The announcement that I came from Brussels secured my instant
admission to Prince Louis’s presence.
‘I have the honour to act as secretary to his Imperial Highness,
Prince Victor Napoleon,’ I explained.
‘Ah! In that case you bring me a letter from him, no doubt?’
‘I bring your Highness a message simply. The Prince desires to see
you.’
‘But I cannot leave Petersburg--surely my brother knows that!’
‘He knows it so well that he is in Petersburg.’
Prince Louis sprang to his feet, thunderstruck.
‘Victor is here!--already!’ he exclaimed in confusion.
For answer I named the hotel at which we had put up, explaining
at the same time that the Prince wished to preserve his incognito
strictly.
Prince Louis prepared to accompany me to the hotel in the carriage
which had brought me to his house. As we drove along, he inquired--
‘Are you in my brother’s confidence?’
‘I believe I enjoy that honour,’ was my reply. ‘At least I am
acquainted with the business which has brought him here.’
‘Perhaps you can tell me something of my brother’s views?’ he said,
feeling his way.
‘I think his Highness expects to receive full information before he
takes a step which will be irrevocable.’
‘Ah!’
‘He thinks, perhaps, that you may have been deceived by exaggerated
promises, and that he has the right to forbid any premature attempt
whose failure would damage the Bonapartist cause.’
Prince Louis gnawed his moustache with some impatience.
‘My brother must not be unreasonable,’ he murmured. ‘One is never
certain of success in these attempts.’
‘If you will allow me to advise you, you will give him the fullest
opportunity of judging of your prospects. It would be a serious thing
for everybody if he were provoked into any public demonstration
against you.’
The younger Prince changed colour.
‘Is it so serious as that?’ he exclaimed. And during the remainder of
the drive he continued wrapped in thought, only the working of his
brow betraying the anxiety within.
The greeting between the brothers was cordial, if not affectionate. I
took it for granted that I was to be a party to the conference, and
as each brother believed that I was secretly friendly to him, neither
suggested that I should retire.
As soon as we were seated round the table, on which I had laid
out some paper, pens, and ink, Prince Victor formally opened the
discussion.
He spoke with a good deal of dignity and some eloquence. He treated
it as a matter beyond dispute that he was the sole depository of the
authority of the great Napoleon, entitled to the absolute obedience
of every member of his House. He disclaimed any personal ambition,
and referred to his former pledge, which he described as a promise
to abdicate if he were convinced that such a step on his part was
really likely to result in the restoration of the empire.
He then laid it down that he retained the sole right to decide if
and when the time for this step had arrived, and hinted that it was
his duty, as well as his right, to interfere actively to check any
designs of which he disapproved. He concluded by professing a sincere
and hearty interest in his brother’s fortunes, and inviting Prince
Louis to confide in him fully, as in his best friend.
This statesmanlike deliverance appeared to inspire the younger Prince
with genuine respect. He appeared to be a good deal embarrassed in
the beginning of his reply. It was a difficult task to tell his elder
brother that he had been rejected in favour of Louis himself.
After acknowledging in the most ample manner his brother’s claims on
his obedience and gratitude, Prince Louis proceeded--
‘The state of France shows clearly that our House has no chance of
success by constitutional means. The Republic can only be subverted
by the action of the Army, which embodies the spirit of the nation
more truly than the collection of provincial advocates and financiers
which calls itself the Chamber of Deputies. The Army will be guided
by its chiefs, and, therefore, it is the Staff which holds our fate
in its hands. The generals very naturally feel a preference for a
soldier. It is now nearly six months since I was first approached in
the greatest secrecy by General Garnier.’
I had the utmost difficulty in not betraying my emotion at the sound
of this name, so inseparably connected with the Dreyfus Case.
‘Garnier conveyed to me that he and his brother generals had decided
that the time was ripe for a revolution, in which they anticipated
receiving the support of the Church and the _noblesse_. He said
they were determined to avoid a second catastrophe like that of
the mountebank Boulanger, and therefore they meant to abolish the
Republic by a military pronunciamento, and declare France a monarchy
under their protection. And, in short, he offered me the crown in the
name of the French Army.’
‘You reminded him of my existence, perhaps?’ put in the elder brother
with some bitterness.
‘I refused to entertain the offer until it had been made to, and
refused by, you,’ Louis protested earnestly. ‘Garnier replied that
in no event would his brother generals agree to your nomination, and
that, if I declined, the offer would be made to the Duke of Orleans,
who commanded the support of the clerical faction. It was a question
of Bonaparte or Bourbon, and I relied on our compact that in such a
case you would relinquish your rights in my favour.’
