FullReads

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.’