A thick blackness had gathered over the ocean. 
 
 (See page 20.) 
 
A EMORY OF 
 THE EMPIRE 
 
 
 A CO/VAN DOYLE 
 
 AUTHOR OF RODNEY STONE 
 THE STARK. MUNRO. LETTERS 
 THE'EXPLOITS OF. BRIGADIER GERARD 
 ROUND THE RED LAMP; ETC. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 NEW 
 . APPLiTON AND COMPANY 
 
 MCMVII 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1806, 1897, 
 BY A. CONAN DOYLK. 
 
 All fights rit>-ved. 
 
. f 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 THIS novel has been rewritten and length- 
 ened by one third since its appearance in serial 
 form. 
 
 A. CONAN DOYLE. 
 
 April 23, 1897. 
 
 248425 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER. AG 
 
 I. THE COAST OF FRANCE i 
 
 II. THE SALT-MARSH 22 
 
 III. THE RUINED COTTAGE 3& 
 
 IV. MEN OF THE NIGHT 48 
 
 V. THE LAW 65 
 
 VI. THE SECRET PASSAGE 8 1 
 
 VII. THE OWNER OF GROSBOIS 97 
 
 VIII. COUSIN SlBYLLE HO 
 
 IX. THE CAMP OF BOULOGNE 127 
 
 X. THE ANTE-ROOM J 44 
 
 XL THE SECRETARY l6 4 
 
 XII. THE MAN OF ACTION *77 
 
 XIII. THE MAN OF DREAMS 2OQ 
 
 XIV. JOSEPHINE 228 
 
 XV. THE RECEPTION OF THE EMPRESS . . . .245 
 
 XVI. THE LIBRARY OF GROSBOIS 273 
 
 XVII. THE END 296 
 
 vii 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 FACING 
 PAGE 
 
 A thick blackness had gathered over the ocean Frontispiece 
 Pulling with long, slow strokes toward the low-lying shore . II 
 
 Me looked earnestly out of the window 42 
 
 It was clear who was to be executioner . . . .51 
 
 I saw that she was tall and slender 99 
 
 She gripped me by the wrist in her anxiety . . . . 117 
 I sprang readily enough into the saddle . . . .127 
 " Those fellows are the Cuirassiers," said he . . . .141 
 He put out his hand and pinched one of my ears . . 162 
 A tall, handsome man came across and greeted us . . 168 
 With a face which showed that all hope had not been aban- 
 doned 207 
 
 We rushed in, weapons in hand 284 
 
 iz 
 
UNCLE BERNAC: 
 
 A M 'EMORY OF THE EMPIRE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE COAST OF FRANCE. 
 
 I DARESAY that I had already read my uncle's 
 letter a hundred times, and I am sure that I knew 
 it by heart. None the less I took it out of my 
 pocket, and, sitting on the side of the lugger, I 
 went over it again with as much attention as if 
 it were for the first time. It was written in a prim, 
 angular hand, such as one might expect from a 
 man who had begun life as a village attorney, and 
 it was addressed to Louis de Laval, to the care 
 of William Hargreaves, of the Green Man in Ash- 
 ford, Kent. The landlord had many a hogshead 
 of untaxed French brandy from the Normandy 
 coast, and the letter had found its way by the same 
 hands. 
 
2 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 " My dear nephew Louis," said the letter, 
 " now that your father is dead, and that you are 
 alone in the world, I am sure that you will not 
 wish to carry on the feud which has existed be- 
 tween the two halves of the family. At the time 
 of the troubles your father was drawn towards 
 the side of the King, and I towards that of the 
 people, and it ended, as you know, by his hav- 
 ing to fly from the country, and by my becoming 
 the possessor of the estates of Grosbois. No 
 doubt it is very hard that you should find yourself 
 in a different position to your ancestors, but I 
 am sure that you would rather that the land should 
 be held by a Bernac than by a stranger. From the 
 brother of your mother you will at least always 
 meet with sympathy and consideration. 
 
 " And now I have some advice for you. You 
 know that I have always been a Republican, but 
 it has become evident to me that there is no use 
 in fighting against fate, and that Napoleon's 
 power is far too great to be shaken. This being 
 so, I have tried to serve him, for it is well to howl 
 when you are among wolves. I have been able 
 to do so much for him that he has become my very 
 
THE COAST OF FRANCE. 3 
 
 good friend, so that I may ask him what I like 
 in return. He is now, as you are probably aware, 
 with the army at Boulogne, within a few miles of 
 Grosbois. If you will come over at once he will 
 certainly forget the hostility of your father in con- 
 sideration of the services of your uncle. It is 
 true that your name is still proscribed, but my 
 influence with the Emperor will set that matter 
 right. Come to me, then, come at once, and come 
 with confidence. 
 
 " Your uncle, C. BERNAC. 
 
 So much for the letter, but it was the outside 
 which had puzzled me most. A seal of red wax 
 had been affixed at either end, and my uncle had 
 apparently used his thumb as a signet. One could 
 see the little rippling edges of a coarse skin im- 
 printed upon the wax. And then above one of 
 the seals there was written in English the two 
 words, " Don't come." It was hastily scrawled, 
 and whether by a man or a woman it was impos- 
 sible to say, but there it stared me in the face, 
 that sinister addition to an invitation. 
 
 "Don't come!" Had it been added by this 
 
4 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 unknown uncle of mine on account of some sud- 
 den change in his plans? Surely that was incon- 
 ceivable, for why in that case should he send the 
 invitation at all? Or was it placed there by some- 
 one else who wished to warn me from accepting 
 this offer of hospitality? The letter was in French. 
 The warning was in English. Could it have been 
 added in England? But the seals were unbroken, 
 and how could anyone in England know what were 
 the contents of the letter? 
 
 And then, as I sat there with the big sail hum- 
 ming like a shell above my head and the green 
 water hissing beside me, I thought over all that 
 I had heard of this uncle of mine. My father, 
 the descendant of one of the proudest and oldest 
 families in France, had chosen beauty and virtue 
 rather than rank in his wife. Never for an hour 
 had she given him cause to regret it; but this 
 lawyer brother of hers had, as I understood, offend- 
 ed my father by his slavish obsequiousness in days 
 of prosperity and his venomous enmity in the 
 days of trouble. He had hounded on the peasants 
 until my family had been compelled to fly from the 
 country and had afterwards aided Robespierre in 
 
THE COAST OF FRANCE. 5 
 
 his worst excesses, receiving as a reward the castle 
 and estate of Grosbois, which was our own. At 
 the fall of Robespierre he had succeeded in con- 
 ciliating Barras, and through every successive 
 change he still managed to gain a fresh tenure of 
 the property. Now it appeared from his letter 
 that the new Emperor of France had also taken 
 his part, though why he should befriend a man 
 with such a history, and what service my Republi- 
 can uncle could possibly render to him, were mat- 
 ters upon which I could form no opinion. 
 
 And now you will ask me, no doubt, why I 
 should accept the invitation of such a man a 
 man whom my father had always stigmatised as a 
 usurper and a traitor. It is easier to speak of it 
 now than then, but the fact was that we, of the 
 new generation, felt it very irksome and difficult 
 to carry on the bitter quarrels of the last. To 
 the older emigres the clock of time seemed to 
 have stopped in the year 1792, and they remained 
 for ever with the loves and the hatreds of that 
 era fixed indelibly upon their souls. They had 
 been burned into them by the fiery furnace 
 through which they had passed. But we, who 
 
6 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 had grown up upon a strange soil, understood that 
 the world had moved, and that new issues had 
 arisen. We were inclined to forget these feuds 
 of the last generation. France to us was no longer 
 the murderous land of the sans-culotte and the 
 guillotine basket ; it was rather the glorious queen 
 of war, attacked by all and conquering all, but still 
 so hard pressed that her scattered sons could hear 
 her call to arms for ever sounding in their ears. 
 It was that call more than my uncle's letter which 
 was taking me over the waters of the Channel. 
 
 For long my heart had been with my country 
 in her struggle, and yet while my father lived I 
 had never dared to say so, for to him who had 
 served under Conde and fought at Quiberon it 
 would have seemed the blackest treason. But 
 after his death there was no reason why I should 
 not return to the land of my birth, and my desire 
 was the stronger because Eugenie the same Eu- 
 genie who has been thirty years my wife was 
 of the same way of thinking as myself. Her par- 
 ents were a branch of the de Choiseuls, and their 
 prejudices \vere even stronger than those of my 
 father. Little did they think what was passing 
 
THE COAST OF FRANCE. 
 
 7 
 
 in the minds of their children. Many a time when 
 they were mourning a French victory in the par- 
 lour we were both capering with joy in the garden. 
 There was a little window, all choked round with 
 laurel bushes, in the corner of the bare brick house, 
 and there we used to meet at night, the dearer to 
 each other from our difference with all who sur- 
 rounded us. I would tell her my ambitions; she 
 would strengthen them by her enthusiasm. And 
 so all was ready when the time came. 
 
 But there was another reason besides the death 
 of my father and the receipt of this letter from 
 my uncle. Ashford was becoming too hot to 
 hold me. I will say this for the English, that 
 they were very generous hosts to the French emi- 
 grants. There was not one of us who did not 
 carry away a kindly remembrance of the land and 
 its people. But in every country there are over- 
 bearing, swaggering folk, and even in quiet, sleepy 
 Ashford we were plagued by them. There was 
 one young Kentish squire, Farley was his name, 
 who had earned a reputation in the town as a 
 bully and a roisterer. He could not meet one of 
 us without uttering insults not merely against the 
 
 2 
 
8 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 present French Government, which might have 
 been excusable in an English patriot, but against 
 France itself and all Frenchmen. Often we were 
 forced to be deaf in his presence, but at last his 
 conduct became so intolerable that I determined 
 to teach him a lesson. There were several of us 
 in the coffee-room at the Green Man one even- 
 ing, and he, full of wine and malice, was heaping 
 insults upon the French, his eyes creeping round 
 to me every moment to see how I was taking 
 it. " Now, Monsieur de Laval," he cried, putting 
 his rude hand upon my shoulder, " here is a toast 
 for you to drink. This is to the arm of Nelson 
 which strikes down the French." He stood leer- 
 ing at me to see if I would drink it. " Well, sir," 
 said I, " I will drink your toast if you will drink 
 mine in return." " Come on, then! " said he. So 
 we drank. " Now, monsieur, let us have your 
 toast," said he. " Fill your glass, then," said I. 
 "It is full now." "Well, then here's to the ball 
 which carried off that arm! " In an instant I had 
 a glass of port wine running down my face, and 
 within an hour a meeting had been arranged. I 
 shot him through the shoulder, and that night, 
 
THE COAST OF FRANCE. 9 
 
 when I came to the little window, Eugenie plucked 
 off some of the laurel leaves and stuck them in 
 my hair. 
 
 There were no legal proceedings about the 
 duel, but it made my position a little difficult in 
 the town, and it will explain, with other things, 
 why I had no hesitation in accepting my unknown 
 uncle's invitation, in spite of the singular addi- 
 tion which I found upon the cover. If he had in- 
 deed sufficient influence with the Emperor to re- 
 move the proscription which was attached to our 
 name, then the only barrier which shut me off 
 from my country would be demolished. 
 
 You must picture me all this time as sitting 
 upon the side of the lugger and turning my pros- 
 pects and my position over in my head. My 
 reverie was interrupted by the heavy hand of 
 the English skipper dropping abruptly upon my 
 arm. 
 
 " Now then, master," said he, " it's time you 
 were stepping into the dingey." 
 
 I do not inherit the politics of the aristocrats, 
 but I have never lost their sense of personal dig- 
 nity. I gently pushed away his polluting hand, 
 
IO UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 and I remarked that we were still a long way 
 from the shore. 
 
 " Well, you can do as you please," said he 
 roughly; " I'm going no nearer, so you can take 
 your choice of getting into the dingey or of swim- 
 ming for it." 
 
 It was in vain that I pleaded that he had been 
 paid his price. I did not add that that price meant 
 that the watch which had belonged to three gen- 
 erations of de Lavals was now lying in the shop of 
 a Dover goldsmith. 
 
 " Little enough, too! " he cried harshly. 
 " Down sail, Jim, and bring her to! Now, mas- 
 ter, you can step over the side, or you can come 
 back to Dover, but I don't take the Vixen a cable's 
 length nearer to Ambleteuse Reef with this gale 
 coming up from the sou'-west." 
 
 " In that case, I shall go," said I. 
 
 " You can lay your life on that ! " he answered, 
 and laughed in so irritating a fashion that I half 
 turned upon him with the intention of chastising 
 him. One is very helpless with these fellows, 
 however, for a serious affair is of course out of the 
 question, while if one uses a cane upon them they 
 
THE COAST OF FRANCE. II 
 
 have a vile habit of striking with their hands, 
 which gives them an advantage. The Marquis 
 de Chamfort told me that, when he first settled 
 in Sutton at the time of the emigration, he lost 
 a tooth when reproving an unruly peasant. I 
 made the best of a necessity, therefore, and, shrug- 
 ging my shoulders, I passed over the side of the 
 lugger into the little boat. My bundle was 
 dropped in after me conceive to yourself the heir 
 of all the de Lavals travelling with a single bundle 
 for his baggage and two seamen pushed her off, 
 pulling with long slow strokes towards the low- 
 lying shore. 
 
 There was certainly every promise of a wild 
 night, for the dark cloud which had rolled up 
 over the setting sun was now frayed and ragged 
 at the edges, extending a good third of the way 
 across the heavens. It had split low down near 
 the horizon, and the crimson glare of the sunset 
 beat through the gap, so that there was the ap- 
 pearance of fire with a monstrous reek of smoke. 
 A red dancing belt of light lay across the broad 
 slate-coloured ocean, and in the centre of it the 
 little black craft was wallowing and tumbling. 
 
12 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 The two seamen kept looking up at the heavens, 
 and then over their shoulders at the land, and I 
 feared every moment that they would put back 
 before the gale burst. I was filled with appre- 
 hension every time when the end of their pull 
 turned their faces skyward, and it was to draw 
 their attention away from the storm-drift that I 
 asked them what the lights were which had begun 
 to twinkle through the dusk both to the right and 
 to the left of us. 
 
 " That's Boulogne to the north, and Etaples 
 upon the south," said one of the seamen civilly. 
 
 Boulogne! Etaples! How the words came 
 back to me. It was to Boulogne that in my boy- 
 hood we had gone down for the summer bath- 
 ing. Could I not remember as a little lad trot- 
 ting along by my father's side as he paced the 
 beach, and wondering why every fisherman's cap 
 flew off at our approach. And as to Etaples, it 
 was thence that we had fled for England, when 
 the folks came raving to the pier-head as we 
 passed, and I joined my thin voice to my father's 
 as he shrieked back at them, for a stone had 
 broken my mother's knee, and we were all fren- 
 
THE COAST OF FRANCE. ^ 
 
 zied with our fear and our hatred. And here they 
 were, these places of my childhood, twinkling 
 to the north and south of me, while there, in the 
 darkness between them, and only ten miles off 
 at the furthest, lay my own castle, my own land 
 of Grosbois, where the men of my blood had lived 
 and died long before some of us had gone across 
 with Duke William to conquer the proud island 
 over the water. How I strained my eager eyes 
 through the darkness as I thought that the dis- 
 tant black keep of our fortalice might even now 
 be visible! 
 
 " Yes, sir," said the seaman, " 'tis a fine stretch 
 of lonesome coast, and many is the cock of your 
 hackle that I have helped ashore there." 
 
 " What do you take me for, then? " I asked. 
 
 " Well, 'tis no business of mine, sir," he an- 
 swered. " There are some trades that had best 
 not even be spoken about." 
 
 " You think that I am a conspirator? " 
 
 " Well, master, since you have put a name to 
 it. Lor' love you, sir, we're used to it." 
 
 " I give you my word that I am none." 
 
 " An escaped prisoner, then? " 
 
14 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 " No, nor that either/' 
 
 The man leaned upon his oar, and I could see 
 in the gloom that his face was thrust forward, 
 and that it was wrinkled with suspicion. 
 
 " If you're one of Boney's spies " he 
 
 cried. 
 
 "I! A spy!" The tone of my voice was 
 enough to convince him. 
 
 " Well," said he, " I'm darned if I know what 
 you are. But if you'd been a spy I'd ha' had no 
 hand in landing you, whatever the skipper might 
 say." 
 
 " Mind you, I've no word to say against 
 Boney," said the other seaman, speaking in a very 
 thick rumbling voice. " He's been a rare good 
 friend to the poor mariner." 
 
 It surprised me to hear him speak so, for the 
 virulence of feeling against the new French Em- 
 peror in England exceeded all belief, and high and 
 low were united in their hatred of him; but the 
 sailor soon gave me a clue to his politics. 
 
 " If the poor mariner can run in his little bit 
 of coffee and sugar, and run out his silk and his 
 brandy, he has Boney to thank for it," said he. 
 
THE COAST OF FRANCE. ^ 
 
 " The merchants have had their spell, and now 
 it's the turn of the poor mariner." 
 
 I remembered then that Buonaparte was per- 
 sonally very popular amongst the smugglers, as 
 well he might be, seeing that he had made over 
 into their hands all the trade of the Channel. The 
 seaman continued to pull with his left hand, but 
 he pointed with his right over the slate-coloured 
 dancing waters. 
 
 " There's Boney himself," said he. 
 
 You who live in a quieter age cannot conceive 
 the thrill which these simple words sent through 
 me. It was but ten years since we had first heard 
 of this man with the curious Italian name think 
 of it, ten years, the time that it takes for a private 
 to become a non-commissioned officer, or a clerk 
 to win a fifty pound advance in his salary. He had 
 sprung in an instant out of nothing into every- 
 thing. One month people were asking who he 
 was, the next he had broken out in the north of 
 Italy like the plague; Venice and Genoa withered 
 at the touch of this swarthy ill-nourished boy. 
 He cowed the soldiers in the field, and he out- 
 witted the statesmen in the council chamber. 
 
l6 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 With a frenzy of energy he rushed to the east, 
 and then, while men were still marvelling at the 
 way in which he had converted Egypt into a 
 French department, he was back again in Italy 
 and had beaten Austria for the second time to the 
 earth. He travelled as quickly as the rumour of 
 his coming; and where he came there were new 
 victories, new combinations, the crackling of old 
 systems and the blurring of ancient lines of fron- 
 tier. Holland, Savoy, Switzerland they were 
 become mere names upon the map. France was 
 eating into Europe in every direction. They had 
 made him Emperor, this beardless artillery officer, 
 and without an effort he had crushed, down those 
 Republicans, before whom the oldest king and the 
 proudest nobility of Europe had been helpless. 
 So it came about that we, who watched him dart 
 from place to place like the shuttle of destiny, 
 and who heard his name always in connection with 
 some new achievement and some new success, had 
 come at last to look upon him as something more 
 than human, something monstrous, overshadow- 
 ing France and menacing Europe. His giant 
 presence loomed over the continent, and so deep 
 
THE COAST OF FRANCE. ij 
 
 was the impression which his fame had made in 
 my mind that, when the English sailor pointed 
 confidently over the darkening waters, and cried 
 "There's Boney!" I looked up for the instant 
 with a foolish expectation of seeing some gigantic 
 figure, some elemental creature, dark, inchoate, 
 and threatening, brooding over the waters of the 
 Channel. Even now, after the long gap of years 
 and the knowledge of his downfall, that great 
 man casts his spell upon you, but all that you read 
 and all that you hear cannot give you an idea of 
 what his name meant in the days when he was at 
 the summit of his career. 
 
 What actually met, my eye was very different 
 from this childish expectation of mine. To the 
 north there was a long low cape, the name of which 
 has now escaped me. In the evening light it had 
 been of the same greyish green tint as the other 
 headlands, but now, as the darkness fell, it gradu- 
 ally broke into a dull glow, like a cooling iron. 
 On that wild night, seen and lost with the heave 
 and sweep of the boat, this lurid streak carried with 
 it a vague but sinister suggestion. The red line 
 splitting the darkness might have been a giant 
 
1 8 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 half-forged sword blade with its point towards 
 England. 
 
 " What is it, then? " I asked. 
 
 " Just what I say, master," said he. " It's one 
 of Boney's armies, with Boney himself in the mid- 
 dle of it as like as not. Them is their camp fires, 
 and you'll see a dozen such between this and Os- 
 tend. He's audacious enough to come across, is 
 little Boney, if he could dowse Lord Nelson's other 
 eye; but there's no chance for him until then, and 
 well he knows it." 
 
 " How can Lord Nelson know what he is do- 
 ing? " I asked. 
 
 The man pointed out over my shoulder into 
 the darkness, and far on the horizon I perceived 
 three little twinkling lights. 
 
 " Watch dog," said he, in his husky voice. 
 
 " Andromeda. Forty-four," added his com- 
 panion. 
 
 I have often thought of them since, the long 
 glow upon the land, and the three little lights upon 
 the sea, standing for so much, for the two great 
 rivals face to face, for the power of the land and 
 the power of the water, for the centuries-old battle, 
 
THE COAST OF FRANCE. ig 
 
 which may last for centuries to come. And yet, 
 Frenchman as I am, do I not know that the strug- 
 gle is already decided, for it lies between the child- 
 less nation and that which has a lusty young brood 
 springing up around her. If France falls she dies, 
 but if England falls, how many nations are there 
 who will carry her speech, her traditions, and her 
 blood on into the history of the future. 
 
 The land had been looming darker, and the 
 thudding of the waves upon the sand sounded 
 louder every instant upon my ears. I could al- 
 ready see the quick dancing gleam of the surf in 
 front of me. Suddenly, as I peered through the 
 deepening shadow, a long, dark boat shot out from 
 it, like a trout from under a stone, making straight 
 in our direction. 
 
