'I have been thinking, sire--' said I.
He sprang at me with the ferocity of a wild beast. I really thought he
would have struck me.
'Thinking!' he cried. 'You, _you_! Do you imagine I chose you out
because you could think? Let me hear of your doing such a thing again!
You, the one man--but, there! You meet me at the fir-tree at ten
o'clock.'
My faith, I was right glad to get out of the room. If I have a good
horse under me, and a sword clanking against my stirrup-iron, I know
where I am. And in all that relates to green fodder or dry, barley and
oats and rye, and the handling of squadrons upon the march, there is no
one who can teach me very much. But when I meet a Chamberlain and a
Marshal of the Palace, and have to pick my words with an Emperor, and
find that everybody hints instead of talking straight out, I feel like a
troop-horse who has been put in a lady's calèche. It is not my trade,
all this mincing and pretending. I have learned the manners of a
gentleman, but never those of a courtier. I was right glad then to get
into the fresh air again, and I ran away up to my quarters like a
schoolboy who has just escaped from the seminary master.
But as I opened the door, the very first thing that my eye rested upon
was a long pair of sky-blue legs with hussar boots, and a short pair of
black ones with knee breeches and buckles. They both sprang up together
to greet me.
'Well, what news?' they cried, the two of them.
'None,' I answered.
'The Emperor refused to see you?'
'No, I have seen him.'
'And what did he say?'
'Monsieur de Talleyrand,' I answered, 'I regret to say that it is quite
impossible for me to tell you anything about it. I have promised the
Emperor.'
'Pooh, pooh, my dear young man,' said he, sidling up to me, as a cat
does when it is about to rub itself against you. 'This is all among
friends, you understand, and goes no farther than these four walls.
Besides, the Emperor never meant to include me in this promise.'
'It is but a minute's walk to the palace, Monsieur de Talleyrand,' I
answered; 'if it would not be troubling you too much to ask you to step
up to it and bring back the Emperor's written statement that he did not
mean to include you in this promise, I shall be happy to tell you every
word that passed.'
He showed his teeth at me then like the old fox that he was.
'Monsieur Gerard appears to be a little puffed up,' said he. 'He is too
young to see things in their just proportion. As he grows older he may
understand that it is not always very discreet for a subaltern of
cavalry to give such very abrupt refusals.'
I did not know what to say to this, but Lasalle came to my aid in his
downright fashion.
'The lad is quite right,' said he. 'If I had known that there was a
promise I should not have questioned him. You know very well, Monsieur
de Talleyrand, that if he had answered you, you would have laughed in
your sleeve and thought as much about him as I think of the bottle when
the burgundy is gone. As for me, I promise you that the Tenth would have
had no room for him, and that we should have lost our best swordsman if
I had heard him give up the Emperor's secret.'
But the statesman became only the more bitter when he saw that I had
the support of my Colonel.
'I have heard, Colonel de Lasalle,' said he, with an icy dignity, 'that
your opinion is of great weight upon the subject of light cavalry.
Should I have occasion to seek information about that branch of the
army, I shall be very happy to apply to you. At present, however, the
matter concerns diplomacy, and you will permit me to form my own views
upon that question. As long as the welfare of France and the safety of
the Emperor's person are largely committed to my care, I will use every
means in my power to secure them, even if it should be against the
Emperor's own temporary wishes. I have the honour, Colonel de Lasalle,
to wish you a very good-day!'
He shot a most unamiable glance in my direction, and, turning upon his
heel, he walked with little, quick, noiseless steps out of the room.
I could see from Lasalle's face that he did not at all relish finding
himself at enmity with the powerful Minister. He rapped out an oath or
two, and then, catching up his sabre and his cap, he clattered away down
the stairs. As I looked out of the window I saw the two of them, the big
blue man and the limping black one, going up the street together.
Talleyrand was walking very rigidly, and Lasalle was waving his hands
and talking, so I suppose he was trying to make his peace.
The Emperor had told me not to think, and I endeavoured to obey him. I
took up the cards from the table where Morat had left them, and I tried
to work out a few combinations at écarté. But I could not remember which
were trumps, and I threw them under the table in despair. Then I drew my
sabre and practised giving point until I was weary, but it was all of no
use at all. My mind _would_ work, in spite of myself. At ten o'clock I
was to meet the Emperor in the forest. Of all extraordinary combinations
of events in the whole world, surely this was the last which would have
occurred to me when I rose from my couch that morning. But the
responsibility--- the dreadful responsibility! It was all upon my
shoulders. There was no one to halve it with me. It made me cold all
over. Often as I have faced death upon the battle-field, I have never
known what real fear was until that moment. But then I considered that
after all I could but do my best like a brave and honourable gentleman,
and above all obey the orders which I had received, to the very letter.