Prince Victor turned to me as though he wished me to express his
sentiments. I accepted the task.
‘It would have been better if you had taken Prince Napoleon into
your confidence before giving any definite answer,’ I said. ‘General
Garnier might have paid your elder brother the compliment of
explaining the reasons for setting him aside.’
‘I did not consider the project sufficiently mature at that time,’
was the answer. ‘I thought it better to wait till the affair assumed
a tangible shape.’
‘And this stage has now been reached?’ I inquired.
‘It has. My brother will understand that a pretext was necessary for
the action of the Army, and that pretext could only be the danger
of war. For a long time we were troubled with the difficulty that
neither in Germany nor in England was there any disposition to attack
France, and our treaty with Russia laid it down in the most explicit
manner that the Tsar would only come to our assistance in the event
of our being attacked.
‘But at last, thanks to the vigilance of Garnier and the other
chiefs of the Staff, it has been discovered that Germany is secretly
preparing for a stealthy spring; she is covering France with her
spies, and, but for the timely arrest of this Dreyfus----’
I could not resist a subdued exclamation of triumph as the utterance
of this name completed the chain of discovery. The whole intrigue
engineered by the artful and unscrupulous French generals lay
displayed to my eye, as on a map. I listened like one in a dream as
Prince Louis continued explaining to his brother the peril of the
French nation, the justification for the Army’s taking command of the
State, and the consequent certainty of a Bonaparte restoration.
Victor listened silently, unable to think of any objection, and
seeing his own chance of ever reigning as Emperor of the French
slipping from him. It was I who put the decisive question.
‘You have, I suppose, taken the Tsar into your confidence, and
convinced him of the reality of the danger?’
‘We have obtained the promise of his support,’ Louis answered.
‘Good. In that case you will not refuse your brother the reasonable
proofs which it is his right to demand, that you have not been
deceived.’
‘What proofs do you expect?’
‘I respectfully advise Prince Napoleon to request an interview with
the Tsar.’
This advice was received with very different feelings by the two
brothers. Prince Louis cast on me a look of surprise and annoyance;
his elder brother’s eyes glistened with pleasure at a suggestion
whose value was at once apparent to him.
‘You cannot object to my following my secretary’s advice’, said
Prince Victor, after a moment’s pause. ‘The interests of my House are
at stake; and before I resign the prospect of a throne I have a right
to be thoroughly satisfied. The Tsar is your friend, and, therefore,
you should be pleased to accept his mediation.’
Prince Louis yielded, not very graciously, to these representations,
and undertook to arrange the conference. He then withdrew, leaving us
to discuss the situation.
It is unnecessary for me to relate what passed between Prince
Napoleon and myself. I succeeded in fixing him in the opinion that
he had been treated ungenerously, and that he owed it to himself to
thwart a dishonest and doubtful conspiracy, calculated to bring the
name of Bonaparte into odium.
The following day, about the same hour, we were received by the
titular autocrat of All the Russias.
The only persons present, besides the two brothers, were myself
and the celebrated Pobiedonostzeff, who up till quite recently has
exercised a mastery over the mind of his nominal sovereign that has
been compared to that of Richelieu over the feeble Louis XIII.
It was at once evident that the decision of Nicholas II. would be
largely determined by the advice which he received from his spiritual
and political mentor. In effect, the conference resolved itself into
a duel between the formidable Russian statesman and myself; he,
animated by a hatred of freedom, which led him to sympathise with the
design against the Republic; I, influenced by a sense of justice, and
a desire to do my duty by the German Emperor.
Having briefly acknowledged the favour of the Tsar in receiving him,
Prince Napoleon left the statement of his case in my hands.
I began by briefly referring to the understanding between the two
brothers, and the present situation of affairs.
‘What Prince Napoleon desires,’ I went on, addressing myself to
Pobiedonostzeff, ‘is to understand whether he is being asked
to abdicate on sufficient grounds. Is he dealing with a mere
hole-and-corner conspiracy, which may end in a fiasco; or is it true
that his Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Russia is committed to the
approval and support of his brother’s enterprise?’
The Tsar glanced from my face to that of his Minister, as I
concluded, with an expression which convinced me that his Majesty
knew very little about the affair, in which he had no doubt blindly
accepted the guidance of Pobiedonostzeff.
The Procurator of the Holy Synod had evidently come prepared with an
ambiguous reply.
‘His Majesty is a friend of France, and, as such, he naturally views
with concern the weakness of the Republic, a weakness inseparable
from Governments which rest on the authority of the mob. The Emperor
is at the same time a friend of the House of Bonaparte, though, of
course, he has no wish to interfere in favour of any particular
candidate for the French throne rather than another.