 " A guard boat! " cried one of the seamen. 
 
 "Bill, boy, we're done!" said the other, and 
 began to stuff something into his sea boot. 
 
 But the boat swerved at the sight of us, like a 
 shying horse, and was off in another direction as 
 fast as eight frantic oars could drive her. The 
 seamen stared after her and wiped their brows. 
 " Her conscience don't seem much easier than our 
 
20 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 own," said one of them. " I made sure it was the 
 preventives." 
 
 " Looks to me as if you weren't the only queer 
 cargo on the coast to-night, mister," remarked 
 his comrade. 
 
 " What could she be? " 
 
 " Cursed if I know what she was. I rammed a 
 cake of good Trinidad tobacco into my boot when 
 I saw her. I've seen the inside of a French prison 
 before now. Give way, Bill, and have it over." 
 
 A minute later, with a low grating sound, we 
 ran aground upon a gravelly beach. My bundle 
 was thrown ashore, I stepped after it, and a sea- 
 man pushed the prow off again, springing in as 
 his comrade backed her into deep water. Already 
 the glow in the west had vanished, the storm-cloud 
 was half up the heavens, and a thick blackness 
 had gathered over the ocean. As I turned to 
 watch the vanishing boat, a keen wet blast flapped 
 in my face, and the air was filled with the high 
 piping of the wind and with the deep thunder of 
 the sea. 
 
 And thus it was that, on a wild evening in the 
 early spring of the year 1805, I, Louis de Laval, 
 
THE COAST OF FRANCE. 21 
 
 being in the twenty-first year of my age, returned, 
 after an exile of thirteen years, to the country of 
 which my family had for many centuries been the 
 ornament and support. She had treated us badly, 
 this country; she had repaid our services by in- 
 sult, exile, and confiscation. But all that was for- 
 gotten as I, the only de Laval of the new genera- 
 tion, dropped upon my knees upon her sacred soil, 
 and, with the strong smell of the seaweed in my 
 nostrils, pressed my lips upon the wet and prin- 
 gling gravel. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE SALT-MARSH. 
 
 WHEN a man has reached his mature age he 
 can rest at that point of vantage, and cast his eyes 
 back at the long road along which he has travelled, 
 lying with its gleams of sunshine and its stretches 
 of shadow in the valley behind him. He knows 
 then its whence and its whither, and the twists and 
 bends which were so full of promise or of menace 
 as he approached them lie exposed and open to 
 his gaze. So plain is it all that he can scarce re- 
 member how dark it may have seemed to him, or 
 how long he once hesitated at the cross roads. 
 Thus when he tries to recall each stage of the 
 journey he does so with the knowledge of its end, 
 and can no longer make it clear, even to himself, 
 how it may have seemed to him at the time. And 
 yet, in spite of the strain of years, and the many 
 passages which have befallen me since, there is no 
 
 32 
 
THE SALT-MARSH. 23 
 
 time of my life which comes back so very clearly as 
 that gusty evening, and to this day I cannot feel 
 the briny wholesome whiff of the seaweed without 
 being carried back, with that intimate feeling of 
 reality which only the sense of smell can confer, to 
 the wet shingle of the French, beach. 
 
 When I had risen from my knees, the first 
 thing that I did was to put my purse into the 
 inner pocket of my coat. I had taken it out in 
 order to give a gold piece to the sailor who had 
 handed me ashore, though I have little doubt that 
 the fellow was both wealthier and of more assured 
 prospects than myself. I had actually drawn out 
 a silver half-crown, but I could not bring myself 
 to offer it to him, and so ended by giving a tenth 
 part of my whole fortune to a stranger. The other 
 nine sovereigns I put very carefully away, and then, 
 sitting down upon a flat rock just above high water 
 mark, I turned it all over in my mind and weighed 
 what I should do. Already I was cold and hun- 
 gry, with the wind lashing my face and the spray 
 smarting in my eyes, but at least I was no longer 
 living upon the charity of the enemies of my coun- 
 try, and the thought set my heart dancing within 
 3 
 
24 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 me. But the castle, as well as I could remember, 
 was a good ten miles off. To go there now was to 
 arrive at an unseemly hour, unkempt and weather- 
 stained, before this uncle whom I had never seen. 
 My sensitive pride conjured up a picture of the 
 scornful faces of his servants as they looked out 
 upon this bedraggled wanderer from England 
 slinking back to the castle which should have been 
 his own. No, I must seek shelter for the night, 
 and then at my leisure, with as fair a show of ap- 
 pearances as possible, I must present myself before 
 my relative. Where then could I find a refuge 
 from the storm? 
 
 You will ask me, doubtless, why I did not make 
 for Etaples or Boulogne. I answer that it was 
 for the same reason which forced me to land se- 
 cretly upon that forbidding coast. The name of 
 de Laval still headed the list of the proscribed, for 
 my father had been a famous and energetic leader 
 of the small but influential body of men who had 
 remained true at all costs to the old order of things. 
 Do not think that, because I was of another way 
 of thinking, I despised those who had given up 
 so much for their principles. There is a curious 
 ' 
 
THE SALT-MARSH. 25 
 
 saintlike trait in our natures which draws us most 
 strongly towards that which involves the greatest 
 sacrifice, and I have sometimes thought that if 
 the conditions had been less onerous the Bourbons 
 might have had fewer, or at least less noble, fol- 
 lowers. The French nobles had been more faith- 
 ful to them than the English to the Stuarts, for 
 Cromwell had no luxurious court or rich appoint- 
 ments which he could hold out to those who would 
 desert the royal cause. No words can exaggerate 
 the self-abnegation of those men. I have seen a 
 supper party under my father's roof where . our 
 guests were two fencing-masters, three professors 
 of language, one ornamental gardener, and one 
 translator of books, who held his hand in the front 
 of the coat to conceal a rent in the lapel. But 
 these eight men were of the highest nobility of 
 France, who might have had what they chose to 
 ask. if they would only consent to forget the past, 
 and to throw themselves heartily into the new or- 
 der of things. But the humble, and what is sadder 
 the incapable, monarch of Hartwell still held the 
 allegiance of those old Montmorencies, Rohans, 
 and Choiseuls, who, having shared the greatness 
 
2 6 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 of his family, were determined also to stand by it 
 in its ruin. The dark chambers of that exiled 
 monarch were furnished with something better 
 than the tapestry of Gobelins or the china of 
 Sevres. Across the gulf which separates my old 
 age from theirs I can still see those ill-clad, grave- 
 mannered men, and I raise my hat to the noblest 
 group of nobles that our history can show. 
 
 To visit a coast-town, therefore, before I had 
 seen my uncle, or learnt whether my return had 
 been sanctioned, would be simply to deliver myself 
 into the hands of the gens d'armes, who were ever 
 on the look-out for strangers from England. To 
 go before the new Emperor was one thing, and to 
 be dragged before him another. On the whole, 
 it seemed to me that my best course was to wander 
 inland, in the hope of finding some empty barn or 
 out-house, where I could pass the night unseen 
 and undisturbed. Then in the morning I should 
 consider how it was best for me to approach my 
 Uncle Bernac, and through him the new master of 
 France. 
 
 The wind had freshened meanwhile into a gale, 
 and it was so dark upon the seaward side that I 
 
THE SALT-MARSH. 27 
 
 could only catch the white flash of a leaping wave 
 here and there in the blackness. Of the lugger 
 which had brought me from Dover I could see no 
 sign. On the land side of me there seemed, as far 
 as I could make it out, to be a line of low hills, but 
 when I came to traverse them I found that the 
 dim light had exaggerated their size, and that they 
 were mere scattered sand-dunes, mottled with 
 patches of bramble. Over these I toiled with my 
 bundle slung over my shoulder, plodding heavily 
 through the loose sand, and tripping over the 
 creepers, but forgetting my wet clothes and my 
 numb hands as I recalled the many hardships and 
 adventures which my ancestors had undergone. 
 It amused me to think that the day might come 
 when my own descendants might fortify them- 
 selves by the recollection of that which was hap- 
 pening to me, for in a great family like ours the 
 individual is always subordinate to the race. 
 
 It seemed to me that I should never get to the 
 end of the Sand-dunes, but when at last I did come 
 off them I heartily wished that I was back upon 
 them again; for the sea in that part comes by some 
 creek up the back of the beach, forming at low 
 
28 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 tide a great desolate salt-marsh, which must be 
 a forlorn place even in the daytime, but upon such 
 a night as that it was a most dreary wilderness. 
 At first it was but a softness of the ground, caus- 
 ing me to slip as I walked, but soon the mud was 
 over my ankles and half-way up to my knees, so 
 that each foot gave a loud flop as I raised it, and 
 a dull splash as I set it down again. I would 
 willingly have made my way out, even if I had to 
 return to the sand-dunes, but in trying to pick my 
 path I had lost all my bearings, and the air was so 
 full of the sounds of the storm that the sea seemed 
 to be on every side of me. I had heard of how one 
 may steer oneself by observation of the stars, but 
 my quiet English life had not taught me how such 
 things were done, and had I known I could scarcely 
 have profited by it, since the few stars which were 
 visible peeped out here and there in the rifts of the 
 flying storm-clouds. I wandered on then, wet and 
 weary, trusting to fortune, but always blundering 
 deeper and deeper into this horrible bog, until I 
 began to think that my first night in France 
 was destined also to be my last, and that the 
 heir of the de Lavals was destined to perish of 
 
THE SALT-MARSH. 29 
 
 cold and misery in the depths of this obscene 
 morass. 
 
 I must have toiled for many miles in this dreary 
 fashion, sometimes coming upon shallower mud 
 and sometimes upon deeper, but never making my 
 way on to the dry, when I perceived through the 
 gloom something which turned my heart even 
 heavier than it had been before. This was a curi- 
 ous clump of some whitish shrub cotton-grass of 
 a flowering variety which glimmered suddenly 
 before me in the darkness. Now, an hour earlier I 
 had passed just such a square-headed, whitish 
 clump; so that I was confirmed in the opinion 
 which I had already begun to form, that I was 
 wandering in a circle. To make it certain I 
 stooped down, striking a momentary flash from 
 my tinder-box, and there sure enough was my own 
 old track very clearly marked in the brown mud 
 in front of me. At this confirmation of my worst 
 fears I threw my eyes up to heaven in my despair, 
 and there I saw something which for the first time 
 gave me a clue in the uncertainty which sur- 
 rounded me. 
 
 It was nothing else than a glimpse of the moon 
 
p UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 between two flowing clouds. This in itself might 
 have been of small avail to me, but over its white 
 face was marked a long thin V, which shot swiftly 
 across like a shaftless arrow. It was a flock of 
 wild ducks, and its flight was in the same direction 
 as that towards which my face was turned. Now, 
 I had observed in Kent how all these creatures 
 come further inland when there is rough weather 
 breaking, so I made no doubt that their course 
 indicated the path which would lead me away from 
 the sea. I struggled on, therefore, taking every 
 precaution to walk in a straight line, above all be- 
 ing very careful to make a stride of equal length 
 with either leg, until at last, after half an hour or 
 so, my perseverance was rewarded by the welcome 
 sight of a little yellow light, as from a cottage 
 window, glimmering through the darkness. Ah, 
 how it shone through my eyes and down into my 
 heart, glowing and twinkling there, that little 
 golden speck, which meant food, and rest, and life 
 itself to the wanderer! I blundered towards it 
 through the mud and the slush as fast as my 
 weary legs would bear me. I was too cold and 
 miserable to refuse any shelter, and I had no doubt 
 
THE SALT-MARSH. 31 
 
 that for the sake of one of my gold pieces the fish- 
 erman or peasant who lived in this strange situa- 
 tion would shut his eyes to whatever might be 
 suspicious in my presence or appearance. 
 
 As I approached it became more and more 
 wonderful to me that anyone should live there at 
 all, for the bog grew worse rather than better, and 
 in the occasional gleams of moonshine I could 
 make out that the water lay in glimmering pools 
 all round the low, dark cottage, from which the 
 light was breaking. I could see now that it shone 
 through a small square window. As I approached 
 the gleam was suddenly obscured, and there in a 
 yellow frame appeared the round black outline of a 
 man's head peering out into the darkness. A sec- 
 ond time it appeared before I reached the cottage, 
 and there was something in the stealthy manner 
 in which it peeped and whisked away, and peeped 
 once more, which filled me with surprise, and with 
 a certain vague apprehension. 
 
 So cautious were the movements of this sen- 
 tinel, and so singular the position of his watch- 
 house, that I determined, in spite of my misery, 
 to see something more of him before I trusted my- 
 
32 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 self to the shelter of his roof. And, indeed, the 
 amount of shelter which I might hope for was not 
 very great, for as I drew softly nearer I could see 
 that the light from within was beating through at 
 several points, and that the whole cottage was in 
 the most crazy state of disrepair. For a moment 
 I paused, thinking that even the salt-marsh might 
 perhaps be a safer resting-place for the night than 
 the headquarters of some desperate smuggler, for 
 such I conjectured that this lonely dwelling must 
 be. The scud, however, had covered the moon 
 once more, and the darkness was so pitchy black 
 that I felt that I might reconnoitre a little more 
 closely without fear of discovery. Walking on 
 tiptoe I approached the little window and 
 looked in. 
 
 What I saw reassured me vastly. A small 
 wood fire was crackling in one of those old-fash- 
 ioned country grates, and beside it was seated a 
 strikingly handsome young man, who was read- 
 ing earnestly out of a fat little book. He had an 
 oval, olive-tinted face, with long black hair, un- 
 gathered in a queue, and there was something of 
 the poet or of the artist in his whole appearance. 
 
THE SALT-MARSH. 
 
 33 
 
 The sight of that refined face, and of the warm, 
 yellow firelight which beat upon it, was a very 
 cheering one to a cold and famished traveller. I 
 stood for an instant gazing at him, and noticing 
 the way in which his full and somewhat loose-fit- 
 ting lower lip quivered continually, as if he were 
 repeating to himself that which he was reading. 
 I was still looking at him when he put his book 
 down upon the table and approached the window. 
 Catching a glimpse of my figure in the darkness 
 he called out something which I could not hear 
 and waved his hand in a gesture of welcome. An 
 instant later the door flew open, and there was his 
 thin, tall figure standing upon the threshold, with 
 his skirts flapping in the wind. 
 
 " My dear friends," he cried, peering out into 
 the gloom with his hand over his eyes to screen 
 them from the salt-laden wind and driving sand, 
 " I had given you up. I thought that you were 
 never coming. I've been waiting for two hours." 
 
 For answer I stepped out in front of him, so 
 that the light fell upon my face. 
 
 " I am afraid, sir, ," said I. 
 
 But I had no time to finish my sentence. He 
 
34 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 struck at me with both hands like an angry cat, 
 and, springing back into the room, he slammed 
 the door with a crash in my face. 
 
 The swiftness of his movements and the ma- 
 lignity of his gesture were in such singular contrast 
 v r ith his appearance that I was struck speechless 
 with surprise. But as I stood there with the door 
 in front of me I was a witness to something which 
 filled me with even greater astonishment. 
 
 I have already said that the cottage was in the 
 last stage of disrepair. Amidst the many seams 
 and cracks through which the light was breaking 
 there was one along the whole of the hinge side 
 of the door, which gave me from where I was 
 standing a view of the further end of the room, 
 at which the fire was burning. As I gazed then 
 I saw this man reappear in front of the fire, 
 fumbling furiously with both his hands in his 
 bosom, and then with a spring he disappeared up 
 the chimney, so that I could only see his shoes and 
 half of his black calves as he stood upon the brick- 
 work at the side of the grate. In an instant he was 
 down again and back at the door. 
 
 " Who are you? " he cried, in a voice which 
 
THE SALT-MARSH. 
 
 35 
 
 seemed to me to be thrilling with some strong 
 emotion. 
 
 " I am a traveller, and have lost my way." 
 
 There was a pause, as if he were thinking what 
 course he should pursue. 
 
 ' You will find little here to tempt you to 
 stay," said he at last. 
 
 " I am weary and spent, sir; and surely you 
 will not refuse me shelter. I have been wander- 
 ing for hours in the salt-marsh." 
 
 " Did you meet anyone there? " he asked 
 eagerly. 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Stand back a little from the door. This is 
 a wild place, and the times are troublous. A 
 man must take some precautions." 
 
 I took a few steps back, and he then opened 
 the door sufficiently to allow his head to come 
 through. He said nothing, but he looked at me 
 for a long time in a very searching manner. 
 
 " What is your name? " 
 
 " Louis Laval," said I, thinking that it might 
 sound less dangerous in this plebeian form. 
 
 " Whither are you going? " 
 
36 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 " I wish to reach some shelter." 
 
 " You are from England? " 
 
 " I am from the coast." 
 
 He shook his head slowly to show me how 
 little my replies had satisfied him. 
 
 ' You cannot come in here," said he. 
 
 " But surely " 
 
 " No, no, it is impossible." 
 
 " Show me then how to find my way out of 
 the marsh." 
 
 " It is easy enough. If you go a few hundred 
 paces in that direction you will perceive the lights 
 of a village. You are already almost free of the 
 marsh." 
 
 He stepped a pace or two from the door in 
 order to point the way for me, and then turned 
 upon his heel. I had already taken a stride or 
 two away from him and his inhospitable hut, when 
 he suddenly called after me. 
 
 "Come, Monsieur Laval,", said he, with quite 
 a different ring in his voice, " I really cannot per- 
 mit you to leave me upon so tempestuous a night. 
 A warm by my fire and a glass of brandy will 
 hearten you upon your way." 
 
THE SALT-MARSH. 37 
 
 You may think that I did not feel disposed to 
 contradict him, though I could make nothing of 
 this sudden and welcome change in his manner. 
 
 " I am much obliged to you, sir," said I. 
 
 And I followed him into the hut. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE RUINED COTTAGE. 
 
 IT was delightful to see the glow and twinkle 
 of the fire and to escape from the wet wind and 
 the numbing cold, but my curiosity had already 
 risen so high about this lonely man and his singu- 
 lar dwelling that my thoughts ran rather upon 
 that than upon my personal comfort. There was 
 his remarkable appearance, the fact that he should 
 be awaiting company within that miserable ruin 
 in the heart of the morass at so sinister an hour, 
 and finally the inexplicable incident of the chim- 
 ney, all of which excited my imagination. It was 
 beyond my comprehension why he should at one 
 moment charge me sternly to continue my jour- 
 ney and then, in almost the same breath, invite 
 me most cordially to seek the shelter of his hut. 
 On all these points I was keenly on the alert for an 
 explanation. Yet I endeavoured to conceal my 
 
 feelings, and to assume the air of a man who finds 
 
 38 
 
THE RUINED COTTAGE. 
 
 39 
 
 everything quite natural about him, and who is 
 much too absorbed in his own personal wants to 
 have a thought to spare upon anything outside 
 himself. 
 
 A glance at the inside of the cottage, as I 
 entered, confirmed me in the conjecture which 
 the appearance of the outside had already given 
 rise to, that it was not used for human residence, 
 and that this man was only here for a rendezvous. 
 Prolonged moisture had peeled the plaster in 
 flakes from the walls, and had covered the stones 
 with blotches and rosettes of lichen. The whole 
 place was rotted and scaling like a leper. The 
 single large room was unfurnished save for a 
 crazy table, three wooden boxes, which might be 
 used as seats, and a great pile of decayed fishing 
 net in the corner. The splinters of a fourth box, 
 with a hand-axe, which leaned against the wall, 
 showed how the wood for the fire had been gath- 
 ered. But it was to the table that my gaze was 
 chiefly drawn, for there, beside the lamp and the 
 book, lay an open basket, from which projected 
 the knuckle-end of a ham, the corner of a loaf of 
 
 bread, and the black neck of a bottle. 
 4 
 
40 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 If my host had been suspicious and cold at our 
 first meeting he was now atoning for his inhos- 
 pitality by an overdone cordiality even harder for 
 me to explain. With many lamentations over my 
 mud-stained and sodden condition, he drew a box 
 close to the blaze and cut me off a corner of the 
 bread and ham. I could not help observing, how- 
 ever, that though his loose, under-lipped mouth 
 was wreathed with smiles, his beautiful dark eyes 
 were continually running over me and my attire, 
 asking and reasking what my business might be. 
 
 " As for myself," said he, with an air of false 
 candour, " you will very well understand that in 
 these days a worthy merchant must do the best 
 he can to get his wares, and if the Emperor, God 
 save him, sees fit in his wisdom to put an end to 
 open trade, one must come to such places as these 
 to get into touch with those who bring across 
 the coffee and the tobacco. I promise you that 
 in the Tuileries itself there is no difficulty about 
 getting either one or the other, and the Emperor 
 drinks his ten cups a day of the real Mocha with- 
 out asking questions, though he must know that 
 it is not grown within the confines of France. 
 
THE RUINED COTTAGE. 41 
 
 The vegetable kingdom still remains one of the 
 few which Napoleon has not yet conquered, and, 
 if it were not for traders, who are at some risk 
 and inconvenience, it is hard to say what we 
 should do for our supplies. I suppose, sir, that 
 you are not yourself either in the seafaring or in 
 the trading line? " 
 
 I contented myself by answering that I was 
 not, by which reticence I could see that I only 
 excited his curiosity the more. As to his account 
 of himself, I read a lie in those tell-tale eyes all 
 the time that he was talking. As I looked at him 
 now in the full light of the lamp and the fire, I 
 could see that he was even more good looking 
 than I had at first thought, but with a type of 
 beauty which has never been to my taste. His 
 features were so refined as to be almost effeminate, 
 and so regular that they would have been perfect 
 if it had not been for that ill-fitting, slabbing 
 mouth. It was a clever, and yet it was a weak 
 face, full of a sort of fickle enthusiasm and feeble 
 impulsiveness. I felt that the more I knew him 
 the less reason I should probably find either to 
 like him or to fear him, and in my first conclusion 
 
42 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 I was right, although I had occasion to change 
 my views upon the second. 
 
