics, and hussars, like myself, and blue-coated dragoons, and
+white-fronted lancers, and voltigeurs, and grenadiers, and the men of
+the artillery and engineers. But the greater part were naval officers,
+for the English had had the better of us upon the seas. I could never
+understand this until I journeyed myself from Oporto to Plymouth, when
+I lay for seven days upon my back, and could not have stirred had I seen
+the eagle of the regiment carried off before my eyes. It was in
+perfidious weather like this that Nelson took advantage of us.
+
+I had no sooner got into Dartmoor than I began to plan to get out again,
+and you can readily believe that, with wits sharpened by twelve years of
+warfare, it was not very long before I saw my way.
+
+You must know, in the first place, that I had a very great advantage in
+having some knowledge of the English language. I learned it during the
+months that I spent before Danzig, from Adjutant Obriant, of the
+Regiment Irlandais, who was sprung from the ancient kings of the
+country. I was quickly able to speak it with some facility, for I do not
+take long to master anything to which I set my mind. In three months I
+could not only express my meaning, but I could use the idioms of the
+people. It was Obriant who taught me to say 'Be jabers,' just as we
+might say 'Ma foi'; and also 'The curse of Crummle!' which means 'Ventre
+bleu!' Many a time I have seen the English smile with pleasure when they
+have heard me speak so much like one of themselves.
+
+We officers were put two in a cell, which was very little to my taste,
+for my room-mate was a tall, silent man named Beaumont, of the Flying
+Artillery, who had been taken by the English cavalry at Astorga.
+
+It is seldom I meet a man of whom I cannot make a friend, for my
+disposition and manners are--as you know them. But this fellow had never
+a smile for my jests, nor an ear for my sorrows, but would sit looking
+at me with his sullen eyes, until sometimes I thought that his two years
+of captivity had driven him crazy. Ah, how I longed that old Bouvet, or
+any of my comrades of the hussars, was there, instead of this mummy of a
+man. But such as he was I had to make the best of him, and it was very
+evident that no escape could be made unless he were my partner in it,
+for what could I possibly do without him observing me? I hinted at it,
+therefore, and then by degrees I spoke more plainly, until it seemed to
+me that I had prevailed upon him to share my lot.
+
+I tried the walls, and I tried the floor, and I tried the ceiling, but
+though I tapped and probed, they all appeared to be very thick and
+solid. The door was of iron, shutting with a spring lock, and provided
+with a small grating, through which a warder looked twice in every
+night. Within there were two beds, two stools, two washstands--nothing
+more. It was enough for my wants, for when had I had as much during
+those twelve years spent in camps? But how was I to get out? Night after
+night I thought of my five hundred hussars, and had dreadful nightmares,
+in which I fancied that the whole regiment needed shoeing, or that my
+horses were all bloated with green fodder, or that they were foundered
+from bogland, or that six squadrons were clubbed in the presence of the
+Emperor. Then I would awake in a cold sweat, and set to work picking and
+tapping at the walls once more; for I knew very well that there is no
+difficulty which cannot be overcome by a ready brain and a pair of
+cunning hands.
+
+There was a single window in our cell, which was too small to admit a
+child. It was further defended by a thick iron bar in the centre. It was
+not a very promising point of escape, as you will allow, but I became
+more and more convinced that our efforts must be directed towards it. To
+make matters worse, it only led out into the exercise yard, which was
+surrounded by two high walls. Still, as I said to my sullen comrade, it
+is time to talk of the Vistula when you are over the Rhine. I got a
+small piece of iron, therefore, from the fittings of my bed, and I set
+to work to loosen the plaster at the top and the bottom of the bar.
+Three hours I would work, and then leap into my bed upon the sound of
+the warder's step. Then another three hours, and then very often another
+yet, for I found that Beaumont was so slow and clumsy at it that it was
+on myself only that I could rely.
+
+I pictured to myself my Third of Hussars waiting just outside that
+window, with kettle-drums and standards and leopard-skin schabraques all
+complete. Then I would work like a madman, until my iron was crusted
+with blood, as if with rust. And so, night by night, I loosened that
+stony plaster, and hid it away in the stuffing of my pillow, until the
+hour came when the iron shook; and then with one good wrench it came off
+in my hand, and my first step had been made towards freedom.
+
+You will ask me what better off I was, since, as I have said, a child
+could not have fitted through the opening. I will tell you. I had gained
+two things--a tool and a weapon. With the one I might loosen the stone
+which flanked the window. With the other I might defend myself when I
+had scrambled through. So now I turned my attention to that stone, and I
+picked and picked with the sharpened end of my bar until I had worked
+out the mortar all round. You understand, of course, that during the day
+I replaced everything in its position, and that the warder was never
+permitted to see a speck upon the floor. At the end of three weeks I had
+separated the stone, and had the rapture of drawing it through, and
+seeing a hole left with ten stars shining through it, where there had
+been but four before. All was ready for us now, and I had replaced the
+stone, smearing the edges of it round with a little fat and soot, so as
+to hide the cracks where the mortar should have been. In three nights
+the moon would be gone, and that seemed the best time for our attempt.
+
+I had now no doubt at all about getting into the yards, but I had very
+considerable misgivings as to how I was to get out again. It would be
+too humiliating, after trying here, and trying there, to have to go back
+to my hole again in despair, or to be arrested by the guards outside,
+and thrown into those damp underground cells which are reserved for
+prisoners who are caught in escaping. I set to work, therefore, to plan
+what I should do. I have never, as you know, had the chance of showing
+what I could do as a general. Sometimes, after a glass or two of wine, I
+have found myself capable of thinking out surprising combinations, and
+have felt that if Napoleon had intrusted me with an army corps, things
+might have gone differently with him. But however that may be, there is
+no doubt that in the small stratagems of war, and in that quickness of
+invention which is so necessary for an officer of light cavalry, I could
+hold my own against anyone. It was now that I had need of it, and I felt
+sure that it would not fail me.
+
+The inner wall which I had to scale was built of bricks, 12ft. high,
+with a row of iron spikes, 3in. apart upon the top. The outer I had only
+caught a glimpse of once or twice, when the gate of the exercise yard
+was open. It appeared to be about the same height, and was also spiked
+at the top. The space between the walls was over twenty feet, and I had
+reason to believe that there were no sentries there, except at the
+gates. On the other hand, I knew that there was a line of soldiers
+outside. Behold the little nut, my friends, which I had to open with no
+crackers, save these two hands.
+
+One thing upon which I relied was the height of my comrade Beaumont. I
+have already said that he was a very tall man, six feet at least, and it
+seemed to me that if I could mount upon his shoulders, and get my hands
+upon the spikes, I could easily scale the wall. Could I pull my big
+companion up after me? That was the question, for when I set forth with
+a comrade, even though it be one for whom I bear no affection, nothing
+on earth would make me abandon him. If I climbed the wall and he could
+not follow me, I should be compelled to return to him. He did not seem
+to concern himself much about it, however, so I hoped that he had
+confidence in his own activity.
+
+Then another very important matter was the choice of the sentry who
+should be on duty in front of my window at the time of our attempt.
+They were changed every two hours to insure their vigilance, but I, who
+watched them closely each night out of my window, knew that there was a
+great difference between them. There were some who were so keen that a
+rat could not cross the yard unseen, while others thought only of their
+own ease, and could sleep as soundly leaning upon a musket as if they
+were at home upon a feather bed. There was one especially, a fat, heavy
+man, who would retire into the shadow of the wall and doze so
+comfortably during his two hours, that I have dropped pieces of plaster
+from my window at his very feet, without his observing it. By good luck,
+this fellow's watch was due from twelve to two upon the night which we
+had fixed upon for our enterprise.
+
+As the last day passed, I was so filled with nervous agitation that I
+could not control myself, but ran ceaselessly about my cell, like a
+mouse in a cage. Every moment I thought that the warder would detect the
+looseness of the bar, or that the sentry would observe the unmortared
+stone, which I could not conceal outside, as I did within. As for my
+companion, he sat brooding upon the end of his bed, looking at me in a
+sidelong fashion from time to time, and biting his nails like one who is
+deep in thought.
+
+'Courage, my friend!' I cried, slapping him upon the shoulder. 'You will
+see your guns before another month be past.'
+
+'That is very well,' said he. 'But whither will you fly when you get
+free?'
+
+'To the coast,' I answered. 'All comes right for a brave man, and I
+shall make straight for my regiment.'
+
+'You are more likely to make straight for the underground cells, or for
+the Portsmouth hulks,' said he.
+
+'A soldier takes his chances,' I remarked. 'It is only the poltroon who
+reckons always upon the worst.'
+
+I raised a flush in each of his sallow cheeks at that, and I was glad
+of it, for it was the first sign of spirit which I had ever observed in
+him. For a moment he put his hand out towards his water-jug, as though
+he would have hurled it at me, but then he shrugged his shoulders and
+sat in silence once more, biting his nails, and scowling down at the
+floor. I could not but think, as I looked at him, that perhaps I was
+doing the Flying Artillery a very bad service by bringing him back to
+them.
+
+I never in my life have known an evening pass as slowly as that one.
+Towards nightfall a wind sprang up, and as the darkness deepened it blew
+harder and harder, until a terrible gale was whistling over the moor. As
+I looked out of my window I could not catch a glimpse of a star, and the
+black clouds were flying low across the heavens. The rain was pouring
+down, and what with its hissing and splashing, and the howling and
+screaming of the wind, it was impossible for me to hear the steps of the
+sentinels. 'If I cannot hear them,' thought I, 'then it is unlikely that
+they can hear me'; and I waited with the utmost impatience until the
+time when the inspector should have come round for his nightly peep
+through our grating. Then having peered through the darkness, and seen
+nothing of the sentry, who was doubtless crouching in some corner out of
+the rain, I felt that the moment was come. I removed the bar, pulled out
+the stone, and motioned to my companion to pass through.
+
+'After you, Colonel,' said he.
+
+'Will you not go first?' I asked.
+
+'I had rather you showed me the way.'
+
+'Come after me, then, but come silently, as you value your life.'
+
+In the darkness I could hear the fellow's teeth chattering, and I
+wondered whether a man ever had such a partner in a desperate
+enterprise. I seized the bar, however, and mounting upon my stool, I
+thrust my head and shoulders into the hole. I had wriggled through as
+far as my waist, when my companion seized me suddenly by the knees, and
+yelled at the top of his voice: 'Help! Help! A prisoner is escaping!'
+
+Ah, my friends, what did I not feel at that moment! Of course, I saw in
+an instant the game of this vile creature. Why should he risk his skin
+in climbing walls when he might be sure of a free pardon from the
+English for having prevented the escape of one so much more
+distinguished than himself? I had recognized him as a poltroon and a
+sneak, but I had not understood the depth of baseness to which he could
+descend. One who has spent his life among gentlemen and men of honour
+does not think of such things until they happen.
+
+The blockhead did not seem to understand that he was lost more certainly
+than I. I writhed back in the darkness, and seizing him by the throat, I
+struck him twice with my iron bar. At the first blow he yelped as a
+little cur does when you tread upon its paw. At the second, down he fell
+with a groan upon the floor. Then I seated myself upon my bed, and
+waited resignedly for whatever punishment my gaolers might inflict upon
+me.
+
+But a minute passed and yet another, with no sound save the heavy,
+snoring breathing of the senseless wretch upon the floor. Was it
+possible, then, that amid the fury of the storm his warning cries had
+passed unheeded? At first it was but a tiny hope, another minute and it
+was probable, another and it was certain. There was no sound in the
+corridor, none in the courtyard. I wiped the cold sweat from my brow,
+and asked myself what I should do next.
+
+One thing seemed certain. The man on the floor must die. If I left him I
+could not tell how short a time it might be before he gave the alarm. I
+dare not strike a light, so I felt about in the darkness until my hand
+came upon something wet, which I knew to be his head. I raised my iron
+bar, but there was something, my friends, which prevented me from
+bringing it down. In the heat of fight I have slain many men--men of
+honour, too, who had done me no injury. Yet here was this wretch, a
+creature too foul to live, who had tried to work me so great a mischief,
+and yet I could not bring myself to crush his skull in. Such deeds are
+very well for a Spanish partida--or for that matter a sansculotte of the
+Faubourg St Antoine--but not for a soldier and a gentleman like me.
+
+However, the heavy breathing of the fellow made me hope that it might be
+a very long time before he recovered his senses. I gagged him,
+therefore, and bound him with strips of blanket to the bed, so that in
+his weakened condition there was good reason to think that, in any case,
+he might not get free before the next visit of the warder. But now again
+I was faced with new difficulties, for you will remember that I had
+relied upon his height to help me over the walls. I could have sat down
+and shed tears of despair had not the thought of my mother and of the
+Emperor come to sustain me. 'Courage!' said I. 'If it were anyone but
+Etienne Gerard he would be in a bad fix now; that is a young man who is
+not so easily caught.'
+
+I set to work therefore upon Beaumont's sheet as well as my own, and by
+tearing them into strips and then plaiting them together, I made a very
+excellent rope. This I tied securely to the centre of my iron bar, which
+was a little over a foot in length. Then I slipped out into the yard,
+where the rain was pouring and the wind screaming louder than ever. I
+kept in the shadow of the prison wall, but it was as black as the ace of
+spades, and I could not see my own hand in front of me. Unless I walked
+into the sentinel I felt that I had nothing to fear from him. When I had
+come under the wall I threw up my bar, and to my joy it stuck the very
+first time between the spikes at the top. I climbed up my rope, pulled
+it after me, and dropped down on the other side. Then I scaled the
+second wall, and was sitting astride among the spikes upon the top, when
+I saw something twinkle in the darkness beneath me. It was the bayonet
+of the sentinel below, and so close was it (the second wall being rather
+lower than the first) that I could easily, by leaning over, have
+unscrewed it from its socket. There he was, humming a tune to himself,
+and cuddling up against the wall to keep himself warm, little thinking
+that a desperate man within a few feet of him was within an ace of
+stabbing him to the heart with his own weapon. I was already bracing
+myself for the spring when the fellow, with an oath, shouldered his
+musket, and I heard his steps squelching through the mud as he resumed
+his beat. I slipped down my rope, and, leaving it hanging, I ran at the
+top of my speed across the moor.
+
+Heavens, how I ran! The wind buffeted my face and buzzed in my nostrils.
+The rain pringled upon my skin and hissed past my ears. I stumbled into
+holes. I tripped over bushes. I fell among brambles. I was torn and
+breathless and bleeding. My tongue was like leather, my feet like lead,
+and my heart beating like a kettle-drum. Still I ran, and I ran, and I
+ran.
+
+But I had not lost my head, my friends. Everything was done with a
+purpose. Our fugitives always made for the coast. I was determined to go
+inland, and the more so as I had told Beaumont the opposite. I would fly
+to the north, and they would seek me in the south. Perhaps you will ask
+me how I could tell which was which on such a night. I answer that it
+was by the wind. I had observed in the prison that it came from the
+north, and so, as long as I kept my face to it, I was going in the right
+direction.
+
+Well, I was rushing along in this fashion when, suddenly, I saw two
+yellow lights shining out of the darkness in front of me. I paused for a
+moment, uncertain what I should do. I was still in my hussar uniform,
+you understand, and it seemed to me that the very first thing that I
+should aim at was to get some dress which should not betray me. If these
+lights came from a cottage, it was probable enough that I might find
+what I wanted there. I approached, therefore, feeling very sorry that I
+had left my iron bar behind; for I was determined to fight to the death
+before I should be retaken.
+
+But very soon I found that there was no cottage there. The lights were
+two lamps hung upon each side of a carriage, and by their glare I saw
+that a broad road lay in front of me. Crouching among the bushes, I
+observed that there were two horses to the equipage, that a small
+post-boy was standing at their heads, and that one of the wheels was
+lying in the road beside him. I can see them now, my friends: the
+steaming creatures, the stunted lad with his hands to their bits, and
+the big, black coach, all shining with the rain, and balanced upon its
+three wheels. As I looked, the window was lowered, and a pretty little
+face under a bonnet peeped out from it.
+
+'What shall I do?' the lady cried to the post-boy, in a voice of
+despair. 'Sir Charles is certainly lost, and I shall have to spend the
+night upon the moor.'
+
+'Perhaps I can be of some assistance to madame,' said I, scrambling out
+from among the bushes into the glare of the lamps. A woman in distress
+is a sacred thing to me, and this one was beautiful. You must not forget
+that, although I was a colonel, I was only eight-and-twenty years of
+age.
+
+My word, how she screamed, and how the post-boy stared! You will
+understand that after that long race in the darkness, with my shako
+broken in, my face smeared with dirt, and my uniform all stained and
+torn with brambles, I was not entirely the sort of gentleman whom one
+would choose to meet in the middle of a lonely moor. Still, after the
+first surprise, she soon understood that I was her very humble servant,
+and I could even read in her pretty eyes that my manner and bearing had
+not failed to produce an impression upon her.
+
+'I am sorry to have startled you, madame,' said I. 'I chanced to
+overhear your remark, and I could not refrain from offering you my
+assistance.' I bowed as I spoke. You know my bow, and can realize what
+its effect was upon the lady.
+
+'I am much indebted to you, sir,' said she. 'We have had a terrible
+journey since we left Tavistock. Finally, one of our wheels came off,
+and here we are helpless in the middle of the moor. My husband, Sir
+Charles, has gone on to get help, and I much fear that he must have lost
+his way.'
+
+I was about to attempt some consolation, when I saw beside the lady a
+black travelling coat, faced with astrakhan, which her companion must
+have left behind him. It was exactly what I needed to conceal my
+uniform. It is true that I felt very much like a highway robber, but
+then, what would you have? Necessity has no law, and I was in an enemy's
+country.
+
+'I presume, madame, that this is your husband's coat,' I remarked. 'You
+will, I am sure, forgive me, if I am compelled to--' I pulled it through
+the window as I spoke.
+
+I could not bear to see the look of surprise and fear and disgust which
+came over her face.
+
+'Oh, I have been mistaken in you!' she cried. 'You came to rob me, then,
+and not to help me. You have the bearing of a gentleman, and yet you
+steal my husband's coat.'
+
+'Madame,' said I, 'I beg that you will not condemn me until you know
+everything. It is quite necessary that I should take this coat, but if
+you will have the goodness to tell me who it is who is fortunate enough
+to be your husband, I shall see that the coat is sent back to him.'
+
+Her face softened a little, though she still tried to look severe. 'My
+husband,' she answered, 'is Sir Charles Meredith, and he is travelling
+to Dartmoor Prison, upon important Government business. I only ask you,
+sir, to go upon your way, and to take nothing which belongs to him.'
+
+'There is only one thing which belongs to him that I covet,' said I.
+
+'And you have taken it from the carriage,' she cried.
+
+'No,' I answered. 'It still remains there.'
+
+She laughed in her frank English way.
+
+'If, instead of paying me compliments, you were to return my husband's
+coat--' she began.
+
+'Madame,' I answered, 'what you ask is quite impossible. If you will
+allow me to come into the carriage, I will explain to you how necessary
+this coat is to me.'
+
+Heaven knows into what foolishness I might have plunged myself had we
+not, at this instant, heard a faint halloa in the distance, which was
+answered by a shout from the little post-boy. In the rain and the
+darkness, I saw a lantern some distance from us, but approaching
+rapidly.
+
+'I am sorry, madame, that I am forced to leave you,' said I. 'You can
+assure your husband that I shall take every care of his coat.' Hurried
+as I was, I ventured to pause a moment to salute the lady's hand, which
+she snatched through the window with an admirable pretence of being
+offended at my presumption. Then, as the lantern was quite close to me,
+and the post-boy seemed inclined to interfere with my flight, I tucked
+my precious overcoat under my arm, and dashed off into the darkness.
+
+And now I set myself to the task of putting as broad a stretch of moor
+between the prison and myself as the remaining hours of darkness would
+allow. Setting my face to the wind once more, I ran until I fell from
+exhaustion. Then, after five minutes of panting among the heather, I
+made another start, until again my knees gave way beneath me. I was
+young and hard, with muscles of steel, and a frame which had been
+toughened by twelve years of camp and field. Thus I was able to keep up
+this wild flight for another three hours, during which I still guided
+myself, you understand, by keeping the wind in my face. At the end of
+that time I calculated that I had put nearly twenty miles between the
+prison and myself. Day was about to break, so I crouched down among the
+heather upon the top of one of those small hills which abound in that
+country, with the intention of hiding myself until nightfall. It was no
+new thing for me to sleep in the wind and the rain, so, wrapping myself
+up in my thick warm cloak, I soon sank into a doze.
+
+But it was not a refreshing slumber. I tossed and tumbled amid a series
+of vile dreams, in which everything seemed to go wrong with me. At last,
+I remember, I was charging an unshaken square of Hungarian Grenadiers,
+with a single squadron upon spent horses, just as I did at Elchingen. I
+stood in my stirrups to shout 'Vive l'Empereur!' and as I did so, there
+came the answering roar from my hussars, 'Vive l'Empereur!' I sprang
+from my rough bed, with the words still ringing in my ears, and then, as
+I rubbed my eyes, and wondered if I were mad, the same cry came again,
+five thousand voices in one long-drawn yell. I looked out from my screen
+of brambles, and saw in the clear light of morning the very last thing
+that I should either have expected or chosen.
+
+It was Dartmoor Prison! There it stretched, grim and hideous, within a
+furlong of me. Had I run on for a few more minutes in the dark, I should
+have butted my shako against the wall. I was so taken aback at the
+sight, that I could scarcely realize what had happened. Then it all
+became clear to me, and I struck my head with my hands in my despair.
+The wind had veered from north to south during the night, and I, keeping
+my face always towards it, had run ten miles out and ten miles in,
+winding up where I had started. When I thought of my hurry, my falls, my
+mad rushing and jumping, all ending in this, it seemed so absurd, that
+my grief changed suddenly to amusement, and I fell among the brambles,
+and laughed, and laughed, until my sides were sore. Then I rolled myself
+up in my cloak and considered seriously what I should do.
+
+One lesson which I have learned in my roaming life, my friends, is
+never to call anything a misfortune until you have seen the end of it.
+Is not every hour a fresh point of view? In this case I soon perceived
+that accident had done for me as much as the most profound cunning. My
+guards naturally commenced their search from the place where I had taken
+Sir Charles Meredith's coat, and from my hiding-place I could see them
+hurrying along the road to that point. Not one of them ever dreamed that
+I could have doubled back from there, and I lay quite undisturbed in the
+little bush-covered cup at the summit of my knoll. The prisoners had, of
+course, learned of my escape, and all day exultant yells, like that
+which had aroused me in the morning, resounded over the moor, bearing a
+welcome message of sympathy and companionship to my ears. How little did
+they dream that on the top of that very mound, which they could see from
+their windows, was lying the comrade whose escape they were celebrating?
+As for me--I could look down upon this poor herd of idle warriors, as
+they paced about the great exercise yard, or gathered in little groups,
+gesticulating joyfully over my success. Once I heard a howl of
+execration, and I saw Beaumont, his head all covered with bandages,
+being led across the yard by two of the warders. I cannot tell you the
+pleasure which this sight gave me, for it proved that I had not killed
+him, and also that the others knew the true story of what had passed.
+They had all known me too well to think that I could have abandoned him.
+
+All that long day I lay behind my screen of bushes, listening to the
+bells which struck the hours below.
+
+My pockets were filled with bread which I had saved out of my allowance,
+and on searching my borrowed overcoat I came upon a silver flask, full
+of excellent brandy and water, so that I was able to get through the day
+without hardship. The only other things in the pockets were a red silk
+handkerchief, a tortoise-shell snuff-box, and a blue envelope, with a
+red seal, addressed to the Governor of Dartmoor Prison. As to the first
+two, I determined to send them back when I should return the coat
+itself.
+
+The letter caused me more perplexity, for the Governor had always shown
+me every courtesy, and it offended my sense of honour that I should
+interfere with his correspondence. I had almost made up my mind to leave
+it under a stone upon the roadway within musket-shot of the gate. This
+would guide them in their search for me, however, and so, on the whole,
+I saw no better way than just to carry the letter with me in the hope
+that I might find some means of sending it back to him. Meanwhile I
+packed it safely away in my inner-most pocket.
+
+There was a warm sun to dry my clothes, and when night fell I was ready
+for my journey. I promise you that there were no mistakes this time. I
+took the stars for my guides, as every hussar should be taught to do,
+and I put eight good leagues between myself and the prison. My plan now
+was to obtain a complete suit of clothes from the first person whom I
+could waylay, and I should then find my way to the north coast, where
+there were many smugglers and fishermen who would be ready to earn the
+reward which was paid by the Emperor to those who brought escaping
+prisoners across the Channel. I had taken the panache from my shako so
+that it might escape notice, but even with my fine overcoat I feared
+that sooner or later my uniform would betray me. My first care must be
+to provide myself with a complete disguise.
+
+When day broke, I saw a river upon my right and a small town upon my
+left--the blue smoke reeking up above the moor. I should have liked well
+to have entered it, because it would have interested me to see something
+of the customs of the English, which differ very much from those of
+other nations. Much as I should have wished, however, to have seen them
+eat their raw meat and sell their wives, it would have been dangerous
+until I had got rid of my uniform. My cap, my moustache, and my speech
+would all help to betray me. I continued to travel towards the north
+therefore, looking about me continually, but never catching a glimpse of
+my pursuers.
+
+About midday I came to where, in a secluded valley, there stood a single
+small cottage without any other building in sight. It was a neat little
+house, with a rustic porch and a small garden in front of it, with a
+swarm of cocks and hens. I lay down among the ferns and watched it, for
+it seemed to be exactly the kind of place where I might obtain what I
+wanted. My bread was finished, and I was exceedingly hungry after my
+long journey; I determined, therefore, to make a short reconnaissance,
+and then to march up to this cottage, summon it to surrender, and help
+myself to all that I needed. It could at least provide me with a chicken
+and with an omelette. My mouth watered at the thought.
+
+As I lay there, wondering who could live in this lonely place, a brisk
+little fellow came out through the porch, accompanied by another older
+man, who carried two large clubs in his hands. These he handed to his
+young companion, who swung them up and down, and round and round, with
+extraordinary swiftness. The other, standing beside him, appeared to
+watch him with great attention, and occasionally to advise him. Finally
+he took a rope, and began skipping like a girl, the other still gravely
+observing him. As you may think, I was utterly puzzled as to what these
+people could be, and could only surmise that the one was a doctor, and
+the other a patient who had submitted himself to some singular method of
+treatment.