‘He is pledged by treaty to come to the assistance of France in the
case of an unprovoked attack by the Three Powers, or by the English.
It follows that where the danger of such an attack exists, his
Majesty is ready to encourage any prudent measure in the interests of
France, such as this appears to be.’
Prince Louis smiled, well pleased at this skilful answer. His brother
gave me an expectant glance.
‘Am I to understand, then--or, rather, is Prince Napoleon to
understand--that it is the threatening attitude of Germany which has
weighed with his Imperial Majesty?’
‘You may say the treacherous intrigues of Germany. The Germans have
been careful to avoid any open provocation.’
‘His Majesty has received satisfactory proofs, no doubt, that such
intrigues exist?’
‘Undoubtedly. General Garnier, on behalf of the Staff of the French
Army, has laid before the Emperor’s advisers documents which prove
up to the hilt that Germany is merely waiting for the psychological
moment to spring upon France, disarm her, and erase her from the list
of the Great Powers.’
‘Would it not have been more in accordance with precedent if these
documents had been submitted to you by the President of the French
Republic through the medium of the French Ambassador?’
I was glad to notice the Tsar turn a questioning look on his Minister
as I delivered this thrust, for which Pobiedonostzeff was evidently
not prepared.
‘I do not understand your objection,’ he said, in some surprise.
‘Prince Napoleon is surely not interested on behalf of the Republican
Government.’
‘The interest of Prince Napoleon is to know the truth,’ I responded
sternly. ‘Conspirators are not always scrupulous about the means they
employ. General Garnier is not a man who can be pronounced incapable
of manufacturing evidence in favour of his schemes.’
The Procurator’s face flushed.
‘You venture to insinuate that General Garnier is a forger!’ he cried
wrathfully.
‘Listen, M. Pobiedonostzeff. In the time of the late Tsar I was
employed by the Russian Government, before it concluded the treaty
of alliance with France, to obtain secret and precise information
concerning the military strength of that country. I have never
revealed the name of the officer from whom I purchased that
information. Shall I do so now?’
The Russian Minister gazed at me in consternation, and his master
appeared equally surprised. Glancing at a slip of paper which lay
before him, Pobiedonostzeff asked--
‘Who are you, then? Your name cannot be Rémillard.’
‘It is V----,’ I answered.
The Procurator threw himself back in his seat, astonished.
‘Your police have not shown their usual astuteness, I am afraid,’ I
observed, smiling.
The Tsar now interposed in a tone of more authority than I had
ventured to hope from his not very strong face.
‘Do you suggest, M. V----, that the whole Staff of the French Army
are engaged in a conspiracy to forge documents?’
‘Something of the kind, I am afraid, sire.’
‘But this notorious case, which has excited the attention of the
whole of Europe--the _Affaire Dreyfus_?’
‘I am in a position to assure your Majesty that Captain Dreyfus
had no more to do with Germany than M. Pobiedonostzeff here.’
[Illustration: “The Tsar now interposed in a tone of more authority
than I had ventured to hope for. ‘Do you suggest, M. V----, that the
whole staff of the French army are engaged in a conspiracy to forge
documents?’”]
The Procurator of the Holy Synod raised his head.
‘You are very confident, it seems to me, M. V----,’ he sneered. ‘May
I ask if you have been retained by the party which is seeking to
reopen the case of Dreyfus?’
‘No, M. le Procureur, my knowledge has been acquired from an opposite
quarter.’
‘From General Garnier himself, perhaps?’
‘No, _not this time_,’ I retorted, with biting significance. ‘My
information was derived from his Imperial Majesty, Wilhelm II.’
Never shall I forget the changes which passed rapidly across the
faces of three of my listeners as I made this statement. Prince
Victor Napoleon alone received unmoved an announcement for which he
was already prepared.
‘It is not a month,’ I added calmly, ‘since the German Emperor
charged me with a commission to find out two things: the reason for
the theatrical publicity given to the trial of an obscure captain
in the French Army, and the object of the persistent attempt to
represent him as a spy of Germany.’ I paused for a moment and turned
to Nicholas II. before concluding. ‘That commission I have now
accomplished. I am now in a position to inform the German Emperor
that the purpose of this shameful comedy is to impose on the French
people the belief that they are in danger of an invasion, from which
they can only be delivered by a Bonaparte restoration under the
patronage of your Majesty.’
The face of the young Tsar went red and white by turn.
‘I swear by Saint Nicholas that they shall eat their forgeries!’ he
said.
And I have reason to know that it was the pressing and peremptory
request of the Russian Emperor that at last secured the second trial,
and the final pardon and release of the unhappy sufferer.