 " You will forgive me, Monsieur Laval, if I was 
 a little cold at first," said he. " Since the Em- 
 peror has been upon the coast the place swarms 
 with police agents, so that a trader must look 
 to his own interests. You will allow that my fears 
 of you were not unnatural, since neither your 
 dress nor your appearance were such as one would 
 expect to meet with in such a place and at such 
 a time." 
 
 It was on my lips to return the remark, but 
 I refrained. 
 
 " I can assure you," said I, " that I am merely 
 a traveller who have lost my way. Now that I 
 am refreshed and rested I will not encroach fur- 
 ther upon your hospitality, except to ask you to 
 point out the way to the nearest village." 
 
 "Tut; you had best stay where you are, for 
 the night grows wilder every instant." As he 
 spoke there came a whoop and scream of wind 
 in the chimney, as if the old place were coming 
 down about our ears. He walked across to the 
 window and looked very earnestly out of it, just 
 
THE RUINED COTTAGE. 43 
 
 as I had seen him do upon my first approach. 
 " The fact is, Monsieur Laval," said he, looking 
 round at me with his false air of good fellowship, 
 " you may be of some good service to me if you 
 will wait here for half an hour or so." 
 
 " How so? " I asked, wavering between my 
 distrust and my curiosity. 
 
 " Well, to be frank with you " and never did 
 a man look less frank as he spoke " I am wait- 
 ing here for some of those people with whom I 
 do business; but in some way they have not come 
 yet, and I am inclined to take a walk round the 
 marsh on the chance of finding them, if they have 
 lost their way. On the other hand, it would be 
 exceeding awkward for me if they were to come 
 here in my absence and imagine that I am gone. I 
 should take it as a favour, then, if you would re- 
 main here for half an hour or so, that you may 
 tell them how matters stand if I should chance to 
 miss them." 
 
 The request seemed reasonable enough, and 
 yet there was that same oblique glance which told 
 me that it was false. Still, I could not see what 
 harm could come to me by complying with his 
 
44 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 request, and certainly I could not have devised 
 any arrangement which would give me such an 
 opportunity of satisfying my curiosity. What was 
 in that wide stone chimney, and why had he 
 clambered up there upon the sight of me? My 
 adventure would be inconclusive indeed if I did 
 not settle that point before I went on with my 
 journey. 
 
 " Well," said he, snatching up his black broad- 
 brimmed hat and running very briskly to the door, 
 " I am sure that you will not refuse me my request, 
 and I must delay no longer or I shall never get 
 my business finished." He closed the door hur- 
 riedly behind him, and I heard the splashing of 
 his footsteps until they were lost in the howling 
 of the gale. 
 
 And so the mysterious cottage was mine to 
 ransack if I could pluck its secrets from it. I 
 lifted the book which had been left upon the table. 
 It was Rousseau's " Social Contract " excellent 
 literature, but hardly what one would expect a 
 trader to carry with him whilst awaiting an ap- 
 pointment with smugglers. On the fly-leaf was 
 written " Lucien Lesage," and beneath it, in a 
 
THE RUINED COTTAGE. 45 
 
 woman's hand, " Lucien, from Sibylle." Lesage, 
 then, was the name of my good-looking but sinis- 
 ter acquaintance. It only remained for me now 
 to discover what it was which he had concealed 
 up the chimney. I listened intently, and as there 
 was no sound from without, save the cry of the 
 storm, I stepped on to the edge of the grate as 
 I had seen him do, and sprang up by the side of 
 the fire. 
 
 It was a very broad, old-fashioned cottage 
 chimney, so that standing on one side I was not 
 inconvenienced either by the heat or by the smoke, 
 and the bright glare from below showed me in an 
 instant that for which I sought. There was a 
 recess at the back, caused by the fall or removal of 
 one of the stones, and in this was lying a small 
 bundle. There could not be the least doubt that 
 it was this which the fellow had striven so fran- 
 tically to conceal upon the first alarm of the ap- 
 proach of a stranger. I took it down and held 
 it to the light. 
 
 It was a small square of yellow glazed cloth 
 tied round with white tape. Upon my opening it a 
 number of letters appeared, and a single large 
 
46 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 paper folded up. The addresses upon the letters 
 took my breath away. The first that I glanced 
 at was to Citizen Talleyrand. The others were 
 in the same Republican style addressed to Citizen 
 Fouche, to Citizen Soult, to Citizen MacDonald, 
 to Citizen Berthier, and so on through the whole 
 list of famous names in war and in diplomacy who 
 were the pillars of the new Empire. What in the 
 world could this pretended merchant of coffee 
 have to write to all these great notables about! 
 The other paper would explain, no doubt. I laid 
 the letters upon the shelf and I unfolded the paper 
 which had been enclosed with them. It did not 
 take more than the opening sentence to convince 
 me that the salt-marsh outside might prove to 
 be a very much safer place than this accursed cot- 
 tage. 
 
 These were the words which met my eyes: 
 " Fellow-citizens of France. The deed of 
 to-day has proved that, even in the midst of his 
 troops, a tyrant is unable to escape the vengeance 
 of an outraged people. The committee of three, 
 acting temporarily for the Republic, has awarded 
 to Buonaparte the same fate which has already 
 
THE RUINED COTTAGE. 47 
 
 befallen Louis Capet. In avenging the outrage 
 of the 1 8th Brumaire " 
 
 So far I had got when my heart sprang sud- 
 denly into my mouth and the paper fluttered down 
 from my ringers. A grip of iron had closed sud- 
 denly round each of my ankles, and there in the 
 light of the fire I saw two hands which, even in 
 that terrified glance, I perceived to be covered 
 with black hair and of an enormous size. 
 
 " So, my friend," cried a thundering voice, 
 " this time, at least, we have been too many for 
 you." 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 MEN OF THE NIGHT. 
 
 I HAD little time given me to realise the extra- 
 ordinary and humiliating position in which I found 
 myself, for I was lifted up by my ankles, as if I 
 were a fowl pulled off a perch, and jerked roughly 
 down into the room, my back striking upon the 
 stone floor with a thud which shook the breath 
 from my body. 
 
 " Don't kill him yet, Toussac," said a soft 
 voice. " Let us make sure who he is first." 
 
 I felt the pressure of a thumb upon my chin 
 and of fingers upon my throat, and my head was 
 slowly forced round until the strain became un- 
 bearable. 
 
 " Quarter of an inch does it and no mark," 
 said the thunderous voice. " You can trust my 
 old turn." 
 
 " Don't, Toussac; don't! " said the same gentle 
 4 8 
 
MEN OF THE NIGHT. 
 
 49 
 
 voice which had spoken first. " I saw you do it 
 once before, and the horrible snick that it made 
 haunted me for a long time. To think that the 
 sacred flame of life can be so readily snuffed out 
 by that great material finger and thumb! Mind 
 can indeed conquer matter, but the fighting must 
 not be at close quarters." 
 
 My neck was so twisted that I could not see 
 any of these people who were discussing my fate. 
 I could only lie and listen. 
 
 " The fact remains, my dear Charles, that the 
 fellow has our all-important secret, and that it is 
 our lives or his." I recognised in the voice which 
 was now speaking that of the man of the cottage. 
 " We owe it to ourselves to put it out of his power 
 to harm us. Let him sit up, Toussac, for there 
 is no possibility of his escaping." 
 
 Some irresistible force at the back of my neck 
 dragged me instantly into a sitting position, and 
 so for the first time I was able to look round me 
 in a dazed fashion, and to see these men into whose 
 hands I had fallen. That they were murderers in 
 the past and had murderous plans for the future I 
 already gathered from what I had heard and seen. 
 
50 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 I understood also that in the heart of that lonely 
 marsh I was absolutely in their power. None the 
 less, I remembered the name that I bore, and I 
 concealed as far as I could the sickening terror 
 which lay at my heart. 
 
 There were three of them in the room, my 
 former acquaintance and two new comers. Lesage 
 stood by the table, with his fat brown book in his 
 hand, looking at me with a composed face, but 
 with that humorous questioning twinkle in his 
 eyes which a master chess-player might assume 
 when he had left his opponent without a move. 
 On the top of the box beside him sat a very as- 
 cetic-faced, yellow, hollow-eyed man of fifty, with 
 prim lips and a shrunken skin, which hung loosely 
 over the long jerking tendons under his promi- 
 nent chin. He was dressed in snuff-coloured 
 clothes, and his legs under his knee-breeches were 
 of a ludicrous thinness. He shook his head at me 
 with an air of sad wisdom, and I could read little 
 comfort in his inhuman grey eyes. But it was 
 the man called Toussac who alarmed me most. 
 He was a colossus; bulky rather than tall, but 
 misshapen from his excess of muscle. His huge 
 
MEN OF THE NIGHT. 5! 
 
 legs were crooked like those of a great ape, and, 
 indeed, there was something animal about his 
 whole appearance, for he was bearded up to his 
 eyes, and it was a paw rather than a hand which 
 still clutched me by the collar. As to his expres- 
 sion, he was too thatched with hair to show one, 
 but his large black eyes looked with a sinister 
 questioning from me to the others. If they were 
 the judge and jury, it was clear who was to be 
 executioner. 
 
 " Whence did he come? What is his business? 
 How came he to know the hiding place? " asked 
 the thin man. 
 
 " When he first came I mistook him for you 
 in the darkness," Lesage answered. " You will 
 acknowledge that it was not a night on which 
 one would expect to meet many people in the 
 salt-marsh. On discovering my mistake I shut the 
 door and concealed the papers in the chimney. I 
 had forgotten that he might see me do this 
 through that crack by the hinges, but when I 
 went out again to show him his way and so get 
 rid of him, my eye caught the gap, and I at once 
 realised that he had seen my action, and that it 
 
52 UNCLE EERNAC. 
 
 must have aroused his curiosity to such an ex- 
 tent that it would be quite certain that he would 
 think and speak of it. I called him back into the 
 hut, therefore, in order that I might have time 
 to consider what I had best do with him." 
 
 "Sapristi! a couple of cuts of that wood-axe, 
 and a bed in the softest corner of the marsh, would 
 have settled the business at once," said the fellow 
 by my side. 
 
 " Quite true, my good Toussac; but it is not 
 usual to lead off with your ace of trumps. A little 
 delicacy a little finesse " 
 
 " Let us hear what you did then? " 
 
 " It was my first object to learn whether this 
 man Laval " 
 
 " What did you say his name was? " cried the 
 thin man. 
 
 " His name, according to his account, is Laval. 
 My first object then was to find out whether he 
 had in truth seen me conceal the papers or not. 
 It was an important question for us, and, as things 
 have turned out, more important still for him. I 
 made my little plan, therefore. I waited until I 
 saw you approach, and I then left him alone in the 
 
MEN OF THE NIGHT. 53 
 
 hut. I watched through the window and saw him 
 fly to the hiding-place. We then entered, and I 
 asked you, Toussac, to be good enough to lift him 
 down and there he lies." 
 
 The young fellow looked proudly round for the 
 applause of his comrades, and the thin man clapped 
 his hands softly together, looking very hard at me 
 while he did so. 
 
 " My dear Lesage," said he, " you have cer- 
 tainly excelled yourself. When our new republic 
 looks for its minister of police we shall know where 
 to find him. I confess that when, after guiding 
 Toussac to this shelter, I followed you in and per- 
 ceived a gentleman's legs projecting from the fire- 
 place, even my wits, which are usually none of the 
 slowest, hardly grasped the situation. Toussac, 
 however, grasped the legs. He is always practical, 
 the good Toussac." 
 
 " Enough words! " growled the hairy creature 
 beside me. " It is because we have talked instead 
 of acting that this Buonaparte has a crown upon 
 his head or a head upon his shoulders. Let us 
 have done with the fellow and come to business." 
 
 The refined features of Lesage made me look 
 
54 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 towards him as to a possible protector, but his 
 large dark eyes were as cold and hard as jet as he 
 looked back at me. 
 
 " What Toussac says is right," said he. " We 
 imperil our own safety if he goes with our secret." 
 
 " The devil take our own safety! " cried Tous- 
 sac. " What has that to do with the matter? We 
 imperil the success of our plans that is of more 
 importance." 
 
 :< The two things go together," replied Lesage. 
 " There is no doubt that Rule 13 of our confedera- 
 tion defines exactly what should be done in such 
 a case. Any responsibility must rest with the 
 framers of Rule 13." 
 
 My heart had turned cold when this man with 
 his poet's face supported the savage at my side. 
 But my hopes were raised again when the thin 
 man, who had said little hitherto, though he had 
 continued to stare at me very intently, began now 
 to show some signs of alarm at the bloodthirsty 
 proposals of his comrades. 
 
 " My dear Lucien," said he, in a soothing 
 voice, laying his hand upon the young man's arm, 
 " we philosophers and reasoners must have a re- 
 
MEN OF THE NIGHT. 55 
 
 spect for human life. The tabernacle is not to be 
 lightly violated. We have frequently agreed that 
 if it were not for the excesses of Marat " 
 
 " I have every respect for your opinion, 
 Charles/' the other interrupted. " You will allow 
 that I have always been a willing and obedient 
 disciple. But I again say that our personal safety 
 is involved, and that, as far as I see, there is no 
 middle course. No one could be more averse from 
 cruelty than I am, but you were present with me 
 some months ago when Toussac silenced the man 
 from Bow Street, and certainly it was done with 
 such dexterity that the process was probably more 
 painful to the spectators than to the victim. He 
 could not have been aware of the horrible sound 
 which announced his own dissolution. If you and 
 I had constancy enough to endure this and if I 
 remember right it was chiefly at your instigation 
 that the deed was done then surely on this more 
 vital occasion " 
 
 " No, no, Toussac, stop! " cried the thin man, 
 his voice rising from its soft tones to a perfect 
 scream, as the giant's hairy hand gripped me by 
 the chin once more. " I appeal to you, Lucien, 
 
56 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 upon practical as well as upon moral grounds, not 
 to let this deed be done. Consider, that if things 
 should go against us this will cut us oft* from all 
 hopes of mercy. Consider also " 
 
 This argument seemed for a moment to stagger 
 the younger man, whose olive complexion had 
 turned a shade greyer. 
 
 " There will be no hope for us in any case, 
 Charles," said he. " We have no choice but to 
 obey Rule 13." 
 
 " Some latitude is allowed to us. We are our- 
 selves upon the inner committee." 
 
 " But it takes a quorum to change a rule, and 
 we have no powers to do it." His pendulous lip 
 was quivering, but there was no softening in his 
 eyes. Slowly under the pressure of those cruel 
 fingers my chin began to sweep round to my 
 shoulder, and I commended my soul to the Virgin 
 and to Saint Ignatius, who has always been the 
 especial patron of my family. But this man 
 Charles, who had already befriended me, darted 
 forwards and began to tear at Toussac's hands with 
 a vehemence which was very different from his 
 former philosophic calm. 
 
MEN OF THE NIGHT. 
 
 57 
 
 "You shall not kill him!" he cried angrily. 
 " Who are you, to set your wills up against mine? 
 Let him go, Toussac! Take your thumb from his 
 chin! I won't have it done, I tell you! " Then, 
 as he saw by the inflexible faces of his companions 
 that blustering would not help him, he turned sud- 
 denly to tones of entreaty. " See, now! I'll make 
 you a promise! " said he. " Listen to me, Lucien! 
 Let me examine him! If he is a police spy he shall 
 die! You may have him then, Toussac. But if he 
 is only a harmless traveller, who has blundered in 
 here by an evil chance, and who has been led by a 
 foolish curiosity to inquire into our business, then 
 you will leave him to me." 
 
 You will observe that from the beginning of 
 this affair I had never once opened my mouth, nor 
 said a word in my defence, which made me might- 
 ily pleased with myself afterwards, though my si- 
 lence came rather from pride than from courage. 
 To lose life and self-respect together was more 
 than I could face. But now, at this appeal from 
 my advocate, I turned my eyes from the monster 
 who held me to the other who condemned me. 
 The brutality of the one alarmed me less than the 
 
58 UNCLE BERN AC. 
 
 self-interested attitude of the other, for a man is 
 never so dangerous as when he is afraid, and of all 
 judges the judge who has cause to fear you is the 
 most inflexible. 
 
 My life depended upon the answer which 
 was to come to the appeal of my champion. Le- 
 sage tapped his fingers upon his teeth, and 
 smiled indulgently at the earnestness of his com- 
 panion. 
 
 "Rule 13! Rule 13!" he kept repeating, in 
 that exasperating voice of his. 
 
 " I will take all responsibility." 
 
 "I'll tell you what, mister," said Toussac, in 
 his savage voice. " There's another rule besides 
 Rule 13, and that's the one that says that if any 
 man shelters an offender he shall be treated as if 
 he was himself guilty of the offence." 
 
 This attack did not shake the serenity of my 
 champion in the least. 
 
 " You are an excellent man of action, Toussac/' 
 said he, calmly; "but when it comes to choosing 
 the right course, you must leave it to wiser heads 
 than your own." 
 
 His air of tranquil superiority seemed to daunt 
 
MEN OF THE NIGHT. 
 
 59 
 
 the fierce creature who held me. He shrugged his 
 huge shoulders in silent dissent. 
 
 " As to you, Lucien," my friend continued, " I 
 am surprised, considering the position to which 
 you aspire in my family, that you should for an in- 
 stant stand in the way of any wish which I may 
 express. If you have grasped the true principles 
 of liberty, and if you are privileged to be one of 
 the small band who have never despaired of the 
 republic, to whom is it that you owe it? " 
 
 " Yes, yes, Charles; I acknowledge what you 
 say," the young man answered, with much agita- 
 tion. " I am sure that I should be the last to oppose 
 any wish which you might express, but in this case 
 I fear lest your tenderness of heart may be leading 
 you astray. By all means, ask him any questions 
 that you like; but it seems to me that there can be 
 only one end to the matter." 
 
 So I thought, also; for, with the full secret of 
 these desperate men in my possession, what hope 
 was there that they would ever suffer me to leave 
 the hut alive? And yet so sweet is human life, 
 and so dear a respite, be it ever so short a one, 
 that when that murderous hand was taken from 
 
60 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 my chin I heard a sudden chiming of little bells, 
 and the lamp blazed up into a strange fantastic 
 blur. It was but for a moment, and then my mind 
 was clear again, and I was looking up at the 
 strange gaunt face of my examiner. 
 
 " Whence have you come? " he asked. 
 
 " From England." 
 
 " But you are French? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " When did you arrive? " 
 
 " To-night." 
 
 " How? " 
 
 " In a lugger from Dover." 
 
 " The fellow is speaking the truth," growled 
 Toussac. " Yes, I'll say that for him, that he is 
 speaking the truth. We saw the lugger, and 
 someone was landed from it just after the boat that 
 brought me over pushed off." 
 
 I remembered that boat, which had been the 
 first thing which I had seen upon the coast of 
 France. How little I had thought what it would 
 mean to me. 
 
 And now my advocate began asking questions 
 vague, useless questions, in a slow, hesitating 
 
MEN OF THE NIGHT. 6l 
 
 fashion, which set Toussac grumbling. This 
 cross-examination appeared to me to be a useless 
 farce; and yet there was a certain eagerness and 
 intensity in my questioner's manner which gave 
 me the assurance that he had some end in view. 
 Was it merely that he wished to gain time? Time 
 for what? And then, suddenly, with that quick 
 perception which comes upon those whose nerves 
 are strained by an extremity of danger, I became 
 convinced that he really was awaiting something 
 that he was tense with expectation. I read it upon 
 his drawn face, upon his sidelong head with his 
 ear scooped into his hand, above all, in his twitch- 
 ing, restless eyes. He expected an interruption, 
 and he was talking, talking, talking, in order to 
 gain time for it. I was as sure of it as if he had 
 whispered his secret in my ear, and down in my 
 numb, cold heart a warm little spring of hope be- 
 gan to bubble and run. 
 
 But Toussac had chafed at all this word-fen- 
 cing, and now with an oath he broke in upon our 
 dialogue. 
 
 " I have had enough of this," he cried. " It is 
 not for child's play of this sort that I risked my 
 
62 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 head in coming over here. Have we nothing bet- 
 ter to talk about than this fellow? Do you sup- 
 pose I came from London to listen to your fine 
 phrases? Have done with it, I say, and get to 
 business." 
 
 " Very good," said my champion. " There's 
 an excellent little cupboard here which makes as 
 fine a prison as one could wish for. Let us put 
 him in here, and pass on to business. We can deal 
 with him when we have finished." 
 
 " And have him overhear all that we say," said 
 Lesage. 
 
 " I don't know what the devil has come over 
 you," cried Toussac, turning suspicious eyes upon 
 my protector. " I never knew you squeamish be- 
 fore, and certainly you were not backward in the 
 affair of the man from Bow Street. This fellow 
 has our secret, and he must either die, or we shall 
 see him at our trial. What is the sense of arrang- 
 ing a plot, and then at the last moment turning a 
 man loose who will ruin us all? Let us snap his 
 neck and have done with it." 
 
 The great hairy hands were stretched towards 
 me again, but Lesage had sprung suddenly to his 
 
MEN OF THE NIGHT. 63 
 
 feet. His face had turned very white, and he 
 stood listening with his forefinger up and his head 
 slanted. It was a long, thin, delicate hand, and it 
 was quivering like a leaf in the wind. 
 