+
+Well, as I lay watching and wondering, the older man brought out a
+great-coat, and held it while the other put it on and buttoned it to his
+chin. The day was a warmish one, so that this proceeding amazed me even
+more than the other. 'At least,' thought I, 'it is evident that his
+exercise is over'; but, far from this being so, the man began to run, in
+spite of his heavy coat, and as it chanced, he came right over the moor
+in my direction. His companion had re-entered the house, so that this
+arrangement suited me admirably. I would take the small man's clothing,
+and hurry on to some village where I could buy provisions. The chickens
+were certainly tempting, but still there were at least two men in the
+house, so perhaps it would be wiser for me, since I had no arms, to keep
+away from it.
+
+I lay quietly then among the ferns. Presently I heard the steps of the
+runner, and there he was quite close to me, with his huge coat, and the
+perspiration running down his face. He seemed to be a very solid
+man--but small--so small that I feared that his clothes might be of
+little use to me. When I jumped out upon him he stopped running, and
+looked at me in the greatest astonishment.
+
+'Blow my dickey,' said he, 'give it a name, guv'nor! Is it a circus, or
+what?'
+
+That was how he talked, though I cannot pretend to tell you what he
+meant by it.
+
+'You will excuse me, sir,' said I, 'but I am under the necessity of
+asking you to give me your clothes.'
+
+'Give you what?' he cried.
+
+'Your clothes.'
+
+'Well, if this don't lick cock-fighting!' said he. 'What am I to give
+you my clothes for?'
+
+'Because I need them.'
+
+'And suppose I won't?'
+
+'Be jabers,' said I, 'I shall have no choice but to take them.'
+
+He stood with his hands in the pockets of his great-coat, and a most
+amused smile upon his square-jawed, clean-shaven face.
+
+'You'll take them, will you?' said he. 'You're a very leery cove, by the
+look of you, but I can tell you that you've got the wrong sow by the ear
+this time. I know who you are. You're a runaway Frenchy, from the prison
+yonder, as anyone could tell with half an eye. But you don't know who I
+am, else you wouldn't try such a plant as that. Why, man, I'm the
+Bristol Bustler, nine stone champion, and them's my training quarters
+down yonder.'
+
+He stared at me as if this announcement of his would have crushed me to
+the earth, but I smiled at him in my turn, and looked him up and down,
+with a twirl of my moustache.
+
+'You may be a very brave man, sir,' said I, 'but when I tell you that
+you are opposed to Colonel Etienne Gerard, of the Hussars of Conflans,
+you will see the necessity of giving up your clothes without further
+parley.'
+
+'Look here, mounseer, drop it!' he cried; 'this'll end by your getting
+pepper.'
+
+'Your clothes, sir, this instant!' I shouted, advancing fiercely upon
+him.
+
+For answer he threw off his heavy great-coat, and stood in a singular
+attitude, with one arm out, and the other across his chest, looking at
+me with a curious smile. For myself, I knew nothing of the methods of
+fighting which these people have, but on horse or on foot, with arms or
+without them, I am always ready to take my own part. You understand that
+a soldier cannot always choose his own methods, and that it is time to
+howl when you are living among wolves. I rushed at him, therefore, with
+a warlike shout, and kicked him with both my feet. At the same moment my
+heels flew into the air, I saw as many flashes as at Austerlitz, and the
+back of my head came down with a crash upon a stone. After that I can
+remember nothing more.
+
+When I came to myself I was lying upon a truckle-bed, in a bare,
+half-furnished room. My head was ringing like a bell, and when I put up
+my hand, there was a lump like a walnut over one of my eyes. My nose was
+full of a pungent smell, and I soon found that a strip of paper soaked
+in vinegar was fastened across my brow. At the other end of the room
+this terrible little man was sitting with his knee bare, and his
+elderly companion was rubbing it with some liniment. The latter seemed
+to be in the worst of tempers, and he kept up a continual scolding,
+which the other listened to with a gloomy face.
+
+'Never heard tell of such a thing in my life,' he was saying. 'In
+training for a month with all the weight of it on my shoulders, and then
+when I get you as fit as a trout, and within two days of fighting the
+likeliest man on the list, you let yourself into a by-battle with a
+foreigner.'
+
+'There, there! Stow your gab!' said the other, sulkily. 'You're a very
+good trainer, Jim, but you'd be better with less jaw.'
+
+'I should think it was time to jaw,' the elderly man answered. 'If this
+knee don't get well before next Wednesday, they'll have it that you
+fought a cross, and a pretty job you'll have next time you look for a
+backer.'
+
+'Fought a cross!' growled the other. 'I've won nineteen battles, and no
+man ever so much as dared to say the word "cross" in my hearin'. How the
+deuce was I to get out of it when the cove wanted the very clothes off
+my back?'
+
+'Tut, man; you knew that the beak and the guards were within a mile of
+you. You could have set them on to him as well then as now. You'd have
+got your clothes back again all right.'
+
+'Well, strike me!' said the Bustler. 'I don't often break my trainin',
+but when it comes to givin' up my clothes to a Frenchy who couldn't hit
+a dint in a pat o' butter, why, it's more than I can swaller.'
+
+'Pooh, man, what are the clothes worth? D'you know that Lord Rufton
+alone has five thousand pounds on you? When you jump the ropes on
+Wednesday, you'll carry every penny of fifty thousand into the ring. A
+pretty thing to turn up with a swollen knee and a story about a
+Frenchman!'
+
+'I never thought he'd ha' kicked,' said the Bustler.
+
+'I suppose you expected he'd fight Broughton's rules, and strict P.R.?
+Why, you silly, they don't know what fighting is in France.'
+
+'My friends,' said I, sitting up on my bed, 'I do not understand very
+much of what you say, but when you speak like that it is foolishness. We
+know so much about fighting in France, that we have paid our little
+visit to nearly every capital in Europe, and very soon we are coming to
+London. But we fight like soldiers, you understand, and not like gamins
+in the gutter. You strike me on the head. I kick you on the knee. It is
+child's play. But if you will give me a sword, and take another one, I
+will show you how we fight over the water.'
+
+They both stared at me in their solid, English way.
+
+'Well, I'm glad you're not dead, mounseer,' said the elder one at last.
+'There wasn't much sign of life in you when the Bustler and me carried
+you down. That head of yours ain't thick enough to stop the crook of the
+hardest hitter in Bristol.'
+
+'He's a game cove, too, and he came for me like a bantam,' said the
+other, still rubbing his knee. 'I got my old left-right in, and he went
+over as if he had been pole-axed. It wasn't my fault, mounseer. I told
+you you'd get pepper if you went on.'
+
+'Well, it's something to say all your life, that you've been handled by
+the finest light-weight in England,' said the older man, looking at me
+with an expression of congratulation upon his face. 'You've had him at
+his best, too--in the pink of condition, and trained by Jim Hunter.'
+
+'I am used to hard knocks,' said I, unbuttoning my tunic, and showing my
+two musket wounds. Then I bared my ankle also, and showed the place in
+my eye where the guerilla had stabbed me.
+
+'He can take his gruel,' said the Bustler.
+
+'What a glutton he'd have made for the middle-weights,' remarked the
+trainer; 'with six months' coaching he'd astonish the fancy. It's a pity
+he's got to go back to prison.'
+
+I did not like that last remark at all. I buttoned up my coat and rose
+from the bed.
+
+'I must ask you to let me continue my journey,' said I.
+
+'There's no help for it, mounseer,' the trainer answered. 'It's a hard
+thing to send such a man as you back to such a place, but business is
+business, and there's a twenty pound reward. They were here this
+morning, looking for you, and I expect they'll be round again.'
+
+His words turned my heart to lead.
+
+'Surely, you would not betray me!' I cried. 'I will send you twice
+twenty pounds on the day that I set foot upon France. I swear it upon
+the honour of a French gentleman.'
+
+But I only got head-shakes for a reply. I pleaded, I argued, I spoke of
+the English hospitality and the fellowship of brave men, but I might as
+well have been addressing the two great wooden clubs which stood
+balanced upon the floor in front of me. There was no sign of sympathy
+upon their bull-faces.
+
+'Business is business, mounseer,' the old trainer repeated. 'Besides,
+how am I to put the Bustler into the ring on Wednesday if he's jugged by
+the beak for aidin' and abettin' a prisoner of war? I've got to look
+after the Bustler, and I take no risks.'
+
+This, then, was the end of all my struggles and strivings. I was to be
+led back again like a poor silly sheep who has broken through the
+hurdles. They little knew me who could fancy that I should submit to
+such a fate. I had heard enough to tell me where the weak point of these
+two men was, and I showed, as I have often showed before, that Etienne
+Gerard is never so terrible as when all hope seems to have deserted him.
+With a single spring I seized one of the clubs and swung it over the
+head of the Bustler.
+
+'Come what may,' I cried, '_you_ shall be spoiled for Wednesday.'
+
+The fellow growled out an oath, and would have sprung at me, but the
+other flung his arms round him and pinned him to the chair.
+
+'Not if I know it, Bustler,' he screamed. 'None of your games while I am
+by. Get away out of this, Frenchy. We only want to see your back. Run
+away, run away, or he'll get loose!'
+
+It was good advice, I thought, and I ran to the door, but as I came out
+into the open air my head swam round and I had to lean against the porch
+to save myself from falling. Consider all that I had been through, the
+anxiety of my escape, the long, useless flight in the storm, the day
+spent amid wet ferns, with only bread for food, the second journey by
+night, and now the injuries which I had received in attempting to
+deprive the little man of his clothes. Was it wonderful that even I
+should reach the limits of my endurance?
+
+I stood there in my heavy coat and my poor battered shako, my chin upon
+my chest, and my eyelids over my eyes. I had done my best, and I could
+do no more. It was the sound of horses' hoofs which made me at last
+raise my head, and there was the grey-moustached Governor of Dartmoor
+Prison not ten paces in front of me, with six mounted warders behind
+him!
+
+'So, Colonel,' said he, with a bitter smile, 'we have found you once
+more.'
+
+When a brave man has done his utmost, and has failed, he shows his
+breeding by the manner in which he accepts his defeat. For me, I took
+the letter which I had in my pocket, and stepping forward, I handed it
+with such grace of manner as I could summon to the Governor.
+
+'It has been my misfortune, sir, to detain one of your letters,' said I.
+
+He looked at me in amazement, and beckoned to the warders to arrest me.
+Then he broke the seal of the letter. I saw a curious expression come
+over his face as he read it.
+
+'This must be the letter which Sir Charles Meredith lost,' said he.
+
+'It was in the pocket of his coat.'
+
+'You have carried it for two days?'
+
+'Since the night before last.'
+
+'And never looked at the contents?'
+
+I showed him by my manner that he had committed an indiscretion in
+asking a question which one gentleman should not have put to another.
+
+To my surprise he burst out into a roar of laughter.
+
+'Colonel,' said he, wiping the tears from his eyes, 'you have really
+given both yourself and us a great deal of unnecessary trouble. Allow me
+to read the letter which you carried with you in your flight.'
+
+And this was what I heard:--
+
+'On receipt of this you are directed to release Colonel Etienne Gerard,
+of the 3rd Hussars, who has been exchanged against Colonel Mason, of the
+Horse Artillery, now in Verdun.'
+
+And as he read it, he laughed again, and the warders laughed, and the
+two men from the cottage laughed, and then, as I heard this universal
+merriment, and thought of all my hopes and fears, and my struggles and
+dangers, what could a debonair soldier do but lean against the porch
+once more, and laugh as heartily as any of them? And of them all was it
+not I who had the best reason to laugh, since in front of me I could see
+my dear France, and my mother, and the Emperor, and my horsemen; while
+behind lay the gloomy prison, and the heavy hand of the English King?
+
+
+
+
+5. HOW THE BRIGADIER TOOK THE FIELD AGAINST THE MARSHAL MILLEFLEURS
+
+
+Massena was a thin, sour little fellow, and after his hunting accident
+he had only one eye, but when it looked out from under his cocked hat
+there was not much upon a field of battle which escaped it. He could
+stand in front of a battalion, and with a single sweep tell you if a
+buckle or a gaiter button were out of place. Neither the officers nor
+the men were very fond of him, for he was, as you know, a miser, and
+soldiers love that their leaders should be free-handed. At the same
+time, when it came to work they had a very high respect for him, and
+they would rather fight under him than under anyone except the Emperor
+himself, and Lannes, when he was alive. After all, if he had a tight
+grasp upon his money-bags, there was a day also, you must remember, when
+that same grip was upon Zurich and Genoa. He clutched on to his
+positions as he did to his strong box, and it took a very clever man to
+loosen him from either.
+
+When I received his summons I went gladly to his headquarters, for I was
+always a great favourite of his, and there was no officer of whom he
+thought more highly. That was the best of serving with those good old
+generals, that they knew enough to be able to pick out a fine soldier
+when they saw one. He was seated alone in his tent, with his chin upon
+his hand, and his brow as wrinkled as if he had been asked for a
+subscription. He smiled, however, when he saw me before him.
+
+'Good day, Colonel Gerard.'
+
+'Good day, Marshal.'
+
+'How is the Third of Hussars?'
+
+'Seven hundred incomparable men upon seven hundred excellent horses.'
+
+'And your wounds--are they healed?'
+
+'My wounds never heal, Marshal,' I answered.
+
+'And why?'
+
+'Because I have always new ones.'
+
+'General Rapp must look to his laurels,' said he, his face all breaking
+into wrinkles as he laughed. 'He has had twenty-one from the enemy's
+bullets, and as many from Larrey's knives and probes. Knowing that you
+were hurt, Colonel, I have spared you of late.'
+
+'Which hurt me most of all.'
+
+'Tut, tut! Since the English got behind these accursed lines of Torres
+Vedras, there has been little for us to do. You did not miss much during
+your imprisonment at Dartmoor. But now we are on the eve of action.'
+
+'We advance?'
+
+'No, retire.'
+
+My face must have shown my dismay. What, retire before this sacred dog
+of a Wellington--he who had listened unmoved to my words, and had sent
+me to his land of fogs? I could have sobbed as I thought of it.
+
+'What would you have?' cried Massena impatiently. 'When one is in check,
+it is necessary to move the king.'
+
+'Forwards,' I suggested.
+
+He shook his grizzled head.
+
+'The lines are not to be forced,' said he. 'I have already lost General
+St. Croix and more men than I can replace. On the other hand, we have
+been here at Santarem for nearly six months. There is not a pound of
+flour nor a jug of wine on the countryside. We must retire.'
+
+'There are flour and wine in Lisbon,' I persisted.
+
+'Tut, you speak as if an army could charge in and charge out again like
+your regiment of hussars. If Soult were here with thirty thousand
+men--but he will not come. I sent for you, however, Colonel Gerard, to
+say that I have a very singular and important expedition which I intend
+to place under your direction.'
+
+I pricked up my ears, as you can imagine. The Marshal unrolled a great
+map of the country and spread it upon the table. He flattened it out
+with his little, hairy hands.
+
+'This is Santarem,' he said pointing.
+
+I nodded.
+
+'And here, twenty-five miles to the east, is Almeixal, celebrated for
+its vintages and for its enormous Abbey.'
+
+Again I nodded; I could not think what was coming.
+
+'Have you heard of the Marshal Millefleurs?' asked Massena.
+
+'I have served with all the Marshals,' said I, 'but there is none of
+that name.'
+
+'It is but the nickname which the soldiers have given him,' said
+Massena. 'If you had not been away from us for some months, it would not
+be necessary for me to tell you about him. He is an Englishman, and a
+man of good breeding. It is on account of his manners that they have
+given him his title. I wish you to go to this polite Englishman at
+Almeixal.'
+
+'Yes, Marshal.'
+
+'And to hang him to the nearest tree.'
+
+'Certainly, Marshal.'
+
+I turned briskly upon my heels, but Massena recalled me before I could
+reach the opening of his tent.
+
+'One moment, Colonel,' said he; 'you had best learn how matters stand
+before you start. You must know, then, that this Marshal Millefleurs,
+whose real name is Alexis Morgan, is a man of very great ingenuity and
+bravery. He was an officer in the English Guards, but having been broken
+for cheating at cards, he left the army. In some manner he gathered a
+number of English deserters round him and took to the mountains. French
+stragglers and Portuguese brigands joined him, and he found himself at
+the head of five hundred men. With these he took possession of the
+Abbey of Almeixal, sent the monks about their business, fortified the
+place, and gathered in the plunder of all the country round.'
+
+'For which it is high time he was hanged,' said I, making once more for
+the door.
+
+'One instant!' cried the Marshal, smiling at my impatience. 'The worst
+remains behind. Only last week the Dowager Countess of La Ronda, the
+richest woman in Spain, was taken by these ruffians in the passes as she
+was journeying from King Joseph's Court to visit her grandson. She is
+now a prisoner in the Abbey, and is only protected by her----'
+
+'Grandmotherhood,' I suggested.
+
+'Her power of paying a ransom,' said Massena. 'You have three missions,
+then: To rescue this unfortunate lady; to punish this villain; and, if
+possible, to break up this nest of brigands. It will be a proof of the
+confidence which I have in you when I say that I can only spare you half
+a squadron with which to accomplish all this.'
+
+My word, I could hardly believe my ears! I thought that I should have
+had my regiment at the least.
+
+'I would give you more,' said he, 'but I commence my retreat today, and
+Wellington is so strong in horse that every trooper becomes of
+importance. I cannot spare you another man. You will see what you can
+do, and you will report yourself to me at Abrantes not later than
+tomorrow night.'
+
+It was very complimentary that he should rate my powers so high, but it
+was also a little embarrassing. I was to rescue an old lady, to hang an
+Englishman, and to break up a band of five hundred assassins--all with
+fifty men. But after all, the fifty men were Hussars of Conflans, and
+they had an Etienne Gerard to lead them. As I came out into the warm
+Portuguese sunshine my confidence had returned to me, and I had already
+begun to wonder whether the medal which I had so often deserved might
+not be waiting for me at Almeixal.
+
+You may be sure that I did not take my fifty men at hap-hazard. They
+were all old soldiers of the German wars, some of them with three
+stripes, and most of them with two. Oudet and Papilette, two of the best
+sub-officers in the regiment, were at their head. When I had them formed
+up in fours, all in silver grey and upon chestnut horses, with their
+leopard skin shabracks and their little red panaches, my heart beat high
+at the sight. I could not look at their weather-stained faces, with the
+great moustaches which bristled over their chin-straps, without feeling
+a glow of confidence, and, between ourselves, I have no doubt that that
+was exactly how they felt when they saw their young Colonel on his great
+black war-horse riding at their head.
+
+Well, when we got free of the camp and over the Tagus, I threw out my
+advance and my flankers, keeping my own place at the head of the main
+body. Looking back from the hills above Santarem, we could see the dark
+lines of Massena's army, with the flash and twinkle of the sabres and
+bayonets as he moved his regiments into position for their retreat. To
+the south lay the scattered red patches of the English outposts, and
+behind the grey smoke-cloud which rose from Wellington's camp--thick,
+oily smoke, which seemed to our poor starving fellows to bear with it
+the rich smell of seething camp-kettles. Away to the west lay a curve of
+blue sea flecked with the white sails of the English ships.
+
+You will understand that as we were riding to the east, our road lay
+away from both armies. Our own marauders, however, and the scouting
+parties of the English, covered the country, and it was necessary with
+my small troop that I should take every precaution. During the whole day
+we rode over desolate hill-sides, the lower portions covered by the
+budding vines, but the upper turning from green to grey, and jagged
+along the skyline like the back of a starved horse. Mountain streams
+crossed our path, running west to the Tagus, and once we came to a deep,
+strong river, which might have checked us had I not found the ford by
+observing where houses had been built opposite each other upon either
+bank. Between them, as every scout should know, you will find your ford.
+There was none to give us information, for neither man nor beast, nor
+any living thing except great clouds of crows, was to be seen during our
+journey.
+
+The sun was beginning to sink when we came to a valley clear in the
+centre, but shrouded by huge oak trees upon either side. We could not be
+more than a few miles from Almeixal, so it seemed to me to be best to
+keep among the groves, for the spring had been an early one and the
+leaves were already thick enough to conceal us. We were riding then in
+open order among the great trunks, when one of my flankers came
+galloping up.
+
+'There are English across the valley, Colonel,' he cried, as he saluted.
+
+'Cavalry or infantry?'
+
+'Dragoons, Colonel,' said he; 'I saw the gleam of their helmets, and
+heard the neigh of a horse.'
+
+Halting my men I hastened to the edge of the wood. There could be no
+doubt about it. A party of English cavalry was travelling in a line with
+us, and in the same direction. I caught a glimpse of their red coats and
+of their flashing arms glowing and twinkling among the tree-trunks.
+Once, as they passed through a small clearing, I could see their whole
+force, and I judged that they were of about the same strength as my
+own--a half squadron at the most.
+
+You who have heard some of my little adventures will give me credit for
+being quick in my decisions, and prompt in carrying them out. But here I
+must confess that I was in two minds. On the one hand there was the
+chance of a fine cavalry skirmish with the English. On the other hand,
+there was my mission at the Abbey of Almeixal, which seemed already to
+be so much above my power. If I were to lose any of my men, it was
+certain that I should be unable to carry out my orders. I was sitting
+my horse, with my chin in my gauntlet, looking across at the rippling
+gleams of light from the further wood, when suddenly one of these
+red-coated Englishmen rode out from the cover, pointing at me and
+breaking into a shrill whoop and halloa as if I had been a fox. Three
+others joined him, and one who was a bugler sounded a call, which
+brought the whole of them into the open. They were, as I had thought, a
+half squadron, and they formed a double line with a front of
+twenty-five, their officer--the one who had whooped at me--at their
+head.
+
+For my own part, I had instantly brought my own troopers into the same
+formation, so that there we were, hussars and dragoons, with only two
+hundred yards of grassy sward between us. They carried themselves well,
+those red-coated troopers, with their silver helmets, their high white
+plumes, and their long, gleaming swords; while, on the other hand, I am
+sure that they would acknowledge that they had never looked upon finer
+light horsemen than the fifty hussars of Conflans who were facing them.
+They were heavier, it is true, and they may have seemed the smarter, for
+Wellington used to make them burnish their metal work, which was not
+usual among us. On the other hand, it is well known that the English
+tunics were too tight for the sword-arm, which gave our men an
+advantage. As to bravery, foolish, inexperienced people of every nation
+always think that their own soldiers are braver than any others. There
+is no nation in the world which does not entertain this idea. But when
+one has seen as much as I have done, one understands that there is no
+very marked difference, and that although nations differ very much in
+discipline, they are all equally brave--except that the French have
+rather more courage than the rest.
+
+Well, the cork was drawn and the glasses ready, when suddenly the
+English officer raised his sword to me as if in a challenge, and
+cantered his horse across the grassland. My word, there is no finer
+sight upon earth than that of a gallant man upon a gallant steed! I
+could have halted there just to watch him as he came with such careless
+grace, his sabre down by his horse's shoulder, his head thrown back, his
+white plume tossing--youth and strength and courage, with the violet
+evening sky above and the oak trees behind. But it was not for me to
+stand and stare. Etienne Gerard may have his faults, but, my faith, he
+was never accused of being backward in taking his own part. The old
+horse, Rataplan, knew me so well that he had started off before ever I
+gave the first shake to the bridle.
+
+There are two things in this world that I am very slow to forget: the
+face of a pretty woman, and the legs of a fine horse. Well, as we drew
+together, I kept on saying, 'Where have I seen those great roan
+shoulders? Where have I seen that dainty fetlock?' Then suddenly I
+remembered, and as I looked up at the reckless eyes and the challenging
+smile, whom should I recognize but the man who had saved me from the
+brigands and played me for my freedom--he whose correct title was Milor
+the Hon. Sir Russell Bart!
+
+'Bart!' I shouted.
+
+He had his arm raised for a cut, and three parts of his body open to my
+point, for he did not know very much about the use of the sword. As I
+brought my hilt to the salute he dropped his hand and stared at me.
+
+'Halloa!' said he. 'It's Gerard!' You would have thought by his manner
+that I had met him by appointment. For my own part, I would have
+embraced him had he but come an inch of the way to meet me.
+
+'I thought we were in for some sport,' said he. 'I never dreamed that it
+was you.'
+
+I found this tone of disappointment somewhat irritating. Instead of
+being glad at having met a friend, he was sorry at having missed an
+enemy.
+
+'I should have been happy to join in your sport, my dear Bart,' said I.
+'But I really cannot turn my sword upon a man who saved my life.'
+
+'Tut, never mind about that.'
+
+'No, it is impossible. I should never forgive myself.'
+
+'You make too much of a trifle.'
+
+'My mother's one desire is to embrace you. If ever you should be in
+Gascony----'
+
+'Lord Wellington is coming there with 60,000 men.'
+
+'Then one of them will have a chance of surviving,' said I, laughing.
+'In the meantime, put your sword in your sheath!'
+
+Our horses were standing head to tail, and the Bart put out his hand and
+patted me on the thigh.
+
+'You're a good chap, Gerard,' said he. 'I only wish you had been born on
+the right side of the Channel.'
+
+'I was,' said I.
+
+'Poor devil!' he cried, with such an earnestness of pity that he set me
+laughing again. 'But look here, Gerard,' he continued; 'this is all very
+well, but it is not business, you know. I don't know what Massena would
+say to it, but our Chief would jump out of his riding-boots if he saw
+us. We weren't sent out here for a picnic--either of us.'
+
+'What would you have?'
+
+'Well, we had a little argument about our hussars and dragoons, if you
+remember. I've got fifty of the Sixteenth all chewing their carbine
+bullets behind me. You've got as many fine-looking boys over yonder, who
+seem to be fidgeting in their saddles. If you and I took the right
+flanks we should not spoil each other's beauty--though a little
+blood-letting is a friendly thing in this climate.'
+
+There seemed to me to be a good deal of sense in what he said. For the
+moment Mr Alexis Morgan and the Countess of La Ronda and the Abbey of
+Almeixal went right out of my head, and I could only think of the fine
+level turf and of the beautiful skirmish which we might have.
