THE ANTE-ROOM
The camp of Boulogne contained at that time one hundred and fifty
thousand infantry, with fifty thousand cavalry, so that its population
was second only to Paris among the cities of France. It was divided
into four sections, the right camp, the left camp, the camp of Wimereux,
and the camp of Ambleteuse, the whole being about a mile in depth, and
extending along the seashore for a length of about seven miles. On the
land side it was open, but on the sea side it was fringed by powerful
batteries containing mortars and cannon of a size never seen before.
These batteries were placed along the edges of the high cliffs, and
their lofty position increased their range, and enabled them to drop
their missiles upon the decks of the English ships.
It was a pretty sight to ride through the camp, for the men had been
there for more than a year, and had done all that was possible to
decorate and ornament their tents. Most of them had little gardens in
front or around them, and the sun-burned fellows might be seen as we
passed kneeling in their shirt-sleeves with their spuds and their
watering-cans in the midst of their flower-beds. Others sat in the
sunshine at the openings of the tents tying up their queues,
pipe-claying their belts, and polishing their arms, hardly bestowing a
glance upon us as we passed, for patrols of cavalry were coming and
going in every direction. The endless lines were formed into streets,
with their names printed up upon boards. Thus we had passed through the
Rue d'Arcola, the Rue de Kleber, the Rue d'Egypte, and the Rue
d'Artillerie Volante, before we found ourselves in the great central
square in which the headquarters of the army were situated.
The Emperor at this time used to sleep at a village called Pont de
Briques, some four miles inland, but his days were spent at the camp,
and his continual councils of war were held there. Here also were his
ministers, and the generals of the army corps which were scattered up
and down the coast came thither to make their reports and to receive
their orders. For these consultations a plain wooden house had been
constructed containing one very large room and three small ones. The
pavilion which we had observed from the Downs served as an ante-chamber
to the house, in which those who sought audience with the Emperor might
assemble. It was at the door of this, where a strong guard of
grenadiers announced Napoleon's presence, that my guardian sprang down
from his horse and signed to me to follow his example. An officer of
the guard took our names and returned to us accompanied by General
Duroc, a thin, hard, dry man of forty, with a formal manner and a
suspicious eye.
'Is this Monsieur Louis de Laval?' he asked, with a stiff smile.
I bowed.
'The Emperor is very anxious to see you. You are no longer needed,
Lieutenant.'
'I am personally responsible for bringing him safely, General.'
'Very good. You may come in, if you prefer it!' And he passed us into
the huge tent, which was unfurnished, save for a row of wooden benches
round the sides. A number of men in naval and military uniforms were
seated upon these, and numerous groups were standing about chatting in
subdued tones. At the far end was a door which led into the Imperial
council chamber. Now and then I saw some man in official dress walk up
to this door, scratch gently upon it with his nail, and then, as it
instantly opened, slip discreetly through, closing it softly behind him.
Over the whole assembly there hung an air of the Court rather than of
the camp, an atmosphere of awe and of reverence which was the more
impressive when it affected these bluff soldiers and sailors.
The Emperor had seemed to me to be formidable in the distance, but I
found him even more overwhelming now that he was close at hand.
'You need have no fears, Monsieur de Laval,' said my companion.
'You are going to have a good reception.'
'How do you know that?'
'From General Duroc's manner. In these cursed Courts, if the Emperor
smiles upon you everyone smiles, down to that flunkey in the red velvet
coat yonder. But if the Emperor frowns, why, you have only to look at
the face of the man who washes the Imperial plates, and you will see the
frown reflected upon it. And the worst of it is that, if you are a
plain-witted man, you may never find out what earned you either the
frown or the smile. That is why I had rather wear the shoulder-straps
of a lieutenant, and be at the side of my squadron, with a good horse
between my knees and my sabre clanking against my stirrup-iron, than
have Monsieur Talleyrand's grand hotel in the Rue Saint Florentin, and
his hundred thousand livres of income.'
I was still wondering whether the hussar could be right, and if the
smile with which Duroc had greeted me could mean that the Emperor's
intentions towards me were friendly, when a very tall and handsome young
man, in a brilliant uniform, came towards me. In spite of the change in
his dress, I recognised him at once as the General Savary who had
commanded the expedition of the night before.