 " I heard something," he whispered. 
 
 " And I," said the older man. 
 
 " What was it? " 
 
 "Silence. Listen!" 
 
 For a minute or more we all stayed with strain- 
 ing ears while the wind still whimpered in the 
 chimney or rattled the crazy window. 
 
 " It was nothing," said Lesage at last, with a 
 nervous laugh. " The storm makes curious 
 sounds sometimes." 
 
 " I heard nothing," said Toussac. 
 
 "Hush!" cried the other. "There it is 
 again! " 
 
 A clear rising cry floated high above the wail- 
 ing of the storm; a wild, musical cry, beginning 
 on a low note, and thrilling swiftly up to a keen, 
 sharp-edged howl. 
 
 "A hound!" 
 
 " They are following us! " 
 
 Lesage dashed to the fire-place, and I saw him 
 
64 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 thrust his papers into the blaze and grind them 
 down with his heel. 
 
 Toussac seized the wood-axe which leaned 
 against the wall. The thin man dragged the pile 
 of decayed netting from the corner, and opened a 
 small wooden screen, which shut off a low recess. 
 " In here," he whispered, " quick! " 
 And then, as I scrambled into my refuge, I 
 heard him say to the others that I would be safe 
 there, and that they could lay their hands upon 
 me when they wished. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE LAW. 
 
 THE cupboard for it was little more into 
 which I had been hurried was low and narrow, and 
 I felt in the darkness that it was heaped with pe- 
 culiar round wickerwork baskets, the nature of 
 which I could by no means imagine, although I 
 discovered afterwards that they were lobster traps. 
 The only light which entered was through the 
 cracks of the old broken door, but these were so 
 wide and numerous that I could see the whole of 
 the room which I had just quitted. Sick and faint, 
 with the shadow of death still clouding my wits, 
 I was none the less fascinated by the scene which 
 lay before me. 
 
 My thin friend, with the same prim composure 
 upon his emaciated face, had seated himself again 
 upon the box. With his hands clasped round one 
 
 of his knees he was rocking slowly backwards and 
 
 65 
 
66 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 forwards, and I noticed, in the lamplight, that his 
 jaw muscles were contracting rhythmically, like 
 the gills of a fish. Beside him stood Lesage, his 
 white face glistening with moisture, and his loose 
 lip quivering with fear. Every now and then he 
 would make a vigorous attempt to compose his 
 features, but after each rally a fresh wave of terror 
 would sweep everything before it, and set him 
 shaking once more. As to Toussac, he stood be- 
 fore the fire, a magnificent figure, with the axe 
 held down by his leg, and his head thrown back 
 in defiance, so that his great black beard bristled 
 straight out in front of him. He said not a word, 
 but every fibre of his body was braced for a strug- 
 gle. Then, as the howl of the hound rose louder 
 and clearer from the marsh outside, he ran forward 
 and threw open the door. 
 
 " No, no, keep the dog out! " cried Lesage in 
 an agony of apprehension. 
 
 " You fool, our only chance is to kill it." 
 
 " But it is in leash." 
 
 " If it is in leash nothing can save us. But if, 
 as I think, it is running free, then we may escape 
 yet." 
 
THE LAW. 67 
 
 Lesage cowered up against the table, with his 
 agonised eyes fixed upon the blue-black square of 
 the door. The man who had befriended me still 
 swayed his body about with a singular half-smile 
 upon his face. His skinny hand was twitching at 
 the frill of his shirt, and I conjectured that he 
 held some weapon concealed there. Toussac 
 stood between them and the open door, and, much 
 as I feared and loathed him, I could not take my 
 eyes from his gallant figure. As to myself, I was 
 so much occupied by the singular drama before 
 me, and by the impending fate of those three men 
 of the cottage, that all thought of my own fortunes 
 had passed completely out of my mind. On this 
 mean stage a terrible, all-absorbing drama was 
 being played, and I, crouching in a squalid recess, 
 was to be the sole spectator of it. I could but hold 
 my breath, and wait and watch. 
 
 And suddenly I became conscious that they 
 could all three see something which was invisible 
 to me. I read it from their tense faces and their 
 staring eyes. Toussac swung his axe over his 
 shoulder and poised himself for a blow. Lesage 
 cowered away and put one hand between his eyes 
 
68 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 and the open door. The other ceased swinging 
 his spindle legs and sat like a little brown image 
 upon the edge of his box. There was a moist pat- 
 tering of feet, a yellow streak shot through the 
 doorway, and Toussac lashed at it as I have seen 
 an English cricketer strike at a ball. His aim was 
 true, for he buried the head of the hatchet in the 
 creature's throat, but the force of his blow shat- 
 tered his weapon, and the weight of the hound 
 carried him backwards on to the floor. Over they 
 rolled and over, the hairy man and the hairy dog, 
 growling and worrying in a bestial combat. He 
 was fu bling at the animal's throat, and I could 
 not see what he was doing, until it gave a sudden 
 sharp yelp of pain, and there was a rending sound 
 like the tearing of canvas. The man staggered up 
 with his hands dripping, and the tawny mass with 
 the blotch of crimson lay motionless upon the 
 floor. 
 
 " Now! " cried Toussac, in a voice of thunder, 
 " now! " and he rushed from the hut. 
 
 Lesage had shrunk away into the corner in 
 a frenzy of fear whilst Toussac had been killing 
 the hound, but now he raised his agonised face, 
 
THE LAW. 69 
 
 which was as wet as if he had dipped it into a 
 basin. 
 
 " Yes, yes," he cried; " we must fly, Charles. 
 The hound has left the police behind, and we may 
 still escape." 
 
 But the other, with the same imperturbable 
 face, motionless save for the rhythm of his jaw 
 muscles, walked quietly over and closed the door 
 upon the inside. 
 
 " I think, friend Lucien," said he in his 
 quiet voice, " that you had best stay where you 
 
 are." 
 
 Lesage looked at him with amazeme- grad- 
 ually replacing terror upon his pallid features. 
 
 " But you do not understand, Charles," he 
 cried. 
 
 " Oh, yes, I think I do," said the other, smiling. 
 
 " They may be here in a few minutes. The 
 hound has slipped its leash, you see, and has left 
 them behind in the marsh; but they are sure to 
 come here, for there is no other cottage but this." 
 
 " They are sure to come here." 
 
 " Well, then, let us fly. In the darkness we 
 may yet escape." 
 
70 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 " No; we shall stay where we are." 
 
 " Madman, you may sacrifice your own life, 
 but not mine. Stay if you wish, but for my part 
 I am going." 
 
 He ran towards the door with a foolish, help- 
 less flapping of his hands, but the other sprang 
 in front of him with so determined a gesture of 
 authority that the younger man staggered back 
 from it as from a blow. 
 
 " You fool! " said his companion. " You poor, 
 miserable dupe!" 
 
 Lesage's mouth opened, and he stood staring 
 with his knees bent and his spread-fingered hands 
 up, the most hideous picture of fear that I have 
 ever seen. 
 
 " You, Charles, you! " he stammered, hawking 
 up each word. 
 
 " Yes, me," said the other, smiling grimly. 
 
 " A police agent all the time! You who were 
 the very soul of our society! You who were in 
 our inmost council! You who led us on! Oh, 
 Charles, you have not the heart. I think I hear 
 them coming, Charles. Let me pass; I beg- and 
 implore you to let me pass." 
 
THE LAW. 71 
 
 The granite face shook slowly from side to 
 side. 
 
 " But why me? Why not Toussac? " 
 
 " If the dog had crippled Toussac, why then I 
 might have had you both. But friend Toussac is 
 rather vigorous for a thin little fellow like me. 
 No, no, my good Lucien, you are destined to be 
 the trophy of my bow and my spear, and you must 
 reconcile yourself to the fact." 
 
 Lesage slapped his forehead as if to assure 
 himself that he was not dreaming. 
 
 " A police agent," he repeated, " Charles a po- 
 lice agent! " 
 
 " I thought it would surprise you." 
 
 " But you were the most republican of us all. 
 We were none of us advanced enough for you. 
 How often have we gathered round you, Charles, 
 to listen to your philosophy. And there is Sibylle, 
 too! Don't tell me that Sibylle was a police spy 
 also. But you are joking, Charles. Say that you 
 are joking! " 
 
 The man relaxed his grim features, and his 
 eyes puckered with amusement. 
 
 " Your astonishment is very flattering," said 
 
 6 
 
72 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 he. " I confess that I thought that I played my 
 part rather cleverly. It is not my fault that these 
 bunglers unleashed their hound, but at least I shall 
 have the credit of having made a single-handed 
 capture of one very desperate and dangerous con- 
 spirator." He smiled drily at this description of 
 his prisoner. " The Emperor knows how to re- 
 ward his friends," he added, " and also how to 
 punish his enemies." 
 
 All this time he had held his hand in his 
 bosom, and now he drew it out so far as to show 
 the brass gleam of a pistol butt. 
 
 " It is no use," said he, in answer to some 
 look in the other's eye. " You stay in the hut, 
 alive or dead." 
 
 Lesage put his hands to his face and began to 
 cry with loud, helpless sobbings. 
 
 " Why, you have been worse than any of us, 
 Charles," he moaned. " It was you who told 
 Toussac to kill the man from Bow Street, and 
 it was you also who set fire to the house in the 
 Rue Basse de la Rampart. And now you turn 
 onus!" 
 
 " I did that because I wished to be the one 
 
THE LAW. 
 
 73 
 
 to throw light upon it all and at the proper 
 moment/' 
 
 " That is very fine, Charles, but what will be 
 thought about that when I make it all public in 
 my own defence. How can you explain all that 
 to your Emperor. There is still time to prevent 
 my telling all that I know about you." 
 
 " Well, really, I think that you are right, my 
 friend," said the other, drawing out his pistol and 
 cocking it. " Perhaps I did go a little beyond my 
 instructions in one or two points, and, as you 
 very properly remark, there is still time to set it 
 right. It is a matter of detail whether I give you 
 up living or give you up dead, and I think that, 
 on the whole, it had better be dead." 
 
 It had been horrible to see Toussac tear the 
 throat out of the hound, but it had not made my 
 flesh creep as it crept now. Pity was mingled 
 with my disgust for this unfortunate young man, 
 who had been fitted by Nature for the life of a 
 retired student, or of a dreaming poet, but who 
 had been dragged by stronger wills than his own 
 into a part which no child could be more incapable 
 of playing. I forgave him the trick by which he 
 
74 
 
 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 had caught me, and the selfish fears to which he 
 had been willing to sacrifice me. He had flung 
 himself down upon the ground and floundered 
 about in a convulsion of terror, whilst his terrible 
 little companion, with his cynical smile, stood over 
 him with his pistol in his hand. He played with 
 the helpless, panting coward, as a cat might with 
 a mouse; but I read in his inexorable eyes that 
 it was no jest, and his finger seemed to be already 
 tightening upon his trigger. Full of horror at 
 so cold-blooded a murder, I pushed open my 
 crazy cupboard, and had rushed out to plead for 
 the victim when there came a buzz of voices and a 
 clanking of steel from without. With a stentorian 
 shout of " In the name of the Emperor! " a single 
 violent wrench tore the door of the hut from its 
 hinges. 
 
 It was still blowing hard, and through the 
 open doorway I could see a thick cluster of 
 mounted men, with plumes slanted and mantles 
 flapping, the rain shining upon their shoulders. 
 At the side the light from the hut struck upon the 
 heads of two beautiful horses, and upon the heavy 
 red-toupeed busbies of the hussars who stood at 
 
THE LAW. 
 
 75 
 
 their heads. In the doorway stood another hussar 
 a man of high rank, as could be seen from 
 the richness of his dress and the distinction of his 
 bearing. He was booted to the knees, with a uni- 
 form of light blue and silver, which his tall, slim, 
 light-cavalry figure suited to a marvel. I could 
 not but admire the way in which he carried him- 
 self, for he never deigned to draw the sword which 
 shone at his side, but he stood in the doorway 
 glancing round the blood-bespattered hut, and 
 staring at its occupants with a very cool and alert 
 expression. He had a handsome face, pale and 
 clear-cut, with a bristling moustache, which cut 
 across the brass chin-chain of his busby. 
 
 " Well/' said he, " well? " 
 
 The older man had put his pistol back into the 
 breast of his brown coat. 
 
 " This is Lucien Lesage," said he. 
 
 The hussar looked with disgust at the pros- 
 trate figure upon the floor. 
 
 "A pretty conspirator!" said he. "Get up, 
 you grovelling hound! Here, Gerard, take charge 
 of him and bring him into camp." 
 
 A younger officer with two troopers at his 
 
7 6 
 
 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 heels came clanking into the hut, and the wretched 
 creature, half swooning, was dragged out into the 
 darkness. 
 
 " Where is the other the man called Tous- 
 sac? " 
 
 " He killed the hound and escaped. Lesage 
 would have got away also had I not prevented 
 him. If you had kept the dog in leash we should 
 have had them both, but as it is, Colonel Lasalle, 
 I think that you may congratulate me." He held 
 out his hand as he spoke, but the other turned 
 abruptly on his heel. 
 
 " You hear that, General Savary? " said he, 
 looking out of the door. " Toussac has escaped/' 
 
 A tall, dark young man appeared within the 
 circle of light cast by the lamp. The agitation of 
 his handsome, swarthy face showed the effect 
 which the news had upon him. 
 
 " Where is he then? " 
 
 " It is a quarter of an hour since he got 
 away." 
 
 " But he is the only dangerous man of them 
 all. The Emperor will be furious. In which di- 
 rection did he fly? " 
 
THE LAW. 77 
 
 " It must have been inland/* 
 
 " But who is this? " asked General Savary, 
 pointing at me. " I understood from your in- 
 formation that there were only two besides your- 
 self, Monsieur ." 
 
 " I had rather no names were mentioned," said 
 the other abruptly. 
 
 " I can well understand that," General Savary 
 answered with a sneer. 
 
 " I would have told you that the cottage was 
 the rendezvous, but it was not decided upon until 
 the last moment. I gave you the means of track- 
 ing Toussac, but you let the hound slip. I cer- 
 tainly think that you will have to answer to the 
 Emperor for the way in which you have managed 
 the business." 
 
 " That, sir, is our affair," said General Savary 
 sternly. " In the meantime you have not told 
 us who this person is." 
 
 It seemed useless for me to conceal my iden- 
 tity, since I had a letter in my pocket which would 
 reveal it. 
 
 " My name is Louis de Laval," said I proudly. 
 
 I may confess that I think we had exagger- 
 
^8 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 ated our own importance over in England. We 
 had thought that all France was wondering 
 whether we should return, whereas in the quick 
 march of events France had really almost forgot- 
 ten our existence. This young General Savary 
 was not in the least impressed by rny aristocratic 
 name, but he jotted it down in his notebook. 
 
 " Monsieur de Laval has nothing whatever to 
 do with the matter," said the spy. " He has 
 blundered into it entirely by chance, and I will 
 answer for his safe keeping in case he should be 
 wanted." 
 
 " He will certainly be wanted," said General 
 Savary. " In the meantime, I need every trooper 
 that I have for the chase, so, if you make yourself 
 personally responsible, and bring him to the camp 
 when needed, I see no objection to his remaining 
 in your keeping. I shall send to you if I require 
 him." 
 
 " He will be at the Emperor's orders." 
 
 " Are there any papers in the cottage? " 
 
 " They have been burned." 
 
 "That is unfortunate." 
 
 " But I have duplicates." 
 
THE LAW. jg 
 
 " Excellent! Come, Lasalle, every minute 
 counts and there is nothing to be done here. Let 
 the men scatter, and we may still ride him 
 down." 
 
 The two tall soldiers clanked out of the cot- 
 tage without taking any further notice of my com- 
 panion, and I heard the shafp, stern order and 
 the jingling of metal as the troopers sprang back 
 into their saddles once more. An instant later 
 they were off, and I listened to the dull beat of 
 their hoofs dying rapidly into a confused mur- 
 mur. My little snuff-coloured champion went to 
 the door of the hut and peered after them through 
 the darkness. Then he came back and looked 
 me up and down, with his usual dry, sardonic 
 smile. 
 
 " Well, young man," said he, " we have played 
 some pretty tableaux vivants for your amusement, 
 and you can thank me for that nice seat in the 
 front row of the parterre." 
 
 " I am under a very deep obligation to you, 
 sir," I answered, struggling between my gratitude 
 and my aversion. " I hardly know how to thank 
 you." 
 
80 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 He looked at me with a singular expression 
 in his ironical eyes. 
 
 ' You will have the opportunity for thanking 
 me later," said he. " In the meantime, as you 
 say that you are a stranger upon our coast, and 
 as I am responsible for your safe keeping, you 
 cannot do better than follow me, and I will take 
 you to a place where you may sleep in safety." 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE SECRET PASSAGE. 
 
 THE fire had already smouldered down, and my 
 companion blew out the lamp, so that we had not 
 taken ten paces before we had lost sight of the 
 ill-omened cottage, in which I had received so 
 singular a welcome upon my home-coming. The 
 wind had softened down, but a fine rain, cold and 
 clammy, came drifting up from the sea. Had I 
 been left to myself I should have found myself as 
 much at a loss as I had been when I first landed; 
 but my companion walked with a brisk and as- 
 sured step, so that it was evident that he guided 
 himself by landmarks which were invisible to me. 
 For my part, wet and miserable, with my forlorn 
 bundle under my arm, and my nerves all jangled 
 by my terrible experiences, I trudged in silence 
 by his side, turning over in my mind all that had 
 occurred to me. 
 
 81 
 
82 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 Young as I was, I had heard much political 
 discussion amongst my elders in England, and 
 the state of affairs in France was perfectly famil- 
 iar to me. I was aware that the recent elevation 
 of Buonaparte to the throne had enraged the small 
 but formidable section of Jacobins and extreme 
 Republicans, who saw that all their efforts to 
 abolish a kingdom had only ended in transform- 
 ing it into an empire. It was, indeed, a pitiable 
 result of their frenzied strivings that a crown with 
 eight fleurs-de-lis should be changed into a higher 
 crown surmounted by a cross and ball. On the 
 other hand, the followers of the Bourbons, in 
 whose company I had spent my youth, were equal- 
 ly disappointed at the manner in which the mass 
 of the French people hailed this final step in the 
 return from chaos to order. Contradictory as 
 were their motives, the more violent spirits of both 
 parties were united in their hatred to Napoleon, 
 and in their fierce determination to get rid of 
 him by any means. Hence a series of conspiracies, 
 most of them with their base in England; and 
 hence also a large use of spies and informers upon 
 the part of Fouche and of Savary, upon whom 
 
THE SECRET PASSAGE. 83 
 
 the responsibility of the safety of the Emperor 
 lay. A strange chance had landed me upon the 
 French coast at the very same time as a murder- 
 ous conspirator, and had afterwards enabled me 
 to see the weapons with which the police con- 
 trived to thwart and outwit him and his associ- 
 ates. When I looked back upon my series of ad- 
 ventures, my wanderings in the salt-marsh, my 
 entrance into the cottage, my discovery of the 
 papers, my capture by the conspirators, the long 
 period of suspense with Toussac's dreadful thumb 
 upon my chin, and finally the moving scenes which 
 I had witnessed the killing of the hound, the 
 capture of Lesage, and the arrival of the soldiers 
 I could not wonder that my nerves were over- 
 wrought, and that I surprised myself in little 
 convulsive gestures, like those of a frightened 
 child. 
 
 The chief thought which now filled my mind 
 was what my relations were with this dangerous 
 man who walked by my side. His conduct and 
 bearing had filled me with abhorrence. I had seen 
 the depth of cunning with which he had duped 
 and betrayed his companions, and I had read in 
 
84 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 his lean smiling face the cold deliberate cruelty of 
 his nature, as he stood, pistol in hand, over the 
 whimpering coward whom he had outwitted. Yet 
 I could not deny that when, through my own 
 foolish curiosity, I had placed myself in a most 
 hopeless position, it was he who had braved the 
 wrath of the formidable Toussac in order to extri- 
 cate me. It was evident also that he might have 
 made his achievement more striking by delivering 
 up two prisoners instead of one to the troopers. 
 It is true that I was not a conspirator, but I might 
 have found it difficult to prove it. So inconsistent 
 did such conduct seem in this little yellow flint- 
 stone of a man that, after walking a mile or two in 
 silence, I asked him suddenly what the meaning 
 of it might be. 
 
 I heard a dry chuckle in the darkness, as if he 
 were amused by the abruptness and directness of 
 my question. 
 
 " You are a most amusing person, Monsieur 
 Monsieur let me see, what did you say your name 
 was? " 
 
 " De Laval." 
 
 " Ah, quite so, Monsieur de Laval. You have 
 
THE SECRET PASSAGE. 8$ 
 
 the impetuosity and the ingenuousness of youth. 
 You want to know what is up a chimney, you 
 jump up the chimney. You want to know the 
 reason of a thing, and you blurt out a question. 
 I have been in the habit of living among people 
 who keep their thoughts to themselves, and I find 
 you very refreshing." 
 
 " Whatever the motives of your conduct, there 
 is no doubt that you saved my life," said I. " I 
 am much obliged to you for your intercession." 
 It is the most difficult thing in the world to ex- 
 press gratitude to a person who fills you with ab- 
 horrence, and I fear that my halting speech was 
 another instance of that ingenuousness of which 
 he accused me. 
 