+
+'Very good, Bart,' said I. 'We have seen the front of your dragoons. We
+shall now have a look at their backs.'
+
+'Any betting?' he asked.
+
+'The stake,' said I, 'is nothing less than the honour of the Hussars of
+Conflans.'
+
+'Well, come on!' he answered. 'If we break you, well and good--if you
+break us, it will be all the better for Marshal Millefleurs.'
+
+When he said that I could only stare at him in astonishment.
+
+'Why for Marshal Millefleurs?' I asked.
+
+'It is the name of a rascal who lives out this way. My dragoons have
+been sent by Lord Wellington to see him safely hanged.'
+
+'Name of a name!' I cried. 'Why, my hussars have been sent by Massena
+for that very object.'
+
+We burst out laughing at that, and sheathed our swords. There was a
+whirr of steel from behind us as our troopers followed our example.
+
+'We are allies!' he cried.
+
+'For a day.'
+
+'We must join forces.'
+
+'There is no doubt of it.'
+
+And so, instead of fighting, we wheeled our half squadrons round and
+moved in two little columns down the valley, the shakos and the helmets
+turned inwards, and the men looking their neighbours up and down, like
+old fighting dogs with tattered ears who have learned to respect each
+other's teeth. The most were on the broad grin, but there were some on
+either side who looked black and challenging, especially the English
+sergeant and my own sub-officer Papilette. They were men of habit, you
+see, who could not change all their ways of thinking in a moment.
+Besides, Papilette had lost his only brother at Busaco. As for the Bart
+and me, we rode together at the head and chatted about all that had
+occurred to us since that famous game of ecarte of which I have told
+you.
+
+For my own part, I spoke to him of my adventures in England. They are a
+very singular people, these English. Although he knew that I had been
+engaged in twelve campaigns, yet I am sure that the Bart thought more
+highly of me because I had had an affair with the Bristol Bustler. He
+told me, too, that the Colonel who presided over his court-martial for
+playing cards with a prisoner acquitted him of neglect of duty, but
+nearly broke him because he thought that he had not cleared his trumps
+before leading his suit. Yes, indeed, they are a singular people.
+
+At the end of the valley the road curved over some rising ground before
+winding down into another wider valley beyond. We called a halt when we
+came to the top; for there, right in front of us, at the distance of
+about three miles, was a scattered, grey town, with a single enormous
+building upon the flank of the mountain which overlooked it. We could
+not doubt that we were at last in sight of the Abbey that held the gang
+of rascals whom we had come to disperse. It was only now, I think, that
+we fully understood what a task lay in front of us, for the place was a
+veritable fortress, and it was evident that cavalry should never have
+been sent out upon such an errand.
+
+'That's got nothing to do with us,' said the Bart; Wellington and
+Massena can settle that between them.'
+
+'Courage!' I answered. 'Pire took Leipzig with fifty hussars.'
+
+'Had they been dragoons,' said the Bart, laughing, 'he would have had
+Berlin. But you are senior officer; give us a lead, and we'll see who
+will be the first to flinch.'
+
+'Well,' said I, 'whatever we do must be done at once, for my orders are
+to be on my way to Abrantes by tomorrow night. But we must have some
+information first, and here is someone who should be able to give it to
+us.'
+
+There was a square, whitewashed house standing by the roadside, which
+appeared, from the bush hanging over the door, to be one of those
+wayside tabernas which are provided for the muleteers. A lantern was
+hung in the porch, and by its light we saw two men, the one in the brown
+habit of a Capuchin monk, and the other girt with an apron, which showed
+him to be the landlord. They were conversing together so earnestly that
+we were upon them before they were aware of us. The innkeeper turned to
+fly, but one of the Englishmen seized him by the hair, and held him
+tight.
+
+'For mercy's sake, spare me,' he yelled. 'My house has been gutted by
+the French and harried by the English, and my feet have been burned by
+the brigands. I swear by the Virgin that I have neither money nor food
+in my inn, and the good Father Abbot, who is starving upon my doorstep,
+will be witness to it.'
+
+'Indeed, sir,' said the Capuchin, in excellent French, 'what this worthy
+man says is very true. He is one of the many victims to these cruel
+wars, although his loss is but a feather-weight compared to mine. Let
+him go,' he added, in English, to the trooper, 'he is too weak to fly,
+even if he desired to.'
+
+In the light of the lantern I saw that this monk was a magnificent man,
+dark and bearded, with the eyes of a hawk, and so tall that his cowl
+came up to Rataplan's ears. He wore the look of one who had been through
+much suffering, but he carried himself like a king, and we could form
+some opinion of his learning when we each heard him talk our own
+language as fluently as if he were born to it.
+
+'You have nothing to fear,' said I, to the trembling innkeeper. 'As to
+you, father, you are, if I am not mistaken, the very man who can give us
+the information which we require.'
+
+'All that I have is at your service, my son. But,' he added, with a wan
+smile, 'my Lenten fare is always somewhat meagre, and this year it has
+been such that I must ask you for a crust of bread if I am to have the
+strength to answer your questions.'
+
+We bore two days' rations in our haversacks, so that he soon had the
+little he asked for. It was dreadful to see the wolfish way in which he
+seized the piece of dried goat's flesh which I was able to offer him.
+
+'Time presses, and we must come to the point,' said I. 'We want your
+advice as to the weak points of yonder Abbey, and concerning the habits
+of the rascals who infest it.'
+
+He cried out something which I took to be Latin, with his hands clasped
+and his eyes upturned. 'The prayer of the just availeth much,' said he,
+'and yet I had not dared to hope that mine would have been so speedily
+answered. In me you see the unfortunate Abbot of Almeixal, who has been
+cast out by this rabble of three armies with their heretical leader. Oh!
+to think of what I have lost!' his voice broke, and the tears hung upon
+his lashes.
+
+'Cheer up, sir,' said the Bart. 'I'll lay nine to four that we have you
+back again by tomorrow night.'
+
+It is not of my own welfare that I think,' said he, 'nor even of that of
+my poor, scattered flock. But it is of the holy relics which are left in
+the sacrilegious hands of these robbers.'
+
+'It's even betting whether they would ever bother their heads about
+them,' said the Bart. 'But show us the way inside the gates, and we'll
+soon clear the place out for you.'
+
+In a few short words the good Abbot gave us the very points that we
+wished to know. But all that he said only made our task more formidable.
+The walls of the Abbey were forty feet high. The lower windows were
+barricaded, and the whole building loopholed for musketry fire. The gang
+preserved military discipline, and their sentries were too numerous for
+us to hope to take them by surprise. It was more than ever evident that
+a battalion of grenadiers and a couple of breaching pieces were what was
+needed. I raised my eyebrows, and the Bart began to whistle.
+
+'We must have a shot at it, come what may,' said he.
+
+The men had already dismounted, and, having watered their horses, were
+eating their suppers. For my own part I went into the sitting-room of
+the inn with the Abbot and the Bart, that we might talk about our plans.
+
+I had a little cognac in my _sauve vie_, and I divided it among us--just
+enough to wet our moustaches.
+
+'It is unlikely,' said I, 'that those rascals know anything about our
+coming. I have seen no signs of scouts along the road. My own plan is
+that we should conceal ourselves in some neighbouring wood, and then,
+when they open their gates, charge down upon them and take them by
+surprise.'
+
+The Bart was of opinion that this was the best that we could do, but,
+when we came to talk it over, the Abbot made us see that there were
+difficulties in the way.
+
+'Save on the side of the town, there is no place within a mile of the
+Abbey where you could shelter man or horse,' said he. 'As to the
+townsfolk, they are not to be trusted. I fear, my son, that your
+excellent plan would have little chance of success in the face of the
+vigilant guard which these men keep.'
+
+'I see no other way,' answered I. 'Hussars of Conflans are not so
+plentiful that I can afford to run half a squadron of them against a
+forty-foot wall with five hundred infantry behind it.'
+
+'I am a man of peace,' said the Abbot, 'and yet I may, perhaps, give a
+word of counsel. I know these villains and their ways. Who should do so
+better, seeing that I have stayed for a month in this lonely spot,
+looking down in weariness of heart at the Abbey which was my own? I will
+tell you now what I should myself do if I were in your place.'
+
+'Pray tell us, father,' we cried, both together.
+
+'You must know that bodies of deserters, both French and English, are
+continually coming in to them, carrying their weapons with them. Now,
+what is there to prevent you and your men from pretending to be such a
+body, and so making your way into the Abbey?'
+
+I was amazed at the simplicity of the thing, and I embraced the good
+Abbot. The Bart, however, had some objections to offer.
+
+'That is all very well,' said he, 'but if these fellows are as sharp as
+you say, it is not very likely that they are going to let a hundred
+armed strangers into their crib. From all I have heard of Mr Morgan, or
+Marshal Millefleurs, or whatever the rascal's name is, I give him credit
+for more sense than that.'
+
+'Well, then,' I cried, 'let us send fifty in, and let them at daybreak
+throw open the gates to the other fifty, who will be waiting outside.'
+
+We discussed the question at great length and with much foresight and
+discretion. If it had been Massena and Wellington instead of two young
+officers of light cavalry, we could not have weighed it all with more
+judgment. At last we agreed, the Bart and I, that one of us should
+indeed go with fifty men, under pretence of being deserters, and that in
+the early morning he should gain command of the gate and admit the
+others. The Abbot, it is true, was still of opinion that it was
+dangerous to divide our force, but finding that we were both of the same
+mind, he shrugged his shoulders and gave in.
+
+'There is only one thing that I would ask,' said he. 'If you lay hands
+upon this Marshal Millefleurs--this dog of a brigand--what will you do
+with him?'
+
+'Hang him,' I answered.
+
+'It is too easy a death,' cried the Capuchin, with a vindictive glow in
+his dark eyes. 'Had I my way with him--but, oh, what thoughts are these
+for a servant of God to harbour!' He clapped his hands to his forehead
+like one who is half demented by his troubles, and rushed out of the
+room.
+
+There was an important point which we had still to settle, and that was
+whether the French or the English party should have the honour of
+entering the Abbey first. My faith, it was asking a great deal of
+Etienne Gerard that he should give place to any man at such a time! But
+the poor Bart pleaded so hard, urging the few skirmishes which he had
+seen against my four-and-seventy engagements, that at last I consented
+that he should go. We had just clasped hands over the matter when there
+broke out such a shouting and cursing and yelling from the front of the
+inn, that out we rushed with our drawn sabres in our hands, convinced
+that the brigands were upon us.
+
+You may imagine our feelings when, by the light of the lantern which
+hung from the porch, we saw a score of our hussars and dragoons all
+mixed in one wild heap, red coats and blue, helmets and busbies,
+pommelling each other to their hearts' content. We flung ourselves upon
+them, imploring, threatening, tugging at a lace collar, or at a spurred
+heel, until, at last, we had dragged them all apart. There they stood,
+flushed and bleeding, glaring at each other, and all panting together
+like a line of troop horses after a ten-mile chase. It was only with our
+drawn swords that we could keep them from each other's throats. The poor
+Capuchin stood in the porch in his long brown habit, wringing his hands
+and calling upon all the saints for mercy.
+
+He was, indeed, as I found upon inquiry, the innocent cause of all the
+turmoil, for, not understanding how soldiers look upon such things, he
+had made some remark to the English sergeant that it was a pity that his
+squadron was not as good as the French. The words were not out of his
+mouth before a dragoon knocked down the nearest hussar, and then, in a
+moment, they all flew at each other like tigers. We would trust them no
+more after that, but the Bart moved his men to the front of the inn, and
+I mine to the back, the English all scowling and silent, and our fellows
+shaking their fists and chattering, each after the fashion of their own
+people.
+
+Well, as our plans were made, we thought it best to carry them out at
+once, lest some fresh cause of quarrel should break out between our
+followers. The Bart and his men rode off, therefore, he having first
+torn the lace from his sleeves, and the gorget and sash from his
+uniform, so that he might pass as a simple trooper. He explained to his
+men what it was that was expected of them, and though they did not raise
+a cry or wave their weapons as mine might have done, there was an
+expression upon their stolid and clean-shaven faces which filled me with
+confidence. Their tunics were left unbuttoned, their scabbards and
+helmets stained with dirt, and their harness badly fastened, so that
+they might look the part of deserters, without order or discipline. At
+six o'clock next morning they were to gain command of the main gate of
+the Abbey, while at that same hour my hussars were to gallop up to it
+from outside. The Bart and I pledged our words to it before he trotted
+off with his detachment. My sergeant, Papilette, with two troopers,
+followed the English at a distance, and returned in half an hour to say
+that, after some parley, and the flashing of lanterns upon them from the
+grille, they had been admitted into the Abbey.
+
+So far, then, all had gone well. It was a cloudy night with a sprinkling
+of rain, which was in our favour, as there was the less chance of our
+presence being discovered. My vedettes I placed two hundred yards in
+every direction, to guard against a surprise, and also to prevent any
+peasant who might stumble upon us from carrying the news to the Abbey.
+Oudin and Papilette were to take turns of duty, while the others with
+their horses had snug quarters in a great wooden granary. Having walked
+round and seen that all was as it should be, I flung myself upon the bed
+which the innkeeper had set apart for me, and fell into a dreamless
+sleep.
+
+No doubt you have heard my name mentioned as being the beau-ideal of a
+soldier, and that not only by friends and admirers like our
+fellow-townsfolk, but also by old officers of the great wars who have
+shared the fortunes of those famous campaigns with me. Truth and modesty
+compel me to say, however, that this is not so. There are some gifts
+which I lack--very few, no doubt--but, still, amid the vast armies of
+the Emperor there may have been some who were free from those blemishes
+which stood between me and perfection. Of bravery I say nothing. Those
+who have seen me in the field are best fitted to speak about that. I
+have often heard the soldiers discussing round the camp-fires as to who
+was the bravest man in the Grand Army. Some said Murat, and some said
+Lasalle, and some Ney; but for my own part, when they asked me, I merely
+shrugged my shoulders and smiled. It would have seemed mere conceit if I
+had answered that there was no man braver than Brigadier Gerard. At the
+same time, facts are facts, and a man knows best what his own feelings
+are. But there are other gifts besides bravery which are necessary for a
+soldier, and one of them is that he should be a light sleeper. Now, from
+my boyhood onwards, I have been hard to wake, and it was this which
+brought me to ruin upon that night.
+
+It may have been about two o'clock in the morning that I was suddenly
+conscious of a feeling of suffocation. I tried to call out, but there
+was something which prevented me from uttering a sound. I struggled to
+rise, but I could only flounder like a hamstrung horse. I was strapped
+at the ankles, strapped at the knees, and strapped again at the wrists.
+Only my eyes were free to move, and there at the foot of my couch, by
+the light of a Portuguese lamp, whom should I see but the Abbot and the
+innkeeper!
+
+The latter's heavy, white face had appeared to me when I looked upon it
+the evening before to express nothing but stupidity and terror. Now, on
+the contrary, every feature bespoke brutality and ferocity. Never have I
+seen a more dreadful-looking villain. In his hand he held a long,
+dull-coloured knife. The Abbot, on the other hand, was as polished and
+as dignified as ever. His Capuchin gown had been thrown open, however,
+and I saw beneath it a black, frogged coat, such as I have seen among
+the English officers. As our eyes met he leaned over the wooden end of
+the bed and laughed silently until it creaked again.
+
+'You will, I am sure, excuse my mirth, my dear Colonel Gerard,' said he.
+'The fact is, that the expression upon your face when you grasped the
+situation was just a little funny. I have no doubt that you are an
+excellent soldier, but I hardly think that you are fit to measure wits
+with the Marshal Millefleurs, as your fellows have been good enough to
+call me. You appear to have given me credit for singularly little
+intelligence, which argues, if I may be allowed to say so, a want of
+acuteness upon your own part. Indeed, with the single exception of my
+thick-headed compatriot, the British dragoon, I have never met anyone
+who was less competent to carry out such a mission.'
+
+You can imagine how I felt and how I looked, as I listened to this
+insolent harangue, which was all delivered in that flowery and
+condescending manner which had gained this rascal his nickname. I could
+say nothing, but they must have read my threat in my eyes, for the
+fellow who had played the part of the innkeeper whispered something to
+his companion.
+
+'No, no, my dear Chenier, he will be infinitely more valuable alive,'
+said he. 'By the way, Colonel, it is just as well that you are a sound
+sleeper, for my friend here, who is a little rough in his ways, would
+certainly have cut your throat if you had raised any alarm. I should
+recommend you to keep in his good graces, for Sergeant Chenier, late of
+the 7th Imperial Light Infantry, is a much more dangerous person than
+Captain Alexis Morgan, of His Majesty's foot-guards.'
+
+Chenier grinned and shook his knife at me, while I tried to look the
+loathing which I felt at the thought that a soldier of the Emperor could
+fall so low.
+
+'It may amuse you to know,' said the Marshal, in that soft, suave voice
+of his, 'that both your expeditions were watched from the time that you
+left your respective camps. I think that you will allow that Chenier and
+I played our parts with some subtlety. We had made every arrangement
+for your reception at the Abbey, though we had hoped to receive the
+whole squadron instead of half. When the gates are secured behind them,
+our visitors will find themselves in a very charming little mediaeval
+quadrangle, with no possible exit, commanded by musketry fire from a
+hundred windows. They may choose to be shot down; or they may choose to
+surrender. Between ourselves, I have not the slightest doubt that they
+have been wise enough to do the latter. But since you are naturally
+interested in the matter, we thought that you would care to come with us
+and to see for yourself. I think I can promise you that you will find
+your titled friend waiting for you at the Abbey with a face as long as
+your own.'
+
+The two villains began whispering together, debating, as far as I could
+hear, which was the best way of avoiding my vedettes.
+
+'I will make sure that it is all clear upon the other side of the barn,'
+said the Marshal at last. 'You will stay here, my good Chenier, and if
+the prisoner gives any trouble you will know what to do.'
+
+So we were left together, this murderous renegade and I--he sitting at
+the end of the bed, sharpening his knife upon his boot in the light of
+the single smoky little oil-lamp. As to me, I only wonder now, as I look
+back upon it, that I did not go mad with vexation and self-reproach as I
+lay helplessly upon the couch, unable to utter a word or move a finger,
+with the knowledge that my fifty gallant lads were so close to me, and
+yet with no means of letting them know the straits to which I was
+reduced. It was no new thing for me to be a prisoner; but to be taken by
+these renegades, and to be led into their Abbey in the midst of their
+jeers, befooled and out-witted by their insolent leaders--that was
+indeed more than I could endure. The knife of the butcher beside me
+would cut less deeply than that.
+
+I twitched softly at my wrists, and then at my ankles, but whichever of
+the two had secured me was no bungler at his work. I could not move
+either of them an inch. Then I tried to work the handkerchief down over
+my mouth, but the ruffian beside me raised his knife with such a
+threatening snarl that I had to desist. I was lying still looking at his
+bull neck, and wondering whether it would ever be my good fortune to fit
+it for a cravat, when I heard returning steps coming down the inn
+passage and up the stair. What word would the villain bring back? If he
+found it impossible to kidnap me, he would probably murder me where I
+lay. For my own part, I was indifferent which it might be, and I looked
+at the doorway with the contempt and defiance which I longed to put into
+words. But you can imagine my feelings, my dear friends, when, instead
+of the tall figure and dark, sneering face of the Capuchin, my eyes fell
+upon the grey pelisse and huge moustaches of my good little sub-officer,
+Papilette!
+
+The French soldier of those days had seen too much to be ever taken by
+surprise. His eyes had hardly rested upon my bound figure and the
+sinister face beside me before he had seen how the matter lay.
+
+'Sacred name of a dog!' he growled, and out flashed his great sabre.
+Chenier sprang forward at him with his knife, and then, thinking better
+of it, he darted back and stabbed frantically at my heart. For my own
+part, I had hurled myself off the bed on the side opposite to him, and
+the blade grazed my side before ripping its way through blanket and
+sheet. An instant later I heard the thud of a heavy fall, and then
+almost simultaneously a second object struck the floor--something
+lighter but harder, which rolled under the bed. I will not horrify you
+with details, my friends. Suffice it that Papilette was one of the
+strongest swordsmen in the regiment, and that his sabre was heavy and
+sharp. It left a red blotch upon my wrists and my ankles, as it cut the
+thongs which bound me.
+
+When I had thrown off my gag, the first use which I made of my lips was
+to kiss the sergeant's scarred cheeks. The next was to ask him if all
+was well with the command. Yes, they had had no alarms. Oudin had just
+relieved him, and he had come to report. Had he seen the Abbot? No, he
+had seen nothing of him. Then we must form a cordon and prevent his
+escape. I was hurrying out to give the orders, when I heard a slow and
+measured step enter the door below, and come creaking up the stairs.
+
+Papilette understood it all in an instant. 'You are not to kill him,' I
+whispered, and thrust him into the shadow on one side of the door; I
+crouched on the other. Up he came, up and up, and every footfall seemed
+to be upon my heart. The brown skirt of his gown was not over the
+threshold before we were both on him, like two wolves on a buck. Down we
+crashed, the three of us, he fighting like a tiger, and with such
+amazing strength that he might have broken away from the two of us.
+Thrice he got to his feet, and thrice we had him over again, until
+Papilette made him feel that there was a point to his sabre. He had
+sense enough then to know that the game was up, and to lie still while I
+lashed him with the very cords which had been round my own limbs.
+
+'There has been a fresh deal, my fine fellow,' said I, 'and you will
+find that I have some of the trumps in _my_ hand this time.'
+
+'Luck always comes to the aid of a fool,' he answered. 'Perhaps it is as
+well, otherwise the world would fall too completely into the power of
+the astute. So, you have killed Chenier, I see. He was an insubordinate
+dog, and always smelt abominably of garlic. Might I trouble you to lay
+me upon the bed? The floor of these Portuguese tabernas is hardly a
+fitting couch for anyone who has prejudices in favour of cleanliness.'
+
+I could not but admire the coolness of the man, and the way in which he
+preserved the same insolent air of condescension in spite of this sudden
+turning of the tables. I dispatched Papilette to summon a guard, whilst
+I stood over our prisoner with my drawn sword, never taking my eyes off
+him for an instant, for I must confess that I had conceived a great
+respect for his audacity and resource.
+
+'I trust,' said he, 'that your men will treat me in a becoming manner.'
+
+'You will get your deserts--you may depend upon that.'
+
+'I ask nothing more. You may not be aware of my exalted birth, but I am
+so placed that I cannot name my father without treason, nor my mother
+without a scandal. I cannot _claim_ Royal honours, but these things are
+so much more graceful when they are conceded without a claim. The thongs
+are cutting my skin. Might I beg you to loosen them?'
+
+'You do not give me credit for much intelligence,' I remarked, repeating
+his own words.
+
+'_Touche_,' he cried, like a pinked fencer. 'But here come your men, so
+it matters little whether you loosen them or not.'
+
+I ordered the gown to be stripped from him and placed him under a strong
+guard. Then, as morning was already breaking, I had to consider what my
+next step was to be. The poor Bart and his Englishmen had fallen victims
+to the deep scheme which might, had we adopted all the crafty
+suggestions of our adviser, have ended in the capture of the whole
+instead of the half of our force. I must extricate them if it were still
+possible. Then there was the old lady, the Countess of La Ronda, to be
+thought of. As to the Abbey, since its garrison was on the alert it was
+hopeless to think of capturing that. All turned now upon the value which
+they placed upon their leader. The game depended upon my playing that
+one card. I will tell you how boldly and how skilfully I played it.
+
+It was hardly light before my bugler blew the assembly, and out we
+trotted on to the plain. My prisoner was placed on horseback in the very
+centre of the troops. It chanced that there was a large tree just out of
+musket-shot from the main gate of the Abbey, and under this we halted.
+Had they opened the great doors in order to attack us, I should have
+charged home upon them; but, as I had expected, they stood upon the
+defensive, lining the long wall and pouring down a torrent of hootings
+and taunts and derisive laughter upon us. A few fired their muskets, but
+finding that we were out of reach they soon ceased to waste their
+powder. It was the strangest sight to see that mixture of uniforms,
+French, English, and Portuguese, cavalry, infantry, and artillery, all
+wagging their heads and shaking their fists at us.
+
+My word, their hubbub soon died away when we opened our ranks, and
+showed whom we had got in the midst of us! There was silence for a few
+seconds, and then such a howl of rage and grief! I could see some of
+them dancing like mad-men upon the wall. He must have been a singular
+person, this prisoner of ours, to have gained the affection of such a
+gang.
+
+I had brought a rope from the inn, and we slung it over the lower bough
+of the tree.
+
+'You will permit me, monsieur, to undo your collar,' said Papilette,
+with mock politeness.
+
+'If your hands are perfectly clean,' answered our prisoner, and set the
+whole half-squadron laughing.
+
+There was another yell from the wall, followed by a profound hush as the
+noose was tightened round Marshal Millefleurs' neck. Then came a shriek
+from a bugle, the Abbey gates flew open, and three men rushed out waving
+white cloths in their hands. Ah, how my heart bounded with joy at the
+sight of them. And yet I would not advance an inch to meet them, so that
+all the eagerness might seem to be upon their side. I allowed my
+trumpeter, however, to wave a handkerchief in reply, upon which the
+three envoys came running towards us. The Marshal, still pinioned, and
+with the rope round his neck, sat his horse with a half smile, as one
+who is slightly bored and yet strives out of courtesy not to show it.
+If I were in such a situation I could not wish to carry myself better,
+and surely I can say no more than that.
+
+They were a singular trio, these ambassadors. The one was a Portuguese
+cacadore in his dark uniform, the second a French chasseur in the
+lightest green, and the third a big English artilleryman in blue and
+gold. They saluted, all three, and the Frenchman did the talking.
+
+'We have thirty-seven English dragoons in our hands,' said he. 'We give
+you our most solemn oath that they shall all hang from the Abbey wall
+within five minutes of the death of our Marshal.'
+
+'Thirty-seven!' I cried. 'You have fifty-one.'
+
+'Fourteen were cut down before they could be secured.'
+
+'And the officer?'
+
+'He would not surrender his sword save with his life. It was not our
+fault. We would have saved him if we could.'
+
+Alas for my poor Bart! I had met him but twice, and yet he was a man
+very much after my heart. I have always had a regard for the English for
+the sake of that one friend. A braver man and a worse swordsman I have
+never met.
