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+Project Gutenberg's The Eagle of the Empire, by Cyrus Townsend Brady
+
+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 Eagle of the Empire
+       A Story of Waterloo
+
+Author: Cyrus Townsend Brady
+
+Release Date: February 4, 2007 [EBook #20515]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EAGLE OF THE EMPIRE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Al Haines
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Frontispiece: The Little Countess takes Arms for Her Defence.]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE EAGLE OF THE EMPIRE
+
+A STORY OF WATERLOO
+
+
+By CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY
+
+
+
+AUTHOR OF
+
+  "The Island of Regeneration," "The Island of the Stairs,"
+  "Britton of the Seventh," Etc.
+
+
+
+With Frontispiece
+
+By THE KINNEYS
+
+
+
+A. L. BURT COMPANY
+
+Publishers
+
+New York
+
+Published by Arrangements with GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+Copyright, 1915,
+
+By GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+DEDICATION
+
+Dedications have gone out of vogue save with the old fashioned.  The
+ancient idea of an appeal to a patron has been eliminated from modern
+literature.  If a man now inscribes a book to any one it is that he may
+associate with his work the names of friends he loves and delights to
+honor.  There is always a certain amount of assurance in any such
+dedication, the assurance lying in the assumption that there is honor
+to the recipient in the association with the book.  Well, there is no
+mistaking the purpose anyway.
+
+One of my best friends, and that friendship has been proved in war and
+peace, at home and abroad, is a Bank!  The Bank is like Mercy in more
+ways than one, but particularly in that it is twice blessed; it is
+blessed in what it receives, I hope, and in what it gives, I know.
+From the standpoint of the depositor sometimes it is better to receive
+than to give.  It has been so in my case and I have been able to
+persuade the Bank to that way of thinking.
+
+Therefore, in grateful acknowledgment of the very present help it has
+been to me in time of need and in public recognition of many courtesies
+from its officers and directors, and as some evidence of my deep
+appreciation of its many kindnesses to me, I dedicate this book to
+
+THE MOUNT VERNON TRUST COMPANY
+
+of
+
+MOUNT VERNON, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+The Battle of Waterloo, which was fought just one hundred years ago and
+with which the story in this book ends, is popularly regarded as one of
+the decisive battles of the world, particularly with reference to the
+career of the greatest of all Captains.  Personally some study has led
+me to believe that Bautzen was really the decisive battle of the
+Napoleonic wars.  If the Emperor had there won the overwhelming victory
+to which his combinations and the fortunes of war entitled him he would
+still have retained his Empire.  Whether he would have been satisfied
+or not is another question; and anyway as I am practically alone among
+students and critics in my opinions about Bautzen they can be
+dismissed.  And that he lost that battle was his own fault anyway!
+
+However Napoleon's genius cannot be denied any more than his failure.
+In this book I have sought to show him at his best and also almost at
+his worst.  For sheer brilliance, military and mental, the campaigning
+in France in 1814 could not be surpassed.  He is there with his raw
+recruits, his beardless boys, his old guard, his tactical and
+strategical ability, his furious energy, his headlong celerity and his
+marvelous power of inspiration; just as he was in Italy when he
+revolutionized the art of war and electrified the world.  Many of these
+qualities are in evidence in the days before Waterloo, but during the
+actual battle upon which his fate and the fate of the world turned, the
+tired, broken, ill man is drowsily nodding before a farmhouse by the
+road, while Ney, whose superb and headlong courage was not accompanied
+by any corresponding military ability, wrecks the last grand army.
+
+And there is no more dramatic an incident in all history, I believe,
+than Napoleon's advance on the Fifth-of-the-line drawn up on the
+Grenoble Road on the return from Elba.
+
+Nor do the Roman Eagles themselves seem to have made such romantic
+appeal or to have won such undying devotion as the Eagles of the Empire.
+
+This story was written just before the outbreak of the present European
+war and is published while it is in full course.  Modern commanders
+wield forces beside which even the great Army of the Nations that
+invaded Russia is scarcely more than a detachment, and battles last for
+days, weeks, even months--Waterloo was decided in an afternoon!--yet
+war is the same.  If there be any difference it simply grows more
+horrible.  The old principles, however, are unchanged, and over the
+fields upon which Napoleon marched and fought, armies are marching and
+fighting in practically the same way to-day.  And great Captains are
+still studying Frederick, Wellington and Bonaparte as they have ever
+done.
+
+The author modestly hopes that this book may not only entertain by the
+love story, the tragic yet happily ended romance within its pages--for
+there is romance here aside from the great Captain and his
+exploits--but that in a small way it may serve to set forth not so much
+the brilliance and splendor and glory of war as the horror of it.
+
+We are frightfully fascinated by war, even the most peaceable and
+peace-loving of us.  May this story help to convey to the reader some
+of the other side of it; the hunger, the cold, the weariness, the
+suffering, the disaster, the despair of the soldier; as well as the
+love and the joy and the final happiness of the beautiful Laure and the
+brave Marteau to say nothing of redoubtable old Bal-Arrêt, the
+Bullet-Stopper--whose fates were determined on the battlefield amid the
+clash of arms.
+
+CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY.
+
+  THE HEMLOCKS,
+  EDGECLIFF TERRACE, PARK-HILL-ON-HUDSON.
+  YONKERS, N. Y.
+
+EPIPHANY-TIDE, 1915.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+         PROLOGUE
+           VIVE L'EMPEREUR
+
+
+         BOOK I: THE EMPEROR AT BAY
+
+Chapter
+
+      I.  BEARERS OF EVIL TIDINGS
+     II.  THE EMPEROR DREAMS
+    III.  THE ARMY MARCHES AWAY
+     IV.  MARTEAU AND BAL-ARRÊT RIDE
+      V.  WHEN THE COSSACKS PASSED
+     VI.  MARTEAU BARGAINS FOR THE WOMAN
+    VII.  A RESCUE AND A SIEGE
+   VIII.  A TRIAL OR ALLEGIANCE
+     IX.  THE EMPEROR EATS AND RIDES
+      X.  HOW MARTEAU WON THE CROSS
+     XI.  AN EMPEROR AND A GENTLEMAN
+    XII.  AN ALLIANCE DECLINED
+   XIII.  THE THUNDERBOLT STROKE
+    XIV.  THE HAMMER OF THE WAR GOD
+
+
+          BOOK II: THE EAGLE'S FLIGHT
+
+     XV.  THE BRIDGE AT ARCIS
+    XVI.  THE GATE IN THE WALL
+   XVII.  A VETERAN OF THE ARMY OF ITALY
+  XVIII.  ALMOST A GENTLEMAN
+    XIX.  THE GREAT HONOR ROLL
+     XX.  WHEN THE VIOLETS BLOOM AGAIN
+    XXI.  LIKE A THIEF IN THE NIGHT
+   XXII.  IN THE COUNTESS LAURE'S BED-CHAMBER
+  XXIII.  THE MARQUIS GRANTS AN INTERVIEW
+   XXIV.  ON THE WHOLE DEATH MAY BE BETTER THAN LIFE
+    XXV.  NOT EVEN LOVE CAN FIND A WAY
+   XXVI.  THEY MEET A LION IN THE WAY
+  XXVII.  COMRADE!  GENERAL!  EMPEROR!
+
+
+          BOOK III: THE LAST TRY
+
+ XXVIII.  AT THE STAMP OF THE EMPEROR'S FOOT
+   XXIX.  WATERLOO--THE FINAL REVIEW
+    XXX.  WATERLOO--THE CHARGE OF D'ERLON
+   XXXI.  WATERLOO--THE LAST OF THE GUARD
+  XXXII.  AT LAST THE EAGLE AND THE WOMAN
+
+
+
+
+PROLOGUE
+
+VIVE L'EMPEREUR
+
+The weatherworn Château d'Aumenier stands in the midst of a noble park
+of trees forming part of an extensive domain not far to the northwest
+of the little town of Sézanne, in the once famous county of Champagne,
+in France.  The principal room of the castle is a great hall in the
+oldest part of the venerable pile which dates back for eight hundred
+years, or to the tenth century and the times of the famous Count Eudes
+himself, for whom it was held by one of his greatest vassals.
+
+The vast apartment is filled with rare and interesting mementos of its
+distinguished owners, including spoils of war and trophies of the
+chase, acquired in one way or another in the long course of their
+history, and bespeaking the courage, the power, the ruthlessness, and,
+sometimes, the unscrupulousness of the hard-hearted, heavy-handed line.
+Every country in Europe and every age, apparently, has been levied upon
+to adorn this great hall, with its long mullioned windows, its enormous
+fireplace, its huge carved stone mantel, its dark oak paneled walls and
+beamed ceiling.  But, the most interesting, the most precious of all
+the wonderful things therein has a place of honor to itself at the end
+farthest from the main entrance.
+
+Fixed against this wall is a broken staff, or pole, surmounted by a
+small metallic figure.  The staff is fastened to the wall by clamps of
+tempered steel which are further secured by delicate locks of skillful
+and intricate workmanship.  The pole is topped by the gilded effigy of
+an eagle.
+
+In dimensions the eagle is eight inches high, from head to feet, and
+nine and a half inches wide, from wing tip to wing tip.  Heraldically,
+"_Un Aigle Éployé_" it would be called.  That is, an eagle in the act
+of taking flight--in the vernacular, a "spread eagle."  The eagle looks
+to the left, with its wings half expanded.  In its talons it grasps a
+thunderbolt, as in the old Roman standard.  Those who have ever
+wandered into the Monastery of the Certosa, at Milan, have seen just
+such an eagle on one of the tombs of the great Visconti family.  For,
+in truth, this emblem has been modeled after that one.
+
+Below the thunderbolt is a tablet of brass, three inches square, on
+which is a raised number.  In this instance, the number is five.  The
+copper of which the eagle is molded was originally gilded, but in its
+present battered condition much of the gilt has been worn off, or shot
+off, and the original material is plainly discernible.  If it could be
+lifted its weight would be found to be about three and a half pounds.
+
+Around the neck of the eagle hangs a wreath of pure gold.  There is an
+inscription on the back of it, which says that the wreath was presented
+to the regiment by the loyal city of Paris after the wonderful Ulm
+campaign.
+
+One of the claws of the eagle has been shot away.  The gold laurel
+wreath has also been struck by a bullet, and some of its leaves are
+gone.  The tip of one wing is missing.  The head of the eagle,
+originally proudly and defiantly erect, has been bent backward so that,
+instead of a level glance, it looks upward, and there is a deep dent in
+it, as from a blow.  And right in the breast gapes a great ragged
+shot-hole, which pierces the heart of the proud emblem.  The eagle has
+seen service.  It has been in action.  It bears its honorable wounds.
+No attempt has been made to repair it.
+
+The staff on which the eagle stands has been broken at about half its
+length, presumably by a bullet.  The shattered, splintered end
+indicates that the staff is made of oak.  It had been painted blue
+originally.  The freshness of the paint has been marred.  On one side,
+a huge slice has been cut out of it as if by a mighty sword stroke.
+The tough wood is gashed and scarred in various places, and there is a
+long, dark blur just above the broken part, which looks as if it might
+be a blood stain.
+
+Below the eagle, and attached to the remainder of the staff for about
+three-fourths of its length, is what remains of a battle flag.  The
+material of it was originally rich and heavy crimson silk, bordered
+with gold fringe.  It is faded, tattered, shot-torn, bullet-ridden,
+wind-whipped; parts of it have disappeared.  It has been carefully
+mounted, and is stretched out so as to present its face to the
+beholder.  In dull, defaced letters of gold may be read
+inscriptions--the imagination piecing out the missing parts.  Here is a
+line that runs as follows:
+
+  _Napoleon, Empereur des Français, au 5e Infanterie
+    de la Ligne._
+
+
+And underneath, in smaller and brighter letters, as if a later addition:
+
+  _Grenadiers du Garde Imperiale._
+
+
+There has been some sort of device in the middle, but most of it has
+disappeared.  From what remains, one guesses that it was a facsimile of
+the eagle on the staff-head.  There are little tarnished spots of gold
+here and there.  A close observation discloses that they are golden
+bees.  In the corners near the staff, the only ones that are left are
+golden wreaths in the center of which may be seen the letter "N".
+
+On the other side of the flag, hidden from the beholder, are a series
+of names.  They have been transcribed upon a silver plate, which is
+affixed to the wall below the broken staff.  They read as follows:
+
+"Marengo; Ulm; Austerlitz; Jena; Berlin; Eylau; Friedland; Madrid;
+Eckmuhl; Wagram; Vienna; Smolensk; Moskowa; Bautzen; Leipsic;
+Montmirail; Arcis."
+
+Beneath this list is a heavy dash and below all in larger letters,
+which unlike the rest have been filled with black enamel, is the last
+word,
+
+  "WATERLOO."
+
+
+The eagle, the staff, and the flag are enclosed and protected from
+careless handling by a heavy glass case, the panes set in steel and
+silver, and the doors carefully locked to prevent its being stolen
+away.  But its security is not entrusted to these inanimate materials
+alone.  Every hour of the day and night there keeps watch over it an
+old soldier.  He is armed and equipped as if for battle, in the uniform
+of the old Fifth Regiment of the Line, somehow temporarily incorporated
+in the Imperial Guard as a supplementary regiment of the Grenadiers
+thereof.  The black gaiters, the white trousers, the blue and scarlet
+coat, with its crossed belts and brilliant decorations, the lofty
+bearskin head-dress, are all strangely in keeping with the relic and
+its surroundings.
+
+Sometimes the soldier--and there are five of them whose sole and only
+business it is to watch over the flag--paces steadily up and down in
+front of it, like a sentry on his post.  Sometimes he stands before it
+at parade rest.  As to each individual's movements, he suits his fancy.
+These are old soldiers, indeed, highly privileged, veterans of twenty
+campaigns, fifty pitched battles, and smaller affairs without number.
+Their weatherbeaten faces are lined and wrinkled, their mustaches are
+as white as snow.
+
+The guard is always relieved at the appointed intervals with military
+formality and precision.  One soldier, older, taller than the rest, is
+in command of the other four.  From his buttonhole dangles from a white
+ribbon a little cross of white enamel.  Though he shows no insignia of
+rank higher than that of a Sergeant of the Guard, he has won the proud
+distinction of the Legion of Honor.
+
+At one stated hour in the day, a tall, handsome, distinguished,
+middle-aged man, wearing for the occasion the uniform of a colonel in
+the Imperial Guard, a blood-stained, tarnished, battered, battle-worn
+uniform, be it observed, comes into the room.  He is more often than
+not attended by a lovely lady of beauty and grace, in spite of her
+years, who leads with either hand a handsome youth and a beautiful
+maiden.  The four soldiers are always present in full uniform under the
+command of their sergeant at this hour.  As the officer enters they
+form line, come to attention, and present arms, a salute he gravely and
+punctiliously acknowledges.  Attendants follow, bearing decanters and
+glasses; wine for the officer and his family, something stronger for
+the soldiers.  The glasses are filled.  With her own fair hands, the
+lady hands them to the men.  When all are ready the officer holds up
+his glass.  The men, stacking arms, do the same.  The eyes of all
+glance upward.  Above the eagle and the flag upon a shelf upon the wall
+stands a marble head, product of Canova's marvelous chisel.  It is
+Napoleon.  White it gleams against the dark stone of the old hall.  At
+a nod the soldiers face about, and----
+
+"_Vive l'Empereur_," says the officer quietly.
+
+"_Vive l'Empereur_," in deep and solemn tones repeats the old sergeant.
+
+"_Vive l'Empereur_," comes from the lips of the four soldiers, and even
+the woman and the young people join in that ancient acclaim.
+
+The great Emperor is dead long since.  He sleeps beneath the willows in
+the low valley in the lonely, far-off, wave-washed islet of St. Helena.
+But to these men he will never die.  It is their blood that is upon
+that eagle staff.  It was in their hands that it received those wounds.
+While they carried it, flung to the breeze of battle, it was shot-torn
+and storm-riven.  It is a priceless treasure to them all.  As they
+followed it with the ardor and devotion of youth so they now guard it
+and respect it with the steadier but not less intense consecration of
+maturity and old age.
+
+The eagle of a vanished empire, the emblem of a fame that is past.  It
+is as real to them as when into the hands of one of them it was given
+by the Emperor himself on the Champ de Mars so long ago when he was
+lord of the world.  And so long as they live they will love it,
+reverence it, guard it, salute it as in the past.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK I
+
+THE EMPEROR AT BAY
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+BEARERS OF EVIL TIDINGS
+
+The Emperor walked nervously up and down the long, low-ceiled
+apartment, the common room of the public inn at Nogent.  Grouped around
+a long table in the center of the room several secretaries were busy
+with orders, reports and dispatches.  At one end stood a group of
+officers of high rank in rich uniforms whose brilliance was shrouded by
+heavy cloaks falling from their shoulders and gathered about them, for
+the air was raw and chill, despite a great fire burning in a huge open
+fireplace.  Their cloaks and hats were wet, their boots and trousers
+splashed with mud, and in general they were travel-stained and weary.
+They eyed the Emperor, passing and repassing, in gloomy silence mixed
+with awe.  In their bearing no less than in their faces was expressed a
+certain unwonted fierce resentment, which flamed up and became more
+evident when the Emperor turned his back in his short, restless march
+to and fro, but which subsided as suddenly when he had them under
+observation.  By the door was stationed a young officer in the uniform
+of the Fifth Regiment of the infantry of the line.  He stood quietly at
+attention, and was evidently there on duty.
+
+From time to time officers, orderlies and couriers came into the room,
+bearing dispatches.  These were handed to the young officer and by him
+passed over to the Emperor.  Never since the days of Job had any man
+perhaps been compelled to welcome such a succession of bearers of evil
+tidings as Napoleon on that winter night.
+
+The Emperor's face was pale always, but there was an ashy grayness
+about his pallor in that hour that marked a difference.  His face was
+lined and seamed, not to say haggard.  The mask of imperturbability he
+usually wore was down.  He looked old, tired, discouraged.  His usual
+iron self-control and calm had given place to an overwhelming
+nervousness and incertitude.  He waved his hands, he muttered to
+himself, his mouth twitched awry from time to time as he walked.
+
+"Well, messieurs," he began at last, in sharp, rather high-pitched
+notes--even his voice sounded differently--as he lifted his eyes from
+perusing the latest dispatch and faced the uneasy group by the
+fireplace, "you are doubtless anxious to know the news."  The Emperor
+stepped over to the table as he spoke, and gathered up a handful of
+dispatches and ran over them with his hands.  "It is all set forth
+here: The Germans and the English have shut up Carnot in Antwerp," he
+continued rapidly, throwing one paper down.  "The Bourbons have entered
+Brussels,"--he threw another letter upon the table--"Belgium, you see,
+is lost.  Bernadotte has taken Denmark.  Macdonald is falling back on
+Épernay, his weak force growing weaker every hour.  Yorck, who failed
+us once before, is hard on his heels with twice, thrice, the number of
+his men.  Sacken is trying to head him off.  The King of Naples seeks
+to save the throne on which I established him by withdrawing from me
+now--the poor fool!  The way to Paris along the Marne is open, and
+Blücher is marching on the capital with eighty thousand Russians,
+Prussians and Bavarians.  Schwarzenburg with many more is close at
+hand."
+
+Something like a hollow groan broke from the breasts of the auditors as
+the fateful dispatches fell one by one from the Emperor's hand.  The
+secretaries stopped writing and stared.  The young officer by the door
+clenched his hands.
+
+"Sire----," said one of the officers, the rich trappings of whose dress
+indicated that he was a Marshal of France.  He began boldly but ended
+timidly.  "Before it is too late----"
+
+Napoleon swung around and fixed his piercing eyes upon him, as his
+voice died away.  The Emperor could easily finish the uncompleted
+sentence.
+
+"What, you, Mortier!" he exclaimed.
+
+"I, too, Sire," said another marshal more boldly, apparently encouraged
+by the fact that his brother officer had broken the ice.
+
+"And you, Marmont," cried the Emperor, transfixing him in turn with a
+reproachful glance.
+
+Both marshals stepped back abashed.
+
+"Besides," said the Emperor gloomily, "it is already too late.  I have
+reserved the best for the last," he said with grim irony.  "The courier
+who has just departed is from Caulaincourt."  He lifted the last
+dispatch, which he had torn open a moment or two since.  He shook it in
+the air, crushed it in his hand, laughed, and those who heard him laugh
+shuddered.
+
+"What does the Duke of Vicenza say, Sire?" chimed in another marshal.
+
+"It is you, Berthier," said the Emperor.  "You, at least, do not advise
+surrender?"
+
+"Not yet, Sire."
+
+"But when?" asked Napoleon quickly.  Without waiting for an answer to
+his question, he continued: "The allies now graciously offer us--think
+of it, gentlemen--the limits of 1791."
+
+"Impossible!" cried a big red-headed marshal.
+
+"They demand it, Prince of the Moskowa," answered the Emperor,
+addressing Marshal Ney.
+
+"But it's incredible, Sire."
+
+"What!" burst out Napoleon passionately.  "Shall we leave France less
+than we found her, after all these victories, after all these
+conquests, after all these submissions of kings and nations?  Shall we
+go back to the limits of the old monarchy?  Never!"
+
+"But, Sire----" began Marshal Maret.
+
+"No more," said the Emperor, turning upon the Duc de Bassano.  "Rather
+death than that.  While we have arms we can at least die."
+
+He flashed an imperious look upon the assembly, but no one seemed to
+respond to his appeal.  The Emperor's glance slowly roved about the
+room.  The young captain met his look.  Instantly and instinctively his
+hand went up in salute, his lips framed the familiar phrase:
+
+"_Vive l'Empereur_!  Yes, Sire, we can still die for you," he added in
+a low respectful voice, but with tremendous emphasis nevertheless.
+
+He was a mere youth, apparently.  Napoleon looked at him approvingly,
+although some of the marshals, with clouded brows and indignant words
+of protest at such an outburst from so young a man, would have reproved
+him had not their great leader checked them with a gesture.
+
+"Your name, sir," he said shortly to the young officer who had been
+guilty of such an amazing breach of military decorum.
+
+"Marteau, Sire.  Jean Marteau, at the Emperor's service," answered the
+young soldier nervously, realizing what impropriety he had committed.
+
+"It remains," said the Emperor, looking back at the marshals and their
+aides, "for a beardless boy to set an example of devotion in which
+Princes and Dukes of the Empire, Marshals of France, heroes of fifty
+pitched battles, fail."
+
+"We will die for you, Sire, for France, die with arms in our hands, if
+we had them, and on the field of battle," began impetuous Ney.
+
+"If we don't starve first, Sire," said cautious Berthier gloomily.
+
+"Starve!" exclaimed the Emperor.
+
+"The army is without food," said Marmont bluntly.
+
+"It is half naked and freezing," added Victor.
+
+"Ammunition fails us," joined in Oudinot.
+
+"We have no arms," added Mortier.
+
+"Do you, then, advise that we abandon ourselves to the tender mercies
+of the allies?" asked Napoleon bitterly.
+
+"Messieurs, it is surely better to die hungry and naked and without
+arms for the Emperor than to consent to his dishonor, which is the
+dishonor of France," suddenly burst forth the young man at the door.
+
+"How dare you," thundered the usually cool and collected Berthier
+angrily, "a mere boy, monsieur, assume to speak in the presence of the
+Emperor, to say nothing of these great captains?"
+
+"May my life be forfeit, _Monsieur le Duc_," said the young soldier
+more boldly, since Napoleon had condoned his first remark, "if I have
+done wrong in assuring my Emperor that we would still die for him."
+
+"Of what regiment are you?" said Napoleon, waving Berthier of the
+frowning face into silence.
+
+"I belong to the fifth of the line, Sire."
+
+"He is in my corps, Sire," said Ney.  "I have brigaded that veteran
+regiment with the new recruits of the Young Guard."
+
+"But I have seen service before," said the young captain.
+
+"And I have seen you before," said Napoleon, fixing upon him a
+penetrating glance.
+
+"Yes, Sire, at the end of the bridge over the Elster at Leipsic.  You
+were watching the men streaming across when the bridge was blown up.  I
+was among the last to cross the bridge."
+
+"Go on," said the Emperor, as the young man paused.
+
+"Your majesty was pleased to say----"
+
+"I recall it all now.  I saw you plunge into the river and bring back
+to shore an Eagle--that of your regiment.  You fell at my feet.  You
+should have had the Legion of Honor for it.  I promised it to you, did
+I not?"
+
+"Yes, Sire."
+
+"Why did you not claim it?"
+
+"I was wounded and left for dead; when I got back to France and my
+regiment I could not add to your anxiety by----"
+
+"Here," said the Emperor, "I still have power to reward faithful
+servants and bold spirits." He took off his own cross, fastened it on
+the heaving breast of the amazed young soldier.  "Prince," continued
+the Emperor, turning to Ney.
+
+"Sire?"
+
+"Spare me this young man.  I need him on my staff."
+
+"I can ill spare any officer from my weak corps of boys and old men,
+much less a veteran," the marshal laughed.  "One campaign makes us
+veterans, it seems, nowadays, but you shall have him."
+
+"Berthier," continued Napoleon, "make out the transfer.  Give the young
+man a step up.  Let him be Major."
+
+"Very well, Sire," said Berthier, turning to one of the secretaries and
+giving him directions.
+
+"Meanwhile, what's to be done?" continued Napoleon.
+
+"Tell Caulaincourt to agree to anything," said Maret bluntly.
+
+"I yet live," said Napoleon proudly.  "Naked, starving, unarmed, though
+we may be, I and my soldiers have not forgot our trade.  Courage,
+messieurs.  All is not yet lost while your Emperor breathes.  Here at
+Nogent, at Montereau and farther back we still have seventy thousand
+men.  With seventy thousand men and Napoleon much may be accomplished.
+Blücher, it is true, marches on Paris.  He counts on the army of
+Schwarzenberg to contain us.  He marches leisurely, with wide intervals
+between his divisions.  What shall prevent us----"
+
+"Your majesty," cried Marmont, his eyes flashing as he divined the
+Emperor's plan.
+
+He was the quickest witted and most brilliant of the marshals, but by
+no means the hardest fighter, or the most loyal and devoted subordinate.
+
+"I am worn out," said the Emperor, smiling more kindly upon them.  "I
+have scarcely been out of the saddle--I have scarcely had an hour of
+sleep since the bloody day of La Rothière.  I must have rest.  Let none
+disturb me for two hours.  Hold the messenger from the Duke of Vicenza.
+I will give an answer then."
+
+The Emperor drooped, as he spoke, much of the animation went out of his
+face and figure.  He looked grayer than ever, heavier than ever, older
+than ever.
+
+"In two hours awaken me," he said.
+
+He stepped toward the door that led to the room reserved for himself,
+but before he reached it two officers were admitted.  Napoleon stopped
+and looked at them.  They saluted him, walked over to Berthier, the
+Chief of Staff.
+
+"The soldiers are dying of hunger," said the first.  "The Commissary
+General has nothing to give them.  He expected a convoy of provisions,
+but Cossacks, who are reported at Fontainebleau, have captured the
+train.  What shall we do?"
+
+Berthier threw up his hands, and turned to the other officer to hear
+his report.
+
+"Ten thousand men are without arms, or with arms unserviceable and
+broken.  The supply of powder is low.  Where shall we get any more?"
+
+The silence in the room was terrible.
+
+"Sire," said Berthier in a low voice, turning to Napoleon, standing
+staring, "you hear?"  He stretched out his hand in appealing gesture.
+
+The Emperor turned on his heel, without deigning to look or speak.
+
+"Watch the door for two hours," he said to the young officer, crashing
+to the door behind him.  "Awaken me then."
+
+"Gentlemen," said Berthier despairingly to the other officers, "we
+shall never persuade him.  You had better repair to your commands.
+Some of you must have something to eat.  Divide what you have with the
+less fortunate divisions.  Arm and equip the best men.  There is a
+small supply at Nogent, I am told.  The others must wait."
+
+"If we could only get at these pigs of Prussians, these dogs of
+Russians," said Ney, "we could take food and guns and powder from them."
+
+"Doubtless," said Berthier, not caring to argue that point.
+
+He bowed to the officers, as they saluted, and went out of the door
+muttering and arguing noisily and insubordinately, it must be admitted,
+and then turned to the table where the secretaries sat.  One of them
+had laid his head down on his arms, stretched out on the table and was
+fast asleep.  The marshal awoke him and dismissed him with most of the
+rest.  From another Berthier took a paper.  He examined it, signed it,
+sealed it, and handed it to the young officer on guard at the door.
+
+"Your commission, monsieur," he said.  "Once I was young and full of
+enthusiasm and hope and determination.  It is well for France that some
+of her children still retain those things."
+
+"I thank the Prince de Wagram," said the young officer, bowing low,
+"and I beg his pardon for having spoken."
+
+"The Emperor has forgiven," said Berthier indifferently.  "His
+absolution covers us all.  At least if I fall behind you in those other
+qualities of youth I shall not fall behind you in devotion.  Come,
+Maret," continued the grand marshal.
+
+The two worthies turned away and went out.  The long room sank into
+silence.  A soldier came in after a while and replenished the fire,
+saluted and passed out.  The pen of the busy secretary, the only one
+left of the group, ceased scratching on the paper.  He, too, sank back
+in his chair asleep.  The short day faded into twilight and then into
+darkness.  From outside beyond the courtyard of the inn came confused
+noises, indicating moving bodies of men, the rumble of artillery, the
+clatter of cavalry, faint words of command.  A light snow began to
+fall.  It was intensely raw and cold.  The officer picked up his cloak,
+wrapped it around him, and resumed his immobile guard.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE EMPEROR DREAMS
+
+Within a mean room, which had hastily been prepared for his use, upon a
+camp bed, having cast himself down, fully clothed as he was, lay the
+worn-out, dispirited, embittered Emperor.  He sought sleep in vain.
+Since Leipsic, with its horrible disaster a few months before, one
+reverse of fortune had succeeded another.  He who had entered every
+country a conqueror at the head of his armies, whose myriads of
+soldiers had overrun every land, eating it up with ruthless greed and
+rapacity, and spreading destruction far and wide, was now at bay.  He
+who had dictated terms of peace in all the capitals of Europe at the
+head of triumphant legions was now with a small, weak, ill-equipped,
+unfed army, striving to protect his own capital.  France was receiving
+the pitiless treatment which she had accorded other lands.  With what
+measure she had meted out, it was being measured back to her again.
+The cup of trembling, filled with bitterness, was being held to her
+shrinking lips, and she must perforce drain it to the dregs.  After all
+Napoleon's far-flung campaigns, after all his overwhelming victories,
+after the vast outpouring of blood and treasure, after all his glory
+and all his fame, the end was at hand.
+
+The prostrate Emperor stared out through the low window into the gray
+sky with its drift of snow across the panes.  He heard faintly the
+tumult outside.  Disaster, ruin, despair entered his heart.  The young
+conscripts were disheartened by defeat, the steady old veterans were
+pitifully few in number, thousands of them were in foreign prisons,
+many more thousands of them were dead.  Disease was rife among the
+youthful recruits, unused to such hard campaigning, as he had summoned
+to the colors.  Without food and without arms, they were beginning to
+desert their Eagles.  The spirit of the marshals and great officers
+whom he had raised from the dust to affluence and power was waning.
+They were worn out with much fighting.  They wanted peace, almost at
+any price.  He remembered their eager questions when he had joined the
+army a month ago.
+
+"What reinforcements has your majesty brought?"
+
+"None," he had been compelled to answer.
+
+"What, then, shall we do?" queried one after the other.
+
+"We must try fortune with what we have," he had declared undauntedly.
+
+Well, they had tried fortune.  Brienne, where he had been a boy at
+school, had been the scene of a brilliantly successful action.  They
+had lost no glory at La Rothière afterward--although they gained
+nothing else--where with thirty thousand men he had beaten back through
+one long bloody day and night thrice that number, only to have to
+retreat in the end for the salvation of those who had been left alive.
+And, to him who had been wont to spend them so indifferently, men had
+suddenly become precious, since he could get no more.  Every dead or
+wounded man was now unreplaceable, and each loss made his problem
+harder to solve.  Since those two first battles he had been forced
+back, step by step, mile by mile, league by league, everywhere; and all
+his lieutenants likewise.  Now Schwarzenberg, with one hundred and
+thirty thousand men, confronted him on the Seine and the Aube, and
+Blücher, with eighty thousand men, was marching on Paris by way of the
+Marne, with only Macdonald and his beaten and dispirited men, not ten
+thousand in number, to hold the fiery old Prussian field marshal in
+check.
+
+"How had it all come to this, and why?" the man asked himself, and,
+with all his greatness and clearness of vision, the reason did not
+occur to him.  For he had only himself to blame for his misfortunes.
+He was not the man that he had been.  For a moment his old spirit had
+flashed out in the common room of the inn two hours before, but the
+reaction left him heavy, weary, old, lonely.  Physically, he felt
+unequal to the strain.  His human frame was almost worn out.  Mere men
+cannot long usurp the attributes of God.  Intoxicated with success, he
+had grasped at omnipotence, and for a time had seemed to enjoy it, only
+to fail.  The mills of the gods do grind slowly, but they do grind
+immeasurably small in the end.
+
+What a long, bloody way he had traversed since Toulon, since Arcola,
+since the bridge at Lodi, since Marengo?  Into what far-off lands it
+had led him: Italy, Egypt, Syria, Spain, Austria, Prussia and the
+great, white, cold empire of the North.  And all the long way paved
+with corpses--corpses he had regarded with indifference until to-day.
+
+It was cold in the room, in spite of the fire in the stove.  It
+reminded him of that dreadful retreat.  The Emperor covered his face
+with his hand.  No one was there.  He could afford to give away.  There
+rose before him in the darkness the face of the wife of his youth, only
+to be displaced by the nearer woman, the Austrian wife and the little
+son whom he had so touchingly confided to the National Guard a month
+ago when he left Paris for the last try with fortune for his empire and
+his life.  Would the allies at last and finally beat him; would Francis
+Joseph, weak monarch whom he hated, take back his daughter, and with
+her Napoleon's son, and bring him up in Austria to hate the name of
+France and his father?  The Emperor groaned aloud.
+
+The darkness fell upon the world outside, upon the room within, upon
+the soul of the great Captain approaching the nadir of his fortunes,
+his spirit almost at the breaking point.  To him at last came Berthier
+and Maret.  They had the right of entrance.  The time for which he had
+asked had passed.  Young Marteau admitted them without question.  They
+entered the room slowly, not relishing their task, yet resolute to
+discharge their errand.  The greater room outside was alight from fire
+and from lanterns.  Enough illumination came through the door into the
+bed-chamber for their purpose--more than enough for the Emperor.  He
+turned his head away, lest they should see what they should see.  The
+two marshals bowed and stood silent.
+
+"Well?" said the Emperor at last, his voice unduly harsh, as if to
+cover emotion with its roughness, and they noticed that he did not look
+at them.
+
+"Sire, the courier of the Duke of Vicenza waits for his answer," said
+Maret.
+
+There was another long pause.
+
+"Will not your majesty give way for the good of the people?" urged
+Berthier.  "Give peace to France, sire.  The army is hungry----"
+
+"Am I God, messieurs, to feed thousands with a few loaves and fishes?"
+cried the Emperor bitterly.
+
+"No, Sire.  Therefore, authorize the duke to sign the treaty, and----"
+
+"What!" said Napoleon fiercely, sitting up on the bed and facing them.
+"You would have me sign a treaty like that?  Trample under foot my
+coronation oath?  Unheard-of disaster may have snatched from me the
+promise to renounce my own conquests, but give up those before me,
+never!  Leave France smaller, weaker than I found her!  God keep me
+from such a disgrace.  Reply to Caulaincourt, since you wish it, but
+tell him I reject this treaty.  We must have better terms.  I prefer to
+run the uttermost risks of war."
+
+Berthier opened his mouth to speak again, but Napoleon silenced him
+with word and gesture.
+
+"No more," he said.  "Go."
+
+The two marshals bowed and left the room with downcast heads and
+resentful hearts.  As they disappeared Napoleon called after them.
+
+"Send me that boy at the door.  Lights," he cried, as the young
+officer, not waiting for the order to be repeated, promptly entered the
+inner room and saluted.  "The maps on the table, bring them here, and
+the table, too," commanded the Emperor.
+
+Even as the lights which were placed on the table dispelled the dusk of
+the room, so something had dispelled the gloom of the great man's soul.
+For a moment he looked almost young again.  The gray pallor left his
+cheeks.  Fire sparkled in his eyes.
+
+"Not yet--not yet," he muttered, spreading the maps upon the table.
+"We will have one more try with fortune.  My star is low on the
+horizon, but it has not set yet."
+
+"Nor shall it set, Sire, while I and my comrades live," returned
+Marteau.
+
+"You are right," said the Emperor.  "You stand to me for France.  Your
+spirit typifies the spirit of my soldiery, does it not?"
+
+"Theirs is even greater than mine, Sire," was the prompt answer.
+
+"That's well.  Do you know the country hereabouts?"
+
+"I was born at Aumenier."
+
+"Let me see," said the Emperor, "the village lies beyond Sézanne?"
+
+"Yes, Sire."
+
+"In an opening in the great woods beyond the marshes of St. Gond,"
+continued the other, studying the map, "there is a château there.  Are
+you by any chance of the ancient house of Aumenier?"
+
+"My father was a warden on the estates of the last marquis."
+
+"Good.  Do you know that country?"
+
+"I have hunted over every rod of it as a boy, Sire."
+
+"I must have news," said the Emperor, "information, definite tidings.
+I want to know where Blücher is; where his several army corps are.  Can
+I trust so young a head as yours with great matters?"
+
+"Tortures could not wring from me anything you may confide, your
+majesty," said the young man resolutely.
+
+"I believe you," said the Emperor, looking at him keenly and reading
+him like a book.  "Look.  Before daybreak Marmont marches to Sézanne.
+The next day after I follow.  I shall leave enough men behind the river
+here to hold back Schwarzenberg, or at least to check him if he
+advances.  With the rest I shall fall on Blücher."
+
+The young man's eyes sparkled.  He had been bending over the map.  He
+drew himself up and saluted.
+
+"It is the Emperor at his best," he said.
+
+"You have studied the art of war, young sir?"
+
+"I have read every one of your majesty's campaigns."
+
+"And you see what I would do?"
+
+"Not altogether, but----"
+
+"Fall upon the flank of the unsuspecting Prussian, burst through his
+line, break his center, turn to the right or left, beat him in detail,
+drive him back, relieve Paris, and then----"
+
+"And then, Sire?"
+
+"Come back and do the same thing with Schwarzenberg!"
+
+"Your majesty!" cried the young soldier, as the whole mighty plan was
+made clear to him.
+
+"Ha!  It brightens your eyes and flushes your cheek, does it not?  So
+it will brighten the eyes and flush the cheeks of France.  I will show
+them.  In six weeks I will drive them across the Rhine.  In another
+month they shall sue for peace and the Vistula shall be our boundary."
+
+"What does your majesty desire of me?"
+
+"That you go at once.  Take with you whomsoever you will.  Bring or
+send me reports.  You are educated?"
+
+"I was a student at your majesty's Military College," answered the
+young man.
+
+"Did you finish there?"
+
+"I finished in your majesty's army last year."
+
+"How old are you?"
+
+"Twenty-two, Sire."
+
+"You belong to the foot, but you can ride?"
+
+"Anything."
+
+"Marshal Berthier will give you horses.  I shall be at Sézanne the day
+after to-morrow night.  You will have news for me then?"
+
+"Or be dead, Sire."
+
+"I have no use for dead men.  Don't get yourself taken.  Any fool can
+die, or be made prisoner.  It is a wise man who can live for me and
+France."
+
+"I shall live," said the young man simply.  "Have you any further
+command, Sire?"
+
+"None."
+
+The hand of Marteau was raised in salute.
+
+"Stop," said the Emperor, as the soldier turned to the door.
+
+"Sire?"
+
+"Come back with news, and let us but escape from this tightening coil,
+and you shall be a lieutenant colonel in my guard."
+
+"I will do it for love of your majesty alone," cried the soldier,
+turning away.
+
+It was not nearly dawn before Berthier and Maret, who had been
+pondering over the dispatch to Caulaincourt, who was fighting the
+envoys of the allies at the Congress at Chatillon, ventured to intrude
+upon the Emperor.  Having come to his decision, as announced to the
+young soldier, who had got his horses and his comrade and gone, the
+Emperor, with that supreme command of himself which few men possessed,
+had at last got a few hours of rest.  He had dressed himself with the
+assistance of his faithful valet, Constant, who had given him a bath
+and shaved him, and he now confronted the two astonished marshals with
+an air serene--even cheerful.
+
+"Dispatches!" he said, as they approached him.  "It is a question of a
+very different matter.  Tell Caulaincourt to prolong the negotiations,
+but to concede nothing, to commit me to nothing.  I am going to beat
+Blücher.  If I succeed, the state of affairs will entirely change, and
+we shall see what we shall see.  Tell Marmont to give orders for his
+corps to march immediately after they get some breakfast.  No, they may
+not wait till morning.  Fortune has given the Prussians into my hands.
+Write to my brother in Paris; tell him that he may expect news from us
+of the most important character in forty-eight hours.  Let the
+Parisians continue their misérérés and their forty-hour-long prayers
+for the present.  We'll soon give them something else to think of."
+
+"But, Sire----" feebly interposed Berthier.
+
+"Do as I tell you," said the Emperor, good-humoredly, "and leave the
+rest to me."  He was in a mood apparently that nothing could dash that
+morning.  "And you will be as much surprised as the Prussians, and I
+believe that nobody can be more amazed than they will be."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE ARMY MARCHES AWAY
+
+Gallantly on his errand rode young Marteau.  Napoleon's order to
+Berthier, by him transmitted down the line, had secured four of the
+best horses in the army for his messengers.  For young Marteau went not
+alone.  With him rode a tall grenadier of the Imperial Guard, whose
+original name had been lost, or forgot, in a sobriquet which fitted him
+perfectly, and which he had richly earned in a long career as a
+soldier.  They called him "Bullet Stopper," "Balle-Arrêtante," the
+curious compound ran in French, and the soldiers clipped it and
+condensed it into "Bal-Arrêt!"  He used to boast that he had been
+wounded in every country in Europe and in Asia and Africa as well.  He
+had been hit more times than any soldier high or low in the army.  He
+had distinguished himself by valor, and, but for his humble extraction
+and meager education, might have risen to a high command.  As it was,
+he was personally known to the Emperor, and was accounted as one of the
+favorite soldiers of the army.
+
+He, too, had been a dweller on the Aumenier estates.  It was his tales
+of adventure which had kindled the martial spirit in young Marteau,
+whom he had known from his birth.  A warm friendship subsisted between
+the young officer and the old soldier, which no difference in rank or
+station could ever impair.  When the Emperor had given him leave to
+take with him whomsoever he would, his thoughts had at once turned to
+old Bullet Stopper.  The latter had gladly accepted the invitation.
+
+Behold him now, his huge body astride of an enormous horse--for,
+although the grenadier was a foot-soldier, he could still ride after a
+fashion--plodding along through the mud and the wet and the cold on the
+mission which, if successful, would perhaps enable Napoleon to save the
+army and France, to say nothing of his throne and his family.
+
+Captain Marteau, or Major Marteau, to give him his new title, had said
+nothing as to the nature of his mission, upon which they had been
+dispatched, to the humble comrade, the faithful follower who
+accompanied him.  He had only told him that it was difficult,
+dangerous, and of vital importance, and he had explained to him that
+his familiarity with the country, as well as a warm-hearted admiration
+and respect for his shrewdness and skill and courage, had caused his
+selection.  That was enough for the old soldier; dangers, difficulties,
+were as the breath of life to the veteran.  And he was always happy to
+follow Marteau, in whose career he took an interest almost fatherly.
+
+The weather was frightful.  It had snowed and then thawed.  The
+temperature was now just above the freezing point.  The rough wind was
+raw, the fierce winter gale was laden with wet snow.  The roads, like
+all country cross-roads in France, or anywhere else, for that matter,
+in that day, were a sea of mud.  It was well that the pair had brought
+two extra horses.  By changing mounts from time to time they were
+enabled to spare their beasts and make the greater speed.  The Emperor
+had impressed upon his young aide the necessity for getting the
+information to him at the earliest possible moment.  Haste was
+everything.  So they pressed on.
+
+Without waiting for their report, and presuming on his general
+knowledge of Blücher's character and shrewdly deducing the exact state
+of affairs Napoleon was already acting as if he possessed absolute and
+accurate information.  The drums were beating the long roll as they
+rode through the still dark streets of the little town of Nogent.
+Horses were being harnessed to guns, baggage wagons were being loaded,
+ammunition caissons were being got ready.  The troops were assembling
+out of houses and tents, and coming from around fires, where many of
+them had passed an unsheltered night.
+
+There was little of the joy, the gaiety, the _élan_ of the French
+soldier, to be seen in the faces of the men thus summoned to the
+Eagles.  They came, indeed, they answered the call, but with black
+looks and sullen faces and a manner almost despairing.  They had fought
+and fought and fought.  They had been beaten back and back and back,
+and when they had not been fighting they had been retreating.  And
+always they were hungry.  And always they were cold.
+
+The enormous armies of Schwarzenberg had been extended on either side.
+They were constantly threatened with being outflanked.  Most of them
+were young soldiers, weary and dispirited, and many of them unarmed.
+Every battle had reduced the stock of good muskets.  Many of those
+still in possession of the troops had been ruined by their unskillful
+handling.
+
+The supply of regimental officers was utterly inadequate to the demand.
+The bravest and the best are usually the first to fall; the boldest and
+most venturesome the most liable to capture.  Perhaps, if the Emperor
+had broken up his guard and distributed the veterans among the raw
+troops, the effect might have been better, but in that case he would
+have destroyed his main reliance in his army.  No, it was better to
+keep the guard together at all hazards.  It had already been drawn
+heavily upon for officers for other corps.
+
+War was popularly supposed to be a thing of dashing adventure, of
+victory, and plunder.  It had been all that before.  Experience had
+thrust them all unprepared face to face with the naked reality of
+defeat, disease, weary marches over awful roads in freezing cold, in
+drifting snow, or in sodden mire.  They had no guns, they had little
+food, thank God, there was some clothing, such as it was, but even the
+best uniforms were not calculated to stand such strains as had been
+imposed upon these.
+
+Only the old guard, staunch, stern, splendid, indomitable, a
+magnificent body of men, held the army together--they and the cavalry.
+Murat, peerless horseman, was playing the traitor to save his wretched
+Neapolitan throne.  But Grouchy, Nansouty, Sebastiani and others
+remained.  Conditions were bad in the cavalry, but they were not so bad
+as they were in the infantry.  And Druot of the artillery also kept it
+together in the retreat.  Guns, cannon, were more precious almost than
+men.
+
+Now early that morning, while it was yet dark, they were called up from
+their broken sleep to undertake what to them was another purposeless
+march.  Even the Eagles drooped in the hands of their bearers.  The
+soldiers did not know, they could not see.  The great high roads that
+led to Paris were being abandoned; they were plunging into unfathomable
+morasses; they were being led through dark, gloomy, dreadful woods to
+the northward.  Where?  For what purpose?  The dumb, wrathful,
+insubordinate, despairful army indeed moved at the will of its master,
+but largely because it realized that it could not stay where it was,
+and largely because it was better to move on and die than to lie down
+and die.  They were at least warmer on the march!
+
+The spirit of the guard and of the subordinate officers, say from the
+colonels down, was good enough, but the generals and the marshals were
+sick of fighting.  They had had enough of it.  They had gained all that
+they could gain in their world-wide campaigns, in fame, money, titles,
+estates.  They had everything to lose and nothing to win.  They wanted
+rest, an opportunity to enjoy.  Some of them were devoted to the
+Emperor, in fact, all of them were, but their own comfort and
+self-interest bulked larger and larger before them.  They saw nothing
+but defeat at the end of their endeavors, and they wanted to negotiate
+peace with such honor as could be had while they were still a force to
+be reckoned with.
+
+Their unwillingness and mutinous spirit, however, had not yet reached
+its highest development.  That came later, and brought treachery in its
+train.  The awful will of the Emperor still overruled them.
+Wrathfully, insubordinately, protestingly, they still marched when he
+gave the word.
+
+The Emperor had been working with that furious concentration which he
+alone of all men seemed to be able to bring about, and which was one of
+the secrets of his power.  Orders borne by couriers had streamed in all
+directions over the roads.  Napoleon was about to undertake the most
+daring and marvelous campaign of his whole history.  The stimulus of
+despair, the certainty of ruin unless the advance of the allies could
+be stayed, had at last awakened his dormant energies, filled his veins
+with the fire of youth and spring.
+
+With that comprehensive eye which made him the master of battlefields
+and nations he had forseen everything.  Soldiers were coming from
+Spain.  He had given instructions to magnify their number and their
+strength.  He shrewdly surmised that their appearance on the left flank
+would cause the cautious Schwarzenberg to pause, to withdraw his
+flankers, to mass to meet them.  There would be a halt in the advance.
+The allies still feared the Emperor.  Although much of his prestige was
+gone, they never made little of Napoleon.  He intended to leave some of
+the best troops to confront Schwarzenberg between Nogent and Montereau,
+under Victor and Oudinot, hard fighters both, with instructions not to
+engage in any decisive battle, not to allow themselves to be trapped
+into that, but to stand on the defensive, to hold the River Seine, to
+retreat foot by foot, if pressed, to take advantage of every cover, to
+hold the enemy in check, to contest every foot of the way, to assume a
+strength which they did not have.
+
+He promised that so soon as he had fallen upon Blücher he would send
+the news and see that it got to Schwarzenberg and the allied monarchs
+who were with him.  Reverses which he hoped to inflict on the Prussian
+Field Marshal would increase the Austrian hesitation.  The Emperor
+believed that the pressure by Oudinot and Victor would be effective.
+They would draw in their columns and concentrate.
+
+After he had finished with Blücher and his army, he intended to retrace
+his steps and do the same thing with Schwarzenberg.  Of course, if he
+failed with Blücher it was all over.  He was the last hope of
+France--he and his army.  If his magnificent dash at the Prussians and
+Russians was not successful, nothing could delay the end.  Napoleon was
+staking all on the throw, taking the gambler's chance, taking it
+recklessly, accepting the hazard, but neglecting no means to insure the
+winning of the game.
+
+The Emperor flung a screen of cavalry in front of Marmont, to patrol
+every village, to control every farmhouse, to see that no news of his
+advance came to the unsuspecting old Prussian.  And then he himself
+stayed back in Nogent to see his own orders carried out.  He personally
+inspected every division, as it marched to the front through the waning
+night, the cheerless dawn, the gray dark day.  It cut him to the heart
+to see his soldiers go so silently and so sullenly.  Here and there a
+regiment did cry: "_Vive l'Empereur_"; here and there a voice sounded
+it, but in the main the men marched dumbly, doggedly.  It was only the
+old guard that gave him the imperial salute in full voice in the old
+way.
+
+Nothing indicated to the Emperor more thoroughly the temper of the
+soldiers than that open indifference.  Why, even in Russia, ere their
+stiffened lips froze into silence, they had breathed out the old
+acclaim.  The Emperor remembered that grenadier who, when told by the
+surgeon that he feared to probe for a ball that had pierced his breast
+because he did not know what he would find, "If you probe deep enough
+to reach my heart," said the soldier with his dying breath, "you will
+find the Emperor."
+
+Grave-faced and frowning, shivering from time to time in the fierce,
+raw cold, the Emperor watched the troops march by.  Well, the day after
+to-morrow, if there were any left, they would acclaim him loud enough.
+The Emperor was cold and cynical.  He had never allowed the life of men
+to stand in the way of his desires, but even his iron nerve, his icy
+indifference had been shaken.  He gave no outward evidence of it, but
+in his heart he realized more plainly than ever before that when these
+were gone there were no more.  And so, perhaps, his shudder was not
+altogether due to the cold.
+
+Whatever his emotions, he steeled his heart, he made his preparations
+for the last try with fortune, the last card to be played, the last die
+to be thrown.  What would be the end of it?  What would be the result
+of that final desperate game?  The Emperor was a master player--could
+even his finesse and skill and talent and genius make up for the poor
+hand that had been dealt him because the pack had been so drawn upon
+that the good cards had been exhausted, used up, long since?
+
+Did the Emperor realize that even he was not what he had been?  Did he
+comprehend that he was no longer the soldier, the man, of the past?
+Did he realize that at last he had tried the patience of that fortune
+he had worshiped, beyond the limit; and that whatever favor might be
+vouchsafed him would only delay the end?
+
+The boys might march and fight, the old guard might sustain its ancient
+fame, the genius of the Emperor might flash out in full effulgence once
+more--and it would make no difference.  The stars on their courses
+fought against Sisera.  The doom sentence was written.  Postponement he
+might look forward to, but no final stay of judgment!  A few thousand
+more lives he might throw away, but these late sacrifices would avail
+nothing.  Oh, no; the Emperor's shudder was not altogether due to the
+cold that winter morning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+MARTEAU AND BAL-ARRÊT RIDE
+
+Of this young Marteau and old Bullet Stopper, plodding along at the
+best speed they could get from their horses, knew nothing.  The old
+grenadier was laconic by nature, and his habit of silence had become
+intensified by his years of subordination and service.  The young
+officer was wrapped in his own thoughts.  Knowing, as they did, every
+foot of the way, the two were able to find short cuts, take advantage
+of narrow paths over the hills and through the woods, which would have
+offered no passage to the army, even if they had been aware of it.