 " I can do without your thanks," said he coldly. 
 " You are perfectly right when you think that if 
 it had suited my purpose I should have let you 
 perish, and I am perfectly right when I think that 
 if it were not that you are under an obligation 
 you would fail to see my hand if I stretched it out 
 to you just as that overgrown puppy Lasalle did. 
 It is very honourable, he thinks, to serve the Em- 
 peror upon the field of battle, and to risk life in 
 
86 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 his behalf, but when it comes to living amidst 
 danger as I have done, consorting with desperate 
 men, and knowing well that the least slip would 
 mean death, why then one is beneath the notice 
 of a fine, clean-handed gentleman. Why," he con- 
 tinued in a burst of bitter passion, " I have dared 
 more, and endured more, with Toussac and a few 
 of his kidney for comrades, than this Lasalle has 
 done in all the childish cavalry charges that ever 
 he undertook. As to service, all his Marshals put 
 together have not rendered the Emperor as press- 
 ing a service as I have done. But I daresay it 
 does not strike you in that light, Monsieur Mon- 
 
 sieur " 
 
 " De Laval." 
 
 " Quite so it is curious how that name es- 
 capes me. I daresay you take the same view as 
 Colonel Lasalle? " 
 
 " It is not a question upon which I can offer 
 an opinion," said I. " I only know that I owe my 
 life to your intercession." 
 
 I do not know what reply he might have made 
 to this evasion, but at that moment we heard a 
 couple of pistol shots and a distant shouting from 
 
THE SECRET PASSAGE. 87 
 
 far away in the darkness. We stopped for a few 
 minutes, but all was silent once more. 
 
 " They must have caught sight of Toussac," 
 said my companion. " I am afraid that he is too 
 strong and too cunning to be taken by them. I 
 do not know what impression he left upon you, 
 but I can tell you that you will go far to meet a 
 more dangerous man." 
 
 I answered that I would go far to avoid meet- 
 ing one, unless I had the means of defending my- 
 self, and my companion's dry chuckle showed that 
 he appreciated my feelings. 
 
 '' Yet he is an absolutely honest man, which 
 is no very common thing in these days," said he. 
 " He is one of those who, at the outbreak of the 
 Revolution, embraced it with the whole strength 
 of his simple nature. He believed what the writers 
 and the speakers told him, and he was convinced 
 that, after a little disturbance and a few necessary 
 executions, France was to become a heaven upon 
 earth, the centre of peace and comfort and broth- 
 erly love. A good many people got those fine 
 ideas into their heads, but the heads have mostly 
 dropped into the sawdust basket by this time. 
 
88 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 Toussac was true to them, and when instead of 
 peace he found war, instead of comfort a grinding 
 poverty, and instead of equality an Empire, it 
 drove him mad. He became the fierce creature 
 you see, with the one idea of devoting his huge 
 body and giant's strength to the destruction of 
 those who had interfered with his ideal. He is 
 fearless, persevering, and implacable. I have no 
 doubt at all that he will kill me for the part that 
 I have played to-night." 
 
 It was in the calmest voice that my companion 
 uttered the remark, and it made me understand 
 that it was no boast when he said that there was 
 more courage needed to carry on his unsavoury 
 trade than to play the part of a beau sabreur like 
 Lasalle. He paused a little, and then went on as 
 if speaking to himself. 
 
 '' Yes," said he, " I missed my chance. I cer- 
 tainly ought to have shot him when he was strug- 
 gling with the hound. But if I had only wounded 
 him he would have torn me into bits like an over- 
 boiled pullet, so perhaps it is as well as it is." 
 
 We had left the salt-marsh behind us, and for 
 some time I had felt the soft springy turf of the 
 
THE SECRET PASSAGE. 89 
 
 downland beneath my feet, and our path had risen 
 and dipped over the curves of the low coast hills. 
 In spite of the darkness my companion walked 
 with great assurance, never hesitating for an in- 
 stant, and keeping up a stiff pace which was wel- 
 come to me in my sodden and benumbed condi- 
 tion. I had been so young when I left my native 
 place that it is doubtful whether, even in daylight, 
 I should have recognised the countryside, but now 
 in the darkness, half stupefied by my adventures, 
 I could not form the least idea as to where we were 
 or what we were making for. A certain reckless- 
 ness had taken possession of me, and I cared little 
 where I went as long as I could gain the rest and 
 shelter of which I stood in need. 
 
 I do not know how long we had walked; I 
 only know that I had dozed and woke and dozed 
 again whilst still automatically keeping pace with 
 my comrade, when I was at last aroused by his 
 coming to a dead stop. The rain had ceased, 
 and although the moon was still obscured, the 
 heavens had cleared somewhat, and I could see 
 for a little distance in every direction. A huge 
 white basin gaped in front of us, and I made out 
 
90 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 that it was a deserted chalk quarry, with bram- 
 bles and ferns growing thickly all round the edges. 
 My companion, after a stealthy glance round to 
 make sure that no one was observing us, picked 
 his way amongst the scattered clumps of bushes 
 until he reached the wall of chalk. This he skirted 
 for some distance, squeezing between the cliff and 
 the brambles until he came at last to a spot where 
 all further progress appeared to be impossible. 
 
 " Can you see a light behind us? " asked my 
 companion. 
 
 I turned round and looked carefully in every 
 direction, but was unable to see one. 
 
 " Never mind," said he. " You go first, and I 
 will follow." 
 
 In some way during the instant that my back 
 had been turned he had swung aside or plucked 
 out the tangle of bush which had barred our way. 
 When I turned there was a square, dark opening 
 in the white glimmering wall in front of us. 
 
 " It is small at the entrance, but it grows larger 
 further in," said he. 
 
 I hesitated for an instant. Whither was it that 
 this strange man was leading me? Did he live in 
 
THE SECRET PASSAGE. 9 ! 
 
 a cave like a wild beast, or was this some trap 
 into which he was luring me? The moon shone 
 out at the instant, and in its silver light this black, 
 silent porthole looked inexpressibly cheerless and 
 menacing. 
 
 " You have gone rather far to turn back, my 
 
 good friend," said my companion. " You must 
 
 either trust me altogether or not trust me at all." 
 
 " I am at your disposal." 
 
 " Pass in then, and I shall follow." 
 
 I crept into the narrow passage, which was so 
 
 low that I had to crawl down it upon my hands 
 
 and knees. Craning my neck round, I could see 
 
 the black angular silhouette of my companion as 
 
 he came after me. He paused at the entrance, 
 
 and then, with a rustling of branches and snapping 
 
 of twigs, the faint light was suddenly shut off from 
 
 outside, and we were left in pitchy darkness. I 
 
 heard the scraping of his knees as he crawled up 
 
 behind me. 
 
 " Go on until you come to a step down," said 
 he. " We shall have more room there, and we can 
 strike a light." 
 
 The ceiling was so low that by arching my back 
 
9 2 
 
 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 I could easily strike it, and my elbows touched the 
 wall upon either side. In those days I was slim 
 and lithe, however, so that I found no difficulty in 
 making my way onwards until, at the end of a 
 hundred paces, or it may have been a hundred and 
 fifty, I felt with my hands that there was a dip in 
 front of me. Down this I clambered, and was 
 instantly conscious from the purer air that I was 
 in some larger cavity. I heard the snapping of my 
 companion's flint, and the red glow of the tinder 
 paper leaped suddenly into the clear yellow flame 
 of the taper. At first I could only see that stern, 
 emaciated face, like some grotesque carving in 
 walnut wood, with the ceaseless, fishlike vibration 
 of the muscles of his jaw. The light beat full upon 
 it, and it stood strangely out with a dim halo 
 round it in the darkness. Then he raised the taper 
 and swept it slowly round at arm's length so as 
 to illuminate the place in which we stood. 
 
 I found that we were in a subterranean tunnel, 
 which appeared to extend into the bowels of the 
 earth. It was so high that I could stand erect with 
 ease, and the old lichen-blotched stones which 
 lined the walls told of its great age. At the spot 
 
THE SECRET PASSAGE. 
 
 93 
 
 where we stood the ceiling had fallen in and the 
 original passage been blocked, but a cutting had 
 been made from this point through the chalk to 
 form the narrow burrow along which we had come. 
 This cutting appeared to be quite recent, for a 
 mound of debris and some trenching tools were still 
 lying in the passage. My companion, taper in 
 hand, started off down the tunnel, and I followed 
 at his heels, stepping over the great stones which 
 had fallen from the roof or the walls, and now 
 obstructed the path. 
 
 " Well," said he, grinning at me over his shoul- 
 der, " have you ever seen anything like this in 
 England? " 
 
 " Never," I answered. 
 
 " These are the precautions and devices which 
 men adopted in rough days long ago. Now that 
 rough days have come again, they are very useful 
 to those who know of such places." 
 
 " Whither does it lead, then? " I asked. 
 
 " To this," said he, stopping before an old 
 wooden door, powerfully clamped with iron. He 
 fumbled with the metal-work, keeping himself be- 
 tween me and it, so that I could not see what he 
 
94 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 was doing. There was a sharp snick, and the door 
 revolved slowly upon its hinges. Within there 
 was a steep flight of time-worn steps leading up- 
 wards. He motioned me on, and closed the door 
 behind us. At the head of the stair there was a 
 second wooden gate, which he opened in a similar 
 manner. 
 
 I had been dazed before ever I came into the 
 chalk pit, but now, at this succession of incidents, 
 I began to rub my eyes and ask myself whether 
 this was young Louis de Laval, late of Ashford, in 
 Kent, or whether it was some dream of the adven- 
 tures of a hero of Pegault Lebrun. These massive 
 moss-grown arches and mighty iron-clamped doors 
 were, indeed, like the dim shadowy background 
 of a vision; but the guttering taper, my sodden 
 bundle, and all the sordid details of my disarranged 
 toilet assured me only too clearly of their reality. 
 Above all, the swift, brisk, business-like manner of 
 my companion, and his occasional abrupt remarks, 
 brought my fancies back to the ground once more. 
 He held the door open for me now, and closed it 
 again when I had passed through. 
 
 We found ourselves in a long vaulted corridor, 
 
THE SECRET PASSAGE. 
 
 95 
 
 with a stone-flagged floor, and a dim oil lamp 
 burning at the further end. Two iron-barred win- 
 dows showed that we had come above the earth's 
 surface once more. Down this corridor we passed, 
 and then through several passages and up a short 
 winding stair. At the head of it was an open 
 door, which led into a small but comfortable bed- 
 room. 
 
 " I presume that this will satisfy your wants 
 for to-night/* said he. 
 
 I asked for nothing better than to throw my- 
 self down, damp clothes and all, upon that snowy 
 coverlet; but for the instant my curiosity over- 
 came my fatigue. 
 
 " I am much indebted to you, sir," said I. 
 " Perhaps you will add to your favours by letting 
 me know where I am." 
 
 " You are in my house, and that must suffice 
 you for to-night. In the morning we shall go 
 further into the matter." He rang a small bell, 
 and a gaunt shock-headed country man-servant 
 came running at the call. 
 
 " Your mistress has retired, I suppose? " 
 
 ' Yes, sir, a good two hours ago." 
 
96 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 " Very good. I shall call you myself in the 
 morning." He closed my door, and the echo of 
 his steps seemed hardly to have died from my ears 
 before I had sunk into that deep and dreamless 
 sleep which only youth and fatigue can give. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE OWNER OF GROSBOIS. 
 
 MY host was as good as his word, for, when a 
 noise in my room awoke me in the morning, it 
 was to find him standing by the side of my bed, 
 so composed in his features and so drab in his at- 
 tire, that it was hard to associate him with the 
 stirring scenes of yesterday and with the repulsive 
 part which he had played in them. Now in the 
 fresh morning sunlight he presented rather the ap- 
 pearance of a pedantic schoolmaster, an impression 
 which was increased by the masterful, and yet 
 benevolent, smile with which he regarded me. In 
 spite of his smile, I was more conscious than ever 
 that my whole soul shrank from him, and that I 
 should not be at my ease until I had broken this 
 companionship which had been so involuntarily 
 formed. He carried a heap of clothes over one 
 
 97 
 
gg UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 arm, which he threw upon a chair at the bottom of 
 my bed. 
 
 " I gather from the little that you told me last 
 night," said he, " that your wardrobe is at present 
 somewhat scanty. I fear that your inches are 
 greater than those of anyone in my household, but 
 I have brought a few things here amongst which 
 you may find something to fit you. Here, too, 
 are the razors, the soap, and the powder-box. I 
 will return in half an hour, when your toilet will 
 doubtless be completed." 
 
 I found that my own clothes, with a little 
 brushing, were as good as ever, but I availed my- 
 self of his offer to the extent of a ruffled shirt and 
 a black satin cravat. I had finished dressing and 
 was looking out of the window of my room, which 
 opened on to a blank wall, when my host returned. 
 He looked me all over with a keenly scrutinising 
 eye, and appeared to be satisfied with what he 
 saw. 
 
 "That will do! That will do very well in- 
 deed!" said he, nodding a critical head. "In 
 these times a slight indication of travel or hard 
 work upon a costume is more fashionable than the 
 
THE OWNER OF GROSBOIS. 99 
 
 foppishness of the Incroyable. I have heard ladies 
 remark that it was in better taste. Now, sir, if 
 you will kindly follow me." 
 
 His solicitude about my dress filled me with 
 surprise, but this was soon forgotten in the shock 
 which was awaiting me. For as we passed down 
 the passage and into a large hall which seemed 
 strangely familiar to me, there was a full-length 
 portrait of my father standing right in front of me. 
 I stood staring with a gasp of astonishment, and 
 turned to see the cold grey eyes of my companion 
 fixed upon me with a humorous glitter. 
 
 * You seem surprised, Monsieur de Laval," 
 said he. 
 
 " For God's sake," said I, " do not trifle with 
 me any further. Who are you, and what is this 
 place to which you have taken me? " 
 
 For answer he broke into one of his dry 
 chuckles, and, laying his skinny brown hand upon 
 my wrist, he led me into a large apartment. In 
 the centre was a table, tastefully laid, and beyond 
 it in a low chair a young lady was seated, with a 
 book in her hand. She rose as we entered, and I 
 saw that she was tall and slender, with a dark 
 
100 UNCLE EERNAC. 
 
 face, pronounced features, arid black eyes of ex- 
 traordinary brilliancy. Even in that one glance 
 it struck me that the expression with which she 
 regarded me was by no means a friendly one. 
 
 " Sibylle," said my host, and his words took 
 the breath from my lips, " this is your cousin from 
 England, Louis de Laval. This, my dear nephew, 
 is my only daughter, Sibylle Bernac." 
 
 " Then you " 
 
 " I am your mother's brother, Charles Bernac." 
 
 " You are my Uncle Bernac," I stammered at 
 him like an idiot. " But why did you not tell me 
 so? " I cried. 
 
 " I was not sorry to have a chance of quietly 
 observing what his English education had done 
 for my nephew. It might also have been harder 
 for me to stand your friend if my comrades had 
 any reason to think that I was personally inter- 
 ested in you. But you will permit me now to wel- 
 come you heartily to France, and to express my 
 regret if your reception has been a rough one. I 
 am sure that Sibylle will help me to atone for it." 
 He smiled archly at his daughter, who continued 
 to regard me with a stony face. 
 
THE OWNER OF,$R9SBO2& :Oi 
 
 I looked round me, and gradually the spacious 
 room, with the weapons upon the wall, and the 
 deer's heads, came dimly back to my memory. 
 That view through the oriel window, too, with 
 the clump of oaks in the sloping park, and the 
 sea in the distance beyond, I had certainly seen 
 it before. It was true then, and I was in our own 
 castle of Grosbois, and this dreadful man in the 
 snuff-coloured coat, this sinister plotter with the 
 death's-head face, was the man whom I had heard 
 my poor father curse so often, the man who had 
 ousted him from his own property and installed 
 himself in his place. And yet I could not forget 
 that it was he also who, at some risk to himself, 
 had saved me the night before, and my soul was 
 again torn between my gratitude and my repul- 
 sion. 
 
 We had seated ourselves at the table, and, as 
 we ate, this newly-found uncle of mine continued 
 to explain all those points which I had failed to 
 understand. 
 
 " I suspected that it was you the instant that 
 I set eyes upon you," said he. " I am old enough 
 to remember your father when he was a young 
 
To-3 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 gallant, and you are his very double, though I may 
 say, without flattery, that where there is a differ- 
 ence it is in your favour. And yet he had the 
 name of being one of the handsomest men betwixt 
 Rouen and the sea. You must bear in mind that 
 I was expecting you, and that there are not so 
 many young aristocrats of your age wandering 
 about along the coast. I was surprised when you 
 did not recognise where you were last night. Had 
 you never heard of the secret passage of Gros- 
 bois? " 
 
 It came vaguely back to me that in my child- 
 hood I had heard of this underground tunnel, 
 but that the roof had fallen in and rendered it 
 useless. 
 
 " Precisely," said my uncle. " When the castle 
 passed into my hands, one of the very first things 
 which I did was to cut a new opening at the end 
 of it, for I foresaw that in these troublesome times 
 it might be of use to me; indeed, had it been in 
 repair it might have made the escape of your 
 mother and father a very much easier affair." 
 
 His words recalled all that I had heard and all 
 that I could remember of those dreadful days when 
 
THE OWNER OF GROSBOIS. 
 
 103 
 
 we, the Lords of the country side, had been chased 
 across it as if we had been wolves, with the howl- 
 ing mob still clustering at the pier-head to shake 
 their fists and hurl their stones at us. I remem- 
 bered, too, that it was this very man who was 
 speaking to me who had thrown oil upon the 
 flames in those days, and whose fortunes had been 
 founded upon our ruin. As I looked across at him 
 I found that his keen grey eyes were fixed upon 
 me, and I could see that he had read the thoughts 
 in my mind. 
 
 " We must let bygones be bygones," said he. 
 " Those are quarrels of the last generation, and 
 Sibylle and you represent a new one." 
 
 My cousin had not said one word or taken any 
 notice of my presence, but at this joining of our 
 names she glanced at me with the same hostile 
 expression which I had already remarked. 
 
 " Come, Sibylle," said her father, " you can as- 
 sure your cousin Louis that, so far as you are 
 concerned, any family misunderstanding is at an 
 end." 
 
 " It is very well for us to talk in that way, 
 father," she answered. " It is not your picture 
 
 8 
 
104 
 
 UNCLE EERNAC. 
 
 that hangs in the hall, or your coat-of-arms that 
 I see upon the wall. We hold the castle and the 
 land, but it is for the heir of the de Lavals to tell 
 us if he is satisfied with this." Her dark, scornful 
 eyes were fixed upon me as she waited for my reply, 
 but her father hastened to intervene. 
 
 " This is not a very hospitable tone in which 
 to greet your cousin," said he harshly. " It has 
 so chanced that Louis' heritage has fallen to us, 
 but it is not for us to remind him of the fact." 
 
 " He needs no reminding," said she. 
 
 " You do me an injustice," I cried, for the evi- 
 dent and malignant scorn of this girl galled me to 
 the quick. " It is true that I cannot forget that 
 this castle and these grounds belonged to my an- 
 cestors I should be a clod indeed if I could forget 
 it but if you think that I harbour any bitterness, 
 you are mistaken. For my own part, I ask noth- 
 ing better than to open up a career for myself 
 with my own sword." 
 
 " And never was there a time when it could 
 be more easily and more brilliantly done," cried 
 my uncle. " There are great things about to hap- 
 pen in the world, and if you are at the Emperor's 
 
THE OWNER OF GROSBOIS. IOJ 
 
 court you will be in the middle of them. I under- 
 stand that you are content to serve him? " 
 
 " I wish to serve my country." 
 
 " By serving the Emperor you do so, for with- 
 out him the country becomes chaos." 
 
 " From all we hear it is not a very easy service/* 
 said my cousin. " I should have thought that you 
 would have been very much more comfortable in 
 England and then you would have been so much 
 safer also." 
 
 Everything which the girl said seemed to be 
 meant as an insult to me, and yet I could not im- 
 agine how I had ever offended her. Never had 
 I met a woman for whom I conceived so hearty 
 and rapid a dislike. I could see that her remarks 
 were as offensive to her father as they were to 
 me, for he looked at her with eyes which were as 
 angry as her own. 
 
 " Your cousin is a brave man, and that is more 
 than can be said for someone else that I could 
 mention," said he. 
 
 " For whom? " she asked. 
 
 " Never mind ! " he snapped, and, jumping up 
 with the air of a man who is afraid that his rage 
 
106 UNCLE BEKNAC. 
 
 may master him, and that he may say more than 
 he wished, he ran from the room. 
 
 She seemed startled by this retort of his, and 
 rose as if she would follow him. Then she 
 tossed her head and laughed incredulously. 
 
 " I suppose that you have never met your uncle 
 before? " said she, after a few minutes of embar- 
 rassed silence. 
 
 " Never," I answered. 
 
 " Well, what do you think of him now you hare 
 met him? " 
 
 Such a question from a daughter about her 
 father filled me with a certain vague horror. I 
 felt that he must be even a worse man than I had 
 taken him for if he had so completely forfeited the 
 loyalty of his own nearest and dearest. 
 
 " Your silence is a sufficient answer," said she, 
 as I hesitated for a reply. "I do not know how 
 you came to meet him last night, or what passed 
 between you, for we do not share each other's con- 
 fidences. I think, however, that you have read 
 him aright. Now I have something to ask you. 
 You had a letter from him inviting you to leave 
 England and to come here, had you not? " 
 
THE OWNER OF GROSBOIS. 
 
 107 
 
 ' Yes, I had." 
 
 " Did you observe nothing on the outside? " 
 I thought of those two sinister words which 
 
 had puzzled me so much. 
 
 " What! it was you who warned me not to 
 
 come? " 
 
 " Yes, it was I. I had no other means of do- 
 ing it." 
 