+
+I did not, as you may think, take these rascals' word for anything.
+Papilette was dispatched with one of them, and returned to say that it
+was too true. I had now to think of the living.
+
+'You will release the thirty-seven dragoons if I free your leader?'
+
+'We will give you ten of them.'
+
+'Up with him!' I cried.
+
+'Twenty,' shouted the chasseur.
+
+'No more words,' said I. 'Pull on the rope!'
+
+'All of them,' cried the envoy, as the cord tightened round the
+Marshal's neck.
+
+'With horses and arms?'
+
+They could see that I was not a man to jest with.
+
+'All complete,' said the chasseur, sulkily.
+
+'And the Countess of La Ronda as well?' said I.
+
+But here I met with firmer opposition. No threats of mine could induce
+them to give up the Countess. We tightened the cord. We moved the horse.
+We did all but leave the Marshal suspended. If once I broke his neck the
+dragoons were dead men. It was as precious to me as to them.
+
+'Allow me to remark,' said the Marshal, blandly, 'that you are exposing
+me to a risk of a quinsy. Do you not think, since there is a difference
+of opinion upon this point, that it would be an excellent idea to
+consult the lady herself? We would neither of us, I am sure, wish to
+override her own inclinations.'
+
+Nothing could be more satisfactory. You can imagine how quickly I
+grasped at so simple a solution. In ten minutes she was before us, a
+most stately dame, with her grey curls peeping out from under her
+mantilla. Her face was as yellow as though it reflected the countless
+doubloons of her treasury.
+
+'This gentleman,' said the Marshal, 'is exceedingly anxious to convey
+you to a place where you will never see us more. It is for you to decide
+whether you would wish to go with him, or whether you prefer to remain
+with me.'
+
+She was at his horse's side in an instant. 'My own Alexis,' she cried,
+'nothing can ever part us.'
+
+He looked at me with a sneer upon his handsome face.
+
+'By the way, you made a small slip of the tongue, my dear Colonel,' said
+he. 'Except by courtesy, no such person exists as the Dowager Countess
+of La Ronda. The lady whom I have the honour to present to you is my
+very dear wife, Mrs Alexis Morgan--or shall I say Madame la Marechale
+Millefleurs?'
+
+It was at this moment that I came to the conclusion that I was dealing
+with the cleverest, and also the most unscrupulous, man whom I had ever
+met. As I looked upon this unfortunate old woman my soul was filled with
+wonder and disgust. As for her, her eyes were raised to his face with
+such a look as a young recruit might give to the Emperor.
+
+'So be it,' said I at last; 'give me the dragoons and let me go.'
+
+They were brought out with their horses and weapons, and the rope was
+taken from the Marshal's neck.
+
+'Good-bye, my dear Colonel,' said he. 'I am afraid that you will have
+rather a lame account to give of your mission, when you find your way
+back to Massena, though, from all I hear, he will probably be too busy
+to think of you. I am free to confess that you have extricated yourself
+from your difficulties with greater ability than I had given you credit
+for. I presume that there is nothing which I can do for you before you
+go?'
+
+'There is one thing.'
+
+'And that is?'
+
+'To give fitting burial to this young officer and his men.'
+
+'I pledge my word to it.'
+
+'And there is one other.'
+
+'Name it.'
+
+'To give me five minutes in the open with a sword in your hand and a
+horse between your legs.'
+
+'Tut, tut!' said he. 'I should either have to cut short your promising
+career, or else to bid adieu to my own bonny bride. It is unreasonable
+to ask such a request of a man in the first joys of matrimony.'
+
+I gathered my horsemen together and wheeled them into column.
+
+'Au revoir,' I cried, shaking my sword at him. 'The next time you may
+not escape so easily.'
+
+'Au revoir,' he answered. 'When you are weary of the Emperor, you will
+always find a commission waiting for you in the service of the Marshal
+Millefleurs.'
+
+
+
+
+6. HOW THE BRIGADIER PLAYED FOR A KINGDOM
+
+
+It has sometimes struck me that some of you, when you have heard me tell
+these little adventures of mine, may have gone away with the impression
+that I was conceited. There could not be a greater mistake than this,
+for I have always observed that really fine soldiers are free from this
+failing. It is true that I have had to depict myself sometimes as brave,
+sometimes as full of resource, always as interesting; but, then, it
+really was so, and I had to take the facts as I found them. It would be
+an unworthy affectation if I were to pretend that my career has been
+anything but a fine one. The incident which I will tell you tonight,
+however, is one which you will understand that only a modest man would
+describe. After all, when one has attained such a position as mine, one
+can afford to speak of what an ordinary man might be tempted to conceal.
+
+You must know, then, that after the Russian campaign the remains of our
+poor army were quartered along the western bank of the Elbe, where they
+might thaw their frozen blood and try, with the help of the good German
+beer, to put a little between their skin and their bones. There were
+some things which we could not hope to regain, for I daresay that three
+large commissariat fourgons would not have sufficed to carry the fingers
+and the toes which the army had shed during that retreat. Still, lean
+and crippled as we were, we had much to be thankful for when we thought
+of our poor comrades whom we had left behind, and of the snowfields--the
+horrible, horrible snowfields. To this day, my friends, I do not care to
+see red and white together. Even my red cap thrown down upon my white
+counterpane has given me dreams in which I have seen those monstrous
+plains, the reeling, tortured army, and the crimson smears which glared
+upon the snow behind them. You will coax no story out of me about that
+business, for the thought of it is enough to turn my wine to vinegar and
+my tobacco to straw.
+
+Of the half-million who crossed the Elbe in the autumn of the year '12
+about forty thousand infantry were left in the spring of '13. But they
+were terrible men, these forty thousand: men of iron, eaters of horses,
+and sleepers in the snow; filled, too, with rage and bitterness against
+the Russians. They would hold the Elbe until the great army of
+conscripts, which the Emperor was raising in France, should be ready to
+help them to cross it once more.
+
+But the cavalry was in a deplorable condition. My own hussars were at
+Borna, and when I paraded them first, I burst into tears at the sight of
+them. My fine men and my beautiful horses--it broke my heart to see the
+state to which they were reduced. 'But, courage,' I thought, 'they have
+lost much, but their Colonel is still left to them.' I set to work,
+therefore, to repair their disasters, and had already constructed two
+good squadrons, when an order came that all colonels of cavalry should
+repair instantly to the depots of the regiments in France to organize
+the recruits and the remounts for the coming campaign.
+
+You will think, doubtless, that I was over-joyed at this chance of
+visiting home once more. I will not deny that it was a pleasure to me to
+know that I should see my mother again, and there were a few girls who
+would be very glad at the news; but there were others in the army who
+had a stronger claim. I would have given my place to any who had wives
+and children whom they might not see again. However, there is no arguing
+when the blue paper with the little red seal arrives, so within an hour
+I was off upon my great ride from the Elbe to the Vosges. At last I was
+to have a period of quiet. War lay behind my mare's tail and peace in
+front of her nostrils. So I thought, as the sound of the bugles died in
+the distance, and the long, white road curled away in front of me
+through plain and forest and mountain, with France somewhere beyond the
+blue haze which lay upon the horizon.
+
+It is interesting, but it is also fatiguing, to ride in the rear of an
+army. In the harvest time our soldiers could do without supplies, for
+they had been trained to pluck the grain in the fields as they passed,
+and to grind it for themselves in their bivouacs. It was at that time of
+year, therefore, that those swift marches were performed which were the
+wonder and the despair of Europe. But now the starving men had to be
+made robust once more, and I was forced to draw into the ditch
+continually as the Coburg sheep and the Bavarian bullocks came streaming
+past with waggon loads of Berlin beer and good French cognac. Sometimes,
+too, I would hear the dry rattle of the drums and the shrill whistle of
+the fifes, and long columns of our good little infantry men would swing
+past me with the white dust lying thick upon their blue tunics. These
+were old soldiers drawn from the garrisons of our German fortresses, for
+it was not until May that the new conscripts began to arrive from
+France.
+
+Well, I was rather tired of this eternal stopping and dodging, so that I
+was not sorry when I came to Altenburg to find that the road divided,
+and that I could take the southern and quieter branch. There were few
+wayfarers between there and Greiz, and the road wound through groves of
+oaks and beeches, which shot their branches across the path. You will
+think it strange that a Colonel of hussars should again and again pull
+up his horse in order to admire the beauty of the feathery branches and
+the little, green, new-budded leaves, but if you had spent six months
+among the fir trees of Russia you would be able to understand me.
+
+There was something, however, which pleased me very much less than the
+beauty of the forests, and that was the words and looks of the folk who
+lived in the woodland villages. We had always been excellent friends
+with the Germans, and during the last six years they had never seemed to
+bear us any malice for having made a little free with their country. We
+had shown kindnesses to the men and received them from the women, so
+that good, comfortable Germany was a second home to all of us. But now
+there was something which I could not understand in the behaviour of the
+people. The travellers made no answer to my salute; the foresters turned
+their heads away to avoid seeing me; and in the villages the folk would
+gather into knots in the roadway and would scowl at me as I passed. Even
+women would do this, and it was something new for me in those days to
+see anything but a smile in a woman's eyes when they were turned upon
+me.
+
+It was in the hamlet of Schmolin, just ten miles out of Altenburg, that
+the thing became most marked. I had stopped at the little inn there just
+to damp my moustache and to wash the dust out of poor Violette's throat.
+It was my way to give some little compliment, or possibly a kiss, to the
+maid who served me; but this one would have neither the one nor the
+other, but darted a glance at me like a bayonet-thrust. Then when I
+raised my glass to the folk who drank their beer by the door they turned
+their backs on me, save only one fellow, who cried, 'Here's a toast for
+you, boys! Here's to the letter T!' At that they all emptied their beer
+mugs and laughed; but it was not a laugh that had good-fellowship in it.
+
+I was turning this over in my head and wondering what their boorish
+conduct could mean, when I saw, as I rode from the village, a great T
+new carved upon a tree. I had already seen more than one in my morning's
+ride, but I had given no thought to them until the words of the
+beer-drinker gave them an importance. It chanced that a
+respectable-looking person was riding past me at the moment, so I turned
+to him for information.
+
+'Can you tell me, sir,' said I, 'what this letter T is?'
+
+He looked at it and then at me in the most singular fashion. 'Young
+man,' said he, 'it is not the letter N.' Then before I could ask further
+he clapped his spurs into his horses ribs and rode, stomach to earth,
+upon his way.
+
+At first his words had no particular significance in my mind, but as I
+trotted onwards Violette chanced to half turn her dainty head, and my
+eyes were caught by the gleam of the brazen N's at the end of the
+bridle-chain. It was the Emperor's mark. And those T's meant something
+which was opposite to it. Things had been happening in Germany, then,
+during our absence, and the giant sleeper had begun to stir. I thought
+of the mutinous faces that I had seen, and I felt that if I could only
+have looked into the hearts of these people I might have had some
+strange news to bring into France with me. It made me the more eager to
+get my remounts, and to see ten strong squadrons behind my kettle-drums
+once more.
+
+While these thoughts were passing through my head I had been alternately
+walking and trotting, as a man should who has a long journey before, and
+a willing horse beneath, him. The woods were very open at this point,
+and beside the road there lay a great heap of fagots. As I passed there
+came a sharp sound from among them, and, glancing round, I saw a face
+looking out at me--a hot, red face, like that of a man who is beside
+himself with excitement and anxiety. A second glance told me that it was
+the very person with whom I had talked an hour before in the village.
+
+'Come nearer!' he hissed. 'Nearer still! Now dismount and pretend to be
+mending the stirrup leather. Spies may be watching us, and it means
+death to me if I am seen helping you.'
+
+'Death!' I whispered. 'From whom?'
+
+'From the Tugendbund. From Lutzow's night-riders. You Frenchmen are
+living on a powder magazine, and the match has been struck that will
+fire it.'
+
+'But this is all strange to me,' said I, still fumbling at the leathers
+of my horse. 'What is this Tugendbund?'
+
+'It is the secret society which has planned the great rising which is to
+drive you out of Germany, just as you have been driven out of Russia.'
+
+'And these T's stand for it?'
+
+'They are the signal. I should have told you all this in the village,
+but I dared not be seen speaking with you. I galloped through the woods
+to cut you off, and concealed both my horse and myself.'
+
+'I am very much indebted to you,' said I, 'and the more so as you are
+the only German that I have met today from whom I have had common
+civility.'
+
+'All that I possess I have gained through contracting for the French
+armies,' said he. 'Your Emperor has been a good friend to me. But I beg
+that you will ride on now, for we have talked long enough. Beware only
+of Lutzow's night-riders!'
+
+'Banditti?' I asked.
+
+'All that is best in Germany,' said he. 'But for God's sake ride
+forwards, for I have risked my life and exposed my good name in order to
+carry you this warning.'
+
+Well, if I had been heavy with thought before, you can think how I felt
+after my strange talk with the man among the fagots. What came home to
+me even more than his words was his shivering, broken voice, his
+twitching face, and his eyes glancing swiftly to right and left, and
+opening in horror whenever a branch cracked upon a tree. It was clear
+that he was in the last extremity of terror, and it is possible that he
+had cause, for shortly after I had left him I heard a distant gunshot
+and a shouting from somewhere behind me. It may have been some sportsman
+halloaing to his dogs, but I never again heard of or saw the man who had
+given me my warning.
+
+I kept a good look-out after this, riding swiftly where the country was
+open, and slowly where there might be an ambuscade. It was serious for
+me, since 500 good miles of German soil lay in front of me; but somehow
+I did not take it very much to heart, for the Germans had always seemed
+to me to be a kindly, gentle people, whose hands closed more readily
+round a pipe-stem than a sword-hilt--not out of want of valour, you
+understand, but because they are genial, open souls, who would rather be
+on good terms with all men. I did not know then that beneath that homely
+surface there lurks a devilry as fierce as, and far more persistent
+than, that of the Castilian or the Italian.
+
+And it was not long before I had shown to me that there was something
+more serious abroad than rough words and hard looks. I had come to a
+spot where the road runs upwards through a wild tract of heath-land and
+vanishes into an oak wood. I may have been half-way up the hill when,
+looking forward, I saw something gleaming under the shadow of the
+tree-trunks, and a man came out with a coat which was so slashed and
+spangled with gold that he blazed like a fire in the sunlight. He
+appeared to be very drunk, for he reeled and staggered as he came
+towards me. One of his hands was held up to his ear and clutched a great
+red handkerchief, which was fixed to his neck.
+
+I had reined up the mare and was looking at him with some disgust, for
+it seemed strange to me that one who wore so gorgeous a uniform should
+show himself in such a state in broad daylight. For his part, he looked
+hard in my direction and came slowly onwards, stopping from time to time
+and swaying about as he gazed at me. Suddenly, as I again advanced, he
+screamed out his thanks to Christ, and, lurching forwards, he fell with
+a crash upon the dusty road. His hands flew forward with the fall, and I
+saw that what I had taken for a red cloth was a monstrous wound, which
+had left a great gap in his neck, from which a dark blood-clot hung,
+like an epaulette upon his shoulder.
+
+'My God!' I cried, as I sprang to his aid. 'And I thought that you were
+drunk!'
+
+'Not drunk, but dying,' said he. 'But thank Heaven that I have seen a
+French officer while I have still strength to speak.'
+
+I laid him among the heather and poured some brandy down his throat. All
+round us was the vast countryside, green and peaceful, with nothing
+living in sight save only the mutilated man beside me.
+
+'Who has done this?' I asked, 'and what are you? You are French, and yet
+the uniform is strange to me.'
+
+'It is that of the Emperor's new guard of honour. I am the Marquis of
+Chateau St Arnaud, and I am the ninth of my blood who has died in the
+service of France. I have been pursued and wounded by the night-riders
+of Lutzow, but I hid among the brushwood yonder, and waited in the hope
+that a Frenchman might pass. I could not be sure at first if you were
+friend or foe, but I felt that death was very near, and that I must take
+the chance.'
+
+'Keep your heart up, comrade,' said I; 'I have seen a man with a worse
+wound who has lived to boast of it.'
+
+'No, no,' he whispered; 'I am going fast.' He laid his hand upon mine as
+he spoke, and I saw that his finger-nails were already blue. 'But I have
+papers here in my tunic which you must carry at once to the Prince of
+Saxe-Felstein, at his Castle of Hof. He is still true to us, but the
+Princess is our deadly enemy. She is striving to make him declare
+against us. If he does so, it will determine all those who are wavering,
+for the King of Prussia is his uncle and the King of Bavaria his cousin.
+These papers will hold him to us if they can only reach him before he
+takes the last step. Place them in his hands tonight, and, perhaps, you
+will have saved all Germany for the Emperor. Had my horse not been shot,
+I might, wounded as I am----' He choked, and the cold hand tightened
+into a grip, which left mine as bloodless as itself. Then, with a groan,
+his head jerked back, and it was all over with him.
+
+Here was a fine start for my journey home. I was left with a commission
+of which I knew little, which would lead me to delay the pressing needs
+of my hussars, and which at the same time was of such importance that it
+was impossible for me to avoid it. I opened the Marquis's tunic, the
+brilliance of which had been devised by the Emperor in order to attract
+those young aristocrats from whom he hoped to raise these new regiments
+of his Guard. It was a small packet of papers which I drew out, tied up
+with silk, and addressed to the Prince of Saxe-Felstein. In the corner,
+in a sprawling, untidy hand, which I knew to be the Emperor's own, was
+written: 'Pressing and most important.' It was an order to me, those
+four words--an order as clear as if it had come straight from the firm
+lips with the cold grey eyes looking into mine. My troopers might wait
+for their horses, the dead Marquis might lie where I had laid him
+amongst the heather, but if the mare and her rider had a breath left in
+them the papers should reach the Prince that night.
+
+I should not have feared to ride by the road through the wood, for I
+have learned in Spain that the safest time to pass through a guerilla
+country is after an outrage, and that the moment of danger is when all
+is peaceful. When I came to look upon my map, however, I saw that Hof
+lay further to the south of me, and that I might reach it more directly
+by keeping to the moors. Off I set, therefore, and had not gone fifty
+yards before two carbine shots rang out of the brushwood and a bullet
+hummed past me like a bee. It was clear that the night-riders were
+bolder in their ways than the brigands of Spain, and that my mission
+would have ended where it had begun if I had kept to the road.
+
+It was a mad ride, that--a ride with a loose rein, girth-deep in heather
+and in gorse, plunging through bushes, flying down hill-sides, with my
+neck at the mercy of my dear little Violette. But she--she never
+slipped, she never faltered, as swift and as surefooted as if she knew
+that her rider carried the fate of all Germany beneath the buttons of
+his pelisse. And I--I had long borne the name of being the best
+horseman in the six brigades of light cavalry, but I never rode as I
+rode then. My friend the Bart had told me of how they hunt the fox in
+England, but the swiftest fox would have been captured by me that day.
+The wild pigeons which flew overhead did not take a straighter course
+than Violette and I below. As an officer, I have always been ready to
+sacrifice myself for my men, though the Emperor would not have thanked
+me for it, for he had many men, but only one--well, cavalry leaders of
+the first class are rare.
+
+But here I had an object which was indeed worth a sacrifice, and I
+thought no more of my life than of the clods of earth that flew from my
+darling's heels.
+
+We struck the road once more as the light was failing, and galloped into
+the little village of Lobenstein. But we had hardly got upon the
+cobblestones when off came one of the mare's shoes, and I had to lead
+her to the village smithy. His fire was low, and his day's work done, so
+that it would be an hour at the least before I could hope to push on to
+Hof. Cursing at the delay, I strode into the village inn and ordered a
+cold chicken and some wine to be served for my dinner. It was but a few
+miles to Hof, and I had every hope that I might deliver my papers to the
+Prince on that very night, and be on my way for France next morning with
+despatches for the Emperor in my bosom. I will tell you now what befell
+me in the inn of Lobenstein.
+
+The chicken had been served and the wine drawn, and I had turned upon
+both as a man may who has ridden such a ride, when I was aware of a
+murmur and a scuffling in the hall outside my door. At first I thought
+that it was some brawl between peasants in their cups, and I left them
+to settle their own affairs. But of a sudden there broke from among the
+low, sullen growl of the voices such a sound as would send Etienne
+Gerard leaping from his death-bed. It was the whimpering cry of a woman
+in pain. Down clattered my knife and my fork, and in an instant I was
+in the thick of the crowd which had gathered outside my door.
+
+The heavy-cheeked landlord was there and his flaxen-haired wife, the two
+men from the stables, a chambermaid, and two or three villagers. All of
+them, women and men, were flushed and angry, while there in the centre
+of them, with pale cheeks and terror in her eyes, stood the loveliest
+woman that ever a soldier would wish to look upon. With her queenly head
+thrown back, and a touch of defiance mingled with her fear, she looked
+as she gazed round her like a creature of a different race from the
+vile, coarse-featured crew who surrounded her. I had not taken two steps
+from my door before she sprang to meet me, her hand resting upon my arm
+and her blue eyes sparkling with joy and triumph.
+
+'A French soldier and gentleman!' she cried. 'Now at last I am safe.'
+
+'Yes, madam, you are safe,' said I, and I could not resist taking her
+hand in mine in order that I might reassure her. 'You have only to
+command me,' I added, kissing the hand as a sign that I meant what I was
+saying.
+
+'I am Polish,' she cried; 'the Countess Palotta is my name. They abuse
+me because I love the French. I do not know what they might have done to
+me had Heaven not sent you to my help.'
+
+I kissed her hand again lest she should doubt my intentions. Then I
+turned upon the crew with such an expression as I know how to assume. In
+an instant the hall was empty.
+
+'Countess,' said I, 'you are now under my protection. You are faint, and
+a glass of wine is necessary to restore you.' I offered her my arm and
+escorted her into my room, where she sat by my side at the table and
+took the refreshment which I offered her.
+
+How she blossomed out in my presence, this woman, like a flower before
+the sun! She lit up the room with her beauty. She must have read my
+admiration in my eyes, and it seemed to me that I also could see
+something of the sort in her own. Ah! my friends, I was no
+ordinary-looking man when I was in my thirtieth year. In the whole light
+cavalry it would have been hard to find a finer pair of whiskers.
+Murat's may have been a shade longer, but the best judges are agreed
+that Murat's were a shade too long. And then I had a manner. Some women
+are to be approached in one way and some in another, just as a siege is
+an affair of fascines and gabions in hard weather and of trenches in
+soft. But the man who can mix daring with timidity, who can be
+outrageous with an air of humility, and presumptuous with a tone of
+deference, that is the man whom mothers have to fear. For myself, I felt
+that I was the guardian of this lonely lady, and knowing what a
+dangerous man I had to deal with, I kept strict watch upon myself.
+Still, even a guardian has his privileges, and I did not neglect them.
+
+But her talk was as charming as her face. In a few words she explained
+that she was travelling to Poland, and that her brother who had been her
+escort had fallen ill upon the way. She had more than once met with
+ill-treatment from the country folk because she could not conceal her
+good-will towards the French. Then turning from her own affairs she
+questioned me about the army, and so came round to myself and my own
+exploits. They were familiar to her, she said, for she knew several of
+Poniatowski's officers, and they had spoken of my doings. Yet she would
+be glad to hear them from my own lips. Never have I had so delightful a
+conversation. Most women make the mistake of talking rather too much
+about their own affairs, but this one listened to my tales just as you
+are listening now, ever asking for more and more and more. The hours
+slipped rapidly by, and it was with horror that I heard the village
+clock strike eleven, and so learned that for four hours I had forgotten
+the Emperor's business.
+
+'Pardon me, my dear lady,' I cried, springing to my feet, 'but I must
+go on instantly to Hof.'
+
+She rose also, and looked at me with a pale, reproachful face. 'And me?'
+she said. 'What is to become of me?'
+
+'It is the Emperor's affair. I have already stayed far too long. My duty
+calls me, and I must go.'
+
+'You must go? And I must be abandoned alone to these savages? Oh, why
+did I ever meet you? Why did you ever teach me to rely upon your
+strength?' Her eyes glazed over, and in an instant she was sobbing upon
+my bosom.
+
+Here was a trying moment for a guardian! Here was a time when he had to
+keep a watch upon a forward young officer. But I was equal to it. I
+smoothed her rich brown hair and whispered such consolations as I could
+think of in her ear, with one arm round her, it is true, but that was to
+hold her lest she should faint. She turned her tear-stained face to
+mine. 'Water,' she whispered. 'For God's sake, water!'
+
+I saw that in another moment she would be senseless. I laid the drooping
+head upon the sofa, and then rushed furiously from the room, hunting
+from chamber to chamber for a carafe. It was some minutes before I could
+get one and hurry back with it. You can imagine my feelings to find the
+room empty and the lady gone.
+
+Not only was she gone, but her cap and silver-mounted riding switch
+which had lain upon the table were gone also. I rushed out and roared
+for the landlord. He knew nothing of the matter, had never seen the
+woman before, and did not care if he never saw her again. Had the
+peasants at the door seen anyone ride away? No, they had seen nobody. I
+searched here and searched there, until at last I chanced to find myself
+in front of a mirror, where I stood with my eyes staring and my jaw as
+far dropped as the chin-strap of my shako would allow.
+
+Four buttons of my pelisse were open, and it did not need me to put my
+hand up to know that my precious papers were gone. Oh! the depth of
+cunning that lurks in a woman's heart. She had robbed me, this creature,
+robbed me as she clung to my breast. Even while I smoothed her hair, and
+whispered kind words into her ear, her hands had been at work beneath my
+dolman. And here I was, at the very last step of my journey, without the
+power of carrying out this mission which had already deprived one good
+man of his life, and was likely to rob another one of his credit. What
+would the Emperor say when he heard that I had lost his despatches?
+Would the army believe it of Etienne Gerard? And when they heard that a
+woman's hand had coaxed them from me, what laughter there would be at
+mess-table and at camp-fire! I could have rolled upon the ground in my
+despair.
+
+But one thing was certain--all this affair of the fracas in the hall and
+the persecution of the so-called Countess was a piece of acting from the
+beginning. This villainous innkeeper must be in the plot. From him I
+might learn who she was and where my papers had gone. I snatched my
+sabre from the table and rushed out in search of him. But the scoundrel
+had guessed what I would do, and had made his preparations for me. It
+was in the corner of the yard that I found him, a blunderbuss in his
+hands and a mastiff held upon a leash by his son. The two stable-hands,
+with pitchforks, stood upon either side, and the wife held a great
+lantern behind him, so as to guide his aim.