+They reached Sézanne hours before Marmont's advance, long before the
+cavalry even.
+
+Baiting their horses, and getting a welcome meal at the inn--the town
+itself had as yet suffered nothing from the ravages of the Cossacks,
+being too strong for raiding parties--and refusing to answer questions,
+and paying no attention to wondering looks of the inhabitants, they
+rode out again.  Their way through the marshes of St. Gond was
+dreadful.  If only the weather would change, the ground would freeze,
+how welcome would be the altered conditions.  But the half snow, the
+half rain, still beat down upon them.  Their poor beasts were almost
+exhausted.  They broke the ice of the Grand Morin river to get water
+for the horses and themselves, and, not daring to kindle a fire, for
+they were approaching the country occupied by Blücher, they made a
+scanty meal from their haversacks.
+
+They had found the farmhouses and châteaux deserted, evidences of hasty
+flight and plunder on every side.  The Cossacks had swept through the
+land beyond the town.  The people who could had fled to Sézanne, or had
+gone westward hurriedly, to escape the raiders.  In the ruined villages
+and farms they came across many dead bodies of old women, old men and
+children, with here and there a younger woman whose awful fate filled
+the old soldier and the young alike with grim and passionate rage.
+
+"Yonder," said Marteau, gloomily pointing westward through the
+darkness, "lies Aumenier and my father's house."
+
+"And mine," added Bullet-Stopper.
+
+There was no need to express the thought further, to dilate upon it.
+It had been the Emperor's maxim that war should support war.  His
+armies had lived off the country.  The enemy had taken a leaf out of
+his own book.  Even the stupid could not fight forever against Napoleon
+without learning something.  The allies ate up the land, ravaged it,
+turned it into a desert--_lex talionis_!
+
+Marteau's father still lived, with his younger sister.  Old
+Bullet-Stopper was alone in the world but for his friends.  What had
+happened in that little village yonder?  What was going on in the great
+château, so long closed, now finally abandoned by the proud royalist
+family which had owned it and had owned Marteau and old Bullet-Stopper,
+and all the rest of the villagers, for that matter, for eight hundred
+years, or until the revolution had set them free?
+
+Plunged in those gloomy thoughts the young officer involuntarily took a
+step in the direction of that village.
+
+"On the Emperor's service," said the grenadier sternly, catching his
+young comrade by the arm.  "Later," he continued, "we may go."
+
+"You're right," said Marteau.  "Let us move on."
+
+Whether it was because the roads really were in a worse condition
+because of that fact that they ran through marshy country, or whether
+it was because the men were worn out and their horses more so, they
+made the slowest progress of the day.  They plodded on determinedly
+through the night.  The two weaker horses of the four finally gave way
+under the strain.  Husbanding the remaining two with the greatest care,
+the two soldiers, passing through the deserted villages of St. Prix, on
+the Little Morin, and Baye, finally reached the great highroad which
+ran through Champaubert, Vauxchamps and Montmirail, toward Paris, and
+which, owing to a northward bend of the river, crossed the country some
+leagues to the southward of the Marne.
+
+Day was breaking as they reached the edge of the forest bordering the
+road, and from a rather high hill had a glimpse of a wide stretch of
+country before them.  Fortunately, while it was still raw and cold, the
+sun came out and gave them a fair view of a great expanse of rolling
+and open fields.  A scene of great animation was disclosed to them.
+The road was covered with squadrons of green-coated Russian cavalry,
+evidently just called to the saddle, and moving eastward at a walk or
+slow trot.  They looked like the advance guard of some important
+division.  There was a low, rolling volume of heavy sound coming from
+the far north, and in the rising sun they thought they could
+distinguish in that direction smoke, as from a battlefield.  The sound
+itself was unmistakable to the veteran.
+
+"Cannon!" he said.  "Fighting there."
+
+"Yes," answered Marteau.  "The Emperor said that the Prussians and
+Russians were pressing the Duke of Tarentum, Marshal Macdonald."
+
+"But what have we here?" asked old Bal-Arrêt, shading his eyes and
+peering at the array on the near road.
+
+A division of Russians, coming from a defile to the right, had
+debouched upon a broad plateau or level upon the edge of which the
+little village of Champaubert straggled forlornly.  The Cossack
+horsemen and the Russian cavalry had cleaned out Champaubert.  There
+were no inhabitants left to welcome the Russian division, except dead
+ones, who could offer no hospitality.
+
+The division was weary and travel-stained, covered with mud, horses
+dead beat; the cannon, huge, formless masses of clay, were dragged
+slowly and painfully forward.  It was evident that the commander of the
+division had doubled his teams, but the heavy guns could scarcely be
+moved, even by twice the number of horses attached.  The poor brutes
+had no rest, for, as fast as one gun arrived, both teams were unhitched
+and sent over the road to bring up another.  A halt was made on the
+plateau.  It was evident to the experienced eyes of the watchers that a
+camp was about to be pitched.  The two men stared in keen interest,
+with eyes alight with hatred.  What they had seen in the country they
+had just passed intensified that hatred, and to the natural racial
+antagonism, fostered by years of war, were now added bitter personal
+resentments.
+
+"That's one of old Marshal Forward's divisions," said the grenadier,
+referring to Blücher by his already accepted name, "but what one?"
+
+"Russians, by the look of them," answered Marteau.
+
+"You say well.  I have seen those green caps and green overcoats
+before.  Umph," answered Bullet-Stopper, making for him an
+extraordinarily long speech, "it was colder then than it is now, but we
+always beat them.  At Friedland, at Eylau, at Borodino, aye, even at
+the Beresina.  It was the cold and hunger that beat us.  What wouldn't
+the guard give to be where we are now.  Look at them.  They are so sure
+of themselves that they haven't thrown out a picket or sentries."
+
+In fact, neither Blücher nor any of his commanders apprehended any
+danger whatsoever.  That Napoleon would dare to fall on them was
+unthinkable.  That there could be a single French soldier in their
+vicinity save those under Macdonald, being hard pressed by Yorck, never
+entered anybody's head.
+
+"What Russians are they, do you think?" asked Marteau of his comrade.
+
+"How should I know?" growled the other.  "All Russians are alike to me,
+and----"
+
+Marteau, however, had heard discussions during the time he had been on
+duty in Napoleon's headquarters.
+
+"That will be Sacken's corps, unless I am very much mistaken," he said.
+
+"And those up yonder toward Épernay, where the firing comes from?"
+asked the grenadier.
+
+Marteau shook his head.
+
+"We must find out," was the answer.
+
+"Yes, but how?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"There is only one way," continued Bal-Arrêt.
+
+"And that is?"
+
+"To go over there, and----"
+
+"In these uniforms?" observed the young officer.  "We should be shot as
+soon as we should appear, and questioned afterward."
+
+"Yes, if there was anything left to question," growled the grenadier.
+"The Russians will do some scouting.  Perhaps some of them will come
+here.  If so, we will knock them on the head and take their uniforms,
+wait until nightfall, slip through the lines, find out what we can, and
+go back and tell the Emperor.  It is very simple."
+
+"Quite so," laughed the young officer; "if we can catch two Russians,
+if their uniforms will fit us, if we can get through, if we can find
+out, if we can get back.  Do you speak Russian, Bal-Arrêt?"
+
+"Not a word."
+
+"Prussian?"
+
+"Enough to pass myself through I guess, and----"
+
+"Hush," said the young man, as three Russians suddenly appeared out of
+a little ravine on the edge of the wood.
+
+They had come on a foraging expedition, and had been successful,
+apparently, for, tied to a musket and carried between two of the men
+was a dead pig.  How it had escaped the Cossack raiders of the day
+before was a mystery.  They were apparently coming farther into the
+forest for firewood with which to roast the animal.  Perhaps, as the
+pig was small, and, as they were doubtless hungry, they did not wish
+their capture to be widely known.  At any rate, they came cautiously up
+a ravine and had not been noticed until their heads rose above it.
+They saw the two Frenchmen just about as soon as they were seen.  The
+third man, whose arms were free, immediately presented his piece and
+pulled the trigger.  Fortunately it missed fire.  If it had gone off it
+might have attracted the attention of the Russian outposts,
+investigations would have been instituted, and all chance of passing
+the lines there would have been over.
+
+At the same time he pulled the trigger he fell like a log.  The
+grenadier, who had thrust into his belt a heavy knife, picked up from
+some murdered woodsman on the journey, had drawn it, seized it by the
+blade, and, with a skill born of olden peasant days, had hurled it at
+the Russian.  The blade struck the man fairly in the face, and the
+sharp weapon plunged into the man to the hilt.  He threw up his hands,
+his gun dropped, he crashed down into the ravine stone dead.  The next
+second the two Frenchmen had seized the two Russians.  The latter were
+taken at a disadvantage.  They had retained their clutch on the
+gun-sling carrying the pig, and, before they realized what was
+toward--they were slow thinkers both--a pair of hands was clasped
+around each throat.  The Russians were big men, and they struggled
+hard.  A silent, terrible battle was waged under the trees, but, try as
+they would, the Russians could not get release from the terrible grasp
+of the Frenchmen.  The breath left their bodies, their eyes protruded,
+their faces turned black.
+
+Marteau suddenly released his prisoner, who dropped heavily to the
+ground.  To bind him with his own breast and gun straps and belt was a
+work of a few moments.  When he had finished he tore a piece of cloth
+from the coat of the soldier and thrust it into his mouth to gag him.
+The grenadier had a harder time with his enemy, who was the bigger of
+the two men, but he, too, mastered him, and presently both prisoners
+lay helpless, bound and gagged.  The two Frenchmen rose and stared at
+each other, a merry twinkle in the eyes of old Bullet-Stopper, a very
+puzzled expression in those of the young soldier.
+
+"Well, here's our disguise," said the old soldier.
+
+"Quite so," interposed the officer.  "But what shall we do with these
+two?"
+
+"Nothing simpler.  Knock them in the head after we have found out what
+we can from them, and----"
+
+But Marteau shook his head.
+
+"I can't murder helpless prisoners," he said decisively.
+
+"If you had seen what they did to us in Russia you wouldn't have any
+hesitation on that score," growled the grenadier.  "I had comrades whom
+they stripped naked and turned loose in the snow.  Some of them they
+buried alive, some they gave to the wolves, some they burned to death.
+I have no more feeling for them than I have for reptiles or devils."
+
+"I can't do it," said the younger soldier stubbornly.  "We must think
+of some other way."
+
+Old Bullet-Stopper stood frowning, trying to think of some argument by
+which to overcome these foolish scruples, when an idea came to his
+friend.
+
+"About half a mile back we passed a deserted house.  Let's take them
+there and leave them.  There will probably be ropes or straps.  We can
+bind them.  They will be sheltered and perhaps somebody may come along
+and release them."
+
+"Yes, doubtless somebody will," said the grenadier gravely, thinking
+that if somebody proved to be a peasant their release would be an
+eternal one, and glad in the thought.  "Very well, you are in command.
+Give your order."
+
+At Marteau's direction the straps around the feet of the men were
+loosened, they were compelled to get up; they had been disarmed, of
+course, and by signs they were made to march in the required direction.
+Casting a backward glance over the encampment, to see whether the
+absence of the three had been noticed, and, discerning no excitement of
+any sort, Marteau followed the grenadier and the two prisoners.  Half a
+mile back in the woods stood the hut.  It was a stoutly built
+structure, of logs and stone.  A little clearing lay around it.  For a
+wonder it had not been burned or broken down, although everything had
+been cleaned out of it by raiders.  The door swung idly on its hinges.
+The two Russians were forced to enter the hut.  They were bound with
+ropes, of which there happened to be some hanging from a nail, the door
+was closed, huge sticks from a surrounding fence were driven into the
+ground against it, so that it could not be opened from the inside, and
+the men were left to their own devices.
+
+As neither Frenchman spoke Russian, and as the Russians understood
+neither French nor Prussian, conversation was impossible.  Everything
+had to be done by signs.
+
+"I wouldn't give much for their chance, shut up in that house in this
+wood," said the grenadier, as the two walked away.
+
+"Nor I," answered Marteau.  "But at least we haven't killed them."
+
+The two Frenchmen now presented a very different appearance.  Before
+they left the hut they had taken off their own great coats, the
+bearskin shako of the grenadier, and the high, flat-topped,
+bell-crowned cap of the line regiment of the officer.  In place of
+these they wore the flat Russian caps and the long Russian overcoats.
+Bal-Arrêt might serve for a passable Russian, but no one could mistake
+Marteau for anything but a Frenchman.  Still, it had to be chanced.
+
+The two retraced their steps and came to the ravine, where the dead
+Russian lay.  They had no interest in him, save the grenadier's desire
+to get his knife back.  It had served him well, it might be useful
+again.  But they had a great interest in the pig.  Their exhausted
+horses were now useless, and they had thought they would have to kill
+one to get something to eat.  But the pig, albeit he was a lean one,
+was a treasure indeed.  To advance upon the Russian line in broad
+daylight would have been madness.  Darkness was their only hope.
+Reaching down into the ravine, the grenadier hoisted the body of the
+poor pig to his comrade, and the two of them lugged it back far in the
+woods where it was safe to kindle a fire.  With flint and steel and
+tinder, they soon had a blaze going in the sequestered hollow they had
+chosen, and the smell of savory roast presently delighted their fancy.
+They ate their fill for the first time in weeks be it remarked.  If
+they only had a bottle of the famous wine of the country to wash it
+down they would have feasted like kings.
+
+"So far," said the grenadier, when he could eat no more, "our
+expedition has been successful.  If those youngsters down at Nogent
+could only smell this pig there would be no holding them."
+
+"I think it would be well to cook as much of it as we can carry with
+us.  I don't know when we may get any more."
+
+"That is well thought on," agreed the old soldier.  "Always provide for
+the next meal when you can."
+
+"And, with what's left, as we can't be far from the hut, we'll give
+those two poor Russians something to eat."
+
+"You're too tender-hearted, my lad," said Bullet-Stopper, his face
+clouded, "ever to be a great soldier, I am afraid."
+
+On an expedition of this kind rank was forgotten, and the humble
+subordinate again assumed the role of the advisor.  Marteau laughed.
+
+"Rather than let them starve I would knock them in the head," he said.
+
+"That's what I wanted to do," growled the other savagely.
+
+When it came to the issue, however, he really did respect the rank of
+his young friend.  Accordingly, pieces of the roast pig were taken to
+the hut and placed in reach of the prisoners, who were found bound as
+before and looking very miserable.  Yet there was something suspicious
+in their attitude.  The old grenadier turned one of them over and
+discovered that one had endeavored to free the other by gnawing at the
+ropes.  Not much progress had been made in the few hours that had
+elapsed, but still it was evident that the rope would eventually be
+bitten through and the men freed.  He pointed this out to his officer.
+
+"Better finish them now," he said.
+
+But Marteau shook his head.
+
+"It will take them all day and night to get free at that rate; by that
+time we will be far away, and it will be too late."
+
+"But if they should tell what they have seen?"
+
+"What can they tell?  Only that two Frenchmen fell upon them.  No, let
+them be.  Set the food on the floor here.  If they get hungry they can
+roll over toward it and eat it."
+
+The gags had been taken out of the mouths of the men.  If they did give
+the alarm there would be none to hear them, save perhaps a French
+peasant passing that way, and at his hands they would meet short shrift.
+
+Having stuffed their haversacks full of roast pig, they retraced their
+steps and reached the edge of the clearing.  It was noon by this time,
+so much of the day had been spent in the various undertakings that have
+been described, but the Russians were still there.  Evidently they
+intended to encamp for the day and rest.  Probably it was part of the
+program.  These would move on, presumably on the morrow, and another
+division of the army would come up and take their places.  The firing
+still continued on the horizon.
+
+Marteau, who had a soldierly instinct, divined that the cavalry, which
+had long since disappeared to the westward, would try to outflank
+Macdonald, perhaps get in his rear, and this Russian division would
+move up and join Yorck's attacking force.  The whole proceeding was
+leisurely.  There was no especial hurry.  There was no use tiring out
+the men and fighting desperate battles when maneuvering would serve.
+
+The two made a more careful investigation and discovered that trees led
+across the road about half a mile to the left, and, although the roads
+were filled with galloping couriers and many straggling men and small
+commands, yet they decided that by going to the edge of the wood that
+touched the road and watching their opportunity they could get across
+unnoticed.
+
+While they stared deliberating a squadron of cavalry, not of Cossacks,
+but of Russian cuirassiers left the camp and moved off down the
+cross-road that led to the south and west--the road, indeed, that led
+to the Château d'Aumenier.  The officer in command rode in front and
+with him were several civilians, at least, while they were covered with
+heavy fur cloaks, no uniform was visible, and among the civilians was
+one unmistakably a woman.  A Frenchman always had an eye for a woman.
+The party was too far away to distinguish features, but the two men
+noted the air of distinction about the party and the way the woman rode
+her horse, the deference that appeared to be paid to her, and they
+wasted no little time in wondering what might be toward.  However, no
+explanation presenting itself to their minds, and, the matter being of
+no great importance after all, they turned their attention to the
+business in hand.
+
+Working their way through the trees they reached a little coppice close
+to the road.  They lay down on the ground back of the coppice, wormed
+their way into it, and waited.
+
+"Here we part," said Marteau.  "There are but two of us.  We must get
+all the information we can.  I will find out what division this is in
+front of us, and I will go back along the road to the eastward and
+ascertain where the other divisions are, and by nightfall I will return
+to Sézanne to report to the Emperor."
+
+"And what am I to do?" asked the grenadier.  "Remain here?"
+
+"You will cross the road and proceed in the direction of the firing.
+Find out, if you can, how the battle goes, what troops are there, what
+Marshal Macdonald is doing, and at nightfall retrace your steps and
+hasten back to Sézanne."
+
+"Where shall I meet you?"
+
+"Let me think," answered Marteau.  "I shall first go east and then
+west, if I can get around that division ahead yonder.  Let us take the
+road to d'Aumenier.  I will meet you at the old château at ten o'clock,
+or not later than midnight.  There is a by-road over the marsh and
+through the forest by the bank of the river to Sézanne."
+
+"I know it."
+
+"Very well, then.  It is understood?"
+
+Old Bullet-Stopper nodded.
+
+"The road is clear," he said.  "Good luck."
+
+The two men rose to their feet, shook hands.
+
+"We had better go separately," said Marteau.  "You have the longer
+distance.  You first.  I will follow."
+
+The officer watched the old grenadier anxiously.  He passed the road
+safely, ran across the intervening space, and disappeared in a little
+clump of fruit trees surrounding a deserted farmhouse.  The young man
+waited, listening intently for the sound of a shot or struggle, but he
+heard nothing.  Then he turned, stepped out into the road, saw it was
+empty for the moment, set his face eastward, and moved across it to see
+what he could find out beyond.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+WHEN THE COSSACKS PASSED
+
+For the first time in years the great hall of the Château d'Aumenier
+was brightly lighted.  The ancient house stood in the midst of a wooded
+park adjacent to the village, overlooking one of the little lakes whose
+outlets flowed into the Morin.  In former days it had been the scene of
+much hospitality, and, even after the revolution in the period of the
+consulate and the early empire, representatives of the ancient house
+had resided there, albeit quietly and in greatly diminished style.  The
+old Marquis Henri, as uncompromising a royalist soldier as ever lived,
+had fled to England and had remained there.  His younger brother,
+Robert, compromising his dignity and his principles alike, had finally
+made his submission to Napoleon and received back the estates, or what
+had not been sequestrated.  But he had lived there quietly, had sought
+no preferment of the government--even rejecting many offers--and had
+confined his recognition to as narrow limits as possible.  He had
+married and there had been born to him a daughter, whom he had named
+after the ancient dames of his honorable house, Laure.
+
+The Count d'Aumenier, living thus retired, had fallen into rather
+careless habits after the death of his wife, and the little demoiselle
+had been brought up indifferently indeed.  Dark, brown-eyed,
+black-haired, she had given promise of beauty to come.  Left to her own
+devices she had acquired accomplishments most unusual in that day and
+by no means feminine.  She could ride, shoot, swim, run, fence, much
+better than she could dance the old courtly minuet, or the new and
+popular waltz, just beginning to make its appearance.  A love of
+reading and an ancient library in which she had a free range had
+initiated her into many things which the well-brought-up French girl
+was not supposed to know, and which, indeed, many of them went to their
+graves without ever finding out.  The Count had a well-stored mind, and
+on occasion he gave the child the benefit of it, while leaving her
+mainly to her own devices.
+
+Few of the ancient nobility had come back to the neighborhood.  Their
+original holdings had been portioned out among the new creations of the
+Imperial Wizard, and with them the Count held little intercourse.
+Laure d'Aumenier had not reached the marriageable age, else some of the
+newly made gentry would undoubtedly have paid court to her.  She found
+companions among the retainers of her father's estate.  The devotion of
+some of them had survived the passionate hatreds of the revolution and,
+failing the Marquis, who was the head of the house, they loyally served
+his brother, and with pride and admiration gave something like feudal
+worship and devotion to the little lady.
+
+The Marquis, an old man now, had never forgiven his brother, the Count,
+for his compromise with principle and for his recognition of the
+"usurper," as he was pleased to characterize Napoleon.  He had refused
+even to accept that portion of the greatly diminished revenue of the
+estate which the younger brother had regularly remitted to the Marquis'
+bankers in London.  The whole amount lay there untouched and
+accumulating, although, as were many other emigrés, the Marquis
+frequently was hard pressed for the bare necessities of life.  With
+every year, as Bonaparte--for that was the only name by which he
+thought of him--seemed to be more and more thoroughly established on
+the throne, the resentment of the Marquis had grown.  Latterly he had
+refused to hold any communication with his brother.
+
+The year before the Battle of the Nations, or just before Napoleon set
+forth on his ill-fated Russian adventure, Count Robert d'Aumenier died.
+With an idea of amendment, which showed how his conscience had smitten
+him for his compromise, he left everything he possessed to his brother,
+the Marquis, including his daughter, Laure, who had just reached her
+sixteenth year.  With the will was a letter, begging the Marquis to
+take the young demoiselle under his charge, to complete that ill-begun
+and worse-conducted education, the deficiencies of which the father too
+late realized, in a manner befitting her station, and to provide for
+her marriage with a proper portion, as if she had been his own
+daughter.  The Marquis had never married himself, lacking the means to
+support his rank, and it was probable that he never would marry.
+
+The Marquis was at first minded to refuse the bequest and to disregard
+the appeal, but an old retainer of the family, none other than Jean
+Marteau, the elder, complying with Count Robert's dying wish, had taken
+the young Countess Laure across the channel, and had quietly left her
+in her uncle's care, he himself coming back to act as steward or agent
+for the remaining acres of the shrunken Aumenier domain; for the
+Marquis, having chosen a course and walked in it for so many years, was
+not minded even for the sake of being once more the lord of Aumenier to
+go back to France, since the return involved the recognition of the
+powers that were.
+
+Old Jean Marteau lived in his modest house between the village and the
+château.  And the château had been closed for the intervening time.
+Young Jean Marteau, plodding along the familiar way, after a day full
+of striking adventure and fraught with important news, instantly
+noticed the light coming through the half moons in the shutters over
+the windows of the château, as he came around a brow of the hill and
+overlooked the village, the lake and the castle in the clearing.  The
+village was as dark as the château was light.
+
+Marteau was ineffably weary.  He had been without sleep for thirty-six
+hours, he had ridden twenty leagues and walked--Heaven only knew how
+many miles in addition.  He had extricated himself from desperate
+situations only by his courage, daring, and, in one or two cases, by
+downright fighting, rendered necessary by his determination to acquire
+accurate information for the Emperor.  He had profited, not only by his
+instruction in the military school, but by his campaigning, and he now
+carried in his mind a disposition of the Russian forces which would be
+of the utmost value to the Emperor.
+
+The need of some rest, however, was absolute.  Marmont's troops,
+starting out at the same time he had taken his departure, would barely
+have reached Sézanne by this time, so much more slowly did an army move
+than a single person.  The Emperor, who had intimated that he would
+remain at Nogent until the next day, would scarcely undertake the march
+before morning.  Aumenier lay off to the northwest of Sézanne, distant
+a few miles.  If the young aide could find something to eat and get a
+few hours' sleep, he could be at Sézanne before the Emperor arrived and
+his information would be ready in the very nick of time.  With that
+thought, after staring hard at the château in some little wonderment,
+he turned aside from the road that led to its entrance and made for the
+village.
+
+His mother had died the year before; his father and his sister, with
+one or two attendants, lived alone.  There was no noble blood in
+Marteau's veins, as noble blood is counted, but his family had been
+followers and dependents of the Aumeniers for as many generations as
+that family had been domiciled in France.  Young Jean Marteau had not
+only been Laure d'Aumenier's playmate, but he had been her devoted
+slave as well.  To what extent that devotion had possessed him he had
+not known until returning from the military school he had found her
+gone.
+
+The intercourse between the young people had been of the frankest and
+pleasantest character, but, in spite of the sturdy respectability of
+the family and the new principles of equality born of the revolution,
+young Marteau realized--and if he had failed to do so his father had
+enlightened him--that there was no more chance of his becoming a
+suitor, a welcome suitor, that is, for the hand of Laure d'Aumenier
+than there was of his becoming a Marshal of France.
+
+Indeed, as in the case of many another soldier, that last was not an
+impossibility.  Men infinitely more humble than he in origin and with
+less natural ability and greatly inferior education had attained that
+high degree.  If Napoleon lived long enough and the wars continued and
+he had the opportunity, he, too, might achieve that coveted
+distinction.  But not even that would make him acceptable to Count
+Robert, no matter what his career had been; and even if Count Robert
+could have been persuaded the old Marquis Henri would be doubly
+impossible.
+
+So, on the whole, Jean Marteau had been glad that Laure d'Aumenier had
+gone out of his life.  He resolved to put her out of his heart in the
+same way, and he plunged with splendid energy into the German campaign
+of 1813, with its singular alternations of success and failure, of
+victory and defeat, of glory and shame.  He had been lucky enough to
+win his captain's commission, and now, as a major, with a position on
+the staff of the Emperor, he could look forward to rapid advancement so
+long as the Emperor lasted.  With the bright optimism of youth, even
+though affairs were now so utterly hopeless that the wise old marshals
+despaired, Marteau felt that his foot was on the first rung of the
+ladder of fame and prosperity, and, in spite of himself, as he had
+approached his native village, he had begun to dream again, almost to
+hope.
+
+There was something ominous, however, in the appearance of the village
+in that dark gray evening hour.  There were no barking dogs, no
+clucking hens, no lowing cattle, no sounds of childish laughter, no
+sturdy-voiced men or softer-spoken women exchanging greetings.  The
+stables and sheds were strangely silent.
+
+The village was a small one.  He turned into it, entered the first
+house, stumbled over a corpse!  The silence was of death.  With a
+beating heart and with a strength he did not know he possessed, he
+turned aside and ran straight to his father's house.
+
+Standing by itself it was a larger, better and more inviting house than
+the others.  The gate of the surrounding stone wall was battered off
+the hinges, the front door of the house was open, the garden was
+trampled.  The house had been half destroyed.  A dead dog lay in front
+of the door.  He could see all that in the half light.  He ran down the
+path and burst into the wrecked and plundered living room.  A few
+feeble embers still glowed in the broad hearth.  From them he lighted a
+candle standing on the mantel shelf.
+
+The first sight that greeted him was the body of his sister, her torn
+clothing in frightful disarray, a look of agony and horror upon her
+white set face under its dishevelled hair.  She was stone dead.  He
+knelt down and touched her.  She was stone cold, too.  He stared at
+her, a groan bursting from his lips.  The groan brought forth another
+sound.  Was it an echo?  Lifting the candle, he looked about him.  In a
+far corner lay a huddled human body.  He ran to it and bent over it.
+It was his father.  Knowing the house like a book, he ran and fetched
+some water.  There were a few mouthfuls of spirits left in a flask of
+vodka he had found in the Russian's overcoat.  He bathed his father's
+face, forced a few drops of the strong spirit down his throat, and the
+old man opened his eyes.  In the flickering light he caught sight of
+the green cap and coat.
+
+"Curse you," he whispered.
+
+"My father!" cried the young officer.  "It is I."
+
+"My son!"
+
+"What has happened?"
+
+"The Cossacks--I fought for the honor of your sister.  Where----" the
+old man's voice faltered.
+
+"She is dead yonder," answered the son.
+
+"Thank God," came the faint whisper from the father.  "Mademoiselle
+Laure--she--the wagon-train--the castle----"
+
+His voice died away, his eyes closed.  Frantically the young man
+recalled his father to his senses again.
+
+"It's no use," whispered the old man, "a ball in the breast.  I am
+going.  What do you here?"
+
+"On the service of the Emperor," answered the young officer.  "Father,
+speak to me!"
+
+"Alas--poor--France," came the words slowly, one by one, and
+then--silence.
+
+Marteau had seen death too many times not to know it now.  He laid the
+old man's head gently down, he straightened his limbs, he went over to
+the form of the poor girl.  To what horrors she had been
+subjected--like every other woman in the village--before she died!
+Like his father, he thanked God that she was dead.  He lifted her up
+tenderly and laid her down on a huge settle by the fireplace.  He stood
+a moment, looking from one to the other.  The irreligion of the age had
+not seized him.  He knelt down and made a prayer.  Having discharged
+that duty, he lifted his hands to heaven and his lips moved.  Was he
+invoking a curse upon these enemies?  He turned quickly and went out
+into the night, drawing the door behind him, fastening it as tight as
+he could.
+
+He forgot that he was hungry, that he was thirsty, that he was tired,
+that he was cold.  For the moment he almost forgot his duty toward his
+Emperor and France, as he walked rapidly through the trees toward the
+great house.  But as he walked that stern obligation came back to him.
+His sister was dead, his father murdered.  Well, the first Cossack he
+came upon should pay.  Meanwhile there was his duty.  What had his
+father said?
+
+"The Cossacks--the wagon-train--the Countess Laure."
+
+What did it mean?  Part of it was plain enough.  The Cossacks had
+raided the village, his father had been stricken down defending his
+daughter, his sister had died.  That was easy, but the wagon-train, the
+castle, the Countess Laure?  Could she have come back?  Was that the
+occasion for the lights in the château?  That body of cavalry that he
+had seen leaving Sacken's men that morning with the civilians--was she
+that woman?  The mystery would be solved at the château.  And it was
+there he had arranged to meet his comrade, anyway.
+
+He stopped and looked back at the devastated village.  Already a light
+was blazing in one of the houses.  It would soon be afire.  He could do
+nothing then.  The château called him.  He broke into a run again,
+heavy-footed and tired out though he was.  Around the château in the
+courtyard were dozens of wagons.  His experienced glance told him that
+they were army wagons, containing provisions, arms, ammunition.  Some
+of the covers had been raised to expose the contents.  There was not a
+living man present, and scarcely a living horse.  There had been some
+sort of a battle evidently, for the wagons were in all sorts of
+confusion and there were dead men and horses everywhere.  He did not
+stop to examine them save to make sure that the dead men were French,
+proving that the convoy had come from Paris.  He threaded his way among
+the wagons and finally reached the steps that led to the broad terrace
+upon which rose the château.
+
+The main door was open.  There were no soldiers about, which struck him
+as peculiar, almost terrifying.  He went up the steps and across the
+terrace, and stopped before the building, almost stumbling over the
+bodies of two men whose uniforms were plainly Russian!  He inspected
+them briefly and stepped toward the door of the entrance hall.  It was
+open but dimly lighted, and the light wavered fitfully.  The faint
+illumination came into the hall from a big broad open door upon the
+right, giving entrance to what had been the great room.  Still keeping
+within the shadow, he moved carefully and noiselessly into the hall,
+until he could get a view of the room beyond.
+
+A huge fire was burning in the enormous fireplace.  The many tables
+with which the room had been furnished had been pushed together in the
+center, several tall candles pulled from the candelabra and fastened
+there by their own melted wax stood upon these tables and added their
+illumination to the fire-light.  Several men in uniforms, two of them
+rough-coated Cossacks, and two whose dress showed clearly that they
+belonged to the Russian Imperial Guard, lay on the floor, bound and
+helpless.  A stout, elderly man, in civilian garb, with a very red face
+and an angry look, his wig awry, was lashed to a chair.  Between two
+ruffianly looking men, who held her firmly, stood a woman.
+
+There were perhaps two dozen other men in the room, unkempt, savage,
+brutal, armed with all sorts of nondescript weapons from ancient
+pistols to fowling pieces, clubs and scythes.  They were all in a state
+of great excitement, shouting and gesturing madly.
+
+The woman standing between the two soldiers was in the full light.  So
+soon as he caught sight of her Marteau recognized her.  It was Laure
+d'Aumenier.  She had grown taller and more beautiful than when he had
+seen her last as a young girl.  She had been handled roughly, her
+clothes were torn, her hair partially unbound.  Her captors held her
+with an iron grasp upon her arms, but she did not flinch or murmur.
+She held herself as erect and looked as imperious as if she had been on
+a throne.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+MARTEAU BARGAINS FOR THE WOMAN
+
+The sight of her predicament filled the young Frenchman with rage and
+horror.  Drawing his pistol, he strode into the room.  What he intended
+to do, or how he intended to do it was not clear even to him.  There
+stood the woman he loved in the clutch of wretches whose very touch was
+pollution.  He must help her.  All duties and intentions gave way to
+that determination.
+
+A dead silence fell over the room as he entered and the people caught
+sight of him.  He stood staring at the occupants and they returned his
+stare in good measure.  Finally the biggest ruffian, who seemed to be
+the leader, found his voice and burst out with a savage oath:
+
+"Another Russian!  Well, the more the merrier."
+
+He raised a huge horse pistol as he spoke.  His words were greeted with
+jeers and yells from the band.  With a flash of inspiration Marteau,
+realizing into what he had been led, dropped his own weapon and
+instantly threw up his hands.
+
+"I am French, messieurs," he cried loudly as the pistol clattered on
+the floor at his feet.
+
+"What are you doing in that uniform, then?" roared the leader.
+
+Marteau tore open the heavy green coat, disclosing beneath it his
+French uniform.  He had a second to make up his mind how to answer that
+pertinent question.  He was quite in the dark as to the meaning of the
+mysterious situation.  He opened his mouth and spoke.
+
+"It is quite simple," he began, "I am----"
+
+What should he say?  What was he?  Were these men for the Emperor or
+for the king, or were they common blackguards for themselves?  The
+latter was probably the true state of the case, but did it please them
+to pose as royalists?  He took a long chance after a quick prayer
+because he wanted to live not so much for himself as for the woman.
+
+"I am deserting the Emperor," he said.  "I am for the king."
+
+"No king could have brought us to worse straits than we are now in,"
+said the leader, lowering his pistol uncertainly, but still keeping the
+young man covered.
+
+"Right, my friend," continued Marteau exultantly, realizing that he had
+made the right choice.  "Bonaparte is beaten, Blücher is marching on
+Paris, Schwarzenberg has the Emperor surrounded.  I thought I might as
+well save myself while I had the chance, so I stole this Russian coat
+to keep myself from freezing to death, and here I am.  I belong to
+Aumenier."
+
+"You'll join us, then?"
+
+"With pleasure.  Who do you serve?"
+
+"Ourselves," laughed the leader grimly.  "We're from Fére-Champenoise
+way.  We're all of the village and countryside that the Cossacks and
+the Prussians have left of our families.  We're hungry, starving,
+naked.  Do you hear?  We were hiding in the woods hard by to-day.
+There was a wagon-train.  A regiment of Cossacks surprised it, killed
+its defenders, brought it here.  We saw it all."
+
+"And where are the Cossacks gone?" asked the young man, coolly picking
+up his pistol from the floor and nonchalantly sitting upon the nearest
+table in a careless way which certainly belied the beating of his
+heart.  He took careful notice of the men.  They were ignorant fellows
+of the baser sort, half-mad, starving, ferocious peasants, little
+better than brute beasts, made so by the war.
+
+"An order came for them.  They marched away, leaving a company of other
+soldiers like those yonder."  He pointed to the men on the floor.
+
+"And what became of them?"
+
+"There was an attack from the woods at night--a little handful of
+French soldiers.  They beat them off and followed them down the road.
+They have been gone half an hour.  We heard the firing.  We came out
+thinking to plunder the train.  We opened wagon after wagon but found
+nothing but arms.  We can't eat steel or powder.  We killed two
+sentries, made prisoners of the officers.  We'll set fire to the house
+and leave them presently.  As for this man, we'll kill him, and as for
+this woman----"
+
+He laughed meaningly, basely, leering at the girl in hideous
+suggestiveness that made her shudder; and which his wretched companions
+found highly amusing.
+
+"You have done well," said the young officer quickly, although he was
+cold with rage at the ruffian's low insinuation.  "I hope to have some
+interest with the king later.  If you will give me your names I will
+see that you are rewarded."
+
+"Never mind our names," growled the leader, still suspicious, evidently.
+
+"Food and drink would reward us better now," shouted a second.
+
+"Aye," yelled one of the others, seconding this happy thought.  "We
+have eaten nothing since yesterday, and as for drink, it is a week
+since my lips have tasted a swallow of wine."
+
+"And what would you give me if I could procure you some of the fine
+wine of the country, my friends?" said Marteau quietly, putting great
+restraint upon himself to continue trafficking with these scoundrels.
+
+"Give?  Anything," answered several in chorus, their red eyes gleaming.
+
+"If you've got it we'll take it for nothing," said the brutal leader
+with ferocious cunning.
+
+"Do I look as if I concealed wine and provisions on my person?" asked
+the officer boldly, confident now that he had found the way to master
+these men.
+
+"No," was the answer.  "But where is it?"
+
+"And be quick about it," cried a second threateningly.  "Those Russians
+may be back at any moment."
+
+"Is this a jest?" asked a third with a menacing gesture.
+
+"It would be ill-done to joke with men as hungry as you are, I take
+it," answered Marteau.
+
+"Hurry, then," cried a fourth.
+
+"In good time, my friends.  First, a word with you.  What are you going
+to do with those two prisoners?"
+
+"Knock the men in the head, I told you," answered the leader.
+
+"And the woman?"
+
+"We are trying to settle who should have her--first."
+
+"It's a pity there's only one, still----" began another.
+
+"I'll make a bargain with you, then," interrupted Marteau quickly,
+fingering his weapon while he spoke.  "Food and drink in plenty for
+you, the woman for me."
+
+"And what do you want of the woman?"
+
+"Before I was a soldier I lived in Aumenier, I told you.  I served
+these people.  This woman is an aristocrat.  I hate her."
+
+It was an old appeal and an old comment but it served.  These were wild
+days like those of the revolution, the license and rapine and ravagings
+of which some of the older men present could very well recall.
+
+"She treated me like dirt under her feet," went on the officer.  "Now I
+want to have my turn."
+
+"Marteau!" cried the woman for the first time, recognizing him as he
+turned a grim face toward her, upon which he had very successfully
+counterfeited a look of hatred.  "Is it indeed----"
+
+"Silence," thundered the young soldier, stepping near to her and
+shaking his clenched fist in her face.  "These worthy patriots will
+give you to me, and then----"
+
+There was a burst of wild laughter throughout the room.
+
+"It's these cursed aristocrats that have brought these hateful Russians
+upon us," cried one.
+
+"Give her to the lad and let us have food and drink," cried another.
+
+"He'll deal with her," cried a third.
+
+"You hear?" asked the chief.
+
+"I hear," answered Marteau.  "Listen.  My father kept this house for
+its owners.  He is dead in the village yonder."
+
+"The wine, the wine," roared one, licking his lips.
+
+"Food.  I starve," cried another, baring his teeth.
+
+"Wait.  Naturally, fleeing from the army, I came to him.  My sister is
+dead too, outraged, murdered.  You know?"
+
+"Yes, yes, we know."
+
+"I want to get my revenge on someone and who better than she?"
+
+The young officer did not dare again to look at the young woman.  He
+could feel the horror, the amazement, the contempt in her glance.  Was
+this one of the loyal Marteaux?
+
+"Make her suffer for us!"
+
+"Our children!"
+
+"Our mothers!"
+
+"Our daughters!" cried one after the other, intoxicated with their
+wrongs, real or fancied, their faces black with rage, their clenched
+hands raised to heaven as if invoking vengeance.
+
+"Have no fear," said Marteau.  "Because of my father's position I know
+where the wine cellar is, and there is food there."
+
+"Lead on," said the chief.  "We've talked too much."
+
+"This way," replied the young captain, lifting the only candlestick
+from the table.  "Leave two men to watch the woman and give the alarm,
+the rest follow me."
+
+Marteau knew the old castle like a book.  He knew where the keys were
+kept.  Chatting carelessly and giving them every evidence of his
+familiarity, he found the keys, unlocked the doors, led them from room
+to room, from level to level, until finally they reached the wine
+cellar.  It was separated from the cellar in which they stood by a
+heavy iron-bound oaken door.  In spite of his easy bearing and manner,
+suspicions had been aroused in the uneasy minds of the rabble, but when
+Marteau lifted the candle and bade them bring their own lights and see
+through an iron grating in the door what the chamber beyond contained
+and they recognized the casks and bottles, to say nothing of hams,
+smoked meats and other eatables, their suspicions vanished.  They burst
+into uproarious acclamation.
+
+"Hasten," cried the leader.
+
+"This is the last door."
+
+"Have you the key?"
+
+"It is here."
+
+Marteau lifted the key, thrust it in the lock and turned it slowly, as
+if by a great effort and, the door opening outward, he drew it back.
+
+"Enter," he said.  "Help yourselves."
+
+With cries of joy like famished wolves the whole band poured into the
+wine cellar.  All, that is, but Marteau.  As the last men entered he
+flung the door to and with astonishing quickness turned the key in the
+lock and turned away.  The door had shut with a mighty crash, the noise
+had even stopped the rioting plunderers.  The first man who had seized
+a bottle dropped it crashing to the floor.  All eyes and faces turned
+toward the door.  The last man threw himself against it frantically.
+It held as firmly as if it had been the rock wall.  They were trapped.
+The leader was quicker than the rest.  He still had his weapon.
+Thrusting it through the iron bars of the grating in the door he pulled
+the trigger.  There was a mighty roar, a cloud of smoke, but
+fortunately in the dim light his aim was bad.  Marteau laughed grimly.
+
+"Enjoy yourselves, messieurs.  The provisions are good and you may eat
+as much as you like.  The wine is excellent.  Drink your fill!"
+
+The next instant he leaped up the stairs and retraced his steps.  It
+was a long distance from the wine-cellar to the great room, but through
+the grating that gave entrance to the courtyard the sound of shots had
+penetrated.  One of the ruffians, committing the woman to the care of
+the remaining man, started to follow his comrades.  He had his pistol
+in his hand.  He went noisily, muttering oaths, feeling that something
+was wrong but not being able to divine exactly what.  Marteau heard him
+coming.  He put the candle down, concealed himself and, as the man
+came, struck him heavily over the head with the butt of his remaining
+pistol.  He fell like a log.  Leaving the candle where it was, the
+young officer, dispossessing his victim of his pistols, entered the
+hall and, instead of entering the great room by the door by which he
+had left it, ran along the hall to the main entrance and thus took the
+remaining brigand in the rear.
+
+This man was one of those who had seized the Countess Laure.  In spite
+of herself the girl started as the officer appeared in the doorway.
+The man felt her start, wheeled, his eyes recognized the officer.  He
+had no pistol, but his fingers went to his belt and with the quickness
+of light itself he hurled a knife straight at Marteau.  The woman with
+equal speed caught the man's arm and disturbed his aim.  Her movement
+was purely instinctive.  According to his own words she had even more
+to fear from Marteau than from this ruffian.  The young officer
+instantly dropped to his knees and as he did so presented his pistol
+and fired.  The knife whistled harmlessly over his head and buried
+itself in the wood paneling of the door.  The bullet sped straight to
+its mark.  The unfortunate blackguard collapsed on the floor at the
+feet of the girl, who screamed and shrank back shuddering.
+
+"Now, mademoiselle," said the young man, advancing into the room, "I
+have the happiness to inform you that you are free."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+A RESCUE AND A SIEGE
+
+The woman stared at him in wild amazement.  That she was free
+temporarily at least, could not be gainsaid.  Her captors had not seen
+fit to bind her and she now stood absolutely untouched by anyone.  The
+shooting, the fighting, had confused her.  She had only seen Marteau as
+an accomplice and friend of her assailants, she had no clew to his
+apparent change of heart.  She did not know whether she had merely
+exchanged masters or what had happened.  Smiling ironically at her
+bewilderment, which he somehow resented in his heart, Marteau proceeded
+to further explanation.
+
+"You are free, mademoiselle," he repeated emphatically, bowing before
+her.
+
+"But I thought----"
+
+"Did you think that I could be allied with such cowardly thieves and
+vagabonds as those?"
+
+"But you said----"
+
+"It was simply a ruse.  Could you imagine that one of my family, that
+I, should fail in respect and devotion to one of yours, to you?  I
+determined to free you the instant I saw you."
+
+"And will you not complete your good work?" broke out the man tied to
+the chair in harsh and foreign but sufficiently comprehensible French,
+"by straightway releasing me, young sir?"
+
+"But who is this?"
+
+"This is Sir Gervaise Yeovil," answered Mademoiselle Laure, "my
+attorney, an English officer-of-the-law, of Lord Castlereagh's suite,
+who came with me from Chatillon to get certain papers and----"
+
+"Why all this bother and explanation?" burst out Sir Gervaise.  "Tell
+him to cut these lashes and release me from this cursed bondage," he
+added in English.
+
+"That is quite another matter, sir," said Marteau gravely.  "I regret
+that you are an enemy and that I can not----"
+
+"But we are not enemies, Monsieur," cried one of the officers, who had
+just succeeded in working a gag out of his mouth.  "We are Russian
+officers of the Imperial Guard and since you have deserted the cause of
+the Corsican you will----"
+
+"Deserted!" thundered Marteau, his pale face flaming.  "That was as
+much a ruse as the other."
+
+"What, then, do you mean by wearing a Russian coat over your uniform
+and----"
+
+"He is a spy.  He shall be hanged," said the other, also freeing
+himself of his gag.
+
+"Indeed," laughed Marteau.  "And do you gentlemen ask me to release you
+in order that you may hang me?"
+
+"I won't hang you," burst out the Englishman.  "On the contrary, I'll
+give you fifty pounds if you'll cut these cords and----"
+
+Marteau shook his head.
+
+"Countess," bellowed Yeovil angrily, "there's a knife on the table
+yonder, pray do you----"
+
+The young woman made a swift step in that direction, but the Frenchman
+was too quick for her.
+
+"Pardon me, mademoiselle, I beg that the first use you make of your new
+life be not to aid my enemies."
+
+"Your enemies, Marteau?"
+
+"The enemies of France, then."
+
+"Not my uncle's France," said the girl.
+
+"But your father's, and I had hoped yours."
+
+"No, no."
+
+"In any event, these gentlemen must remain bound for the time being.
+No harm shall come to you from me," continued Marteau, addressing the
+two officers.  "But as for these hounds----"  He stepped over to the
+two Cossacks, who lay mute.  He bent over them with such a look of
+rage, ruthless determination and evil purpose in his face as startled
+the woman into action.
+
+"Monsieur!" she cried, stepping over to him and striving to interpose
+between him and the two men.  "Marteau, what would you do?"
+
+"My sister--dead in the cottage yonder after--after----" he choked out.
+He stopped, his fingers twitching.  "My old father!  If I served them
+right I would pitch them into yonder fireplace or torture them, the
+dogs, the cowards!"
+
+"My friend," said the young Countess gently, laying her hand on his arm.
+
+Marteau threw up his hands, that touch recalled him to his senses.
+
+"I will let them alone for the present," he said.  "Meanwhile----"  He
+seized the dead man and dragged the body out of sight behind the tables.
+
+"Will monsieur give a thought to me?" came another voice from the dim
+recesses of a far corner.
+
+"And who are you?" asked Marteau, lifting the light and staring.
+
+"A Frenchman, sir.  They knocked me on the head and left me for dead,
+but if monsieur would assist me I----"
+
+Marteau stepped over to him, bent down and lifted him up.  He was a
+stout, hardy looking peasant boy, pale cheeked, with blood clotted
+around his forehead from a blow that he had received.  Feverish fire
+sparkled in his eyes.
+
+"If monsieur wishes help to put these brutes out of the way command
+me," he said passionately.
+
+"We will do nothing with them at present," answered Marteau.
+
+"Quick, Laure, the knife," whispered the Englishman.
+
+The Frenchman heard him, however, and wheeled around.
+
+"Mademoiselle," he cried, "on your honor I charge you not to abuse the
+liberty I have secured for you and that I allow you."
+
+"But, my friends----"
+
+"If you had depended on your friends you would even now be----" he
+paused--"as my sister," he added with terrific intensity.
+
+"Your pleasure shall be mine," said the young woman.
+
+"If I could have a drink of wine!" said the young peasant, sinking down
+into a chair.
+
+"There is a flask which they did not get in the pocket of one of the
+officers yonder," said the young Frenchwoman, looking sympathetically
+at the poor exhausted lad.
+
+Marteau quickly recovered it, in spite of the protestations of the
+officer, who looked his indignation at this little betrayal by the
+woman.  He gave some of it to the peasant and then offered it to
+mademoiselle and, upon her declining it, took a long drink himself.  He
+was weak and trembling with all he had gone through.
+
+"Now, what's to be our further course?" asked the countess.
+
+"I don't know yet.  I----"
+
+But the answer was never finished.  Shots, cries, the sound of
+galloping horses came faintly through the open door.
+
+"My men returning!" cried the Russian officer triumphantly.  "Our turn
+will come now, sir."
+
+Two courses were open.  To run or to fight.  Duty said go; love said
+stay.  Duty was stronger.  After a moment's hesitation Marteau dashed
+for the door.  He was too late.  The returning Russian cavalry was
+already entering the courtyard.  Fate had decided against him.  He
+could not go now.  He thought with the swiftness of a veteran.  He
+sprang back into the hall, threw the great iron-bound door into its
+place, turned the massive key in its lock, thanking God that key and
+lock were still intact, dropped the heavy bars at top and bottom that
+further secured it, just as the first horseman thundered upon the door.
+
+In his rapid passage through the house the young Frenchman had noticed
+that all the windows were shuttered and barred, that only the front
+door appeared to have been opened.  He was familiar with the château.
+He knew how carefully its openings had been secured and how often his
+father had inspected them, to keep out brigands, the waifs and strays,
+the wanderers, the low men of the countryside.  For the moment he was
+safe with his prisoners, one man and a boy guarding a score of men and
+one woman, and holding a château against a hundred and fifty soldiers!
+Fortunately, there would be no cannon with that troop of cavalry, there
+were no cannon in that wagon train, so that they could not batter down
+the château over his head.  What his ultimate fate would be he could
+not tell.  Could he hold that castle indefinitely?  If not, what?  How
+he was to get away and reach Napoleon with his vital news he could not
+see.  There must be some way, however.  Well, whatever was to be would
+be, and meanwhile he could only wait developments and hold on.
+
+The troopers outside were very much astonished to find the heavy door
+closed and the two sentries dead on the terrace.  They dismounted from
+their horses at the foot of the terrace and crowded about the door,
+upon which they beat with their pistols, at the same time shouting the
+names and titles of the officers within.  Inside the great hall Marteau
+had once more taken command.  In all this excitement Laure d'Aumenier
+had stood like a stone, apparently indifferent to the appeals of the
+four bound men on the floor and the Englishman in the chair that she
+cut the ropes with which they were bound, while the French officer was
+busy at the door.  Perhaps that young peasant might have prevented her,
+but as a matter of fact, she made no attempt to answer their pleas.
+She stood waiting and watching.  Just as Marteau reëntered the room the
+chief Russian officer shouted out a command.  From where he lay on the
+floor his voice did not carry well and there was too much tumult
+outside for anyone to hear.  In a second Marteau was over him.
+
+"If you open your mouth again, monsieur," he said fiercely, "I shall
+have to choose between gagging and killing you, and I incline to the
+latter.  And these other gentlemen may take notice.  You, what are you
+named?"
+
+"Pierre Lebois, sir," answered the peasant.
+
+"Can you fire a gun?"
+
+"Give me a chance," answered the young fellow.  "I've got people dead,
+yonder, to avenge."
+
+The brigands had left the swords and pistols of the officers on chairs,
+tables and the floor.  There were eight pistols.  Marteau gathered them
+up.  The English baronet yielded one other, a huge, heavy,
+old-fashioned weapon.
+
+"There are loopholes in the shutters yonder," said the officer.  "Do
+you take that one, I will take the other.  They will get away from the
+door in a moment and as soon as you can see them fire."