 " But why did you do it? " 
 " Because I did not wish you to come here." 
 " Did you think that I would harm you? " 
 She sat silent for a few seconds like one who 
 
 is afraid of saying too much. When her answer 
 
 came it was a very unexpected one: 
 
 " I was afraid that you would be harmed." 
 
 " You think that I am in danger here? " 
 
 " I am sure of it." 
 
 " You advise me to leave? " 
 
 " Without losing an instant." 
 
 " From whom is the danger then? " 
 
 Again she hesitated, and then, with a reckless 
 
 motion like one who throws prudence to the winds, 
 
 she turned upon me. 
 
 " It is from my father," said she. 
 
I0 g UNCLE BERNAC 
 
 " But why should he harm me? " 
 " That is for your sagacity to discover." 
 " But I assure you, Mademoiselle, that in this 
 matter you misjudge me," said I. " As it hap- 
 pens he interfered to save my life last night." 
 "To save your life! From whom?" 
 " From two conspirators whose plans I had 
 chanced to discover." 
 
 "Conspirators!" She looked at me in sur- 
 prise. 
 
 " They would have killed me if he had not in- 
 tervened." 
 
 "It is not his interest that you should be 
 harmed yet awhile. He had reasons for wishing 
 you to come to Castle Grosbois. But I have been 
 very frank with you, and I wish you to be equally 
 cO with me. Does it happen does it happen that 
 during your youth in England you have ever 
 you have ever had an affair of the heart? " 
 
 Everything which this cousin of mine said ap- 
 peared to me to be stranger than the last, and this 
 question, coming at the end of so serious a con- 
 versation, was the strangest of all. But frankness 
 begets frankness, and I did not hesitate. 
 
THE OWNER OF GROSBOIS. 
 
 109 
 
 " I have left the very best and truest girl in the 
 world behind me in England," said I. " Eugenie 
 is her name, Eugenie de Choiseul, the niece of the 
 old duke." 
 
 My reply seemed to give my cousin great sat- 
 isfaction. Her large dark eyes shone with pleas- 
 ure. 
 
 " You are very attached? " she asked. 
 
 " I shall never be happy until I see her." 
 
 " And you would not give her up? " 
 
 " God forbid! " 
 
 " Not for the Castle of Grosbois? " 
 
 " Not even for that." 
 
 My cousin held out her hand to me with a 
 charmingly frank impulsiveness. 
 
 ' You will forgive me for my rudeness," said 
 she. " I see that we are to be allies and not ene- 
 mies." 
 
 And our hands were still clasped when her 
 father re-entered the room. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 COUSIN SIBYLLE. 
 
 I COULD see in my uncle's grim face as he 
 looked at us the keenest satisfaction contending 
 with surprise at this sign of our sudden reconcilia- 
 tion. All trace of his recent anger seemed to have 
 left him as he addressed his daughter, but in spite 
 of his altered tone I noticed that her eyes looked 
 defiance and distrust. 
 
 " I have some papers of importance to look 
 over," said he. " For an hour or so I shall be en- 
 gaged. I can guess that Louis would like to see 
 the old place once again, and I am sure that he 
 could not have a better guide than you, Sibylle, 
 if you will take him over it." 
 
 She raised no objection, and for my part I was 
 overjoyed at the proposal, as it gave me an oppor- 
 tunity of learning more of this singular cousin of 
 mine, who had told me so much and yet seemed to 
 
 no 
 
COUSIN SIBYLLE. TII 
 
 know so much more. What was the meaning of 
 this obscure warning which she had given me 
 against her father, and why was she so frankly 
 anxious to know about my love affairs these were 
 the two questions which pressed" for an answer. 
 So out we went together into the sweet coast-land 
 air, the sweeter for the gale of the night before, 
 and we walked through the old yew-lined paths, 
 and out into the park, and so round the Castle, 
 looking up at the gables, the grey pinnacles, the 
 oak-mullioned windows, the ancient wing with its 
 crenulated walls and its meurtriere windows, the 
 modern with its pleasant verandah and veil of hon- 
 eysuckle. And as she showed me each fresh little 
 detail, with a particularity which made me under- 
 stand how dear the place had become to her, she 
 would still keep offering her apologies for the fact 
 that she should be the hostess and I the visitor. 
 
 " It is not against you but against ourselves 
 that I was bitter," said she, " for are we not the 
 cuckoos who have taken a strange nest and driven 
 out those who built it. It makes me blush to think 
 that my father should invite you to your own 
 house." 
 
112 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 " Perhaps we had been rooted here too long," 
 I answered. " Perhaps it is for our own good 
 that we are driven out to carve our own fortunes, 
 as I intend to do." 
 
 '' You say that you are going to the Em- 
 peror." 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " You know that he is in camp near here." 
 
 " So I have heard." 
 
 " But your family is still proscribed." 
 
 " I have done him no harm. I will go boldly 
 to him and ask him to admit me into his serv- 
 ice." 
 
 "Well," said she, "there are some who call 
 him a usurper, and wish him all evil; but for my 
 own part I have never heard of anything that he 
 has said and done which was not great and noble. 
 But I had expected that you would be quite an 
 Englishman, Cousin Louis, and come over here 
 with your pockets full of Pitt's guineas and your 
 heart of treason." 
 
 " I have met nothing but hospitality from the 
 English," I answered; "but my heart has always 
 been French." 
 
COUSIN SIBYLLE H 3 
 
 " But your father fought against us at Ouibe- 
 ron." 
 
 " Let each generation settle its own quarrels," 
 said I. " I am quite of your father's opinion about 
 that." 
 
 " Do not judge my father by his words, but 
 by his deeds," said she, with a warning finger up- 
 raised; "and, above all, Cousin Louis, unless you 
 wish to have my life upon your conscience, never 
 let him suspect that I have said a word to set you 
 on your guard." 
 
 "Your life!" I gasped. 
 
 " Oh, yes, he would not stick at that," she 
 cried. " He killed my mother. I do not say that 
 he slaughtered her, but I mean that his cold bru- 
 tality broke her gentle heart. Now perhaps you 
 begin to understand why I can talk of him in this 
 fashion." 
 
 As she spoke I could see the secret broodings 
 of years, the bitter resentments crushed down in 
 her silent soul, rising suddenly to flush her dark 
 cheeks and to gleam in her splendid eyes. I real- 
 ised at that moment that in that tall, slim figure 
 there dwelt an unconquerable spirit. 
 
UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 " You must think that I speak very freely to 
 you, since I have only known you a few hours, 
 Cousin Louis," said she. 
 
 " To whom should you speak freely if not to 
 your own relative? " 
 
 " It is true, and yet I never expected that I 
 should be on such terms with you. I looked for- 
 ward to your coming with dread and sorrow. No 
 doubt I showed something of my feelings when 
 my father brought you in." 
 
 " Indeed you did," I answered. " I feared that 
 my presence was unwelcome to you." 
 
 " Most unwelcome, both for your own sake and 
 for mine," said she. " For your sake because I 
 suspected, as I have told you, that my father's in- 
 tentions might be unfriendly. For mine " 
 
 " Why for yours? " I asked in surprise, for she 
 had stopped in embarrassment. 
 
 " You have told me that your heart is another's. 
 I may tell you that my hand is also promised, and 
 that my love has gone with it." 
 
 " May all happiness attend it! " said I. " But 
 why should this make my coming unwelcome? " 
 
 " That thick English air has dimmed your wits, 
 
COUSIN SIBVLLE. H$ 
 
 cousin," said she, shaking her stately head at me. 
 " But I can speak freely now that I know that this 
 plan would be as hateful to you as to me. You 
 must know, then, that if my father could have 
 married us he would have united all claims to the 
 succession of Grosbois. Then, come what might 
 Bourbon or Buonaparte nothing could shake his 
 position." 
 
 I thought of the solicitude which he had shown 
 over my toilet in the morning, his anxiety that I 
 should make a favourable impression, his dis- 
 pleasure when she had been cold to me, and the 
 smile upon his face when he had seen us hand in 
 hand. 
 
 " I believe you are right! " I cried. 
 
 " Right! Of course I am right! Look at him 
 watching us now." 
 
 We were walking on the edge of the dried 
 moat, and as I looked up there, sure enough, was 
 the little yellow face turned towards us in the 
 angle of one of the windows. Seeing that I was 
 watching him, he rose and waved his hand 
 merrily. 
 
 " Now you know \vhy he saved your life 
 
H6 UNCLE BERN AC. 
 
 since you say that he saved it," said she. " It 
 would suit his plans best that you should marry 
 his daughter, and so he wished you to live. But 
 when once he understands that that is impossi- 
 ble, why then, my poor Cousin Louis, his only 
 way of guarding against the return of the de 
 Lavals must lie in ensuring that there are none 
 to return." 
 
 It was those words of hers, coupled with that 
 furtive yellow face still lurking at the window, 
 which made me realise the imminence of my dan- 
 ger. No one in France had any reason to take 
 an interest in me. If I were to pass away there 
 was no one who could make inquiry I was 
 absolutely in his power. My memory told me 
 what a ruthless and dangerous man it was with 
 whom I had to deal. 
 
 " But," said I, " he must have known that your 
 affections were already engaged." 
 
 "He did," she answered; "it was that which 
 made me most uneasy of all. I was afraid for you 
 and afraid for myself, but, most of all, I was 
 afraid for Lucien. No man can stand in the way 
 of his plans." 
 
She gripped me by the wrist in her anxiety. 
 
COUSIN SIEYLLE. 117 
 
 "Lucien!" The name was like a lightning 
 flash upon a dark night. I had heard of the 
 vagaries of a woman's love, but was it possible 
 that this spirited woman loved that poor creature 
 whom I had seen grovelling last night in a frenzy 
 of fear. But now I remembered also where I had 
 seen the name Sibylle. It was upon the fly-leaf 
 of his book. " Lucien, from Sibylle," was the in- 
 scription. I recalled also that my uncle had said 
 something to him about his aspirations. 
 
 " Lucien is hot-headed, and easily carried 
 away," said she. " My father has seen a great 
 deal of him lately. They sit for hours in his room, 
 and Lucien will say nothing of what passes be- 
 tween them. I fear that there is something going 
 forward which may lead to evil. Lucien is a stu- 
 dent rather than a man of the world, but he has 
 strong opinions about politics." 
 
 I was at my wit's ends what to do, whether to 
 be silent, or to tell her of the terrible position in 
 which her lover was placed; but, even as I hesi- 
 tated, she, with the quick intuition of a woman, 
 read the doubts which were in my mind. 
 
 " You know something of him," she cried. " I 
 
jig UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 understood that he had gone to Paris. For God's 
 sake tell me what you know about him." 
 
 " His name is Lesage? " 
 
 ' Yes, yes. Lucien Lesage." 
 
 " I have I have seen him," I stammered. 
 
 ' You have seen him ! And you only arrived 
 in France last night. Where did you see him? 
 What has happened to him? " She gripped me 
 by the wrist in her anxiety. 
 
 It was cruel to tell her, and yet it seemed more 
 cruel still to keep silent. I looked round in my 
 bewilderment, and there was my uncle himself 
 coming along over the close-cropped green lawn. 
 By his side, with a merry clashing of steel and 
 jingling of spurs, there walked a handsome young 
 hussar the same to whom the charge of the pris- 
 oner had been committed upon the night before. 
 Sibylle never hesitated for an instant, but, with 
 a set face and blazing eyes, she swept towards 
 them. 
 
 " Father," said she, " what have you done with 
 Lucien? " 
 
 I saw his impassive face wince for a moment 
 before the passionate hatred and contempt which 
 
COUSIN SIBYLLE. ng 
 
 he read in her eyes. " We will discuss this at some 
 future time," said he. 
 
 " I will know here and now," she cried. " What 
 have you done with Lucien? " 
 
 " Gentlemen," said he, turning to the young 
 hussar and me, " I am sorry that we should in- 
 trude our little domestic differences upon your 
 attention. You will, I am sure, make allowances, 
 lieutenant, when I tell you that your prisoner of 
 last night was a very dear friend of my daughter's. 
 Such family considerations do not prevent me 
 from doing my duty to the Emperor, but they 
 make that duty more painful than it would other- 
 wise be." 
 
 " You have my sympathy, Mademoiselle," said 
 the young hussar. 
 
 It was to him that my cousin had now turned. 
 
 " Do I understand that you took him pris- 
 oner? " she asked. 
 
 " It was unfortunately my duty." 
 
 " From you I will get the truth. Whither did 
 you take him? " 
 
 " To the Emperor's camp." 
 
 " And why? " 
 
120 UNCLE BERN AC. 
 
 " Ah, Mademoiselle, it is not for me to go into 
 politics. My duties are but to wield a sword, and 
 sit a horse, and obey my orders. Both these gen- 
 tlemen will be my witnesses that I received my 
 instructions from Colonel Lasalle." 
 
 " But on what charge was he arrested? " 
 
 " Tut, tut, child, we have had enough of this! " 
 said my uncle harshly. " If you insist upon know- 
 ing I will tell you once and for all, that Monsieur 
 Lucien Lesage has been seized for being concerned 
 in a plot against the life of the Emperor, and 
 that it was my privilege to denounce the would- 
 be assassin." 
 
 " To denounce him! " cried the girl. " I know 
 that it was you who set him on, who encouraged 
 him, who held him to it whenever he tried to draw 
 back. Oh, you villain! you villain! What have I 
 ever done, what sin of my ancestors am I expiat- 
 ing, that I should be compelled to call such a man 
 Father? " 
 
 My uncle shrugged his shoulders as if to say 
 that it was useless to argue with a woman's tan- 
 trums. The hussar and I made as if we would 
 stroll away, for it was embarrassing to stand listen- 
 
COUSIN SIBYLLE. 12 1 
 
 ing to such words, but in her fury she called to us 
 to stop and be witnesses against him. Never have 
 I seen such a recklessness of passion as blazed in 
 her dry, wide-opened eyes. 
 
 " You have deceived others, but you have 
 never deceived me," she cried.. " I know you as 
 your own conscience knows you. You may mur- 
 der me, as you murdered my mother before me, 
 but you can never frighten me into being your 
 accomplice. You proclaimed yourself a republican 
 that you might creep into a house and estate 
 which do not belong to you. And now you try 
 to make a friend of Buonaparte by betraying your 
 old associates, who still trust in you. And you 
 have sent Lucien to his death! But I know your 
 plans, and my cousin Louis knows them also, and 
 I can assure you that there is just as much chance 
 of his agreeing to them as there is of my doing 
 so. I'd rather lie in my grave than be the wife 
 of any man but Lucien." 
 
 " If you had seen the pitiful poltroon that he 
 proved himself you would not say so," said my 
 uncle coolly. " You are not yourself at present, 
 but when you return to your right mind you will 
 
122 UNCLE BERN AC. 
 
 be ashamed of having made this public exposure 
 of your weakness. And now, lieutenant, you have 
 something to say." 
 
 " My message was to you, Monsieur de Laval/' 
 said the young hussar, turning his back con- 
 temptuously upon my uncle. " The Emperor has 
 sent me to bring you to him at once at the camp 
 at Boulogne." 
 
 My heart leapt at the thought of escaping from 
 my uncle. 
 
 " I ask nothing better/' I cried. 
 
 " A horse and an escort are waiting at the 
 gates." 
 
 " I am ready to start at this instant." 
 
 " Nay, there can be no such very great hurry," 
 said my uncle. " Surely you will wait for lunch- 
 eon, Lieutenant Gerard." 
 
 " The Emperor's commissions, sir, are not car- 
 ried out in such a manner," said the young hus- 
 sar sternly. " I have already wasted too much 
 time. We must be upon our way in five minutes." 
 
 My uncle placed his hand upon my arm and 
 led me slowly towards the gateway, through which 
 my cousin Sibylle had already passed. 
 
COUSIN SIBYLLE. 133 
 
 " There is one matter that I wish to speak to 
 you about before you go. Since my time is so 
 short you will forgive me if I introduce it without 
 preamble. You have seen your cousin Sibylle, 
 and though her behaviour this morning is such 
 as to prejudice you against her, yet I can assure 
 you that she is a very amiable girl. She spoke 
 just now as if she had mentioned the plan which 
 I had conceived to you. I confess to you that I 
 cannot imagine anything more convenient than 
 that we should unite in order to settle once for 
 all every question as to which branch of the fam- 
 ily shall hold the estates." 
 
 " Unfortunately," said I, " there are objec- 
 tions." 
 
 " And pray what are they? " 
 
 :< The fact that my cousin's hand, as I have 
 just learned, is promised to another." 
 
 " That need not hinder us," said he, with a sour 
 smile; " I will undertake that he never claims the 
 promise." 
 
 " I fear that I have the English idea of mar- 
 riage, that it should go by love and not by con- 
 venience. But in any case your scheme is out of 
 
124 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 the question, for my own affections are pledged 
 to a young lady in England." 
 
 He looked wickedly at me out of the corners 
 of his grey eyes. 
 
 " Think well what you are doing, Louis," said 
 he, in a sibilant whisper which was as menacing as 
 a serpent's hiss. :t You are deranging my plans, 
 and that is not done with impunity." 
 
 " It is not a matter in which I have any 
 choice." 
 
 He gripped me by the sleeve, and waved his 
 hand round as Satan may have done when he 
 showed the kingdoms and principalities. " Look 
 at the park," he cried, " the fields, the woods. 
 Look at the old castle in which your fathers have 
 lived for eight hundred years. You have but to 
 say the word and it is all yours once more." 
 
 There flashed up into my memory the little red 
 brick house at Ashford, and Eugenie's sweet, pale 
 face looking over the laurel-bushes which grew 
 by the window. 
 
 "It is impossible!" said I. 
 
 There must have been something in my man- 
 ner which made him comprehend that it really 
 
COUSIN SIBYLLE. 
 
 I2J 
 
 was so, for his face darkened with anger, and his 
 persuasion changed in an instant to menace. 
 
 " If I had known this they might have done 
 what they wished with you last night," said he. 
 " I would never have put out a ringer to save 
 you." 
 
 " I am glad to hear you say so," I answered, 
 " for it makes it easier for me to say that I wish 
 to go my own way, and to have nothing more to 
 do with you. What you have just said frees me 
 from the bond of gratitude which held me back." 
 
 " I have no doubt that you would like to have 
 nothing more to do with me," he cried. " You 
 will wish it more heartily still before you finish. 
 Very well, sir, go your own way and I will go 
 mine, and we shall see who comes out the best in 
 the end." 
 
 A group of hussars were standing by their 
 horses' heads in the gateway. In a few minutes I 
 had packed my scanty possessions, and I was 
 hastening with them down the corridor when a 
 chill struck suddenly through my heart at the 
 thought of my cousin Sibylle. How could I leave 
 her alone with this grim companion in the old 
 
126 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 castle? Had she not herself told me that her 
 very life might be at stake? I had stopped in 
 my perplexity, and suddenly there was a patter 
 of feet, and there she was running towards me. 
 
 " Good-bye, Cousin Louis/' she cried, with 
 outstretched hands. 
 
 "I was thinking of you," said I; "your fa- 
 ther and I have had an explanation and a quarrel." 
 
 " Thank God," she cried. " Your only chance 
 was to get away from him. But beware, for he 
 will do you an injury if he can! " 
 
 "He may do his worst; but how can I leave 
 you here in his power? " 
 
 " Have no fears about me. He has more rea- 
 son to avoid me than I him. But they are calling 
 for you, Cousin Louis. Good-bye, and God be 
 with you! " 
 
I sprang readily enough into the saddle. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE CAMP OF BOULOGNE. 
 
 MY uncle was still standing at the castle- gate- 
 way, the very picture of a usurper, with our own 
 old coat-of-arms of the bend argent and the three 
 blue martlets engraved upon the stones at either 
 side of him. He gave me no sign of greeting as I 
 mounted the large grey horse which was awaiting 
 me, but he looked thoughtfully at me from under 
 his down-drawn brows, and his jaw muscles still 
 throbbed with that stealthy, rhythmical move- 
 ment. I read a cold and settled malice in his set 
 yellow face and his stern eyes. For my own part 
 I sprang readily enough into the saddle, for the 
 man's presence had, from the first, been loathsome 
 to me, and I was right glad to be able to turn 
 my back upon him. And so, with a stern, quick 
 order from the lieutenant and a jingle and clatter 
 
 from the troopers, we were off upon our journey. 
 
 127 
 
128 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 As I glanced back at the black keep of Grosbois, 
 and at the sinister figure who stood looking after 
 us from beside the gateway, I saw from over his 
 head a white handkerchief gleam for an instant 
 in a last greeting from one of the gloomy meur- 
 triere windows, and again a chill ran through me 
 as I thought of the fearless girl and of the hands 
 in which we were leaving her. 
 
 But sorrow clears from the mind of youth like 
 the tarnish of breath upon glass, and who could 
 carry a heavy heart upon so lightfooted a horse 
 and through so sweet an air? The white glimmer- 
 ing road wound over the downs with the sea far 
 upon the left, and between lay that great salt- 
 marsh which had been the scene of our adventures. 
 I could even see, as I fancied, a dull black spot in 
 the distance to mark the position of that terrible 
 cottage. Far away the little clusters of houses 
 showed the positions of Etaples, Ambleterre, and 
 the other fishing villages, whilst I could see that 
 the point which had seemed last night to glow 
 like a half-forged red-hot sword-blade was now 
 white as a snow-field with the camp of a great 
 army. Far, far away, a little dim cloud upon the 
 
THE CAMP OF BOULOGNE. 129 
 
 water stood for the land where I had spent my 
 days the pleasant, homely land which will always 
 rank next to my own in my affections. 
 