'Well, Monsieur de Laval,' said he, shaking hands with me very
pleasantly, 'you have heard, no doubt, that this fellow Toussac has
escaped us. He was really the only one whom we were anxious to seize,
for the other is evidently a mere dupe and dreamer. But we shall have
him yet, and between ourselves we shall keep a very strict guard upon
the Emperor's person until we do, for Master Toussac is not a man to be
despised.'
I seemed to feel his great rough thumb upon my chin as I answered that I
thought he was a very dangerous man indeed.
'The Emperor will see you presently,' said Savary. 'He is very busy
this morning, but he bade me say that you should have an audience.'
He smiled and passed on.
'Assuredly you are getting on,' whispered Gerard. 'There are a good
many men here who would risk something to have Savary address them as he
addressed you. The Emperor is certainly going to do something for you.
But attention, friend, for here is Monsieur de Talleyrand himself coming
towards us.'
A singular-looking person was shuffling in our direction. He was a man
about fifty years of age, largely made about the shoulders and chest,
but stooping a good deal, and limping heavily in one leg. He walked
slowly, leaning upon a silver-headed stick, and his sober suit of black,
with silk stockings of the same hue, looked strangely staid among the
brilliant uniforms which surrounded him. But in spite of his plain
dress there was an expression of great authority upon his shrewd face,
and every one drew back with bows and salutes as he moved across the tent.
'Monsieur Louis de Laval?' said he, as he stopped in front of me, and
his cold grey eyes played over me from head to heel.
I bowed, and with some coldness, for I shared the dislike which my
father used to profess for this unfrocked priest and perjured
politician; but his manner was so polished and engaging that it was hard
to hold out against it.
'I knew your cousin de Rohan very well indeed,' said he. 'We were two
rascals together when the world was not quite so serious as it is at
present. I believe that you are related to the Cardinal de Montmorency
de Laval, who is also an old friend of mine. I understand that you are
about to offer your services to the Emperor?'
'I have come from England for that purpose, sir.'
'And met with some little adventure immediately upon your arrival, as I
understand. I have heard the story of the worthy police agent, the two
Jacobins, and the lonely hut. Well, you have seen the danger to which
the Emperor is exposed, and it may make you the more zealous in his
service. Where is your uncle, Monsieur Bernac?'
'He is at the Castle of Grosbois.'
'Do you know him well?'
'I had not seen him until yesterday.'
'He is a very useful servant of the Emperor, but--but--' he inclined his
head downward to my ear, 'some more congenial service will be found for
you, Monsieur de Laval,' and so, with a bow, he whisked round, and
tapped his way across the tent again.
'Why, my friend, you are certainly destined for something great,' said
the hussar lieutenant. 'Monsieur de Talleyrand does not waste his
smiles and his bows, I promise you. He knows which way the wind blows
before he flies his kite, and I foresee that I shall be asking for your
interest to get me my captaincy in this English campaign. Ah, the
council of war is at an end.'
As he spoke the inner door at the end of the great tent opened, and a
small knot of men came through dressed in the dark blue coats, with
trimmings of gold oak-leaves, which marked the marshals of the Empire.
They were, all but one, men who had hardly reached their middle age, and
who, in any other army, might have been considered fortunate if they had
gained the command of a regiment; but the continuous wars and the open
system by which rules of seniority yielded to merit had opened up a
rapid career to a successful soldier. Each carried his curved cocked
hat under his arm, and now, leaning upon their sword-hilts, they fell
into a little circle and chatted eagerly among themselves.
'You are a man of family, are you not?' asked my hussar.
'I am of the same blood as the de Rohans and the Montmorencies.'
'So I had understood. Well, then, you will understand that there have
been some changes in this country when I tell you that those men, who,
under the Emperor, are the greatest in the country have been the one a
waiter, the next a wine smuggler, the next a cooper of barrels, and the
next a house painter. Those are the trades which gave us Murat,
Massena, Ney, and Lannes.'
Aristocrat as I was, no names had ever thrilled me as those did, and I
eagerly asked him to point me out each of these famous soldiers.
'Oh, there are many famous soldiers in the room,' said he. 'Besides,'
he added, twisting his moustache, 'there may be junior officers here who
have it in them to rise higher than any of them. But there is Ney to
the right.'
I saw a man with close-cropped red hair and a large square-jowled face,
such as I have seen upon an English prize-fighter.