+
+'Ride away, sir, ride away!' he cried, with a crackling voice. 'Your
+horse is at the door, and no one will meddle with you if you go your
+way; but if you come against us, you are alone against three brave men.'
+
+I had only the dog to fear, for the two forks and the blunderbuss were
+shaking about like branches in a wind. Still, I considered that, though
+I might force an answer with my sword-point at the throat of this fat
+rascal, still I should have no means of knowing whether that answer was
+the truth. It would be a struggle, then, with much to lose and nothing
+certain to gain. I looked them up and down, therefore, in a way that
+set their foolish weapons shaking worse than ever, and then, throwing
+myself upon my mare, I galloped away with the shrill laughter of the
+landlady jarring upon my ears.
+
+I had already formed my resolution. Although I had lost my papers, I
+could make a very good guess as to what their contents would be, and
+this I would say from my own lips to the Prince of Saxe-Felstein, as
+though the Emperor had commissioned me to convey it in that way. It was
+a bold stroke and a dangerous one, but if I went too far I could
+afterwards be disavowed. It was that or nothing, and when all Germany
+hung on the balance the game should not be lost if the nerve of one man
+could save it.
+
+It was midnight when I rode into Hof, but every window was blazing,
+which was enough it itself, in that sleepy country, to tell the ferment
+of excitement in which the people were. There was hooting and jeering as
+I rode through the crowded streets, and once a stone sang past my head,
+but I kept upon my way, neither slowing nor quickening my pace, until I
+came to the palace. It was lit from base to battlement, and the dark
+shadows, coming and going against the yellow glare, spoke of the turmoil
+within. For my part, I handed my mare to a groom at the gate, and
+striding in I demanded, in such a voice as an ambassador should have, to
+see the Prince instantly, upon business which would brook no delay.
+
+The hall was dark, but I was conscious as I entered of a buzz of
+innumerable voices, which hushed into silence as I loudly proclaimed my
+mission. Some great meeting was being held then--a meeting which, as my
+instincts told me, was to decide this very question of war and peace. It
+was possible that I might still be in time to turn the scale for the
+Emperor and for France. As to the major-domo, he looked blackly at me,
+and showing me into a small ante-chamber he left me. A minute later he
+returned to say that the Prince could not be disturbed at present, but
+that the Princess would take my message.
+
+The Princess! What use was there in giving it to her? Had I not been
+warned that she was German in heart and soul, and that it was she who
+was turning her husband and her State against us?
+
+'It is the Prince that I must see,' said I.
+
+'Nay, it is the Princess,' said a voice at the door, and a woman swept
+into the chamber. 'Von Rosen, you had best stay with us. Now, sir, what
+is it that you have to say to either Prince or Princess of
+Saxe-Felstein?'
+
+At the first sound of the voice I had sprung to my feet. At the first
+glance I had thrilled with anger. Not twice in a lifetime does one meet
+that noble figure, that queenly head, and those eyes as blue as the
+Garonne, and as chilling as her winter waters.
+
+'Time presses, sir!' she cried, with an impatient tap of her foot. 'What
+have you to say to me?'
+
+'What have I to say to you?' I cried. 'What can I say, save that you
+have taught me never to trust a woman more? You have ruined and
+dishonoured me for ever.'
+
+She looked with arched brows at her attendant.
+
+'Is this the raving of fever, or does it come from some less innocent
+cause?' said she. 'Perhaps a little blood-letting--'
+
+'Ah, you can act!' I cried. 'You have shown me that already.'
+
+'Do you mean that we have met before?'
+
+'I mean that you have robbed me within the last two hours.'
+
+'This is past all bearing,' she cried, with an admirable affectation of
+anger. 'You claim, as I understand, to be an ambassador, but there are
+limits to the privileges which such an office brings with it.'
+
+'You brazen it admirably,' said I. 'Your Highness will not make a fool
+of me twice in one night.' I sprang forward and, stooping down, caught
+up the hem of her dress. 'You would have done well to change it after
+you had ridden so far and so fast,' said I.
+
+It was like the dawn upon a snow-peak to see her ivory cheeks flush
+suddenly to crimson.
+
+'Insolent!' she cried. 'Call the foresters and have him thrust from the
+palace'
+
+'I will see the Prince first.'
+
+'You will never see the Prince. Ah! Hold him, Von Rosen, hold him.'
+
+She had forgotten the man with whom she had to deal--was it likely that
+I would wait until they could bring their rascals? She had shown me her
+cards too soon. Her game was to stand between me and her husband. Mine
+was to speak face to face with him at any cost. One spring took me out
+of the chamber. In another I had crossed the hall. An instant later I
+had burst into the great room from which the murmur of the meeting had
+come. At the far end I saw a figure upon a high chair under a dais.
+Beneath him was a line of high dignitaries, and then on every side I saw
+vaguely the heads of a vast assembly. Into the centre of the room I
+strode, my sabre clanking, my shako under my arm.
+
+'I am the messenger of the Emperor,' I shouted. 'I bear his message to
+His Highness the Prince of Saxe-Felstein.'
+
+The man beneath the dais raised his head, and I saw that his face was
+thin and wan, and that his back was bowed as though some huge burden was
+balanced between his shoulders.
+
+'Your name, sir?' he asked.
+
+'Colonel Etienne Gerard, of the Third Hussars.'
+
+Every face in the gathering was turned upon me, and I heard the rustle
+of the innumerable necks and saw countless eyes without meeting one
+friendly one amongst them. The woman had swept past me, and was
+whispering, with many shakes of her head and dartings of her hands, into
+the Prince's ear. For my own part I threw out my chest and curled my
+moustache, glancing round in my own debonair fashion at the assembly.
+They were men, all of them, professors from the college, a sprinkling of
+their students, soldiers, gentlemen, artisans, all very silent and
+serious. In one corner there sat a group of men in black, with
+riding-coats drawn over their shoulders. They leaned their heads to each
+other, whispering under their breath, and with every movement I caught
+the clank of their sabres or the clink of their spurs.
+
+'The Emperor's private letter to me informs me that it is the Marquis
+Chateau St Arnaud who is bearing his despatches,' said the Prince.
+
+'The Marquis has been foully murdered,' I answered, and a buzz rose up
+from the people as I spoke. Many heads were turned, I noticed, towards
+the dark men in the cloaks.
+
+'Where are your papers?' asked the Prince.
+
+'I have none.'
+
+A fierce clamour rose instantly around me. 'He is a spy! He plays a
+part!' they cried. 'Hang him!' roared a deep voice from the corner, and
+a dozen others took up the shout. For my part, I drew out my
+handkerchief and nicked the dust from the fur of my pelisse. The Prince
+held out his thin hands, and the tumult died away.
+
+'Where, then, are your credentials, and what is your message?'
+
+'My uniform is my credential, and my message is for your private ear.'
+
+He passed his hand over his forehead with the gesture of a weak man who
+is at his wits' end what to do. The Princess stood beside him with her
+hand upon his throne, and again whispered in his ear.
+
+'We are here in council together, some of my trusty subjects and
+myself,' said he. 'I have no secrets from them, and whatever message the
+Emperor may send to me at such a time concerns their interests no less
+than mine.'
+
+There was a hum of applause at this, and every eye was turned once more
+upon me. My faith, it was an awkward position in which I found myself,
+for it is one thing to address eight hundred hussars, and another to
+speak to such an audience on such a subject. But I fixed my eyes upon
+the Prince, and tried to say just what I should have said if we had been
+alone, shouting it out, too, as though I had my regiment on parade.
+
+'You have often expressed friendship for the Emperor,' I cried. 'It is
+now at last that this friendship is about to be tried. If you will stand
+firm, he will reward you as only he can reward. It is an easy thing for
+him to turn a Prince into a King and a province into a power. His eyes
+are fixed upon you, and though you can do little to harm him, you can
+ruin yourself. At this moment he is crossing the Rhine with two hundred
+thousand men. Every fortress in the country is in his hands. He will be
+upon you in a week, and if you have played him false, God help both you
+and your people. You think that he is weakened because a few of us got
+the chilblains last winter. Look there!' I cried, pointing to a great
+star which blazed through the window above the Prince's head. 'That is
+the Emperor's star. When it wanes, he will wane--but not before.'
+
+You would have been proud of me, my friends, if you could have seen and
+heard me, for I clashed my sabre as I spoke, and swung my dolman as
+though my regiment was picketed outside in the courtyard. They listened
+to me in silence, but the back of the Prince bowed more and more as
+though the burden which weighed upon it was greater than his strength.
+He looked round with haggard eyes.
+
+'We have heard a Frenchman speak for France,' said he. 'Let us have a
+German speak for Germany.'
+
+The folk glanced at each other, and whispered to their neighbours. My
+speech, as I think, had its effect, and no man wished to be the first to
+commit himself in the eyes of the Emperor. The Princess looked round
+her with blazing eyes, and her clear voice broke the silence.
+
+'Is a woman to give this Frenchman his answer?' she cried. 'Is it
+possible, then, that among the night-riders of Lutzow there is none who
+can use his tongue as well as his sabre?'
+
+Over went a table with a crash, and a young man had bounded upon one of
+the chairs. He had the face of one inspired--pale, eager, with wild hawk
+eyes, and tangled hair. His sword hung straight from his side, and his
+riding-boots were brown with mire.
+
+'It is Korner!' the people cried. 'It is young Korner, the poet! Ah, he
+will sing, he will sing.'
+
+And he sang! It was soft, at first, and dreamy, telling of old Germany,
+the mother of nations, of the rich, warm plains, and the grey cities,
+and the fame of dead heroes. But then verse after verse rang like a
+trumpet-call. It was of the Germany of now, the Germany which had been
+taken unawares and overthrown, but which was up again, and snapping the
+bonds upon her giant limbs. What was life that one should covet it? What
+was glorious death that one should shun it? The mother, the great
+mother, was calling. Her sigh was in the night wind. She was crying to
+her own children for help. Would they come? Would they come? Would they
+come?
+
+Ah, that terrible song, the spirit face and the ringing voice! Where
+were I, and France, and the Emperor? They did not shout, these
+people--they howled. They were up on the chairs and the tables. They
+were raving, sobbing, the tears running down their faces. Korner had
+sprung from the chair, and his comrades were round him with their sabres
+in the air. A flush had come into the pale face of the Prince, and he
+rose from his throne.
+
+'Colonel Gerard,' said he, 'you have heard the answer which you are to
+carry to your Emperor. The die is cast, my children. Your Prince and you
+must stand or fall together.'
+
+He bowed to show that all was over, and the people with a shout made
+for the door to carry the tidings into the town. For my own part, I had
+done all that a brave man might, and so I was not sorry to be carried
+out amid the stream. Why should I linger in the palace? I had had my
+answer and must carry it, such as it was. I wished neither to see Hof
+nor its people again until I entered it at the head of a vanguard. I
+turned from the throng, then, and walked silently and sadly in the
+direction in which they had led the mare.
+
+It was dark down there by the stables, and I was peering round for the
+hostler, when suddenly my two arms were seized from behind. There were
+hands at my wrists and at my throat, and I felt the cold muzzle of a
+pistol under my ear.
+
+'Keep your lips closed, you French dog,' whispered a fierce voice. 'We
+have him, captain.'
+
+'Have you the bridle?'
+
+'Here it is.'
+
+'Sling it over his head.'
+
+I felt the cold coil of leather tighten round my neck. An hostler with a
+stable lantern had come out and was gazing upon the scene. In its dim
+light I saw stern faces breaking everywhere through the gloom, with the
+black caps and dark cloaks of the night-riders.
+
+'What would you do with him, captain?' cried a voice.
+
+'Hang him at the palace gate.'
+
+'An ambassador?'
+
+'An ambassador without papers.'
+
+'But the Prince?'
+
+'Tut, man, do you not see that the Prince will then be committed to our
+side? He will be beyond all hope of forgiveness. At present he may swing
+round tomorrow as he has done before. He may eat his words, but a dead
+hussar is more than he can explain.'
+
+'No, no, Von Strelitz, we cannot do it,' said another voice.
+
+'Can we not? I shall show you that!' and there came a jerk on the
+bridle which nearly pulled me to the ground. At the same instant a sword
+flashed and the leather was cut through within two inches of my neck.
+
+'By Heaven, Korner, this is rank mutiny,' cried the captain. 'You may
+hang yourself before you are through with it.'
+
+'I have drawn my sword as a soldier and not as a brigand,' said the
+young poet. 'Blood may dim its blade, but never dishonour. Comrades,
+will you stand by and see this gentleman mishandled?'
+
+A dozen sabres flew from their sheaths, and it was evident that my
+friends and my foes were about equally balanced. But the angry voices
+and the gleam of steel had brought the folk running from all parts.
+
+'The Princess!' they cried. 'The Princess is coming!'
+
+And even as they spoke I saw her in front of us, her sweet face framed
+in the darkness. I had cause to hate her, for she had cheated and
+befooled me, and yet it thrilled me then and thrills me now to think
+that my arms have embraced her, and that I have felt the scent of her
+hair in my nostrils. I know not whether she lies under her German earth,
+or whether she still lingers, a grey-haired woman in her Castle of Hof,
+but she lives ever, young and lovely, in the heart and memory of Etienne
+Gerard.
+
+'For shame!' she cried, sweeping up to me, and tearing with her own
+hands the noose from my neck. 'You are fighting in God's own quarrel,
+and yet you would begin with such a devil's deed as this. This man is
+mine, and he who touches a hair of his head will answer for it to me.'
+
+They were glad enough to slink off into the darkness before those
+scornful eyes. Then she turned once more to me.
+
+'You can follow me, Colonel Gerard,' she said. 'I have a word that I
+would speak to you.'
+
+I walked behind her to the chamber into which I had originally been
+shown. She closed the door, and then looked at me with the archest
+twinkle in her eyes.
+
+'Is it not confiding of me to trust myself with you?' said she. 'You
+will remember that it is the Princess of Saxe-Felstein and not the poor
+Countess Palotta of Poland.'
+
+'Be the name what it might,' I answered, 'I helped a lady whom I
+believed to be in distress, and I have been robbed of my papers and
+almost of my honour as a reward.'
+
+'Colonel Gerard,' said she, 'we have been playing a game, you and I, and
+the stake was a heavy one. You have shown by delivering a message which
+was never given to you that you would stand at nothing in the cause of
+your country. My heart is German and yours is French, and I also would
+go all lengths, even to deceit and to theft, if at this crisis I could
+help my suffering fatherland. You see how frank I am.'
+
+'You tell me nothing that I have not seen.'
+
+'But now that the game is played and won, why should we bear malice? I
+will say this, that if ever I were in such a plight as that which I
+pretended in the inn of Lobenstein, I should never wish to meet a more
+gallant protector or a truer-hearted gentleman than Colonel Etienne
+Gerard. I had never thought that I could feel for a Frenchman as I felt
+for you when I slipped the papers from your breast.'
+
+'But you took them, none the less.'
+
+'They were necessary to me and to Germany. I knew the arguments which
+they contained and the effect which they would have upon the Prince. If
+they had reached him all would have been lost.'
+
+'Why should your Highness descend to such expedients when a score of
+these brigands, who wished to hang me at your castle gate, would have
+done the work as well?'
+
+'They are not brigands, but the best blood of Germany,' she cried,
+hotly. 'If you have been roughly used, you will remember the indignities
+to which every German has been subjected, from the Queen of Prussia
+downwards. As to why I did not have you waylaid upon the road, I may say
+that I had parties out on all sides, and that I was waiting at
+Lobenstein to hear of their success. When instead of their news you
+yourself arrived I was in despair, for there was only the one weak woman
+betwixt you and my husband. You see the straits to which I was driven
+before I used the weapon of my sex.'
+
+'I confess that you have conquered me, your Highness, and it only
+remains for me to leave you in possession of the field.'
+
+'But you will take your papers with you.' She held them out to me as she
+spoke. 'The Prince has crossed the Rubicon now, and nothing can bring
+him back. You can return these to the Emperor, and tell him that we
+refused to receive them. No one can accuse you then of having lost your
+despatches. Good-bye, Colonel Gerard, and the best I can wish you is
+that when you reach France you may remain there. In a year's time there
+will be no place for a Frenchman upon this side of the Rhine.'
+
+And thus it was that I played the Princess of Saxe-Felstein with all
+Germany for a stake, and lost my game to her. I had much to think of as
+I walked my poor, tired Violette along the highway which leads westward
+from Hof. But amid all the thoughts there came back to me always the
+proud, beautiful face of the German woman, and the voice of the
+soldier-poet as he sang from the chair. And I understood then that there
+was something terrible in this strong, patient Germany--this mother root
+of nations--and I saw that such a land, so old and so beloved, never
+could be conquered. And as I rode I saw that the dawn was breaking, and
+that the great star at which I had pointed through the palace window was
+dim and pale in the western sky.
+
+
+
+
+7. HOW THE BRIGADIER WON HIS MEDAL
+
+
+The Duke of Tarentum, or Macdonald, as his old comrades prefer to call
+him, was, as I could perceive, in the vilest of tempers. His grim,
+Scotch face was like one of those grotesque door-knockers which one sees
+in the Faubourg St Germain. We heard afterwards that the Emperor had
+said in jest that he would have sent him against Wellington in the
+South, but that he was afraid to trust him within the sound of the
+pipes. Major Charpentier and I could plainly see that he was smouldering
+with anger.
+
+'Brigadier Gerard of the Hussars,' said he, with the air of the corporal
+with the recruit.
+
+I saluted.
+
+'Major Charpentier of the Horse Grenadiers.'
+
+My companion answered to his name.
+
+'The Emperor has a mission for you.'
+
+Without more ado he flung open the door and announced us.
+
+I have seen Napoleon ten times on horseback to once on foot, and I think
+that he does wisely to show himself to the troops in this fashion, for
+he cuts a very good figure in the saddle. As we saw him now he was the
+shortest man out of six by a good hand's breadth, and yet I am no very
+big man myself, though I ride quite heavy enough for a hussar. It is
+evident, too, that his body is too long for his legs. With his big,
+round head, his curved shoulders, and his clean-shaven face, he is more
+like a Professor at the Sorbonne than the first soldier in France. Every
+man to his taste, but it seems to me that, if I could clap a pair of
+fine light cavalry whiskers, like my own, on to him, it would do him no
+harm. He has a firm mouth, however, and his eyes are remarkable. I have
+seen them once turned on me in anger, and I had rather ride at a square
+on a spent horse than face them again. I am not a man who is easily
+daunted, either.
+
+He was standing at the side of the room, away from the window, looking
+up at a great map of the country which was hung upon the wall. Berthier
+stood beside him, trying to look wise, and just as we entered, Napoleon
+snatched his sword impatiently from him and pointed with it on the map.
+He was talking fast and low, but I heard him say, 'The valley of the
+Meuse,' and twice he repeated 'Berlin.' As we entered, his aide-de-camp
+advanced to us, but the Emperor stopped him and beckoned us to his side.
+
+'You have not yet received the cross of honour, Brigadier Gerard?' he
+asked.
+
+I replied that I had not, and was about to add that it was not for want
+of having deserved it, when he cut me short in his decided fashion.
+
+'And you, Major?' he asked.
+
+'No, sire.'
+
+'Then you shall both have your opportunity now.'
+
+He led us to the great map upon the wall and placed the tip of
+Berthier's sword on Rheims.
+
+'I will be frank with you, gentlemen, as with two comrades. You have
+both been with me since Marengo, I believe?' He had a strangely pleasant
+smile, which used to light up his pale face with a kind of cold
+sunshine. 'Here at Rheims are our present headquarters on this the 14th
+of March. Very good. Here is Paris, distant by road a good twenty-five
+leagues. Blucher lies to the north, Schwarzenberg to the south.' He
+prodded at the map with the sword as he spoke.
+
+'Now,' said he, 'the further into the country these people march, the
+more completely I shall crush them. They are about to advance upon
+Paris. Very good. Let them do so. My brother, the King of Spain, will be
+there with a hundred thousand men. It is to him that I send you. You
+will hand him this letter, a copy of which I confide to each of you. It
+is to tell him that I am coming at once, in two days' time, with every
+man and horse and gun to his relief. I must give them forty-eight hours
+to recover. Then straight to Paris! You understand me, gentlemen?'
+
+Ah, if I could tell you the glow of pride which it gave me to be taken
+into the great man's confidence in this way. As he handed our letters to
+us I clicked my spurs and threw out my chest, smiling and nodding to let
+him know that I saw what he would be after. He smiled also, and rested
+his hand for a moment upon the cape of my dolman. I would have given
+half my arrears of pay if my mother could have seen me at that instant.
+
+'I will show you your route,' said he, turning back to the map. 'Your
+orders are to ride together as far as Bazoches. You will then separate,
+the one making for Paris by Oulchy and Neuilly, and the other to the
+north by Braine, Soissons, and Senlis. Have you anything to say,
+Brigadier Gerard?'
+
+I am a rough soldier, but I have words and ideas. I had begun to speak
+about glory and the peril of France when he cut me short.
+
+'And you, Major Charpentier?'
+
+'If we find our route unsafe, are we at liberty to choose another?' said
+he.
+
+'Soldiers do not choose, they obey.' He inclined his head to show that
+we were dismissed, and turned round to Berthier. I do not know what he
+said, but I heard them both laughing.
+
+Well, as you may think, we lost little time in getting upon our way. In
+half an hour we were riding down the High Street of Rheims, and it
+struck twelve o'clock as we passed the Cathedral. I had my little grey
+mare, Violette, the one which Sebastiani had wished to buy after
+Dresden. It is the fastest horse in the six brigades of light cavalry,
+and was only beaten by the Duke of Rovigo's racer from England. As to
+Charpentier, he had the kind of horse which a horse grenadier or a
+cuirassier would be likely to ride: a back like a bedstead, you
+understand, and legs like the posts. He is a hulking fellow himself, so
+that they looked a singular pair. And yet in his insane conceit he ogled
+the girls as they waved their handkerchiefs to me from the windows, and
+he twirled his ugly red moustache up into his eyes, just as if it were
+to him that their attention was addressed.
+
+When we came out of the town we passed through the French camp, and then
+across the battle-field of yesterday, which was still covered both by
+our own poor fellows and by the Russians. But of the two the camp was
+the sadder sight. Our army was thawing away. The Guards were all right,
+though the young guard was full of conscripts. The artillery and the
+heavy cavalry were also good if there were more of them, but the
+infantry privates with their under officers looked like schoolboys with
+their masters. And we had no reserves. When one considered that there
+were 80,000 Prussians to the north and 150,000 Russians and Austrians to
+the south, it might make even the bravest man grave.
+
+For my own part, I confess that I shed a tear until the thought came
+that the Emperor was still with us, and that on that very morning he had
+placed his hand upon my dolman and had promised me a medal of honour.
+This set me singing, and I spurred Violette on, until Charpentier had to
+beg me to have mercy on his great, snorting, panting camel. The road was
+beaten into paste and rutted two feet deep by the artillery, so that he
+was right in saying that it was not the place for a gallop.
+
+I have never been very friendly with this Charpentier; and now for
+twenty miles of the way I could not draw a word from him. He rode with
+his brows puckered and his chin upon his breast, like a man who is heavy
+with thought. More than once I asked him what was on his mind, thinking
+that, perhaps, with my quicker intelligence I might set the matter
+straight. His answer always was that it was his mission of which he was
+thinking, which surprised me, because, although I had never thought much
+of his intelligence, still it seemed to me to be impossible that anyone
+could be puzzled by so simple and soldierly a task.
+
+Well, we came at last to Bazoches, where he was to take the southern
+road and I the northern. He half turned in his saddle before he left me,
+and he looked at me with a singular expression of inquiry in his face.
+
+'What do you make of it, Brigadier?' he asked.
+
+'Of what?'
+
+'Of our mission.'
+
+'Surely it is plain enough.'
+
+'You think so? Why should the Emperor tell us his plans?'
+
+'Because he recognized our intelligence.'
+
+My companion laughed in a manner which I found annoying.
+
+'May I ask what you intend to do if you find these villages full of
+Prussians?' he asked.
+
+'I shall obey my orders.'
+
+'But you will be killed.'
+
+'Very possibly.'
+
+He laughed again, and so offensively that I clapped my hand to my sword.
+But before I could tell him what I thought of his stupidity and rudeness
+he had wheeled his horse, and was lumbering away down the other road. I
+saw his big fur cap vanish over the brow of the hill, and then I rode
+upon my way, wondering at his conduct. From time to time I put my hand
+to the breast of my tunic and felt the paper crackle beneath my fingers.
+Ah, my precious paper, which should be turned into the little silver
+medal for which I had yearned so long. All the way from Braine to
+Sermoise I was thinking of what my mother would say when she saw it.
+
+I stopped to give Violette a meal at a wayside auberge on the side of a
+hill not far from Soissons--a place surrounded by old oaks, and with so
+many crows that one could scarce hear one's own voice. It was from the
+innkeeper that I learned that Marmont had fallen back two days before,
+and that the Prussians were over the Aisne. An hour later, in the fading
+light, I saw two of their vedettes upon the hill to the right, and then,
+as darkness gathered, the heavens to the north were all glimmering from
+the lights of a bivouac.
+
+When I heard that Blucher had been there for two days, I was much
+surprised that the Emperor should not have known that the country
+through which he had ordered me to carry my precious letter was already
+occupied by the enemy. Still, I thought of the tone of his voice when he
+said to Charpentier that a soldier must not choose, but must obey. I
+should follow the route he had laid down for me as long as Violette
+could move a hoof or I a finger upon her bridle. All the way from
+Sermoise to Soissons, where the road dips up and down, curving among fir
+woods, I kept my pistol ready and my sword-belt braced, pushing on
+swiftly where the path was straight, and then coming slowly round the
+corners in the way we learned in Spain.
+
+When I came to the farmhouse which lies to the right of the road just
+after you cross the wooden bridge over the Crise, near where the great
+statue of the Virgin stands, a woman cried to me from the field, saying
+that the Prussians were in Soissons. A small party of their lancers, she
+said, had come in that very afternoon, and a whole division was expected
+before midnight. I did not wait to hear the end of her tale, but clapped
+spurs into Violette, and in five minutes was galloping her into the
+town.