 And now I turned my attention from the 
 downs and the sea to the hussars who rode beside 
 me, forming, as I could perceive, a guard rather 
 than an escort. Save for the patrol last night, 
 they were the first of the famous soldiers of Na- 
 poleon whom I had ever seen, and it was with 
 admiration and curiosity that I looked upon men 
 who had won a world- wide reputation for their 
 discipline and their gallantry. Their appearance 
 was by no means gorgeous, and their dress and 
 equipment was much more modest than that of 
 the East Kent Yeomanry, which rode every Sat- 
 urday through Ashford; but the stained tunics, 
 the worn leathers, and the rough, hardy horses 
 gave them a very workmanlike appearance. They 
 were small, light, brown-faced fellows, heavily 
 whiskered and moustached, many of them wear- 
 ing ear-rings in their ears. It surprised me that 
 even the youngest and most boyish-looking of 
 them should be so bristling with hair, until, upon 
 a second look, I perceived that his whiskers were 
 
130 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 formed of lumps of black wax stuck on to the 
 sides of his face. The tall young lieutenant no- 
 ticed the astonishment with which I gazed at his 
 boyish trooper. 
 
 * Yes, yes," said he, " they are artificial, sure 
 enough; but what can you expect from a lad of 
 seventeen? On the other hand, we cannot spoil 
 the appearance of the regiment upon parade by 
 having a girl's cheeks in the ranks." 
 
 " It melts terribly in this warm weather, Lieu- 
 tenant," said the hussar, joining into the conversa- 
 tion with the freedom which was one of the char- 
 acteristics of Napoleon's troops. 
 
 " Well, well, Caspar, in a year or two you will 
 dispense with them." 
 
 " Who knows? Perhaps he will have dis- 
 pensed with his head also by that time," said a 
 corporal in front, and they all laughed together 
 in a manner which in England would have meant 
 a court-martial. This seemed to me to be one of 
 the survivals of the Revolution, that officer and 
 private were left upon a very familiar footing, 
 which was increased, no doubt by the freedom with 
 which the Emperor would chat with his old sol- 
 
THE CAMP OF BOULOGNE. 131 
 
 diers, and the liberties which he would allow them 
 to take with him. It was no uncommon thing 
 for a shower of chaff to come from the ranks di- 
 rected at their own commanding officers, and I 
 am sorry to say, also, that it was no very unusual 
 thing for a shower of bullets to come also. Un- 
 popular officers were continually assassinated by 
 their own men; at the battle of Montebello it is 
 well known that every officer, with the exception 
 of one lieutenant belonging to the 24th demi-bri- 
 gade, was shot down from behind. But this was a 
 relic of the bad times, and, as the Emperor gained 
 more complete control, a better feeling was es- 
 tablished. The history of our army at that time 
 proved, at any rate, that the highest efficiency 
 could be maintained without the flogging which 
 was still used in the Prussian and the English 
 service, and it was shown, for the first time, that 
 great bodies of men could be induced to act from 
 a sense of duty and a love of country, without 
 hope of reward or fear of punishment. When a 
 French General could suffer his division to strag- 
 gle as they would over the face of the country, 
 with the certainty that they would concentrate 
 
132 UNCLE BERN AC. 
 
 upon the day of battle, he proved that he had sol- 
 diers who were worthy of his trust. 
 
 One thing had struck me as curious about 
 these hussars that they pronounced French with 
 the utmost difficulty. I remarked it to the lieu- 
 tenant as he rode by my side, and I asked him 
 from what foreign country his men were recruited, 
 since I could perceive that they were not French- 
 men. 
 
 " My faith, you must not let them hear you 
 say so," said he, " for they would answer you as 
 like as not by a thrust from their sabres. We 
 are the premier regiment of the French cavalry, 
 the first hussars of Bercheny, and, though it is 
 true that our men are all recruited in Alsace, and 
 few of them can speak anything but German, they 
 are as good Frenchmen as Kleber or Kellermann, 
 who came from the same parts. Our men are all 
 picked, and our officers," he added, pulling at his 
 light moustache, " are the finest in the service." 
 
 The swaggering vanity of the fellow amused 
 me, for he cocked his busby, swung the blue dol- 
 man which hung from his shoulder, sat his horse, 
 and clattered his scabbard in a manner which told 
 
THE CAMP OF BOULOGNE. 133 
 
 of his boyish delight and pride in himself and his 
 regiment. As I looked at his lithe figure and his 
 fearless bearing, I could quite imagine that he did 
 himself no more than justice, while his frank smile 
 and his merry blue eyes assured me that he would 
 prove a good comrade. He had himself been tak- 
 ing observations of me, for he suddenly placed his 
 hand upon my knee as we rode 'side by side. 
 
 " I trust that the Emperor is not displeased 
 with you," said he, with a very grave face. 
 
 " I cannot think that he can be so," I an- 
 swered, " for I have come from England to put 
 my services at his disposal." 
 
 " When the report was presented last night, 
 and he heard of your presence in that den of 
 thieves, he was very anxious that you should be 
 brought to him. Perhaps it is that he wishes you 
 to be guide to us in England. No doubt you 
 know your way all over the island." 
 
 The hussar's idea of an island seemed to be 
 limited to the little patches which lie off the Nor- 
 man or Breton coast. I tried to explain to him 
 that this was a great country, not much smaller 
 than France. 
 
134 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 "Well, well," said he, "we shall know all 
 about it presently, for we are going to conquer it. 
 They say in the camp that we shall probably enter 
 London either next Wednesday evening or else 
 on the Thursday morning. We are to have a 
 week for plundering the town, and then one army 
 corps is to take possession of Scotland and another 
 of Ireland." 
 
 His serene confidence made me smile. " But 
 how do you know you can do all this? " I asked. 
 
 " Oh! " said he, " the Emperor has arranged 
 it." 
 
 " But they have an army, and they are well 
 prepared. They are brave men and they will 
 fight." 
 
 " There would be no use their doing that, for 
 the Emperor is going over himself," said he; and 
 in the simple answer I understood for the first 
 time the absolute trust and confidence which these 
 soldiers had in their leader. Their feeling for him 
 was fanaticism, and its strength was religion, and 
 never did Mahomet nerve the arms of his believers 
 and strengthen them against pain and death more 
 absolutely than this little grey-coated idol did to 
 
THE CAMP OF BOULOGNE. 135 
 
 those who worshipped him. If he had chosen 
 and he was more than once upon the point of it 
 to assert that he was indeed above humanity he 
 would have found millions to grant his claim. You 
 who have heard of him as a stout gentleman in a 
 straw hat, as he was in his later days, may find it 
 hard to understand it, but if you had seen his 
 mangled soldiers still with their dying breath cry- 
 ing out to him, and turning their livid faces 
 towards him as he passed, you would have real- 
 ised the hold which he had over the minds of 
 men. 
 
 1 You have been over there? " asked the lieu- 
 tenant presently, jerking his thumb towards the 
 distant cloud upon the water. 
 
 " Yes, I have spent my life there." 
 
 " But why did you stay there when there was 
 such good fighting to be had in the French serv- 
 ice? " 
 
 " My father was driven out of the country as 
 an aristocrat. It was only after his death that I 
 could offer my sword to the Emperor." 
 
 ' You have missed a great deal, but I have no 
 doubt that we shall still have plenty of fine wars. 
 
 IO 
 
UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 And you think that the English will offer us 
 battle? " 
 
 " I have no doubt of it." 
 
 " We feared that when they understood that it 
 was the Emperor in person who had come they 
 would throw down their arms. I have heard that 
 there are some fine women over there." 
 
 " The women are beautiful." 
 
 He said nothing, but for some time he squared 
 his shoulders and puffed out his chest, curling up 
 the ends of his little yellow moustache. 
 
 " But they will escape in boats," he muttered 
 at last; and I could see that he had still that pic- 
 ture of a little island in his imagination. " If they 
 could but see us they might remain. It has been 
 said of the Hussars of Bercheny that they can set 
 a whole population running, the women towards 
 us, the men away. We are, as you have no doubt 
 observed, a very fine body of men, and the officers 
 are the pick of the service, though the seniors 
 are hardly up to the same standard as the rest 
 of us." 
 
 With all his self-confidence, this officer did not 
 seem to me to be more than my own age, so I 
 
THE CAMP OF BOULOGNE. 137 
 
 asked him whether he had seen any service. His 
 moustache bristled with indignation at my ques- 
 tion, and he looked me up and down with a se- 
 vere eye. 
 
 " I have had the good fortune to be present at 
 nine battles, sir, and at more than forty skir- 
 mishes," said he. " I have also fought a consider- 
 able number of duels, and I can assure you 
 that I am always ready to meet anyone even 
 a civilian who may wish to put me to the 
 proof." 
 
 I assured him that he was very fortunate to be 
 so young and yet to have seen so much, upon 
 which his ill-temper vanished as quickly as it came, 
 and he explained that he had served in the Hohen- 
 linden campaign under Moreau, as well as in Napo- 
 leon's passage of the Alps, and the campaign of 
 Marengo. 
 
 " When you have been with the army for a 
 little time the name of Etienne Gerard will not be 
 so unfamiliar to you," said he. " I believe that 
 I may claim to be the hero of one or two little 
 stories which the soldiers love to tell about their 
 camp fires. You will hear of my duel with the 
 

 138 UNCLE EERNAC. 
 
 six fencing masters, and you will be told how, 
 single-handed, I charged the Austrian Hussars of 
 Graz and brought their silver kettledrum back 
 upon the crupper of my mare. I can assure you 
 that it was not by accident that I was present last 
 night, but it was because Colonel Lasalle was 
 very anxious to be sure of any prisoners whom 
 he might make. As it turned out, however, I only 
 had the one poor chicken-hearted creature, whom 
 I handed over to the provost-marshal/' 
 
 "And the other Toussac? " 
 
 " Ah, he seems to have been a man of another 
 breed. I could have asked nothing better than to 
 have had him at my sword-point. But he has es- 
 caped. They caught sight of him and fired a pistol 
 or two, but he knew the bog too well, and they 
 could not follow him." 
 
 " And what will be done to your prisoner? " 
 I asked. 
 
 Lieutenant Gerard shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " I am very sorry for Mademoiselle your cou- 
 sin," said he, " but a fine girl should not love such 
 a man when there are so many gallant soldiers 
 upon the country side. I hear that the Emperor 
 
THE CAMP OF BOULOGNE. 
 
 139 
 
 is weary of these endless plottings, and that an 
 example will be made of him." 
 
 Whilst the young hussar and I had been talk- 
 ing we had been cantering down the broad white 
 road, until we were now quite close to the camp, 
 which we could see lying in its arrangement of 
 regiments and brigades beneath us. Our approach 
 lay over the high ground, so that we could see 
 down into this canvas city, with its interminable 
 lines of picketed horses, its parks of artillery, and 
 its swarms of soldiers. In the centre was a clear 
 space, with one very large tent and a cluster of 
 low wooden houses in the middle of it, with the 
 tri-colour banner waving above them. 
 
 " That is the Emperor's quarters, and the 
 smaller tent there is the headquarters of General 
 Ney, who commands this corps. You understand 
 that this is only one of several armies dotted along 
 from Dunkirk in the north to this, which is fhe 
 most southerly. The Emperor goes from one to 
 the other, inspecting each in its turn, but this is 
 the main body, and contains most of the picked 
 troops, so that it is we who see most of him, espe- 
 cially now that the Empress and the Court have 
 
I 4 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 come to Pont des Briques. He is in there at the 
 present moment," he added in a hushed voice, 
 pointing to the great white tent in the centre. 
 
 The road into the camp ran through a consid- 
 erable plain, which was covered by bodies of cav- 
 alry and infantry engaged upon their drill. We 
 had heard so much in England about Napoleon's 
 troops, and their feats had appeared so extraor- 
 dinary, that my imagination had prepared me for 
 men of very striking appearance. As a matter of 
 fact, the ordinary infantry of the line, in their blue 
 coats and white breeches and gaiters, were quite 
 little fellows, and even their high brass-covered 
 hats and red plumes could not make them very 
 imposing. 
 
 In spite of their size, however, they were tough 
 and wiry, and after their eighteen months in camp 
 they were trained to the highest pitch of perfec- 
 tion. The ranks were full of veterans, and all 
 the under-officers had seen much service, while 
 the generals in command have never been equalled 
 in ability, so that it was no mean foe which lay 
 with its menacing eyes fixed upon the distant cliffs 
 of England. If Pitt had not been able to place 
 
1 
 
 
 " Those fellows are the Cuirassiers," said he. 
 
THE CAMP OF BOULOGNE. I 4 I 
 
 the first navy in the world between the two shores 
 the history of Europe might be very different 
 to-day. 
 
 Lieutenant Gerard, seeing the interest with 
 which I gazed at the manoeuvring troops, was 
 good enough to satisfy my curiosity about such 
 of them as approached the road along which we 
 were journeying. 
 
 " Those fellows on the black horses with the 
 great blue rugs upon their croups are the Cuiras- 
 siers," said he. " They are so heavy that they 
 cannot raise more than a trot, so when they charge 
 we manage that there shall be a brigade of chas- 
 seurs or hussars behind them to follow up the ad- 
 vantage." 
 
 " Who is the civilian who is inspecting them? " 
 I asked. 
 
 " That is not a civilian, but it is General St. 
 Cyr, who is one of those whom they called the 
 Spartans of the Rhine. They were of opinion that 
 simplicity of life and of dress were part of a good 
 soldier, and so they would wear no uniform beyond 
 a simple blue riding coat, such as you see. St. 
 Cyr is an excellent officer, but he is not popular, 
 
UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 for he seldom speaks to anyone, and he some- 
 times shuts himself up for days on end in his tent, 
 where he plays upon his violin. I think myself 
 that a soldier is none the worse because he enjoys 
 a glass of good wine, or has a smart jacket and a 
 few Brandenburgs across his chest. For my part 
 I do both, and yet those who know me would 
 tell you that it has not harmed my soldiering. 
 You see this infantry upon the left? " 
 " The men with the yellow facings? " 
 " Precisely. Those are Oudinot's famous 
 grenadiers. And the other grenadiers, with the 
 red shoulder-knots and the fur hats strapped above 
 their knapsacks, are the Imperial Guard, the suc- 
 cessors of the old Consular Guard who won Ma- 
 rengo for us. Eighteen hundred of them got the 
 cross of honour after the battle. There is the 57th 
 of the line, which has been named ' The Terrible/ 
 and there is the /th Light Infantry, who come 
 from the Pyrenees, and who are well known to be 
 the best marchers and the greatest rascals in the 
 army. The light cavalry in green are the Horse 
 Chasseurs of the Guard, sometimes called the 
 Guides, who are said to be the Emperor's favour- 
 
THE CAMP OF BOULOGNE. 
 
 143 
 
 ite troops, although he makes a great mistake if 
 he prefers them to the Hussars of Bercheny. The 
 other cavalry with the green pelisses are also 
 chasseurs, but I cannot tell from here what regi- 
 ment they are. Their colonel handles them ad- 
 mirably. They are moving to a flank in open col- 
 umn of half-squadrons and then wheeling into line 
 to charge. We could not do it better ourselves. 
 And now, Monsieur de Laval, here we are at the 
 gates of the Camp of Boulogne, and it is my duty 
 to take you straight to the Emperor's quarters." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 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 can- 
 non 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 en- 
 abled them to drop their missiles upon the decks 
 of the English ships. 
 
 It was a pretty sight to ride through the camp, 
 144 
 
THE ANTE-ROOM. 
 
 145 
 
 for the men had been there for more than a year, 
 and had done all that could be done 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 be- 
 stowing a glance upon us as we passed, for patrols 
 of cavalry were coming and going in every direc- 
 tion. 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'Ar- 
 tillerie 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 des Brigues, some four miles 
 inland, but his days were spent at the camp, and 
 his continual councils of war w r ere held there. 
 Here also were his ministers, and the generals of 
 
146 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 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 contain- 
 ing 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 Em- 
 peror 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 for- 
 mal 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 
 
THE ANTE-ROOM. 
 
 it! " And he passed us into the huge tent, which 
 was unfurnished, save for a row of wooden benches 
 round the side. 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 over- 
 whelming 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 
 
148 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 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 thou- 
 sand 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 inten- 
 tions towards me were friendly, when a very tall 
 and handsome 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 
 
THE ANTE-ROOM. 149 
 
 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, 
 
150 
 
 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 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 sa- 
 lutes 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 in- 
 deed," 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 
 
THE ANTE-ROOM. 151 
 
 you are about to offer your services to the Em- 
 peror? " 
 
 " I have come from England for that purpose, 
 sir." 
 
 " And met with some little adventure immedi- 
 ately 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 
 
 ii 
 
UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 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 cam- 
 paign. 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 trim- 
 mings of gold oak-leaves, which marked the mar- 
 shals 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 con- 
 sidered 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 suc- 
 cessful 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 
 
THE ANTE-ROOM. 
 
 153 
 
 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 coun- 
 try 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." 
 
154 
 
 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 " 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 de Arc. 
 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 Anguereau." 
 
 I looked with interest upon the hero of Castig- 
 lione, who had taken command upon the one oc- 
 casion 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 
 
THE ANTE-ROOM. i$$ 
 
 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 sol- 
 dier as every barrack-room can show. He was 
 an older man than the others, and his sudden pro- 
 motion 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 Van- 
 damme, 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 be- 
 cause 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, 
 
156 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 when you have seen him raving in front of a bri- 
 gade of light cavalry, with his plumes tossing and 
 his sabre flashing, you would not wish to see any- 
 thing 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 obsti- 
 nate 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 mus- 
 ket and a knapsack in the ranks, was not contented 
 with the baton of a marshal, but passed on after- 
 wards to grasp the sceptre of a king. And it might 
 be said of him that, unlike his fellows, he gained 
 
THE ANTE-ROOM. 157 
 
 his throne in spite of Napoleon rather than by his 
 aid. Any man who looked at his singular pro- 
 nounced features, the swarthiness of which pro- 
 claimed 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 Anguereau boasted, neither fear 
 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 as- 
 sembly 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 
 
158 UNCLE BERN AC. 
 
 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 \vas already re- 
 produced 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 ANTE-ROOM. 
 
 159 
 
 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; 
 
l6o UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 such a heavy silence as comes only when many 
 are waiting, and all with bated breath. The Em- 
 peror'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 for- 
 eigner. 
 
 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 
 
THE ANTE-ROOM. l6i 
 
 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." 
 
 " Here he is, 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 pierc- 
 ing 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 ex- 
 pression. 
 
 " 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? " 
 
162 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 " 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 coun- 
 try. 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 resent- 
 ment 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 Bour- 
 bon will find that he cannot gain a throne by writ- 
 ing 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 Frarice with your sword 
 also, Sire," said Talleyrand, who stood at his 
 elbow. 
 
 Napoleon looked at his famous minister, and 
 
He put out his hand and pinched one of my ears. 
 
THE ANTE-ROOM. 163 
 
 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 artil- 
 lery." 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE SECRETARY. 
 
 EMPEROR, generals, and officials all streamed 
 away to the review, leaving me with a gentle-look- 
 ing, large-eyed man in a black suit with very white 
 cambric ruffles, who introduced himself to me as 
 Monsieur de Meneval, private secretary to His 
 Majesty. 
 
 " We must get some food, Monsieur de Laval," 
 said he. " It is always well, if you have anything 
 to do with the Emperor, to get your food when- 
 ever you have the chance. It may be many hours 
 before he takes a meal, and if you are in his 
 presence you have to fast also. I assure you that 
 I have nearly fainted from hunger and from 
 thirst." 
 
 " But how does the Emperor manage him- 
 self? " I asked. This Monsieur de Meneval had 
 such a kindly human appearance that I already felt 
 
 much at my ease with him. 
 
 164 
 
THE SECRETARY. 165 
 
 " Oh, he, he is a man of iron, Monsieur de 
 Laval. We must not set our watches by his. I 
 have known him work for eighteen hours on end 
 and take nothing but a cup or two of coffee. He 
 wears everybody out around him. Even the 
 soldiers cannot keep up with him. I assure you 
 that I look upon it as the very highest honour to 
 have charge of his papers, but there are times 
 when it is very trying all the same. Sometimes 
 it is eleven o'clock at night, Monsieur de Laval, 
 and I am writing to his dictation with my head 
 aching for want of sleep. It is dreadful work, for 
 he dictates as quickly as he can talk, and he never 
 repeats anything. 'Now, Meneval,' says he sud- 
 denly, ' we shall stop here and have a good night's 
 rest.' And then, just as I am congratulating my- 
 self he adds, ' and we shall continue with the dic- 
 tation at three to-morrow morning.' That is what 
 he means by a good night's rest." 
 
 " But has he no hours for his meals, Monsieur 
 de Meneval? " I asked, as I accompanied the un- 
 happy secretary out of the tent. 
 
 " Oh, yes, he has hours, but he will not ob- 
 serve them. You see that it is already long after 
 
1 66 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 dinner time, but he has gone to this review. After 
 the review something else will probably take up 
 his attention, and then something else, until sud- 
 denly in the evening it will occur to him that he 
 has had no dinner. ' My dinner, Constant, this in- 
 stant ! ' he will cry, and poor Constant has to see 
 that it is there." 
 
 " But it must be unfit to eat by that time/' 
 said I. 
 
 The secretary laughed in the discreet way of a 
 man who has always been obliged to control his 
 emotions. 
 
 " This is the Imperial kitchen," said he, indi- 
 cating a large tent just outside the headquarters. 
 " Here is Borel, the second cook, at the door. 
 How many pullets to-day, Borel?" 
 