+
+"Mademoiselle," said the Russian officer desperately, "I shall have to
+report to the commander of the guard and he to the Czar that you gave
+aid and comfort to our enemies."
+
+"But what can I do?" asked the young woman.  "Monsieur Marteau could
+certainly shoot me if I attempted----"
+
+"Assuredly," said Marteau, smiling at her in a way anything but fierce.
+
+It was that implicit trust in her that restrained her and saved him.
+As a girl the young countess had been intensely fond of Jean Marteau.
+He certainly appeared well in his present role before her.  In the
+revulsion of feeling in finding him not a bully, not a traitor, but a
+devoted friend and servitor, he advanced higher in her estimation than
+ever before.  Besides, the young woman was by no means so thoroughgoing
+a loyalist as her old uncle, for instance.
+
+"I can see them now, monsieur," said the young peasant from the
+peep-hole in the shutter.
+
+Indeed, the men outside had broken away from the door, groups were
+running to and fro seeking lights and some other entrance.  Taking aim
+at the nearest Marteau pulled the trigger and Pierre followed his
+example.  The noise of the explosions was succeeded by a scream of
+anguish, one man was severely wounded and another killed.  Something
+mysterious had happened while they had been off on the wild goose chase
+apparently, the Russians decided.  The château had been seized, their
+officers had been made way with, it was held by the enemy.
+
+"They can't be anything more than wandering peasants," cried an
+imperious voice in Russian outside.  "I thought you had made thorough
+work with them all, Scoref," continued the speaker.  "Your Cossacks
+must have failed to complete the job."
+
+"It will be the first time," answered Scoref, the _hetman_ of the
+raiders.  "Look, the village burns!"
+
+"Well, what's to be done now?" said the first voice.
+
+"I don't know, Baron," was the answer.  "Besieging castles is more in
+your line than in mine."
+
+"Shall we fire again, monsieur?" asked Pierre within.
+
+"No," was the answer.  "Remember we've only got eight shots and we must
+wait."
+
+"Let us have lights," cried the commander of the squadron.  "Here, take
+one of those wagons and----"
+
+In a few moments a bright fire was blazing in the courtyard.
+
+"The shots came from those windows," continued the Russian.  "Keep out
+of the way and----  Isn't that a window open up there?"
+
+"It is, it is!" came the answer from a dozen throats.
+
+All the talk being in Russian was, of course, not understood by the two
+Frenchmen.
+
+"One of you climb up there," continued the Russian.  "You see the
+spout, and the coping, that buttress?  Ten roubles to the man who does
+it."
+
+A soldier sprang forward.  Those within could hear his heavy body rub
+along the wall.  They did not know what he was doing or what was
+toward.  They were in entire ignorance that a shutter had become
+detached from its hinges in the room above the drawing-room and that
+they would soon have to face an attack from the rear.  The man who
+climbed fancied himself perfectly secure, and indeed he was from those
+within.  It was a hard climb, but presently he reached the
+window-ledge.  His hands clasped it, he made a brave effort, drew
+himself up and on the instant from beyond the wagons came a pistol
+shot.  The man shrieked, released his hold and fell crashing to the
+ground.  The besiegers broke into wild outcries.  Some of them ran in
+the direction whence the shot had come.  They thought they caught the
+glimpse of a figure running away in the darkness.  Pistols were fired
+and the vicinity was thoroughly searched, but they found nothing.
+
+The shot, the man's cry overhead, the body crashing down to the ground,
+enlightened Marteau.  He handed Pierre two of the six remaining
+pistols, told him to run to the floor above and watch the window.  The
+young peasant crossed himself and turned away.  He found the room
+easily enough.  It was impossible to barricade the window, but he drew
+back in the darkness and waited.
+
+Having found no one in the grove beyond the baggage-wagons, the
+Russians called for another volunteer and a second man offered.  Pierre
+heard him coming, permitted him to gain the ledge and then thrust the
+pistol in his face and pulled the trigger.  At the same time a big
+Cossack coming within easy range and standing outlined between the
+loophole and the fire, Marteau gave him his second bullet, with fatal
+effect.  There flashed into his mind that the shot which had come so
+opportunely from outside bespoke the arrival of his friend, the
+grenadier.  He hoped the man would have sense enough to go immediately
+to Sézanne and report the situation.  If he could maintain the defense
+of the castle for two hours he might be rescued.  He stepped to the
+hall and called up to Pierre.  Receiving a cheery reply to the effect
+that all was well and that he would keep good watch, he came back into
+the great hall and resumed his ward.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+A TRIAL OF ALLEGIANCE
+
+Mademoiselle d'Aumenier had seated herself at a table and remained
+there in spite of the entreaties and black looks of the prisoners.
+Marteau did not dare to leave his loophole, but the necessity for
+watching did not prevent him from talking.  The men outside seemed to
+have decided that nothing more could be done for the present.  They
+withdrew from out of range of the deadly fire of the defenders and,
+back of the wagons, kindled fires, and seemed to be preparing to make a
+night of it.
+
+The best officers of the detachment were prisoners in the château.  The
+subordinate who had been entrusted with the pursuit was young and
+inexperienced; the Cossack commander was a mere raider.  They
+themselves belonged to the cavalry.  They decided, after inspecting the
+whole building carefully as nearly as they dared in view of the
+constant threat of discharge, that they would have to wait until
+morning, unless something occurred to them or some chance favored them.
+They trusted that at daylight they would have no difficulty in
+effecting an entrance somewhere.  A total of three men dead and one
+wounded, to say nothing of the sentries and officers, had a
+discouraging effect on night work.  They did not dream that there was
+an enemy, a French soldier, that is, nearer than Troyes.  They supposed
+that the castle had been seized by some of the enraged country people
+who had escaped the Cossacks and that they could easily deal with them
+in the morning.
+
+Incidentally, the wine cellars in which the peasants had been shut had
+openings to the outer air, and through them came shouts and cries which
+added to the mystification of the besiegers and increased their
+prudence.  The walls of the château were massive, the floors thick, the
+wine cellar far away, and no sound came from them to the inmates of the
+great hall.  Indeed, in the exciting adventure that had taken place,
+the raiders had been completely forgot by Marteau and the others.
+
+The conversation in the hall was not animated.  The Countess Laure,
+womanlike, at last began to ask questions.
+
+"Monsieur Marteau," she asked persuasively, "will you hear reason?"
+
+"I will hear anything, mademoiselle, from you," was the instant reply.
+
+"Think of the unhappy state of France."
+
+"I have had reason enough to think of it to-night, mademoiselle.  My
+father and my sister----" his voice faltered.
+
+"I know," said the girl sympathetically, and, indeed, she was deeply
+grieved for the misfortunes of the faithful and devoted old man and the
+young girl she had loved.  She waited a moment and then continued.
+"The Emperor is at last facing defeat.  His cause is hopeless."
+
+"He yet lives," answered the soldier softly.
+
+"Yes, of course," said the woman.  "I do not understand the military
+situation, but my friends----"
+
+"Will monsieur allow me the favor of a word?" interposed the chief
+Russian officer courteously.
+
+"If it is not to summon assistance you may speak," replied Marteau.
+
+"As a soldier you know the situation as well as I," continued the
+Russian.  "Prince Von Schwarzenberg has Napoleon in his grasp.  He will
+hold him until he is ready to seize him, while Field-Marshal Blücher
+takes Paris."
+
+"The Emperor yet lives," said Marteau, repeating his former remark with
+more emphasis and smiling somewhat scornfully.  "It is not wise to
+portion the lion's skin while it covers his beating heart," he added
+meaningly.
+
+"Not even the genius of your Emperor," persisted the Russian more
+earnestly, "will avail now, monsieur.  He is lost, his cause as well.
+Why, this very convoy tells the story.  We intercepted letters that
+told how pressing was its need.  Your army is without arms, without
+food, without clothes."
+
+"It still has its Emperor."
+
+"Death!" cried the Russian impatiently.  "Must we kill him in order to
+teach you a lesson?"
+
+"You will not kill him while there is a soldier in France to interpose
+his body."
+
+"Very heroic, doubtless," sneered the Russian, beginning to get angry.
+"But you know your cause is lost."
+
+"And if it were?"
+
+"Be reasonable.  There are many Frenchmen with the allied armies.  Your
+rank is----?"
+
+"I am a Major on the Emperor's staff if you are interested to know."
+
+"Major Marteau, I have no doubt that my interest with my Emperor, the
+Czar Alexander, with whom I am remotely connected--I may say I am a
+favorite officer in his guard--would doubtless insure you a Colonel's
+commission, perhaps even that of a General of Brigade, with my gracious
+master, or in the army of King Louis after we have replaced him on his
+throne if----"
+
+"If what?"
+
+"If you release us, restore us to our command.  Permit us to send for
+horses to take the place of those we have killed to take the wagons of
+the valuable convoy to our own army."
+
+"And you would have me abandon my Emperor?"
+
+"For the good of France," urged the Russian meaningly.
+
+"Will you answer me a question, monsieur?" continued the young man
+after a moment's deep thought.
+
+"Certainly, if it be not treason to my master."
+
+"Oh, you have views on treason, then," said the Frenchman adroitly and
+not giving the other time to answer he continued.  "To what corps are
+you attached?"
+
+"Count Sacken's."
+
+"And whose division?"
+
+"General Olsuvieff's."
+
+"Monsieur," said the young Frenchman calmly, "it is more than probable
+that before to-morrow your division will be annihilated and the next
+day the corps of General Sacken may meet the same fate."
+
+The Russian laughed scornfully at what seemed to him the wildest
+boasting.
+
+"Are you mad?"
+
+"Not so mad as you will be when it happens."
+
+The Russian controlled himself with difficulty in the face of the
+irritating observations.
+
+"And who will do this?" he asked, at last.
+
+"The Emperor."
+
+"Does he command the lightning-flash that he could hurl the
+thunder-bolt from Troyes?"
+
+"Upon my word, I believe he does," laughed the Frenchman.
+
+"This is foolish jesting, boy," broke out the Englishman.  "I am a man
+of consideration in my own country.  The lady here will bear me out.  I
+offered you fifty pounds.  I will give you five hundred if you will
+release us and----"
+
+"And I offer you my--friendship," said the Countess, making a long
+pause before the last word.
+
+How much of it she meant or how little no one could say.  Any ruse was
+fair in war like this.  Marteau looked at her.  The color flamed to her
+cheek and died away.  It had flamed into his cheek and died away also.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said, "you offer me rank, money----" he
+paused--"friendship----" he shot a meaning glance at the young girl.
+He paused again.
+
+"Well?" said the Russian.
+
+"Speak out," said the Englishman.  "Your answer, lad?"
+
+"I refuse."
+
+"Don't be a fool," roared Sir Gervaise bluntly.
+
+"I refuse, I repeat," said Marteau.  "While the Emperor lives I am his
+man.  Not rank, not money, not friendship, not love itself even could
+move me.  Enough, gentlemen," he continued imperiously as the two
+Russians and the Englishman all began to speak at once.  "No more.
+Such propositions are insults."
+
+"There is another appeal which ought to be brought to your attention,
+young sir," said the second Russian officer when he could be heard.
+
+"And what is that?"
+
+"Your life.  You know that as soon as day breaks the château will be
+seized.  You are a self-confessed spy.  You came here wearing a Russian
+uniform.  As soon as we are released we shall hang you as a spy.  But
+if you release us now, on my word of honor you shall go free."
+
+"Monsieur is a very brave man," said Marteau smiling.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"To threaten me with death while he is in my power.  You are the only
+witnesses.  I could make way with you all."
+
+"You forget the Countess and the English gentleman."
+
+"Although the Countess is the enemy of France----"
+
+"Nay, nay, the friend," interposed the girl.
+
+"Be it so.  Although she is the enemy of the Emperor then, I cannot
+believe that she could condemn to death by her testimony the man who
+has saved her from worse than death, and as for the English
+gentleman----"
+
+"Damme if I'd say a word to hurt you, if only for what you have done
+for her, whether you release me or not," cried Yeovil.
+
+"You see?"
+
+"Monsieur Jean," said the Countess, "you put me under great obligations
+to you."
+
+"By saving your life, your honor, mademoiselle!  I gladly----"
+
+"By giving me your confidence," interrupted the girl, who in her secret
+heart was delighted at the stand the young officer had taken.  She
+would have despised him if he had succumbed to the temptation of which
+she herself was part.
+
+"I could do no less, mademoiselle," returned Marteau.  "I and my
+forbears have served your house and known it and loved it for eight
+hundred years."
+
+"I know it," answered the girl.  "I value the association.  I am proud
+of it."
+
+"And since you know it and recognize it perhaps you will tell me how
+you happen to be here."
+
+"Willingly," answered Mademoiselle Laure.  "The estates are to be sold.
+There are deeds and papers of value in the château without which
+transactions could not be completed.  I alone knew where they were.
+With Monsieur Yeovil, my uncle's friend and the father of----" she
+hesitated and then went on, "so I came to France."
+
+"But with the invading armies----"
+
+"There was no other way.  The Czar Alexander gave me a safe conduct.  A
+company of his guards escorted us.  Sir Gervaise Yeovil was accredited
+to Lord Castlereagh, but with his permission he brought me here first.
+My uncle was too old to come.  Arrived here we found the Cossacks, the
+wagon-train.  There was a battle, a victory, pursuit.  Then those
+villains seized us.  They stole upon us unsuspecting, having murdered
+the sentries, and then you came."
+
+"I see.  And have you the papers?"
+
+"They are----  Not yet, but I may take them?"
+
+"Assuredly, so far as I am concerned," answered Marteau, "although I
+regret to see the old estate pass out of the hands of the ancient
+family."
+
+"I regret it also, but I am powerless."
+
+"We played together here as children," said Marteau.  "My father has
+kept it well since.  Your father died and now mine is gone----"
+
+"And I am very sorry," answered the young woman softly.
+
+Marteau turned away, peered out of the window and sank into gloomy
+silence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE EMPEROR EATS AND RIDES
+
+Sézanne was a scene of the wildest confusion that night.  It was
+congested with troops and more and more were arriving every minute.
+They entered the town in fearful condition.  They had been weary and
+ragged and naked before.  Now they were in a state of extreme
+prostration; wet, cold, covered with mud.  The roads were blocked with
+mired artillery, the guns were sunk into the mud to the hubs, the tired
+horses could no longer move them.  The woods on either side were full
+of stragglers, many of whom had dropped down on the wet ground and
+slept the sleep of complete exhaustion.  Some, indeed, sick and
+helpless, died where they lay.  Everything eatable and drinkable in
+Sézanne had vanished as a green field before a swarm of locusts when
+Marmont's division had come through some hours before.
+
+The town boasted a little square or open space in the midst.  A huge
+fire was burning in the center of this open space.  A cordon of
+grenadiers kept the ground about the fire clear of stragglers.
+Suddenly the Emperor rode into the midst.  He was followed by a wet,
+cold, mud-spattered, bedraggled staff, all of them unutterably weary.
+Intense resolution blazed in the Emperor's eyes.  He had had nothing to
+eat or drink since morning, but that ancient bodily vigor, that
+wonderful power of endurance, which had stood him in such good stead in
+days gone by, seemed to have come back to him now.  He was all fire and
+energy and determination.  So soon as his presence was known, couriers
+reported to him.  Many of them he stopped with questions.
+
+"The convoy of arms, provisions, powder," he snapped out to an officer
+of Marmont's division approaching him, "which was to meet us here.
+Have you seen it?"
+
+"It has not appeared, Sire."
+
+"Has anything been heard of it?"
+
+"Nothing yet, your Majesty."
+
+"Have you scouted for it, sent out parties to find it?  Where is the
+Comte de Grouchy?"
+
+"I come from him, Sire.  He is ahead of the Duke of Ragusa's corps."
+
+"Has he come in touch with the enemy?"
+
+"Not yet, Sire."
+
+"The roads?"
+
+"Worse than those we have passed over."
+
+"Marshal Marmont?"
+
+"I was ordered by General Grouchy to report to him and then----"
+
+"Well, sir?"
+
+"He sent me back here."
+
+"For what purpose?"
+
+"To find you, Sire, and to say to you most respectfully from the
+Marshal that the roads are absolutely impassable.  He has put four
+teams to a gun and can scarcely move them.  To advance is impossible.
+He but awaits your order to retrace his steps."
+
+"Retrace his steps!" shouted Napoleon, raising his voice.  "Never!  He
+must go on.  Our only hope, our only chance, salvation lies in an
+instant advance.  He knows that as well as I."
+
+"But the guns, Sire?"
+
+"Abandon the guns if necessary.  We'll take what cannon we need from
+the enemy."
+
+And that admission evidenced the force with which the Emperor held his
+convictions as to the present movement.  Great, indeed, was the
+necessity which would induce Napoleon to order the abandonment of a
+single gun.
+
+"But, Sire----"
+
+"Monsieur," said Napoleon severely, "you are a young officer, although
+you wear the insignia of a Colonel.  Know that I am not accustomed to
+have my commands questioned by anyone.  You will return to Marshal
+Marmont at once.  Exchange your tired horse for one of my own.  I still
+have a fresh one, I believe.  And spare him not.  Tell the Duc de
+Ragusa that he must advance at all hazards.  Advance with the guns if
+he can, if not then without them.  Stay, as for the guns----  Where is
+the Mayor of the town?"
+
+"Here, Sire," answered a plain, simple man in civilian's dress standing
+near.
+
+"Are there any horses left in the countryside, monsieur?"
+
+"Many, your Majesty, wherever the Russians have not passed."
+
+"I thought so.  Gentlemen," the Emperor turned to his staff, "ride in
+every direction.  Take the mounted escort.  Bid them scatter.  Go to
+every village and farm.  Ask my good French people to bring their
+horses in, to lend them to the Emperor.  It is for France.  I strike
+the last blow for them, their homes, their wives and children.  Fortune
+smiles upon us.  The enemy is delivered into our hands.  They shall be
+liberally rewarded."
+
+"The men are hungry," cried a voice from a dark group of officers in
+the background.
+
+"They are weary," exclaimed another, under cover of the darkness.
+
+"Who spoke?" asked the Emperor, but he did not wait for an answer,
+perhaps he did not care for one.  "I, too, am hungry, I, your Emperor,
+and I am weary.  I have eaten nothing and have ridden the day long.
+There is bread, there are guns in the Field-Marshal's army.  We shall
+take from Blücher all that we need.  Then we can rest.  You hear?"
+
+"We hear, Sire."
+
+"Good.  Whose division is yonder?"
+
+"Mine, Sire," answered Marshal Ney, riding up and saluting.
+
+"Ah, Prince," said Napoleon, riding over toward him.  "Michael," he
+added familiarly as he drew nearer, "I am confident that the Prussians
+have no idea that we are nearer than Troyes to them.  We must get
+forward with what we can at once and fall on them before they learn of
+our arrival and concentrate.  We must move swiftly."
+
+"To-morrow," suggested Ney.
+
+"To-night."
+
+"The conscripts of my young guard are in a state of great exhaustion
+and depression.  If they could have the night to rest in----"
+
+Napoleon shook his head.
+
+"Advance with those who can march," he said decisively.  "We must fall
+on Blücher in the morning or we are lost."
+
+"Impossible!" ejaculated Ney.
+
+"I banished that word from my vocabulary when I first went into Italy,"
+said Napoleon.  "Where are your troops?"
+
+"Here, your Majesty," answered Ney, turning, pointing back to dark
+huddled ranks drooping over their muskets at parade rest.
+
+Napoleon wheeled his horse and trotted over to them.  The iron hand of
+Ney had kept some sort of discipline and some sort of organization, but
+the distress and dismay of the conscripts was but too plainly evident.
+
+"My friends," said the Emperor, raising his voice, "you are hungry----"
+a dull murmur of acquiescence came from the battalion--"you are weary
+and cold----" a louder murmur--"you are discouraged----" silence.
+"Some of you have no arms.  You would fain rest.  Well I, your Emperor,
+am weary, I am hungry, I am old enough to be the father of most of you
+and I am wet and cold.  But we must forget those things.  You wonder
+why I have marched you all the day and most of the night through the
+cold and the wet and the mud.  The Prussians are in front of us.  They
+are drawn out in long widely separated columns.  They have no idea that
+we are near them.  One more effort, one more march, and we shall fall
+upon them.  We shall pierce their lines, cut them to pieces, beat them
+in detail; we shall seize their camps, their guns, their clothes, their
+food.  We shall take back the plunder they have gathered as they have
+ravaged France.  They have stolen and destroyed and murdered--you have
+seen it.  One more march, one more battle for----" he hesitated a
+moment--"for me," he said with magnificent egotism and audacity.  "I
+have not forgotten how to lead, nor you to follow.  We will show them
+that at the great game of war we are still master players.  Come, if
+there be one too weary to walk, he shall have his Emperor's horse and I
+will march afoot as I have often done for France."
+
+He spoke with all his old force and power.  The tremendous personal
+magnetism of the man was never more apparent.  The young men of Ney's
+corps thrilled to the splendid appeal.  There was something
+fascinating, alluring in the picture.  They hated the Prussians.  They
+had seen the devastated fields, the dead men and women, the ruined
+farms.  The light from the fire played mystically about the great
+Emperor on his white horse.  He seemed to them like a demi-god.  There
+were a few old soldiers in the battalion.  The habit of years was upon
+them.
+
+"_Vive l'Empereur_," one veteran shouted.
+
+Another caught it up and finally the whole division roared out that
+frightful and thrilling battle cry in unison.
+
+"That's well," said the Emperor, a little color coming into his face.
+"If the lads are of this mettle, what may I expect of the old soldiers
+of the guard?"
+
+"Forward!  Forward!" shouted a beardless boy in one of the front ranks.
+
+"You hear, Marshal Ney?" said Napoleon, turning to his fighting
+Captain.  "With such soldiers as these I can go anywhere and do
+anything."
+
+"Your Majesty," cried a staff officer, riding up at a gallop, "the
+peasants are bringing their horses in.  There is a section of country
+to the eastward which has not yet been ridden over by the enemy."
+
+"Good," said the Emperor.  "As fast as they come up dispatch them to
+Marmont.  You will find me there by the fire in the square for the next
+hour.  Meanwhile I want the next brigade of horse that reaches Sézanne
+to be directed to scout in the direction of Aumenier for that missing
+wagon-train for which we----"
+
+There was a sudden confusion on the edge of the line.  The grenadiers
+forming a circle around the fire had caught a man wearing a Russian
+greatcoat and were dragging him into the light.
+
+"What's this?  _Mon Dieu_!" exclaimed Napoleon, recognizing the green
+uniform which he had seen on many a battlefield.  "A Russian!  Here!"
+
+"A soldier of France, Sire," came the astonishing answer in excellent
+French from the supposed prisoner.
+
+At this amazing remark in their own tongue the bewildered grenadiers on
+guard released him.  He tore off the green cap and dashed it to the
+ground.
+
+"Give me a shako.  Let me feel the bearskin of the guard again," he
+cried impetuously, as his hands ripped open his overcoat, disclosing
+his uniform.  "I am a grenadier of the line, Sire."
+
+Napoleon peered down at him.
+
+"Ah," he said, "I know you.  You are called----"
+
+"Bal-Arrêt, your Majesty."
+
+"Exactly.  Have you stopped any more this time?"
+
+"There is one in my left arm.  Your guards hurt when they grasped it.
+But it is nothing.  I didn't come here to speak of bullets, but of----"
+
+"What?"
+
+"The Russians, the Prussians."
+
+"Where did you get that coat and cap?"
+
+"I rode with Jean Marteau," answered the grenadier, greatly excited.
+
+"What of him?  Is he alive?"
+
+"I think so."
+
+"Did you leave him?"
+
+"I did, Sire."
+
+"And why?"
+
+"To bring you news."
+
+"Of Marshal Blücher's armies?"
+
+The grenadier nodded his head.
+
+"What of them?  Quick man, your tidings?  Have you been among them?"
+
+"All day long."
+
+"Where are they?"
+
+"General Yorck with his men is at Étampes."
+
+"And Macdonald?"
+
+"Fighting a rearguard action beyond Château-Thierry."
+
+"On what side of the Marne?"
+
+"The north side, Sire.  Right at La Ferte-sous-Jouarre."
+
+"What else?"
+
+"Sacken's Russians are advancing along the main road through Montmirail
+toward Paris.  Olusuvieff's Russian division is at Champaubert."
+
+"And where are Blücher and Wittgenstein and Wrede?"
+
+"Major Marteau will have to tell you that, Sire.  He went that way."
+
+"You separated?"
+
+"Yes, Sire."
+
+"You were to meet somewhere?"
+
+"At the Château d'Aumenier."
+
+"Did you go there?"
+
+"I did, Sire."
+
+"And you found?"
+
+"The ground around the château filled with wagons."
+
+"A train?"
+
+"Of arms, clothing, ammunition, everything the army lacks."
+
+"What was it doing there?"
+
+"There had been a battle.  Horses and men were slain; Frenchmen,
+Cossacks, Russians.  I pillaged one wagon," continued the grenadier.
+
+He drew forth from the pocket of the coat a bottle and a handful of
+hard bread, together with what remained of the roast pig.
+
+"Will you share your meal with a brother soldier?" asked the Emperor,
+who was ordinarily the most fastidious of mortals, but who could on
+occasion assume the manner of the rudest private soldier.
+
+"Gladly," said the proud and delighted grenadier, handing the bottle,
+the bread and the meat to Napoleon, who took them and drank and ate
+rapidly as he continued to question amid the approving murmurs of the
+soldiers, who were so delighted to see their Emperor eat like a common
+man that they quite forgot their own hunger.
+
+"What were the wagons doing there unguarded?"
+
+"I think the men who captured the train were pursuing its guard.  Just
+as I approached the chateau they came riding back.  I remained quiet,
+watching them ride up to the door of the house, which they found barred
+apparently, for I could hear them beat on it with the butts of their
+sabers and pistols.  They built a fire and suddenly I heard shots.  By
+the light I could see Russians falling.  It came into my mind that
+Major Marteau had seized the castle and was holding it."
+
+"Alone?"
+
+"One soldier of yours, Sire, ought to be able to hold his own against a
+thousand Russians, especially inside a castle wall."
+
+"And what did you then?"
+
+"I made ready my pistol, Sire, and when I saw a man climbing the wall
+to get in an open window I shot him."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"They ran after me, fired at me but I escaped in the darkness."
+
+"You ran?"
+
+"Because I knew that you must have the news and as Marteau was there it
+was necessary for me to bring it."
+
+"You have done well," said the Emperor in great satisfaction.  "I thank
+you for your tidings and your meal.  I have never tasted a better.  Do
+you wish to go to the rear?"
+
+"For a scratch in the arm?" asked old Bullet-Stopper scornfully.  "I,
+who have carried balls in my breast and have some there now?"
+
+"I like your spirit," said the Emperor, "and I will----"
+
+At this instant a staff officer rode up.
+
+"General Maurice's cavalry is just arriving, Sire," he said.
+
+"Good," said the Emperor.  "The brave light-horseman!  My sword hand!
+I will ride with him myself.  Tell the Comte de Vivonne to lead his
+division toward Aumenier, I will join him at once."  He turned to those
+of his staff who remained in the square.  "Remain here, gentlemen.
+Tell the arriving troops that at daybreak we shall beat the Russians at
+Champaubert.  Bid them hasten if they would take part in the victory
+and the plunder.  The rest will be easy."
+
+"And you, Sire?"
+
+"I ride with the cavalry brigade to Aumenier.  Tell the men that the
+wagon-train has arrived.  We shall seize it.  Food, arms, will be
+distributed in the morning.  Is that you, Maurice?" he continued, as a
+gallant young general officer attended by a few aides rode up.
+
+"At your service, Sire," answered a gay voice.
+
+"Your cavalry?"
+
+"Weary but ready to follow the Emperor anywhere."
+
+"Forward, then.  There is food and drink at the end of our ride.  It is
+but a few miles to Aumenier."
+
+"May I have a horse and go with you, Sire?" asked the old grenadier.
+
+"Assuredly.  See that he gets one and a Cross of the Legion of Honor,
+too.  Come, gentlemen," continued the Emperor, putting spurs to his
+tired horse.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+HOW MARTEAU WON THE CROSS
+
+For a long time the besiegers had given little evidence of their
+presence.  Through the loop-holes in the shutters fires could be seen
+burning, figures coming and going.  They were busy about something, but
+just what was not apparent.  They had been unmolested by the defenders.
+Marteau had but three pistols and therefore three shots left.  Pierre,
+upstairs, had but one.  To kill one or two more Russians would not have
+bettered their condition.  The pistols should be saved for a final
+emergency.  He had called up to Pierre and had cautioned him.  There
+was nothing to do but to wait.
+
+From time to time the silence was broken by snatches of conversation.
+As, for instance, the Countess Laure, observing that Marteau wore upon
+his breast the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor, thus began,
+
+"You wear a great decoration for a simple----"  She stopped awkwardly.
+
+"For a simple peasant you were about to say, mademoiselle," answered
+Marteau, smiling with a little touch of scorn.  "In France to-day even
+a simple peasant may deserve and receive the favor of the Emperor."
+
+"I am sure that you are worthy of whatever distinction you may have
+achieved, monsieur," said the Countess gently, grieved at her lack of
+consideration and anxious to make amends.  "And as one who takes pride
+in all associated with her ancient house will you tell me how you got
+that?"
+
+"It was at Leipsic."
+
+"Ah, we beat you there," said one Russian meaningly.
+
+"Yes," said Marteau.  "Perhaps after having seen your backs so many
+times we could afford to turn ours upon you once."
+
+"I was there," said the other Russian triumphantly.
+
+"Were you also at Friedland, at Eylau, at Borodino, at----" began
+Marteau angrily.
+
+"Gentlemen!" said the Countess.
+
+"Forgive, mademoiselle," said the Frenchman quickly.  "I, at least,
+will not fight our battles over in the presence of a woman."
+
+"But the cross?"
+
+"It was nothing.  I saved an eagle.  The Emperor bestowed it on me."
+
+"Tell me about it."
+
+"I was on the bridge at Leipsic when it was blown up by that fatal
+mistake.  The Port-Aigle was torn to pieces.  The Colonel seized the
+Eagle as it fell from his hand.  I was next to him--afoot.  A storm of
+bullets swept over the river.  As the Colonel on his horse was pushed
+over the parapet by the flying fugitives a shot struck him.  He had
+just strength enough to gasp out, 'Save the Eagle' as he was swept
+away.  I was lucky enough to catch the staff--a bullet had broken it--I
+seized the upper half with the Eagle and the flag which had almost been
+shot to pieces during the battle--the Fifth-of-the-Line had done its
+full duty that day--and I swam with it toward the bank.  Really,
+mademoiselle, any soldier would have done as well.  I only happened to
+be there."
+
+"Go on, monsieur, I wish to hear everything."
+
+"At your pleasure, then," said Marteau reluctantly, continuing his
+story.
+
+"The river was filled with men and horses.  Marshal Poniatowski was
+near me.  He had been wounded, and guided his swimming horse with his
+left hand.  The current was swift.  We were swept down the stream.  A
+cavalryman next to me was shot from his horse.  He fell over upon me.
+I was forced under water a moment.  Another horse, swimming
+frantically, struck my shoulder with his hoof, fortunately it was the
+left one.  My arm was broken.  I seized the tatters of the flag in my
+teeth--you know I am an expert swimmer, mademoiselle?"
+
+"I know it," answered the girl, her eyes gleaming at the recital.
+"Have you forgot the day when, disregarding your warnings, I fell into
+the river and was swept away and how you plunged in and brought me to
+the shore and never told my father?"
+
+"I have not forgot," said the young officer simply, "but it was not for
+me to remind you."
+
+"And I have not forgot, either.  But continue the story," said the
+young Countess, her eyes shining, her breath coming quicker, as she
+listened to the gallant tale so modestly set forth.
+
+"With my right arm I swam as best I could.  There was a horse nearby
+which had lost his rider.  I grasped the saddle horn.  Somehow I
+managed to reach the shore with the Eagle.  I clambered up the bank,
+slippery with water and with blood, mademoiselle.  The Russians were
+firing at us from the town.  A bullet struck me."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"I am ashamed to say, in the back," said the soldier, flushing at the
+recollection.  "But if I had stood up and faced them the Eagle would
+have been lost."
+
+The Russian laughed scornfully.
+
+"In the back," he cried meaningly, "a fine place for a soldier!"
+
+"Shame," said the Countess quickly.
+
+"If I had faced them," returned the French soldier simply, "I should
+have been shot in the breast and killed, perhaps, but I should have
+lost the Eagle.  It was my business to save the Eagle at all hazards,
+even though I should be branded with cowardice for having done so," he
+went on hotly.
+
+"I understand," said the Countess.  "I, who have known you from a
+child, know that you are a brave man, monsieur.  Proceed."
+
+"I staggered up the bank.  Fortune had brought me to the place where
+the Emperor stood watching.  There were staff officers about him.  Oh,
+very few.  The slaughter had been dreadful, the confusion was
+inconceivable, mademoiselle.  They made way for me.  How well I
+remember the whole scene," continued the young Frenchman.  "The Emperor
+stood a little apart, his face pale, his head bent.  He was frowning
+and whistling."
+
+"Whistling!  Damme," burst out Sir Gervaise Yeovil, deeply interested
+in the unpretentious account of so heroic a deed.  "What was he
+whistling?"
+
+"_Malbrook-s'en-va-t'en-guerre_."
+
+"By gad," roared the Englishman.  "Marlborough beat you.  Just wait
+until we come in touch with you."
+
+"There was no Napoleon there," observed Marteau simply, as if that were
+adequate answer.
+
+"Napoleon or no Napoleon, wait until Wellington----"
+
+"We shall wait."
+
+"Pardon, Monsieur Yeovil," said the Countess, "will you not allow
+Monsieur Marteau to proceed?"
+
+"There is little more to tell, mademoiselle.  The Emperor saw me come
+up.  I was wet, my arm hung useless, the bullet had gone through my
+body.  There was blood on my uniform coat.  I thought that I was dying,
+that my end was at hand.  My strength was ebbing.  I concentrated all
+my will and power.  Holding the Eagle, I lifted it up in salute.  'What
+have we here?' cried the Emperor, fixing his glance upon me.
+'Lieutenant Marteau,' I answered.  His voice came to me as in a dream
+and my own voice sounded far away.  'Of what regiment?'  'The
+Fifth-of-the-Line, Sire.'  'You have saved the Eagle.'  'Yes, Sire,' I
+replied.  And then consciousness left me.  As I fell I heard the
+Emperor say, 'See that he gets the Legion of Honor if he survives.'
+People caught me in their arms.  When I woke up I was in France.  Here,
+at Aumenier, in my father's house."
+
+Young Marteau did not add to his story that, as he fell, he heard the
+Emperor, deeply moved, exclaim:
+
+"With such men what resources does not France possess?"
+
+"And did the Emperor give you the cross?" eagerly asked the girl.
+
+"It was forgot until a few days since.  When I recovered I rejoined the
+regiment.  To take the duty of an officer suddenly ill I happened to be
+stationed on service near the Emperor at Nogent.  When others were
+urging him to make terms, I, though a young soldier, ventured to
+express myself to the contrary."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"His Majesty pardoned the liberty, recognized me, gave me his own
+cross, made me a Major on his staff."
+
+"And the Eagle?"
+
+"It is still carried at the head of what remains of the
+Fifth-of-the-Line," said the young man proudly.
+
+"When we have taken your Emperor we will do away with those Eagles, and
+after we restore her rightful king to France we shall give her back her
+ancient flag of golden lilies," said the Russian.
+
+"Precisely," said Marteau sharply.  "When you have taken the Emperor
+you may do all that.  The men who have made France so great under him
+will care little what you do, monsieur, under such circumstances."
+
+"And why will they be so indifferent, Monsieur Jean?" asked the
+Countess curiously.
+
+"They will be dead, mademoiselle, and their Emperor, too, unless God
+preserve his life for some future use."
+
+"Happy," said the young girl, "is the man who can inspire such
+devotion, monsieur.  Although I have been trained differently I think
+that----"
+
+What the Countess thought was never said for at that instant the door
+at the farther end of the great room was thrown open suddenly with a
+violent crash, and into the apartment came crowding the score of
+villains and scoundrels who had been imprisoned below stairs.  They had
+managed to break out in some way and had returned to the great hall to
+seize again their captives and to wreak their vengeance upon their
+betrayer.  They had got at the wine and were inflamed with drink as
+well as revenge and savage passion.  They had realized, of course, that
+some enemies were outside but they had not clearly grasped the
+situation.  All they thought of at the time were the people in the
+great hall.  They came crowding through the big doorway, several of
+them handling pistols and all of them shouting savage and fearsome
+cries of revenge and triumph.
+
+Instantly the pistols were presented, the triggers pressed and half a
+dozen bullets swept through the room.  Marteau had seen the first
+movement of the door.  He had divined what had happened.  Before the
+pistols had been leveled he was by the side of the Countess.  The table
+at which she sat was a huge and heavy one.  With one movement he hurled
+her, chair and all, to the floor, with the other he threw the table on
+its side in front of her.  One of the bullets grazed his cheek, the
+others swept harmlessly through the room.  He seized from another table
+two of his remaining pistols and discharged them squarely into the face
+of the crowding mass at the other end of the room at point-blank range.
+The sounds of the shots still echoed when he cried out:
+
+"The knife, Countess.  Cut the bonds of the prisoners.  We must fight
+here for our lives and your honor."
+
+The Countess Laure was quick to understand.
+
+"You are safe now.  They have no more shots.  Hasten," he urged,
+reaching down a hand and assisting her to her feet.
+
+He clutched the barrels of his pistols thereafter and hurled them
+directly into the faces of the infuriated men.  Five of them were down
+and his prompt action had given the people in the room a little respite.
+
+"Gentlemen," cried Marteau, sweeping out his sword and stepping into
+the open space between the prisoners and the overturned table on one
+hand and the renegades on the other, "quick, take your swords for the
+honor of the Countess and for your lives."
+
+The man who led the renegades had some idea of military tactics.  He
+spoke a few sharp words and half a dozen of them backed out of the
+room, entered the outer hall and ran around to the door on the side of
+the apartment which gave access to the great hall.  The little band of
+defenders retreated into a corner near the fireplace, which was raised
+a step or two above the floor of the room.
+
+Meanwhile Laure had cut the lashings of the Russians, the Cossacks, and
+the Englishman.  They staggered to their feet numb from their long
+bondage, but inspired by the frightful imminence of their peril they
+seized their swords and presented a bold front to the two-sided enemy.
+There was one pistol left charged.  Marteau handed that to the girl.
+
+"The last shot, mademoiselle," he said meaningly, "for yourself if----"
+
+"I understand."
+
+"If you could only get to the door," growled the Russian commander, "my
+men outside would make short work of----"
+
+"It is impossible until we have dealt with these villains," said
+Marteau.  "On guard!" he cried as the marauders suddenly leaped forward.
+
+The big Englishman, burly, tremendously powerful for all his advancing
+years, dropped his sword for a moment, picked up one of the heavy oak
+chairs and hurled it full into the face of the larger body at the
+further end of the room.  One stumbled over it, two others fell.  The
+next moment both parties were upon the little group.  In their haste,
+in their drunken excitement, the marauders had not thought to recharge
+their pistols.  With swords, scythes and clubs they fell on the six
+men.  Their numbers worked to their disadvantage.  Three of the men
+surrounding the woman, the Frenchman and the two Russian guardsmen,
+were accomplished swordsmen.  The Cossacks were not to be disdained in
+rough-and-tumble fighting and the Englishman was a valiant ally.  Their
+racial antagonisms were forgot in their common danger and the deadly
+peril of the woman.
+
+The swords of the soldiers flashed as they thrust and parried.  The
+Cossacks, less skillful, strove to beat down the attackers by sweeping
+slashes--not the best method for such close fighting.  One Cossack was
+pierced through the breast by a thrust from a renegade and another was
+cut from his neck almost to his heart by a blow from a scythe.  One of
+the Russian officers was wounded, fell to his knees and was dispatched.
+The Englishman was hit by a billet of wood and dazed.  Marteau and the
+other Russian were still unharmed.  But it was going hard with them.
+In fact, a fierce blow on his blade from a bludgeon shivered the weapon
+of the Frenchman.  A sword was aimed at his heart.  There was a
+blinding flash, a detonation, and the man who held it staggered back.
+The Countess, the last pistol almost touching the man's body, had
+pulled the trigger.  Marteau seized the sword of the man who had
+menaced him.  The next instant the château was shaken by a terrific
+roar.  The Russians outside having constructed a rude bomb had blown up
+the door.
+
+For a second the combat ceased.  The hall was full of smoke.  From
+outside came shots, shrieks, cries, loud curses and groans, cheers,
+French and Russian voices, the galloping of horses, words of command.
+The French were there.
+
+"To me," shouted Marteau at the top of his voice.  "France!"
+
+The first to heed the call was young Pierre.  He descended the hall,
+watched the conflict a moment and, having possessed himself of a club,
+battered down the man nearest him, unsuspecting an attack from the
+rear, then ranged himself by the side of the surviving Russian and the
+Frenchman.  He did not come through scathless, however, for one of the
+renegades cut him fiercely as he passed.  He stood erect by an effort
+of will but it was evident he could now add little to the defense.  The
+Russian took the pistol from his hand.  The next second the great hall
+was filled with shouting figures of soldiers.  Into the smoke and
+confusion of the room came Napoleon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+AN EMPEROR AND A GENTLEMAN
+
+"The Emperor!" cried Marteau.
+
+The Russian officer recognized Napoleon as quickly as the other.  The
+Emperor advanced, the soldiers crowding after threw themselves upon the
+renegades immediately, while the Emperor strode forward alone.  The
+young Russian noble was a quicker witted man than his countrymen
+ordinarily were.  He saw a chance to end everything then and there, to
+do his country a great service, although his life would be forfeited
+instantly in the doing of it.
+
+"My chance," he shouted, raising Pierre's pistol.
+
+The shot was an easy one.  It was impossible to miss.  Marteau had
+stepped forward.  The thrill in the tones of the man's voice attracted
+his attention.  One glance and he saw all.  He threw himself in front
+of the Emperor just as the Russian pressed the trigger.  At the same
+moment the Countess Laure, who stood nearest him, struck up the
+Russian's arm.  The bullet buried itself in the ceiling above.
+
+"Thank God!" cried Marteau as the sound died away and he saw the
+Emperor standing unharmed.
+
+Napoleon's keen eye had seen everything.
+
+"It is this lady," said he gracefully, "to whom my safety is due.  And
+I am not unmindful that you interposed your own body between the bullet
+and your Emperor."
+
+"Your Majesty," cried Marteau, now that his Emperor was safe, fain to
+discharge his duty, "I have tidings of the utmost importance.  I have
+held this château and detained this convoy the Russians had captured.
+It contains powder, food, guns----"
+
+"I know," said the Emperor.  "It comes in the nick of time."
+
+"And I have to report, Sire, that the corps of Wittgenstein, Wrede and
+of the Field-Marshal Blücher, himself, are strung out at long intervals
+to the eastward of Champaubert.  They have no idea of your proximity."
+
+"Are the divisions in supporting distance of one another?"
+
+"No, Sire.  Olsuvieff's division lies isolated at Champaubert.  As to
+the divisions of Sacken and Yorck I think----"
+
+"I have already received information concerning them," said the
+Emperor, "from your friend, Bullet-Stopper.  He should be here."
+
+"I am here, your Majesty," roared the grenadier, stepping forward, "and
+saving your Imperial Presence I am glad to see the lad.  It was I,"
+continued the grenadier, addressing Marteau and presuming on the
+familiarity with which Napoleon sometimes treated his men, "that fired
+the shot that brought the man down from the window."
+
+"And that shot saved us," said young Marteau.  "This young peasant
+here----" he bent over Pierre--"he is not dead, Sire, but sorely
+wounded--he kept them out up there while we held the room here."
+
+"But these?" asked Napoleon, looking at the prisoners.
+
+"Renegades who had taken advantage of the absence of the Russians
+pursuing the escort to the wagon-train to seize the castle."
+
+"Why did you not impress them for the defense thereof?" asked the
+Emperor.  "They were French undoubtedly----"
+
+"I found them fighting against us."
+
+Rapidly and in few words Marteau told the story of the night, touching
+lightly upon his own part, but the Emperor was soldier enough to read
+between the words of the narration and reconstruct the scene instantly.
+He turned to one of his officers.
+
+"Take those scoundrels out.  Put them up against the wall and shoot
+them out of hand.  They disgrace the name of France.  Bid the surgeons
+of the command come here to look to the wounded."
+
+"They are past hope, except the French boy, your Majesty," said Yeovil,
+who having recovered his own consciousness speedily had been examining
+them meanwhile.  "I have some skill in wounds.  One Cossack is already
+dead.  It would be a mercy to put that other out of his misery with
+that horrible scythe slash."
+
+"The Russian officer?"
+
+"Gone, too."
+
+"And who are you?"
+
+"I am a barrister," answered the Englishman in bad but comprehensible
+French.
+
+"A man of the law.  You look it not," said the Emperor, smiling faintly.
+
+"Necessity makes us all resort to the sword," said Sir Gervaise,
+looking at his bloody blade, for he had fought valiantly with the rest
+and would have been killed but he had been knocked senseless with that
+billet of wood which had hit him on the head and felled him to the
+floor.
+
+"You are, by your language, an Englishman."
+
+"I am, and proud of it."
+
+"The English," said Napoleon slowly, "have been my bitterest enemies."
+
+"Pardon, Sire," said the Russian bluntly, "we children of the white
+Czar will dispute that honor with them."
+
+"And you sought to kill me?" said the Emperor, turning upon the other.
+"You are a brave man," he added.
+
+"And I would have done so but for----"
+
+"Bah!" interrupted Napoleon contemptuously.  "The bullet is not molded
+that is destined for me.  My career is not to be cut short by the hand
+of any young boy who wears the uniform of the Russian guard.  Silence,
+monsieur!  Take him prisoner.  See that he be kept under close guard.
+When we have taken Olsuvieff's division to-morrow and then Sacken's
+there will be many of his comrades to bear him company to Paris.  Did
+any of the men outside escape?"
+
+"No, Sire," answered General Maurice, entering the room just in time to
+hear the question.  "The wood around the château was completely filled
+with my men.  Those we have not killed here we have taken prisoner.
+Most of them were shot down as they strove to break through."
+
+"That is well," said the Emperor.
+
+"And the convoy?" asked General Maurice.
+
+"Detach a regiment to escort it back to Sézanne.  Let it be distributed
+to the regiments and divisions as they arrive."
+
+"And those who have gone on ahead?"
+
+"Their arms, equipment and provisions are in the hands of the
+Prussians.  We shall march immediately.  As for you, mademoiselle, what
+is your name?"
+
+"I am the Comtesse Laure d'Aumenier."
+
+"H'm, the daughter of the Comte Robert d'Aumenier, who made his
+submission to the Empire and received back his estates, I believe?"
+
+"The same, Sire."
+
+"Where is he?"
+
+"Dead, Sire, these two years."
+
+"And you?"
+
+"I went to my uncle in England."
+
+"To the enemy!" exclaimed Napoleon sharply.
+
+"To the enemy," answered the Countess, looking at him courageously.
+
+"And you came back for what purpose?"
+
+"The estates are to be sold.  There were certain papers of which I
+alone knew the hiding place.  There was no way for me to reach them
+save by the courtesy of the Czar Alexander.  He sent me to
+Field-Marshal Blücher with instructions to provide me with an escort to
+this château.  The Field-Marshal did so, and the rest you know."
+
+"And you propose to sell estates that have been in the hands of the
+family for so long a period?  It seems to me that I visited them once
+when I was a military student at Brienne.  Was not your uncle there at
+the time, an officer in command?"
+
+"I have heard him say so."
+
+"I remember him very well now."
+
+"And he you, your Majesty."
+
+"And he intends now to sell the estates?"
+
+"He did, Sire, but now that there is a possibility of the re--of
+the----"
+
+"The return of the Bourbons," said Napoleon, divining her thought as
+the Countess paused in confusion, "There is no possibility of that,
+mademoiselle.  In three weeks the armies opposing me will have been
+hurled back beyond the frontier.  Your family has forfeited its rights
+to any consideration at my hands.  Your uncle is an _emigré_ who has
+never made his submission.  I find you, a Frenchwoman, in the company
+of my enemies.  Your estates are forfeited.  Major Marteau, I make you
+Comte d'Aumenier.  The domains are yours."
+
+"I accept them, your Majesty."
+
+"What!  Is it possible----" cried the Countess Laure, her face flaming.
+
+"Silence, mademoiselle.  By the laws of war I could have you shot.  It
+would be a fine example.  No Frenchman, however high in rank and
+station, no Frenchwoman, however young or beautiful, can fight against
+me and France with impunity.  Have you anything to say why I should not
+mete out to you this well-deserved punishment?"
+
+"Nothing," said the young woman with proud disdain.  "The revolution
+has taken the lives of many of my people.  I am not better than they.
+You are the very spirit of the revolution incarnate, Sire, and----"
+
+"Your Majesty," interposed General Maurice.
+
+"Well, sir?" said Napoleon.
+
+General Maurice, a famous light horseman, otherwise known as the Count
+de Vivonne, was an old friend and a devoted follower of the Emperor.
+He had interfered before on occasion between Napoleon and his victims.
+He knew the Emperor thoroughly and loved him.  He realized that it was
+his time to interpose, or someone's, and he had intuition enough to
+suspect that his interposition would be most welcome, that indeed
+Napoleon was playing, as he sometimes loved to do, a little comedy.
+With a wave of his hand the general checked Marteau, whom he knew
+slightly, who had sprung forward to protest to the Emperor at the words
+of the woman he loved.
+
+"Allow me a word, Sire," asked the General with that exquisite mixture
+of courtesy, deference and resolution which characterized his
+intercourse with the Emperor.
+
+"I am always glad to hear from you, my good Maurice," said the Emperor
+familiarly.  "What have you to say?"
+
+"This young woman is no traitor to you or to France, Sire, however
+strange her position."
+
+"How do you make that out?" asked the Emperor, the flickering of a
+smile playing about his lips.
+
+"It was her hand that struck up the Russian's pistol so that the bullet
+went there," the General of cavalry pointed upward a moment and then
+his hand fell until his index finger was trained upon the Emperor's
+heart, "instead of there," he added meaningly.
+
+"Very good," said the Emperor graciously.  "But had she not struck up
+that hand it was in Marteau's heart that the bullet would have lodged,
+not in mine, if I remember rightly."
+
+"And if that gives me a claim, Sire, to your consideration----"
+
+"Have I not rewarded you enough," asked the Emperor, "in adding the
+official stamp of a patent to the nobility of heart which is already
+yours and by giving you the forfeited lands of Aumenier to boot?"
+
+"And I would give them all for the safety of the lady yonder, whose
+family mine have served for eight hundred years, with whom I played
+when a boy, and be content to follow your Majesty as the simple soldier
+I have always been."
+
+"Brave heart and true," said the Emperor, touched.  "Mademoiselle, you
+cannot go back to Blücher.  Within two days his army will be no more.
+I will give you a safe conduct.  You can remain here for the night.
+Couriers will be dispatched to Troyes and to Paris under escort in the
+morning.  They will take you there.  You have friends there, I presume?"
+
+"Many."
+
+"You can remain there or, if opportunity arises, I will give orders to
+have you safely conducted so you can go back to England."
+
+"And me, Sire?" growled out Sir Gervaise Yeovil.
+
+The Emperor laughed.
+
+"I am too good a soldier to fight with men of the law," he said.  "You
+may go with your protégée and share her fortunes."
+
+"I thank your Majesty," said the Englishman, touched in his blunt
+nature by this extraordinary magnanimity.  "I will report your
+consideration to my king and his people and----"
+
+"And say to them that I long for the moment when I can measure swords
+with the Duke of Wellington."
+
+"And may that moment come speedily," returned Sir Gervaise.
+
+"As for the rest," said the Emperor, turning away in high good humor,
+"Marteau, you have been continuously on service for two days and two
+nights and you are wounded----"
+
+"It is nothing."
+
+"Remain here with old Bullet-Stopper, who, true to his name, has had
+another touch of the enemy's lead.  General Maurice, detail a score of
+the weakest of your command, those slightly wounded, to whom a night's
+rest would be useful.  They shall remain here until the courier stops
+for the lady and her English friend, and then under Marteau's command
+rejoin me in the morning."
+
+"Very good, Sire," said General Maurice, turning away.
+
+"I thank your Majesty," said Marteau, "for all you have done for me,
+and for the Comtesse d'Aumenier."
+
+"And I thank the Emperor also," said the young woman, smiling at him.
+"Your Majesty's generosity almost wins me to an imperial allegiance."
+
+Napoleon laughed.
+
+"Not even the Emperor," he said proudly, "is as black as he is painted
+by traitors and the English, Mademoiselle!" he bowed abruptly but not
+ungracefully.  "Come, gentlemen," he said, turning on his heel, "we
+must march."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+AN ALLIANCE DECLINED
+
+As the Emperor left the room, followed by the officers and men, a
+little silence fell over the three people remaining therein.