And, if all went well, this would surely be the foundation of my
fortunes. Thus, swaying between my fears and my hopes, I spent the long,
long evening until it was time to keep my appointment.
I put on my military overcoat, as I did not know how much of the night I
might have to spend in the woods, and I fastened my sword outside it. I
pulled off my hussar boots also, and wore a pair of shoes and gaiters,
that I might be lighter upon my feet. Then I stole out of my quarters
and made for the forest, feeling very much easier in my mind, for I am
always at my best when the time of thought has passed and the moment for
action arrived.
I passed the barracks of the Chasseurs of the Guards, and the line of
cafes all filled with uniforms. I caught a glimpse as I went by of the
blue and gold of some of my comrades, amid the swarm of dark infantry
coats and the light green of the Guides. There they sat, sipping their
wine and smoking their cigars, little dreaming what their comrade had on
hand. One of them, the chief of my squadron, caught sight of me in the
lamplight, and came shouting after me into the street. I hurried on,
however, pretending not to hear him, so he, with a curse at my deafness,
went back at last to his wine bottle.
It is not very hard to get into the forest at Fontainebleau. The
scattered trees steal their way into the very streets, like the
tirailleurs in front of a column. I turned into a path, which led to the
edge of the woods, and then I pushed rapidly forward towards the old
fir-tree. It was a place which, as I have hinted, I had my own reasons
for knowing well, and I could only thank the Fates that it was not one
of the nights upon which Léonie would be waiting for me. The poor child
would have died of terror at sight of the Emperor. He might have been
too harsh with her--and worse still, he might have been too kind.
There was a half moon shining, and, as I came up to our trysting-place,
I saw that I was not the first to arrive. The Emperor was pacing up and
down, his hands behind him and his face sunk somewhat forward upon his
breast. He wore a grey great-coat with a capote over his head. I had
seen him in such a dress in our winter campaign in Poland, and it was
said that he used it because the hood was such an excellent disguise. He
was always fond, whether in the camp or in Paris, of walking round at
night, and overhearing the talk in the cabarets or round the fires. His
figure, however, and his way of carrying his head and his hands were so
well known that he was always recognized, and then the talkers would say
whatever they thought would please him best.
My first thought was that he would be angry with me for having kept him
waiting, but as I approached him, we heard the big church clock of
Fontainebleau clang out the hour of ten. It was evident, therefore, that
it was he who was too soon, and not I too late. I remembered his order
that I should make no remark, so contented myself with halting within
four paces of him, clicking my spurs together, grounding my sabre, and
saluting. He glanced at me, and then without a word he turned and walked
slowly through the forest, I keeping always about the same distance
behind him. Once or twice he seemed to me to look apprehensively to
right and to left, as if he feared that someone was observing us. I
looked also, but although I have the keenest sight, it was quite
impossible to see anything except the ragged patches of moonshine
between the great black shadows of the trees. My ears are as quick as
my eyes, and once or twice I thought that I heard a twig crack; but you
know how many sounds there are in a forest at night, and how difficult
it is even to say what direction they come from.
We walked for rather more than a mile, and I knew exactly what our
destination was, long before we got there. In the centre of one of the
glades, there is the shattered stump of what must at some time have been
a most gigantic tree. It is called the Abbot's Beech, and there are so
many ghostly stories about it, that I know many a brave soldier who
would not care about mounting sentinel over it. However, I cared as
little for such folly as the Emperor did, so we crossed the glade and
made straight for the old broken trunk. As we approached, I saw that two
men were waiting for us beneath it.
When I first caught sight of them they were standing rather behind it,
as if they were not anxious to be seen, but as we came nearer they
emerged from its shadow and walked forward to meet us. The Emperor
glanced back at me, and slackened his pace a little so that I came
within arm's length of him. You may think that I had my hilt well to the
front, and that I had a very good look at these two people who were
approaching us.
The one was tall, remarkably so, and of very spare frame, while the
other was rather below the usual height, and had a brisk, determined way
of walking. They each wore black cloaks, which were slung right across
their figures, and hung down upon one side, like the mantles of Murat's
dragoons. They had flat black caps, like those I have since seen in
Spain, which threw their faces into darkness, though I could see the
gleam of their eyes from beneath them. With the moon behind them and
their long black shadows walking in front, they were such figures as one
might expect to meet at night near the Abbot's Beech. I can remember
that they had a stealthy way of moving, and that as they approached, the
moonshine formed two white diamonds between their legs and the legs of
their shadows.