'We call him Peter the Red, and sometimes the Red Lion, in the army,'
said my companion. 'He is said to be the bravest man in the army,
though I cannot admit that he is braver than some other people whom I
could mention. Still he is undoubtedly a very good leader.'
'And the general next him?' I asked. 'Why does he carry his head all
upon one side?'
'That is General Lannes, and he carries his head upon his left shoulder
because he was shot through the neck at the siege of St. Jean d'Acre.
He is a Gascon, like myself, and I fear that he gives some ground to
those who accuse my countrymen of being a little talkative and
quarrelsome. But monsieur smiles?'
'You are mistaken.'
'I thought that perhaps something which I had said might have amused
monsieur. I thought that possibly he meant that Gascons really were
quarrelsome, instead of being, as I contend, the mildest race in
France--an opinion which I am always ready to uphold in any way which
may be suggested. But, as I say, Lannes is a very valiant man, though,
occasionally, perhaps, a trifle hot-headed. The next man is Auguereau.'
I looked with interest upon the hero of Castiglione, who had taken
command upon the one occasion when Napoleon's heart and spirit had
failed him. He was a man, I should judge, who would shine rather in war
than in peace, for, with his long goat's face and his brandy nose, he
looked, in spite of his golden oak-leaves, just such a long-legged,
vulgar, swaggering, foul-mouthed old soldier as every barrack-room can
show. He was an older man than the others, and his sudden promotion had
come too late for him to change. He was always the Corporal of the
Prussian Guard under the hat of the French Marshal.
'Yes, yes; he is a rough fellow,' said Gerard, in answer to my remark.
'He is one of those whom the Emperor had to warn that he wished them to
be soldiers only with the army. He and Rapp and Lefebvre, with their
big boots and their clanking sabres, were too much for the Empress's
drawing-room at the Tuileries. There is Vandamme also, the dark man
with the heavy face. Heaven help the English village that he finds his
quarters in! It was he who got into trouble because he broke the jaw of
a Westphalian priest who could not find him a second bottle of Tokay.'
'And that is Murat, I suppose?'
'Yes; that is Murat with the black whiskers and the red, thick lips, and
the brown of Egypt upon his face. He is the man for me! My word, when
you have seen him raving in front of a brigade of light cavalry, with
his plumes tossing and his sabre flashing, you would not wish to see
anything finer. I have known a square of grenadiers break and scatter
at the very sight of him. In Egypt the Emperor kept away from him, for
the Arabs would not look at the little General when this fine horseman
and swordsman was before them. In my opinion Lasalle is the better
light cavalry officer, but there is no one whom the men will follow as
they do Murat.'
'And who is the stern-looking man, leaning on the Oriental sword?'
'Oh, that is Soult! He is the most obstinate man in the world. He
argues with the Emperor. The handsome man beside him is Junot, and
Bernadotte is leaning against the tent-pole.'
I looked with interest at the extraordinary face of this adventurer,
who, after starting with a musket and a knapsack in the ranks, was not
contented with the baton of a marshal, but passed on afterwards to grasp
the sceptre of a king. And it might be said of him that, unlike his
fellows, he gained his throne in spite of Napoleon rather than by his
aid. Any man who looked at his singular pronounced features, the
swarthiness of which proclaimed his half Spanish origin, must have read
in his flashing black eyes and in that huge aggressive nose that he was
reserved for a strange destiny. Of all the fierce and masterful men who
surrounded the Emperor there was none with greater gifts, and none,
also, whose ambitions he more distrusted, than those of Jules
Bernadotte.
And yet, fierce and masterful as these men were, having, as Auguereau
boasted, fear neither of God nor of the devil, there was something which
thrilled or cowed them in the pale smile or black frown of the little
man who ruled them. For, as I watched them, there suddenly came over
the assembly a start and hush such as you see in a boys' school when the
master enters unexpectedly, and there near the open doors of his
headquarters stood the master himself. Even without that sudden
silence, and the scramble to their feet of those upon the benches, I
felt that I should have known instantly that he was present. There was
a pale luminosity about his ivory face which drew the eye towards it,
and though his dress might be the plainest of a hundred, his appearance
would be the first which one would notice. There he was, with his
little plump, heavy-shouldered figure, his green coat with the red
collar and cuffs, his white, well-formed legs, his sword with the gilt
hilt and the tortoise-shell scabbard. His head was uncovered, showing
his thin hair of a ruddy chestnut colour. Under one arm was the flat
cocked hat with the twopenny tricolour rosette, which was already
reproduced in his pictures. In his right hand he held a little riding
switch with a metal head. He walked slowly forward, his face immutable,
his eyes fixed steadily before him, measured, inexorable, the very
personification of Destiny.