+
+Three Uhlans were at the mouth of the main street, their horses
+tethered, and they gossiping together, each with a pipe as long as my
+sabre. I saw them well in the light of an open door, but of me they
+could have seen only the flash of Violette's grey side and the black
+flutter of my cloak. A moment later I flew through a stream of them
+rushing from an open gateway. Violette's shoulder sent one of them
+reeling, and I stabbed at another but missed him. Pang, pang, went two
+carbines, but I had flown round the curve of the street, and never so
+much as heard the hiss of the balls. Ah, we were great, both Violette
+and I. She lay down to it like a coursed hare, the fire flying from her
+hoofs. I stood in my stirrups and brandished my sword. Someone sprang
+for my bridle. I sliced him through the arm, and I heard him howling
+behind me. Two horsemen closed upon me. I cut one down and outpaced the
+other. A minute later I was clear of the town, and flying down a broad
+white road with the black poplars on either side. For a time I heard the
+rattle of hoofs behind me, but they died and died until I could not tell
+them from the throbbing of my own heart. Soon I pulled up and listened,
+but all was silent. They had given up the chase.
+
+Well, the first thing that I did was to dismount and to lead my mare
+into a small wood through which a stream ran. There I watered her and
+rubbed her down, giving her two pieces of sugar soaked in cognac from my
+flask. She was spent from the sharp chase, but it was wonderful to see
+how she came round with a half-hour's rest. When my thighs closed upon
+her again, I could tell by the spring and the swing of her that it would
+not be her fault if I did not win my way safe to Paris.
+
+I must have been well within the enemy's lines now, for I heard a number
+of them shouting one of their rough drinking songs out of a house by the
+roadside, and I went round by the fields to avoid it. At another time
+two men came out into the moonlight (for by this time it was a cloudless
+night) and shouted something in German, but I galloped on without
+heeding them, and they were afraid to fire, for their own hussars are
+dressed exactly as I was. It is best to take no notice at these times,
+and then they put you down as a deaf man.
+
+It was a lovely moon, and every tree threw a black bar across the road.
+I could see the countryside just as if it were daytime, and very
+peaceful it looked, save that there was a great fire raging somewhere in
+the north. In the silence of the night-time, and with the knowledge that
+danger was in front and behind me, the sight of that great distant fire
+was very striking and awesome. But I am not easily clouded, for I have
+seen too many singular things, so I hummed a tune between my teeth and
+thought of little Lisette, whom I might see in Paris. My mind was full
+of her when, trotting round a corner, I came straight upon half-a-dozen
+German dragoons, who were sitting round a brushwood fire by the
+roadside.
+
+I am an excellent soldier. I do not say this because I am prejudiced in
+my own favour, but because I really am so. I can weigh every chance in a
+moment, and decide with as much certainty as though I had brooded for a
+week. Now I saw like a flash that, come what might, I should be chased,
+and on a horse which had already done a long twelve leagues. But it was
+better to be chased onwards than to be chased back. On this moonlit
+night, with fresh horses behind me, I must take my risk in either case;
+but if I were to shake them off, I preferred that it should be near
+Senlis than near Soissons.
+
+All this flashed on me as if by instinct, you understand. My eyes had
+hardly rested on the bearded faces under the brass helmets before my
+rowels had touched Violette, and she was off with a rattle like a
+pas-de-charge. Oh, the shouting and rushing and stamping from behind us!
+Three of them fired and three swung themselves on to their horses. A
+bullet rapped on the crupper of my saddle with a noise like a stick on a
+door. Violette sprang madly forward, and I thought she had been wounded,
+but it was only a graze above the near fore-fetlock. Ah, the dear little
+mare, how I loved her when I felt her settle down into that long, easy
+gallop of hers, her hoofs going like a Spanish girl's castanets. I could
+not hold myself. I turned on my saddle and shouted and raved, 'Vive
+l'Empereur!' I screamed and laughed at the gust of oaths that came back
+to me.
+
+But it was not over yet. If she had been fresh she might have gained a
+mile in five. Now she could only hold her own with a very little over.
+There was one of them, a young boy of an officer, who was better mounted
+than the others. He drew ahead with every stride. Two hundred yards
+behind him were two troopers, but I saw every time that I glanced round
+that the distance between them was increasing. The other three who had
+waited to shoot were a long way in the rear.
+
+The officer's mount was a bay--a fine horse, though not to be spoken of
+with Violette; yet it was a powerful brute, and it seemed to me that in
+a few miles its freshness might tell. I waited until the lad was a long
+way in front of his comrades, and then I eased my mare down a little--a
+very, very little, so that he might think he was really catching me.
+When he came within pistol-shot of me I drew and cocked my own pistol,
+and laid my chin upon my shoulder to see what he would do. He did not
+offer to fire, and I soon discerned the cause. The silly boy had taken
+his pistols from his holsters when he had camped for the night. He
+wagged his sword at me now and roared some threat or other. He did not
+seem to understand that he was at my mercy. I eased Violette down until
+there was not the length of a long lance between the grey tail and the
+bay muzzle.
+
+'Rendez-vous!' he yelled.
+
+'I must compliment monsieur upon his French,' said I, resting the barrel
+of my pistol upon my bridle-arm, which I have always found best when
+shooting from the saddle. I aimed at his face, and could see, even in
+the moonlight, how white he grew when he understood that it was all up
+with him. But even as my finger pressed the trigger I thought of his
+mother, and I put my ball through his horse's shoulder. I fear he hurt
+himself in the fall, for it was a fearful crash, but I had my letter to
+think of, so I stretched the mare into a gallop once more.
+
+But they were not so easily shaken off, these brigands. The two troopers
+thought no more of their young officer than if he had been a recruit
+thrown in the riding-school. They left him to the others and thundered
+on after me. I had pulled up on the brow of a hill, thinking that I had
+heard the last of them; but, my faith, I soon saw there was no time for
+loitering, so away we went, the mare tossing her head and I my shako, to
+show what we thought of two dragoons who tried to catch a hussar. But at
+this moment, even while I laughed at the thought, my heart stood still
+within me, for there at the end of the long white road was a black patch
+of cavalry waiting to receive me. To a young soldier it might have
+seemed the shadow of the trees, but to me it was a troop of hussars,
+and, turn where I could, death seemed to be waiting for me.
+
+Well, I had the dragoons behind me and the hussars in front. Never since
+Moscow have I seemed to be in such peril. But for the honour of the
+brigade I had rather be cut down by a light cavalryman than by a heavy.
+I never drew bridle, therefore, or hesitated for an instant, but I let
+Violette have her head. I remember that I tried to pray as I rode, but I
+am a little out of practice at such things, and the only words I could
+remember were the prayer for fine weather which we used at the school on
+the evening before holidays. Even this seemed better than nothing, and I
+was pattering it out, when suddenly I heard French voices in front of
+me. Ah, mon Dieu, but the joy went through my heart like a musket-ball.
+They were ours--our own dear little rascals from the corps of Marmont.
+Round whisked my two dragoons and galloped for their lives, with the
+moon gleaming on their brass helmets, while I trotted up to my friends
+with no undue haste, for I would have them understand that though a
+hussar may fly, it is not in his nature to fly very fast. Yet I fear
+that Violette's heaving flanks and foam-spattered muzzle gave the lie
+to my careless bearing.
+
+Who should be at the head of the troop but old Bouvet, whom I saved at
+Leipzig! When he saw me his little pink eyes filled with tears, and,
+indeed, I could not but shed a few myself at the sight of his joy. I
+told him of my mission, but he laughed when I said that I must pass
+through Senlis.
+
+'The enemy is there,' said he. 'You cannot go.'
+
+'I prefer to go where the enemy is,' I answered.
+
+'But why not go straight to Paris with your despatch? Why should you
+choose to pass through the one place where you are almost sure to be
+taken or killed?'
+
+'A soldier does not choose--he obeys,' said I, just as I had heard
+Napoleon say it.
+
+Old Bouvet laughed in his wheezy way, until I had to give my moustachios
+a twirl and look him up and down in a manner which brought him to
+reason.
+
+'Well', said he, 'you had best come along with us, for we are all bound
+for Senlis. Our orders are to reconnoitre the place. A squadron of
+Poniatowski's Polish Lancers are in front of us. If you must ride
+through it, it is possible that we may be able to go with you.'
+
+So away we went, jingling and clanking through the quiet night until we
+came up with the Poles--fine old soldiers all of them, though a trifle
+heavy for their horses. It was a treat to see them, for they could not
+have carried themselves better if they had belonged to my own brigade.
+We rode together, until in the early morning we saw the lights of
+Senlis. A peasant was coming along with a cart, and from him we learned
+how things were going there.
+
+His information was certain, for his brother was the Mayor's coachman,
+and he had spoken with him late the night before. There was a single
+squadron of Cossacks--or a polk, as they call it in their frightful
+language--quartered upon the Mayor's house, which stands at the corner
+of the market-place, and is the largest building in the town. A whole
+division of Prussion infantry was encamped in the woods to the north,
+but only the Cossacks were in Senlis. Ah, what a chance to avenge
+ourselves upon these barbarians, whose cruelty to our poor countryfolk
+was the talk at every camp fire.
+
+We were into the town like a torrent, hacked down the vedettes, rode
+over the guard, and were smashing in the doors of the Mayor's house
+before they understood that there was a Frenchman within twenty miles of
+them. We saw horrid heads at the windows--heads bearded to the temples,
+with tangled hair and sheepskin caps, and silly, gaping mouths. 'Hourra!
+Hourra!' they shrieked, and fired with their carbines, but our fellows
+were into the house and at their throats before they had wiped the sleep
+out of their eyes. It was dreadful to see how the Poles flung themselves
+upon them, like starving wolves upon a herd of fat bucks--for, as you
+know, the Poles have a blood feud against the Cossacks. The most were
+killed in the upper rooms, whither they had fled for shelter, and the
+blood was pouring down into the hall like rain from a roof. They are
+terrible soldiers, these Poles, though I think they are a trifle heavy
+for their horses. Man for man, they are as big as Kellerman's
+cuirassiers. Their equipment is, of course, much lighter, since they are
+without the cuirass, back-plate, and helmet.
+
+Well, it was at this point that I made an error--a very serious error it
+must be admitted. Up to this moment I had carried out my mission in a
+manner which only my modesty prevents me from describing as remarkable.
+But now I did that which an official would condemn and a soldier excuse.
+
+There is no doubt that the mare was spent, but still it is true that I
+might have galloped on through Senlis and reached the country, where I
+should have had no enemy between me and Paris. But what hussar can ride
+past a fight and never draw rein? It is to ask too much of him.
+Besides, I thought that if Violette had an hour of rest I might have
+three hours the better at the other end. Then on the top of it came
+those heads at the windows, with their sheepskin hats and their
+barbarous cries. I sprang from my saddle, threw Violette's bridle over a
+rail-post, and ran into the house with the rest. It is true that I was
+too late to be of service, and that I was nearly wounded by a
+lance-thrust from one of these dying savages. Still, it is a pity to
+miss even the smallest affair, for one never knows what opportunity for
+advancement may present itself. I have seen more soldierly work in
+outpost skirmishes and little gallop-and-hack affairs of the kind than
+in any of the Emperor's big battles.
+
+When the house was cleared I took a bucket of water out for Violette,
+and our peasant guide showed me where the good Mayor kept his fodder. My
+faith, but the little sweetheart was ready for it. Then I sponged down
+her legs, and leaving her still tethered I went back into the house to
+find a mouthful for myself, so that I should not need to halt again
+until I was in Paris.
+
+And now I come to the part of my story which may seem singular to you,
+although I could tell you at least ten things every bit as queer which
+have happened to me in my lifetime. You can understand that, to a man
+who spends his life in scouting and vedette duties on the bloody ground
+which lies between two great armies, there are many chances of strange
+experiences. I'll tell you, however, exactly what occurred.
+
+Old Bouvet was waiting in the passage when I entered, and he asked me
+whether we might not crack a bottle of wine together. 'My faith, we must
+not be long,' said he. 'There are ten thousand of Theilmann's Prussians
+in the woods up yonder.'
+
+'Where is the wine?' I asked.
+
+'Ah, you may trust two hussars to find where the wine is,' said he, and
+taking a candle in his hand, he led the way down the stone stairs into
+the kitchen.
+
+When we got there we found another door, which opened on to a winding
+stair with the cellar at the bottom. The Cossacks had been there before
+us, as was easily seen by the broken bottles littered all over it.
+However, the Mayor was a _bon-vivant_, and I do not wish to have a
+better set of bins to pick from. Chambertin, Graves, Alicant, white wine
+and red, sparkling and still, they lay in pyramids peeping coyly out of
+sawdust. Old Bouvet stood with his candle looking here and peeping
+there, purring in his throat like a cat before a milk-pail. He had
+picked upon a Burgundy at last, and had his hand outstretched to the
+bottle when there came a roar of musketry from above us, a rush of feet,
+and such a yelping and screaming as I have never listened to. The
+Prussians were upon us!
+
+Bouvet is a brave man: I will say that for him. He flashed out his sword
+and away he clattered up the stone steps, his spurs clinking as he ran.
+I followed him, but just as we came out into the kitchen passage a
+tremendous shout told us that the house had been recaptured.
+
+'It is all over,' I cried, grasping at Bouvet's sleeve.
+
+'There is one more to die,' he shouted, and away he went like a madman
+up the second stair. In effect, I should have gone to my death also had
+I been in his place, for he had done very wrong in not throwing out his
+scouts to warn him if the Germans advanced upon him. For an instant I
+was about to rush up with him, and then I bethought myself that, after
+all, I had my own mission to think of, and that if I were taken the
+important letter of the Emperor would be sacrificed. I let Bouvet die
+alone, therefore, and I went down into the cellar again, closing the
+door behind me.
+
+Well, it was not a very rosy prospect down there either. Bouvet had
+dropped the candle when the alarm came, and I, pawing about in the
+darkness, could find nothing but broken bottles. At last I came upon
+the candle, which had rolled under the curve of a cask, but, try as I
+would with my tinderbox, I could not light it. The reason was that the
+wick had been wet in a puddle of wine, so suspecting that this might be
+the case, I cut the end off with my sword. Then I found that it lighted
+easily enough. But what to do I could not imagine. The scoundrels
+upstairs were shouting themselves hoarse, several hundred of them from
+the sound, and it was clear that some of them would soon want to moisten
+their throats. There would be an end to a dashing soldier, and of the
+mission and of the medal. I thought of my mother and I thought of the
+Emperor. It made me weep to think that the one would lose so excellent a
+son and the other the best light cavalry officer he ever had since
+Lasalle's time. But presently I dashed the tears from my eyes.
+'Courage!' I cried, striking myself upon the chest. 'Courage, my brave
+boy. Is it possible that one who has come safely from Moscow without so
+much as a frost-bite will die in a French wine-cellar?' At the thought I
+was up on my feet and clutching at the letter in my tunic, for the
+crackle of it gave me courage.
+
+My first plan was to set fire to the house, in the hope of escaping in
+the confusion. My second to get into an empty wine-cask. I was looking
+round to see if I could find one, when suddenly, in the corner, I espied
+a little low door, painted of the same grey colour as the wall, so that
+it was only a man with quick sight who would have noticed it. I pushed
+against it, and at first I imagined that it was locked. Presently,
+however, it gave a little, and then I understood that it was held by the
+pressure of something on the other side. I put my feet against a
+hogshead of wine, and I gave such a push that the door flew open and I
+came down with a crash upon my back, the candle flying out of my hands,
+so that I found myself in darkness once more. I picked myself up and
+stared through the black archway into the gloom beyond.
+
+There was a slight ray of light coming from some slit or grating. The
+dawn had broken outside, and I could dimly see the long, curving sides
+of several huge casks, which made me think that perhaps this was where
+the Mayor kept his reserves of wine while they were maturing. At any
+rate, it seemed to be a safer hiding-place than the outer cellar, so
+gathering up my candle, I was just closing the door behind me, when I
+suddenly saw something which filled me with amazement, and even, I
+confess, with the smallest little touch of fear.
+
+I have said that at the further end of the cellar there was a dim grey
+fan of light striking downwards from somewhere near the roof. Well, as I
+peered through the darkness, I suddenly saw a great, tall man skip into
+this belt of daylight, and then out again into the darkness at the
+further end. My word, I gave such a start that my shako nearly broke its
+chin-strap! It was only a glance, but, none the less, I had time to see
+that the fellow had a hairy Cossack cap on his head, and that he was a
+great, long-legged, broad-shouldered brigand, with a sabre at his waist.
+My faith, even Etienne Gerard was a little staggered at being left alone
+with such a creature in the dark.
+
+But only for a moment. 'Courage!' I thought. 'Am I not a hussar, a
+brigadier, too, at the age of thirty-one, and the chosen messenger of
+the Emperor?' After all, this skulker had more cause to be afraid of me
+than I of him. And then suddenly I understood that he was
+afraid--horribly afraid. I could read it from his quick step and his
+bent shoulders as he ran among the barrels, like a rat making for its
+hole. And, of course, it must have been he who had held the door against
+me, and not some packing-case or wine-cask as I had imagined. He was the
+pursued then, and I the pursuer. Aha, I felt my whiskers bristle as I
+advanced upon him through the darkness! He would find that he had no
+chicken to deal with, this robber from the North. For the moment I was
+magnificent.
+
+At first I had feared to light my candle lest I should make a mark of
+myself, but now, after cracking my shin over a box, and catching my
+spurs in some canvas, I thought the bolder course the wiser. I lit it,
+therefore, and then I advanced with long strides, my sword in my hand.
+'Come out, you rascal!' I cried. 'Nothing can save you. You will at last
+meet with your deserts.'
+
+I held my candle high, and presently I caught a glimpse of the man's
+head staring at me over a barrel. He had a gold chevron on his black
+cap, and the expression of his face told me in an instant that he was an
+officer and a man of refinement.
+
+'Monsieur,' he cried, in excellent French, 'I surrender myself on a
+promise of quarter. But if I do not have your promise, I will then sell
+my life as dearly as I can.'
+
+'Sir,' said I, 'a Frenchman knows how to treat an unfortunate enemy.
+Your life is safe.' With that he handed his sword over the top of the
+barrel, and I bowed with the candle on my heart. 'Whom have I the honour
+of capturing?' I asked.
+
+'I am the Count Boutkine, of the Emperor's own Don Cossacks,' said he.
+'I came out with my troop to reconnoitre Senlis, and as we found no sign
+of your people we determined to spend the night here.'
+
+'And would it be an indiscretion,' I asked, 'if I were to inquire how
+you came into the back cellar?'
+
+'Nothing more simple,' said he. 'It was our intention to start at early
+dawn. Feeling chilled after dressing, I thought that a cup of wine would
+do me no harm, so I came down to see what I could find. As I was
+rummaging about, the house was suddenly carried by assault so rapidly
+that by the time I had climbed the stairs it was all over. It only
+remained for me to save myself, so I came down here and hid myself in
+the back cellar, where you have found me.'
+
+I thought of how old Bouvet had behaved under the same conditions, and
+the tears sprang to my eyes as I contemplated the glory of France. Then
+I had to consider what I should do next. It was clear that this Russian
+Count, being in the back cellar while we were in the front one, had not
+heard the sounds which would have told him that the house was once again
+in the hands of his own allies. If he should once understand this the
+tables would be turned, and I should be his prisoner instead of he being
+mine. What was I to do? I was at my wits' end, when suddenly there came
+to me an idea so brilliant that I could not but be amazed at my own
+invention.
+
+'Count Boutkine,' said I, 'I find myself in a most difficult position.'
+
+'And why?' he asked.
+
+'Because I have promised you your life.'
+
+His jaw dropped a little.
+
+'You would not withdraw your promise?' he cried.
+
+'If the worst comes to the worst I can die in your defence,' said I;
+'but the difficulties are great.'
+
+'What is it, then?' he asked.
+
+'I will be frank with you,' said I. 'You must know that our fellows, and
+especially the Poles, are so incensed against the Cossacks that the mere
+sight of the uniform drives them mad. They precipitate themselves
+instantly upon the wearer and tear him limb from limb. Even their
+officers cannot restrain them.'
+
+The Russian grew pale at my words and the way in which I said them.
+
+'But this is terrible,' said he.
+
+'Horrible!' said I. 'If we were to go up together at this moment I
+cannot promise how far I could protect you.'
+
+'I am in your hands,' he cried. 'What would you suggest that we should
+do? Would it not be best that I should remain here?'
+
+'That worst of all.'
+
+'And why?'
+
+'Because our fellows will ransack the house presently, and then you
+would be cut to pieces. No, no, I must go and break it to them. But even
+then, when once they see that accursed uniform, I do not know what may
+happen.'
+
+'Should I then take the uniform off?'
+
+'Excellent!' I cried. 'Hold, we have it! You will take your uniform off
+and put on mine. That will make you sacred to every French soldier.'
+
+'It is not the French I fear so much as the Poles.'
+
+'But my uniform will be a safeguard against either.'
+
+'How can I thank you?' he cried. 'But you--what are you to wear?'
+
+'I will wear yours.'
+
+'And perhaps fall a victim to your generosity?'
+
+'It is my duty to take the risk,' I answered; 'but I have no fears. I
+will ascend in your uniform. A hundred swords will be turned upon me.
+"Hold!" I will shout, "I am the Brigadier Gerard!" Then they will see my
+face. They will know me. And I will tell them about you. Under the
+shield of these clothes you will be sacred.'
+
+His fingers trembled with eagerness as he tore off his tunic. His boots
+and breeches were much like my own, so there was no need to change them,
+but I gave him my hussar jacket, my dolman, my shako, my sword-belt, and
+my sabre-tasche, while I took in exchange his high sheepskin cap with
+the gold chevron, his fur-trimmed coat, and his crooked sword. Be it
+well understood that in changing the tunics I did not forget to change
+my thrice-precious letter also from my old one to my new.
+
+'With your leave,' said I, 'I shall now bind you to a barrel.'
+
+He made a great fuss over this, but I have learned in my soldiering
+never to throw away chances, and how could I tell that he might not,
+when my back was turned, see how the matter really stood, and break in
+upon my plans? He was leaning against a barrel at the time, so I ran six
+times round it with a rope, and then tied it with a big knot behind. If
+he wished to come upstairs he would, at least, have to carry a thousand
+litres of good French wine for a knapsack. I then shut the door of the
+back cellar behind me, so that he might not hear what was going forward,
+and tossing the candle away I ascended the kitchen stair.
+
+There were only about twenty steps, and yet, while I came up them, I
+seemed to have time to think of everything that I had ever hoped to do.
+It was the same feeling that I had at Eylau when I lay with my broken
+leg and saw the horse artillery galloping down upon me. Of course, I
+knew that if I were taken I should be shot instantly as being disguised
+within the enemy's lines. Still, it was a glorious death--in the direct
+service of the Emperor--and I reflected that there could not be less
+than five lines, and perhaps seven, in the _Moniteur_ about me. Palaret
+had eight lines, and I am sure that he had not so fine a career.
+
+When I made my way out into the hall, with all the nonchalance in my
+face and manner that I could assume, the very first thing that I saw was
+Bouvet's dead body, with his legs drawn up and a broken sword in his
+hand. I could see by the black smudge that he had been shot at close
+quarters. I should have wished to salute as I went by, for he was a
+gallant man, but I feared lest I should be seen, and so I passed on.
+
+The front of the hall was full of Prussian infantry, who were knocking
+loopholes in the wall, as though they expected that there might be yet
+another attack. Their officer, a little man, was running about giving
+directions. They were all too busy to take much notice of me, but
+another officer, who was standing by the door with a long pipe in his
+mouth, strode across and clapped me on the shoulder, pointing to the
+dead bodies of our poor hussars, and saying something which was meant
+for a jest, for his long beard opened and showed every fang in his head.
+I laughed heartily also, and said the only Russian words that I knew. I
+learned them from little Sophie, at Wilna, and they meant: 'If the night
+is fine we shall meet under the oak tree, but if it rains we shall meet
+in the byre.' It was all the same to this German, however, and I have no
+doubt that he gave me credit for saying something very witty indeed, for
+he roared laughing, and slapped me on my shoulder again. I nodded to him
+and marched out of the hall-door as coolly as if I were the commandant
+of the garrison.
+
+There were a hundred horses tethered about outside, most of them
+belonging to the Poles and hussars. Good little Violette was waiting
+with the others, and she whinnied when she saw me coming towards her.
+But I would not mount her. No. I was much too cunning for that. On the
+contrary, I chose the most shaggy little Cossack horse that I could see,
+and I sprang upon it with as much assurance as though it had belonged to
+my father before me. It had a great bag of plunder slung over its neck,
+and this I laid upon Violette's back, and led her along beside me. Never
+have you seen such a picture of the Cossack returning from the foray. It
+was superb.
+
+Well, the town was full of Prussians by this time. They lined the
+side-walks and pointed me out to each other, saying, as I could judge
+from their gestures, 'There goes one of those devils of Cossacks. They
+are the boys for foraging and plunder.'
+
+One or two officers spoke to me with an air of authority, but I shook my
+head and smiled, and said, 'If the night is fine we shall meet under the
+oak tree, but if it rains we shall meet in the byre,' at which they
+shrugged their shoulders and gave the matter up. In this way I worked
+along until I was beyond the northern outskirt of the town. I could see
+in the roadway two lancer vedettes with their black and white pennons,
+and I knew that when I was once past these I should be a free man once
+more. I made my pony trot, therefore, Violette rubbing her nose against
+my knee all the time, and looking up at me to ask how she had deserved
+that this hairy doormat of a creature should be preferred to her. I was
+not more than a hundred yards from the Uhlans when, suddenly, you can
+imagine my feelings when I saw a real Cossack coming galloping along the
+road towards me.
+
+Ah, my friend, you who read this, if you have any heart, you will feel
+for a man like me, who had gone through so many dangers and trials, only
+at this very last moment to be confronted with one which appeared to put
+an end to everything. I will confess that for a moment I lost heart, and
+was inclined to throw myself down in my despair, and to cry out that I
+had been betrayed. But, no; I was not beaten even now. I opened two
+buttons of my tunic so that I might get easily at the Emperor's message,
+for it was my fixed determination when all hope was gone to swallow the
+letter and then die sword in hand. Then I felt that my little, crooked
+sword was loose in its sheath, and I trotted on to where the vedettes
+were waiting. They seemed inclined to stop me, but I pointed to the
+other Cossack, who was still a couple of hundred yards off, and they,
+understanding that I merely wished to meet him, let me pass with a
+salute.