The Emperor had paused, and these two strangers came to a stand also
within a few paces of us. I had drawn up close to my companion's elbow,
so that the four of us were facing each other without a word spoken. My
eyes were particularly fixed upon the taller one, because he was
slightly the nearer to me, and I became certain as I watched him that he
was in the last state of nervousness. His lean figure was quivering all
over, and I heard a quick, thin panting like that of a tired dog.
Suddenly one of them gave a short, hissing signal. The tall man bent his
back and his knees like a diver about to spring, but before he could
move, I had jumped with drawn sabre in front of him. At the same instant
the smaller man bounded past me, and buried a long poniard in the
Emperor's heart.
My God! the horror of that moment! It is a marvel that I did not drop
dead myself. As in a dream, I saw the grey coat whirl convulsively
round, and caught a glimpse in the moonlight of three inches of red
point which jutted out from between the shoulders. Then down he fell
with a dead man's gasp upon the grass, and the assassin, leaving his
weapon buried in his victim, threw up both his hands and shrieked with
joy. But I--I drove my sword through his midriff with such frantic
force, that the mere blow of the hilt against the end of his breast-bone
sent him six paces before he fell, and left my reeking blade ready for
the other. I sprang round upon him with such a lust for blood upon me as
I had never felt, and never have felt, in all my days. As I turned, a
dagger flashed before my eyes, and I felt the cold wind of it pass my
neck and the villain's wrist jar upon my shoulder. I shortened my sword,
but he winced away from me, and an instant afterwards was in full
flight, bounding like a deer across the glade in the moonlight.
But he was not to escape me thus. I knew that the murderer's poniard
had done its work. Young as I was, I had seen enough of war to know a
mortal blow. I paused but for an instant to touch the cold hand.
'Sire! Sire!' I cried, in an agony; and then as no sound came back and
nothing moved, save an ever-widening dark circle in the moonlight, I
knew that all was indeed over. I sprang madly to my feet, threw off my
great-coat, and ran at the top of my speed after the remaining assassin.
Ah, how I blessed the wisdom which had caused me to come in shoes and
gaiters! And the happy thought which had thrown off my coat. He could
not get rid of his mantle, this wretch, or else he was too frightened to
think of it. So it was that I gained upon him from the beginning. He
must have been out of his wits, for he never tried to bury himself in
the darker parts of the woods, but he flew on from glade to glade, until
he came to the heath-land which leads up to the great Fontainebleau
quarry. There I had him in full sight, and knew that he could not escape
me. He ran well, it is true--ran as a coward runs when his life is the
stake. But I ran as Destiny runs when it gets behind a man's heels. Yard
by yard I drew in upon him. He was rolling and staggering. I could hear
the rasping and crackling of his breath. The great gulf of the quarry
suddenly yawned in front of his path, and glancing at me over his
shoulder, he gave a shriek of despair. The next instant he had vanished
from my sight.
Vanished utterly, you understand. I rushed to the spot, and gazed down
into the black abyss. Had he hurled himself over? I had almost made up
my mind that he had done so, when a gentle sound rising and falling came
out of the darkness beneath me. It was his breathing once more, and it
showed me where he must be. He was hiding in the tool-house.
At the edge of the quarry and beneath the summit there is a small
platform upon which stands a wooden hut for the use of the labourers.
It was into this, then, that he had darted. Perhaps he had thought, the
fool, that, in the darkness, I would not venture to follow him. He
little knew Etienne Gerard. With a spring I was on the platform, with
another I was through the doorway, and then, hearing him in the corner,
I hurled myself down upon the top of him.
He fought like a wild cat, but he never had a chance with his shorter
weapon. I think that I must have transfixed him with that first mad
lunge, for, though he struck and struck, his blows had no power in them,
and presently his dagger tinkled down upon the floor. When I was sure
that he was dead, I rose up and passed out into the moonlight. I climbed
on to the heath again, and wandered across it as nearly out of my mind
as a man could be.
With the blood singing in my ears, and my naked sword still clutched in
my hand, I walked aimlessly on until, looking round me, I found that I
had come as far as the glade of the Abbot's Beech, and saw in the
distance that gnarled stump which must ever be associated with the most
terrible moment of my life. I sat down upon a fallen trunk with my sword
across my knees and my head between my hands, and I tried to think about
what had happened and what would happen in the future.