+
+"Monsieur le Comte d'Aumenier!" exclaimed the Countess Laure, wonder,
+derision and disdain in her voice.  "Your château, your domain!"
+
+She looked about the great hall and laughed scornfully.  Young Marteau
+turned crimson.  He threw up his head proudly.
+
+"Mademoiselle----" he began sternly, his voice full of indignant
+protest and resentment.
+
+"Don't be too hard on the lad, Countess," interposed the Englishman,
+his interest aroused.  "By gad, he saved your honor, your life, and----"
+
+"And, if I mistake not, I repaid the obligation by saving his life
+also, sir."
+
+"And I recognize it, and am grateful, mademoiselle."
+
+"I am ordered to report to you, sir," said a young man, coming into the
+room followed by a file of dismounted soldiers, and relieving a
+situation growing most tense.
+
+"Very good," said Marteau, devoutly thankful for the interruption.
+"You will dispose your men so as to guard the approaches of the château
+at every hand.  You will keep a strict lookout, and you will awaken me
+at dawn.  I think there is nothing to be apprehended from the enemy.
+The advance of the Emperor will have cleared all this section of even
+wandering troops of Cossacks by this time, but there are masterless men
+abroad."
+
+"I shall know how to deal with them," said the young officer, saluting.
+
+"You will also send men to remove these dead bodies and clear up this
+room.  Take this poor lad"--pointing to Pierre--"and see that he is
+cared for.  You will find a place for him upstairs.  Your regimental
+surgeon----"
+
+"Is attending to the wounded.  I will see that the boy gets every care,
+sir."
+
+"And Bal-Arrêt?"
+
+"His arm is dressed, and he is the admiration of the camp-fire."
+
+"I suppose so."
+
+"Any other orders, Major?"
+
+"None; you may go."
+
+"Mademoiselle," said Marteau, facing the Countess as the officer turned
+away, his men taking the dead bodies and the wounded peasant with them,
+"you wrong me terribly."
+
+"By saving your life, pray?" she asked contemptuously.
+
+"By--by--your----" he faltered and stopped.
+
+"In what way, Monsieur le Comte?" interrupted the young woman, who knew
+very well what the young man meant.
+
+In her irritating use of his new-found title, and in the way in which
+it fell from her lips, she cut him like a whip-lash, and she did it
+deliberately, too--he, the Count, forsooth!
+
+"Call me Marteau," he protested, stepping toward her, at which she fell
+back a little.  "Or, better still, as when I was a boy, your faithful
+follower, Jean."
+
+"If the Emperor has the power, he has made you a Count; if he has not,
+you are not."
+
+"What the Emperor makes me is of little consequence between us,
+mademoiselle.  It is what I am that counts."
+
+"And you remain, then, just Jean Marteau, of the loyal Marteaux?"
+
+"One does not wipe out the devotion of years in a moment.  My father
+served yours, your grandfather, your uncle, your father.  I am
+still"--he threw up his head proudly as he made the confession--"your
+man."
+
+"But the title----"
+
+"What is a title?  Your uncle is in England.  He does not purpose to
+come back to France unless he whom he calls his rightful king again
+rules the land.  Should that come to be, my poor patent of nobility
+would not be worth the parchment upon which it was engrossed."
+
+"And the lands?"
+
+"In any case I would but hold them in trust for the Marquis----"
+
+"My uncle is old, childless.  I am the last of the long line."
+
+"Then I will hold them for you, mademoiselle.  They are yours.  When
+this war is over, and France is at peace once more, I will take my
+father's place and keep them for you."
+
+"I could not accept such a sacrifice."
+
+"It would be no sacrifice."
+
+"I repeat, I cannot consent to be under such obligation, even to you."
+
+"There is a way----" began the young Frenchman softly, shooting a
+meaning glance at the young woman.
+
+"I do not understand," she faltered.
+
+"I am peasant born," admitted Marteau, "but, though no gentle blood
+flows through my veins, my family, I think, is as old as your own."
+
+"It is so," agreed the Countess, trembling as she began to catch the
+meaning.  "Oh, monsieur, stop."
+
+"As there has never a d'Aumenier failed to hold the château so there
+has never failed a Marteau to follow him," went on the young man,
+unheeding her protest.
+
+"I care as little for distinctions of rank as any demoiselle of old
+France, perhaps, but----"
+
+"Mademoiselle is right.  As for myself, I am a republican at heart,
+although I follow the Emperor.  I, too, care little for the
+distinctions of rank, for titles, yet I have earned a title in the
+service of the Emperor.  Through him, even humble men rise high and go
+far.  Will you----"
+
+"Monsieur, you must not go on!" cried the girl, "thrusting out her
+hand, as if to check him.
+
+"Pardon," said the young Frenchman resolutely.  "Having gone thus far I
+must go further.  Humble as I am, obscure though I be, I have dared to
+raise my eyes to heaven--to you, mademoiselle.  In my boyhood days you
+honored me with your friendship, your companionship.  I have made
+something of myself.  If mademoiselle would only deign to----  It is
+impossible that she should love me--it would be an ineffable
+condescension--but is there not some merit in the thought that the last
+survivors of the two lines should unite to----"
+
+"Impossible!" cried the Countess, her face flushing.  "My uncle would
+never consent.  In my veins is the oldest, the noblest blood of France.
+Even I could not----"
+
+"Be it so," said Marteau, paling, but standing very erect.  "It is, of
+course, impossible.  There is not honor enough or merit enough in the
+world," he went on bitterly, "to obliterate the difference in station
+between us.  The revolution, after all, changed little.  Keep the
+title, keep the estates, mademoiselle, I want them not," continued the
+young soldier bitterly.  "Having aspired to you, do you think these are
+compensations?"
+
+"You saved my life," said the girl falteringly.
+
+"It was nothing.  You did as much for me."
+
+"And my honor," she added.
+
+"I ask no reward."
+
+"By gad!" said Yeovil at this juncture, "I'm damned if I see how you
+can withstand him.  He is a gallant lad.  He has fought bravely and he
+has pleaded nobly.  You may not win the Countess--as a matter of fact
+she is pledged to my son--but you deserve her.  I've never been able to
+understand any kind of women, much less Frenchwomen, saving your
+presence, mademoiselle.  Base-born you may be, Major Marteau, but I
+know a gentleman when I see him, I flatter myself, and, damme, young
+man, here's my hand.  I can understand your Emperor better since he can
+inspire the devotion of men like you."
+
+The two men clasped hands.  The Countess looked on.  She stepped softly
+nearer to them.  She laid her hand on Marteau's shoulder.
+
+"Monsieur--Jean," she said, and there was a long pause between the two
+words, "I would that I could grant your request, but it is--you
+see--you know I cannot.  I am betrothed to Captain Yeovil, with my
+uncle's consent, of course.  I am a very unhappy woman," she ended,
+although just what she meant by that last sentence she hardly knew.
+
+"And this Captain Yeovil, he is a soldier?" asked Marteau.
+
+"Under Wellington," answered the father.
+
+"Now may God grant that I may meet him!"
+
+"You'll find him a gallant officer," answered the sturdy old Englishman
+proudly.
+
+"When I think of his father I know that to be true," was the polite
+rejoinder.
+
+The little Countess sank down on the chair, buried her face in her
+hands and burst into tears.
+
+"Well, of all the----" began the Englishman, but the Frenchman checked
+him.
+
+"Mademoiselle," he said softly, "were every tear a diamond they could
+not make for me so precious a diadem as they do when I think that you
+weep for me.  I wish you joy with your English captain.  I am your
+humble servant ever."
+
+And Laure d'Aumenier felt very much comforted by those words.  It was
+absurd, inconceivable, impossible, of course, and yet no handsomer,
+braver, truer, more considerate gentleman had ever crossed her horizon
+than this descendant of an ancient line of self-respecting, honorable
+yeomen.  She contrasted him with Captain Yeovil, and the contrast was
+not to Marteau's disadvantage!  No, decidedly not!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE THUNDERBOLT STROKE
+
+On the tenth of February, 1814, for the first time in many days, the
+sun shone brightly.  Nevertheless there was little change in the
+temperature; the thaw still prevailed.  The sun's heat was not great
+enough to dry the roads, nor was the weather sufficiently cold to
+freeze them.  As the Emperor wrote to his brother, with scarcely any
+exaggeration, there was still six feet of mud on highways and by-paths.
+
+Napoleon, by rapid marching at the head of Maurice's Squadrons d'Élite,
+mounted grenadiers, chasseurs, hussars and dragoons, had easily
+attained a position in front of the van of the army commanded by
+Marmont, which had rested a few hours at St. Prix, where the road
+crossed the Petit Morin on a bridge.  His requisition on the peasantry
+had been honored, and great numbers of fresh, vigorous draft horses had
+been brought in from all sides.  There was not much speed to be got out
+of these farm animals, to be sure, but they were of prodigious
+strength.  The ordinary gun teams were relieved, and numbers of these
+plow-horses attached to the limbers pulled the precious artillery
+steadily toward the enemy.
+
+Scouts had discovered the fact that Olsuvieff's division was preparing
+breakfast on the low plateau upon which was situated the village of
+Champaubert, which had been observed by Marteau and Bal-Arrêt.
+Napoleon reconnoitered the place in person from the edge of the wood.
+Nansouty's cavalry had earlier driven some Russian skirmishers out of
+Baye, but Olsuvieff apparently had no conception of the fact that the
+whole French army was hard by, and he had contented himself with
+sending out a few scouts, who, unfortunately for him, scouted in the
+wrong direction.
+
+While waiting for the infantry under Marmont to come up, Napoleon sent
+Nansouty's cavalry around to the left to head off Olsuvieff's advance
+and interpose between him and the rear guard of Sacken's division.
+Even the noise of the little battle--for the skirmish was a hot one--a
+mile down the road, did not apprise the Russian of his danger, and it
+was not until the long columns of the French came out of the wood and
+deployed and until the guns were hauled into the clearing and wheeled
+into action, that he awoke to the fact that an army was upon him and he
+would have to fight for his life.
+
+With his unerring genius Napoleon had struck at the key position, the
+very center of Blücher's long drawn-out line.  With but thirty thousand
+men attacking eighty thousand he had so maneuvered as to be in
+overwhelming force at the point of contact!  In other words, he had got
+there first with the most men.  Blücher's army was separated into
+detachments and stretched out over forty miles of roads.
+
+Olsuvieff's division comprised five thousand men with twenty guns.  At
+first Napoleon could bring against him not many more than that number
+of men and guns, to which must be added Nansouty's small cavalry
+division.  And Olsuvieff, with all the advantages of the position, made
+a magnificent defense.  As a defensive fighter the stubborn Russian
+took a back seat for no soldier in Europe.  But the most determined
+resistance, the most magnificent courage, could not avail against
+overwhelming numbers, especially directed and led by Napoleon in
+person, for with every hour the numbers of the assailants were
+increased by the arrival of fresh troops, while with every hour the
+defense grew weaker through casualties.
+
+Olsuvieff might have surrendered with honor at midday, but he was a
+stubborn soldier, and he realized, moreover, that it was his duty to
+hold Napoleon as long as possible.  Even the most indifferent commander
+could not fail to see the danger to Blücher's isolated corps.  Couriers
+broke through to the east to Sacken and Yorck, who together had over
+thirty-five thousand men under their command, and to the west to
+Blücher, with as many more men, telling all these commanders of the
+extreme peril of the center and of the frightfully dangerous situation
+in which their carelessness and the ability of their great enemy had
+involved them.  The noise of the firing, too, was carried far and wide
+over the broad open fields and cultivated farms of the rolling prairie
+of Champagne.
+
+Blücher, however, could not credit the intelligence.  He believed it
+impossible for Napoleon to have escaped from Schwarzenberg.  He could
+not conceive that Napoleon would leave the Austrians unopposed to march
+to Paris if they would.  He could not think that even Napoleon would
+venture to attack eighty thousand men with thirty, and, if he did, he
+reasoned that Sacken and Yorck and Olsuvieff, singly or in combination,
+were easily a match for him.  The messengers must surely be mistaken.
+This could only be a raid, a desperate stroke of some corps or
+division.  Therefore, he halted and then drew back and concentrated on
+his rear guard waiting for further news.
+
+Sacken and Yorck were nearer the fighting.  They could hear and see for
+themselves.  They at once gave over the pursuit of Macdonald and
+retraced their steps.  Olsuvieff made good his defense until nightfall,
+when the survivors gave up the battle.  Fifteen hundred men of his
+brave division had been killed on the plateau.  As many more were
+wounded and captured, most of whom subsequently died, and there were
+about two thousand unhurt prisoners.  Their ammunition was exhausted.
+They were worn out.  They were overwhelmed by massed charges at last.
+Blücher's line was pierced, his center crushed, and one of the finest
+divisions of his army was eliminated.
+
+In the wagon train recaptured at Aumenier had been found arms and
+provisions and ammunition.  Another Prussian wagon train, blundering
+along the road, was seized by Maurice's cavalry, which had been sent
+scouting to the eastward.  From the Russian camp the starving French
+had got food, more arms and clothing.  The dead were quickly despoiled,
+even the living were forced to contribute to the comfort of their
+conquerors.  It was night before the last French division got up from
+Sézanne, but there was enough food and weapons for all.
+
+A new spirit had come over that army.  What had seemed to them a
+purposeless, ghastly march through the mud was now realized to be one
+of the most brilliant manoeuvres Napoleon had ever undertaken.  The
+conscripts, the raw boys, the National Guards, many of whom had been in
+action for the first time that day, were filled with incredible
+enthusiasm.  They were ready for anything.
+
+But the army must have rest.  It must be permitted to sleep the night.
+Accordingly the divisions were disposed in the fields.  Those who had
+fought hardest were given quarters in the village; the next were placed
+in the captured Russian camp; the others made themselves as comfortable
+as they could around huge fires.  The poor prisoners had little or
+nothing.  The ragged French were at least better clothed than they were
+in the morning.  The defenseless had arms and the whole army had been
+fed.  There was wine, too; the Russian commissariat was a liberal one.
+There was much laughter and jovialness in the camps that night.  Of
+course, the guard and the other veterans expected nothing else, but to
+the youngsters the brilliant stroke of Napoleon was a revelation.
+
+As the little Emperor rode from division to division, sometimes
+dismounting and walking through the camps on foot, he was received with
+such acclaim as reminded him of the old days in Italy.  And, indeed,
+the brief campaign which he had so brilliantly inaugurated can be
+favorably compared to that famous Italian adventure, or to any other
+short series of consecutive military exploits in the whole history of
+war.
+
+They said that the Emperor had hesitated and lost his great opportunity
+at Borodino.  They said that he had frightfully miscalculated at
+Moscow, that his judgment had been grievously at fault in the whole
+Russian campaign.  They said that he had sat idle during a long day
+when the fortunes of his empire might have been settled at Bautzen.
+They said that, overcome by physical weariness, he had failed to grasp
+his great opportunity after the victory at Dresden.  They said that
+Leipsic and the battles that preceded it showed that he had lost the
+ability to see things with a soldier's eye.  They declared that he made
+pictures and presented them to himself as facts; that he thought as an
+Emperor, not as a Captain.  They said that in this very campaign in
+France, the same imperial obsession had taken such hold upon him that
+in striving to retain everything from Holland to the end of the Italian
+peninsula he stood to lose everything.  They said that, if he had
+concentrated all his armies, withdrawn them from outlying dependencies,
+he could have overwhelmed Blücher and Schwarzenberg, the Czar
+Alexander, the Emperor Francis and King William, and that, having
+hurled them beyond the Rhine, these provinces in dispute would have
+fallen to his hand again.  They said that his practical omnipotence had
+blinded his judgment.
+
+Those things may be true.  But, whether they be true or not, no man
+ever showed a finer strategic grasp of a situation, no man ever
+displayed more tactical ability on a given field, no man ever conducted
+a series of more brilliant enterprises, no man ever utilized a small,
+compact, well-handled force opposed to at least two and a half times
+its number, no man ever conducted a campaign which stood higher from a
+professional point of view than this one which began with the march
+from Nogent and the destruction at Champaubert.
+
+There was no rest for Napoleon that night.  Undoubtedly he was not now
+the man he had been.  Paralyzing physical disabilities before and after
+interfered with his movements.  The enormous strains to which he had
+subjected his body and brain sometimes resulted in periods of mental
+blindness and physical prostration.  It was whispered that a strange
+malady--was it some form of epilepsy?--sometimes overcame the Emperor
+so that his faculties and abilities were in abeyance for hours.  No man
+had ever abused such wonderful mental and physical gifts as he
+originally had possessed by subjecting them to such absolutely
+impossible strains as he, and Nature was having her revenge.  But for
+that week in February and for a time thereafter there was a strange and
+marvelous return of the Emperor's physical powers.
+
+He had sustained more fatigue than any man in the army, because to all
+of the personal sufferings of the march in the long day and the
+sleepless night and the conduct of the battle had been added
+responsibility, but he was as fresh as a boy.  His pale cheek showed
+rare color; his eyes sparkled; his voice was clear and sharp.  The
+nervous twitching of his mouth ceased.  The gray look vanished.  He was
+once more the boyish Captain of the Army of Italy, at whom the huge
+grenadiers laughed and the gray-headed veterans marveled.
+
+The Emperor's scouts had been hard at work during the day.  They were
+constantly coming and going at his headquarters at Champaubert with
+detailed accounts of the situation of the Russians and the Prussians.
+The Emperor had a momentous decision to make.  From the position he had
+gained it was equally as easy for him to strike east as to strike west.
+He decided at last to strike west, realizing that no captain, much less
+fiery old Blücher, without an absolute forfeiture of his reputation as
+a soldier could afford to leave his van unsupported, but that the
+Prussian Field Marshal must advance to its support.  If the Emperor's
+plans worked out, he could destroy that van, and then turn back and
+mete out the same fate to the main body coming to its rescue.
+
+Just about ten miles away to the westward, on the main road to Paris by
+way of La Ferte-sous-Jouarre, lay the village of Montmirail.  As many
+miles beyond Montmirail, on the same Paris road, Sacken, with twenty
+thousand men, had been advancing.  From Montmirail a road led northward
+to Château Thierry and the crossing of the Marne, behind which
+Macdonald had been driven by Yorck, with perhaps fifteen thousand more.
+The Emperor decided to seize Montmirail, throw out a corps to hold back
+Yorck on the northern road, while he crushed Sacken on the other with
+the remainder of the army, except one corps, which he would leave at
+Champaubert to delay Blücher's advance.  These army corps were in
+reality nothing more than weak divisions, less than seven thousand
+strong.
+
+Early in the afternoon Marteau, with old Bullet-Stopper and the little
+squadron of Maurice's cavalry, had rejoined the Emperor.  He had been
+greatly refreshed by his night's sleep.  He had taken advantage of the
+early hours of the morning to bury his father and sister, saying such
+prayers as he could remember, in default of the parish priest, who had
+been murdered.  The Emperor having sent a courier with an escort back
+to Nogent, the Countess Laure and her English friend had elected to go
+with them.  They feared to be left alone in the château all day, in the
+disturbed state of the country, and it was easier, perhaps, to reach
+Paris from Nogent by way of the Seine than by going direct from
+Sézanne.  Marteau had approved of their decision.
+
+The parting between the young people had been as formal as possible.
+The Englishman, on the contrary, with true British hospitality, had
+said that if peace ever came he would indeed be glad to welcome him at
+his home in England.  Marteau had sworn to hold the château and its
+land in trust for the Countess, although she protested she would not
+hear of anything of the kind.  And then he had bade her farewell.  He
+had arrived in time to take part in the hard fighting at the close of
+the day, and had been busy during the early part of the night in
+carrying messages and resuming his duties at headquarters.
+
+At two o'clock in the morning Napoleon threw himself down on a
+peasant's bed in a hut and slept until four.  At that hour he awakened
+and summoned the officer on duty.  Marteau presented himself.  The
+Emperor, as refreshed by his two hours of sleep as if he had spent the
+night in a comfortable bed, addressed the young man familiarly.  None
+could unbend better than he.
+
+"My good Marteau," he began.  "But stop--Monsieur le Comte
+d'Aumenier"--he smiled--"I have not forgot.  Berthier has orders to
+send to Paris to have your patent of nobility made out and to see that
+the confiscated Aumenier lands are transferred to you."
+
+"I thank your Majesty," said the young aide, deeming it wiser to say
+nothing of his ultimate intentions regarding the patent of nobility and
+the estates.
+
+"It would be a fine thing," said the Emperor, "if you and that girl
+should come together.  She is the last of her line, I understand, save
+her old uncle in England, who is unmarried and childless.  Is it not
+so?"
+
+"That is true, Sire."
+
+"Well, you couldn't do better.  She is a woman of spirit and
+resolution.  Her prompt action in the château last night showed it.  I
+commend her to your consideration.  Were I your age and in your station
+I should like nothing better."
+
+"Your Majesty anticipated my desire, my own proposition, in fact."
+
+"What?  You struck while you had the opportunity?  That was well."
+
+"But, unlike you, Sire, I struck unavailingly."
+
+"The lady refused?"
+
+"Positively.  She is of the oldest family in France, while I----"
+
+"Marteau," said the Emperor sharply, "no more of that.  If you cannot
+be a descendant, be an ancestor.  Look at me.  My family began at
+Montemotte, and to-day the mother of my son is a Hapsburg!"
+
+"But she is engaged to the son of that Englishman, Sire."
+
+"Bah, what of that?  Engagements can be broken, marriages even
+dissolved.  The Holy Father at Rome will refuse me nothing.  When I
+have beaten the allies I will take your affair in hand.  There are few
+powers in Europe that will turn a deaf ear to the suggestions of the
+Emperor of the French, believe me.  The lady shall be yours."
+
+"Your Majesty's power," said the young officer dubiously, "does not
+extend to women's hearts."
+
+"Does it not?" laughed the Emperor grimly.  "You shall see.  My word
+shall be law again everywhere.  With my favor you will go far.  There
+are no patents of nobility that stand higher than mine, for mine are
+based on my recognition of merit alone, not on accident of birth.  You
+served me well, and you shall see that I am not ungrateful.  Meanwhile,
+to you a new duty is assigned."
+
+"I welcome it gladly."
+
+Napoleon took an order prepared the night before from a table.
+
+"This to General Nansouty.  I want him to march at once.  Read it.  You
+will see," he continued, "that Nansouty's cavalry is to hold Sacken in
+check until I have seized Montmirail.  He has guns with him.  Let him
+deploy, attack vigorously.  Keep the enemy occupied and gradually fall
+back upon Montmirail.  Ride with him yourself, and rejoin me at
+Montmirail about ten in the morning.  We should be up then.  You
+understand?" said the Emperor, ready to explain his orders more fully,
+believing that an order could be more intelligently delivered if the
+purport were explained verbally to the bearer, especially in the case
+of a skilled and trusted young soldier like Marteau.
+
+"I understand, Sire."
+
+"Away, then.  Continue to merit my favor, for upon that favor
+rests"--he laughed, he was in high good spirits and humor that
+morning--"the lady."
+
+Marteau saluted.  In spite of himself a certain hope began to spring up
+in his heart.  That Emperor was almost a demi-god to his men.  Whatever
+he had essayed he had generally achieved in times past, and who could
+tell?  Certainly they were on the eve of great events.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE HAMMER OF THE WAR GOD
+
+Nansouty's brilliant cavalrymen were already awake and their general
+having divined to some extent the part he was to play in the glorious
+day, the eleventh of February, the trumpets were already calling his
+horsemen to arms when Marteau delivered the order and took his place by
+the General as the Emperor's representative, a high position and great
+responsibility for so young a soldier.  They made a hasty breakfast and
+broke camp.  Indeed, there was little to break.  The words are only
+used figuratively, since they had no tents.  In half an hour after
+Marteau had left the Emperor's headquarters, the squadrons were formed.
+Nansouty, attended by his staff and the young officer, galloped to the
+head of the column, gave the word of command and the gallant horsemen
+trotted down the road.
+
+They had been posted near Fromentières, about two miles from
+Champaubert, for the night.  The roads were bad, but they took to the
+fields, and by six o'clock they had passed through the town of
+Montmirail, easily driving out a few straggling battalions which
+occupied it.  By eight o'clock they were in touch with the columns of
+Sacken at Vieux Maisons.  A bit of woodland covered their approach.  It
+was not until they were almost upon them that Sacken's advance came in
+touch with them.  The French horse followed the Russian outposts and
+advance guards at a gallop back to the main column, upon which they
+fell impetuously.  Batteries were also deployed in the woods and opened
+on the Russians.
+
+Sacken's men had started after breakfast in a rather leisurely way, and
+they had not progressed very far when Nansouty surprised them.  The
+French rode down the advance regiments, threw the heads of the columns
+into confusion, and then galloped back to the shelter of the wood.
+Believing that he was about to be attacked in force, Sacken deployed,
+wasting much valuable time before he discovered this was only a cavalry
+feint, whereupon he moved forward.  It was ten o'clock before he
+reached a large farm called Haute-Épine.  By that time Napoleon was
+ready for him.  He had left Marmont back at Champaubert to hold back
+Blücher.  He threw Mortier forward on the Château-Thierry road to check
+Yorck.  He put Friant, the veteran and splendid fighter, in échelon
+along the La Ferte road; withdrew Nansouty's cavalry to cover his own
+right, and put Ney and Ricard in his main battle line between Friant on
+the road and the river on the left.  The guard, with Maurice's cavalry
+d'élite, he posted on the edge of the woodland, north of Montmirail,
+ready to throw to the northwestward to Marmont, or to the west to the
+support of Ney and Friant, as events might determine.  These
+dispositions were barely completed before the battle was joined by the
+Russian advance.
+
+Sacken, who really outnumbered the forces opposed to him by at least
+two thousand men, since Mortier's corps, guarding the northwest road,
+was perforce inactive, and since six thousand men had been left at
+Champaubert under Marmont to retain Blücher, attacked with the utmost
+stubbornness and gallantry.  He could make no impression on Friant,
+écheloned on the main road, and before the resolute resistance his
+advancing divisions slowly obliqued to the right toward another walled
+farmhouse, called Épine-aux-Bois, in a stretch of lowland watered by a
+brook.
+
+Napoleon, seeing the whole course of the battle clearly, laid a trap
+for him.  He withdrew Nansouty from the battle, and ordered Ricard, in
+command of his extreme left, to retreat slowly, fighting as if
+defeated.  Sacken, as he saw the wavering on his right, threw his
+heaviest battalions and regiments upon that point, and attacked with
+headlong impetuosity.  At the same time he had enough men left to keep
+Friant busy and in check.  Napoleon, seeing the success of his ruse,
+suddenly brought up the Guard.  He threw it around the right flank of
+Friant, and Sacken's left immediately began to give way.  Ricard
+stopped his retreat suddenly and stood like a stone wall.  His
+withdrawing Eagles moved forward.  The advance of the Russian right
+stopped also, the Muscovite officers and soldiers were greatly amazed
+by the sudden resistance of an enemy retreating a moment since.  One
+division of the Guard moved out to the support of Friant, who also
+advanced.  The other division joined Mortier, who was in a hot fight
+with Yorck's cavalry and light infantry.  Napoleon now turned to
+General Maurice, who had ridden up in advance of his horsemen.
+
+"There"--he pointed down the hill toward the dark masses of the Russian
+right--"there's your chance, General."
+
+The Comte de Vivonne needed but the word.  Turning in his saddle he
+raised his sword.  His cavalry had been waiting with unconcealed
+impatience during the morning.  Eagerly they responded to the command.
+Dashing down the hill they fell on the puzzled Russian infantry around
+Épine-aux-Bois.  Ricard's men opened to give them way.  What had been a
+triumphant advance was turned into a retreat.  The retreat bade fair to
+be a disaster, but the Russians, as has been noted, were splendid
+defensive soldiers.  They formed squares.  Although regiment after
+regiment had been ridden over and beaten to pieces, those who remained
+fought stubbornly.
+
+Sacken perceived now that his only hope was to effect a junction with
+Yorck.  He withdrew his men under cover of his artillery to
+Vieux-Maisons, and began to lead them by the left flank, at the same
+time sending frantic messages to Yorck, imploring him to hasten.  But
+Yorck's guns were mired.  He had only the teams attached to them.  He
+could get no other horses.  He was unaccountably delayed.  He had faced
+about at the sound of the firing, but the movements of his main body
+were slow, deliberate.  Nansouty, who had opened the battle, was now
+sent in by Napoleon to deliver the _coup-de-grâce_.  With
+characteristic gallantry he fell upon the Russian columns.
+
+Sacken was driven from the field.  In killed, wounded, and prisoners he
+had lost half his force and all of his guns.  His troops streamed
+westward through roads and woods in wild confusion.  He would have been
+annihilated then and there but for the arrival of Yorck.  The Prussian
+at last fell on Mortier's weak corps and the Guard on the northern
+road.  Mortier's men were outnumbered four to one.  They made a
+desperate resistance, but it was not until Napoleon ordered up the
+other division of the Guard, which had only been lightly engaged, and
+Maurice's cavalry, that Yorck's advance was checked.
+
+The short day had drawn to a close.  Preparations were made to pass the
+night on the field and in the town.  All of Sacken's baggage train and
+provisions had fallen into Napoleon's hands.  Montmirail had been a
+more decisive victory than Champaubert.  Twenty thousand men had been
+eliminated from calculations for the time being.  Sending couriers to
+Macdonald to move down the banks of the Marne with all possible speed,
+to get in the rear of Yorck, with whom he purposed to deal on the
+morrow, Napoleon, in high spirits, made preparations for the next day's
+battle.
+
+The next morning, the thirteenth, leaving a heavy force to check any
+possible attack by Sacken, who had, with incredible energy and labor,
+partially at least reorganized his shattered troops, but who was too
+weak to do anything more than lead them away from any possible touch
+with Napoleon's troops, the Emperor advanced toward the little village
+of Château-Thierry.  Yorck, by this time, had learned the full details
+of the disaster to Sacken.  Indeed, several of Sacken's brigades had
+joined him, considerably augmenting his force.  But he was now no match
+for Napoleon.  To stay meant annihilation.  He hastily made his
+disposition for a rear guard defense and a withdrawal.  He made a
+stubborn rear guard battle of it during the day, and, although he lost
+heavily in men, guns and supplies, he finally succeeded in crossing the
+Marne and breaking the bridges behind him.
+
+Macdonald had moved tardily.  If he had shown half the enterprise of
+the Emperor he would have been at the crossing of the Marne in good
+time and Yorck would have been caught in a trap whence he could not
+have extricated himself.  As it was, Napoleon added largely to the
+number of prisoners taken and the number of enemies killed.  Altogether
+he had put twenty-five thousand men out of action, in killed, wounded
+and prisoners.  He had taken one hundred and twenty guns--so many that
+he had to tumble them into the creeks and rivers, because he could not
+transport them all.  He had rearmed and reclothed and provided for his
+gallant little army at the expense of the enemy.  It was an exploit of
+which even he could be proud.  On the other hand, in these operations
+the French had lost some four thousand men killed and wounded, and, as
+their army was so small, they could ill afford such a diminution of
+their forces.
+
+Meantime, Blücher, apprised of these disasters, and at last awakened to
+his peril, bravely marched westward.  He had come in touch with
+Marmont, and had driven him out of Champaubert after a desperate
+resistance.  The day after the elimination of Yorck, the fourteenth,
+Napoleon headed his tired but triumphant troops back over the road to
+Champaubert, sending word to Marmont to hold the Prussians in check as
+long as possible, to dispute every rod of the way, but not to throw
+away his precious men or bring on a general engagement until the
+Emperor arrived.
+
+The morning after that Napoleon fell on Blücher, who clearly
+outnumbered the French.  But the allies were dismayed and disheartened.
+The name of the Emperor whom they had defeated and driven across Europe
+was again full of terror to them.  The French were accordingly elated.
+They would not be denied.  Marmont's men, intoxicated with the news of
+the success of the other divisions of the army, just as soon as they
+were given the word, which was just as soon as Napoleon could bring up
+their comrades, fell on Blücher like a storm.  They came in battle
+contact in the village of Vauchamps.  The fighting was of the most
+desperate character.  The battle was harder than all of the others put
+together.  Bavarians, Prussians, and Russians, fighting under the eye
+of brave old Blücher himself, who recklessly exposed his person on the
+field, were tenacious and courageous to the highest degree, but the
+tactics and dispositions of Napoleon, the spirit of his men, his own
+equally reckless exposure of his person under fire, and a cavalry dash
+at the allied rear at Janvilliers, finally turned the wavering tide of
+battle.  The allies began to retreat, the French followed.
+
+The French pursued relentlessly, but with splendid skill and
+determination Blücher himself in command of the rearguard fought them
+off.  Napoleon had foreseen this.  He had massed all the cavalry under
+Grouchy and had sent them on a long round-about march across country to
+get in Blücher's rear.  Just beyond Champaubert, in a dense wood in
+front of the village of Étoges, the retreating allies found the road
+barred by the cavalry.  Grouchy had been provided with sufficient
+artillery to enable him to hold the retreat in check; but the mud still
+prevailed, many horses had been shot and killed, the peasants' horses
+drawing the guns had been unable to keep pace with the necessarily
+rapid movements of the cavalry, and the batteries had not come up.  Nor
+was there any supporting infantry.  Indeed, the retreat of the
+Prussians had been so sudden and so rapid that Grouchy's horse had been
+hard put to it to intercept them.
+
+The regiments leading the allied retreat were formed in squares, and
+with musketry and cannon animated with the courage of despair, they
+forced a passage through the charging, barring masses of the French
+cavalry, not, however, without losing several of the squares in the
+process.  It was their only possible way to safety.  As it was, Blücher
+himself narrowly escaped capture.
+
+Napoleon's soldiers had fought five pitched battles in four days.  As a
+preparation, they had marched thirty miles, night and day, over
+incredible roads.  They were now utterly exhausted.  They could do no
+more.  They must have a good rest.  Blücher's forces had been
+scattered, eliminated, defeated in detail.  There was now nothing for
+the Field Marshal to do but to retreat and rally his men.  The success
+of the Emperor had been brilliant in the extreme.
+
+The fighting was not over, however, for thirty miles to the southward
+lay the vast army of Schwarzenberg.  Napoleon might have pursued
+Blücher to the bitter end.  Military critics say he should have done
+so.  To him, however, on the spot, it seemed proper to leave Blücher
+for the time being and endeavor to repeat on Schwarzenberg the
+marvelous tactics of the five days' fight.
+
+The next morning, the fifteenth, he started back to Nogent whence he
+had come.  Victor and Oudinot had been fighting hard with
+Schwarzenberg, but the news of Napoleon's victories had finally caused
+the cautious Austrian to stop.  He began the recall and concentration
+of his own scattered divisions.  He, at least, would not be caught
+napping.  As usual the enemy learned something, even in defeat.
+
+Speed was still essential to Napoleon.  His men had had twenty-four
+hours of rest.  His horses were comparatively fresh.  The weather had
+changed, the roads were frozen, horribly rough, but still much more
+passable than before.  Once again the Emperor resorted to the
+peasantry.  They, too, had been intoxicated with the news of his
+victories, many of which they had witnessed and, in the plunder
+resulting, had shared.  They brought their horses which they had hidden
+in ravines and forests when the country was overrun by the enemy.  This
+time, instead of attaching them to the guns which their own
+teams--recruited from the captures--could draw on the hard roads,
+Napoleon had them hitched to the big farm wagons.  Into the wagons he
+loaded his infantry.  And at the highest speed of the horses the whole
+force made its way to the southward.  To other victories--to
+defeats--to what?
+
+The Emperor began once again to dream of an empire whose boundaries
+would be the Vistula instead of the Rhine.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK II
+
+THE EAGLE'S FLIGHT
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE BRIDGE AT ARCIS
+
+The long journey was at last over.  The last Alp had been surmounted,
+the last pass traversed.  Behind them rose the snowy summit of mighty
+Mont Blanc itself.  Before them lay their wearying journey's end.  It
+was cold even in sunny Southern France on that morning in early spring.
+Marteau, his uniform worn, frayed, travel-stained, and dusty, his
+close-wrapped precious parcel held to his breast under his shabby great
+coat, his face pale and haggard from hardship and heartbreak, his body
+weak and wasted from long illness and long captivity, stood on the top
+of a ridge of the hill called Mont Rachais, overlooking the walled town
+of Grenoble, on the right bank of the Isère.  The Fifth-of-the-Line had
+been stationed there before in one of the infrequent periods of peace
+during the Napoleonic era.  He was familiar with the place and he knew
+exactly where to look for what he expected to see.
+
+More ragged and tattered, more travel-stained indeed, and with only the
+semblance of a uniform left, was the young lad who stood by the
+soldier's side.  But the boy was in good health and looked strong and
+sturdy.
+
+"There," said the officer.  "You see that square bulk of buildings
+against the wall beyond the Cathedral church-tower and over the Palais
+de Justice?"
+
+"I see them, my officer," answered the other, shading his hand and
+staring over the roofs and walls and spires of the compact little town.
+
+"The barracks will be there unless the regiment has moved.  That will
+be the end of our journey."
+
+"The building with the flag, you mean, monsieur?" asked Pierre.
+
+"That one."
+
+Alas! the flag was no longer the tricolor but the white flag of ancient
+royal France.  Marteau heaved a deep sigh as he stared at it with sad
+eyes and sadder face.
+
+The unexpected, that is, from the young soldier's point of view, had
+happened.  The empire was no more.  The allies had triumphed.  The
+Emperor has been beaten.  He had abdicated and gone.  He was
+practically a prisoner on the little island of Elba, adjacent to that
+greater island of Corsica, where he had been born.  The great circle of
+his life had been completed.  And all the achievements were to be
+comprehended between those two little islands in the blue
+Mediterranean--from Corsica to Elba, the phrase ran.  Was that all?
+
+Much water had flowed under the bridges of Europe since that mad ride
+of the infantry in the farm wagons to face Schwarzenberg after their
+smashing and successful attacks upon Blücher, although the intervening
+time had been short.  A year had scarcely elapsed, but that twelve
+months had been crowded with incident, excitement, and vivid interest
+almost unparalleled by any similar period in modern history.  The
+Emperor had, indeed, fought hard for his throne and against heavy odds.
+He had fought against indifference, against carelessness, against
+negligence, last of all against treachery.  For in the end it was
+treachery that had undone him and France.  Still, it may be that even
+had Marmont and Mortier remained loyal the end would have been the same.
+
+The odds were too heavy, in fine.  The Emperor did not realize their
+preponderance until it was too late.  If he had assembled every
+soldier, abandoning everything else but the defense of France, and if
+he had shown with such an army as he could have gathered under those
+conditions the same spirit of generalship which he had exhibited in
+that marvelous campaign against Blücher, he might have saved France,
+his throne, his wife, his little son, his prestige, everything.  As it
+was, he lost all.  But not without fighting.  Stubborn, determined,
+magnificently defiant he had been to the last.
+
+Marteau had often thrilled to the recollection during the long hours he
+spent in captivity in Austria, and even in the delirium and fever of
+his long and wasting illness, begot of the foul prison, he had
+remembered it.  In all the hard fighting and hard marching of those
+mournful if splendid days the young man had faithfully and well borne
+his important if humble part.  There was a great dearth of officers,
+staff officers as well as the others.  He had been very near to the
+Emperor during those last days.
+
+He remembered the smashing attack upon the van of the allies at
+Montereau.  He could feel once more the thrill of the army, as the
+circumspect Schwarzenberg stopped his advance, retired, concentrated
+his columns.  He remembered the long, swift march back across the
+country, after further demonstrations to keep Schwarzenberg in his
+cautious mood, against the rear of the reorganized and advancing army
+of Blücher; the desperate, bloody, fruitless battles of Laon and
+Craonne, rendered necessary by treachery.
+
+He could recall again the furious rage of Napoleon, the almost despair
+that filled the Emperor's heart, when the news came of the cowardly
+surrender of the fort at Soissons by its incapable commandant, which
+rendered useless Napoleon's cunning plans, and all the hard marching
+and harder fighting of his heroic soldiery.
+
+He recalled the escape of hard-pressed Blücher again, the return of the
+French to face the overwhelming main army of the allies, slowly but
+surely moving toward its goal whenever the withdrawal of the Emperor
+left it free to advance, the detachment of Marmont and Mortier to
+defend Paris, the fierce two-day battle at Arcis-sur-Aube, the dash of
+Maurice's and Sebastiani's gallant cavalry upon the whole Austrian
+army, the deadly conflict before the bridge, the picture of the retreat
+that bade fair to become a rout.
+
+He could see again the Emperor, riding down, sword in hand, into the
+midst of the fugitives crossing the bridge, and, amid a storm of
+bullets, ordering and beseeching and imploring the men to rally.  He
+had been there on that mad March morning.  He would never forget the
+sight of that figure, the words the Emperor said.  It reminded him of
+the dash of the "little corporal" with the flag on the bridge of Lodi,
+of which old Bullet-Stopper had often told him and the other young men
+over the camp-fires.
+
+The Fifth-of-the-Line had immortalized itself that day, adding to the
+fame it had gained upon a hundred fields, an imperishable crown.
+Napoleon saw that the battle was lost, that the whole Austrian army had
+blundered upon that first French division and that, unless their steady
+advance could be checked, the division itself would be cut to pieces.
+Men had grown more precious to the Emperor every hour.  What would he
+not have given for those he had spent so recklessly years before?  And
+here was a whole division about to be annihilated, to say nothing of
+the cavalry, which had performed prodigies of valor.
+
+"What regiment is that?" he had asked Marteau, who was riding at his
+heels in the midst of the fugitives, and doing his best to second the
+Emperor's frantic efforts to restore order and bring the men to a stand.
+
+"The Fifth-of-the-Line, Sire."
+
+"Your old regiment?"
+
+"The same, Sire."
+
+"It still stands."
+
+"And it will stand."
+
+"Good!  Go to it.  Tell them that I, the Emperor, devote them to death,
+for me and for the army.  They must hold the Austrians in check and
+cover the retreat."
+
+"Farewell, Sire," the young soldier had said, saluting.
+
+"What mean you?"
+
+"I shall not come back with the remainder."
+
+"Adieu," said the Emperor, acknowledging the salute and understanding
+all.
+
+How well Marteau remembered that frightful conflict.  The
+Fifth-of-the-Line had not waited to be attacked.  It had gone forward.
+The Colonel had been shot down.  Officer after officer had fallen.  The
+advancing line had wavered, hesitated, halted.  The Eagle-bearer fell.
+Eager hands caught the staff.  The Austrian fire was concentrated upon
+it.  The color guard was shot to pieces.  The Eagle itself had the tip
+of its right wing shot away.  Mortal men could do no more.  The
+regiment began to give back.
+
+It was Marteau who sprang to the front, he and young Pierre, who had
+attached himself to the officer in a sort of unofficial way.  It was
+Marteau who seized the Eagle; it was he who rallied the line.  The new
+men formed up like veterans, the old men settled in their places, cool
+and ready.  They returned the Austrian fire, they checked the Austrian
+advance, they stood ready while the troops behind them ran for their
+lives.  Napoleon, whose eye nothing escaped, saw it all.  He even
+recognized Marteau carrying the Eagle.
+
+The Fifth-of-the-Line made good that defense until the time came for
+the retreat.  Then it retired slowly, fighting every step of the way
+down the low hill to the bridge.  The men dropped by scores.  The
+Austrians, seeing victory in reach, pressed closer.  A charge at the
+last minute by the cuirassiers of the Emperor Francis' guard almost
+completed the annihilation of the first battalion of the regiment.  The
+survivors sought to form a square, under a withering gun fire, to meet
+the uplifted sabers of the heavy cavalry.  There were not enough of
+them left.  They were ridden down.  Two hundred and fifty of the four
+hundred who went into that fight lay dead on that field.  Of the
+survivors scarce a handful got across the river.  Some of the unhurt
+men, disdaining quarter and unable to fly, fought until they fell.  The
+wounded, of whom there were many, were all captured out of hand.
+
+Marteau, with the Eagle, had stood nearest the enemy.  They had swarmed
+about him at last.  He found himself alone, save for the boy, Pierre.
+He could see the red-faced, excited, shouting, yelling,
+passion-animated Austrian soldiers crowding upon him.  His sword was
+broken, his pistols empty and gone.  He was defenseless.  Retreat was
+cut off.  The Eagle staff had been shot away.  The flag torn to pieces.
+Hands were stretched out to seize it.  He could not escape with it, yet
+it must not fall to the enemy.  It was the tradition of the service
+that the Eagles were to be preserved at all hazards--not the flag, that
+was a mere perishable adjunct to the Eagle, but the Eagle itself.  The
+river ran but a few feet away.  Thrusting aside the nearest Austrian
+with the stump of his blade, Marteau cleared a path for a second, and
+into the swift deep waters he hurled the sacred emblem.
+
+He, at least, he thought swiftly, had a right to dispose of it thus,
+for out of the waters of the Elster he had brought it, so into the
+waters of the Aube he threw it.
+
+With cries of rage, for the Eagle was the most precious spoil of war,
+and the regiment or the officer seizing it was distinguished above all
+others, the Austrians would have cut him down where he stood with arms
+crossed, facing the enemy, but officers who had ridden up had seen the
+exploit and had interfered.  He had been made a prisoner and Pierre
+with him.  He just had time to whisper to the boy to mark well the spot
+where the Eagle had disappeared in the waters before they marched away.
+
+While under guard with other prisoners at Salzburg he had heard the
+story of the end.  How Napoleon, trusting the defense of Paris to
+Marmont and Mortier, had resolved on the bold move of cutting the
+communications of the allies with his little army, and how the allies
+had decided to disregard their rear and march on Paris; how Marmont and
+Mortier had battled for the capital, how the Emperor, hearing of their
+straits, had begun that mad march toward his beloved city; how he had
+ordered every soldier that could be reached to march in that direction;
+how he had stopped at a wayside inn one night for a few hours' rest,
+after a furious day's ride, only to be told that Marmont and Mortier
+had gone over to the enemy, that Paris was lost!
+
+The prisoners had learned how the Emperor, not yet despairing, had
+striven to quicken the spirits of his marshals and soldiers for a last
+try; how the marshals and great officers had failed him.  They had all
+heard of those lonely hours at Fontainebleau, of the farewell to the
+Guard, of the kiss on the Eagle, which he surrendered to General Petit,
+of the abdication, of the exile to Elba, of the restoration of King
+Louis.
+
+It had made Marteau ill, frightfully so, and but for the tender nursing
+and loving care of young Pierre he had died.  The lad had been devotion
+itself, but Marteau missed more than anything else the companionship,
+the sage advice, the bon camaraderie of old Bullet-Stopper.  He had
+never seen him or heard from him after that day at the bridge-head at
+Arcis.  Where was he now?
+
+Oh, yes, those days and their tidings would never be forgot.  They all
+came back to the young officer, as with his humble but devoted
+companion he stood there on the heights above Grenoble looking at the
+white flag.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE GATE IN THE WALL
+
+The two travelers were stopped by the guard at the main gate in the
+walls that encircled the town.  Marteau had drawn his old cloak closely
+about him, so that it was not evident that he was in uniform.  Pierre's
+nondescript garments were so tattered and torn that neither would they
+betray the pair.  The sentry was clad in the old uniform of the
+Fifth-of-the-Line, except that he sported a white cockade in his
+head-gear and every device that referred to the Empire had been
+carefully eliminated.  Still he was the same soldier, and Marteau
+recognized him at once as one of the veterans of the regiment.  The
+recognition was not mutual.  Captivity, illness, privation had wrought
+many changes in the officer's face.  The man looked at him curiously
+and wonderingly, however, as he challenged him.
+
+"My friend," asked the officer, "of what regiment are you, I pray?"
+
+"The Fifth-of-the----" began the man instinctively, apparently, and
+then he stopped.  "The regiment Dauphiné," he answered, his face
+clouding.
+
+"And what battalion?"
+
+"The first, sir."
+
+"Are there other troops in garrison?"
+
+"Another regiment of infantry, that was the Seventh.  I don't know its
+new name.  And some artillery to man the walls."
+
+"Good.  I should like----  Who is in command of the town?"
+
+"There is a new one since yesterday.  He has just come down from Paris,
+the King sent----"
+
+At that instant the gruff voice of the subaltern in command of the
+detachment at the gate rang out.
+
+"Turn out the guard for the Commanding Officer."
+
+"Back, monsieur," cried the soldier, falling into line with his
+comrades, who came running from the guard-house and ranged themselves
+in order.
+
+Marteau stepped back into the shadow of the gate, just as a carriage
+and four, carrying three people and attended by a brilliant cavalry
+escort, dashed through the narrow street of the town and passed out of
+the gate, the soldiers of the guard standing at attention in line and
+presenting arms as the carriage and its following went on into the
+country by the highroad.  The horses had been moving at a fast trot.
+Marteau had time for but one glance as the vehicle passed.  One glance
+was enough.  When the guard had been dismissed and the soldier on post
+turned again to look at the officer, he was astonished at the change
+that had come over him.  Marteau, pale as death, leaned against the
+wall, his hand on his heart.
+
+"What's the matter?" cried the soldier, staring at him curiously.
+
+"Has monsieur seen a ghost?" asked young Pierre, running toward him in
+great anxiety.
+
+"Who--who was that?" asked Marteau, who had received a dreadful shock
+apparently.
+
+"The governor of the town."
+
+"Yes, yes, I know, but his name?"
+
+"I was about to tell you.  The Marquis de----  Upon my word, I have
+forgot it."
+
+"Was it by any chance the Marquis d'Aumenier?"
+
+"That's it," said the soldier.
+
+"And the man with him in the red coat?"
+
+The soldier spat into the dust to show his contempt.
+
+"An English milord."
+
+"And the lady?"
+
+"I don't know.  They say, the wife of that Englishman.  Things have
+come to a pretty pass," growled the soldier, turning away, "when our
+girls marry these English beef-eaters, and----  It was not so in the
+day of the Em----"
+
+He stopped suddenly, wondering fearfully whether his garrulousness had
+betrayed him into an imprudence with this stranger.
+
+"No," said Marteau reassuringly.  "Will you let me pass, comrade?  I am
+an old soldier of--the Empire."  He had no hesitation in avowing
+himself under the circumstances.  "See," he threw open his cloak,
+disclosing his uniform.
+
+"Why, that is the uniform of this regiment!" exclaimed the amazed
+soldier.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And you are----"
+
+"I was Captain Marteau when with the regiment," returned the officer.
+
+"I thought I knew you, sir.  Yes, I remember it all now.  You were cut
+down at the bridge at Arcis."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I, too, was there.  I was one of the few who managed to get away
+alive.  But I did not run, monsieur.  I did not go back until the
+order."
+
+"I believe it."
+
+"And this boy?"
+
+"He is a young comrade, a faithful companion of my own."
+
+"And you are come back----"
+
+"To rejoin the regiment.  I have been months in an Austrian prison, and
+afterward, ill."
+
+"Pass freely, monsieur.  You rallied us with the Eagle.  We saw it go
+into the river.  The Emperor himself commended us, those who were left.
+He said we should have another Eagle, but alas, we never got it."
+
+"Have patience," said Marteau.  "What is lost may be found."
+
+He touched the small, well-wrapped parcel, which even in his agitation
+he had not allowed to fall to the ground.  The soldier looked at him
+wonderingly.
+
+"You mean----"
+
+"Never mind.  Be silent.  Will you call your officer?"
+
+"Corporal of the guard," shouted the sentry, and, when that official
+appeared, the lieutenant in command of the gate was soon summoned
+through the usual military channels.
+
+"Monsieur," said Marteau, walking up to him, "do you not know me?"
+
+"By heaven!" cried the officer, after a long stare, "is it--it is
+Captain Marteau!"
+
+"The same."
+
+"We thought you dead.  Your name is honored in the regiment.  We knew
+how you rallied the line; how you took the Eagle; how you threw it into
+the river rather than permit it to be taken.  We thought you were
+killed."
+
+"My life was spared," was the solemn answer.
+
+"But why did you not rejoin the regiment?"
+
+"I was in prison at Salzburg, and for some reason was overlooked,
+perhaps because it was thought I was dead, and then for some months I
+was helpless, ill of a horrible fever.  It was only two months ago that
+I was set free, with this lad here, who stood beside me before the
+bridge at Arcis.  We learned through unofficial sources that the
+regiment was here.  Having nowhere else to go, I came back, and----"
+
+"They will be glad to see you," said the officer.  "The regiment lost
+heavily.  It was almost cut to pieces at Arcis."
+
+"I know."
+
+"But many officers and men of the old regiment have come back, like
+you, from Russia, from Prussia and from Austria, where they had been
+held prisoners.  They will be glad to welcome you at the barracks
+yonder.  You are permitted to pass.  But stop.  I must do my duty.
+What have you in that parcel?"
+
+Marteau looked about him, moved a step away from the sentries and the
+corporal and sergeant of the guard, and whispered a word into the ear
+of the officer.  He threw up his hands in astonishment.
+
+"Mon Dieu!" he exclaimed.  "Is it possible?"
+
+"The same," said Marteau, "but say nothing about it until I have seen
+our comrades."
+
+"Of course not."
+
+"And that carriage and four that just passed?"