'Admiral Bruix!'
I do not know if that voice thrilled through every one as it did through
me. Never had I heard anything more harsh, more menacing, more
sinister. From under his puckered brows his light-blue eyes glanced
swiftly round with a sweep like a sabre.
'I am here, Sire!' A dark, grizzled, middle-aged man, in a naval
uniform, had advanced from the throng. Napoleon took three quick little
steps towards him in so menacing a fashion, that I saw the
weather-stained cheeks of the sailor turn a shade paler, and he gave a
helpless glance round him, as if for assistance.
'How comes it, Admiral Bruix,' cried the Emperor, in the same terrible
rasping voice, 'that you did not obey my commands last night?'
'I could see that a westerly gale was coming up, Sire. I knew that--,'
he could hardly speak for his agitation, 'I knew that if the ships went
out with this lee shore--'
'What right have you to judge, sir?' cried the Emperor, in a cold fury
of indignation. 'Do you conceive that your judgment is to be placed
against mine?'
'In matters of navigation, Sire.'
'In no matters whatsoever.'
'But the tempest, Sire! Did it not prove me to be in the right?'
'What! You still dare to bandy words with me?'
'When I have justice on my side.'
There was a hush amidst all the great audience; such a heavy silence as
comes only when many are waiting, and all with bated breath.
The Emperor's face was terrible. His cheeks were of a greenish, livid
tint, and there was a singular rotary movement of the muscles of his
forehead. It was the countenance of an epileptic. He raised the whip
to his shoulder, and took a step towards the admiral.
'You insolent rascal!' he hissed. It was the Italian word _coglione_
which he used, and I observed that as his feelings overcame him his
French became more and more that of a foreigner.
For a moment he seemed to be about to slash the sailor across the face
with his whip. The latter took a step back, and clapped his hand to his
sword.
'Have a care, Sire,' said he.
For a few instants the tension was terrible. Then Napoleon brought the
whip down with a sharp crack against his own thigh.
'Vice-Admiral Magon,' he cried, 'you will in future receive all orders
connected with the fleet. Admiral Bruix, you will leave Boulogne in
twenty-four hours and withdraw to Holland. Where is Lieutenant Gerard,
of the Hussars of Bercheny?'
My companion's gauntlet sprang to his busby.
'I ordered you to bring Monsieur Louis de Laval from the castle of
Grosbois.'
'He is here, Sire.'
'Good! You may retire.'
The lieutenant saluted, whisked round upon his heel, and clattered away,
whilst the Emperor's blue eyes were turned upon me. I had often heard
the phrase of eyes looking through you, but that piercing gaze did
really give one the feeling that it penetrated to one's inmost thoughts.
But the sternness had all melted out of it, and I read a great
gentleness and kindness in their expression.
'You have come to serve me, Monsieur de Laval?'
'Yes, Sire.'
'You have been some time in making up your mind.'
'I was not my own master, Sire.'
'Your father was an aristocrat?'
'Yes, Sire.'
'And a supporter of the Bourbons?'
'Yes, Sire.'
'You will find that in France now there are no aristocrats and no
Jacobins; but that we are all Frenchmen working for the glory of our
country. Have you seen Louis de Bourbon?'
'I have seen him once, Sire.'
'An insignificant-looking man, is he not?'
'No, Sire, I thought him a fine-looking man.'
For a moment I saw a hard gleam of resentment in those changing blue
eyes. Then he put out his hand and pinched one of my ears.
'Monsieur de Laval was not born to be a courtier,' said he.
'Well, well, Louis de Bourbon will find that he cannot gain a throne by
writing proclamations in London and signing them Louis. For my part, I
found the crown of France lying upon the ground, and I lifted it upon my
sword-point.'
'You have lifted France with your sword also, Sire,' said Talleyrand,
who stood at his elbow.
Napoleon looked at his famous minister, and I seemed to read suspicion
in his eyes. Then he turned to his secretary.
'I leave Monsieur de Laval in your hands, de Meneval,' said he.
'I desire to see him in the council chamber after the inspection of the
artillery.'