The Emperor had committed himself to my care. The Emperor was dead.
Those were the two thoughts which clanged in my head, until I had no
room for any other ones. He had come with me and he was dead. I had done
what he had ordered when living. I had revenged him when dead. But what
of all that? The world would look upon me as responsible. They might
even look upon me as the assassin. What could I prove? What witnesses
had I? Might I not have been the accomplice of these wretches? Yes, yes,
I was eternally dishonoured--the lowest, most despicable creature in all
France. This, then, was the end of my fine military ambitions--of the
hopes of my mother. I laughed bitterly at the thought. And what was I
to do now? Was I to go into Fontainebleau, to wake up the palace, and to
inform them that the great Emperor had been murdered within a pace of
me? I could not do it--no, I could not do it! There was but one course
for an honourable gentleman whom Fate had placed in so cruel a position.
I would fall upon my dishonoured sword, and so share, since I could not
avert, the Emperor's fate. I rose with my nerves strung to this last
piteous deed, and as I did so, my eyes fell upon something which struck
the breath from my lips. The Emperor was standing before me!
He was not more than ten yards off, with the moon shining straight upon
his cold, pale face. He wore his grey overcoat, but the hood was turned
back, and the front open, so that I could see the green coat of the
Guides, and the white breeches. His hands were clasped behind his back,
and his chin sunk forward upon his breast, in the way that was usual
with him.
'Well,' said he, in his hardest and most abrupt voice, 'what account do
you give of yourself?'
I believe that, if he had stood in silence for another minute, my brain
would have given way. But those sharp military accents were exactly what
I needed to bring me to myself. Living or dead, here was the Emperor
standing before me and asking me questions. I sprang to the salute.
'You have killed one, I see,' said he, jerking his head towards the
beech.
'Yes, sire.'
'And the other escaped?'
'No, sire, I killed him also.'
'What!' he cried. 'Do I understand that you have killed them both?' He
approached me as he spoke with a smile which set his teeth gleaming in
the moonlight.
'One body lies there, sire,' I answered. 'The other is in the tool-house
at the quarry.'
'Then the Brothers of Ajaccio are no more,' he cried, and after a
pause, as if speaking to himself: 'The shadow has passed me for ever.'
Then he bent forward and laid his hand upon my shoulder.
'You have done very well, my young friend,' said he. 'You have lived up
to your reputation.'
He was flesh and blood, then, this Emperor. I could feel the little,
plump palm that rested upon me. And yet I could not get over what I had
seen with my own eyes, and so I stared at him in such bewilderment that
he broke once more into one of his smiles.
'No, no, Monsieur Gerard,' said he, 'I am not a ghost, and you have not
seen me killed. You will come here, and all will be clear to you.'
He turned as he spoke, and led the way towards the great beech stump.
The bodies were still lying upon the ground, and two men were standing
beside them. As we approached I saw from the turbans that they were
Roustem and Mustafa, the two Mameluke servants. The Emperor paused when
he came to the grey figure upon the ground, and turning back the hood
which shrouded the features, he showed a face which was very different
from his own.
'Here lies a faithful servant who has given up his life for his master,'
said he. 'Monsieur de Goudin resembles me in figure and in manner, as
you must admit.'
What a delirium of joy came upon me when these few words made everything
clear to me. He smiled again as he saw the delight which urged me to
throw my arms round him and to embrace him, but he moved a step away, as
if he had divined my impulse.
'You are unhurt?' he asked.
'I am unhurt, sire. But in another minute I should in my despair----'
'Tut, tut!' he interrupted. 'You did very well. He should himself have
been more on his guard. I saw everything which passed.'
'You saw it, sire!'
'You did not hear me follow you through the wood, then? I hardly lost
sight of you from the moment that you left your quarters until poor De
Goudin fell. The counterfeit Emperor was in front of you and the real
one behind. You will now escort me back to the palace.'
He whispered an order to his Mamelukes, who saluted in silence and
remained where they were standing. For my part, I followed the Emperor
with my pelisse bursting with pride. My word, I have always carried
myself as a hussar should, but Lasalle himself never strutted and swung
his dolman as I did that night. Who should clink his spurs and clatter
his sabre if it were not I--I, Etienne Gerard--the confidant of the
Emperor, the chosen swordsman of the light cavalry, the man who slew the
would-be assassins of Napoleon? But he noticed my bearing and turned
upon me like a blight.