+
+"The governor of the town, the Marquis d'Aumenier, the new commander of
+the regiment."
+
+"I see; and our old Colonel?"
+
+"Dead.  The Major commanding the first battalion has been in command
+until they sent this old noble down here yesterday."
+
+"And the lady?"
+
+"His niece."
+
+"You have met her?"
+
+"Not I.  They care nothing for such as we.  He treats us as if we were
+of the scum of the earth, dogs.  Oh, if only----"
+
+"Hush," said Marteau.  "It is dangerous."
+
+"I know.  And he brought with him an Englishman, one of the Duke of
+Wellington's officers."
+
+"Is he married to the young lady?"
+
+"Not yet, I believe, but betrothed."
+
+"And his name?"
+
+"He has a barbarous name.  I can't pronounce it.  He had us out
+inspecting us yesterday--he and that Englishman.  Bah!  To think of the
+Fifth-of-the-Line being inspected by such a young red-coated cockerel."
+
+The veteran spat in the dust as the soldier had done and swore roundly.
+He hated the red-coated English.  He had fought them before, and he
+would like nothing better than to fight them again.
+
+"Patience," said Marteau.
+
+"Do you wish to go to headquarters and report yourself?  You were a
+Major on the Emperor's staff?"
+
+"A Lieutenant-Colonel, by personal appointment that day at Arcis."
+
+"Well, you will be lucky enough if they make you a subaltern.  Look at
+me.  I am older than you.  I am a veteran of Italy and I am only a
+sub-lieutenant, I, who was Captain when I was captured."
+
+"Patience, my friend," said Marteau again.
+
+"Here," said the officer, hailing a cabriolet, which suddenly turned
+the corner.
+
+"I have no money," said Marteau quickly.
+
+"The King pays ill enough," answered the officer, "but what I have is
+ever at the service of a good comrade."
+
+He assisted Marteau into the cabriolet, allowed Pierre to climb up
+beside him, paid the driver his fare, and bade him take the two to the
+headquarters in the barracks.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+A VETERAN OF THE ARMY OF ITALY
+
+It was noon when Marteau presented himself before the house in which
+the Major of the first battalion, an old veteran named Lestoype, was
+quartered.
+
+"Who shall I say wants to see him?" asked the orderly before the door.
+
+"A soldier of the Empire," was the bold answer, and it proved an open
+sesame to the astonished orderly.
+
+Lestoype was writing at a table, but he looked up when Marteau came in.
+He stared at him a moment and then rose to his feet.
+
+"I report myself ready for duty, Major," said the young officer,
+saluting.
+
+"Good God, is it Marteau!" exclaimed the Major.
+
+"The same."
+
+"We thought you dead."
+
+Rapidly the young officer explained the situation.
+
+"You see," he said in closing, "I survived the Eagle."
+
+"Ah, if we could only have got it back!" exclaimed the Major.
+
+"It is back."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"It is here."
+
+"I don't understand."
+
+"Look," cried the officer, nervously tearing away the wrappings and
+holding up his precious burden.
+
+The Major came to attention, his heels clicked together, his hand went
+up.  He stared at the Eagle.
+
+"_Vive l'Empereur_," he said.
+
+"_Vive l'Empereur_," answered the other, but both of them spoke in
+whispers, for there was no Emperor, and a mention of the name was
+treason to the King.
+
+"It is the same?" asked the Major, taking the precious emblem in his
+hand and pressing it to his heart.
+
+"The very same."
+
+"But how?"
+
+"The boy here and I marked the spot where it fell.  We took bearings,
+as a sailor would say; we took them independently, and when we had a
+chance to compare them we found that we agreed exactly.  When I was
+released from prison and discharged from the hospital as a
+convalescent, we went back to Arcis, to the bridge, to the river side.
+The boy here is an expert swimmer.  The river was low.  He dove into
+the icy waters again and again until he found it.  We were most
+circumspect in our movements.  No one observed us.  I wrapped it up,
+concealed it carefully, learned that the regiment was here, and I
+surrender it into your hands."
+
+"It is a shame," began Lestoype gloomily at last, laying the Eagle
+gently down on his desk.
+
+"What is a shame?"
+
+"The order."
+
+"What order?"
+
+"The Eagles of all the regiments and ships are to be sent to Paris to
+be destroyed."
+
+"Impossible!"
+
+"Nevertheless, it is true.  They have taken them wherever they could
+lay hands on them.  It has almost caused a revolt."
+
+"And are you going to send this Eagle to Paris?" asked Marteau
+threateningly.  "This Eagle for which I fought, this Eagle which I
+rescued from the Elster and the Aube, for which hundreds of brave men
+have died, this Eagle which has been in the forefront of every battle
+in which the regiment took part since the Emperor gave it into our
+keeping before Ulm?"
+
+"What can I do?"
+
+"I will throw it into the Isère first.  I will destroy it myself before
+that happens," cried Marteau, snatching it up and pressing it to his
+heart.  "I have taken no oaths.  I am still the Emperor's man."
+
+"Not so loud," said Lestoype warningly.  "The men of the regiment may
+not all be true.  You may be overheard."
+
+"You and all the others have taken the oath of allegiance to the King?"
+
+"What else was there to do?  Soldiering is my trade.  They offered us
+commissions; the Empire was dead; the Emperor banished.  It was a
+living, at any rate."
+
+"But I am free, I am not bound."
+
+"You must, you will take the oath," urged Lestoype.
+
+"How if he should come back?"
+
+"He will not come back."
+
+"Will he not?  It is whispered everywhere," said Marteau.  "I have not
+passed an old soldier who did not voice the hope.  It's in the air.
+'When the violets bloom,' they say.  Even the peasants whisper it.  The
+imperial purple flower----  He will return."
+
+"God grant it may be so."
+
+"And we shall be ready for him, we who have not taken the oath, and
+who----"
+
+"I am afraid I shall be a forsworn man, in that case," said the
+veteran, smiling grimly.  "Should the Emperor again set foot in France
+his presence would absolve us from all vows.  I only serve under the
+King's colors because no others fly in France."
+
+"Be it so."
+
+"And you will be with us again in the regiment?"
+
+"How can I?"
+
+"Be advised," said the old soldier, laying his hand upon the arm of the
+younger, "we must keep together.  We must keep our regimental
+organizations intact.  The army must be ready for him.  Take the oath
+as well nigh every soldier high and low in France has done, and----"
+
+"Well, I shall see.  Meanwhile, the Eagle there.  You won't give it up?"
+
+"Give it up!" laughed Lestoype.  "I feel just as you do about it, but
+we must conceal it.  The Seventh, Labédoyère's regiment, in garrison
+here, concealed their Eagle.  At least it has not been found.  There
+was a terrible to do about it."
+
+"Do you vouch for the officer at the main gate?  I had to tell him in
+order to be passed.  I know him but slightly."
+
+"The Sub-Lieutenant Drehon."
+
+"He is safe?"
+
+"Beyond doubt.  Meanwhile, you require----"
+
+"Everything," said Marteau simply.
+
+"The King's paymasters are a long time in coming.  We are left to make
+shift as best we can.  But I am not yet penniless," returned the old
+Major.  He threw a purse on the table.  "You will be my guest.  With
+these you can get proper clothes and uniform."
+
+"And the boy?"
+
+"I will turn him over to the men.  They will be glad to welcome him.
+He should have the Legion of Honor for rescuing the Eagle.  But stop."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"He won't talk?"
+
+"I have tested that lad.  He will be as close-mouthed as the grave.
+You understand, Pierre, you are not to say a word about the Eagle until
+I give you leave," said Marteau to his young comrade.  "About our other
+adventures you can tell."
+
+"I understand.  Monsieur knows that I can be silent."
+
+"I know.  Good-by.  I shall see you to-morrow.  Now," began Marteau, as
+the orderly who had been summoned had taken Pierre away with
+instructions to see that he was clothed and fed, "let me ask some
+questions.  Who was in command of the regiment?"
+
+"I was until yesterday."
+
+"And yesterday?"
+
+"The King sent down an old officer to take the command, a
+Lieutenant-Colonel."
+
+"And the Colonel?"
+
+"Monsieur d'Artois."
+
+"So that----"
+
+"The Lieutenant-Colonel commands the regiment, which is now known as
+the Regiment Dauphiné, the Comte d'Artois' own," said the Major, with
+fine scorn.  "What a name to take the place of the Fifth-of-the-Line,"
+he added.
+
+"And Monsieur d'Aumenier?"
+
+"Oh, he seems harmless enough.  He is a trained soldier, too, of
+royalist days before the Empire.  He even told me he had been at the
+school at Brienne when the Emperor was a student there."
+
+"And who is with him?"
+
+"His niece, the Countess Laure d'Aumenier, engaged to that young
+English officer."
+
+"And what of him?"
+
+"Well enough for an Englishman, I suppose," was the careless answer.
+"We were paraded yesterday and the young Englishman inspected us, the
+lady looking on.  Actually my gorge rose, as he handled our muskets,
+criticized our drill.  I heard some of the old mustaches of the
+regiment say they would like to put a bayonet through him, and, to be
+frank, I should like it myself.  I fought against these English in
+Spain.  There's no love lost between us."
+
+"Did he disparage the regiment?"
+
+"Oh, no, quite the contrary.  He was more than complimentary, but I
+hate them.  His father is here, too."
+
+"I see.  When is the marriage to take place?"
+
+"How do I know?  I was surprised when the old Marquis volunteered any
+information to the likes of me."
+
+"I must see the Marquis at once; with your permission, of course."
+
+"You have it," returned the other, smiling.  "You are not yet
+reinstated in the regiment, and, so far as I am concerned, you are free
+to go and come as you will."
+
+"He is not here now, I believe?"
+
+"No.  He turned over the command to me temporarily.  He is driving out
+into the country, going out to the gap to reconnoiter for himself, I
+take it, but he will be back before nightfall, and meanwhile you have
+much to do.  We want to get you well fed, to get some good French wine
+into you, to put the blood into your veins and color into your cheeks,
+to give you a bath, to get you clothing--everything," said the generous
+old veteran.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+ALMOST A GENTLEMAN
+
+"Will you tell the Lieutenant-Colonel, the Marquis d'Aumenier, that an
+officer returned from the wars desires to see him?" said Marteau to the
+footman who answered the door at the Governor's palace.
+
+"So many wandering officers want to see His Excellency," said the
+servant superciliously, "that I have instructions to require further
+enlightenment before I admit any to his presence."
+
+"Say to your master," replied the other, his face flushing at the
+insolence of the servant, "that one from the village of Aumenier craves
+an audience on matters of great importance."
+
+"And even that will scarcely be sufficient," began the lackey.
+
+"Enough!" thundered Marteau.  "Carry my message to him instantly," he
+said fiercely, "or I shall throw you aside and carry it myself."
+
+The servant looked at him a moment, and not relishing what he saw,
+turned on his heel and disappeared.
+
+"His Excellency will see you, sir," he said, in a manner considerably
+more respectful when he returned a few moments later.  "This way, sir.
+His Excellency is in the drawing-room, having finished his dinner.
+What name shall I announce?" he asked, his hand on the door.
+
+"Announce no one," was the curt reply.  "Open the door.  I will make
+myself known."
+
+The lackey threw open the door.  Marteau entered the room and closed
+the door behind him.  The drawing-room of the Governor's palace was
+brilliantly illuminated.  The Governor was receiving the officers of
+the garrison and the principal inhabitants of the city that night, but
+it was yet early in the evening, and none of them had arrived.  The
+young officer had purposely planned his visit at that hour, in order
+that he might have a few moments' conversation with the Marquis before
+the invited guests arrived.
+
+There were five people gathered about the fireplace, all engrossed in
+pleasant conversation apparently.  It was the second of March, and the
+weather made the fire blazing on the hearth very welcome.  Four of the
+five people in the room were men; the fifth person was a woman.  It was
+she whose attention was first aroused by the sound of the closing of
+the door.  She faced about, her glance fell upon the newcomer, a cup
+which she held in her hand fell to the floor, the precious china
+splintering into a thousand fragments, her face turned as white as the
+lace of her low evening gown.
+
+"Marteau!" she exclaimed in almost an agonized whisper.
+
+"Mademoiselle," answered the soldier, bowing profoundly.
+
+He was beautifully dressed in the nearest approach to the latest
+fashion that the best tailor in Grenoble could offer--thanks to the
+Major's purse--and, although his most becoming attire was not a
+uniform, his every movement betrayed the soldier, as his every look
+bespoke the man.
+
+"And who have we here?" asked the oldest man of the group, the Marquis
+d'Aumenier himself, the attention of all being attracted to the
+newcomer by the crash of the broken china and the low exclamation of
+the young woman which none had made out clearly.
+
+"By gad!" bellowed out with tremendous voice a stout old man, whose red
+face and heavy body contrasted surprisingly with the pale face, the
+lean, thin figure of the old Marquis, "I am damned if it isn't the
+young Frenchman that held the château with us.  Lad," he cried,
+stepping forward and stretching out his hand, "I am glad to see you
+alive.  I asked after you, as soon as I came back to France, but they
+told me you were dead."
+
+"On the contrary, as you see, sir, I am very much alive, and at Sir
+Gervaise Yeovil's service as always," said Marteau, meeting the
+Englishman's hand with his own, touched by the other's hearty greeting,
+whose genuineness no one could doubt.  "And this gentleman?" he went
+on, turning to a young replica of the older man, who had stepped to his
+father's side.
+
+"Is my son, Captain Frank Yeovil, of King George's Fifty-second Light
+Infantry.  By gad, I am glad to have him make your acquaintance.  He is
+going to marry the Marquis' niece here--your old friend--when they can
+settle on a day.  You had thoughts in that direction yourself, I
+remember," he went on, in his bluff way, "but I suppose you have got
+bravely over them by now," he laughed.
+
+"I have resigned myself to the inevitable, monsieur," answered Marteau
+with a calmness that he did not feel.
+
+He did not dare to look at the Countess Laure as he spoke.  He could
+not have commanded himself if he had done so.  His lips were compressed
+and his face was paler than before.  The girl saw it.  She had watched
+him, fascinated.  The Englishman, young, frank, sunny-haired, gallant,
+stepped up to him, shook him by his unwilling hand.
+
+"I am glad to know you," he said.  "I have heard how you saved my
+betrothed's life and honor, and held the château.  I have longed to
+meet you, to thank you."
+
+"And I you," said Marteau.  "You English are frank.  I shall be
+likewise," he added.  "It was not thus I wanted to meet you, monsieur,
+not in a drawing-room, in this peaceful dress, but--on the field."
+
+"I understand," said the Englishman, sobered a little by the other's
+seriousness.  "And if the war had continued perhaps we might have
+settled the--er"--his eyes sought those of his fiancée, but she was not
+looking at him--"our differences," he added, "in the old knightly way,
+but now----"
+
+"Now it is impossible," assented Marteau, "since my Emperor and I are
+both defeated."
+
+"Monsieur," broke in the high, rather sharp voice of the old Marquis,
+"that is a title which is no longer current in France.  As loyal
+subjects of, the King the word is banished--like the man."
+
+"I am but new to France, Monsieur le Marquis, and have not yet learned
+to avoid the ancient habit."
+
+"And yet you are a Frenchman," commented the Marquis dryly.  "You said
+you came from Aumenier.  I did not catch your name, sir?"
+
+"Marteau, at your service."
+
+"One of the loyal Marteaux?"
+
+"The last one, sir."
+
+"And pray why are you new to France?"
+
+"I have but two months since been released from an Austrian prison and
+an Austrian hospital."
+
+"I made inquiry," said the Countess suddenly, the tones of her voice
+bespeaking her deep agitation, "I caused the records to be searched.
+They said you were dead, that you had been killed at the bridge of
+Arcis with the rest of your regiment."
+
+"I was unfortunate enough to survive my comrades as you see,
+mademoiselle," said Marteau.
+
+"And I thank God for that," said the Countess Laure.  "I have never
+forgot what you did for me, and----"
+
+"Nor has the memory of your interposition which twice saved my life
+escaped from my mind for a single instant, mademoiselle."
+
+"Yes, it was very fine, no doubt, on the part of both of you," said
+Captain Yeovil, a little impatiently, because he did not quite see the
+cause of all this perturbation on the part of his betrothed; "but you
+are quits now, and for my part----"
+
+"What I did for mademoiselle is nothing, monsieur.  I shall always be
+in her debt," replied the Frenchman.
+
+"Monsieur St. Laurent," said the Marquis, turning to the other occupant
+of the room, "my new adjutant, Monsieur Marteau," he added in
+explanation, "was there not a Marteau borne on the rolls of the
+regiment?  I think I saw the name when I looked yesterday, and it
+attracted me because I knew it."
+
+"Yes, your Excellency," said St. Laurent, "he was a Captain when he was
+detached."
+
+"You were on service elsewhere, _Monsieur mon Capitaine_?" asked the
+Marquis.
+
+"I was a Lieutenant-Colonel, your Excellency."
+
+"And where and when?"
+
+"On the day at Arcis.  Made so by"--he threw up his head--"by him who
+cannot be named."
+
+"Ah!  Quite so," said the Marquis, helping himself to a pinch of snuff
+from a jeweled box, quite after the fashion of the old régime.  He shut
+the box and tapped it gently.  "There is, I believe, a vacancy in the
+regiment, a Captaincy.  My gracious King, whom God and the saints
+preserve, leaves the appointment to me.  It is at your service.  I
+regret that I can offer you no higher rank.  I shall be glad to have
+you in my command," he went on.  "It is meet and right that you should
+be there.  I and my house have been well served for generations by your
+house."
+
+"I regret that I cannot accept your offer."
+
+"Why not?" asked the Marquis haughtily.  "It is not to every wandering
+officer that I would have made it."
+
+"I should have to swear allegiance to your King, monsieur, and that
+I----"
+
+"Enough," said the Marquis imperiously.  "The offer is withdrawn.  You
+may go, sir."
+
+"I have a duty to discharge before I avail myself of your courteous
+permission," said the young man firmly.
+
+"My uncle," said the girl, "you cannot dismiss Monsieur Jean Marteau in
+that cavalier fashion.  It is due to him that I am here."
+
+"No, curse me, Marquis," burst out Sir Gervaise, wagging his big head
+at the tall, French noble, "you don't know how much you owe to that
+young man.  Why, even I would not have been here but for him."
+
+"I am deeply sensible to the obligations under which he has laid me,
+both through the Comtesse Laure, and through you, old friend.  I have
+just endeavored to discharge them.  If there be any other way----
+Monsieur is recently from prison--perhaps the state of his finances--if
+he would permit me----" continued the Marquis, who was not without
+generous impulses, it seemed.
+
+"Sir," interrupted Marteau, "I thank you, but I came here to confer,
+not to receive, benefits."
+
+"To confer, monsieur?"
+
+"We Marteaux have been accustomed to render service, as the Marquis
+will recollect," he said proudly.
+
+He drew forth a soiled, worn packet of papers.  Because they had
+represented nothing of value to his captors they had not been taken.
+They had never left his person except during his long period of
+illness, when they had been preserved by a faithful official of the
+hospital and returned to him afterward.
+
+"Allow me to return these to the Marquis," he said, tendering them.
+
+"And what are these?" asked the old man.
+
+"The title deeds to the Aumenier estates, monsieur."
+
+"The grant is waste paper," said the Marquis contemptuously.
+
+"Not so," was the quick answer.  "I have learned that the acts of the
+late--of--those which were duly and properly registered before
+the--present king ascended the throne are valid.  The estates are
+legally mine.  You reject them.  I----" he hesitated, he stepped over
+to the young woman--"I return them to you, mademoiselle.  Her dowry,
+monsieur," he added, facing the Englishman, as he laid the packet down
+on the table by the side of the Countess Laure.
+
+"Well, that's handsome of you," said the latter heartily.
+
+"I cannot take them," ejaculated the young woman, just a touch of
+contempt for her obtuse English lover in her voice.  "I----  They are
+legally his.  We shall have no need----"
+
+"Nonsense," burst out the young English officer.  "They are rightfully
+yours.  They were taken from you by an usurper who----"
+
+"Monsieur!" cried Marteau sharply.
+
+"Well, sir?"
+
+"He who cannot be named by order of the king is not to be slandered by
+order of----"
+
+"Whose order?"
+
+"Mine," said Marteau.
+
+"Indeed," answered the Englishman, his face flushing as he laid his
+hand on his sword--he was wearing his uniform.
+
+"Steady, steady," cried the old Baronet, interposing between the two.
+"The lad's right.  If we can't name Bonaparte, it is only fair that we
+shouldn't abuse him.  And the girl's right, too.  You have no need of
+any such dowry.  Thank God I have got acres and pounds of my own for
+the two of you and all that may come after."
+
+"It strikes me, gentlemen," said the Marquis coolly, "that the disposal
+of the affair is mine.  Marteau is right and I was wrong.  Perhaps he
+has some claim to the estate.  But, however that may be, he does well
+to surrender it to its ancient overlord.  I accept it as my due.  I
+shall see that he does not suffer for his generosity."
+
+"And does monsieur think that he could compensate me if he should give
+me the whole of France for the loss of----"
+
+"Good God!" said the keen witted, keen eyed old Marquis, seeing
+Marteau's glance toward the young woman.  "Are you still presuming
+to----"
+
+"As man looks toward the sun that gives him life," said the young
+Frenchman, "so I look toward mademoiselle.  But have no fear,
+monsieur," he went on to the English dragoon, "you have won her heart.
+I envy you but----"
+
+"Marteau!" protested the Countess, the anguish in her soul speaking in
+her voice again.
+
+How different the appearance of this slender, pale, delicate young
+Frenchman from the coarser-grained English soldier to whom she had
+plighted her troth, but to whom she had not given her heart.  There was
+no doubt in her mind as to where her affections pointed.  Some of the
+pride of race, of high birth and ancient lineage, had been blown away
+in the dust of the revolution.  She had played too long with the plain
+people on the ancient estate.  She had been left too much to herself.
+She had seen Marteau in splendid and heroic roles.  She saw him so now.
+She had been his companion and associate in her youth.  But of all this
+none knew, and she was fain not to admit it even to herself.
+
+"Have you anything more to communicate, Marteau, or to surrender?"
+asked the Marquis coldly.
+
+To do him justice, any service Marteau might render him was quite in
+accord with the old noble's idea of what was proper and with the
+ancient feudal custom by which the one family had served the other for
+so long.
+
+"I have yet something else to give up."
+
+"Another estate?"
+
+"A title."
+
+"Ah, and what title, pray, and what interest have I in it?" asked the
+Marquis sarcastically.
+
+"I have here," said the young Frenchman, drawing forth another legal
+document, "a patent of nobility duly signed and attested.  It was
+delivered to me by special courier the day after the battle of
+Montereau."
+
+"And you were created what, sir?"
+
+"Count d'Aumenier, at your service, monsieur."
+
+"Is this an insult?" exclaimed the Marquis, his pale face reddening.
+
+"Sir," said the young man proudly, "it was given me by a man who has
+made more men noble, and established them, than all the kings of France
+before him.  No power on earth could better make me Count or Prince or
+King, even."
+
+"Sir!  Sir!" protested the Marquis furiously.
+
+"I value this gift but I do not need it now.  I surrender it into your
+hands.  You may destroy it.  I shall formally and before a notary
+renounce it.  It shall be as if it had not been."
+
+The Marquis took the paper, unfolded it deliberately amid a breathless
+silence and glanced rapidly over it.
+
+"Even so," he admitted.
+
+He looked up at the gallant, magnanimous young Frenchman with more
+interest and more care than before; he noticed how pale and haggard and
+weak he appeared.  He appreciated it for the first time.  A little
+change came over the hard, stern face of the old noble.  He, too, had
+suffered; he, too, had been hungry and weak and weary; he, too, had
+eaten his heart out longing for what seemed impossible.  After all,
+they had been friends and more than friends, these ancient houses, the
+high born and the peasant born, for many generations.
+
+"St. Laurent," he said sharply, "we have been remiss.  Monsieur is ill,
+a chair for him.  Laure, a glass of wine."
+
+Indeed, the constraint that Marteau had put upon himself had drawn
+heavily upon his scanty reserve of nervous force.  St. Laurent did not
+like the task, but there was that in the Marquis's voice which warned
+him not to hesitate.  He offered a chair, into which the young man
+sank.  From a decanter on the table the girl, her hand trembling,
+poured out a glass of wine.  Swiftly she approached him, she bent over
+him, moved by a sudden impulse, she sank on her knees by his side and
+tendered him the glass.
+
+"On your knees, Laure!" protested the young Englishman.  "It is not
+meet that----"
+
+"In gratitude to a man who has served me well and who has set us all a
+noble example of renunciation by his surrender of land and title here
+in this very room."
+
+"Rise, mademoiselle," said Marteau, taking the glass from her still
+trembling hand.  "The honor is too great for me.  I cannot remain
+seated unless----"
+
+"Very pretty," said the Marquis coolly as young Captain Yeovil helped
+his reluctant young betrothed to her feet.  "Your health, monsieur," he
+continued, taking up his own glass.  "By all the saints, sir," he added
+as he drained his glass, "you have acted quite like a gentleman."
+
+"'Quite,' my uncle?" quoted the young woman with deep emphasis on the
+word.
+
+"Well, what more could I say to a Marteau?"
+
+"What more indeed," said the young officer, smiling in proud disdain.
+
+"Damme if I wouldn't have left the 'quite' out," muttered the elder
+Yeovil.
+
+"I have your leave to withdraw now, monsieur?" asked the young officer.
+"You dismissed me a moment since."
+
+"Now I ask you to stay.  By the cross of St. Louis," said the old
+Marquis, fingering his order, "I am proud of you, young man.  Take the
+commission.  I should like them to see what sort of men we breed in
+Champagne and----"
+
+"I feel I shall be unequal to it.  I must withdraw."
+
+"Where are you staying?" asked the young woman eagerly.
+
+"With Major Lestoype, an old comrade."
+
+"And I shall see you once more?"
+
+"I cannot hope to see mademoiselle again.  Our ways lie apart."
+
+"Enough," said the Countess imperiously.  "It rests with me and I will
+see you again.  Meanwhile, au revoir."
+
+She offered her hand to the young Frenchman.  He seized it eagerly.
+
+"Monsieur allows the privilege to an old and faithful servitor?" he
+said to the young Englishman, who stood jealously looking on, and then,
+not waiting for an answer, he bent low and pressed his lips upon it.
+
+Did that hand tremble in his own?  Was there an upward movement as if
+to press it against his lips?  He could not tell.  He did not dare to
+speculate.  The Countess closed her eyes and when she opened them again
+he was gone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE GREAT HONOR ROLL
+
+At midnight, had there been anyone abroad in the garrison to observe
+them, a number of men, heavily cloaked, might have been seen drifting
+through the torrential rain that was falling, toward the quarters
+occupied by Major Lestoype.  They were expected, evidently, for they
+were admitted without hesitation by the carefully selected old soldiers
+who kept the door.  The usual servants had been dismissed to their
+quarters, and their places were taken by certain tried and trusted
+veterans of the regiment.
+
+In the quarters of Major Lestoype was a spacious and lofty hall.
+Thither the new arrivals were conducted.  There was an air of great
+secrecy about their movements.  The occasion was evidently felt to be a
+solemn one by all.  Major Lestoype was not yet present.  As they threw
+off their cloaks it was seen that they were soldiers of the Fifth
+regiment of the line, to continue to give it the familiar title.  Each
+one was arrayed in his best parade uniform.  They were of every rank
+below that of Major, and included among them were several
+non-commissioned officers and a few private soldiers of reputation and
+standing.  The men were of all ages too, although the non-commissioned
+officers and privates were, in every instance, veterans.  These last
+stood in a little group by themselves, although there was no attempt on
+the part of the officers to emphasize any difference in rank on such an
+occasion.
+
+There were, perhaps, a hundred men in the company when all had been
+assembled.  They had been chosen with the utmost care.  The list
+included all the officers, except certain new officers who had been
+assigned to the regiment from other regiments of whom Major Lestoype
+and the veteran captains were not sure.  Certain other young officers,
+sons or connections of influential royalists now in high favor with
+King Louis XVIII, who had also been assigned to the regiment were of
+course excluded.
+
+Those who were there were known men, all tried and true.  Major
+Lestoype himself had been a private when the Fifth-of-the-Line had
+followed the Emperor, then but General Bonaparte, into Italy on that
+first and most marvelous of the campaigns of the great Captain.  He had
+seen service in Egypt and had been present with the First Consul at the
+decisive battle at Marengo.  Into his hand as a non-commissioned
+officer thereafter the newly made Emperor had delivered the Eagle.
+Naturally, he experienced toward it almost the feeling of a father for
+his child.
+
+Every other man there was associated in some way with that imperial
+emblem, their regimental standard.  As has been said, it was not the
+flag for which they cared; flags were of perishable silk or cloth; they
+could be and often were destroyed in battle.  They could be replaced.
+Some regiments stripped the colors from the poles before they went into
+action.  It was the Eagle that was precious and to be defended.  It was
+the Eagle that was in their hearts almost eternal.
+
+It was to receive their Eagle again that these officers and men had
+been summoned.  They did not know that definitely yet, but some whisper
+of it had been in the air.  They were on the _qui vive_ for the
+developments of the evening and full of restless excitement.  When the
+great door was at last thrown open and the Senior Captain caught sight
+of the tall, lean figure of his commander, he instantly came to
+attention and said sharply:
+
+"Gentlemen, attention.  The Major Commanding."
+
+To be sure, Lestoype no longer occupied that position.  His place had
+been taken by the Marquis d'Aumenier, but in the mind of the Senior
+Captain and of the others the old Major still was supreme and he said
+the words quite naturally.
+
+The talking ceased at once, the well-drilled officers and men stood at
+attention, their hands raised in salute.  Major Lestoype in full
+uniform, his breast bright with all his medals and orders--and it was
+observable that everybody else had adorned himself with every
+decoration he possessed, even those that had become illegal and
+valueless, forbidden even, after the fall of the Empire--entered the
+room, acknowledged the salutes and bowed ceremoniously to the officers
+assembled.  He was followed by a tall slender young man on this
+occasion dressed again in the uniform of the regiment.
+
+And yet there was a difference between this stranger and the other
+officers.  While from the uniforms of the other officers had been
+carefully removed everything which in the least degree suggested the
+Empire, no such deletion had taken place with the equipment of the
+young man.  On the contrary, the buttons, the brasses, the braids, the
+tricolored cockade; in short, everything was just as it was before the
+restoration.
+
+The eyes of the soldiers gleamed as they immediately recognized the
+difference.  They looked upon him with a certain envy, because he so
+boldly sported that of which they were deprived.  At first they did not
+recognize the man who had the hardihood thus to display the insignia of
+Napoleon in the kingdom of Louis.  It was not until he had advanced
+further in the room and stood in the full light of the chandelier and
+Major Lestoype turned toward him that one of the veterans recognized
+him.
+
+"By the living God," cried a deep voice, "Marteau!"
+
+Instantly the name was caught up.
+
+"Marteau!  Marteau!  Marteau!" came from all parts of the room.
+
+"Gentlemen, comrades," said Lestoype, raising his hand, "I beseech you,
+silence.  Walls have ears.  Every man here is tried and true.  We are
+trusting our lives and honor to one another, but what may be outside I
+know not.  We must do nothing to attract any attention.  Therefore,
+restrain yourselves, I beg.  Captain Marteau, for it is indeed he,
+gentlemen, has brought back to the regiment----"
+
+He paused a moment, with an instinctive feeling for the dramatic.
+Perhaps the little scene had been prearranged.  Marteau had carried his
+hand behind his back.  As Lestoype stopped he brought his hand to the
+front of his body.  There in the light of the candles, from the great
+chandelier above, the officers and soldiers saw the thing which they
+venerated next to God.  For a moment they stared, almost aghast at the
+gilded emblem in Marteau's hand.  Eyes sparkled in some faces, brimmed
+with tears in others, cheeks paled on one hand and flushed upon the
+other; breaths came quicker, a low murmur ran through the room--almost
+terrible in its meaning.
+
+"The Eagle of the regiment, messieurs," said old Lestoype solemnly,
+breaking the silence.
+
+"_Vive l'Empereur!_" suddenly exclaimed a veteran port-aigle, or
+standard bearer, in a low but tense voice, and the mighty battle-cry
+swept softly through the room from man to man, in low notes, in broken
+whispers like a great wavering sigh from a multitude of throbbing
+hearts.
+
+"Is it the same?" asked one as the sound died away.
+
+"The very same," answered Lestoype.  "It was given into my hands years
+ago.  I had someone write down the Emperor's words then.  I committed
+them to memory.  I can hear him speak now."
+
+"And what were those words we ask you, we, who are young in the
+regiment," broke out a youth who was yet a veteran of the German
+campaign of 1813.
+
+"The Emperor, turning to Marshal Berthier, took the Eagle from him, he
+held it up thus in his own hands."
+
+Lestoype turned to Marteau and suited the gesture to the word.  He
+seized the Eagle and advanced a step and those who watched him so
+keenly noticed how he trembled.  It was to him as if the Emperor were
+there again.  Some mystic aura of his mighty presence seemed to
+overhang the uplifted Eagle.
+
+"Gentlemen, we were paraded on the Champ de Mars with thousands of
+others.  The Eagles had been marched along the line with the ruffles of
+drums and blare of bugles.  It was raining like tonight, there was no
+sun, but never saw I a brighter day.  The Emperor said:
+
+"_'Soldiers of the Fifth regiment of Infantry of the Line, I entrust to
+you the Eagle of France.  It is to serve to you ever as your rallying
+point.  You swear to me never to abandon it but with life?  You swear
+never to suffer an affront to it for the honor of France?  You swear
+ever to prefer death to dishonor for it?  You swear?'_"
+
+As the words of the old officer died away, moved by a common impulse,
+the hands of the men before him went to their swords.  With sweeping
+gestures they dragged them out of their sheaths, up into the air they
+heaved the shining blades.
+
+"We swear," they said solemnly, instinctively repeating the ceremony of
+the past in which some of them had participated and of which all had
+heard.
+
+As their words died away the gruff voices of the non-commissioned
+officers and privates standing at salute repeated the acclaim, in
+accordance with the custom.
+
+"It was so when the Eagle was given," said old Lestoype, deeply
+gratified by the spontaneous tribute.  "Gentlemen and comrades, be
+seated, if you please.  I have called you here for the honor of the
+regiment to consult as to what is to be done."
+
+"_Mon Commandant_," said an old veteran, stepping forward as those
+present sought seats where they could, "I was port-aigle of the
+regiment before Dresden.  May I not take in my hand again the
+'cou-cou'?"
+
+That was the cant name which the soldiers gave to the standard, a term
+of affection, of familiarity, of comradeship which in no way indicated
+any lack of respect or any diminution of determination to die for it if
+necessary.
+
+"To you I gladly commit it until we have determined what is to be done
+with it," said Lestoype, handing it to the old man.
+
+It seemed a perfectly natural and spontaneous act to the officers
+present when the port-aigle pressed his lips reverently upon the number
+plate below the feet of the Eagle and then, disdaining to sit down,
+stood at attention, holding it before him.
+
+"Will you not tell us, Mon Commandant," said another of the younger
+officers, "something more about the Eagle before we discuss its
+disposition?"
+
+"I was a Sub-Lieutenant at Austerlitz," said Lestoype, only too anxious
+to comply.  "We were under the command of Marshal Soult, club-footed
+Soult we called him, upon the heights of Pratzen.  In the advance we
+were overwhelmed.  The port-aigle was killed.  I was close at hand.  I
+seized the staff but a bullet got me in the shoulder, here.  My arm has
+been stiff ever since.  I fell--a Russian--we were that closely
+intermingled and fighting hand to hand--seized the staff.  I lapsed
+into unconsciousness.  Captain Grenier--you were Sergeant-Major
+then--finish the story."
+
+"Willingly, Major Lestoype.  I cut down that Russian, although wounded
+myself, and tore the staff from him as he fell.  But I couldn't hold
+it.  I fell with it at your feet.  Our men had been driven back.  There
+was nobody beside us but the regimental dog."
+
+"Mustache," said one of the other officers, and all eyes turned toward
+the stuffed skin of a mongrel poodle dog mounted in a glass case hung
+against the wall.  Hands went up in salute.  Some of the soldiers
+laughed grimly.
+
+"The brave Mustache," continued Grenier.  "He leaped over my prostrate
+body.  I was conscious still.  I saw it all.  I would have given worlds
+for strength, but I was helpless.  Still Mustache was enough.  He loved
+the port-aigle.  He seemed to know the Eagle was in danger.  He snapped
+at the hands of the Russian.  The man drew back and cut at him with his
+sword.  Perhaps I should have received that blow.  You see where the
+forepaw of the dog was sliced off?  But he had the spirit of a French
+soldier, that brave dog, and he kept them off until the regiment
+rallied and came back and drove away the Russians.  Marshal Lannes had
+a collar made for Mustache.  You can see it there around his neck,
+young gentlemen," continued the old Captain.  "On one side the
+inscription reads: _'He lost a leg in the battle of Austerlitz but he
+saved the Eagle of his regiment.'  On the other side: 'Mustache, a dog
+of France, who will be everywhere respected and honored as a brave
+soldier.'_"
+
+"What became of the dog?" asked another.
+
+"He was carried on the roll of the regiment until he was killed by an
+English cannon ball at Badajos.  We took the skin and it is there, but
+we buried the brave heart and the rest of him on the rampart where he
+fell.  The soldiers put up a stone above him.  'Here lies the brave
+Mustache,' it read.  I think the English left it standing."
+
+"That Eagle has been in every capital of Europe, messieurs," remarked
+another veteran.  "Rome, Berlin, Vienna, Madrid, Moscow."
+
+"It charged with the Guard at Eylau," said Drehon.  "You remember,
+comrades, some of you at least, how we went forward in support of the
+battalions of the Guard under General Dorsenne?"
+
+"I remember, I remember," came from one and another.
+
+"_Hein_," said a veteran, "he was a bold soldier."
+
+"And a handsome one.  They called him '_Le Beau Dorsenne_,'" continued
+Drehon.  "The Guard advanced at arms-aport and so did we.  Our drums
+and theirs were rolling _La Grenadière_.  One of his staff said to him
+as we drew near the ranks of the Russians, 'Hadn't we better begin
+firing, my General?'  'No,' said the proud Dorsenne haughtily.
+'Grenadiers keep your arms aport,' he continued as he saw some
+wavering.  'The old guard only fights at the point of the bayonet.'"
+
+"And what happened?"
+
+"The Russians seemed to be paralyzed.  They stood and watched us.  When
+they finally did fire, in their excitement, they overshot us.  The next
+instant we burst upon them.  Our bayonets came down to a charge.  They
+couldn't stand before us, comrades.  Corbleu! the white snow was red
+with blood that day!  A squadron of cavalry, the Emperor's escort,
+struck them in the rear at the same time and between us we cut them to
+pieces.  They were heavy, those big Russians, to toss on the bayonet,
+but we did it."
+
+"Was that when the Emperor called us 'The Terrible Fifth'?" queried a
+voice.
+
+"That was the time."
+
+"Tell us more," came from the excited assemblage.
+
+"They gave us the gold wreath, there in Paris, after Jena and Eylau and
+Friedland.  They loved the Eagle then, those Parisians," said Adjutant
+Suraif, taking up the tale.  "The women fell on our necks and kissed us
+when we came marching back.  They threw us flowers.  They opened their
+arms to us.  They gave us wine.  Ah, that was fine."
+
+"At Ratisbon," said the old Major, "I commanded the regiment at the
+bridge-head.  We fought the Austrians off all day, giving the Emperor
+time to make his dispositions.  We captured four hundred prisoners, an
+Austrian battle flag, and three other flags.  The firing was terrible,
+our cou-cou lost some leaves of his wreath there.  We were alone there
+and at nightfall our ammunition was all gone.  The Austrians were there
+in thousands.  They charged and overwhelmed us."
+
+"But the Eagle?"
+
+"Ah, we had taken precaution," laughed the old Major.  "We wrapped the
+'cou-cou' up in the Austrian standard and in the battle flags and
+buried it in a cellar, so when they captured us they got nothing but
+the men and, of course, we didn't matter."
+
+"And how did you get it back?" came an excited question.
+
+"The Emperor took the town the day after.  They had kept us prisoners
+there and so we were free.  I shall never forget the Emperor on that
+day.  He rode down to us where we had formed in ranks.  He looked over
+us.  His glance pierced every man's heart.  'Soldiers of the Fifth,' he
+said, 'when I heard of the attack on the bridge at Ratisbon I said to
+my staff, "I am tranquil, the Terrible Fifth is there," and now I see
+you alive, many of you unharmed, and without your Eagle.  What have you
+done with it?' he thundered out his face black as midnight.  'Sire,'
+said I, stepping forward and upon my word, comrades, it took more
+courage to face the Emperor in that mood than to charge an Austrian
+battery, 'we have not lost our Eagle.  We have buried it and having
+been but this instant released from captivity by your Majesty, we await
+your permission to dig it up.'  'Go and resurrect it,' he said sharply.
+'I will wait.'"
+
+"And did he?"
+
+"Most assuredly.  We found it safe and brought it back with the
+Austrian standard.  The Emperor saluted it and commended us.  'I knew I
+could trust you,' he said, smiling."
+
+"He loved his Eagles," said another voice.
+
+"That did he," answered a veteran.  "I have even seen him get out of
+his traveling-carriage and stand at attention as an Eagle at the head
+of a regiment marched by."
+
+"I carried the Eagle in Marshal Macdonald's column at Wagram,
+messieurs," said the old Eagle-bearer, stepping forward.  "It was there
+the bullet struck the wing tip, here."  He laid his hand tenderly upon
+it.  "Mon Dieu, that was a march!  Twenty thousand men in solid columns
+going across the plain at steady step, with drums beating, the
+Austrians pouring shot and shell into us.  You could hear the bullets
+crash through the breasts of the division like glass.  My arm was numb
+from the bullet which struck the Eagle, but I changed hands and carried
+it forward.  I can see the big Marshal still.  The Emperor was looking
+on.  It was terrible.  It didn't seem that mortal man could make it,
+but we kept on, still, silent, until we came in touch with the
+Austrians and then we cut them in two.  It was magnificent."
+
+"I was with Marshal Mortier when we were caught in the pass of
+Durrenstein," broke out one of the privates, an old Eagle-guard.  "We
+fought all day and all night in that trap against awful odds, waiting,
+hoping, until toward morning we heard the thunder of Dupont's guns.  We
+were so close together that we seized the throats of the Russians, and
+they ours.  We begged the Marshal to use a boat we had found to cross
+over the Danube and escape.  'No,' he said, 'certainly not!  I will not
+desert my brave comrades!  I will save them or die with them.'  Ah, he
+was a brave man that day."
+
+"And that such a man could betray the Emperor!" exclaimed another.
+
+"I never could understand it," said one of the soldiers.
+
+"That was the day," said a third, "when our drums were shot to pieces
+and we had to beat the long roll on the iron cooking cans."
+
+"You remember it well, comrade."
+
+"I was a drummer there.  I remember there were but two thousand of the
+six thousand in the division that answered roll call that day."
+
+"I carried that Eagle into Moscow," said a scarred, one-armed veteran.
+"I would have carried it back, but I was wounded at Malojaroslavets and
+would have died but for you, my friend."
+
+"And I carried it across the Niemen after that retreat was over,"
+returned the other, acknowledging the generous tribute of his old
+fellow soldier.
+
+"Sacre-bleu!  How cold it was.  Not many of you can remember that march
+because so few survived it.  The battalions in Spain can thank God they
+escaped it," said another.
+
+"It was hot enough there, and those English gave us plenty of
+fighting," added one of the veterans who had fought against Wellington.
+
+"Aye, that they did, I'll warrant," continued the veteran of Russia.
+"The Emperor who marched on foot with the rest of us.  Before crossing
+the Beresina--I shudder to think of the thousands drowned then.  I
+dream about it sometimes at night--we were ordered to break up the
+Eagles and throw them into the river."
+
+"And did you?"
+
+"Not I.  That is the only order I disobeyed.  I carried it with me,
+wrapped in my own clothes.  One night my fingers froze to it.  See!"
+He lifted his maimed hands.  "But I held on.  I crossed the Nieman
+before Marshal Ney.  He threw away his musket, but I kept the Eagle.
+He was the last man, I was just before him," said the man proudly.
+
+"It was Marteau who saved it at Leipsic," said Lestoype, "and again
+after he had hurled it into the Aube at Arcis he found it and brought
+it back.  And it is here."
+
+Tears glistened in the eyes of the veterans and the youth alike.
+Hearts beat more rapidly, breaths came quicker, as these brave and
+fragmentary reminiscences of the part the Eagle had played in past
+glories were recited.
+
+"What shall we do with it now?" asked Lestoype at last.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+WHEN THE VIOLETS BLOOM AGAIN
+
+Now there was not a man in the room who had not heard of the order to
+return the Eagles to Paris, where they were to be broken up and melted
+down, not a man in the army for that matter.  Nor was there a man who
+had not heard some account of the resistance of other regiments to the
+order, which had been nevertheless enforced wherever possible, although
+in cases not a few Eagles had been hidden or disappeared mysteriously
+and had not been given up.  There was scarcely a man in the
+regiment--unless some royalist officer or new recruit--who had not been
+glad that their own Eagle had been lost honorably in battle and buried,
+as they believed, in the river.  It was more fitting that it should
+meet that end than be turned back to Paris to be broken up, melted down
+and cast into metal for ignoble use--and any other use would be ignoble
+in the estimation of the regiment.
+
+"I would rather throw it into the Isère," growled old Grenier, "than
+send it back."
+
+"And I, and I, and I," came from different voices.
+
+"Perhaps," said Lestoype, speaking slowly and with deep meaning, for he
+realized that his words were in the highest degree treasonable, "if we
+can preserve it by some means we may see it once again at the head of
+the regiment when----" he stopped.  The silence was positively ghastly.
+He looked about him.  The men thrilled to his glance.  "----'when the
+violets bloom again,'" he said, using the mystic poetic phrase which
+had become so widely current.
+
+"God speed the day!" burst out some deep voiced veteran.
+
+"Amen, amen!"
+
+"_Vive l'Empereur_!"
+
+"Let us save the Eagle!"
+
+The whole room was in tumult of nervous cries.
+
+"_Vive le brave Marteau_!" finally said Drehon when he could get a
+hearing.  "He has given us back our honor, our life."
+
+The emotions of the moment were too much.  Reckless of what might
+happen, the room instantly rang with loud acclaim in response to this
+appeal.  The soldiers sprang to their feet, moved by irresistible
+emotion.  Swords were drawn again.
+
+The officers and men clustered around Lestoype and Marteau.  The Eagle
+was lifted high, blades were upheaved threateningly again.  Dangers
+were forgotten.  Intoxicated with enthusiasm they gave free course to
+their emotions.
+
+"_Vive l'Empereur_!" resounded through the hall, not whispered but
+shouted, not shouted but roared!
+
+In their mad frenzy of excitement they did not, any of them, notice
+that the door into the hall had been thrown open and that a young
+officer of the regiment stood there, his face pale with amazement, his
+mouth open, staring.  He could not take in the whole purport of the
+scene but he saw the Eagle, he heard the cries, the word "_Vive_" came
+to him out of the tumult, coupled with the name of Marteau and the
+Emperor.
+
+"Gentlemen!" he finally shouted, raising his voice to its highest pitch
+and as the sound penetrated to the tumultuous mass the noise died away
+almost as suddenly as it had arisen.
+
+Men faced about and stared toward the entrance.  There stood young St.
+Laurent, one of the royalist officers, newly appointed to the regiment,
+who had been made aide to the Governor and commander.
+
+"Major Lestoype," said the youth with great firmness, having recovered
+his presence of mind and realizing instantly the full purport and
+menace of the situation, "an order from the Governor requests your
+presence at once.  I was sent to deliver it.  The soldiers at the door
+strove vainly to stop me but I forced my way past them.  I am an
+unwelcome guest, I perceive, being a loyal servant of the King, but I
+am here.  What is the meaning of this gathering, the worship of this
+discarded emblem, these treasonable cries?"
+
+"Am I, a veteran of the army of Italy, to be catechised and questioned
+by a boy?" growled Lestoype in mingled rage and astonishment.
+
+"You forget yourself, monsieur.  I regret to fail in any military duty
+or in respect to my seniors, but in this I represent the Marquis
+d'Aumenier, the Governor, aye, even the King, my master.  Whence came
+this Eagle?"
+
+There was a dead silence.
+
+"I brought it, monsieur, to my old comrades, to my old regiment,"
+coolly said Marteau, stepping forward.
+
+"Traitor!" exclaimed St. Laurent, confronting him boldly.
+
+"Not so, for I have taken no oath to King Louis."
+
+"Ah, you still wear the insignia of the Corsican, I see," continued the
+young aide, looking more closely.  "But how about these gentlemen?"
+
+Again the question was met by silence.
+
+"Messieurs," said St. Laurent, "you are old soldiers of the former
+Emperor.  I see.  I understand.  You love him as I and mine the King.
+It is as much as my life is worth, as much as my honor, to condone it.
+Yet I would not be a tale-bearer, but this cannot pass unless----"
+
+"Shall I cut him down where he stands, _Mon Commandant_?" growled the
+old port-aigle, presenting his weapon.
+
+"And add murder to treason!" exclaimed St. Laurent, his face flushing a
+little but not giving back an inch before the threatening approach of
+the veteran.
+
+There was good stuff in him, evidently, and even those who foresaw
+terrible consequences to themselves in his unexpected presence could
+not but admire him.  They were even proud that he was a Frenchman, even
+though he served the King they hated.
+
+"By no means," said Lestoype, motioning the color-bearer back.  "You
+shall go as freely as you came."
+
+"And if you do as I suggest I shall go and forget all I have seen,
+messieurs."
+
+"Impossible!"
+
+"Upon my honor I shall do it but on one condition."
+
+"Ah! and that is?"
+
+"That you give me the Eagle."
+
+"Give you the Eagle!" exclaimed old Captain Grenier.
+
+"The Eagle for which our brave comrades died," said Drehon.
+
+"The Eagle which has been carried in triumph in every capital in
+Europe!" added Suraif.
+
+The whole room was filled with cries again.
+
+"Never!  Never!"
+
+The whole mass surged forward, including Marteau.
+
+"Was it to give it up to any servant of King Louis that I brought it
+back?" the latter shouted threateningly.
+
+"Gentlemen," said the young aide so soon as he could make himself heard
+in the tumult, "the choice is yours, not mine.  I am a soldier of the
+King, aide-de-camp to the Governor of this place, an officer under the
+Marquis d'Aumenier.  You have your ideas of duty, I have mine.  I have
+already stretched my conscience to the limit in offering to be silent
+about this under any conditions.  I am doing wrong in concealing it but
+I do not wish to doom so many brave men to disgrace, to death.  You,
+monsieur"--he pointed toward Marteau--"refused a commission in this
+regiment.  You wear the insignia of Bonaparte.  You have no place here.
+Withdraw.  Your arrival has disturbed the orderly course of events.
+These gentlemen were doing their duty contentedly----"
+
+"No, by God, never," roared out a veteran.  "Contentedly!  We will
+never be content until----"
+
+"Until what, monsieur?"
+
+"Until the violets bloom again," came the answer, accompanied by a
+burst of sardonic laughter.
+
+"Your interest in the flowers of spring does not concern me,
+gentlemen," returned the young aide, affecting not to understand, and
+perhaps he did not.  "If you will give me the Eagle----"
+
+"And what will you do with it if we should do so?"
+
+"I will be silent as to this."
+
+"And how will you explain your possession of it?"
+
+"I will say that I got it from Monsieur Marteau, who has gone."
+
+"And what will you do with it?"
+
+"That shall be as the Marquis d'Aumenier directs."
+
+"And he?"
+
+"I think he will undoubtedly obey the orders of the Minister of War and
+send it to Paris to be broken up."
+
+"Gentlemen," said Major Lestoype, endeavoring to quiet and repress the
+growls of antagonism that arose on every hand, "you hear the
+proposition of Monsieur St. Laurent.  Seeing his duty as he does, I am
+forced to admit," continued the veteran with great magnanimity, "that
+it does credit to his heart.  What shall we do?"
+
+"Purchase our freedom, purchase our rank, purchase our lives by giving
+up our Eagle!" said old Captain Grenier.  "Never!"
+
+"I vote NO to that proposition," said Drehon.
+
+"And I, and I, and I," acclaimed the soldiers.
+
+"You hear, Monsieur St. Laurent?" said the Major.  "These gentlemen
+have signified their will unmistakably."
+
+"I hear," said the young aide.  "Major Lestoype, forgive me if I have
+failed in respect or soldierly deference to my superior officer, but I,
+too, have my duty to perform.  I warn you all that when I pass from
+this room I shall go directly to the Marquis d'Aumenier and report what
+I have seen."
+
+"When he passes," cried some of the soldiers of lower rank ominously,
+emphasizing the adverb and rudely thrusting themselves between St.
+Laurent and the door.
+
+"Pardon me, gentlemen," said the young aide quite coolly.  "It seems
+that I spoke unadvisedly in one particular."