+
+I dug my spurs into my pony then, for if I were only far enough from the
+lancers I thought I might manage the Cossack without much difficulty. He
+was an officer, a large, bearded man, with a gold chevron in his cap,
+just the same as mine. As I advanced he unconsciously aided me by
+pulling up his horse, so that I had a fine start of the vedettes. On I
+came for him, and I could see wonder changing to suspicion in his brown
+eyes as he looked at me and at my pony, and at my equipment. I do not
+know what it was that was wrong, but he saw something which was as it
+should not be. He shouted out a question, and then when I gave no answer
+he pulled out his sword. I was glad in my heart to see him do so, for I
+had always rather fight than cut down an unsuspecting enemy. Now I made
+at him full tilt, and, parrying his cut, I got my point in just under
+the fourth button of his tunic. Down he went, and the weight of him
+nearly took me off my horse before I could disengage. I never glanced at
+him to see if he were living or dead, for I sprang off my pony and on to
+Violette, with a shake of my bridle and a kiss of my hand to the two
+Uhlans behind me. They galloped after me, shouting, but Violette had had
+her rest, and was just as fresh as when she started. I took the first
+side road to the west and then the first to the south, which would take
+me away from the enemy's country. On we went and on, every stride taking
+me further from my foes and nearer to my friends. At last, when I
+reached the end of a long stretch of road, and looking back from it
+could see no sign of any pursuers, I understood that my troubles were
+over.
+
+And it gave me a glow of happiness, as I rode, to think that I had done
+to the letter what the Emperor had ordered. What would he say when he
+saw me? What could he say which would do justice to the incredible way
+in which I had risen above every danger? He had ordered me to go through
+Sermoise, Soissons, and Senlis, little dreaming that they were all three
+occupied by the enemy. And yet I had done it. I had borne his letter in
+safety through each of these towns. Hussars, dragoons, lancers,
+Cossacks, and infantry--I had run the gauntlet of all of them, and had
+come out unharmed.
+
+When I had got as far as Dammartin I caught a first glimpse of our own
+outposts. There was a troop of dragoons in a field, and of course I
+could see from the horsehair crests that they were French. I galloped
+towards them in order to ask them if all was safe between there and
+Paris, and as I rode I felt such a pride at having won my way back to my
+friends again, that I could not refrain from waving my sword in the air.
+
+At this a young officer galloped out from among the dragoons, also
+brandishing his sword, and it warmed my heart to think that he should
+come riding with such ardour and enthusiasm to greet me. I made
+Violette caracole, and as we came together I brandished my sword more
+gallantly than ever, but you can imagine my feelings when he suddenly
+made a cut at me which would certainly have taken my head off if I had
+not fallen forward with my nose in Violette's mane. My faith, it
+whistled just over my cap like an east wind. Of course, it came from
+this accursed Cossack uniform which, in my excitement, I had forgotten
+all about, and this young dragoon had imagined that I was some Russian
+champion who was challenging the French cavalry. My word, he was a
+frightened man when he understood how near he had been to killing the
+celebrated Brigadier Gerard.
+
+Well, the road was clear, and about three o'clock in the afternoon I was
+at St Denis, though it took me a long two hours to get from there to
+Paris, for the road was blocked with commissariat waggons and guns of
+the artillery reserve, which was going north to Marmont and Mortier. You
+cannot conceive the excitement which my appearance in such a costume
+made in Paris, and when I came to the Rue de Rivoli I should think I had
+a quarter of a mile of folk riding or running behind me. Word had got
+about from the dragoons (two of whom had come with me), and everybody
+knew about my adventures and how I had come by my uniform. It was a
+triumph--men shouting and women waving their handkerchiefs and blowing
+kisses from the windows.
+
+Although I am a man singularly free from conceit, still I must confess
+that, on this one occasion, I could not restrain myself from showing
+that this reception gratified me. The Russian's coat had hung very loose
+upon me, but now I threw out my chest until it was as tight as a
+sausage-skin. And my little sweetheart of a mare tossed her mane and
+pawed with her front hoofs, frisking her tail about as though she said,
+'We've done it together this time. It is to us that commissions should
+be intrusted.' When I kissed her between the nostrils as I dismounted at
+the gate of the Tuileries, there was as much shouting as if a bulletin
+had been read from the Grand Army.
+
+I was hardly in costume to visit a King; but, after all, if one has a
+soldierly figure one can do without all that. I was shown up straight
+away to Joseph, whom I had often seen in Spain. He seemed as stout, as
+quiet, and as amiable as ever. Talleyrand was in the room with him, or I
+suppose I should call him the Duke of Benevento, but I confess that I
+like old names best. He read my letter when Joseph Buonaparte handed it
+to him, and then he looked at me with the strangest expression in those
+funny little, twinkling eyes of his.
+
+'Were you the only messenger?' he asked.
+
+'There was one other, sir,' said I. 'Major Charpentier, of the Horse
+Grenadiers.'
+
+'He has not yet arrived,' said the King of Spain.
+
+'If you had seen the legs of his horse, sire, you would not wonder at
+it,' I remarked.
+
+'There may be other reasons,' said Talleyrand, and he gave that singular
+smile of his.
+
+Well, they paid me a compliment or two, though they might have said a
+good deal more and yet have said too little. I bowed myself out, and
+very glad I was to get away, for I hate a Court as much as I love a
+camp. Away I went to my old friend Chaubert, in the Rue Miromesnil, and
+there I got his hussar uniform, which fitted me very well. He and
+Lisette and I supped together in his rooms, and all my dangers were
+forgotten. In the morning I found Violette ready for another
+twenty-league stretch. It was my intention to return instantly to the
+Emperor's headquarters, for I was, as you may well imagine, impatient to
+hear his words of praise, and to receive my reward.
+
+I need not say that I rode back by a safe route, for I had seen quite
+enough of Uhlans and Cossacks. I passed through Meaux and Chateau
+Thierry, and so in the evening I arrived at Rheims, where Napoleon was
+still lying. The bodies of our fellows and of St Prest's Russians had
+all been buried, and I could see changes in the camp also. The soldiers
+looked better cared for; some of the cavalry had received remounts, and
+everything was in excellent order. It was wonderful what a good general
+can effect in a couple of days.
+
+When I came to the headquarters I was shown straight into the Emperor's
+room. He was drinking coffee at a writing-table, with a big plan drawn
+out on paper in front of him. Berthier and Macdonald were leaning, one
+over each shoulder, and he was talking so quickly that I don't believe
+that either of them could catch a half of what he was saying. But when
+his eyes fell upon me he dropped the pen on to the chart, and he sprang
+up with a look in his pale face which struck me cold.
+
+'What the deuce are you doing here?' he shouted. When he was angry he
+had a voice like a peacock.
+
+'I have the honour to report to you, sire,' said I, 'that I have
+delivered your despatch safely to the King of Spain.'
+
+'What!' he yelled, and his two eyes transfixed me like bayonets. Oh,
+those dreadful eyes, shifting from grey to blue, like steel in the
+sunshine. I can see them now when I have a bad dream.
+
+'What has become of Charpentier?' he asked.
+
+'He is captured,' said Macdonald.
+
+'By whom?'
+
+'The Russians.'
+
+'The Cossacks?'
+
+'No, a single Cossack.'
+
+'He gave himself up?'
+
+'Without resistance.'
+
+'He is an intelligent officer. You will see that the medal of honour is
+awarded to him.'
+
+When I heard those words I had to rub my eyes to make sure that I was
+awake.
+
+'As to you,' cried the Emperor, taking a step forward as if he would
+have struck me, 'you brain of a hare, what do you think that you were
+sent upon this mission for? Do you conceive that I would send a really
+important message by such a hand as yours, and through every village
+which the enemy holds? How you came through them passes my
+comprehension; but if your fellow-messenger had had but as little sense
+as you, my whole plan of campaign would have been ruined. Can you not
+see, coglione, that this message contained false news, and that it was
+intended to deceive the enemy whilst I put a very different scheme into
+execution?'
+
+When I heard those cruel words and saw the angry, white face which
+glared at me, I had to hold the back of a chair, for my mind was failing
+me and my knees would hardly bear me up. But then I took courage as I
+reflected that I was an honourable gentleman, and that my whole life had
+been spent in toiling for this man and for my beloved country.
+
+'Sire,' said I, and the tears would trickle down my cheeks whilst I
+spoke, 'when you are dealing with a man like me you would find it wiser
+to deal openly. Had I known that you had wished the despatch to fall
+into the hands of the enemy, I would have seen that it came there. As I
+believed that I was to guard it, I was prepared to sacrifice my life for
+it. I do not believe, sire, that any man in the world ever met with more
+toils and perils than I have done in trying to carry out what I thought
+was your will.'
+
+I dashed the tears from my eyes as I spoke, and with such fire and
+spirit as I could command I gave him an account of it all, of my dash
+through Soissons, my brush with the dragoons, my adventure in Senlis, my
+rencontre with Count Boutkine in the cellar, my disguise, my meeting
+with the Cossack officer, my flight, and how at the last moment I was
+nearly cut down by a French dragoon. The Emperor, Berthier, and
+Macdonald listened with astonishment on their faces. When I had finished
+Napoleon stepped forward and he pinched me by the ear.
+
+'There, there!' said he. 'Forget anything which I may have said. I
+would have done better to trust you. You may go.'
+
+I turned to the door, and my hand was upon the handle, when the Emperor
+called upon me to stop.
+
+'You will see,' said he, turning to the Duke of Tarentum, 'that
+Brigadier Gerard has the special medal of honour, for I believe that if
+he has the thickest head he has also the stoutest heart in my army.'
+
+
+
+
+8. HOW THE BRIGADIER WAS TEMPTED BY THE DEVIL
+
+
+The spring is at hand, my friends. I can see the little green
+spear-heads breaking out once more upon the chestnut trees, and the cafe
+tables have all been moved into the sunshine. It is more pleasant to sit
+there, and yet I do not wish to tell my little stories to the whole
+town. You have heard my doings as a lieutenant, as a squadron officer,
+as a colonel, as the chief of a brigade. But now I suddenly become
+something higher and more important. I become history.
+
+If you have read of those closing years of the life of the Emperor which
+were spent in the Island of St Helena, you will remember that, again and
+again, he implored permission to send out one single letter which should
+be unopened by those who held him. Many times he made this request, and
+even went so far as to promise that he would provide for his own wants
+and cease to be an expense to the British Government if it were granted
+to him. But his guardians knew that he was a terrible man, this pale,
+fat gentleman in the straw hat, and they dared not grant him what he
+asked. Many have wondered who it was to whom he could have had anything
+so secret to say. Some have supposed that it was to his wife, and some
+that it was to his father-in-law; some that it was to the Emperor
+Alexander, and some to Marshal Soult. What will you think of me, my
+friends, when I tell you it was to me--to me, the Brigadier Gerard--that
+the Emperor wished to write? Yes, humble as you see me, with only my 100
+francs a month of half-pay between me and hunger, it is none the less
+true that I was always in the Emperor's mind, and that he would have
+given his left hand for five minutes' talk with me. I will tell you
+tonight how this came about.
+
+It was after the Battle of Fere-Champenoise where the conscripts in
+their blouses and their sabots made such a fine stand, that we, the more
+long-headed of us, began to understand that it was all over with us. Our
+reserve ammunition had been taken in the battle, and we were left with
+silent guns and empty caissons. Our cavalry, too, was in a deplorable
+condition, and my own brigade had been destroyed in the charge at
+Craonne. Then came the news that the enemy had taken Paris, that the
+citizens had mounted the white cockade; and finally, most terrible of
+all, that Marmont and his corps had gone over to the Bourbons. We looked
+at each other and asked how many more of our generals were going to turn
+against us. Already there were Jourdan, Marmont, Murat, Bernadotte, and
+Jomini--though nobody minded much about Jomini, for his pen was always
+sharper than his sword. We had been ready to fight Europe, but it looked
+now as though we were to fight Europe and half of France as well.
+
+We had come to Fontainebleau by a long, forced march, and there we were
+assembled, the poor remnants of us, the corps of Ney, the corps of my
+cousin Gerard, and the corps of Macdonald: twenty-five thousand in all,
+with seven thousand of the guard. But we had our prestige, which was
+worth fifty thousand, and our Emperor, who was worth fifty thousand
+more. He was always among us, serene, smiling, confident, taking his
+snuff and playing with his little riding-whip. Never in the days of his
+greatest victories have I admired him as much as I did during the
+Campaign of France.
+
+One evening I was with a few of my officers, drinking a glass of wine of
+Suresnes. I mention that it was wine of Suresnes just to show you that
+times were not very good with us. Suddenly I was disturbed by a message
+from Berthier that he wished to see me. When I speak of my old
+comrades-in-arms, I will, with your permission, leave out all the fine
+foreign titles which they had picked up during the wars. They are
+excellent for a Court, but you never heard them in the camp, for we
+could not afford to do away with our Ney, our Rapp, or our Soult--names
+which were as stirring to our ears as the blare of our trumpets blowing
+the reveille. It was Berthier, then, who sent to say that he wished to
+see me.
+
+He had a suite of rooms at the end of the gallery of Francis the First,
+not very far from those of the Emperor. In the ante-chamber were waiting
+two men whom I knew well: Colonel Despienne, of the 57th of the line,
+and Captain Tremeau, of the Voltigeurs. They were both old
+soldiers--Tremeau had carried a musket in Egypt--and they were also both
+famous in the army for their courage and their skill with weapons.
+Tremeau had become a little stiff in the wrist, but Despienne was
+capable at his best of making me exert myself. He was a tiny fellow,
+about three inches short of the proper height for a man--he was exactly
+three inches shorter than myself--but both with the sabre and with the
+small-sword he had several times almost held his own against me when we
+used to exhibit at Verron's Hall of Arms in the Palais Royal. You may
+think that it made us sniff something in the wind when we found three
+such men called together into one room. You cannot see the lettuce and
+dressing without suspecting a salad.
+
+'Name of a pipe!' said Tremeau, in his barrack-room fashion. 'Are we
+then expecting three champions of the Bourbons?'
+
+To all of us the idea appeared not improbable. Certainly in the whole
+army we were the very three who might have been chosen to meet them.
+
+'The Prince of Neufchatel desires to speak with the Brigadier Gerard,'
+said a footman, appearing at the door.
+
+In I went, leaving my two companions consumed with impatience behind me.
+It was a small room, but very gorgeously furnished. Berthier was seated
+opposite to me at a little table, with a pen in his hand and a note-book
+open before him. He was looking weary and slovenly--very different from
+that Berthier who used to give the fashion to the army, and who had so
+often set us poorer officers tearing our hair by trimming his pelisse
+with fur one campaign, and with grey astrakhan the next. On his
+clean-shaven, comely face there was an expression of trouble, and he
+looked at me as I entered his chamber in a way which had in it something
+furtive and displeasing.
+
+'Chief of Brigade Gerard!' said he.
+
+'At your service, your Highness!' I answered.
+
+'I must ask you, before I go further, to promise me, upon your honour as
+a gentleman and a soldier, that what is about to pass between us shall
+never be mentioned to any third person.'
+
+My word, this was a fine beginning! I had no choice but to give the
+promise required.
+
+'You must know, then, that it is all over with the Emperor,' said he,
+looking down at the table and speaking very slowly, as if he had a hard
+task in getting out the words. 'Jourdan at Rouen and Marmont at Paris
+have both mounted the white cockade, and it is rumoured that Talleyrand
+has talked Ney into doing the same. It is evident that further
+resistance is useless, and that it can only bring misery upon our
+country. I wish to ask you, therefore, whether you are prepared to join
+me in laying hands upon the Emperor's person, and bringing the war to a
+conclusion by delivering him over to the allies?'
+
+I assure you that when I heard this infamous proposition put forward by
+the man who had been the earliest friend of the Emperor, and who had
+received greater favours from him than any of his followers, I could
+only stand and stare at him in amazement. For his part he tapped his
+pen-handle against his teeth, and looked at me with a slanting head.
+
+'Well?' he asked.
+
+'I am a little deaf on one side,' said I, coldly. 'There are some
+things which I cannot hear. I beg that you will permit me to return to
+my duties.'
+
+'Nay, but you must not be headstrong,' rising up and laying his hand
+upon my shoulder. 'You are aware that the Senate has declared against
+Napoleon, and that the Emperor Alexander refuses to treat with him.'
+
+'Sir,' I cried, with passion, 'I would have you know that I do not care
+the dregs of a wine-glass for the Senate or for the Emperor Alexander
+either.'
+
+'Then for what do you care?'
+
+'For my own honour and for the service of my glorious master, the
+Emperor Napoleon.'
+
+'That is all very well,' said Berthier, peevishly, shrugging his
+shoulders. 'Facts are facts, and as men of the world, we must look them
+in the face. Are we to stand against the will of the nation? Are we to
+have civil war on the top of all our misfortunes? And, besides, we are
+thinning away. Every hour comes the news of fresh desertions. We have
+still time to make our peace, and, indeed, to earn the highest regard,
+by giving up the Emperor.'
+
+I shook so with passion that my sabre clattered against my thigh.
+
+'Sir,' I cried, 'I never thought to have seen the day when a Marshal of
+France would have so far degraded himself as to put forward such a
+proposal. I leave you to your own conscience; but as for me, until I
+have the Emperor's own order, there shall always be the sword of Etienne
+Gerard between his enemies and himself.'
+
+I was so moved by my own words and by the fine position which I had
+taken up, that my voice broke, and I could hardly refrain from tears. I
+should have liked the whole army to have seen me as I stood with my head
+so proudly erect and my hand upon my heart proclaiming my devotion to
+the Emperor in his adversity. It was one of the supreme moments of my
+life.
+
+'Very good,' said Berthier, ringing a bell for the lackey. 'You will
+show the Chief of Brigade Gerard into the salon.'
+
+The footman led me into an inner room, where he desired me to be seated.
+For my own part, my only desire was to get away, and I could not
+understand why they should wish to detain me. When one has had no change
+of uniform during a whole winter's campaign, one does not feel at home
+in a palace.
+
+I had been there about a quarter of an hour when the footman opened the
+door again, and in came Colonel Despienne. Good heavens, what a sight he
+was! His face was as white as a guardsman's gaiters, his eyes
+projecting, the veins swollen upon his forehead, and every hair of his
+moustache bristling like those of an angry cat. He was too angry to
+speak, and could only shake his hands at the ceiling and make a gurgling
+in his throat. 'Parricide! Viper!' those were the words that I could
+catch as he stamped up and down the room.
+
+Of course it was evident to me that he had been subjected to the same
+infamous proposals as I had, and that he had received them in the same
+spirit. His lips were sealed to me, as mine were to him, by the promise
+which we had taken, but I contented myself with muttering 'Atrocious!
+Unspeakable!'--so that he might know that I was in agreement with him.
+
+Well, we were still there, he striding furiously up and down, and I
+seated in the corner, when suddenly a most extraordinary uproar broke
+out in the room which we had just quitted. There was a snarling,
+worrying growl, like that of a fierce dog which has got his grip. Then
+came a crash and a voice calling for help. In we rushed, the two of us,
+and, my faith, we were none too soon.
+
+Old Tremeau and Berthier were rolling together upon the floor, with the
+table upon the top of them. The Captain had one of his great, skinny
+yellow hands upon the Marshal's throat, and already his face was
+lead-coloured, and his eyes were starting from their sockets. As to
+Tremeau, he was beside himself, with foam upon the corners of his lips,
+and such a frantic expression upon him that I am convinced, had we not
+loosened his iron grip, finger by finger, that it would never have
+relaxed while the Marshal lived. His nails were white with the power of
+his grasp.
+
+'I have been tempted by the devil!' he cried, as he staggered to his
+feet. 'Yes, I have been tempted by the devil!'
+
+As to Berthier, he could only lean against the wall, and pant for a
+couple of minutes, putting his hands up to his throat and rolling his
+head about. Then, with an angry gesture, he turned to the heavy blue
+curtain which hung behind his chair.
+
+The curtain was torn to one side and the Emperor stepped out into the
+room. We sprang to the salute, we three old soldiers, but it was all
+like a scene in a dream to us, and our eyes were as far out as
+Berthier's had been. Napoleon was dressed in his green-coated chasseur
+uniform, and he held his little, silver-headed switch in his hand. He
+looked at us each in turn, with a smile upon his face--that frightful
+smile in which neither eyes nor brow joined--and each in turn had, I
+believe, a pringling on his skin, for that was the effect which the
+Emperor's gaze had upon most of us. Then he walked across to Berthier
+and put his hand upon his shoulder.
+
+'You must not quarrel with blows, my dear Prince,' said he; 'they are
+your title to nobility.' He spoke in that soft, caressing manner which
+he could assume. There was no one who could make the French tongue sound
+so pretty as the Emperor, and no one who could make it more harsh and
+terrible.
+
+'I believe he would have killed me,' cried Berthier, still rolling his
+head about.
+
+'Tut, tut! I should have come to your help had these officers not heard
+your cries. But I trust that you are not really hurt!' He spoke with
+earnestness, for he was in truth very fond of Berthier--more so than of
+any man, unless it were of poor Duroc.
+
+Berthier laughed, though not with a very good grace.
+
+'It is new for me to receive my injuries from French hands,' said he.
+
+'And yet it was in the cause of France,' returned the Emperor. Then,
+turning to us, he took old Tremeau by the ear. 'Ah, old grumbler,' said
+he, 'you were one of my Egyptian grenadiers, were you not, and had your
+musket of honour at Marengo. I remember you very well, my good friend.
+So the old fires are not yet extinguished! They still burn up when you
+think that your Emperor is wronged. And you, Colonel Despienne, you
+would not even listen to the tempter. And you, Gerard, your faithful
+sword is ever to be between me and my enemies. Well, well, I have had
+some traitors about me, but now at last we are beginning to see who are
+the true men.'
+
+You can fancy, my friends, the thrill of joy which it gave us when the
+greatest man in the whole world spoke to us in this fashion. Tremeau
+shook until I thought he would have fallen, and the tears ran down his
+gigantic moustache. If you had not seen it, you could never believe the
+influence which the Emperor had upon those coarse-grained, savage old
+veterans.
+
+'Well, my faithful friends,' said he, 'if you will follow me into this
+room, I will explain to you the meaning of this little farce which we
+have been acting. I beg, Berthier, that you will remain in this chamber,
+and so make sure that no one interrupts us.'
+
+It was new for us to be doing business, with a Marshal of France as
+sentry at the door. However, we followed the Emperor as we were ordered,
+and he led us into the recess of the window, gathering us around him and
+sinking his voice as he addressed us.
+
+'I have picked you out of the whole army,' said he, 'as being not only
+the most formidable but also the most faithful of my soldiers. I was
+convinced that you were all three men who would never waver in your
+fidelity to me. If I have ventured to put that fidelity to the proof,
+and to watch you while attempts were at my orders made upon your honour,
+it was only because, in the days when I have found the blackest treason
+amongst my own flesh and blood, it is necessary that I should be doubly
+circumspect. Suffice it that I am well convinced now that I can rely
+upon your valour.'
+
+'To the death, sire!' cried Tremeau, and we both repeated it after him.
+
+Napoleon drew us all yet a little closer to him, and sank his voice
+still lower.
+
+'What I say to you now I have said to no one--not to my wife or my
+brothers; only to you. It is all up with us, my friends. We have come to
+our last rally. The game is finished, and we must make provision
+accordingly.'
+
+My heart seemed to have changed to a nine-pounder ball as I listened to
+him. We had hoped against hope, but now when he, the man who was always
+serene and who always had reserves--when he, in that quiet, impassive
+voice of his, said that everything was over, we realized that the clouds
+had shut for ever, and the last gleam gone. Tremeau snarled and gripped
+at his sabre, Despienne ground his teeth, and for my own part I threw
+out my chest and clicked my heels to show the Emperor that there were
+some spirits which could rise to adversity.
+
+'My papers and my fortune must be secured,' whispered the Emperor. 'The
+whole course of the future may depend upon my having them safe. They are
+our base for the next attempt--for I am very sure that these poor
+Bourbons would find that my footstool is too large to make a throne for
+them. Where am I to keep these precious things? My belongings will be
+searched--so will the houses of my supporters. They must be secured and
+concealed by men whom I can trust with that which is more precious to me
+than my life. Out of the whole of France, you are those whom I have
+chosen for this sacred trust.
+
+'In the first place, I will tell you what these papers are. You shall
+not say that I have made you blind agents in the matter. They are the
+official proof of my divorce from Josephine, of my legal marriage to
+Marie Louise, and of the birth of my son and heir, the King of Rome. If
+we cannot prove each of these, the future claim of my family to the
+throne of France falls to the ground. Then there are securities to the
+value of forty millions of francs--an immense sum, my friends, but of no
+more value than this riding-switch when compared to the other papers of
+which I have spoken. I tell you these things that you may realize the
+enormous importance of the task which I am committing to your care.
+Listen, now, while I inform you where you are to get these papers, and
+what you are to do with them.
+
+'They were handed over to my trusty friend, the Countess Walewski, at
+Paris, this morning. At five o'clock she starts for Fontainebleau in her
+blue berline. She should reach here between half-past nine and ten. The
+papers will be concealed in the berline, in a hiding-place which none
+know but herself. She has been warned that her carriage will be stopped
+outside the town by three mounted officers, and she will hand the packet
+over to your care. You are the younger man, Gerard, but you are of the
+senior grade. I confide to your care this amethyst ring, which you will
+show the lady as a token of your mission, and which you will leave with
+her as a receipt for her papers.
+
+'Having received the packet, you will ride with it into the forest as
+far as the ruined dove-house--the Colombier. It is possible that I may
+meet you there--but if it seems to me to be dangerous, I will send my
+body-servant, Mustapha, whose directions you may take as being mine.
+There is no roof to the Colombier, and tonight will be a full moon. At
+the right of the entrance you will find three spades leaning against the
+wall. With these you will dig a hole three feet deep in the
+north-eastern corner--that is, in the corner to the left of the door,
+and nearest to Fontainebleau. Having buried the papers, you will replace
+the soil with great care, and you will then report to me at the palace.'