'Is that the way you carry yourself on a secret mission?' he hissed,
with that cold glare in his eyes. 'Is it thus that you will make your
comrades believe that nothing remarkable has occurred? Have done with
this nonsense, monsieur, or you will find yourself transferred to the
sappers, where you would have harder work and duller plumage.'
That was the way with the Emperor. If ever he thought that anyone might
have a claim upon him, he took the first opportunity to show him the
gulf that lay between. I saluted and was silent, but I must confess to
you that it hurt me after all that had passed between us. He led on to
the palace, where we passed through the side door and up into his own
cabinet. There were a couple of grenadiers at the staircase, and their
eyes started out from under their fur caps, I promise you, when they saw
a young lieutenant of hussars going up to the Emperor's room at
midnight. I stood by the door, as I had done in the afternoon, while he
flung himself down in an arm-chair, and remained silent so long that it
seemed to me that he had forgotten all about me. I ventured at last upon
a slight cough to remind him.
'Ah, Monsieur Gerard,' said he, 'you are very curious, no doubt, as to
the meaning of all this?'
'I am quite content, sire, if it is your pleasure not to tell me,' I
answered.
'Ta, ta, ta,' said he impatiently. 'These are only words. The moment
that you were outside that door you would begin making inquiries about
what it means. In two days your brother officers would know about it, in
three days it would be all over Fontainebleau, and it would be in Paris
on the fourth. Now, if I tell you enough to appease your curiosity,
there is some reasonable hope that you may be able to keep the matter to
yourself.'
He did not understand me, this Emperor, and yet I could only bow and be
silent.
'A few words will make it clear to you,' said he, speaking very swiftly
and pacing up and down the room. 'They were Corsicans, these two men. I
had known them in my youth. We had belonged to the same
society--Brothers of Ajaccio, as we called ourselves. It was founded in
the old Paoli days, you understand, and we had some strict rules of our
own which were not infringed with impunity.'
A very grim look came over his face as he spoke, and it seemed to me
that all that was French had gone out of him, and that it was the pure
Corsican, the man of strong passions and of strange revenges, who stood
before me. His memory had gone back to those early days of his, and for
five minutes, wrapped in thought, he paced up and down the room with his
quick little tiger steps. Then with an impatient wave of his hands he
came back to his palace and to me.
'The rules of such a society,' he continued, 'are all very well for a
private citizen. In the old days there was no more loyal brother than I.
But circumstances change, and it would be neither for my welfare nor
for that of France that I should now submit myself to them. They wanted
to hold me to it, and so brought their fate upon their own heads. These
were the two chiefs of the order, and they had come from Corsica to
summon me to meet them at the spot which they named. I knew what such a
summons meant. No man had ever returned from obeying one. On the other
hand, if I did not go, I was sure that disaster would follow. I am a
brother myself, you remember, and I know their ways.'
Again there came that hardening of his mouth and cold glitter of his
eyes.
'You perceive my dilemma, Monsieur Gerard,' said he. 'How would you have
acted yourself, under such circumstances?'
'Given the word to the l0th Hussars, sire,' I cried. 'Patrols could have
swept the woods from end to end, and brought these two rascals to your
feet.'
He smiled, but he shook his head.
'I had very excellent reasons why I did not wish them taken alive,' said
he. 'You can understand that an assassin's tongue might be as dangerous
a weapon as an assassin's dagger. I will not disguise from you that I
wished to avoid scandal at all cost. That was why I ordered you to take
no pistols with you. That also is why my Mamelukes will remove all
traces of the affair, and nothing more will be heard about it. I thought
of all possible plans, and I am convinced that I selected the best one.
Had I sent more than one guard with De Goudin into the woods, then the
brothers would not have appeared. They would not change their plans nor
miss their chance for the sake of a single man. It was Colonel Lasalle's
accidental presence at the moment when I received the summons which led
to my choosing one of his hussars for the mission. I selected you,
Monsieur Gerard, because I wanted a man who could handle a sword, and
who would not pry more deeply into the affair than I desired. I trust
that, in this respect, you will justify my choice as well as you have
done in your bravery and skill.'
'Sire,' I answered, 'you may rely upon it.'
'As long as I live,' said he, 'you never open your lips upon this
subject.'
'I dismiss it entirely from my mind, sire. I will efface it from my
recollection as if it had never been. I will promise you to go out of
your cabinet at this moment exactly as I was when I entered it at four
o'clock.'
'You cannot do that,' said the Emperor, smiling. 'You were a lieutenant
at that time. You will permit me, Captain, to wish you a very
good-night.'