+
+"You retract?" said a voice.
+
+"Never.  I should have said 'if I pass.'"
+
+Swords were still out, hands were clenched, arms were raised.
+
+"Say the word and he dies where he stands," cried one.
+
+"Gentlemen," said Lestoype sternly, "back, all of you.  Free passage
+for Monsieur St. Laurent.  Back, I say.  Let him go unharmed, as he
+came."
+
+"My orders were to request your presence before the Governor of the
+town immediately," said the aide.
+
+"I attend him at once, young gentleman," returned the old soldier,
+seizing his cloak and covering his head with his chapeau.  "Gentlemen,"
+he added, turning to the rest, "I leave the Eagle in your hands.
+Before he departs let me say that Monsieur St. Laurent has borne
+himself like a brave man, a gallant officer, and a true gentleman.
+Monsieur, you will not take amiss this heartfelt tribute from so old a
+soldier as I."
+
+"I thank you, sir, and you, gentlemen," said the young aide, surveying
+the men, their sudden temper abated, now looking at him with
+admiration, some of them with hands raised in salute.  "The duty you
+have imposed upon me by your choice is the most painful I shall ever be
+called upon to perform."
+
+"This way, Monsieur St. Laurent," said old Lestoype, stepping through
+the door with his head high, beckoning the young aide to follow him.
+
+The door had scarcely closed behind the two when the wild confusion
+broke out again.
+
+"What shall be done now?" cried Captain Grenier, the senior officer
+present, as soon as he could be heard.
+
+"Messieurs," said Marteau, striving to gain the attention of all, "let
+me speak a moment.  I have a plan.  Be silent, I beg of you."
+
+"We will hear Marteau."
+
+"What have you to suggest?"
+
+"Speak!"
+
+"Be quick."
+
+"This.  I will take the Eagle, I, who brought it."
+
+"You will throw it into the Isère?"
+
+"No.  I know this town like a book.  The regiment was once stationed
+here for a few months.  I had time on my hands.  I explored many of the
+ancient buildings.  I will----  But ask me nothing.  Trust the Eagle to
+me.  I have periled my life for it as have you all.  Trust it to me.
+It shall come to no dishonor in my hands.  Say to the Governor that I
+came here, that I brought the Eagle, that I was asked to surrender it,
+that I refused, that I took it away, that you know not where I
+concealed it, nor whither I am gone.  Let Monsieur St. Laurent make his
+report.  You can simply tell the truth.  Nothing will be done."
+
+"It is well thought on," said Captain Grenier.
+
+"The danger is to you," said another.
+
+"What of that?  I have looked danger in the face often since I have
+been in the army, like all the rest of you."
+
+"I like not to shift the responsibility upon this young man," said the
+old port-aigle dubiously.  "He is saving our lives at the risk of his
+own if they should find him--which is likely."
+
+"Messieurs," said Marteau quickly, "I am not preserving your lives for
+yourselves."
+
+"Why, then?" asked an officer.
+
+"That you may be ready," said the young man, throwing his cloak about
+his shoulders, seizing the Eagle with his hands, "when the violets
+bloom again."
+
+As they stared at him he saluted, turned on his heel, opened the door
+and went out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+LIKE A THIEF IN THE NIGHT
+
+The reception was over.  The last guest had departed.  The house had
+been closed.  Sir Gervaise Yeovil and his son and the Countess Laure
+had bidden the old Marquis good night and retired to their several
+apartments.  There were wakeful hours ahead for the Governor, who
+repaired to his cabinet and got to work.  The tidings which had been
+brought him by the young Baron St. Laurent were sufficiently grave and
+perturbing to render sleep impossible, even if he had nothing to do.
+In great astonishment the Marquis had questioned Major Lestoype closely
+and from him had received a frank and accurate version of the whole
+affair.  The Major would have died rather than betray a comrade, but in
+this instance the betrayal had already been effected and there was
+nothing whatever to be gained, from Marteau's point of view or from
+anybody's point of view, by an attempt at concealment.
+
+The old Marquis had acted with dazzling promptitude.  His personal
+escort had consisted of a troop of loyalist cavalry from the King's
+household guard and it had not yet returned to Paris.  He could depend
+absolutely upon these men.  They had none of them been soldiers of the
+grand armies of the Emperor.  They had been recruited in loyal and
+long-suffering Vendée.  He placed them under the command of St.
+Laurent, of whose conduct he highly approved, being in ignorance of the
+offer of secrecy made by that young soldier, Lestoype being too fine a
+man to attempt to better his case by bringing the Lieutenant into
+disgrace.  This detachment had searched the Major's quarters
+thoroughly.  They had found them, of course, deserted.
+
+Captain Grenier, being forthwith summoned to headquarters, had stated
+truthfully that Marteau had taken the Eagle and gone and thereafter the
+assembly had dispersed.  He declared upon his word of honor that he had
+no knowledge where he had gone or what he had done with the Eagle.  The
+Marquis had a complete description of Marteau drawn up and sent to
+every gate in the walled town.  The guard was ordered to permit nobody
+and nothing to pass without the severest scrutiny and the closest
+search or inspection.  The Governor made preparations for public
+proclamation on the morrow, offering a large reward for the fugitive's
+apprehension dead or alive, and also an additional reward for
+information that would lead to the discovery of the missing Eagle.
+
+Promising himself to deal with the matter even more thoroughly in the
+morning, he had at last dismissed his subordinates and retired.  If
+Marteau was within the city walls--and it was impossible to see how he
+could have got out of the town without a pass after twelve o'clock at
+night--he would find him if he had to search every house in the town.
+The spirit of the old man was high and aflame.  To be so braved, to
+have his command the scene of such an outbreak of disloyalty and
+treason to the King was more than he could bear with equanimity.
+
+There was another regiment in the town that had formerly been known as
+the Seventh-of-the-Line, commanded by Colonel Labédoyère, and there
+were detachments of artillery.  The Eagle of the Seventh had never been
+sent to the War Office in Paris.  It, too, had disappeared.  But that
+had been months before the Marquis' time, and he had no responsibility
+for that.  Colonel Labédoyère was more than suspected of lukewarmness,
+but as he was a young man of great influence, high social standing and
+much personal popularity no steps had as yet been taken against him.
+The Marquis determined to have it out with him also at the first
+convenient season, and unless he could be assured of his absolute
+devotion to King Louis, he would report to the Minister of War the
+necessity of the Colonel's removal.
+
+The old man was fully alive to the Napoleonic sentiment among the
+soldiers, a sentiment which arose from a variety of motives.  In the
+first place, war was the trade of most of the soldiers.  They lived on
+it, thrived by it, delighted in it.  The permanence of the monarchy
+meant peace.  There would be little chance for advancement and none at
+all for plunder.  Self-interest predisposed every old soldier to
+continue an imperialist.
+
+In the second place, the finances of France were naturally in a most
+disordered condition.  The pay of officers and men was greatly in
+arrears; promises made had not been kept, and there was much heart-felt
+dissatisfaction on that account.  The pay of a soldier is in no sense
+an adequate compensation for the risks he runs, the perils to which he
+voluntarily and willingly subjects himself, but it is a universal
+experience that although his pay is in no degree commensurate, yet the
+soldier whose pay is withheld instantly becomes insubordinate and
+mutinous, however high or patriotic the motives back of his enlistment.
+
+Again the officers had, most of them, been degraded in rank.  Many of
+them had been retired on pittances which were not paid.  Those who were
+lucky enough to be retained in active service were superseded by
+superannuated, often incompetent old officers of the old royal army
+before the revolution, or by young scions of nobility with no knowledge
+or fitness to command veterans, to whom the gross-bodied, uninspiring,
+gouty old King did not appeal.  Again, the regimental names and
+associations had been changed and the old territorial or royal and
+princely designations had been reëstablished; the Napoleonic victories
+had been erased from the battle-flags; the Eagles had been taken away.
+
+The plain people of France were more or less apathetic toward Emperor
+or King.  France had been drained of its best for so long that it
+craved rest and peace and time to recuperate above everything else.  It
+had been sated with glory and was alike indifferent to victory or
+defeat.  But the army was a seething mass of discontent.  It had
+nothing to gain by the continuance of present conditions and everything
+to lose.  It was a body of soldiers-of-fortune held in control
+temporarily by circumstances but ready to break the leash and respond
+instantly to the call of the greatest soldier-of-fortune of all.
+
+And while all this is true it must also be admitted that there were
+many officers and men like Marteau who were profoundly humiliated and
+distressed over conditions in France and who, passionately wrapped up
+in and devoted to the Emperor, had spurned commissions and dignities
+and preferments.  If they were obscure men they remained in France
+unnoticed; if they were great men they had expatriated themselves and
+sought seclusion and safety in other countries, oftentimes at great
+personal sacrifice of property, ease and comfort.
+
+The King, who was by no means lacking in shrewdness and wit, and his
+chief advisers in Paris, did not fail to realize something of this, but
+keen-sighted men like the Marquis d'Aumenier, away from the person of
+the monarch, realized it much more fully, although even he had not the
+least idea of the wide extent and depth of this feeling.  But the old
+man knew instinctively that he must control things in Grenoble at least
+with an iron hand and that no temporizing was possible.  The return of
+Marteau, who was a man of parts and power, he admitted--he recalled how
+well he had borne himself before the little group in the
+drawing-room!--followed by the midnight gathering, the joy of the
+veterans, their worship almost of the Eagle, enlightened him.  He would
+put down sedition with an iron hand, he swore to himself.  The King had
+committed this important place to him.  It was, in a certain sense, a
+frontier city if the impossible happened.  Well, the King should find
+that he had not reposed trust in the Marquis for nothing.
+
+So the old man thought as he lay sleepless during the night.  He was
+not the only one who lay sleepless during the night.  Laure d'Aumenier
+sought rest and oblivion in vain.  She had been more moved by Marteau's
+conduct and bearing and presence in the old Château d'Aumenier, a year
+ago, than she had been willing to admit until she thought him dead.
+The Marteaux had always been a good-looking, self-respecting people.
+Madame Marteau, his mother, had been an unusual woman who had, it was
+said, married beneath her when she became the wife of old Jean Marteau,
+although she never in her long married life thought of it in that way.
+The present Jean Marteau was as handsome and distinguished looking a
+man as there was in France.  The delicacy and refinement of his bearing
+and appearance did not connote weakness either, as she could testify.
+
+The young woman owed her life and honor to the young soldier.  But long
+before that chance meeting they had been companions in childhood,
+intimate companions, too.  The boy had been her servitor, but he had
+been more.  He had been her protector and friend.  In her memory she
+could recall incident after incident when he had helped her, shielded
+her.  Never once had he failed to show anything but devotion absolute
+and unbounded toward her.
+
+The proposition of marriage he had made in the old hall, which she had
+laughed to scorn, had by no means escaped her memory.  She had dwelt
+upon it, she had even speculated upon the possibility of an acceptance
+of his proposal.  Why not?  She knew no man more gentle at heart, more
+gallant in soul, more noble in spirit than he.  That, too, she had
+turned over and over in her mind.
+
+She admired Frank Yeovil.  He was a likable man, frank by nature as
+well as name and brave, sunny in disposition and ardently devoted to
+her.  When the betrothal had been made at her uncle's urgent insistence
+that she accept Captain Yeovil's suit, it had been a great match for
+her, for the d'Aumeniers were impoverished exiles, while the Yeovils
+were a rich family and of a line almost as long as her own.  It had
+been easy enough to plight her troth to the young Englishman at first,
+but since she had seen Marteau, she realized that it would not be easy
+to keep that engagement.  Fortunately, Captain Yeovil had been on
+service in Spain and the South of France with the Duke of Wellington's
+army, and only a few weeks before had he joined her uncle and herself
+in Paris on leave of absence.  He had pressed her to name the day but
+she had temporized and avoided the issue; not for any definite reason
+but because as the time drew near she became less and less willing to
+be the Englishman's wife.
+
+Marteau had been reported killed at Arcis.  Perhaps that report had
+done more to enlighten her to the true state of her affections than
+anything else.  Her pride of birth, her rank and station would never
+have permitted her, it may be, to dwell upon a living Marteau as a
+possible husband, but since he was dead there could be no harm in
+dreams of that kind; and in her grief she had indulged herself in them
+to the full.  It had been a shock to her, of course, but not so great a
+shock as it would have been if an engagement had subsisted between the
+two, or she had permitted herself to think that she could ever look
+favorably on the proposition he had made to her.  Nevertheless, it had
+been a great sorrow.  There were some alleviations to the situation,
+however.  Since it had become impossible, since she believed Marteau
+dead, she could indulge her grief and her mind could dwell upon those
+attractions which had influenced her so powerfully.
+
+The period was one of intense anxiety and excitement.  The old Marquis
+had lived much alone.  He was not versed in woman's ways.  Her
+agitation and grief passed unnoticed.  By degrees she got control of
+herself.  Since it was not to be Marteau it might as well be young
+Yeovil.  The whole episode with which the French officer was concerned
+she viewed from a point of detachment as a romantic dream.  His arrival
+had rudely shattered that dream and awakened her to the reality of the
+situation.  She loved him.
+
+For Laure d'Aumenier to marry Marteau was impossible.  The Marquis
+would never consent.  He was her legal guardian, the head of her race.
+Marriage without his consent was unthinkable.  Loving Marteau she would
+fain not marry Yeovil; yet her troth being plighted in the most public
+manner and with her consent, the Marquis would force her to keep her
+word.  She knew exactly the pressure that would be brought to bear upon
+her.  Although she had lost some of the pride of her ancestors, she
+could see the situation from their point of view.  There was a deadlock
+before her and there appeared to be no way of breaking it.
+
+It was a wild night outside.  The rain beat upon the casement windows
+of the old castle.  The tempest without seemed fit accompaniment to the
+tempest within, thought the woman.
+
+A long time she lay thinking, planning, hoping, praying; alike
+unavailingly.  Toward morning, utterly exhausted by the violence of her
+emotions, the scene she had gone through--and it had been a torture to
+stand and receive the townspeople after the departure of Marteau--she
+fell at last into a troubled sleep.
+
+She was awakened by a slight sound, as of a light footstep.  She
+enjoyed the faculty of awakening with full command of her senses at
+once.  She parted the curtains of the bed.  With her eyes wide open,
+holding her breath, she listened.  She heard soft movements.  There was
+someone in the room!
+
+Laure d'Aumenier, as has been said, had been trained to self-reliance.
+She could wield a sword expertly and was an accurate shot with a
+firearm.  She could ride with any woman in England.  She had, in full,
+the intrepidity and courage of her ancestors.  Her prowess, so strange
+and so unusual in that day in a woman, had been a subject of
+disapproval on the part of her uncle, but Sir Gervaise Yeovil and his
+son had viewed it with delight.  Frank Yeovil had brought her from
+Spain a beautiful Toledo blade and a pair of Spanish dueling pistols,
+light, easily handled and of deadly accuracy.  The blade hung from a
+peg in the wall by the head of her bed.  The pistols lay in a case on
+the table upon which her lighted bedroom candle stood.  They were
+charged and ready for use.
+
+Throwing back the cover without a sound, presently she stepped through
+the hangings and out on the floor.  A loose wrapper lay at the foot of
+the bed, which was a tall old four-poster, heavily curtained.  Whoever
+was in the room was on the other side of the bed, near the wall.  The
+curtains hung between.
+
+She was as light as a bird in her movements.  She drew the bed-gown
+nearer, thrust her feet into heelless slippers, placed convenient for
+her morning rising by her maid, opened the box of pistols, lifted one
+of them, examining it on the instant to see that it was ready for use,
+slipped on the wrapper, stepped toward the foot of the bed and waited.
+
+The beat of the rain, the shriek of the wind, the roar of the thunder
+filled the room with sound, but the woman had good ears and they were
+well trained.  She could hear someone softly moving.  Sometimes, in
+lulls in the storm, she thought she could detect heavy breathing.
+
+The natural impulse of the ordinary woman would have been to scream or
+if not that, having gained the floor, to rush to the door, or if not
+that to pull the bell cord and summon help.  But Laure d'Aumenier was
+not an ordinary woman.  She knew that any sound would bring aid and
+rescue at once.  There would be plenty of time to scream, to pull the
+bell or to do whatever was necessary later.  And something, she could
+not tell what, something she could not recognize, impelled her to take
+the course she did; to wait, armed.
+
+But the wait began to tell on her sensibilities.  The sound of somebody
+or something moving mysteriously to-and-fro behind the curtains over
+against the wall at the other end of the room began to work on her
+nerves.  It takes an iron steadiness, a passive capacity for endurance
+which is quite different from woman's more or less emotional courage,
+to wait under circumstances like that.
+
+Just when she had reached the limit of her endurance and was persuaded
+that she could stand no more, her attention was attracted by a slight
+click as of a lock or catch, a movement as of something heavy, as of a
+drawer or door, and then the footsteps turned and came toward the
+window.  The moment of action had arrived and with it came the return
+of her wavering courage.
+
+To reach the window the intruder must pass by the foot of the bed where
+she stood.  Now the light was on the table at the head of the bed and
+the table was far enough from the bed to shine past her into the room.
+The moving figure suddenly came into view.  It was a man, shrouded in a
+heavy cloak.  He did not glance toward the bed.  His eyes were fixed on
+the window.  His astonishment, therefore, was overwhelming when he
+suddenly found himself looking into the barrel of a pistol and
+confronted by a woman.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+IN THE COUNTESS LAURE'S BED-CHAMBER
+
+That astonishment was so great when the man recognized the woman that
+he threw up his hands and stepped backward.  As he did so his sodden
+cloak, which he had gathered closely around him, opened and fell.  The
+next instant his hand tore his hat from his head and he stood revealed
+in the full light of the candle.
+
+"Marteau!" exclaimed the woman in a surprise and dismay equal to that
+of the man she confronted.
+
+Her arm that held the pistol dropped weakly to her side.  With the
+other hand she drew the peignoir about her, a vivid crimson wave rushed
+over her whole body.  To surprise a man, a thief, in her room at night,
+was one thing; to confront the man she loved in such a guise was
+another.  Her heart rose in her throat.  For a moment she thought she
+would have fainted.
+
+"You!  You!" she choked out brokenly.  "Mon Dieu!"
+
+"Mademoiselle," began the man desperately, his confusion and dismay
+growing with every flying moment, "I----"
+
+"What do you here," she went on impetuously, finding voice, "in my
+bedroom at night?  I thought you----"
+
+"For God's sake hear me.  I came to----" and then he stopped lamely and
+in agonized embarrassment.
+
+"For what did you come?" she insisted.
+
+"Mademoiselle," he said, throwing his head up, "I cannot tell you.  But
+when I was stationed here before this was the bedroom of the
+Commanding-Officer.  I supposed it was so still.  I had not the
+faintest idea that you--that it was----"
+
+"And what would you do in the bedroom of the Commanding-Officer?" asked
+the woman, forgetting for the moment the strangeness of the situation
+in her anxiety to solve the problem.
+
+"And that, I repeat, I cannot tell."
+
+"Not even to me, who----" she stopped in turn.
+
+"Yes, yes, go on," urged the young man, stepping nearer to her.  "Not
+even to you who----"
+
+"Who espoused your cause in the hall this very night, who befriended
+you," she went on rather lamely and inadequately having checked herself
+in time.
+
+"Oh," said the young officer in great disappointment, "that?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You see, the Governor----"
+
+"Did you wish to kill him?"
+
+"Mademoiselle!" he protested.  "I swear to you that I would not harm
+him for the world but I----"
+
+"Are you in need?  He offered you money.  I have a few resources."
+
+"For God's sake, mademoiselle," interposed the officer desperately, but
+she went resolutely on.
+
+"Whatever I have is yours.  See----" she stripped rings from her
+fingers and proffered them--"take them."
+
+"Mademoiselle," said the young man sadly, "you wrong me."
+
+"Well, if it was not for murder or for gain, for what cause did you
+take so frightful a risk?"
+
+"Is there no other motive, mademoiselle, that makes men risk their
+lives than revenge or greed?"
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Love."
+
+"But you said you did not know this was my room!"
+
+The words came from her impetuously and before she thought she realized
+when it was too late.
+
+"Ah, mademoiselle, love of woman is a great passion.  I know it only
+too well, too sadly.  But it is not the only love."
+
+"Have you another in your heart?" asked the Countess with a sinking in
+her own.
+
+"Love of honor."
+
+"I don't understand."
+
+"And yet I know that you are the very soul of honor yourself."
+
+"I thank you, but----"
+
+"Mademoiselle," said the young man, coming to a sudden resolution,
+"appearances are frightfully against me.  That I should be here, in
+your room, at this hour of the night, under the circumstances, condemns
+me utterly in your opinion, especially as I have offered no adequate
+explanation.  I am about to throw myself on your mercy, to trust to
+your honor."
+
+"You shall not trust in vain, monsieur."
+
+"I know that.  I trusted to your honor in the Château d'Aumenier and
+you did not fail me then."
+
+"Nor will I now."
+
+"Will you give me your word not to reveal what I tell you, and not to
+make use of the knowledge I communicate, until I give you leave?"
+
+"Does it concern the honor or the welfare of those I love?"
+
+"You mean that Englishman?"
+
+"I do not love--I mean the Marquis, my uncle."
+
+"It does not," said the young man, noting with throbbing heart the
+broken sentence.
+
+"Then I give my promise.  Speak."
+
+"I came here to conceal something, mademoiselle."
+
+"What?"
+
+"An emblem."
+
+"Yours?"
+
+"The Emperor's."
+
+"You mean----"
+
+"The Eagle of the Fifth-regiment-of-the-Line."
+
+"Why here?"
+
+"It is a long story.  I brought it back, having fished it out of the
+river Aube, where it had lain since that day----"
+
+"When I thought you killed," said the young woman, her hand pressed to
+her heart.
+
+"And were you sorry?"
+
+"Sorry?  I----  But go on."
+
+"I showed it to the officers of the regiment tonight at Major
+Lestoype's quarters.  We were discovered.  The matter was reported to
+your uncle.  Rather than give up the Eagle I said that I would hide it."
+
+"And why here?"
+
+"Because being as I thought the quarters of the Commanding-Officer it
+would be the last place in Grenoble where it would be sought."
+
+"And where did you hide it?"
+
+"Back of one of the drawers in the cupboard yonder."
+
+"And how did you know of the place?"
+
+"I was stationed here when I first joined the regiment.  The château
+was untenanted.  I rambled all over it.  I explored its nooks and
+corners.  I discovered that secret hiding place by chance and now the
+Eagle is there."
+
+"And there it shall remain until it is discovered or until you give me
+leave to produce it," said the girl firmly.
+
+"I have your promise?"
+
+"You know well that I shall keep it."
+
+"I thank you, mademoiselle.  Twice you have saved my life and now, what
+is more to me than life, the emblem of my faith as a soldier, the honor
+of my regiment."
+
+"But why keep it, this Eagle, at all," asked the girl, "and run this
+risk?"
+
+"It may be needed again."
+
+"But by whom?"
+
+"The Emperor."
+
+"The name is forbid."
+
+"But the man is not."
+
+"Ah, you think he will return?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"And when?"
+
+"Mademoiselle has all my secrets.  I am in her power absolutely.  Why
+keep anything from her?"
+
+"Why, indeed?" assented the woman, thrilling to the acknowledgment of
+her power over the man she loved as any woman would.
+
+"When the violets bloom again," said the young man, bowing.  "Now,
+mademoiselle, I am at your service," he resumed as she stared at him.
+
+"At my service?  What do you mean?"
+
+"You have caught me here in your room.  You have only to call out to
+summon assistance.  I shall be removed from your pathway forever."
+
+"But the Eagle?"
+
+"I shall find means before I die to tell someone where to look for it
+if it should be needed."
+
+"And I am to condemn you to death?"
+
+"Why not?" said the young man.  "I only lived to bring it back.  I
+never dreamed that I was to have the happiness of seeing you again."
+
+"Happiness?  This anguish?" murmured the young woman in daring
+self-revelation.
+
+She had forgot the hour, her dress, the strangeness of the situation,
+the awful impropriety of it all, the possibility of discovery.  She
+only saw the man she loved.  She saw how he loved her.  She hung upon
+his words, and would fain hear more--more!
+
+"My God!" he responded with a sort of fierce pride that was almost
+arrogant.  "Although I was born a peasant, mademoiselle, not the finest
+gentleman in France or England could love you as I do.  Yet it is
+impossible for you to love me now that the Emperor is no longer here.
+Your uncle would never consent.  You, yourself, love that English
+gentleman.  Why give thought to Marteau?  Summon assistance, deliver me
+up and remember me as one who loved you with all the fervor of his
+heart, or forget me, if you can."
+
+"I would not have you die," said the woman, shuddering.  "God forbid."
+
+"It is best so.  Life holds nothing for me now."
+
+"But if the violets bloom again?" asked the other.
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed the man, throwing up his hands and drawing a long
+breath.  "Then!"
+
+"How came you here, monsieur?"
+
+"By that window there.  There is a ladder without.  It reaches most of
+the way.  I am a good climber.  The ivy----"
+
+"Go as you came.  None shall be the wiser."
+
+"To you always the disposition of my life, mademoiselle," said Marteau
+simply.  "I obey your command.  Farewell.  It is but a postponement,
+anyway," he added as he turned away.  "I can never escape from
+Grenoble.  They will seize me sooner or later and----"
+
+"Stay!" she cried.
+
+Moved by an unaccountable impulse the girl took a step nearer to him.
+She loosened her clutch upon her garment and held out her hands to him.
+
+"If it is to be farewell," she said tenderly, "know that I do not love
+that English Captain, no, and that.  I----"
+
+He seized her hand and covered it with kisses.
+
+"I can die with better grace now," he said at last.
+
+Not daring to trust himself further he turned to the window again.  As
+he put his hand on the lock of the casement he heard shouts and cries
+outside, he saw torches.  Escape that way was barred.  The whole castle
+seemed suddenly to awake.  He realized it all in a moment.  He had been
+traced there.  In another minute he would be discovered in the
+Countess's room at that hour of the morning.  He turned swiftly to the
+dismayed girl.
+
+"They are there," he said.  "Escape is cut off."
+
+Steps and voices resounded in the corridor.
+
+"Quick," she said, "the closet yonder--you can hide."
+
+She understood the peril as well as he.
+
+"And bring disgrace upon you when they caught me?  Never!"
+
+"Marteau, for God's sake, I love you," said the woman agonizingly.  "I
+cannot----"
+
+She stretched out her hands to him again.  Very lovely she looked, the
+peignoir falling from her white shoulders, the soft candle-light
+illuminating and yet concealing in its vague shadows the beauty of face
+and figure.  Marteau did not dare to dwell upon that.  He must act and
+instantly.  He rushed toward the woman.  He caught her by the hand.  He
+even shook her a little.
+
+"Shriek," he whispered in her ear.
+
+He picked up the pistol from the bed upon which she had thrown it and
+pointing it upward pulled the trigger.  Startled by his utterly
+unexpected action, the meaning of which she could not fathom, she did
+scream loudly.  The next instant the door was thrown open and into the
+room half clad, sword in hand, burst the Marquis.  With him were Sir
+Gervaise Yeovil and the young Captain, and attending them were servants
+and guards bearing lights.
+
+The Marquis stared from his niece back to the young officer.
+
+"My God!" he exclaimed.  "Is it you?"
+
+Marteau could only bow.  He had a few seconds to make up his mind, a
+few seconds to decide upon the role he must play.  Well, his life was
+certainly forfeit, his reputation he would also give for hers.  Any
+explanation that he could make would be disbelieved unless, of course,
+he produced the Eagle, which was not to be thought of.  Failing the
+Eagle the more he endeavored to account for his presence the more
+deeply would he involve the woman he loved.
+
+"I find you here, you that I treated almost like a gentleman, who, I
+thought, nearly measured up to the title, in my niece's room at this
+hour of the morning," continued the enraged old man.  "Laure, has
+he--has he harmed you?"
+
+"You came too quickly, monsieur," answered Marteau, himself, giving the
+young woman time to recover herself.  "You heard the pistol shot."  He
+threw the weapon from him.  "We were struggling.  It went off and----"
+
+"You damned low-born coward," gritted out the English officer, stepping
+toward him furious with anger.
+
+"Steady, Frank.  There is something strange about this," said Sir
+Gervaise gloomily, catching his son by the arm.  "He is no coward.
+That I'll warrant."
+
+"But to seek entry into a woman's bed-chamber!" continued Frank
+furiously.  "If you were a gentleman I'd----"
+
+"That 'almost,'" said Marteau, "saves me in this instance."
+
+"I feel this action almost as if it had been my own son, had God
+blessed me with one," said the old Marquis, slowly recovering his
+self-command.  "A loyal Marteau, a thief, a despoiler of women!  Why,
+she knelt to you in the hall.  She raised her voice in your defense,
+and now you--you----"  His fingers twitched.  "'The Count d'Aumenier,'"
+he added in bittery mockery.  "You could not bear the title if it had
+been left in your hand.  I shall have you branded as a thief in the
+morning and----"
+
+"My uncle," said the woman, "he----"
+
+"Mademoiselle," interposed Marteau sharply, resolved to protect her at
+all hazards, "is not my case black enough without further testimony
+from you?  I beseech you to be silent."
+
+"Speak, Laure," said the old Marquis.  "If you have anything to say
+which will make his punishment surer and harder, I charge you to say
+it."
+
+"Nothing, nothing," answered the poor young woman.  "Oh, if ever a
+woman's soul was tortured----"
+
+"You tortured her, did you?" cried the Englishman, struggling in his
+father's arms.  "I once thought of meeting you in the field--you--you!
+I would like to strangle you with my bare hands."
+
+"It is just.  I honor monsieur for his rage.  It is true, I love the
+woman, and----"
+
+"Is this the way a gentleman shows his affection?" roared out the
+English captain.
+
+"Monsieur forgets that I am almost, not quite, a gentleman."
+
+"And there is another score we have to settle with you," cried the
+Marquis.  "That cursed Eagle--where is it?"
+
+"Before I sought mademoiselle," said Marteau, "I placed it in safety
+and in such keeping as will watch over it.  You will never find it.  It
+will only be produced when"--he stopped--"when the violets bloom again."
+
+"What is this damned nonsense about flowers I hear everywhere?" burst
+out Sir Gervaise.
+
+"Well, monsieur," said the Marquis, "it will be produced before that
+time, or when the violets do bloom they will find some red soil out of
+which to spring."
+
+"You mean----"
+
+"As I live I will have you court-martialed in the morning and shot for
+high treason.  I stand for the King, for the ancient laws of France.  I
+will have no paltering with traitors, and I am more inclined to deal
+swiftly and summarily with you since to treason you add theft and this
+attempt upon a woman.  Produce that Eagle, or you die."
+
+"I must die, then," said the young man.
+
+"By heaven," said Sir Gervaise; looking keenly at the officer, "there
+is more in this than I can understand.  Give me leave, my lord," he
+turned to Marteau.  "I have liked you always.  I would befriend you
+now.  I do not believe in appearances always.  Can you not explain?"
+
+"Sir," said Marteau, "I am grateful to find one here who still
+believes----"  He stopped.  "The circumstances speak for themselves.  I
+love mademoiselle.  I was mad.  I came here, I----"
+
+"Gentlemen," said the Marquis, "let us withdraw.  It is scandalous that
+we should be here under such circumstances.  You, sir," he turned to
+Marteau, "this way."
+
+The poor Countess had stood in agony and despair.  Marteau did not look
+at her.  He bent his head low as he passed her.  Two soldiers of the
+guard grasped him by the arms, the rest closed about him.
+
+"Go, gentlemen.  I will see you presently," said the Marquis.  "One of
+you servants yonder send the Countess's women here."
+
+"I thank God," said young Yeovil, "that we got here in time.  If he had
+harmed you, dearest Laure, I would have killed him here where he stood."
+
+Her lover attempted to take her hand, but she shrank away from him.  As
+Sir Gervaise passed her she bent forward and seized the old Baronet's
+hand and kissed it.  He, at least, had seen that there was something
+beneath the surface.
+
+"Now, my child," said the old Marquis kindly, but with fearful
+sternness, as the door closed behind the others, "what have you to add
+to what has been told?"
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I know men.  I know that that young man did not come here to assault
+you, or for robbery.  You cannot tell me that the blood of the Marteaux
+runs in his veins for nothing.  And I know you did not invite him here,
+either.  You are a d'Aumenier.  What is the explanation of it all?"
+
+But the poor little Countess made no answer.  She slowly collapsed on
+the floor at the feet of the iron old man, who, to save her honor and
+reputation, had played his part, even as Marteau, in her bedroom on
+that mad March morning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE MARQUIS GRANTS AN INTERVIEW
+
+The old Marquis was face to face with a terribly difficult problem.
+That the Eagle had been brought back did not admit of doubt.  St.
+Laurent had seen it, and the officers who had been present at the
+midnight meeting in the Major's rooms made no attempt whatever to deny
+it.  Marteau admitted it.  But it had disappeared.  He had not the
+faintest idea where it was.  The most rigorous search had so far failed
+to discover it.  Marteau had been questioned, appealed to, threatened,
+with no results whatsoever.  His lips were sealed and no pressure that
+could be brought to bear sufficed to open them.  He did not deny that
+he knew where the Eagle was.  He simply remained silent, immutably
+silent, when he was asked where.
+
+From the few loyalist officers in the regiments and in the town a court
+had been convened and Marteau had been put on trial.  He had been found
+guilty--indeed, there was no other verdict possible, since he calmly
+admitted everything--of treason, disobedience of orders, a whole
+catalogue of crimes.  The Marquis acted on the old feudal idea that he
+possessed all the rights of the ancient nobility, the high and low, the
+middle justice.  And, indeed, he represented the King with full powers.
+The court, completely under his influence, had condemned the young
+soldier to death.  Marteau might have appealed, he might have
+protested, but he did neither.  He accepted the inevitable.  What was
+the difference?  No appeal would have been entertained, no protest
+would have availed.  It all came to this, he would either have to give
+up the Eagle or his life.
+
+Well, life was not worth very much to him, as he had said.  Even though
+he realized from her desperate avowal of the night before that the
+interest of the Countess in him was more than she would have admitted,
+had not the words been surprised and wrung from her by his deadly
+peril, he knew that there was absolutely nothing to be hoped for in
+that direction.  Even though his comrades, alarmed by the imminence of
+his danger, and aroused by the energetic determination of the old
+Marquis, besought him to give up the Eagle, he refused.  He would have
+considered himself a forsworn man had he done so.
+
+The Marquis had visited the prisoner and had condescended to make a
+personal appeal to him, imploring him by that old duty and friendship
+which had subsisted between the families, but his appeals had been as
+fruitless as his commands and his threats.  The old noble was iron
+hard.  He had no sympathy with the Empire or its Emperor, but the
+determination of the young officer did arouse a certain degree of
+admiration.  He would fain have spared him if he could, but, as he had
+sacrificed everything he possessed for the King, and counted the
+sacrifice as nothing, his sympathies did not abate his determination to
+punish treason and contumacy one whit.
+
+The Marquis was accustomed to having things his own way, and the long
+period of exile had not changed his natural bent of mind in that
+particular.  He was angry, too, at the stubbornness which he
+nevertheless admired.  In other directions the Marquis was balked.  He
+had seen through the little drama that had been played by Marteau and
+the Countess Laure in her bedchamber.  That was one reason why he would
+fain have saved him, because he had so gallantly allowed himself to
+occupy the hideous role which he had assumed, to save the girl's honor.
+The Marquis had not the faintest suspicion that there was anything
+wrong in the situation, or even that his niece had actually given her
+heart to this man.  Such a thought could not be entertained at all.
+
+It was inconceivable, but he knew that, however innocent might have
+been that meeting, if it had been prearranged the world would consider
+the Countess disgraced, unless the explanation which Marteau had
+suggested was allowed to become current.  He had summoned his niece
+before him, and had sought in every way to force her to tell him the
+whole truth, but she had partaken, in some degree, of Marteau's
+stubbornness.  All she would say was, that Marteau was innocent of any
+crime or any wrong.  But, when the bewildered Marquis asked her if she
+had invited him there, and if he was there by her permission, she had
+indignantly repudiated the suggestion as an insult, which left him more
+puzzled than before.
+
+The idea that Marteau had come there to hide the Eagle had never
+entered the Marquis' mind for all his acuteness.  He had asked the girl
+whether Marteau had brought anything into the room or taken anything
+from it, and she had answered truthfully that when she saw him he had
+been exactly as when they saw him.  The testimony of the Marquis and
+the two Englishmen rendered it unnecessary for the Countess to be
+present at the court-martial.  There was nothing material she could
+add, and, indeed, it was not for attempted theft, or assault, that
+Marteau had been condemned--the Marquis had suppressed that as much as
+possible--but for his conduct with the Eagle.
+
+It was the fifth of March, a warm and sunny day in the south of France,
+even amid the mountains and hills of ancient Dauphiné.  Great things
+were toward, although the Marquis did not yet know it.  The execution
+of the condemned was set for the next day.  At ten o'clock in the
+morning the regiment was to be paraded and Marteau was to be shot.  He
+had asked that he might be granted a soldier's death, and the Marquis
+had seen fit to grant the request.
+
+There were very few troops in Grenoble which could be counted as loyal
+to the King, but there were some.  From them the Marquis intended to
+draw his firing party, and with them he intended to over-awe the
+regiment if there should be any outbreak.  He was too keen a judge of
+humanity, and too well able to read the characters of men not to
+realize the whole regiment was in a mutinous temper over the Eagle
+episode, that they looked upon Marteau as a martyr, and that there
+might be outbreaks and grave difficulties before he was shot.  Well,
+difficulties did not daunt the stout-hearted, inflexible old noble.  He
+rather enjoyed them.  He rather welcomed this occasion, too, because he
+intended to be master now, and, having once mastered the regiment, he
+felt he would have no difficulty in controlling it in any future
+emergency.
+
+To him, as he sat in his cabinet maturing his plans for the morrow,
+came a message from his niece, asking admittance.  The privilege was,
+of course, instantly granted, and Laure d'Aumenier presently entered
+the room.
+
+"Have you come, my child," began the old man, regarding her tenderly,
+for in the few years she had been with him he had learned to estimate
+the worth of her character and love her as she deserved, "to explain
+this mystery, to tell me why you declare that the presence of a man in
+the room of a woman of my house at three o'clock in the morning is
+innocent?  I repeat," he went on reassuringly, "that I cannot conceive
+of or admit any wrong on your part, and that makes the situation more
+impossible of explanation."
+
+"My uncle," answered the Countess, "I can only say that Monsieur Jean
+Marteau is not guilty, as he seems."
+
+"And I can quite believe that," said the old Marquis.  "Indeed, our
+English friend, who for all his bluntness is not without discrimination
+and good sense, has said as much to me.  He declared with great
+emphasis that there was something in it all which he could not
+understand."
+
+"And you--what did you say?"
+
+"I asked him if that was meant for any reflection on the honor of my
+family, for if it were I should accord him the pleasure of crossing
+swords with me and in the end run him through."
+
+"And he said----"
+
+"He disclaimed absolutely the idea.  He is as convinced of your
+sweetness, your innocence and purity, as I am."
+
+"And Captain Yeovil?"
+
+"He lacks his father's insight and finesse.  He is young.  He takes
+matters as he sees them, and fancies Marteau the common, vulgar thief
+he appeared."
+
+"Impossible!" cried the Countess.  "He is----"
+
+"No doubt he is not especially prepossessed in favor of Monsieur
+Marteau, who has presumed to love you, and perhaps that accounts for
+his willingness to believe anything derogatory of him."
+
+"He is blind, and I----"
+
+"But you are not declining his hand on that account!"
+
+"No, the marriage stands.  I could wish that it did not," said the
+woman passionately.  "I could be happier if he suspected me of
+anything, however base, and in his suspicion set me free."
+
+"Hark ye, Laure," said the Marquis earnestly.  "I am an old man, and
+the life I have led has not served to maintain my youth.  What I am
+engaged in now does not conduce to that ease of body and peace of mind
+which promotes long life.  To you I say what I have said to no one
+else.  We are standing, as it were, on a volcano.  The army is in no
+sense loyal to the King.  I advised that it be disbanded absolutely,
+but I was overruled.  It is seething with sedition.  The envoys of the
+powers at Vienna are playing, idling, debating endlessly, and while
+they play and idle and talk in their fools' paradise, the Emperor, he
+who is so called by misguided France, will return.  I should not be
+surprised at any moment to receive tidings that he has landed."
+
+"And that is what they mean when they speak about the violets blooming
+again?"
+
+"Yes, that is it.  And, do you know as I walked in the garden this
+morning I found this."
+
+He tossed the first tiny purple violet of the spring on the table
+before her.
+
+"But he will be dead before the Emperor comes," murmured the woman, her
+hand upon her heart.
+
+"Put that thought out of your mind, my child," said the old man.
+"Think rather of Captain Yeovil."
+
+"I hate him," said the Countess, which was most unjust, for he had done
+nothing at all to deserve such an expression on her part.
+
+"Hate is the passion of old age," said the Marquis slowly, "love that
+of youth.  I told you that my race would soon be run.  I am an old man.
+I have suffered much.  I shall be content to die if I can serve my King
+here a little after all these years of weary waiting.  The title-deeds
+that young man gave back do not cover much.  The estate has been
+divided and granted to strangers.  It is practically all gone but the
+old château.  I have little or nothing to leave you beyond those small
+amounts which your father used to send me, which I never would touch
+because they came from a disloyal France.  The Yeovils are true and
+worthy people.  The boy is a gallant lad, a brave soldier, even if not
+overly acute.  Sir Gervaise is a man of consideration and of great
+wealth.  You are portionless.  He is most generous.  I am very happy in
+the thought that you will be taken care of.  I know what it is to be
+alone and poor."
+
+"I cannot bear----"
+
+"We have to bear a great many things that we do not wish to in this
+life.  You owe me some consideration.  I still retain my faith and
+confidence in you.  I have not pressed you to the wall with hard
+questions about last night."
+
+"I know, I know, but----"
+
+"And, as the head of the house, I must have even from the children the
+obedience which is my due."
+
+"I do not wish to fail in my duty toward you, monsieur, but----"
+
+"And your word, the word of a d'Aumenier, has been plighted.  You
+entered into this engagement of your own free will.  There was no
+constraint."
+
+"But there was pressure."
+
+"Yes, certainly, I know what is best for you, but you were not forced
+in any way, and your troth, having been plighted, your word given"--the
+old man stopped, looked at her solemnly, his long fingers tapping
+lightly on the table--"it must be kept," he said, with that air of
+absolute finality which none could assume better than he.
+
+"It shall be, although it kills me."
+
+"If I live I shall see that it is; and if I die I have your promise?"
+
+"You have."
+
+"That is well.  You will live to thank me and bless me.  I have
+fancied, of late, that your heart had been allowed to decline a little
+to this Marteau.  Oh, he is a brave man and true, I know.  I take no
+stock in his confession of theft or assault upon you.  Why, I would
+have cut him down where he stood, or have him kill me if I believed
+that!  But he is of another race, another blood.  The Eagle does not
+stoop to the barnyard fowl.  The heart of a woman is a strange thing.
+It leads her in strange ways if she follows its impulses.  Thank God
+there are men who can and will direct and control those impulses.  Put
+him out of your mind.  It is best.  To-morrow he will be a dead man.
+At any rate, I am rather glad of that," said the Marquis, half
+reflectively, knowing what trouble he might have made if he were to be
+allowed to live on.  It was cold-blooded, but he could sacrifice
+Marteau for his niece's happiness, and find abundant justification in
+the annals of his house, where he could read of many Marteaux who had
+been sacrificed or had sacrificed themselves for the d'Aumeniers.
+
+"I--I will promise," faltered the girl, "but on one condition."
+
+"I like it not when youth makes conditions with age.  Nevertheless,
+what is in your mind?"
+
+"I want to see Marteau again."
+
+"Impossible!"
+
+"Wait," said the woman quickly.  "Is it not true, have I not heard that
+he is condemned outwardly because he brought an Eagle here and it is
+gone?"
+
+"Yes, that is true."
+
+"And has it not been said that if he produced the Eagle his life could
+be spared and he could go?"
+
+"That is also true."
+
+"And would it not allay the dissatisfaction of the regiment and
+contribute to the establishment of your authority if he gave it up?"
+
+"My authority is established by the King."
+
+"The maintenance of it, then.  Would it not enable you to control and
+hold in check these people, if you could show that you had not been
+balked?"
+
+"That may be," said the Marquis.  "Go on."
+
+"And, if he should produce the Eagle----"
+
+"I would save his life, but he would be a discredited man among his
+comrades, if I know anything about it."
+
+"Oh, not that, surely."
+
+"Surely; and I may tell you that if I were in his place I would do
+exactly as he has done."
+
+The woman stepped nearer and put her hand to her head.
+
+"Nevertheless, I must see him.  Have mercy!" she entreated piteously.
+
+"Why?  Do you think you can persuade him to produce the Eagle--to his
+discredit, be it remembered?" asked the old man, surveying her keenly,
+realizing at last the extraordinary interest she took in Marteau.
+
+"But it is his life if he does not."
+
+"Do you care so much for--his life?"
+
+"Yes," answered the woman, looking the Marquis straight in the eyes.
+
+He recognized a will as inflexible as his own.  It aroused his
+admiration.  He arose to his feet.  He bowed before her.
+
+"Mademoiselle," he said firmly, "you have the strength of our house.
+Perhaps it might be well if he could be induced to produce the Eagle
+and be thus discredited in the eyes of his comrades.  It would tend to
+make my authority more secure.  It would be to the advantage of the
+King."
+
+"Yes, yes."
+
+"But what argument can you bring?"
+
+"I--I do not know."
+
+"Alas, my child, you know more than you will tell.  Oh, I recognize
+that it is useless to appeal, and impossible to constrain.  Well, you
+give me your word of honor that whatever happens you will carry through
+the engagement with Captain Yeovil, and that we will together arrange a
+proper time and that you----"
+
+"I give it."
+
+"Your hand," said the Marquis.  "Without there!"  He raised his voice.
+An orderly appeared.  "Send Monsieur St. Laurent to me."
+
+"Monsieur," continued the old man, as the officer presented himself,
+"you will conduct the Countess Laure d'Aumenier to the small
+drawing-room; you will leave her there; you will then go to the
+guard-house and bring thence the prisoner, Marteau; you will conduct
+him to mademoiselle, my niece, and you will leave them together for
+half an hour; you will see that the prisoner is carefully guarded, that
+sentries are posted outside of the windows, and you, yourself, will
+remain with other escort, in front of the door."
+
+"But out of hearing," said the young woman quickly.
+
+"That, of course.  And on your honor, on your duty, on your allegiance,
+you will say absolutely nothing about this to any one.  Do you
+understand?"
+
+"I understand, monsieur.  I shall obey," said St. Laurent, a youth of
+rare quality, as has been seen.
+
+"Good.  You have one half-hour, my child.  God grant that you may serve
+France and induce this wretched prisoner to give up the Eagle.  Your
+impulse of mercy does you credit," he said adroitly, making the best of
+the situation for St. Laurent's benefit.  "Now you may go."
+
+"This way, mademoiselle," said St. Laurent, bowing low before her at
+the open door.
+
+As the Countess passed down the long corridor she almost ran into young
+Pierre, the boy.  He had been questioned with the rest, but had
+absolutely nothing to tell.  Of course, he knew about the recovery of
+the Eagle, but that was all.  He had known nothing about the midnight
+meeting.  The Countess Laure had taken him into her service, her uncle
+being willing.  And he had spent a miserable day when not with her,
+wondering and hoping and praying for Marteau.  With others in the
+regiments he had received important news in the last hour, and had made
+every effort to get it to Marteau, as had been suggested to him, but he
+had hitherto failed.  No sentry would pass him, and there was no way he
+could get speech with the prisoner.
+
+He was in despair when he saw the Countess approaching, St. Laurent
+marching ceremoniously ahead, as if to clear the way.
+
+"Mademoiselle," he whispered, plucking her gown.
+
+"What is it?" asked the girl, naturally sinking her voice to the
+other's pitch.
+
+"You will see--him?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"A message."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"Give him this."
+
+The boy thrust into her hand two or three flowers like those her uncle
+had picked, the first purple blossoms of the virgin spring.
+
+"And the message?"
+
+"The violets have bloomed," said the boy, and he was gone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+ON THE WHOLE DEATH MAY BE BETTER THAN LIFE
+
+Marteau realized fully his position, and it would be idle to say that
+despite his depression he contemplated his fate without regret.
+Normally he would have wanted to live as much as any man, even though
+in his more passionate moments he had said that life without Laure
+d'Aumenier held nothing for him.  To be sure, life without her did not
+look very inviting, and there was nothing in it for which he
+particularly cared, especially since the Emperor was gone, and Marteau
+had become a stranger, as it were, in France.  If the Emperor had come
+back, or was coming back, it would be different.
+
+In spite of rumors, originating nowhere apparently and spread by what
+means no one could say, that the Emperor was coming back, Marteau, in
+the depressed condition of his mind, gave these statements but little
+credence.  Besides, even if they were true, even if Laure d'Aumenier
+loved him, even if he had everything on earth for which a man could ask
+or expect to live, he could not therewith purchase life; he could not
+even purchase love, at the expense of his honor.
+
+He could not give up the Eagle for the kingdom.  It was only a bit of
+gilded copper, battered and shattered, but it awakened in his nature
+the most powerful emotions which he was capable of entertaining.  His
+love for Laure d'Aumenier was the great passion of his life.  Yet even
+his love for the woman, or hers for him, if she had returned his
+devotion with equal intensity and ardor, would not avail to persuade
+him to give up that battered standard.
+
+Even if she had loved him!  Ah, what had she said in that moment of
+madness in her room that night?  It was a moment of madness, of course,
+nothing else.  Marteau put it out of his mind, or strove to.  It could
+not be.  Indeed, now that he was about to die, he would even admit that
+it should not be.  But, if it were true, if that impulsive declaration
+indicated the true state of her regard--the possibility was thrilling,
+yet reflection convinced him it was better that he should die just the
+same, because there could be no mating between the two.
+
+He had crossed swords with the Marquis.  He had felt the hardness, the
+inflexibility and temper of the old man's steel.  There would be no
+breaking him, no altering his will.  He had made assurance doubly sure
+in some way, Marteau was convinced.  This marriage with this young
+Englishman, whom the Frenchman regarded with a tolerant, half-amused
+contemptuousness for his simplicity and bluntness, would have to be
+carried through.  When Marteau was dead the Countess would presumably
+return to a saner frame of mind, and forget the mad attachment, if
+indeed she had entertained it.
+
+He took a certain melancholy satisfaction in the hope that he would at
+least become one of her sacred and cherished memories.  But no memory
+can successfully dispute the claim of the living, as a rule.  She would
+eventually marry this Englishman; he would make her a good husband, and
+by and by she would be happy, and Marteau would not be there to see.
+And for that he would be glad.
+
+If the Emperor had been there, if the war god had come and summoned his
+men to arms again, Marteau might have eased the fever in his brain and
+soul by deeds of prowess on fields of battle, but in peace he should
+only eat his heart out thinking of her in the other man's arms.  There
+were things worse than death, and this was one.  On the whole, he
+concluded it was just as well, or even better, that he should die.
+
+He was sufficiently versed in military and even civil law to see that
+his condemnation was irregular in the extreme, but he let it go.  He
+was an obscure officer of a lost cause.  There would not be any too
+rigorous an inquiry into what disposition the Marquis made of him.
+Nobody would care after it was all over.  There remained nothing for
+him, therefore, but to die like a soldier, and--he smiled bitterly at
+the thought--almost a gentleman!
+
+He had been informed that any reasonable request he made would be
+granted.  He would fain see a priest of his Church, but later, and
+endeavor to make his peace with man after the time-honored custom of
+his religion, and thus insure his peace with God.  Meanwhile, a request
+for a brief interview with the woman he loved had trembled on his lips,
+but it had found no utterance.  He was quite aware how he stood in that
+quarter.  He had come to the conclusion that the Marquis, at least, had
+seen through the little comedy--or, was it not a tragedy, after
+all?--which he had played in her bed-chamber, and he had convinced
+himself that the swiftness, the almost unseemly haste of his trial and
+condemnation and the nearness of his execution were largely due to a
+determination on the part of the old noble to get him out of the way
+before any scandal should arise.  Perhaps scandal was certain to come,
+and gossip to prevail, but it would be less harmful if the man were
+dead.
+
+To ask to see a woman whom he was supposed to have insulted so deeply
+and wronged so grievously would have served only to call attention to
+those things, to have given the whole game away, as it were.  Besides,
+what would be the good of it?  She would leave him weaker in his
+resolution than before.  If she had loved him--ah, God, how his heart
+throbbed--if that impulsive admission had been the truth of her heart!
+Well, he told himself, he would have gone through the trial, accepted
+the verdict, received the bullets of the firing-squad in his heart,
+although it would have been harder.  And yet--how he longed to see her.
+
+He had not expected to see her ever again during his long tramp from
+Salzburg to Grenoble.  He had not entertained the least idea that she
+would be there.  He had schooled himself to do without her, contemplate
+life absolutely sundered from her.  But when he did see her his whole
+being had flamed with the passion he had so long repressed in vain.