+
+These were the Emperor's directions, but given with an accuracy and
+minuteness of detail such as no one but himself could put into an order.
+When he had finished, he made us swear to keep his secret as long as he
+lived, and as long as the papers should remain buried. Again and again
+he made us swear it before he dismissed us from his presence.
+
+Colonel Despienne had quarters at the 'Sign of the Pheasant,' and it was
+there that we supped together. We were all three men who had been
+trained to take the strangest turns of fortune as part of our daily life
+and business, yet we were all flushed and moved by the extraordinary
+interview which we had had, and by the thought of the great adventure
+which lay before us. For my own part, it had been my fate three several
+times to take my orders from the lips of the Emperor himself, but
+neither the incident of the Ajaccio murderers nor the famous ride which
+I made to Paris appeared to offer such opportunities as this new and
+most intimate commission.
+
+'If things go right with the Emperor,' said Despienne, 'we shall all
+live to be marshals yet.'
+
+We drank with him to our future cocked hats and our batons.
+
+It was agreed between us that we should make our way separately to our
+rendezvous, which was to be the first mile-stone upon the Paris road. In
+this way we should avoid the gossip which might get about if three men
+who were so well known were to be seen riding out together. My little
+Violette had cast a shoe that morning, and the farrier was at work upon
+her when I returned, so that my comrades were already there when I
+arrived at the trysting-place. I had taken with me not only my sabre,
+but also my new pair of English rifled pistols, with a mallet for
+knocking in the charges. They had cost me a hundred and fifty francs at
+Trouvel's, in the Rue de Rivoli, but they would carry far further and
+straighter than the others. It was with one of them that I had saved old
+Bouvet's life at Leipzig.
+
+The night was cloudless, and there was a brilliant moon behind us, so
+that we always had three black horsemen riding down the white road in
+front of us. The country is so thickly wooded, however, that we could
+not see very far. The great palace clock had already struck ten, but
+there was no sign of the Countess. We began to fear that something might
+have prevented her from starting.
+
+And then suddenly we heard her in the distance. Very faint at first were
+the birr of wheels and the tat-tat-tat of the horses' feet. Then they
+grew louder and clearer and louder yet, until a pair of yellow lanterns
+swung round the curve, and in their light we saw the two big brown
+horses tearing along the high, blue carriage at the back of them. The
+postilion pulled them up panting and foaming within a few yards of us.
+In a moment we were at the window and had raised our hands in a salute
+to the beautiful pale face which looked out at us.
+
+'We are the three officers of the Emperor, madame,' said I, in a low
+voice, leaning my face down to the open window. 'You have already been
+warned that we should wait upon you.'
+
+The Countess had a very beautiful, cream-tinted complexion of a sort
+which I particularly admire, but she grew whiter and whiter as she
+looked up at me. Harsh lines deepened upon her face until she seemed,
+even as I looked at her, to turn from youth into age.
+
+'It is evident to me,' she said, 'that you are three impostors.'
+
+If she had struck me across the face with her delicate hand she could
+not have startled me more. It was not her words only, but the bitterness
+with which she hissed them out.
+
+'Indeed, madame,' said I. 'You do us less than justice. These are the
+Colonel Despienne and Captain Tremeau. For myself, my name is Brigadier
+Gerard, and I have only to mention it to assure anyone who has heard of
+me that----'
+
+'Oh, you villains!' she interrupted. 'You think that because I am only a
+woman I am very easily to be hoodwinked! You miserable impostors!'
+
+I looked at Despienne, who had turned white with anger, and at Tremeau,
+who was tugging at his moustache.
+
+'Madame,' said I, coldly, 'when the Emperor did us the honour to intrust
+us with this mission, he gave me this amethyst ring as a token. I had
+not thought that three honourable gentlemen would have needed such
+corroboration, but I can only confute your unworthy suspicions by
+placing it in your hands.'
+
+She held it up in the light of the carriage lamp, and the most dreadful
+expression of grief and of horror contorted her face.
+
+'It is his!' she screamed, and then, 'Oh, my God, what have I done? What
+have I done?'
+
+I felt that something terrible had befallen. 'Quick, madame, quick!' I
+cried. 'Give us the papers!'
+
+'I have already given them.'
+
+'Given them! To whom?'
+
+'To three officers.'
+
+'When?'
+
+'Within the half-hour.'
+
+'Where are they?'
+
+'God help me, I do not know. They stopped the berline, and I handed them
+over to them without hesitation, thinking that they had come from the
+Emperor.'
+
+It was a thunder-clap. But those are the moments when I am at my finest.
+
+'You remain here,' said I, to my comrades. 'If three horsemen pass you,
+stop them at any hazard. The lady will describe them to you. I will be
+with you presently.' One shake of the bridle, and I was flying into
+Fontainebleau as only Violette could have carried me. At the palace I
+flung myself off, rushed up the stairs, brushed aside the lackeys who
+would have stopped me, and pushed my way into the Emperor's own cabinet.
+He and Macdonald were busy with pencil and compasses over a chart. He
+looked up with an angry frown at my sudden entry, but his face changed
+colour when he saw that it was I.
+
+'You can leave us, Marshal,' said he, and then, the instant the door was
+closed: 'What news about the papers?'
+
+'They are gone!' said I, and in a few curt words I told him what had
+happened. His face was calm, but I saw the compasses quiver in his hand.
+
+'You must recover them, Gerard!' he cried. 'The destinies of my dynasty
+are at stake. Not a moment is to be lost! To horse, sir, to horse!'
+
+'Who are they, sire?'
+
+'I cannot tell. I am surrounded with treason. But they will take them to
+Paris. To whom should they carry them but to the villain Talleyrand?
+Yes, yes, they are on the Paris road, and may yet be overtaken. With the
+three best mounts in my stables and----'
+
+I did not wait to hear the end of the sentence. I was already clattering
+down the stairs. I am sure that five minutes had not passed before I was
+galloping Violette out of the town with the bridle of one of the
+Emperor's own Arab chargers in either hand. They wished me to take
+three, but I should have never dared to look my Violette in the face
+again. I feel that the spectacle must have been superb when I dashed up
+to my comrades and pulled the horses on to their haunches in the
+moonlight.
+
+'No one has passed?'
+
+'No one.'
+
+'Then they are on the Paris road. Quick! Up and after them!'
+
+They did not take long, those good soldiers. In a flash they were upon
+the Emperor's horses, and their own left masterless by the roadside.
+Then away we went upon our long chase, I in the centre, Despienne upon
+my right, and Tremeau a little behind, for he was the heavier man.
+Heavens, how we galloped! The twelve flying hoofs roared and roared
+along the hard, smooth road. Poplars and moon, black bars and silver
+streaks, for mile after mile our course lay along the same chequered
+track, with our shadows in front and our dust behind. We could hear the
+rasping of bolts and the creaking of shutters from the cottages as we
+thundered past them, but we were only three dark blurs upon the road by
+the time that the folk could look after us. It was just striking
+midnight as we raced into Corbail; but an hostler with a bucket in
+either hand was throwing his black shadow across the golden fan which
+was cast from the open door of the inn.
+
+'Three riders!' I gasped. 'Have they passed?'
+
+'I have just been watering their horses,' said he. 'I should think
+they----'
+
+'On, on, my friends!' and away we flew, striking fire from the
+cobblestones of the little town. A gendarme tried to stop up, but his
+voice was drowned by our rattle and clatter. The houses slid past, and
+we were out on the country road again, with a clear twenty miles between
+ourselves and Paris. How could they escape us, with the finest horses in
+France behind them? Not one of the three had turned a hair, but Violette
+was always a head and shoulders to the front. She was going within
+herself too, and I knew by the spring of her that I had only to let her
+stretch herself, and the Emperor's horses would see the colour of her
+tail.
+
+'There they are!' cried Despienne.
+
+'We have them!' growled Tremeau.
+
+'On, comrades, on!' I shouted, once more.
+
+A long stretch of white road lay before us in the moonlight. Far away
+down it we could see three cavaliers, lying low upon their horses'
+necks. Every instant they grew larger and clearer as we gained upon
+them. I could see quite plainly that the two upon either side were
+wrapped in mantles and rode upon chestnut horses, whilst the man between
+them was dressed in a chasseur uniform and mounted upon a grey. They
+were keeping abreast, but it was easy enough to see from the way in
+which he gathered his legs for each spring that the centre horse was far
+the fresher of the three. And the rider appeared to be the leader of the
+party, for we continually saw the glint of his face in the moonshine as
+he looked back to measure the distance between us. At first it was only
+a glimmer, then it was cut across with a moustache, and at last when we
+began to feel their dust in our throats I could give a name to my man.
+
+'Halt, Colonel de Montluc!' I shouted. 'Halt, in the Emperor's name!'
+
+I had known him for years as a daring officer and an unprincipled
+rascal. Indeed, there was a score between us, for he had shot my friend,
+Treville, at Warsaw, pulling his trigger, as some said, a good second
+before the drop of the handkerchief.
+
+Well, the words were hardly out of my mouth when his two comrades
+wheeled round and fired their pistols at us. I heard Despienne give a
+terrible cry, and at the same instant both Tremeau and I let drive at
+the same man. He fell forward with his hands swinging on each side of
+his horse's neck. His comrade spurred on to Tremeau, sabre in hand, and
+I heard the crash which comes when a strong cut is met by a stronger
+parry. For my own part I never turned my head, but I touched Violette
+with the spur for the first time and flew after the leader. That he
+should leave his comrades and fly was proof enough that I should leave
+mine and follow.
+
+He had gained a couple of hundred paces, but the good little mare set
+that right before we could have passed two milestones. It was in vain
+that he spurred and thrashed like a gunner driver on a soft road. His
+hat flew off with his exertions, and his bald head gleamed in the
+moonshine. But do what he might, he still heard the rattle of the hoofs
+growing louder and louder behind him. I could not have been twenty yards
+from him, and the shadow head was touching the shadow haunch, when he
+turned with a curse in his saddle and emptied both his pistols, one
+after the other, into Violette.
+
+I have been wounded myself so often that I have to stop and think before
+I can tell you the exact number of times. I have been hit by musket
+balls, by pistol bullets, and by bursting shells, besides being pierced
+by bayonet, lance, sabre, and finally by a brad-awl, which was the most
+painful of any. Yet out of all these injuries I have never known the
+same deadly sickness as came over me when I felt the poor, silent,
+patient creature, which I had come to love more than anything in the
+world except my mother and the Emperor, reel and stagger beneath me. I
+pulled my second pistol from my holster and fired point-blank between
+the fellow's broad shoulders. He slashed his horse across the flank with
+his whip, and for a moment I thought that I had missed him. But then on
+the green of his chasseur jacket I saw an ever-widening black smudge,
+and he began to sway in his saddle, very slightly at first, but more and
+more with every bound, until at last over he went, with his foot caught
+in the stirrup, and his shoulders thud-thud-thudding along the road,
+until the drag was too much for the tired horse, and I closed my hand
+upon the foam-spattered bridle-chain. As I pulled him up it eased the
+stirrup leather, and the spurred heel clinked loudly as it fell.
+
+'Your papers!' I cried, springing from my saddle. 'This instant!'
+
+But even as I said, it, the huddle of the green body and the fantastic
+sprawl of the limbs in the moonlight told me clearly enough that it was
+all over with him. My bullet had passed through his heart, and it was
+only his own iron will which had held him so long in the saddle. He had
+lived hard, this Montluc, and I will do him justice to say that he died
+hard also.
+
+But it was the papers--always the papers--of which I thought. I opened
+his tunic and I felt in his shirt. Then I searched his holsters and his
+sabre-tasche. Finally I dragged off his boots, and undid his horse's
+girth so as to hunt under the saddle. There was not a nook or crevice
+which I did not ransack. It was useless. They were not upon him.
+
+When this stunning blow came upon me I could have sat down by the
+roadside and wept. Fate seemed to be fighting against me, and that is an
+enemy from whom even a gallant hussar might not be ashamed to flinch. I
+stood with my arm over the neck of my poor wounded Violette, and I tried
+to think it all out, that I might act in the wisest way. I was aware
+that the Emperor had no great respect for my wits, and I longed to show
+him that he had done me an injustice. Montluc had not the papers. And
+yet Montluc had sacrificed his companions in order to make his escape. I
+could make nothing of that. On the other hand, it was clear that, if he
+had not got them, one or other of his comrades had. One of them was
+certainly dead. The other I had left fighting with Tremeau, and if he
+escaped from the old swordsman he had still to pass me. Clearly, my work
+lay behind me.
+
+I hammered fresh charges into my pistols after I had turned this over in
+my head. Then I put them back in the holsters, and I examined my little
+mare, she jerking her head and cocking her ears the while, as if to tell
+me that an old soldier like herself did not make a fuss about a scratch
+or two. The first shot had merely grazed her off-shoulder, leaving a
+skin-mark, as if she had brushed a wall. The second was more serious. It
+had passed through the muscle of her neck, but already it had ceased to
+bleed. I reflected that if she weakened I could mount Montluc's grey,
+and meanwhile I led him along beside us, for he was a fine horse, worth
+fifteen hundred francs at the least, and it seemed to me that no one had
+a better right to him than I.
+
+Well, I was all impatience now to get back to the others, and I had just
+given Violette her head, when suddenly I saw something glimmering in a
+field by the roadside. It was the brass-work upon the chasseur hat which
+had flown from Montluc's head; and at the sight of it a thought made me
+jump in the saddle. How could the hat have flown off? With its weight,
+would it not have simply dropped? And here it lay, fifteen paces from
+the roadway! Of course, he must have thrown it off when he had made sure
+that I would overtake him. And if he threw it off--I did not stop to
+reason any more, but sprang from the mare with my heart beating the
+_pas-de-charge_. Yes, it was all right this time. There, in the crown of
+the hat was stuffed a roll of papers in a parchment wrapper bound round
+with yellow ribbon. I pulled it out with the one hand and, holding the
+hat in the other, I danced for joy in the moonlight. The Emperor would
+see that he had not made a mistake when he put his affairs into the
+charge of Etienne Gerard.
+
+I had a safe pocket on the inside of my tunic just over my heart, where
+I kept a few little things which were dear to me, and into this I thrust
+my precious roll. Then I sprang upon Violette, and was pushing forward
+to see what had become of Tremeau, when I saw a horseman riding across
+the field in the distance. At the same instant I heard the sound of
+hoofs approaching me, and there in the moonlight was the Emperor upon
+his white charger, dressed in his grey overcoat and his three-cornered
+hat, just as I had seen him so often upon the field of battle.
+
+'Well!' he cried, in the sharp, sergeant-major way of his. 'Where are my
+papers?'
+
+I spurred forward and presented them without a word. He broke the ribbon
+and ran his eyes rapidly over them. Then, as we sat our horses head to
+tail, he threw his left arm across me with his hand upon my shoulder.
+Yes, my friends, simple as you see me, I have been embraced by my great
+master.
+
+'Gerard,' he cried, 'you are a marvel!'
+
+I did not wish to contradict him, and it brought a flush of joy upon my
+cheeks to know that he had done me justice at last.
+
+'Where is the thief, Gerard?' he asked.
+
+'Dead, sire.'
+
+'You killed him?'
+
+'He wounded my horse, sire, and would have escaped had I not shot him.'
+
+'Did you recognize him?'
+
+'De Montluc is his name, sire--a Colonel of Chasseurs.'
+
+'Tut,' said the Emperor. 'We have got the poor pawn, but the hand which
+plays the game is still out of our reach.' He sat in silent thought for
+a little, with his chin sunk upon his chest. 'Ah, Talleyrand,
+Talleyrand,' I heard him mutter, 'if I had been in your place and you in
+mine, you would have crushed a viper when you held it under your heel.
+For five years I have known you for what you are, and yet I have let you
+live to sting me. Never mind, my brave,' he continued, turning to me,
+'there will come a day of reckoning for everybody, and when it arrives,
+I promise you that my friends will be remembered as well as my enemies.'
+
+'Sire,' said I, for I had had time for thought as well as he, 'if your
+plans about these papers have been carried to the ears of your enemies,
+I trust you do not think that it was owing to any indiscretion upon the
+part of myself or of my comrades.'
+
+'It would be hardly reasonable for me to do so,' he answered, 'seeing
+that this plot was hatched in Paris, and that you only had your orders a
+few hours ago.'
+
+'Then how----?'
+
+'Enough,' he cried, sternly. 'You take an undue advantage of your
+position.'
+
+That was always the way with the Emperor. He would chat with you as with
+a friend and a brother, and then when he had wiled you into forgetting
+the gulf which lay between you, he would suddenly, with a word or with a
+look, remind you that it was as impassable as ever. When I have fondled
+my old hound until he has been encouraged to paw my knees, and I have
+then thrust him down again, it has made me think of the Emperor and his
+ways.
+
+He reined his horse round, and I followed him in silence and with a
+heavy heart. But when he spoke again his words were enough to drive all
+thought of myself out of my mind.
+
+'I could not sleep until I knew how you had fared,' said he. 'I have
+paid a price for my papers. There are not so many of my old soldiers
+left that I can afford to lose two in one night.'
+
+When he said 'two' it turned me cold.
+
+'Colonel Despienne was shot, sire,' I stammered.
+
+'And Captain Tremeau cut down. Had I been a few minutes earlier, I might
+have saved him. The other escaped across the fields.'
+
+I remembered that I had seen a horseman a moment before I had met the
+Emperor. He had taken to the fields to avoid me, but if I had known, and
+Violette been unwounded, the old soldier would not have gone unavenged.
+I was thinking sadly of his sword-play, and wondering whether it was his
+stiffening wrist which had been fatal to him, when Napoleon spoke again.
+
+'Yes, Brigadier,' said he, 'you are now the only man who will know where
+these papers are concealed.'
+
+It must have been imagination, my friends, but for an instant I may
+confess that it seemed to me that there was a tone in the Emperor's
+voice which was not altogether one of sorrow. But the dark thought had
+hardly time to form itself in my mind before he let me see that I was
+doing him an injustice.
+
+'Yes, I have paid a price for my papers,' he said, and I heard them
+crackle as he put his hand up to his bosom. 'No man has ever had more
+faithful servants--no man since the beginning of the world.'
+
+As he spoke we came upon the scene of the struggle. Colonel Despienne
+and the man whom we had shot lay together some distance down the road,
+while their horses grazed contentedly beneath the poplars. Captain
+Tremeau lay in front of us upon his back, with his arms and legs
+stretched out, and his sabre broken short off in his hand. His tunic was
+open, and a huge blood-clot hung like a dark handkerchief out of a slit
+in his white shirt. I could see the gleam of his clenched teeth from
+under his immense moustache.
+
+The Emperor sprang from his horse and bent down over the dead man.
+
+'He was with me since Rivoli,' said he, sadly. 'He was one of my old
+grumblers in Egypt.'
+
+And the voice brought the man back from the dead. I saw his eyelids
+shiver. He twitched his arm, and moved the sword-hilt a few inches. He
+was trying to raise it in salute. Then the mouth opened, and the hilt
+tinkled down on to the ground.
+
+'May we all die as gallantly,' said the Emperor, as he rose, and from my
+heart I added 'Amen.'
+
+There was a farm within fifty yards of where we were standing, and the
+farmer, roused from his sleep by the clatter of hoofs and the cracking
+of pistols, had rushed out to the roadside. We saw him now, dumb with
+fear and astonishment, staring open-eyed at the Emperor. It was to him
+that we committed the care of the four dead men and of the horses also.
+For my own part, I thought it best to leave Violette with him and to
+take De Montluc's grey with me, for he could not refuse to give me back
+my own mare, whilst there might be difficulties about the other.
+Besides, my little friend's wound had to be considered, and we had a
+long return ride before us.
+
+The Emperor did not at first talk much upon the way. Perhaps the deaths
+of Despienne and Tremeau still weighed heavily upon his spirits. He was
+always a reserved man, and in those times, when every hour brought him
+the news of some success of his enemies or defection of his friends, one
+could not expect him to be a merry companion. Nevertheless, when I
+reflected that he was carrying in his bosom those papers which he valued
+so highly, and which only a few hours ago appeared to be for ever lost,
+and when I further thought that it was I, Etienne Gerard, who had placed
+them there, I felt that I had deserved some little consideration. The
+same idea may have occurred to him, for when we had at last left the
+Paris high road, and had entered the forest, he began of his own accord
+to tell me that which I should have most liked to have asked him.
+
+'As to the papers,' said he, 'I have already told you that there is no
+one now, except you and me, who knows where they are to be concealed. My
+Mameluke carried the spades to the pigeon-house, but I have told him
+nothing. Our plans, however, for bringing the packet from Paris have
+been formed since Monday. There were three in the secret, a woman and
+two men. The woman I would trust with my life; which of the two men has
+betrayed us I do not know, but I think that I may promise to find out.'
+
+We were riding in the shadow of the trees at the time, and I could hear
+him slapping his riding-whip against his boot, and taking pinch after
+pinch of snuff, as was his way when he was excited.
+
+'You wonder, no doubt,' said he, after a pause, 'why these rascals did
+not stop the carriage at Paris instead of at the entrance to
+Fontainebleau.'
+
+In truth, the objection had not occurred to me, but I did not wish to
+appear to have less wits than he gave me credit for, so I answered that
+it was indeed surprising.
+
+'Had they done so they would have made a public scandal, and run a
+chance of missing their end. Short of taking the berline to pieces, they
+could not have discovered the hiding-place. He planned it well--he could
+always plan well--and he chose his agents well also. But mine were the
+better.'
+
+It is not for me to repeat to you, my friends, all that was said to me
+by the Emperor as we walked our horses amid the black shadows and
+through the moon-silvered glades of the great forest. Every word of it
+is impressed upon my memory, and before I pass away it is likely that I
+will place it all upon paper, so that others may read it in the days to
+come. He spoke freely of his past, and something also of his future; of
+the devotion of Macdonald, of the treason of Marmont, of the little King
+of Rome, concerning whom he talked with as much tenderness as any
+bourgeois father of a single child; and, finally, of his father-in-law,
+the Emperor of Austria, who would, he thought, stand between his enemies
+and himself. For myself, I dared not say a word, remembering how I had
+already brought a rebuke upon myself; but I rode by his side, hardly
+able to believe that this was indeed the great Emperor, the man whose
+glance sent a thrill through me, who was now pouring out his thoughts to
+me in short, eager sentences, the words rattling and racing like the
+hoofs of a galloping squadron. It is possible that, after the
+word-splittings and diplomacy of a Court, it was a relief to him to
+speak his mind to a plain soldier like myself.
+
+In this way the Emperor and I--even after years it sends a flush of
+pride into my cheeks to be able to put those words together--the Emperor
+and I walked our horses through the Forest of Fontainebleau, until we
+came at last to the Colombier. The three spades were propped against the
+wall upon the right-hand side of the ruined door, and at the sight of
+them the tears sprang to my eyes as I thought of the hands for which
+they were intended. The Emperor seized one and I another.
+
+'Quick!' said he. 'The dawn will be upon us before we get back to the
+palace.'
+
+We dug the hole, and placing the papers in one of my pistol holsters to
+screen them from the damp, we laid them at the bottom and covered them
+up. We then carefully removed all marks of the ground having been
+disturbed, and we placed a large stone upon the top. I dare say that
+since the Emperor was a young gunner, and helped to train his pieces
+against Toulon, he had not worked so hard with his hands. He was mopping
+his forehead with his silk handkerchief long before we had come to the
+end of our task.
+
+The first grey cold light of morning was stealing through the tree
+trunks when we came out together from the old pigeon-house. The Emperor
+laid his hand upon my shoulder as I stood ready to help him to mount.
+
+'We have left the papers there,' said he, solemnly, 'and I desire that
+you shall leave all thought of them there also. Let the recollection of
+them pass entirely from your mind, to be revived only when you receive a
+direct order under my own hand and seal. From this time onwards you
+forget all that has passed.'
+
+'I forget it, sire,' said I.
+
+We rode together to the edge of the town, where he desired that I should
+separate from him. I had saluted, and was turning my horse, when he
+called me back.
+
+'It is easy to mistake the points of the compass in the forest,' said
+he. 'Would you not say that it was in the north-eastern corner that we
+buried them?'
+
+'Buried what, sire?'
+
+'The papers, of course,' he cried, impatiently.
+
+'What papers, sire?'
+
+'Name of a name! Why, the papers that you have recovered for me.'
+
+'I am really at a loss to know what your Majesty is talking about.'
+
+He flushed with anger for a moment, and then he burst out laughing.
+
+'Very good, Brigadier!' he cried. 'I begin to believe that you are as
+good a diplomatist as you are a soldier, and I cannot say more than
+that.'
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+So that was my strange adventure in which I found myself the friend and
+confident agent of the Emperor. When he returned from Elba he refrained
+from digging up the papers until his position should be secure, and they
+still remained in the corner of the old pigeon-house after his exile to
+St Helena. It was at this time that he was desirous of getting them into
+the hands of his own supporters, and for that purpose he wrote me, as I
+afterwards learned, three letters, all of which were intercepted by his
+guardians. Finally, he offered to support himself and his own
+establishment--which he might very easily have done out of the gigantic
+sum which belonged to him--if they would only pass one of his letters
+unopened. This request was refused, and so, up to his death in '21, the
+papers still remained where I have told you. How they came to be dug up
+by Count Bertrand and myself, and who eventually obtained them, is a
+story which I would tell you, were it not that the end has not yet come.
+
+Some day you will hear of those papers, and you will see how, after he
+has been so long in his grave, that great man can still set Europe
+shaking. When that day comes, you will think of Etienne Gerard, and you
+will tell your children that you have heard the story from the lips of
+the man who was the only one living of all who took part in that strange
+history--the man who was tempted by Marshal Berthier, who led that wild
+pursuit upon the Paris road, who was honoured by the embrace of the
+Emperor, and who rode with him by moonlight in the Forest of
+Fontainebleau. The buds are bursting and the birds are calling, my
+friends. You may find better things to do in the sunlight than listening
+to the stories of an old, broken soldier. And yet you may well treasure
+what I say, for the buds will have burst and the birds sung in many
+seasons before France will see such another ruler as he whose servants
+we were proud to be.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Exploits Of Brigadier Gerard
+by Arthur Conan Doyle
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