+
+And the Countess Laure knew more of his heart than he fancied.  During
+the morning she had had young Pierre before her.  She had questioned
+him, suggesting and even prompting his artless revelations.  The boy
+needed no suggestions.  He was quick-witted and keen-eyed.  Admiring
+Marteau extravagantly and devotedly as he did, he could not conceive
+how any one could fail to share his feelings.  He told the
+hungry-hearted woman the story of their lives since they had been
+captured together at Arcis.
+
+Reticent at first, Marteau had finally made a confidant of the lad, who
+had shown himself sympathetic, discreet, adoring.  He had to tell
+somebody, he had to ease his heart of his burden.  And when he had once
+begun naturally he poured it all out before the boy.  He could not have
+told a man, a woman, perhaps, had one been by sufficiently sympathetic
+and tender, but, failing that, it was the boy who received the
+confidences and who never once presumed on these revelations.  Indeed,
+he had a vein of romance in his peasant heart.  He was a poet in his
+soul.  Perhaps that was one reason why the man could confide in him.
+And then, when Marteau lay in the delirium of fever, the boy had shared
+their watches with the good Sisters of Charity.  He alone had
+understood the burden of his ravings, for they were all about the
+woman.  And, when she questioned him and gave him the opportunity, he
+poured forth in turn all the stored treasure of his memory.
+
+And the poor, distraught, unhappy young woman hung on his words with
+heaving breast and panting heart and tear-dimmed eyes and cheeks that
+flushed and paled.  Glad she was that he had so loved her; sad that it
+could make no difference.  Indeed, young Pierre served his master well
+in that hour, and earned whatsoever reward, however great it might be,
+he should receive from him in the future.
+
+How strangely selfish even in its loves is humanity!  Although Marteau
+was intensely fond of the lad, and deeply devoted to him, absorbed in
+his overwhelming affection for the woman he had forgot the boy until
+too late to send for him that day.  Well, he would remedy that omission
+on the morrow, he thought, as he abandoned himself once more to dreams
+of other days, to fruitless anticipations, to vain hopes of what might
+have been.
+
+To him suddenly came St. Laurent.  The young aide knew but vaguely of
+the scene in the Countess's bed-chamber and, therefore, there was no
+prejudice in his mind against the officer.  Although he was a loyalist
+to the core, he could sympathize as a soldier with the other's point of
+view.  His address toward him, therefore, was respectful, and even
+indicated some of that sympathy.
+
+"Monsieur," he began most courteously, "I am sent by the Governor to
+conduct you elsewhere."
+
+"Shall I need my hat and cloak, monsieur?" asked the other, quite
+appreciative of the young man's treatment of him.
+
+"You will," was the answer.
+
+"Am I leaving this room permanently?"
+
+"You will return to it in half an hour."
+
+"And whither----"
+
+"You will pardon me," was the firm reply, "I have orders to conduct
+you, not to answer questions."
+
+"Your reproof," admitted Marteau, smiling faintly, "is well deserved.
+I attend you at once, sir."
+
+Escorted by St. Laurent and two soldiers, he left the building, walked
+across the barrack yard, attracting instant attention from the soldiers
+off duty congregated there, and a few officers of the garrison who
+chanced to be passing.  All of them saluted him with the utmost
+deference and the most profound respect.  He punctiliously acknowledged
+their salutes with a melancholy grace and dignity.  There was an air of
+great excitement everywhere, and he wondered vaguely what could be the
+cause of it.
+
+To his further wonderment also he found his steps directed to the
+Governor's palace.  Entering, he was ushered through the halls and
+marched to the door of a room which he remembered was one of the
+smaller waiting-rooms of the palace.  St. Laurent stopped before the
+door, his hand upon the knob.
+
+"Monsieur," he said, "to this room there is but this one door.  I
+remain without with these soldiers.  You can see by a glance through
+the windows that they also are closely guarded.  Escape is impossible.
+In half an hour I will knock upon the door, open it, and escort you
+back to your place of confinement.  Do you understand?"
+
+"Perfectly."
+
+"Enter."
+
+Somewhat bewildered by the mysteriousness of the whole proceeding, and
+yet with a heart which in spite of himself did beat a little faster,
+Marteau entered the room, St. Laurent closing the heavy door behind him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+NOT EVEN LOVE CAN FIND A WAY
+
+Standing in the middle of the room, her closed hand resting upon a
+table upon which she leaned as if for support, was Laure d'Aumenier.
+The old Marquis had not noticed it, nor did the young man; that is, the
+eye of neither took in the details, but both had been conscious of the
+general effect, for the young Countess had dressed herself in her most
+becoming gown, one that had been newly made for her in Paris before the
+journey to the south of France and that she had never worn before.
+
+She had spent a miserable night and day.  When she had talked with her
+uncle a short time before, the effects of her sleeplessness and anguish
+had been plainly apparent.  But there, within that room, her color
+coming to her face, her eyes shining with excitement and emotion, she
+looked as fresh and as beautiful as the springtime without.
+
+It was her right hand that rested on the table, and as Marteau
+approached her left instinctively sought her heart.  In his emotion he
+looked at her with steady, concentrated glance, so keen, so piercing,
+as if he sought to penetrate to the very depths of her heart, that she
+could scarcely sustain his gaze.  He, too, had forgot cares and
+anxieties, anticipation, hopes, dreams; in his excitement and surprise
+everything had gone from him but her presence.  Here was the woman he
+loved, looking at him in such a way, with such an air and such a
+bearing, her hand upon her heart--was that heart beating for him?  Was
+she trying to still it, to control it, because----
+
+His approach was slow, almost terribly deliberate, like the movement of
+the old Guard under Dorsenne--_Le Beau Dorsenne_!--against the heights
+of Pratzen on the glorious yet dreadful day of Austerlitz.  His advance
+was irresistible, but unhurried, as if there must be a tremendous clash
+of arms in a moment to which haste could lend nothing, from the dignity
+and splendor of which hurry would detract.  At another time the woman
+might have shrunk back faltering, she might have voiced a protest, or
+temporized, but now, in the presence of death itself, as it were, she
+stood steady waiting for him.  Enjoying the luxury of looking upon him
+unrestrained, her heart going out to him as he drew nearer, nearer,
+nearer, she found herself tremblingly longing for his actual touch.
+
+Now his arms went out to her, she felt them slowly fold around her, and
+then, like a whirlwind released, he crushed her against his breast,
+and, as she hung there, her throbbing heart making answer to the
+beating of his own, he kissed her again, again, again.  Her heart
+almost stopped its beating.  Beneath the fire of his lips her face
+burned.  Her head drooped at last, her tense body gave way, she leaned
+upon him heavily, glad for the support of his strong arms.
+
+"Laure," he whispered, "my little Laure, you love me.  Oh, my God, you
+love me.  It was true, then.  I did not dream it.  My ears did not mock
+me."
+
+"Yes, yes," said the woman at last.  "Whoever you are, whatever you
+are, wherever you go, I love you."
+
+"And was it to tell me this that you came?"
+
+"Yes.  But not for this alone."
+
+"What else?"
+
+"I would have you live."
+
+"For you?"
+
+"For me."
+
+"As your husband?"
+
+"And if that were possible would you----"
+
+"Yes, yes, would I what?"
+
+"Give up the Eagle?"
+
+"My God!" said the man, loosening his clasp of her a little and holding
+her a little away that he might look at her.  "Does your love tempt me
+to dishonor?"
+
+"I do not know," said the woman piteously.  "I am confused.  I cannot
+think aright.  Oh, Marteau, Jean, with whom I played as a child, think
+of me.  I cannot bear to see you dead outside there.  I cannot look
+upon a soldier without thinking of it.  The rattling of the carts in
+the streets sounds in my ear like shots.  Don't, don't die.  You must
+not."
+
+"And, if I lived, would you love me?"
+
+"So long as the good God gives me the breath of life."
+
+"With the love of youth and the love of age?"
+
+"Aye, for eternity."
+
+"And would you be my wife?"
+
+"Your wife?" said the woman, her face changing.  "It would be joy
+beyond all, but I could not."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"I--you know I am promised to another," she went on desperately, "and
+but that I might see you I repeated the promise.  Otherwise my uncle
+would never have permitted me this blessed privilege.  I told him that
+I would marry anybody if he would only let me see you--alone--for a
+moment, even.  What difference, so long as I could not be yours?  I
+came to tell you that I loved you, and because of that to beg you to
+live, to give up that Eagle.  What is it, a mere casting of metal,
+valueless.  Don't look at me with that hard, set face.  Let me kiss the
+line of your lips into softness again.  I cannot be your wife, but at
+least you will live.  I will know that somewhere you think of me."
+
+"And would death make a difference?  High in the highest heaven, should
+I be so fortunate as to achieve it, I would think of you; and, if I
+were to be sent to the lowest hell, I could forget it all in thinking
+of you."
+
+"Yes, yes, I know how you love, because----"
+
+"Because why?"
+
+"I won't hesitate now.  It may be unmaidenly, but I know, because I,
+too----"
+
+"Laure!" cried the man, sweeping her to him again.
+
+"I think I loved you when we were boy and girl together," said the
+woman, throwing everything to the winds in making her great confession.
+"I know I loved you that night in the château, although I would not
+admit it, and I treated you so cruelly.  And when they told me you were
+dead, then, then, my heart broke.  And when you came here and I saw you
+two men together--oh, I had made the contrast in my imagination--but
+last night I saw and now I see.  Oh, you will live, live.  What is
+honor compared to a woman's heart?  See, I am at your feet.  You will
+not break me.  You will live.  Something may happen.  I am not married
+yet.  The Emperor may come back."
+
+"The boy, Pierre, said last night that it was rumored----"
+
+"Yes, he gave me a message.  I almost forgot it."  She held out the
+violet crushed in her fevered palm.  "He said to tell you that the
+violet has bloomed."
+
+"Does he mean----?"
+
+"I know not what he means."
+
+"It is but an assurance begot of hope," said Marteau.
+
+"And if it were so?"
+
+"He comes too late.  Rise, my lady.  It is not meet for you to kneel.
+Let me lift you up, up to my heart.  I cannot give up the Eagle.  That
+I have won your love is the most wonderful thing in all the world.  It
+passes my understanding, the understanding of man, but I should forfeit
+it if I should permit myself this shame."
+
+"Then I will do it, I will betray you," said the little Countess
+desperately.  "I alone know where that Eagle is.  I will get it.  I
+will bargain with my uncle for your life.  Marteau, listen.  Do you
+wish to condemn me to death?  I will not, I cannot, survive you.  I
+will not be thrust into that other's arms.  I did not know, I did not
+realize what it was--before.  But since I have been here, since you
+have held me to your heart, since you have kissed me--no, I cannot.  It
+would be desecration--horror.  Let me go.  I will tell."
+
+"Dearest Laure," said the man, holding her tighter, "think, be calm,
+listen.  It needs not that I assure you of my love.  I have proved it.
+I lie here with the stigma of shame, the basest of accusations in the
+hearts of those who know of our meeting at night, to save you from
+suspicion even."
+
+"Not my uncle, not the Marquis.  He says there is something back of it
+all.  He knows you are not a thief."
+
+"It takes a d'Aumenier to understand a Marteau," said the young man
+proudly.
+
+"And I am a d'Aumenier, too," said the woman.
+
+"Then strive to comprehend my point of view."
+
+"I can, I will, but----"
+
+"What binds you to that Englishman?"
+
+"My word, my uncle's word."
+
+"Exactly.  And what else binds you to keep my secret?"
+
+The woman stared at him.
+
+"Oh, do not urge that against me," she pleaded.  "I must tell all."
+
+"I have your word.  That Eagle must remain hidden there until the
+Emperor comes back.  Then you must give it to him and say that I died
+that you might place it in his hand."
+
+"There must be a way, and there shall be a way," said the agonized
+woman.  "I love you.  I cannot have you die.  I cannot, I cannot."
+
+Her voice rose almost to a scream in mad and passionate protest.
+
+"Why," said the man soothingly, "I am the more ready to die now that I
+know that you love me.  Few men have ever got so much out of life as
+that assurance gives me.  That I, peasant-born, beneath you, should
+have won your heart, that I should have been permitted to hold you to
+my breast, to feel that heart beat against my own, to drink of the
+treasures of your lips, to kiss your eyes that shine upon me----  Oh,
+my God, what have I done to deserve it all?  And it is better, far
+better, having had thus much and being stopped from anything further,
+that I should go to my grave in this sweet recollection.  Could I live
+to think of you as his wife?"
+
+"If you will only live I will die myself."
+
+"And could I purchase life at that price?  No.  We have duties to
+perform--hard, harsh words in a woman's ear, common accustomed phrase
+to a soldier.  I have to die for my honor and you have to marry for
+yours."
+
+"Monsieur," broke in the sharp, somewhat high, thin voice of the old
+Marquis standing by the door, "the court-martial brands you as a
+traitor.  Captain Yeovil and those who were with me last night think
+you are a thief and worse.  But, by St. Louis," continued the old
+noble, fingering his cross, as was his wont in moments in which he was
+deeply moved, "I know that you are a soldier and a gentleman."
+
+"A soldier, yes; but a gentleman?--only 'almost,' my lord."
+
+"Not almost but altogether.  There is not another man in France who
+could withstand such a plea from such a woman."
+
+"You heard!" exclaimed Marteau.
+
+"Only the last words.  I heard her beg you to live because she loved
+you."
+
+"And you did not hear----"
+
+"I heard nothing else," said the Marquis firmly.  "Would I listen?  I
+spoke almost as soon as I came in.  Laure, these Marteaux have lived
+long enough by the side of the d'Aumeniers to have become ennobled by
+the contact," he went on naïvely.  "I now know the young man as I know
+myself.  It is useless for you to plead longer.  I come to take you
+away."
+
+"Oh, not yet, not yet."
+
+"Go," said the young officer.  "Indeed, I cannot endure this longer,
+and I must summon my fortitude for to-morrow."
+
+"As for that," said the Marquis, "there must be a postponement of the
+execution."
+
+"I ask it not, monsieur.  It is no favor to me for you to----"
+
+"Thank God!  Thank God!" cried the woman.  "Every hour means----"
+
+"And I am not postponing it because of you," continued the Marquis
+coolly.  "But he who must not be named----"
+
+"The Emperor."
+
+"So you call him--has landed."
+
+"Yes, yes; for God's sake, tell me more."
+
+"I have no objection to telling you all.  He is on the march toward
+Grenoble.  He will be here tomorrow night.  Troops have been sent for
+and will assemble here.  He will be met in the gap on the road a few
+miles below the town.  He will be taken.  If he resists he will be
+shot."
+
+"Yes, the violets have bloomed again."
+
+"And they shall draw red nourishment from the soil of France," was the
+prophetic answer.
+
+"The Emperor!" cried the young man in an exultant dream, "in France
+again!  The Emperor!"
+
+"And so your execution will be deferred until we come back.  The
+Emperor may take warning from it when he witnesses it," continued the
+imperturbable old royalist.
+
+"I shall see him once more."
+
+"As a prisoner."
+
+Marteau started to speak, checked himself.
+
+"For the last time," said the girl, "I beg----"
+
+"It is useless."
+
+"Let me speak again.  My uncle has a kind heart under that hard
+exterior.  He----"
+
+"A kind heart, indeed," said the old man, smiling grimly, as Marteau
+shook his head at the girl he loved so well.  "And, to prove it, here."
+
+He extended a sealed paper.  Marteau made no effort to take it.  He
+recognized it at once.  For a moment there flashed into the woman's
+mind that it was a pardon.  But the old man undeceived her.
+
+"Do you give it to him, Laure," he said.  "It is that patent of
+nobility that he gave up.  Acting for my King, who will, I am sure,
+approve of what I have done, I return it to him.  As he dies with the
+spirit and soul of a gentleman, so also shall he die with the title.
+_Monsieur le Comte d'Aumenier_, I, the head of the house, welcome you
+into it.  I salute you.  Farewell.  And now," the old man drew out his
+snuff box, tendered it to the young man with all the grace of the
+ancient régime.  "No?" he said, as Marteau stared in bewilderment.
+"The young generation has forgot how, it seems.  Very well."  He took a
+pinch himself gracefully, closed the box, tapped it gently with his
+long fingers, as was his wont.  "Monsieur will forgive my back," he
+said, turning abruptly and calling over his shoulder, "and in a moment
+we must go."
+
+Ah, he could be, he was a gentleman of the ancient school, indeed.  It
+seemed but a second to youth, although it was a long time to age,
+before he tore them apart and led the half-fainting girl away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+THEY MEET A LION IN THE WAY
+
+Morning in the springtime, the sixth of March, 1815, bright and sunny,
+the air fresh.  The parade-ground was filled with troops.  There were the
+veterans of the old Seventh-of-the-Line, under the young Colonel
+Labédoyère.  Here were the close-ranked lines of the Fifth regiment,
+Major Lestoype astride his big horse at the head of the first battalion.
+Grenier, Drehon, Suraif and the other officers with their companies, the
+men in heavy marching order, their white cockades shining in the bright
+sunlight in their shakos.  The artillery was drawn up on the walls, the
+little squadron of household cavalry was in attendance upon the Marquis.
+His lean, spare figure looked well upon a horse.  He rode with all the
+grace and ease of a boy.
+
+Yes, there were the colors, too, the white flag of France with the golden
+lily in the place of the Eagle on the staff, at the head of the column.
+With ruffling of drums and presenting of arms the flag had been escorted
+to its place, and from the little group of cavalry had come the words not
+heard till recently for so many years in France:
+
+"_Vive le Roi_!"
+
+The troops had assembled silently, somewhat sullenly.  They stood
+undemonstrative now.  What they would do no one could tell.  The couriers
+who had dashed into the town yesterday night had told the story to the
+Marquis.  Napoleon had landed five days before.  He was within a day's
+march of Grenoble.  His following consisted of eleven hundred French
+infantry, eighty Polish horsemen, and a few guns; troops of the line, and
+the grenadiers of the Elba guard.  The peasants had been apathetic.  He
+had carefully avoided garrisoned towns, choosing the unfrequented and
+difficult route over the maritime Alps of Southern France.  He was
+marching straight into the heart of the country, to conquer or to die
+with this little band.  The messenger's news had been for the Governor's
+ears alone, but it had got out.  Indeed, the tidings spread everywhere.
+Every wind that swept over the mountains seemed to be laden with the
+story.  The whole city knew that the foot of the idol was once more upon
+the soil of France.  They saw no feet of clay to that idol, then.
+
+The news had reached Paris via Marseilles almost before it was known in
+Grenoble.  The terror-stricken government yet acted promptly.  Troops
+were put in motion, fast-riding expresses and couriers warned garrisons
+and transmitted orders to capture or kill without mercy.  By a singular
+freak of fate most of these orders were perforce given to the old
+companions in arms of the Emperor.  Most of these were openly disaffected
+toward the King, and eager to welcome Napoleon.  A few were indifferent
+or inimical to the prospective appeal of their former Captain.  Still
+fewer swore to capture him, and one "to bring him back in an iron cage!"
+Only here and there a royalist pure and simple held high command, as the
+Marquis at Grenoble.
+
+The old noble acted with great promptitude and decision.  As the Governor
+of Dauphiné he had an extensive command.  Grenoble was the most important
+town in the southeast.  Within its walls was a great arsenal.  It was
+strongly fortified, and adequately garrisoned.  No better place to resist
+the Emperor, if his initial force had grown sufficiently to make it
+formidable, could be found.  Rumor magnified that force immensely.  The
+Marquis gave the order for the concentration of all the troops in the
+province, to the number of six thousand.  He sent out scouting
+detachments, and companies of engineers to break down bridges and block
+up roads--none of whom, by the way, obeyed his orders.  In short, he did
+everything that experience, skill and devotion could suggest to stop the
+Emperor and terminate the great adventure then and there.
+
+The ruffling of the drums in the square ceased.  The old Marquis detached
+himself from his staff and the cavalry and rode out between the
+regiments.  He lifted his hand.  There was an intensity of silence on
+every hand.  Even the people of the town had left their places of
+business and were crowded close to the lines to hear and see what was to
+be done.
+
+"Bonaparte," said the Marquis, that high, thin, somewhat cracked old
+voice carrying with astonishing clearness in every direction, "landed
+from Elba in the Gulf of Juan a few days ago.  This usurper, this
+bloody-minded tyrant, has broken every oath, disregarded every treaty.
+He is coming to Grenoble.  He will be here to-day.  As loyal subjects of
+our gracious and most catholic Majesty, King Louis XVIII, whom God
+preserve," continued the old man, taking off his hat, "it becomes our
+duty to seize, and if he resists, to kill this treacherous monster, who
+had plunged Europe into a sea of blood and well-nigh ruined France."  The
+old man did not mince words, it appeared!  "You, gentlemen and comrades,
+have all sworn oaths before God and man to be faithful to the King whose
+bread you eat and whose uniform you wear.  It has been said to me that
+there is disaffection among you.  I cannot believe that a soldier of
+France can be false to his oaths and to his flag.  The Fifth Regiment of
+the Line will march with me to meet the Corsican.  The cavalry and my
+personal escort will keep the gates.  If by any chance we should be
+beaten, which I cannot think possible with such brave men and gallant
+officers, the town must be held.  Colonel Labédoyère, to you I commit the
+charge.  Have your men line the walls.  Dispose the troops which will
+soon be arriving advantageously.  See that the guns are double-shotted.
+If by any chance I do not return, hold the place to the last.  Troops are
+marching to your aid from all over France.  Major Lestoype, move your
+regiment.  _Vive le Roi_!" ended the old man.
+
+Again the cry was echoed, but not by many; the household cavalry, one or
+two of the newer companies of the brigade, some of the citizens.  The
+Marquis noticed it; everybody noticed it.  Well, what difference did it
+make to the old man?  They might cry or they might not cry.  Fight they
+must, and fight they should.  He had something of the old Roman spirit in
+him, the Marquis d'Aumenier.  Upon him had devolved the conduct of the
+critical issue.  If he could stop Napoleon then and there his venture
+would be a mere escapade and a sorry one.  If he could not, then God help
+France and the world.
+
+From the window of his prison, which overlooked the parade, Marteau had
+seen and heard all.  The Emperor was coming and he would not be there to
+extend him a welcome.  He forgot that if Napoleon had been a day later it
+would have made no difference to Marteau if he never came.  He would have
+given years of his life, if it had been possible, to have marched with
+the column.
+
+Orders had been published that morning postponing his execution until the
+return of the regiment.  Just what was in the Marquis' mind no one could
+absolutely say, but he was shrewd enough to recognize the possibility of
+an outbreak or an attempted mutiny among the troops, when the sentence of
+execution was being carried out.  He did not want any difficulties of
+that kind then.  Not because he feared them or felt unequal to them!  Oh,
+no.  But because such an outbreak would make the regiment more difficult
+to control in the greater emergency, and he knew he needed all the
+influence and moral power and force he could exercise to keep it in line
+for the graver duty and more tremendous responsibility it must now face.
+And because he did not wish to leave it with Marteau in Grenoble, he took
+the regiment with him.  If he could force it to do its duty and arrest
+Napoleon, he could deal with Marteau at his leisure.  The Emperor was the
+greater issue, and Marteau benefited by that fact.
+
+So, with drums beating and flags flying, the Fifth-of-the-Line marched
+down the road.  With the Colonel and his staff rode Sir Gervaise Yeovil
+and his son.  They had asked permission and it had been accorded them.
+Indeed, the staff was scanty.  Young St. Laurent and an orderly, besides
+the two Englishmen, alone accompanied the old man.  Realizing how
+critical the situation was, and how important it was that the town should
+be held, he had left every officer and man upon whom he could count with
+the cavalry, and with instructions to watch Labédoyère particularly, and
+check any disloyalty, if possible.  If the Marquis alone could not effect
+his purpose with the regiment, no staff officer could aid him.  He was a
+lonely old man and a hard that morning.  The odds against him were
+tremendous, and his weapons were flawed and breaking in his hand.  That
+only made him the more firmly resolute.  He knew how sometimes one man
+could enforce his will on unwilling thousands.  Was he that man that day?
+He would see.
+
+Some miles south of the town the winding road ran along the side of a
+high and rocky hill.  On the side opposite to the hill was a deep morass.
+This place was known as the Gap.  The Marquis, who had apparently thought
+of everything, had reconnoitered the country, and had decided upon the
+defensibleness of a place like this in the case of such an emergency as
+he was about to face, for along that hillside ran the main highway to the
+coast of France.
+
+The troops reached it about noon-time.  The road was high up on the
+hillside.  The Marquis, riding in advance of his regiment, saw far down
+the long road and across a little river a moving column of men.  Above
+them floated the tricolor flag, the blue and the red vividly distinct in
+the bright sun, which seemed to be reflected, as it were, from a crown of
+glory at the top of the staff.  There were perhaps twelve hundred
+soldiers on foot and a few score on horseback.  They were coming steadily
+along the road.  The distance was almost too great to distinguish men,
+but one rode a white horse at the head.  The soldiers could see with
+their minds and hearts better than their eyes, and they recognized that
+gray-coated figure on that familiar white horse.  They could hear the
+beating of drums faintly.  The bridges had not been broken.  The fords
+were not guarded.  The advance parties had failed.  Presage of disaster!
+
+The Marquis congratulated himself that he was in time to repair the
+disobedience of orders, which he promised himself to punish at the first
+opportunity.  Instantly he directed Major Lestoype to deploy the men from
+column into line, so that they filled the road, which was here very broad
+and spacious.  On a sloping hillside he placed flanking companies.  The
+command was given to load, and the ramrods soon rang in the gun-barrels.
+Major Lestoype's voice shook as he gave the commands, which were repeated
+hoarsely, brokenly, nervously, by the company and the platoon officers.
+The dispositions of the men were soon concluded.  The place of the
+Marquis was behind the line, but he rode to the right of it in a little
+depression cut out by the rains of winter in the side of the hill,
+underneath a great tree which was just beginning to show its leaves in
+the soft spring air and sunshine.  From there he could command every part
+of the line with his glance, or move to the front or rear as the occasion
+might warrant.  There he could see and be seen.
+
+He was always pale, his old face seamed and drawn, but to his friends,
+the Englishmen, he seemed paler and older than ever, as he sat quietly
+calming his nervous horse.  And Sir Gervaise Yeovil was pale, too.  Not
+that he had any bodily fear, but the incident was so fraught with
+consequences which a man as experienced as he could so easily foresee,
+appreciate and dread, that its possibilities oppressed his heart.  Young
+Frank Yeovil was all excitement, however.  Napoleon had been buried in
+Elba, but none mentioned his name in any country in Europe without a
+thrill.  Few do it now without a thrill, for that matter.  The young man,
+modestly in the background, as was proper, leaned forward in his saddle
+and stared at the approaching men and the figure to the fore.  So this
+was the great Bonaparte?  He longed earnestly for a nearer view.
+
+"Think you, my lord," whispered the Baronet to the old Marquis, his great
+anxiety showing in his voice, "that your men are to be depended upon?
+That they will----"
+
+The Marquis shook his head, stared down the ranks at the men standing
+grim and tensely silent at parade-rest.
+
+"They look steady," he replied, shrugging his shoulders.  "They have
+taken an oath to the King, and--God only knows."
+
+"What shall you do?"
+
+"The best I can with the means at hand," was the indomitable answer.
+
+"And if----"
+
+"There are no 'ifs,' monsieur," was the imperious way in which the
+Marquis silenced the other.
+
+Recognizing that he had said enough, and indeed pitying the old man so
+alone, the Baronet drew back a little.
+
+"By heaven," whispered young Frank Yeovil to his father, "I wouldn't be
+elsewhere for a thousand pounds."
+
+"It may cost you that before you get away, and more," said the old man
+grimly.  "It will cost England millions, unless----"
+
+"_Monsieur le Commandant_," said old Major Lestoype, riding up to the
+group and saluting respectfully.
+
+"Major Lestoype."
+
+"The command is formed and ready, sir."
+
+"Very good.  Take your place and be prepared."
+
+"Will _Monsieur le Marquis_ permit me?" asked the old soldier, who had
+acquired a genuine respect for the old noble.
+
+"Permit you what?"
+
+"To return his advice," was the not unexpected reply.
+
+"The thought of me, which is evidently back of your words, sir, inclines
+me to overlook their meaning and its impropriety.  Know, sir, that I am
+always ready," was the grim comment of the ancient soldier.
+
+"Indeed, sir--" began the other, but the Marquis cut him short with an
+imperious gesture and a word.
+
+"Retire."
+
+The Major saluted, resumed his place in the line.  No one spoke.  The
+approaching soldiers were nearer now.  They were coming.  The
+Fifth-of-the-Line sensed rather than heard a command down the road.  They
+saw the guns of that little army come from their shoulders to a slanting
+position across the breast--arms aport!  It was the habit of the Guard to
+go into action at arms aport.  What had Dorsenne, _Le Beau Dorsenne_,
+said on that famous day?  "The Guard fights at the point of the bayonet!"
+Would the guns come down to a charge?  Would they have to meet bayonet
+thrusts from these terrible soldiers?
+
+There was something ominous in the slow movements of the men, picked men
+they were, the grenadiers of the Elba Guard especially being of great
+size, their huge bearskins towering above them.  They were marching in
+columns of fours, but the road was wide; another sharp command and the
+men with slow yet beautiful precision deployed into a close column of
+companies at half distance--the very formation for a charge in mass!  The
+brass drums were rolling a famous march, "La Grenadière," the grenadier's
+march.  The hearts of the Fifth-of-the-Line were keeping time to the
+beating of those drums.
+
+Ah, they were splendid soldiers, that regiment of infantry.  Even the
+youths got something from the veterans.  They stood still, quiet, at
+parade-rest, staring.  The distance was growing shorter, shorter and
+shorter.  Some of the officers looked toward the Marquis.  Even his
+nervous horse seemed to have caught the spirit of the moment, for he was
+at last still.  The old man sat there immobile, his lips pressed, his
+eyes fixed on the approaching troops and shining like sword-blades in the
+sunlight--horse and man carved, as it were, out of the rock of the
+mountains.  Presently that high, thin, sharp voice rang out.  Men heard
+it above the rolling of the drums.
+
+"Attention!" he cried.  The men straightened up, swung the heavy muskets
+to their sides.  "Carry arms."  As one man the battalion lifted its
+weapons.  "Make ready!"  With a little crash the guns were dropped into
+the outstretched hands.
+
+The approaching men were nearer now.  Still they came on with arms aport.
+Still the drums ruffled and rolled at their head.  They were not going to
+make any response apparently to the fire of the Fifth-of-the-Line.  Were
+they, indeed, to come to death's grapple at the bayonet's point with that
+irresistible Guard?  But no, there was a sudden movement, a change in the
+approaching ranks.
+
+"Secure arms," cried old Cambronne, and with their guns reversed and
+comfortably tucked under their arms, the old soldiers came on.
+
+The meaning was plain, the battle was to be a moral one, evidently!
+
+"Aim!" cried the sharp voice of the Marquis, and the guns came up to the
+shoulders of the long line, as they bent their heads and mechanically
+squinted along the barrels.
+
+The moment had come!  Out in the front had ridden the familiar figure on
+the white horse.  They could see the details of his person now.  His pale
+face was flushed under the familiar black, three-cornered cocked hat with
+its tricolor cockade, his gray redingote was buttoned across his breast.
+He suddenly raised his hand.  The drums stopped beating, the moving
+grenadiers halted.  Ah, at last!
+
+The Emperor sprang from his horse, not heavily, as of late, but with some
+of the alertness of a boy.  He nodded to the ranks.  Old General
+Cambronne, in command of the Guard, stepped forward.  He took from the
+colour-bearer the Eagle.  Four grenadiers of the Colour Guard closed
+about him--one of them was called Bullet-Stopper, by the way.  In rear
+and a little to the right of the Emperor he moved, holding up the flag
+and the Eagle.  A deep breath, almost a sob, ran down the line of the
+regiment.  Protended guns wavered.  Napoleon stepped forward.  He threw
+back his gray overcoat, disclosing the familiar green uniform of the
+Chasseurs of the Guard, which he affected.  The cross of the Legion of
+Honor glittered on his breast, a shining mark at which to aim.
+
+The flush on his ivory face died as quickly as it had come.  He was
+apparently as composed and as steady as if he had been cut out of
+granite.  But tiny beads of sweat bedewed his brow, shaded by that
+familiar cocked hat.  What would the next moment disclose?  Would he be a
+prisoner, the laughing stock, the jest of Europe?  Or would he lie dead
+in the road, a French bullet in his heart?  He had faced the guns of
+every people in Europe, but he had never faced French guns before.  Would
+any finger in that line press a trigger?  Only God knew, but the Emperor
+would soon find out.  Better death than exile without wife, child,
+friend, or France.  On the hazard of the moment he staked all.  Yet he
+who could have looked into that broad breast could have seen that heart
+beating as never before.  Firmly he stepped on.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+COMRADE!  GENERAL!  EMPEROR!
+
+"Behold the traitor," shouted the Marquis, his emotion lending depth to
+that thin voice.  "Fire, soldiers!"
+
+No finger pressed a trigger.  The silence was ghastly.
+
+Ah! a thrill of hope in the breast of the greater Captain, of despair
+in the heart of the lesser.
+
+"By God!" muttered Yeovil, "he has lost them!"
+
+The Marquis spurred his horse forward.
+
+"Your oath!  For France!  The King!  Fire!" he shouted.
+
+And now a greater voice broke the silence.
+
+"Comrades!  Do you not know me?" said the Emperor.  Was there a tremble
+in his clear, magnificent voice?  He paused, his speech stopped.
+"Behold your General," he resumed.  He waited a few seconds again and
+then finally, desperately, "Let any one among you who wishes to kill
+his Emperor fire--now."
+
+He raised his voice tremendously with that last word.  It almost came
+with the force and clearness of a battle-cry.  The Marquis sat
+stupefied, his face ghastly pale.
+
+"There is yet time," he cried hoarsely at last.  "Is there none here
+faithful to his King?  Fire!"
+
+But the gun-barrels were coming down.  "_Comrade!  General!  Emperor!_"
+who could be indifferent to that appeal?  Disregarding the old Marquis
+absolutely, as if he were not on the earth, the Emperor came nearer
+smiling.  He was irresistible to these soldiers when he smiled.
+
+"Well," he said, his hands outstretched and open, "soldiers of the
+Fifth, who were with me in Italy, how are you all?  I am come back to
+see you again, _mes enfants_," he went on genially.  "Is there any one
+of you who wishes to kill me?"
+
+"No, no, Sire.  Certainly not," came the cry.
+
+"Escape," whispered the Marquis to the Englishman, "while there is yet
+time to take my niece away.  To you I commit her. . . .  St. Laurent,
+to the town with the tidings!"
+
+"By God, no," growled Yeovil, as St. Laurent saluted and galloped
+rapidly down the road.  "I am going to see the end of this.  The damned
+cravens!" he muttered, looking at the soldiers.
+
+"And yet," continued Napoleon to the troops, "you presented your guns
+at me."
+
+"Sire," cried one of the veterans, dropping his musket and running his
+ramrod down the barrel, "it is not loaded.  We only went through the
+motions."
+
+The Emperor laughed.  He was nearer.
+
+"Lestoype," he said, "is it thou, old comrade, and Grenier and Drehon!"
+
+It was astonishing that he should remember them, but so he did.  He
+went down the line, speaking to the men, inspecting them just as of
+old.  The officers could not keep them in line.  They crowded about
+their old leader.  Shouts of "_Vive l'Empereur!_" rent the air.  Men
+took off their caps, tore out the hated white cockades, trampled them
+under foot, and from pockets where they had concealed them for this
+very moment, they replaced them with the tricolor.
+
+In his movements the Emperor at last confronted the Marquis.
+
+"And who is this?" asked Napoleon, staring up at him curiously.
+
+The Marquis' heart was broken.  It was not in the human power of any
+servant of the King to dominate that scene.  A greater personality than
+his was there.  The Emperor had shown himself as of yore, and exhibited
+his mastery.  But no greater ideal possessed any man than that in the
+heart of the old noble.  He hated, he loathed, he abominated the man
+who looked up at him.  He saw in the action of the soldiery a picture
+of the action of France, the downfall of the King.  Well, it flashed
+into his mind that he at least, and perhaps he alone, might put a stop
+to it.  From his holster he whipped out a pistol and leveled it at the
+Emperor.  Lestoype, riding near, struck up his hand, the bullet sped
+harmlessly, the Emperor stood unharmed.  A roar of rage burst from the
+soldiers who came running.  Dropping the weapon and reining his
+startled horse violently back, so as to give himself a certain present
+and temporary freedom of action, the Marquis drew his other pistol.
+Lestoype spurred his horse in front of the Emperor, but Napoleon was
+not menaced.
+
+"Have no fear," said the Marquis almost gently.  "I have failed my
+King.  The bullet goes into a truer heart--my own," he added proudly.
+
+Before any one could stop him there was a flash, a muffled report, the
+spare figure reeled and fell forward on the saddle.  He, at least,
+after the manner of his house, would not survive a failure which,
+although he could not prevent it, must inevitably be charged against
+him.
+
+"A brave man," said the Emperor coolly, staring at him with his hard,
+bright, gray eyes.  "See that his body is cared for in accordance with
+his rank and his courage.  But who are these?" he asked, remounting his
+horse and facing the two Englishmen, who had dismounted and received
+the body of the Marquis, stone dead instantly.  "As I live, it is the
+man of law," he said, his marvelous memory serving him well again, "who
+was at the Château d'Aumenier.  It only needs Marteau----"
+
+"He is alive, your Majesty," interposed Lestoype eagerly.  "He brought
+back our Eagle and is----"
+
+"Where is it, and why is he not with you?"
+
+"The Eagle is in hiding somewhere in Grenoble, Marteau in prison.  He
+hid it, and because he would not tell where, the Marquis yonder
+condemned him to death."
+
+"He has not yet been shot?"
+
+"Not yet, Sire.  He waits the return of the regiment."
+
+"Good," said the Emperor.  "We will surprise him.  Face the men about.
+We shall go on to Grenoble and see what welcome awaits us there."
+
+He was in high spirits.  In this first clash with the troops of King
+Louis he found that he exercised the old influence over them and from
+the army, at least, he now realized that he had nothing to fear.
+
+One of the men who had stood nearest the Emperor back of Cambronne was
+an old grenadier.  He had recognized the Marquis d'Aumenier, he had
+heard the Emperor's conversation and the name of Marteau, and a thrill
+went through the heart of old Bal-Arrêt when he learned that his
+beloved officer and friend was yet alive.
+
+The body of the old Marquis--covered with his cloak, and over his heart
+the now discarded royal standard, for which nobody cared since he was
+dead--was placed on a farm wagon and escorted back to Grenoble by some
+of the officers of the regiment and two companies, with reversed arms.
+He was watched over by the two Englishmen, whom Napoleon freely
+permitted to follow their own pleasure in their movements, being
+desirous of not adding fuel to any possible fire of animosity and of
+showing every respect to every Frenchman, whatever his predilection.
+
+With the Fifth-of-the-Line in the lead, the army moved forward after a
+halt for noonday meal.  The greatly relieved, happy and confident
+Emperor, riding now with the old regiment of Italy in the van, and now
+with the grenadiers in the rear, approached Grenoble late in the
+afternoon.  The short March day was drawing to a close when they came
+in sight of the heavily garrisoned walls of the town.
+
+Labédoyère had obeyed orders in some particulars.  The ramparts had
+been manned, the cannon were loaded, torches were blazing on the walls,
+and the town was awake and seething with excitement.  He had declared
+for the Emperor, and after a sharp little conflict had disarmed the
+royalist cavalry and himself held the gates.  Every regiment that had
+come in had cast its lot in with Napoleon.  As the soldiers in the town
+heard, in the twilight, the beating of the drums--"_La Grenadière_" the
+old march again!--the Colonel of the Seventh, having seized the few
+royalists, opened the gates, marched out at the head of the troops to
+receive the Emperor with arms, yes, but with open arms.  Amid the
+shouts of the citizens and the delirious joy of the soldiery, the
+Emperor entered the city; in his train, first fruits of the war, was
+the body of the old servant of the unfortunate King.
+
+It was Pierre who burst into the apartment of the little Countess with
+the news.
+
+"The Emperor is here, mademoiselle," he cried enthusiastically.  "The
+soldiers are bringing him to the palace."
+
+"And Marteau?"
+
+"He will be free."
+
+"Thank God!" cried the girl, and then she remembered her uncle.  "And
+the Marquis?" she asked.
+
+"My dearest Laure," said the kindly, sympathetic voice of Captain Frank
+Yeovil, stepping out of the twilight of the hall into the bright light
+of the little drawing-room where last night she had bade farewell to
+Marteau, "prepare yourself for some dreadful----"
+
+"Yes, yes, I know," she interrupted.  "The Emperor is here."
+
+"The troops went over to him."
+
+"And my uncle?"
+
+"He----"
+
+"Speak, monsieur.  What has happened?  Did the Emperor----"
+
+"No one harmed him.  He could not survive the disgrace, mademoiselle.
+Prepare yourself."
+
+"Oh, for God's sake, delay not your tidings."
+
+"He died like a soldier of France on the field, by his own hand rather
+than survive what he wrongfully thought his shame."
+
+It was the policy of the Emperor to be merciful; it was his wish to be
+clement.  If possible, he wanted peace.  If mercy and gentleness could
+get it he could have it.  He gave free permission to Sir Gervaise
+Yeovil and his son to return to England.  He made no objection to their
+taking with them the Countess Laure, now the last of the line.  He,
+himself, was present at the funeral of the Marquis, who was buried with
+all the military honors of his rank and station.  There were generous
+hearts among those Frenchmen.  As the representative of the King they
+had hated him, but when he had died so gallantly rather than survive
+what his nice sensibility believed to be his dishonor, his failure at
+any rate, they honored him.  If he had been a Marshal of France they
+could have done no more.
+
+Marteau, restored to his rank and position as aide to the Emperor, had
+but a few moments with the grief-stricken woman.
+
+"No," she said sadly, "it makes no difference.  You know my heart.  No
+words that I can utter could add anything more to the testimony I have
+given you.  But I had promised my uncle, and now that he is dead, the
+promise is doubly sacred.  I must go.  Thank your Emperor for me for
+all he has done for me, his enemy, and for my friends, and for what he
+has done for you.  Tell him the story of the Eagle, and the little part
+in it that I played and--you will not forget me as I will not forget
+you."
+
+"God grant," said the young soldier, "that I may die for France on some
+battlefield, my last thought of you."
+
+"Ah, if that should befall you, I should envy you your rest.  Would to
+God I might look forward to such a quick and happy ending," said the
+grief-stricken woman, turning away.
+
+The next morning, with great ceremony and much rejoicing, the Eagle was
+brought out, and the Emperor once more presented it to the regiment.
+He did more than that.  He signalized the action of the
+Fifth-of-the-Line, the news of which had been sent broadcast by
+couriers and which struck a keynote for the army to follow, by
+incorporating it as a supplementary Fifth regiment of Grenadiers of the
+Guard.  He promised them a new flag and new bearskins.  He promoted
+Lestoype to be a lieutenant-colonel, Labédoyère to be a general, and
+promised every veteran officer his old rank or higher in the new army
+to be formed.  The men were promised bounties and rewards, and, with
+high hopes and glorious anticipations, the march for Paris was begun.
+
+So by the wayside and in the fields around this little army in that
+springtime, the violets bloomed again.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK III
+
+THE LAST TRY
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+AT THE STAMP OF THE EMPEROR'S FOOT
+
+The wonderful genius of Napoleon, which had been so clearly manifested in
+so many ways during his varied career, was never exhibited to better
+advantage than in the three months after his return from Elba.  During
+that period he reorganized the government, recreated and reëquipped an
+army.  The veterans flocked to his standards, and within the time
+mentioned he had actually two hundred and fifty thousand men under arms.
+
+With the better moiety of this force, the best armed, the best equipped,
+the best officered contingent, he took the field early in the month of
+June.  The Emperor did not want war any more than France did.  He began
+his new reign with the most pacific of proclamations, which probably
+reflected absolutely the whole desire of his heart.  But the patience of
+Europe had been exhausted and the belief of rulers and peoples in the
+honesty of his professions, declarations or intentions, had been
+hopelessly shattered.
+
+His arrival effected an immediate resurrection of the almost moribund
+Congress of Vienna.  The squabbling, arguing, trifling plenipotentiaries
+of the powers had burst into gigantic laughter--literally, actual
+merriment, albeit of a somewhat grim character!--when they received the
+news of Napoleon's return.  They were not laughing at Napoleon but at
+themselves.  They had been dividing the lion's skin in high-flown
+phrases, which meant nothing, endeavoring to incorporate the Decalogue
+and the Sermon on the Mount in their protocols and treaties, when they
+suddenly discovered that the Emperor was still to be reckoned with.
+
+Differences were instantly laid aside and forgotten.  Russia, Prussia and
+Austria immediately agreed to put in the field two hundred and fifty
+thousand men each.  The smaller powers, Sweden, Spain, the Low Countries,
+promised contingents.  England once more assumed the familiar role of
+paymaster by immediately placing a vast subsidy at the disposal of the
+allies.  She gave them also what was of more value than a subsidy, a
+soldier of the first rank to command the armies in the field.
+
+The Duke of Wellington had never crossed swords with the greatest captain
+of his day and perhaps of all time.  But he had measured himself with the
+ablest and most famous of Napoleon's Marshals.  With greatly inferior
+forces, through four years of desperate fighting, he had defeated the
+Marshals and armies of France.  The dashing and gallant Junot had been
+routed at Vimiero, Victor had been overwhelmed at Talavera.  Wily old
+Massena with all his ability could look back to the disaster of the
+blood-stained hill of Busaco, Marmont, the dainty tactician, had been
+smashed at Salamanca, stubborn Jourdan had been at last decisively
+defeated at Victoria.  Finally, the brilliant Soult had been hurled out
+of the Pyrenees and had met his master at Toulouse.  Still, great as were
+these soldiers and highly trained as they had been in the best of
+schools, not one of them was a Napoleon; all of them together were not,
+for that matter.  Would the luster of Wellington's fame, which extended
+from the Ganges to the Ebro, be tarnished when he met the Emperor?  It
+was a foregone conclusion, of course, that Schwarzenberg would command
+the Austrians; Blücher, the "Hussar General," the hard-fighting,
+downright old "Marshal Vorwärts," the Prussians; and the Emperor
+Alexander, with his veteran captains, the vast horde of Russians.
+
+To assemble, arm, equip and move two hundred and fifty thousand men was a
+great task in those days even for a rich and populous country flushed
+with victory and in the enjoyment of an abundance of time and unlimited
+means.  The organizing, it almost might be said the creative, ability of
+Napoleon was not shared by his opponents.  Try as they would, June found
+their preparations still woefully incomplete.  The Austrians had scarcely
+moved at all.  The slower Russians, who were farther away and were to
+constitute the reserve army, could be discounted from any present
+calculation of the enemies of the Empire.  The English and their smaller
+allies from the Low Countries, and the Prussians, whose hatred of France
+and the Emperor was greater than that of any other nation, were quicker
+to move.  Two hundred and fifteen thousand men, half of them Prussians, a
+third of the other moiety English, the remaining two-thirds Belgians,
+Hollanders, and other miscellaneous nationalities, had joined the colors
+on the northwestern frontier of France.  One-half of this joint assembly
+was commanded by Blücher and the other half by Wellington.
+
+Leaving the weaker half of his own great army to complete its equipment,
+and placing strong detachments in fortress and at strategetic points to
+oppose the Austrians should they advance, the Emperor, as has been said,
+with about one hundred and twenty-five thousand men took the field.
+Naturally, inevitably, Belgium, the immemorial battleground of the
+nations, and the great English-Prussian army were his objectives.  He saw
+clearly the dangers that encompassed him, the demands he must meet and
+the conditions over which he must triumph.
+
+It was by no means certain, even if he decisively defeated his enemies in
+Belgium and occupied Brussels, that his trouble would be over.  There
+would still be left a possible five hundred thousand trained and
+disciplined men with whom he would have to deal, under rulers and
+generals the inveteracy of whose hatreds he could well understand.  But
+at least his position would be greatly improved by a successful
+preliminary campaign, any success in short, to say nothing of so great a
+one.  If he could show himself once more the inimitable Captain, the
+thunderbolt of war, the organizer of victory, the Napoleon of other days,
+the effect upon France, at least, would be electrical.  And the world
+would again take notice.
+
+The Emperor had to admit that, save in the army, there had not been much
+response from tired-out, exhausted France, to the appeals of its once
+irresistible and beloved leader.  But the spirit of the army was that of
+devotion itself.  There was a kind of a blind madness in it of which men
+spoke afterward as a phenomenon that could only be recognized, that could
+never be explained or understood.  They could not account for it.  Yet it
+was a powerful factor, the most powerful, indeed, that enabled the
+Emperor to accomplish so much, and fall short of complete triumph by so
+narrow a margin.
+
+The spirit of this new army was not that burning love of liberty which
+had animated the armies of the early republic and turned its
+tatterdemalion legions into paladins.  It was not the heroic consecration
+of the veterans of later years to their native land.  It was a strange,
+mysterious obsession, a personal attachment to Napoleon, the
+individual--an unlimited, unbounded tribute to his fascination, to his
+own unique personality.  It has not died out, and seems destined to live.
+Even in death Napoleon, after a century, exercises the same fascination
+over all sorts and conditions of men!  Wise and foolish alike acknowledge
+his spell.  Men hate, men loathe much of that for which the Corsican
+adventurer and soldier of fortune stood; they see clearly and admit
+freely the thorough and entire selfishness of the colossal man, but they
+cannot resist his appeal, even after one hundred years!
+
+Yet in the long run no personal attachment, however deep, however ardent,
+however complete, can take the place as the inspiration for heroic deeds
+of that deeper passion of love of country.  Nor can any personal devotion
+to a mere man produce such a steadfastness of character as is brought
+about by adherence to a great cause or a great land.  A great passion
+like the love of a people for a great country and that for which it
+stands is eternal.  Usually the feet of clay upon which the idol stands
+have only to be recognized to dissipate the ardor and fervor of the
+worshipers.  But Napoleon was then an exception to all rules.  Though he
+slew men, wasted them, threw them away, they trusted him.  We look at him
+through the vista of years and in some way understand his soldiers.
+Reason to the contrary, we can experience in some degree, at least, even
+in the cold-blooded humanitarian materialism of the present, the old
+thrill and the old admiration.  Did his contemporaries love him because
+they believed he thought in terms of France, we wonder?
+
+So that this body of soldiery was probably the most formidable army in
+the quality of its units that had ever been mustered on the globe.  There
+was not a man in it who was not a veteran.  Some of them were veterans of
+fifteen years of campaigning with Napoleon.  This that came was to be the
+sixtieth pitched battle in which some of them had participated.  Even the
+younger men had gone through more than one campaign and taken part in
+much hard fighting.  Back from the prisons where they had been confined
+and the great fortresses they had held until the Emperor's abdication had
+come the veterans.  The Old Guard had been reconstituted.  As a reward
+for its action at Grenoble, the Fifth-of-the-Line had been incorporated
+in it as a supplementary regiment, a second Fifth regiment of Grenadiers.
+The ranks of the Guard had been most carefully culled, the unserviceable
+had been weeded out, their places taken by men well fitted by their
+record, their physical prowess and their personal appearance to belong to
+that famous corps.  Not the Immortals of Xerxes, the Spartan Band of
+Leonidas, the Companion Cavalry of Alexander, the Carthaginians of
+Hannibal, the Tenth Legion of Caesar, the Spanish Infantry of Parma, or
+the Ironsides of Cromwell, had surpassed the record of these Pretorians
+of Imperial France.
+
+The same weeding-out process had been carried out in the rest of the
+army.  The flower of French cavalry, the matchless French artillery and
+the famous infantry which had trampled down the world were ranged under
+the Eagles.  Other corps had been drained for equipment.  But in some
+particulars the army differed from the Imperial armies of the past.  With
+two exceptions, the great Marshals were not there.  Murat, king of
+horsemen and swordsmen, was a prisoner in his ignoble Neapolitan realm
+awaiting trial and execution.  Marmont and Mortier dared not present
+themselves before the Emperor they had betrayed.  Wily Massena, the
+wisest and ablest of them all, was old and in convenient retirement.
+Macdonald, the incorruptible, was with the fat-bodied, fat-witted Bourbon
+King in Ghent.  Berthier, with his marvelous mastery of detail and his
+almost uncanny ability to translate the Emperor's thoughts even into
+orders, had not rejoined the Eagles--a terrible loss, indeed.
+
+There were but two of the Marshals of old with Napoleon.  Soult, in some
+respects the acutest strategist and finest tactician, was Chief of Staff.
+He tried his best to fill Berthier's position and did it acceptably, if
+not with the success of that master.  The other Marshal was preëminently
+the battle-leader, red-headed Michael Ney, the fighter of fighters, a man
+whose personality was worth an army-corps, whose reputation and influence
+with the soldiers was of the very highest.
+
+The rest of the officers, while veterans, were younger and less-known
+men.  Drouet d'Erlon commanded one of the corps; Reille another; Grouchy
+another; Druot was the leader of the Guard; Kellerman, Milhaud, Gerard
+and Maurice the cavalry.  It was an army of veterans, officered by young
+men, commanded by the greatest of soldiers.
+
+But the army had not yet "found itself."  It had no natural coherence and
+there had been no time to acquire any.  It had not yet been welded
+together.  Officers, men, regiments, brigades, divisions were, more or
+less, new and strange to one another.  There was a vast deal of suspicion
+in the ranks.  The discipline was rather because of past habit than
+present practice.  That army needed a few victories, and badly needed
+them.  A welding process was required.  Given time and success to shake
+it together, and it might laugh at the world.
+
+Would it get time and win victory?  That was the question.  And if it got
+neither, what then?  How would it stand up under the strain?  Would the
+tie that bound hold in defeat?  Could the rest of the army live up to the
+Guard, for instance?  Yes, that was the grave, the all-important question.
+
+There was an enormous disparity in numbers between the French army--or it
+would better be called Napoleon's army--and that of the allies he
+purposed to attack.  The allies were to the French in the ratio of about
+two to one.  Whatever else was lacking, Napoleon had not lost his
+audacity, nor when his intentions are disclosed by a study of his plans,
+can it be argued that his strategic intention was lacking in brilliancy
+or daring.
+
+He determined with his smaller but compact and manageable army to thrust
+himself between the two wings of the somewhat loosely coherent enemy
+under its divided command; to hold off one while he smashed the other and
+then to concentrate upon the surviving half and mete out to it the same
+hard fortune.  In other words, trusting to his ability, he deliberately
+placed his own army between two others, each of which practically equaled
+his own.  He thrust himself within the jaws of a trap, to use a homely
+simile, intending to hold one arm of the trap open while he broke up the
+other.  He intended to burst through the allied line and smash up each
+half in succession.
+
+Of course there was always the danger that he could not burst through
+that line; or that he could not hold back one half while he fought the
+other, or that holding back one half he could not beat the other, or
+having beaten one half he would be too weak to fall on the other.  There
+was always the danger that the trap would be sprung, that he would be
+caught in its jaws or, to change the metaphor, that he would be like the
+wheat between the upper and the nether millstone.  Still he did not think
+so, and he did not go into the undertaking blindly.  As he had said, in
+his own case, "War was not a conjectural art," and he had most carefully
+counted the cost, estimated the probabilities.  In short, he looked well
+before he leaped--yet a man may look well and leap wrong after all.
+
+On these considerations he based his grand strategy.  The army of the
+Prussians had approached the French frontier from the east; the army of
+the English and allies from the northwest.  Napoleon had a complete
+knowledge of one of the Captains opposing him.  He knew and accurately
+estimated Blücher.  He did not know and he did not accurately estimate
+Wellington.  He viewed the latter with contempt; the former with a
+certain amount of disdainful approbation, for while Blücher was no
+strategist and less of a tactician, he was a fighter and a fighter is
+always dangerous and to be dreaded.  Gneisenau, a much more accomplished
+soldier, was Blücher's second in command, but he was a negligible factor
+in the Emperor's mind.  The fact that Wellington had beaten all of
+Napoleon's Marshals with whom he had come in contact had intensified the
+Emperor's hatred.  Instead of begetting caution in dealing with him,
+Napoleon's antagonism had blinded him as to Wellington's ability.
+
+He also rated the Prussians higher than the English as fighters, and when
+his officers, who had felt the power of the thin red line which had so
+often wrecked the French column, explained to him that there were no
+better defensive fighters on earth than the English, not even the
+Russians, he had laughed them to scorn, attributing their warnings to the
+fact that they had been beaten in Spain and had grown timid.  The Emperor
+did not purpose to be beaten in France or Belgium by the stolid English.
+
+In more detail his first plan was to confuse Wellington, who held the
+right of the allied line, then fall upon him before he had time to
+concentrate, and beat him or contain him with a detachment under Ney,
+while the Emperor in person thereafter put Blücher to rout--and all of
+these things he came very near accomplishing completely.  Certainly, he
+carried out his plans successfully and to the letter until the final day
+of battle.
+
+He reasoned that if he could beat Blücher and threaten his
+communications, what was left of the Prussian army, which Napoleon hoped
+would not be much, would immediately retreat eastward; and that when
+Blücher had been thrown out of the game for the present, he could turn on
+Wellington and his English and allies and make short work of him.  It did
+not occur to him that even if he beat Blücher and beat Wellington,
+provided the defeats did not end in utter routs, and they both retreated,
+they might withdraw on parallel lines and effect a junction later when
+even after the double defeat they would still so greatly outnumber him
+that his chances of success would be faint indeed.
+
+The possibility of their pursuing any other course than that he had
+forecast for them never entered his mind.  His own conception of their
+action was, in fact, an obsession with him.  Yet that which he thought
+they would do they did not; and that which he was confident they would
+not do they did!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+WATERLOO--THE FINAL REVIEW
+
+In a romance like this, in which campaigns and marches, maneuvers and
+battles, however decisive they may be in history, are only incidental
+to the careers of the characters herein presented to the reader, it is
+not necessary for the chronicler to turn himself into a military
+historian, much as he would like it.  Therefore, in great restraint, he
+presses on, promising hereafter only so much history as may serve to
+show forth the somber background.
+
+In this setting of the scene of the great drama to be played, young
+Marteau has been necessarily somewhat lost sight of.  He was very much
+in evidence during that hundred days of feverish and frantic activity.
+Napoleon had distinguished him highly.  He had given him the rank of a
+Colonel of the Guard, but he had still retained him on his staff.  Good
+and experienced staff-officers were rare, and the Emperor needed all he
+could get; he could have used many more than were available.  And as
+Marteau was one of those who were attached to the Emperor by the double
+motive of love of the man and love of his country, believing as he did
+that the destiny of the two could not be dissevered, he had served the
+Emperor most efficiently, with that blind, passionate devotion to duty
+by which men give to a cause the best that is in them and which
+sometimes leads them to almost inconceivable heights of achievements.
+
+Suffice it to say that the great strategic conception of Napoleon was
+carried out with rather striking success in the first three days of the
+campaign.  The Emperor, crossing the Sambre, interposed himself between
+Wellington and Blücher, completely deceived the Englishman, who thought
+his extreme right was threatened, detached Ney to seize the village of
+Quatre Bras, where Wellington had at last decided to concentrate, and
+with eighty thousand men fell on the Prussians at Ligny.
+
+Ney did not seize Quatre Bras; Wellington got there ahead of him and
+stubbornly held the position.  Although Ney had twice the number of
+troops at the beginning of the battle that the English Field-Marshal
+could muster, they were not well handled and no adequate use was made
+of the French preponderance.  Napoleon, on the far right of Ney, at
+Ligny, on the contrary, fought the Prussians with his old-time skill
+and brilliance.  The contending forces there were about equal, the
+Prussians having the advantage in numbers, but victory finally declared
+for the Emperor.  It was the last victory, not the least brilliant and
+not the least desperately fought of his long career.  The importance
+and quality of the battle has been lost sight of in the greater
+struggle of Waterloo, which took place two days after, but it was a
+great battle, nevertheless.  One of the crude ways in which to estimate
+a battle is by what is called the "butcher's bill" and eighteen
+thousand dead and wounded Prussians and twelve thousand Frenchmen tells
+its tale.  But it was not the decisive battle that Napoleon had planned
+to make it.
+
+The Prussians retreated.  They had to.  But they retreated in good
+order.  Blücher having been unhorsed and temporarily incapacitated in a
+charge, the command and direction of the retreat devolved upon
+Gneisenau.  His chief claim to military distinction lies in the fact
+that he did not do what Napoleon expected, and what Blücher would have
+done.  He retreated to the north instead of the east!  A pursuit was
+launched, but it did not pursue the Prussians.  It went off, as it
+were, into thin air.  It pursued Napoleon's idea, his forecast, which
+owing to the accident to Blücher was wrong!
+
+One reason why the victory of Ligny and the drawn battle at Quatre Bras
+were not decisive was because of a strange lack of generalship and a
+strange confusion of orders for which Napoleon and Ney are both
+responsible.  Ney was constructively a victor at Quatre Bras, finally.
+That is, the English retreated at nightfall and abandoned the field to
+him; but they retreated not because they were beaten but because
+Wellington, finding his position could be bettered by retirement and
+concentration, decided upon withdrawal.  But Ney could have been the
+victor in every sense, in spite of his indifferent tactics, if it had
+not been for the same blunder that the Emperor committed.
+
+D'Erlon, at the head of perhaps the finest corps in the army, numbering
+twenty thousand men, through the long hours of that hot June day
+marched from the vicinity of Quatre Bras to Ligny, whence he could
+actually see the battle raging, only to be summoned back from Ligny to
+Quatre Bras by orders from Ney.  Retracing his course, therefore, he
+marched back over the route he had just traversed, arriving at Quatre
+Bras too late to be of any service to Ney!  Like the famous King of
+France who with twenty thousand men marched up the hill and then
+marched down again, this splendid corps which, thrown into either
+battle, would have turned the Prussian retreat into a rout on the one
+hand, or have utterly cut to pieces Wellington on the other, did
+nothing.  The principal fault was Napoleon's.  He saw d'Erlon's corps
+approaching, but he sent no order and took no steps to put it into the
+battle.
+
+Well, in spite of the fact that the energies of d'Erlon had been spent
+in marching instead of fighting, the Emperor was a happy man that
+night.  He had got himself safely placed between the two armies and he
+had certainly severely if not decisively beaten one of them.
+Strategically, his operations had been characterized by unusual
+brilliancy.  If things went as he hoped, surmised and confidently
+expected, all would be well.  He was absolutely sure that Blücher was
+retiring to the east, toward Namur.  He dispatched Grouchy with
+thirty-five thousand of his best men to pursue him in the direction
+which he supposed he had taken.
+
+Napoleon's orders were positive, and he was accustomed to exact
+implicit obedience from his subordinates.  He had a habit of
+discouraging independent action in the sternest of ways, and for the
+elimination of this great force from the subsequent battle the Emperor
+himself must accept the larger responsibility.  But all this does not
+excuse Grouchy.  He carried out his orders faithfully, to be sure, but
+a more enterprising and more independent commander would have sooner
+discovered that he was pursuing stragglers and would earlier have taken
+the right course to regain his touch with his chief and to harry the
+Prussian Field-Marshal.  He did turn to the north at last, but when the
+great battle was joined he was miles away and of no more use than if he
+had been in Egypt.  His attack on the Prussian rear-guard at Wavre,
+while it brought about a smart little battle with much hard and gallant
+fighting, really amounted to nothing and had absolutely no bearing on
+the settlement of the main issue elsewhere.  He did not disobey orders,
+but many a man has gained immortality and fame by doing that very
+thing.  Grouchy had his chance and failed to improve it.  He was a
+veteran and a successful soldier, too.
+
+Comes the day of Waterloo.  Blücher had retreated north to Wavre and
+was within supporting distance of Wellington.  His army had been beaten
+but not crushed, its spirit was not abated.  The old Prussian Marshal,
+badly bruised and shaken from being unhorsed and overridden in a
+cavalry charge in which he had joined like a common trooper, but
+himself again, promised in a famous interview between the two to come
+to the support of the younger English Marshal, should he be attacked,
+with his whole army.  Wellington had retreated as far as he intended
+to.  He established his headquarters on a hill called Mont St. Jean,
+back of a ridge near a village called Waterloo, where his army
+commanded the junction point of the highroads to the south and west.
+He drew up his lines, his red-coated countrymen and his blue-coated
+allies on the long ridge in front of Mont St. Jean, facing south,
+overlooking a gently sloping valley which was bounded by other parallel
+ridges about a mile away.  On the right center of Wellington's lines, a
+short distance below the crest of the ridge, embowered in trees, lay a
+series of stone buildings, in extent and importance between a château
+and a farmhouse, called Hougomont.  These were surrounded by a stone
+wall and the place was impregnable against everything but artillery if
+it were properly manned and resolutely held.  Both those conditions
+were met that day.  Opposite the left center of the Duke's line was
+another strong place, a farmhouse consisting of a series of stone
+buildings on three sides of a square, the fourth closed by a wall,
+called La Haye Sainte.  These outposts were of the utmost value,
+rightly used.
+
+The Duke had sixty-seven thousand men and one hundred and eighty guns.
+His right had been strengthened at the expense of his left, because he
+expected Napoleon to attack the right and he counted on Blücher's
+arrival to support his left.  To meet him Napoleon had seventy-five
+thousand men and two hundred and sixty guns.  Off to the northeast lay
+Blücher at Wavre with nearly eighty thousand more men and two hundred
+guns, and wandering around in the outer darkness was Grouchy with
+thirty-five thousand.
+
+The valley was highly cultivated.  The ripening grain still stood in
+the fallow fields separated by low hedges.  Broad roads ran through the
+valley in different directions.  The weather was horrible.  It rained
+torrents during the night and the earlier part of the morning.  The
+fields were turned into quagmires, the roads into morasses.  It was hot
+and close.  The humidity was great.  Little air was stirring.
+Throughout the day the mist hung heavy over the valley and the ridges
+which bordered it.  But the rain ceased in the morning and Napoleon
+made no attack until afternoon, waiting for the ground to dry out
+somewhat.  It was more important to him that his soldiers should have
+good footing than to the English, for the offensive, the attack, the
+charge fell to him.  Wellington determined to fight strictly on the
+defensive.  Nevertheless, precious hours were wasted.  Every passing
+moment brought some accession to the allied army, and every passing
+hour brought Blücher nearer.  With all the impetuosity of his soul, the
+old man was urging his soldiers forward over the horrible roads.
+
+"Boys," he said in his rough, homely way to some bitterly complaining
+artillerists stalled in the mud, "I promised.  You would not have me
+break my word, would you?"
+
+Grouchy meanwhile had at last determined that the Prussians had gone
+the other way.  He had learned that they were at Wavre and he had swung
+about and was coming north.  Of course, he should have marched toward
+the sound of the cannon--generally the safest guide for a
+soldier!--but, at any rate, he was trying to get into touch with the
+enemy.  No one can question his personal courage or his loyalty to his
+cause.
+
+Napoleon, when he should have been on the alert, was very drowsy and
+dull that day at Waterloo.  He had shown himself a miracle of physical
+strength and endurance in that wonderful four days of campaigning and
+fighting, but the soldiers passing by the farmhouse of La Belle
+Alliance--singular name which referred so prophetically to the
+enemy--sometimes saw him sitting on a chair by a table outside the
+house, his feet resting on a bundle of straw to keep them from the wet
+ground, nodding, asleep!  And no wonder.  It is doubtful if he had
+enjoyed as much as eight hours of sleep since he crossed the Sambre,
+and those not consecutive!  Still, if ever he should have kept awake,
+that eighteenth of June was the day of days!
+
+So far as one can discern his intention, his battle plan had been to
+feint at Hougomont on the right center, cause the Duke of Wellington to
+weaken his line to support the château, and then to break through the
+left center and crush him by one of those massed attacks under
+artillery fire for which he had become famous.  The line once broken,
+the end, of course, would be more or less certain.
+
+The difference in the temperaments of the two great Captains was well
+illustrated before the battle was joined.  The Duke mainly concealed
+his men behind the ridge.  All that the French saw when they came on
+the field were guns, officers and a few men.  The English-Belgian army
+was making no parade.  What the British and Flemish saw was very
+different.  The Emperor displayed his full hand.  The French, who
+appeared not to have been disorganized at all by the hard fighting at
+Ligny and Quatre Bras, came into view in most splendid style; bands
+playing, drums rolling, swords waving, bayonets shining even in the
+dull air of the wretched morning.  They came on the field in solid
+columns, deployed and took their positions, out of cannon-shot range,
+of course, in the most deliberate manner.  The uniforms of the army
+were brand-new, and it was the fashion to fight in one's best in those
+days.  They presented a magnificent spectacle.
+
+Presently the Duke, his staff, the gunners and the others who were on
+the top of the ridge and watching, saw a body of horsemen gallop
+rapidly along the French lines.  One gray-coated figure riding a white
+horse was in advance of the rest.  The cheers, the almost delirious
+shouts and cries, told the watchers that it was the Emperor.  It was
+his last grand review, his last moment of triumph.
+
+It was after one o'clock before the actual battle began.  More books
+have been written about that battle than any other that was ever
+fought.  One is tempted to say, almost than all others that were ever
+fought.  And the closest reasoners arrive at different conclusions and
+disagree as to many vital and important details.  The Duke of
+Wellington himself left two accounts, one in his dispatches and one in
+notes written long afterward, which were irreconcilable, but some
+things are certain, upon some things all historians are agreed.
+
+The battle began with an attack on the Hougomont Château and the
+conflict actually raged around that château for over six hours, or
+until the French were in retreat.  Macdonell, Home and Saltoun,
+Scotsmen all, with their regiments of the Household Guard, held that
+château, although it was assailed over and over again, finally, by the
+whole of Reille's corps.  They held that château, although it burned
+over their heads, although the French actually broke into it on
+occasion.  They held it, although every other man in it was shot down
+and scarcely a survivor was without a wound.  It was assaulted with a
+fury and a resolution which was only matched by the fury and resolution
+of its defense.  Why it was not battered to pieces with artillery no
+one knows.  At any rate, it occupied practically the whole of Reille's
+corps during the whole long afternoon of fighting.
+
+The space between Hougomont and La Haye Sainte was about a thousand
+yards.  La Haye Sainte was assaulted also but, to anticipate events, it
+held out until about five o'clock in the evening, when, after another
+wonderful defense, it was carried.  The French established themselves
+in it eighty yards from Wellington's line.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+WATERLOO--THE CHARGE OF D'ERLON
+
+Meanwhile the French had not confined their efforts to the isolated
+forts, if they may be so called, on Wellington's center and left
+center.  After a tremendous artillery duel d'Erlon's men had been
+formed up for that massed attack for which the Emperor was famous, and
+with which it was expected the English line would be pierced and the
+issue decided.  The Emperor, as has been noted, had intended the attack
+on Hougomont as a mere feint, hoping to induce the Duke of Wellington
+to reinforce his threatened right and thereby to weaken his left
+center.  It was no part of the Emperor's plan that an attempt to
+capture Hougomont should become the main battle on his own left that it
+had, nor could he be sure that even the tremendous attack upon it had
+produced the effect at which he aimed.  Nevertheless, the movement of
+d'Erlon had to be tried.
+
+It must be remembered that Napoleon had never passed through the
+intermediate army grades.  He had been jumped from a regimental officer
+to a General.  He had never handled a regiment, a brigade, a division,
+a corps--only an army, or armies.  Perhaps that was one reason why he
+was accustomed to leaving details and the execution of his plans to
+subordinates.  He was the greatest of strategists and the ablest of
+tacticians, but minor tactics did not interest him, and the arrangement
+of this great assault he left to the corps and its commander.
+
+Giving orders to Ney and d'Erlon, therefore, the Emperor at last
+launched his grand attack.  One hundred and twenty guns were
+concentrated on that part of the English left beyond the westernmost of
+the two outlying positions, through which it was determined to force a
+way.  Under cover of the smoke, which all day hung thick and heavy in
+the valley and clung to the ridges, d'Erlon's splendid corps, which had
+been so wasted between Quatre Bras and Ligny, and which was burning to
+achieve something, was formed in four huge parallel close-ranked
+columns, slightly écheloned under Donzelot, Marcognet, Durutte and
+Allix.  With greatly mistaken judgment, these four columns were crowded
+close together.  The disposition was a very bad one.  In the first
+place, their freedom of movement was so impaired by lack of proper
+distance as to render deployment almost impossible.  Unless the columns
+could preserve their solid formation until the very point of contact,
+the charge would be a fruitless one.  In the second place, they made an
+enormous target impossible to miss.  The attack was supported by light
+batteries of artillery and the cavalry in the flanks.
+
+Other things being equal, the quality of soldiers being the same, the
+column is at an obvious disadvantage when attacking the line.  It was
+so in this instance.  Although it was magnificently led by Ney and
+d'Erlon in person, and although it comprised troops of the highest
+order, the division commanders being men of superb courage and
+resolution, no valor, no determination could make up for these
+disadvantages.  The tremendous artillery-fire of the French, which did
+great execution among the English, kept them down until the dark
+columns of infantry mounting the ridge got in the way of the French
+guns which, of course, ceased to fire.
+
+The drums were rolling madly, the Frenchmen were cheering loudly when
+the ridge was suddenly covered with long red lines.  There were not
+many blue-coated allies left.  Many of them had already laid down their
+lives; of the survivors more were exhausted by the fierce battling of
+the preceding days when the Belgians had nobly sustained the fighting
+traditions of a race to which nearly two thousand years before Caesar
+himself had borne testimony.  As a matter of fact, most of the allies
+were moved to the rear.  They did not leave the field.  They were
+formed up again back of the battle line to constitute the reserve.  The
+English did not intend to flee either.  They were not accustomed to it
+and they saw no reason for doing it now.
+
+Wellington moved the heavy cavalry over to support the threatened point
+of the line and bade his soldiers restrain their fire.  There was
+something ominous in the silent, steady, rock-like red wall.  It was
+much more threatening to the mercuric Gallic spirit than the shouting
+of the French was to the unemotional English disposition.  Still, they
+came intrepidly on.
+
+Meanwhile, renewed attacks were hurled against the château and the
+farmhouse.  Ney and d'Erlon had determined to break the English line
+with the bayonet.  Suddenly, when the French came within point-blank
+range, the English awoke to action.  The English guns hurled shot into
+the close-ranked masses, each discharge doing frightful execution.
+Ney's horse was shot from under him at the first fire.  But the
+unwounded Marshal scrambled to his feet and, mounting another horse,
+pressed on.
+
+The slow-moving ranks were nearer.  At point-blank range the English
+infantrymen now opened fire.  Shattering discharges were poured upon
+the French.  The fronts of the divisions were obliterated.  The men in
+advance who survived would have given back, but the pressure of the
+masses in their rear forced them to go on.  The divisions actually
+broke into a run.  Again and again the British battalions spoke, the
+black muskets in the hands of the red coats were tipped with redder
+flame.  It was not in human flesh and blood to sustain very long such a
+fire.
+
+It was a magnificent charge, gloriously delivered, and such was its
+momentum that it almost came in touch with the English line.  It did
+not quite.  That momentum was spent at last.  The French deployed as
+well as they could in the crowded space and at half-pistol-shot
+distance began to return the English fire.  The French guns joined in
+the infernal tumult.  The advance had been stopped, but it had not been
+driven back.  The French cavalry were now coming up.  Before they
+arrived that issue had to be decided.  The critical moment was at hand,
+and Wellington's superb judgment determined the action.  He let loose
+on them the heavy cavalry, led by the Scots Grays on their big horses.
+As the ranks of the infantry opened to give them room, the men of the
+Ninety-second Highlanders, mad with the enthusiasm of the moment,
+caught the stirrup-straps of the Horse and, half running, half dragged,
+joined in the charge.
+
+The splendid body of heavy cavalry fell on the flank of the halted
+columns.  There was no time for the French to form a square.  Nay more,
+there was no room for them to form a square.  In an instant, however,
+they faced about and delivered a volley which did great execution, but
+nothing could stop the maddened rush of the gigantic horsemen.  Back on
+the heights of Rossomme Napoleon, aroused from his lethargy at last,
+stared at the great attack.
+
+"_Mon Dieu!_" he exclaimed as he saw the tremendous onfall of the
+cavalrymen upon his helpless infantry, "how terrible are those gray
+horsemen!"
+
+Yes, they were more terrible to the men at the point of contact than
+they were to those back of La Belle Alliance.  No infantry that ever
+lived in the position in which the French found themselves could have
+stood up against such a charge as that.  Trampling, hacking, slashing,
+thrusting, the horses biting and fighting like the men, the heavy
+cavalry broke up two of the columns.  The second and third began to
+retreat under an awful fire.  But the dash of the British troopers was
+spent.  They had become separated, disorganized.  They had lost
+coherence.  The French cavalry now arrived on the scene.  Admirably
+handled, they were thrown on the scattered English.  There was nothing
+for the latter to do but retire.  Retire they did, having accomplished
+all that anyone could expect of cavalry, fighting every step of the
+way.  Just as soon as they opened the fronts of the regiments' in line,
+the infantry and artillery began again, and then the French cavalry got
+its punishment in its turn.
+
+It takes but moments to tell of this charge and, indeed, in the
+battlefield it seemed but a few moments.  But the French did not give
+way until after long hard fighting.  From the beginning of the
+preliminary artillery-duel to the repulse of the charge an hour and a
+half elapsed.  Indeed, they did not give way altogether either, for
+Donzelot and Allix, who commanded the left divisions, were the men who
+finally succeeded in capturing La Haye Sainte.  And both sides suffered
+furiously before the French gave back.
+
+There was plenty of fight left in the French yet.  Ney, whatever his
+strategy and tactics, showed himself as of yore the bravest of the
+brave.  It is quite safe to say that the hero of the retreat from
+Russia, the last of the Grand Army, the star of many a hotly contested
+battle, surpassed even his own glorious record for personal courage on
+that day.  Maddened by the repulse, he gathered up all the cavalry,
+twelve thousand in number, and with Kellerman, greatest of cavalrymen,
+to second him and with division leaders like Milhaud and Maurice, he
+hurled himself upon the English line between Hougomont and La Haye
+Sainte.  But the English made no tactical mistakes like that of Ney and
+d'Erlon.  The artillerists stood to their guns until the torrent of
+French horsemen was about to break upon them, then they ran back to the
+safety of the nearest English square.
+
+The English had been put in such formation that the squares lay
+checkerwise.  Each side was four men deep.  The front rank knelt, the
+second rank bent over at a charge bayonets, the third and the fourth
+ranks stood erect and fired.  The French horsemen might have endured
+the tempest of bullets but they could not ride down the _chevaux de
+frise_, the fringe of steel.  They tried it.  No one could find fault
+with that army.  It was doing its best; it was fighting and dying for
+its Emperor.  Over and over they sought to break those stubborn British
+squares.  One or two of them were actually penetrated, but unavailingly.
+
+Men mad with battle-lust threw themselves and their horses upon the
+bayonets.  The guns were captured and recaptured.  The horsemen overran
+the ridge, they got behind the squares, they counter-charged over their
+own tracks, they rode until the breasts of the horses touched the guns.
+They fired pistols in the face of the English.  One such charge is
+enough to immortalize its makers, and during that afternoon they made
+twelve!
+
+Ney, raging over the field, had five horses killed under him.  The
+British suffered horribly.  If the horsemen did draw off to take
+breath, and reform for another effort, the French batteries, the
+English squares presenting easy targets, sent ball after ball through
+them.  And nobody stopped fighting to watch the cavalry.  Far and wide
+the battle raged.  Toward the close of the day some of the English
+squares had become so torn to pieces that regiments, brigades and
+divisions had to be combined to keep from being overwhelmed.
+
+Still the fight raged around Hougomont.  Now, from a source of
+strength, La Haye Sainte had become a menace.  There the English
+attacked and the French held.  Off to the northeast the country was
+black with advancing masses of men.  No, it was not Grouchy and his
+thirty-five thousand who, if they had been there at the beginning,
+might have decided the day.  It was the Prussians.
+
+They, at least, had marched to the sound of the cannon.  Grouchy was
+off at Wavre.  He at last got in touch with one of Blücher's rear corps
+and he was fighting a smart little battle ten miles from the place
+where the main issue was to be decided.  As a diversion, his efforts
+were negligible, for without that corps the allies outnumbered the
+French two to one.
+
+Telling the troops that the oncoming soldiers were their comrades of
+Grouchy's command who would decide the battle, Napoleon detached the
+gallant Lobau, who had stood like a stone wall at Aspern, with the
+Young Guard to seize the village of Planchenoit and to hold the
+Prussians back, for if they broke in the end would be as certain as it
+was swift.  And well did Lobau with the Young Guard perform that task.
+Bülow, commanding the leading corps, hurled himself again and again
+upon the French line.  His heavy columns fared exactly as the French
+columns had fared when they assaulted the English.  But it was not
+within the power of ten thousand men to hold off thirty thousand
+forever, and there were soon that number of Prussians at the point of
+contact.  Frantic messages from Lobau caused the Emperor to send one of
+the divisions of the Old Guard, the last reserve, to his support.
+
+It was now after six o'clock, the declining sun was already low on the
+horizon, the long June day was drawing to a close.  The main force of
+the Prussians had not yet come up to the hill and ridge of Mont St.
+Jean.  Wellington, in great anxiety, was clinging desperately to the
+ridge with his shattered lines wondering how long he could hold them,
+whether he could sustain another of those awful attacks.  His reserves,
+except two divisions of light cavalry, Vivian's and Vandeleur's, and
+Maitland's and Adams' brigades headed by Colborne's famous Fifty-second
+Foot, among his troops the de luxe veterans of the Peninsula, had all
+been expended.
+
+Lobau was still holding back the Prussians by the most prodigious and
+astounding efforts.  If Napoleon succeeded in his last titanic effort
+to break that English line, Blücher would be too late.  Unless night or
+Blücher came quickly, if Napoleon made that attack and it was not
+driven back, victory in this struggle of the war gods would finally go
+to the French.
+
+Hougomont still held out.  The stubborn defense of it was Wellington's
+salvation.  While it stood his right was more or less protected.  But
+La Haye Sainte offered a convenient point of attack upon him.  If
+Napoleon brought up his remaining troops behind it they would only have
+a short distance to go before they were at death's grapple hand to hand
+with the shattered, exhausted, but indomitable defenders of the ridge.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+WATERLOO--THE LAST OF THE GUARD
+
+Long and earnestly, one from the heights of Mont St. Jean, the other
+from those of Rossomme, the two great Captains scanned the opposing
+line.  Napoleon seemed to have recovered from his indisposition.
+Indeed, he had undergone frightful fatigues which would have been
+incredible if sustained by a younger man, and which would have been
+impossible to any other man than he.  To add to his fatigue, he was
+ill.  He could not sleep and the nature of his illness was such that it
+was agony for him to mount a horse.  This condition had been aggravated
+by the awful exertion, physical and mental, he had made and the strain
+of that long afternoon of desperate fighting.  Nor had he eaten
+anything the livelong day.  Yet at about half after six that night he
+did get into the saddle again.  Conquering his anguish, he rode down to
+the fifteen battalions of the Guard still held in reserve at La Belle
+Alliance, all that was left intact of that proud and gallant army.
+
+"My children," he said hoarsely in last appeal, "I must sleep in
+Brussels to-night.  There is the enemy.  Go and break the English line
+for me."
+
+Cambronne, to whom nature and education alike had denied every
+attribute of grace or greatness except unbounded devotion and stubborn
+courage, mustered the Guard.  Ney, _le terrible Rougeaud_, the
+soldiers' idol, his torn uniform covered with dust, one of his epaulets
+slashed from his shoulder, his coat open, his shirt likewise, his bared
+breast black with powder, his face red-streaked with blood, for many
+bullets had grazed him, his hair matted with sweat--the weather had
+grown frightfully hot, the air was terribly humid--his eyes blazing,
+flecks of foam about his mouth, placed himself in the lead.  Every
+staff officer left joined the great Marshal.
+
+With the brass drums beating "_La Grenadière_," that famous grenadier
+quick-step, the great Guard moved out.  Here, again, in the excitement
+of the conflict, an opportunity was overlooked.  They could have gone
+up in rear of La Haye Sainte with practically no danger, but they went
+straight out into the open, between farm and château.  Up the road,
+over the fields of bloody grain, through the torn hedges, trampling
+over the bodies of their comrades, the last hope advanced to meet the
+enemy.
+
+All over the field the tide of battle ebbed and flowed.  The armies
+came together for the last try.  Off to the right Lobau still held his
+appointed station, but now the Prussians in great masses were swarming
+on the field about Planchenoit.  Division after division, avoiding
+Lobau meanwhile, mounted the ridge to join the English line.  It had
+almost been broken by d'Erlon at La Haye Sainte.  Mouffling,
+Wellington's Prussian aide, had galloped over to Ziethen in command of
+the advance with the news that unless the English were reinforced
+heavily at once their line would be pierced and they would be routed.
+On to the field opposite La Haye Sainte came the Prussians.  Still
+raged the battle around Hougomont and the English right, but the eyes
+of every spectator not engaged in fighting for his life were
+concentrated on the advance of the Guard.
+
+Napoleon had ridden down from Rossomme to La Belle Alliance.  He sat
+his horse within easy cannon-shot of the English as the devoted Guard
+passed by in its last review.  His physical pain was forgot in the
+great anxiety with which he watched them.  The battle was practically
+lost.  This was the last desperate throw of the gambler, the last stake
+he could place upon the board.  He knew it, every officer knew it,
+perhaps even the more experienced grenadiers like old Bullet-Stopper of
+the Guard knew it.  That did not matter to them.  They were his men and
+at his word, for him, they were going forward to conquer or die.
+
+Tramp, tramp, tramp, keeping time to the long continuous rolling of the
+drums whose notes were heard even above the roar of the cannon and the
+tumult of the battle, the Guard, from whose lips came one continuous
+cry of "_Vive l'Empereur_!" marched forward.  Covered as usual by the
+fire of one of those great batteries of concentrated guns so
+conspicuous in Napoleonic tactics, through the smoke and the mist and
+the shadows of the evening, they passed on.  Napoleon himself with
+three battalions in reserve followed a little distance behind them.
+
+Now they were mounting the hill, now they were abreast of La Haye
+Sainte; now the ridge in front of them was topped with English.  Away
+off could be heard the thunder of the oncoming Prussian horsemen, the
+roar of the Prussian guns.  Back of the ridge the brigades of light
+cavalry stood ready.  The infantry reserve with brave Colborne and the
+Fifty-second, thirteen hundred strong, in the lead, were quivering with
+excitement.  Even the stolid British phlegm had vanished.  This was the
+last supreme moment.  Throbbed wildly the usually steady hearts of the
+cool islanders.  If they could stop this grand advance the battle would
+be gained.  The hill would be held.  Could they do it?  And if not----!
+
+Out of the smoke and mist opposite the English soldiers of the Royal
+Guard came their Imperial enemies.  The waiting British saw the black
+bearskins of the tall Guard, the imperial insignia on cross-belts and
+uniforms.  They were so near that they could see the grim faces of the
+old soldiers, their mustaches working, their lips drawn back over their
+teeth, snarling, sputtering like savage beasts.  Here and there mouths
+were tight shut in a firm line.  Here and there men came silently, but
+mostly they were yelling.  And they came up, arms aport, after the
+precept and example of Dorsenne, _le beau Dorsenne_, alas, no longer
+with them, to try conclusions for the last time with the soldiers'
+white weapon, the bayonet, cold steel!  Would the English wait for
+that?  They would not.
+
+"Fire!" cried an English voice just when the suspense had become
+unbearable.
+
+The heavens were shattered by the discharge.  Ney pitched from his
+horse, the sixth that day to be shot under him.  He was up in a moment,
+his sword out.  He advanced on foot at the head of the Guard.  It was
+his last charge.  He was to face muskets again, but in Paris, in the
+hands of a firing-squad, with his back to the wall.  He was not given
+the coveted privilege of dying on that stricken field, though he sought
+for it wildly everywhere, but when he did die it was as he had lived,
+undaunted.  Now, his great voice uplifted, he led forward the devoted
+and immortal band.  His sword was shot out of his hand.  Seizing a gun
+and a bayonet from a falling grenadier, he fought in the ranks as in
+Russia.
+
+Again, the tactics were faulty, as d'Erlon's men the Guard came in
+solid columns.  Right in front of the rapid-firing English, the muskets
+and cannon in one continuous roar now, they sought to deploy and return
+that terrible withering fire.  The Prussian infantry, panting like
+dogs, now gained the crest of the ridge and, animated by more than
+human hatred, fell into disorderly but determined lines and opened
+fire.  Harsh German oaths and exclamations mingled with hearty English
+curses and cheers.  The Guard was firing rapidly now, straight into the
+faces of the English.  And still the columns came on.  Like a great
+wave which rushes forward at first swiftly and then goes slower and
+slower and slower as it rolls up the beach it advanced.  By and by it
+stopped.  The end was at hand.  With bent heads the men stood and took
+the hail of lead and iron.
+
+"Come!" said Ney, frantic with battle fever.  "Come!  See how a Marshal
+of France can die."
+
+Now was the crucial moment.  The Iron Duke saw it.  The two armies were
+face to face firing into each other.  To which side would the victory
+incline?  He spoke to Maitland, to Adams, to Colborne.  That gallant
+soldier threw his men on the exposed flank of the column which had
+obliqued, bent to the right.  Before they could face about out of the
+smoke came the yelling English!  They found the men on the flank of the
+column the next morning just where it had stood lying in ordered ranks
+dead.
+
+Still they did not give back.  Vivian and Vandeleur, daring light
+horsemen, were now hurled on the devoted division.  At it they ran.  On
+it they fell.  Still it stood.  It was incredible.  It was almost
+surrounded now.  The attack had failed.  To advance was impossible, to
+retreat was dishonor.  They would stand!  Their case was hopeless.
+Appeals were made for the survivors to lay down their arms and
+surrender.  Into the faces of the assailants vulgar but heroic
+Cambronne hurled a disgusting but graphic word.  No, nobody said so,
+but the Guard would not surrender.  It would die.
+
+Back of his Guard, the Emperor, having stopped not far from the
+château, watched them die.  He was paler than ever, sweat poured from
+his face, his eyes and lips twitched nervously and spasms of physical
+pain added their torture to the mental agony of the moment.  He
+muttered again and again:
+
+"_Mon Dieu!  Mais ils sont mêlés ensemble._"
+
+Now the Prussian horsemen, the Death-head Hussars, added their weight
+to Vandeleur's and Vivian's swordsmen and lancers.  Other regiments
+supplemented the withering fire of the advancing Fifty-second and the
+reserve brigades.  Now, at last, the Guard began to give back.  Slowly,
+reluctantly, clinging to their positions, fighting, firing, savage,
+mad--they began to give way.
+
+"_Tout est perdu_," whispered Napoleon.
+
+"The Guard retreats!" cried someone near the Emperor.
+
+"_La Garde recule_!" rose here and there from the battlefield.  "_La
+Garde recule_!"  Men caught up the cry in wonder and despair.  Could it
+be true?  Yes.  Back they came out of the smoke.  Now was the supreme
+opportunity for the allies.  The Duke, recklessly exposing himself on
+the crest of the hill, bullets flying about him, as they flew about
+Napoleon, yet leading apparently a charmed life, closed his field-glass
+and turned to the red line that had made good its defense.
+
+"Up!" he cried, waving his hand and not finishing his sentence.
+
+They needed no other signal.  Their time to attack had come.  Down the
+hill they rushed, yelling, followed by Belgians, Netherlanders, and all
+the rest, pressing hard upon their heels.  La Haye Sainte was
+recaptured in the twinkling of an eye.  The shattered broken remains of
+the Guard were driven in headlong rout.  The assailers of Hougomont
+were themselves assaulted.  At last numbers had overwhelmed Lobau.  The
+survivors of an army of a hundred and thirty thousand flushed with
+victory fell on the survivors of an army of seventy thousand already
+defeated.
+
+At half-past seven the battle was lost.  At eight the withdrawal became
+a retreat, the retreat a rout.  At set of sun lost was the Emperor,
+lost was the Empire.  Ended was the age-long struggle which had begun
+with the fall of the Bastile more than a score of years before.  Once
+again from France, with the downfall of Napoleon, had been snatched the
+hegemony of the world.
+
+There was no reserve.  There was nothing to cover a retreat.  Someone
+raised the wild cry not often heard on battlefields overlooked by
+Napoleon, and it was echoed everywhere:
+
+"_Sauve qui peut._"
+
+The army as an army was gone.  Thousands of men in mad terror fled in
+every direction.  Still, there were left a few battalions of the Guard
+which had not been in action.  They formed three squares to receive the
+English and Prussians.  Into the nearest square Napoleon, bewildered,
+overwhelmed, stricken by the catastrophe, was led on his horse.  His
+sword was out.  He would fain have died on that field.  Doubtless, many
+a bullet marked him, but none struck him.  For a little while these
+squares of the Guard, Napoleon in the center one, another square on
+either side of the center one, stayed the British and Prussian advance,
+but it was not to be.  "The stars in their courses fought against
+Sisera!"  The Emperor gave no order.  Bertrand and Soult turned his
+horse about and the squares retreated.
+
+It was night.  They were the sole organized body left.  Well, they
+upheld their ancient fame and glorious reputation and untarnished
+honor.  Through the calm and moonlit night pursuers and pursued could
+hear the rolling of the brass drums far and wide over the countryside
+as the Guard marched away from that field back to stricken France, to
+that famous grenadier march, "_La Grenadière._"
+
+Again and again they stopped to beat off the furious attack of the
+cavalry.  Again and again the Prussian pursuers hurled themselves
+unavailingly on quadrangles of steel, worked up to a terrible pitch of
+excitement by the possibility that they might seize the Emperor at
+whose behest and for whose purpose fifty thousand men lay dead or
+wounded on that fatal hill, in that dreadful valley.  Happy the fate of
+those who were dead--horrible the condition of those who were wounded.
+English, Prussians, Germans, Bavarians, Hollanders, French, trampled
+together in indistinguishable masses.  Horses, guns, weapons,
+equipment--everything in hopeless confusion.  Every horror, every
+anguish, every agony was there--incense burned about the altar of one
+devouring ambition.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+AT LAST THE EAGLE AND THE WOMAN
+
+Nearest the crest of the hill immortalized by the great conflict, in
+advance of but in touch with the regular dead lines of the Guard, a
+little group, friend and foe, lay intermingled.  There was a young
+officer of the Fifty-second infantry, one of Colborne's.  He was
+conscious but suffering frightfully from mortal wounds.  One side of
+his face where he had been thrown into the mud was covered with a red
+compound of earth and blood; his bright head was dabbled with the same
+hideous mixture.  Blood frothed out of his mouth as he breathed.  He
+murmured from time to time a woman's name.  "Water," was sometimes the
+sputtering syllable that came from him.
+
+His left hand clutched uneasily at his breast, where his torn uniform
+showed a gaping wound.  But his right hand was still.  The arm was
+broken, paralyzed, but the fingers of his right hand were tightly
+closed around a broken blue staff and next to his cheek, the
+blood-stained one, and cold against it, was a French Eagle.  He had
+seized that staff in the heat of battle and in the article of death he
+held it.
+
+At the feet of the English officer lay a French officer wearing the
+insignia of a Colonel of the Guard.  He was covered with wounds,
+bayonet thrusts, a saber-slash, and was delirious.  Although helpless,
+he was really in much better case than the young Englishman.  He, too,
+in his delirium muttered a woman's name.
+
+They spoke different tongues, these two.  They were born in different
+lands.  They were children of the same God, although one might have
+doubted it, but no one could mistake the woman's name.  For there Frank
+Yeovil and Jean Marteau, incapable of doing each other any further
+harm, each thought of the same woman.
+
+Did Laure d'Aumenier back in England waiting anxiously for news of
+battle, fearing for one of those men, hear those piteous, broken
+murmurs of a woman's name--her own?
+
+Around these two were piled the dead.  Marteau had seized the Eagle.
+Yes, he and a few brave men had stayed on the field when the great Ney,
+raging like a madman, and seeking in vain the happy fortune of a bullet
+or sword-thrust, had been swept away, and on him had fallen Yeovil with
+another group of resolute English, and together they had fought their
+little battle for the Eagle.  And Marteau had proved the Englishman's
+master.  He had beaten him down.  He had shortened his sword to strike
+when he recognized him.  Well, the battle was over, the Eagle was lost,
+the Emperor was a fugitive, hope died with the retreating Guard, the
+Empire was ended.  Marteau might have killed him, but to what end?
+
+"For your wife's sake," he cried, lowering his sword, and the next
+minute he paid for his mercy, for the other English threw themselves
+upon him.
+
+But Frank Yeovil did not get off scot free.  There was one lad who had
+followed Marteau, who had marched with the Guard, who had no
+compunctions of conscience whatever, and with his last pistol Pierre
+gave the reeling Englishman the fatal shot.  Yes, Pierre paid too.
+They would certainly have spared him, since he was only a boy, but
+maddened by the death of their officer, half a dozen bayonets were
+plunged into his breast.
+
+Thither the next day came Sir Gervaise Yeovil, who had been with the
+Duke at the Duchess of Richmond's famous ball in Brussels.  Young Frank
+had left that ball at four o'clock in the morning, according to order,
+only to find that later orders had directed the army to march at two
+and that his baggage had gone.  He had fought that day in pumps and
+silk stockings which he had worn at the ball; dabbled, gory, muddy,
+they were now.
+
+Sir Gervaise Yeovil was an old friend of the Duke of Wellington.  The
+Iron Duke, as they called him, was nevertheless very tender-hearted
+that morning.  He told the Baronet that his son was somewhere on the
+field.  Colonel Colborne of the Fifty-second had marked him in the
+charge, but that was all.  Neither Vivian nor Vandeleur could throw any
+light on the situation.  There were twenty thousand of the allied
+armies on that field and thirty thousand French.
+
+"My God," said Sir Gervaise, staring along the line of the French
+retreat, "what is so terrible as a defeat?"
+
+"Nothing," said the Duke gravely.  Then looking at the nearer hillside
+he added those tremendous words which epitomized war in a way in which
+no one save a great modern captain has ever epitomized it.  "Nothing,"
+he said slowly, "unless it be a victory."
+
+They found the Guard.  That was easy.  There they lay in lines where
+they had fallen; the tall bearskins on their heads, the muskets still
+clasped in their hands.  There, too, they found young Yeovil at last.
+They revived him.  Someone sought to take the Eagle from him, but with
+a sudden accession of strength he protested against it.
+
+"Father," he whispered to the old man bending over him, his red face
+pale and working, "mine."
+
+"True," said the Duke.  "He captured it.  Let him keep it."
+
+"O God!" broke out the Baronet.  "Frank!  Can nothing be done?"
+
+"Nothing.  Stop."  His lips moved, his father bent nearer.  "Laure----"
+he whispered.
+
+"Yes, yes, what of her?"
+
+"That Frenchman she loved----"
+
+"Marteau?"
+
+The young Englishman closed his eyes in assent.
+
+"He could have killed me but spared--for her--he--is there," he
+faltered presently.
+
+"There is life in this Frenchman yet," said one of the surgeons,
+looking up at the moment.
+
+"My Lord!" said old Sir Gervaise Yeovil, starting up, choking down a
+sob and endeavoring to keep his voice steady.  "My boy yonder----"
+
+"Yes," said the Duke, "a brave lad."
+
+"He's----  It is all up with him.  You will let me take him back to
+England, and--the Frenchman and the Eagle?"
+
+"Certainly.  I wish to God it had never happened, Yeovil," went on the
+soldier.  "But it had to be.  Bonaparte had to be put down, the world
+freed.  And somebody had to pay."
+
+"I thank God," said the old man, "that my boy dies for his King and his
+country and for human liberty."
+
+"Nor shall he die in vain," said the soldier.
+
+Frank Yeovil died on the vessel Sir Gervaise chartered to carry him and
+Marteau and some other wounded officers of his acquaintance back to
+England.  They did not bury him at sea.  At his earnest request they
+took him back to his own land to be laid with his ancestors, none of
+whom had spent themselves more gloriously or for a greater cause than
+he.
+
+Marteau, frightfully weak, heart-broken and helpless, by Sir Gervaise
+Yeovil's command was taken to the Baronet's own house.
+
+"I did my best," he said brokenly from the bed on which he lay as Laure
+d'Aumenier bent over him, Sir Gervaise standing grim and silent with
+folded arms in the background.
+
+"For France and the Emperor," whispered the woman.
+
+"Yes, that, but for your husband as well.  He fell upon me.  I was
+trying to rally the Guard--the Eagle--he was beaten down--but I
+recognized him.  I would not have harmed him."
+
+"He told me," said the Baronet, "what you said.  'For your wife's
+sake,'" he quoted in his deep voice, looking curiously at the girl.
+
+"Sir Gervaise," said the Countess, looking up at him entreatingly, "I
+am alone in this world but for you.  I was to have been your daughter.
+May I speak?"
+
+"I wish it."
+
+"Marteau--Jean," she said softly, "I was not his wife.  Perhaps now
+that he is dead it would have been better if I had been, but----"
+
+"And you are free?"
+
+Again the Countess looked at the Englishman.  Simple and homely though
+he was, he showed the qualities of his birth and rank.
+
+"Mademoiselle," he began gravely, almost tenderly.  He looked a long
+time at her.  "Little Laure," he continued at last, taking her slender
+hand in his own great one, "I had hoped that you might some day call me
+father but that hope is gone--since Waterloo.  If I were your real
+father now I should say----"
+
+"Monsieur!" whispered the woman, her eyes brightening, her hand
+tightening in the clasp of the other.
+
+"And I think the old Marquis would say that it is the will of God,
+now----"  He bit his lip.  It was all so different from what he
+imagined.
+
+"Go on, if you please," whispered Marteau.  "I am ill.  I cannot
+bear----"
+
+"If she be guided by me she will be your wife, young sir," said Sir
+Gervaise decisively.
+
+He dropped the woman's hand.  He turned and walked heavily out of the
+room without a backward glance.  He could do no more.
+
+"And will you stoop to me?" pleaded Marteau.
+
+For answer the woman knelt by his bed and slipped her arm tenderly
+under his head.  She bent and kissed him.
+
+"When you are stronger," she replied, "you shall raise me up to your
+own high level of courage and devotion and self-sacrifice, but
+meanwhile it is upon my bosom that your head must lie."
+
+"Alas," said Marteau, after a little, "the Emperor is taken, the Empire
+is lost, my poor France!"
+
+"I will go back with you and we will help to build it up again," said
+the woman.
+
+That was the best medicine that could be given to the young man.  His
+recovery was slow but it was sure and it was the more rapid because of
+the gracious care of the woman he loved, who lavished upon him all the
+pent-up passion of her fond adoring heart.
+
+Sir Gervaise Yeovil, whose interest at court was great, exerted himself
+to secure a reconfirmation of Marteau's patent of nobility and to see
+that no difficulties were placed in the way of the young couple in
+obtaining repossession of their estates.  So that once more there
+should be a d'Aumenier and perhaps a renewal of the ancient house in
+the old château in Champagne.  This was easier since Marteau had never
+taken oath to King Louis and therefore had broken no faith.
+
+At the quiet wedding that took place as soon as Marteau recovered his
+strength a little, Sir Gervaise continued to act the father's part to
+the poor woman.  After the ceremony he delighted the heart of the
+soldier by giving to him what he loved after the woman, the Eagle which
+had been Frank Yeovil's prize.
+
+"You will think of the lad, sometimes," said the old Baronet to the
+girl.  "He was not lucky enough to win you, but he loved you and he
+died with your name on his lips."
+
+"I shall remember him always," said the new-made wife.
+
+"His name shall be held in highest honor in my house as a brave
+soldier, a true lover and a most gallant gentleman," added the new-made
+husband.
+
+Marteau would never forget the picture of the Emperor sitting on his
+horse at La Belle Alliance that June evening, stern, terrific, almost
+sublime, watching the Guard go by to death.  He was glad he had not
+seen him in the retreat of which he afterward heard from old Bal-Arrêt.
+But that was not the last picture of the Emperor that he had.  Although
+he was scarcely strong enough to be moved, he insisted on being taken
+to Portsmouth with his young wife.  Sir Gervaise went with him.  He had
+no other object in life it seemed but to provide happiness for these
+young people.  He could scarcely bear them out of his sight.
+
+One day, a bright and sunny morning late in July, they put the
+convalescing soldier into a boat with his wife and the old Baronet and
+the three were rowed out into the harbor as near as the cordon of
+guard-boats allowed them to approach to a great English
+ship-of-the-line, across the stern of which in gold letters they read
+the name, "_Bellerophon_."
+
+"Bonaparte gener'ly comes out 'n the quarter-gal'ry of the ship, 'bout
+this hour in the mornin'," said one of the boatmen.  "An' if he does we
+can see him quite plain from yere."
+
+There were other boats there whose occupants were moved by curiosity
+and various emotions, but when the figure of the little man with the
+three-cornered cocked hat on his head, still wearing the green uniform
+of the chasseurs of the Guard stepped out on the quarter-gallery, his
+eyes, as it were instinctively, sought that particular boat.
+
+"Help me up," said Marteau brokenly.
+
+The boat was a large one and moving carefully they got the young
+officer to his feet.  He was wearing his own battle-stained uniform.
+He lifted his trembling hand to his head in salute.  The little Emperor
+bent over the rail and stared hard at the trio.  Did he recognize
+Marteau?  Ah, yes!  He straightened up presently, his own hand returned
+the salute and then he took off that same cocked hat and bared his brow
+and bent his head low and, with a gesture of farewell, he turned and
+reëntered his cabin--Prometheus on the way to his chains at St. Helena!
+
+
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Eagle of the Empire, by Cyrus Townsend Brady
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