 " Ah, Monsieur de Meneval, it is heartrending," 
 cried the cook. "Behold them!" and drawing 
 back the flap of the entrance, he showed us seven 
 dishes, each of them containing a cold fowl. " The 
 eighth is now on the fire and done to a turn, but I 
 hear that his Majesty has started for the review, 
 so we must put on a ninth." 
 
 " That is how it is managed," said my com- 
 
THE SECRETARY. 167 
 
 panion, as we turned from the tent. " I have 
 known twenty-three fowls got ready for him be- 
 fore he asked for his meal. That day he called 
 for his dinner at eleven at night. He cares little 
 what he eats or drinks, but he will not be kept 
 waiting. Half a bottle of Chambertin, a red mul- 
 let, or a pullet a la Marengo satisfy every need, but 
 it is unwise to put pastry or cream upon the 
 table, because he is as likely as not to eat it be- 
 fore the fowl. Ah, that is a curious sight, is it 
 not?" 
 
 I had halted with an exclamation of astonish- 
 ment. A groom was cantering a very beautiful 
 Arab horse down one of the lanes between the 
 tents. As it passed, a grenadier who was stand- 
 ing with a small pig under his arm hurled it down 
 under the feet of the horse. The pig squealed 
 vigorously and scuttled away, but the horse can- 
 tered on without changing its step. 
 
 " What does that mean? " I asked. 
 
 " That is Jardin, the head groom, breaking in 
 a charger for the Emperor's use. They are first 
 trained by having a cannon fired in their ears, 
 then they are struck suddenly by heavy objects, 
 
 12 
 
!68 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 and finally they have the test of the pig being 
 thrown under their feet. The Emperor has not 
 a very firm seat, and he very often loses himself 
 in a reverie when he is riding, so it might not be 
 very safe if the horse were not well trained. Do 
 you see that young man asleep at the door of a 
 tent? " 
 
 " Yes, I see him." 
 
 " You would not think that he is at the pres- 
 ent moment serving the Emperor? " 
 
 " It seems a very easy service." 
 
 " I wish all our services were as easy, Mon- 
 sieur de Laval. That is Joseph Linden, whose 
 foot is the exact size of the Emperor's. He wears 
 his new boots and shoes for three days before 
 they are given to his master. You can see by 
 the gold buckles that he has a pair on at the 
 present moment. Ah, Monsieur de Caulain- 
 court, will you not join us at dinner in my 
 tent?" 
 
 A tall, handsome man, very elegantly dressed, 
 came across and greeted us. " It is rare to find 
 you at rest, Monsieur de Meneval. I have no 
 very light task myself as head of the household, 
 
THE SECRETARY. 
 
 l6g 
 
 but I think I have more leisure than you. 
 Have we time for dinner before the Emperor 
 returns? " 
 
 "Yes, yes; here is the tent, and everything 
 ready. We can see when the Emperor returns, 
 and be in the room before he" can reach it. This 
 is camp fare, Monsieur de Laval, but no doubt you 
 will excuse it." 
 
 For my own part I had an excellent appetite 
 for the cutlets and the salad, but what I relished 
 above all was to hear the talk of my companions, 
 for I was full of curiosity as to everything which 
 concerned this singular man, whose genius had 
 elevated him so rapidly to the highest position in 
 the world. The head of his household discussed 
 him with an extraordinary frankness. 
 
 " What do they say of him in England, Mon- 
 sieur de Laval? " he asked. 
 
 " Nothing very good." 
 
 "So I have gathered from their papers. They 
 drive the Emperor frantic, and yet he will insist 
 upon reading them. I am willing to lay a wager 
 that the very first thing which he does when he 
 enters London will be to send cavalry detachments 
 
UNCLE EERNAC. 
 
 to the various newspaper offices, and to endeavour 
 to seize the editors." 
 
 "And the next?" 
 
 " And next," said he, laughing, " will be to 
 issue a long proclamation to prove that we have 
 conquered England entirely for the good of the 
 English, and very much against our own inclina- 
 tions. And then, perhaps, the Emperor will allow 
 the English to understand that, if they absolutely 
 demand a Protestant for a ruler, it is possible that 
 there are a few little points in which he differs 
 from Holy Church." 
 
 " Too bad ! Too bad ! " cried de Meneval, look- 
 ing amused and yet rather frightened at his com- 
 panion's audacity. " No doubt for state reasons 
 the Emperor had to tamper a little with Mahom- 
 medanism, and I daresay he would attend this 
 Church of St. Paul's as readily as he did the 
 Mosque at Cairo; but it would not do for a ruler 
 to be a bigot. After all, the Emperor has to think 
 for all." 
 
 " He thinks too much," said Caulaincourt 
 gravely. " He thinks so much that other people 
 in France are getting out of the way of thinking 
 
THE SECRETARY. j^! 
 
 at all. You know what I mean, de Meneval, for 
 you have seen it as much as I have." 
 
 " Yes, yes," answered the secretary. " He cer- 
 tainly does not encourage originality among those 
 who surround him. I have heard him say many 
 a time that he desired nothing but mediocrity, 
 which was a poor compliment, it must be con- 
 fessed, to us who have the honour of serving 
 him." 
 
 " A clever man at his Court shows his clever- 
 ness best by pretending to be dull," said Caulain- 
 court, with some bitterness. 
 
 " And yet there are many famous characters 
 there," I remarked. 
 
 " If so, it is only by concealing their characters 
 that they remain there. His ministers are clerks, 
 his generals are superior aides-de-camp. They are 
 all agents. You have this wonderful man in the 
 middle, and all around you have so many mirrors 
 which reflect different sides of him. In one you 
 see him as a financier, and you call it Lebrun. 
 In another you have him as a gens d'arme, and 
 you name it Savary or Fouche. In yet another 
 he figures as a diplomatist, and is called Talley- 
 
UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 rand. You see different figures, but it is really 
 the same man. There is a Monsieur de Caulain- 
 court, for example, who arranges the household; 
 but he cannot dismiss a servant without permis- 
 sion. It is still always the Emperor. And he 
 plays upon us. We must confess, de Meneval, 
 that he plays upon us. In nothing else do I see 
 so clearly his wonderful cleverness. He will not 
 let us be too friendly lest we combine. He has 
 set his Marshals against each other until there are 
 hardly two of them on speaking terms. Look 
 how Davoust hates Bernadotte, or Lannes and 
 Bessieres, or Ney and Massena. It is all they can 
 do to keep their sabres in their sheaths when they 
 meet. And then he knows our weak points. 
 Savary's thirst for money, Cambacere's vanity, 
 Duroc's bluntness, Berthier's foolishness, Maret's 
 insipidity, Talleyrand's mania for speculation, they 
 are all so many tools in his hand. I do not know 
 what my own greatest weakness may be, but I am 
 sure that he does, and that he uses his knowledge." 
 
 "But how he must work!" I exclaimed. 
 
 " Ah, you may say so," said de Meneval. 
 "What energy! Eighteen hours out of twenty- 
 
THE SECRETARY. 
 
 173 
 
 four for weeks on end. He has presided over the 
 legislative council until they were fainting at their 
 desks. As to me, he will be the death of me, just 
 as he wore out de Bourienne; but I will die at 
 my post without a murmur, for if he is hard upon 
 us he is hard upon himself also." 
 
 " He was the man for France/' said de Caulain- 
 court. " He is the very genius of system and of 
 order, and of discipline. When one remembers 
 the chaos in which our poor country found itself 
 after the Revolution, when no one would be gov- 
 erned and everyone wanted to govern someone 
 else, you will understand that only Napoleon could 
 have saved us. We were all longing for some- 
 thing fixed to secure ourselves to, and then we 
 came upon this iron pillar of a man. And what 
 a man he was in those days, Monsieur de Laval! 
 You see him now when he has got all that he can 
 want. He is good humoured and easy. But at 
 that time he had got nothing, but coveted every- 
 thing. His glance frightened women. He walked 
 the streets like a wolf. People looked after him 
 as he passed. His face was quite different it was 
 cra gy> hollow-cheeked, with an oblique menacing 
 
UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 gaze, and the jaws of a pike. Oh, yes, this little 
 Lieutenant Buonaparte from the Military School 
 of Brienne was a singular figure. ' There is a man/ 
 said I, when I saw him, ' who will sit upon a throne 
 or kneel upon a scaffold.' And now look at him! " 
 
 " And that is ten years ago," I exclaimed. 
 
 " Only ten years, and they have brought him 
 from a barrack-room to the Tuileries. But he was 
 born for it. You could not keep him down. De 
 Bourienne told me that when he was a little fellow 
 at Brienne he had the grand Imperial manner, 
 and would praise or blame, glare or smile, exactly 
 as he does now. Have you seen his mother, Mon- 
 sieur de Laval? She is a tragedy queen, tall, stern, 
 reserved, silent. There is the spring from which 
 he flowed." 
 
 I could see in the gentle, spaniel-eyes of the 
 secretary that he was disturbed by the frankness 
 of de Caulaincourt's remarks. 
 
 " You can tell that we do not live under a very 
 terrible tyranny, Monsieur de Laval," said he, " or 
 we should hardly venture to discuss our ruler so 
 frankly. The fact is that we have said nothing 
 which he would not have listened to with pleasure 
 
THE SECRETARY. 
 
 175 
 
 and perhaps with approval. He has his little frail- 
 ties, or he would not be human, but take his quali- 
 ties as a ruler and I would ask you if there has 
 ever been a man who has justified the choice of a 
 nation so completely. He works harder than any 
 of his subjects. He is a general beloved by his 
 soldiers. He is a master beloved by his servants. 
 He never has a holiday, and he is always ready for 
 his work. There is not under the roof of the 
 Tuileries a more abstemious eater or drinker. He 
 educated his brothers at his own expense when 
 he was a very poor man, and he has caused even 
 his most distant relatives to share in his prosper- 
 ity. In a word, he is economical, hard-working, 
 and temperat^. We read in the London papers 
 about this Prince of Wales, Monsieur de Laval, 
 and I do not think that he comes very well out of 
 the comparison." 
 
 I thought of the long record of Brighton scan- 
 dals, London scandals, Newmarket scandals, and 
 I had to leave George undefended. 
 
 "As I understand it," said I, "it is not the 
 Emperor's private life, but his public ambition, 
 that the English attack." 
 
1^6 UNCLE BERN AC. 
 
 " The fact is," said de Caulaincourt, " that the 
 Emperor knows, and we all know, that there is not 
 room enough in the world for both France and 
 England. One or other must be supreme. If 
 England were once crushed we could then lay the 
 foundations of a permanent peace. Italy is ours. 
 Austria we can crush again as we have crushed her 
 before. Germany is divided. Russia can expand 
 to the south and east. America we can take at our 
 leisure, finding our pretext in Louisiana or in 
 Canada. There is a world Empire waiting for us, 
 and there is the only thing that stops us." He 
 pointed out through the opening of the tent at 
 the broad blue Channel. 
 
 Far away, like snow-white gulls in the distance, 
 were the sails of the blockading fleet. I thought 
 again of what I had seen the night before the 
 lights of the ships upon the sea and the glow of 
 the camp upon the shore. The powers of the 
 land and of the ocean were face to face whilst a 
 waiting world stood round to see what would 
 come of it. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE MAN OF ACTION. 
 
 DE MENEVAL'S tent had been pitched in such 
 a way that he could overlook the Royal headquar- 
 ters, but whether it was that we were too absorbed 
 in the interest of our conversation, or that the 
 Emperor had used the other entrance in returning 
 from the review, we were suddenly startled by the 
 appearance of a captain dressed in the green jacket 
 of the Chasseurs of the Guard, who had come to 
 say that Napoleon was waiting for his secretary. 
 Poor de Meneval's face turned as white as his 
 beautiful ruffles as he sprang to his feet, hardly 
 able to speak for agitation. 
 
 " I should have been there! " he gasped. " Oh, 
 what a misfortune! Monsieur de Caulaincourt, 
 you must excuse me! Where is my hat and my 
 sword? Come, Monsieur de Laval, not an instant 
 
 is to be lost!" 
 
 177 
 
j;g UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 I could judge from the terror of de Meneval, 
 as well as from the scene which I had witnessed 
 with Admiral Bruix, what the influence was which 
 the Emperor exercised over those who were 
 around him. They were never at their ease, al- 
 ways upon the brink of a catastrophe, encouraged 
 one day only to be rudely rebuffed the next, bullied 
 in public and slighted in private, and yet, in spite 
 of it all, the singular fact remains that they loved 
 him and served him as no monarch has been loved 
 and served. 
 
 " Perhaps I had best stay here," said I, when 
 we had come to the ante-chamber, which was still 
 crowded with people. 
 
 " No, no, I am responsible for you. You must 
 come with me. Oh, I trust he is not offended with 
 me! How could he have got in without my seeing 
 him? " 
 
 My frightened companion scratched at the 
 door, which was opened instantly by Roustem the 
 Mameluke, who guarded it within. The room into 
 which we passed was of considerable size, but was 
 furnished with extreme simplicity. It was papered 
 of a silver-grey colour, with a sky-blue ceiling, in 
 
THE MAN OF ACTION. 
 
 179 
 
 the centre of which was the Imperial eagle in gold, 
 holding a thunderbolt. In spite of the warm 
 weather, a large fire was burning at one side, and 
 the air was heavy with heat and the aromatic 
 smell of aloes. In the middle of the room was a 
 large oval table covered with green cloth and 
 littered with a number of letters and papers. A 
 raised writing-desk was at one side of the table, 
 and behind it in a green morocco chair with curved 
 arms there sat the Emperor. A number of officials 
 were standing round the walls, but he took no 
 notice of them. In his hand he had a small pen- 
 knife, with which he whittled the wooden knob at 
 the end of his chair. He glanced up as we entered, 
 and shook his head coldly at de Meneval. 
 
 " I have had to wait for you, Monsieur de 
 Meneval," said he. " I cannot remember that I 
 ever waited for my late secretary de Bourienne. 
 That is enough! No excuses! Take this report 
 which I have written in your absence, and make 
 a copy of it." 
 
 Poor de Meneval took the paper with a shak- 
 ing hand, and carried it to the little side table 
 which was reserved for his use. Napoleon rose 
 
180 UNCLE BERXAC. 
 
 and paced slowly up and down the room with his 
 hands behind his back, and his big round head 
 stooping a little forwards. It was certainly as well 
 that he had a secretary, for I observed that in writ- 
 ing this single document he had spattered the 
 whole place with ink, and it was obvious that he 
 had twice used his white kerseymere knee-breeches 
 as a pen-wiper. As for me, I stood quietly beside 
 Roustem at the door, and he took not the slight- 
 est notice of my presence. 
 
 "Well," he cried presently, " is it ready, de 
 Meneval? We have something more to do." 
 
 The secretary half turned in his chair, and his 
 face was more agitated than ever. 
 
 " If it please you, Sire " he stammered. 
 
 " Well, well, what is the matter now? " 
 
 " If it please you, Sire, I find some little diffi- 
 culty in reading what you have written." 
 
 " Tut, tut, sir. You see what the report is 
 about." 
 
 " Yes, Sire, it is about forage for the cavalry 
 horses." 
 
 Napoleon smiled, and the action made his face 
 look quite boyish. 
 
THE MAN OF ACTION. 
 
 183 
 
 would not now be living amidst the fogs of Eng- 
 land." 
 
 " One must have your Majesty's memory in 
 order to do it," I observed. 
 
 " It is the result of system," said he. " It is 
 as if I had drawers in my brain, so that when I 
 opened one I could close the others. It is seldom 
 that I fail to find what I want there. I have a 
 poor memory for names or dates, but an excellent 
 one for facts or faces. There is a good deal to 
 bear in mind, Monsieur de Laval. For example, 
 I have as you have seen, my one little drawer full 
 of the ships upon the sea. I have another which 
 contains all the harbours and forts of France. As 
 an example, I may tell you that when my minister 
 of war was reading me a report of all the coast 
 defences, I was able to point out to him that he 
 had omitted two guns in a battery near Ostend. 
 In yet another of my brain-drawers I have the 
 regiments of France. Is that drawer in order, 
 Marshal Berthier? " 
 
 A clean-shaven man, who had stood biting his 
 nails in the window, bowed at the Emperor's ques- 
 tion. 
 
 13 
 
1 84 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 " I am sometimes tempted to believe, Sire, that 
 you know the name of every man in the ranks," 
 said he. 
 
 " I think that I know most of my old Egyptian 
 grumblers," said he. " And then, Monsieur de 
 Laval, there is another drawer for canals, bridges, 
 roads, manufactures, and every detail of internal 
 administration. The law, finance, Italy, the Colo- 
 nies, Holland, all these things demand drawers 
 of their own. In these days, Monsieur de Laval, 
 France asks something more of its ruler than that 
 he should carry eight yards of ermine with dig- 
 nity, or ride after a stag in the forest of Fontaine- 
 bleau." 
 
 I thought of the helpless, gentle, pompous 
 Louis whom my father had once taken me to 
 visit, and I understood that France, after her con- 
 vulsions and her sufferings, did indeed require an- 
 other and a stronger head. 
 
 " Do you not think so, Monsieur de Laval? " 
 asked the Emperor. He had halted for a moment 
 by the fire, and was grinding his dainty gold- 
 buckled shoe into one of the burning logs. 
 
 " You have come to a very wise decision," said 
 
THE MAN OF ACTION. 185 
 
 he when I had answered his question. " But you 
 have always been of this way of thinking, have 
 you not? Is it not true that you once defended 
 me when some young Englishman was drink- 
 ing toasts to my downfall at an inn in this village 
 in which you lived? " 
 
 I remembered the incident, although I could 
 not imagine how it had reached his ears. 
 
 " Why should you have done this? " 
 
 " I did it on impulse, Sire." 
 
 " On impulse! ".he cried, in a tone of contempt. 
 " I do not know what people mean when they say 
 that they do things upon impulse. In Charenton 
 things are doubtless done upon impulse, but not 
 amongst sane people. Why should you risk your 
 life over there in defending me when at the time 
 you had nothing to hope for from me? " 
 
 " It was because I felt that you stood for 
 France, Sire." 
 
 During this conversation he had still walked 
 up and down the room, twisting his right arm 
 about, and occasionally looking at one or other of 
 us with his eyeglass, for his sight was so weak 
 that he always needed a single glass indoors and 
 
186 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 binoculars outside. Sometimes he stopped and 
 helped himself to great pinches of snuff from a 
 tortoise-shell box, but I observed that none of it 
 ever reached his nose, for he dropped it all from 
 between his ringers on to his waistcoat and the 
 floor. My answer seemed to please him, for he 
 suddenly seized my ear and pulled it with con- 
 siderable violence. 
 
 ' You are quite right, my friend," said he. " I 
 stand for France just as Frederic II. stood for 
 Prussia. I will make her the great Power of the 
 world, so that every monarch in Europe will find 
 it necessary to keep a palace in Paris, and they 
 will all come to hold the train at the coronation of 
 
 my descendants " A spasm of pain passed 
 
 suddenly over his face. " My God! for whom am 
 I building? Who will be my descendants? " I 
 heard him mutter, and he passed his hand over 
 his forehead. 
 
 " Do they seem frightened in England about 
 my approaching invasion?" he asked suddenly. 
 " Have you heard them express fears lest I get 
 across the Channel? " 
 
 I was forced in truth to say that the only fears 
 
THE MAN OF ACTION. 
 
 IS/ 
 
 which I had ever heard expressed were lest he 
 should not get across. 
 
 " The soldiers are very jealous that the sailors 
 should always have the honour," said I. 
 " But they have a very small army." 
 " Nearly every man is a volunteer, Sire." 
 " Pooh, conscripts! " he cried, and made a mo- 
 tion with his hands as if to sweep them from be- 
 fore him. " I will land with a hundred thousand 
 men in Kent or in Sussex. I will fight a great 
 battle which I will win with a loss of ten thousand 
 men. On the third day I shall be in London. I 
 will seize the statesmen, the bankers, the mer- 
 chants, the newspaper men. I will impose an in- 
 demnity of a hundred million of their pounds. I 
 will favour the poor at the expense of the rich, 
 and so I shall have a party. I will detach Scotland 
 and Ireland by giving them constitutions which 
 will put them in a superior condition to England. 
 Thus I will sow dissensions everywhere. Then 
 as a price for leaving the island I will claim their 
 fleet and their colonies. In this way I shall secure 
 the command of the world to France for at least 
 a century to come." 
 
1 38 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 In this short sketch I could perceive the qual- 
 ity which I have since heard remarked in Napo- 
 leon, that his mind could both conceive a large 
 scheme, and at the same time evolve those prac- 
 tical details which would seem to bring it within 
 the bounds of possibility. One instant it would 
 be a wild dream of overrunning the East. The 
 next it was a schedule of the ships, the ports, the 
 stores, the troops, which would be needed to turn 
 dream into fact. He gripped the heart of a ques- 
 tion with the same decision which made him strike 
 straight for an enemy's capital. The soul of a 
 poet, and the mind of a man of business of the 
 first order, that is the combination which may 
 make a man dangerous to the world. 
 
 V 
 
 I think that it may have been his purpose 
 for he never did anything without a purpose to 
 give me an object-lesson of his own capacity for 
 governing, with the idea, perhaps, that I might in 
 turn influence others of the Emigres by what I 
 told them. At any rate he left me there to stand 
 and to watch the curious succession of points upon 
 which he had to give an opinion during a few 
 hours. Nothing seemed to be either too large or 
 
THE MAN OF ACTION. 189 
 
 too small for that extraordinary mind. At one 
 instant it was the arrangements for the winter 
 cantonments of two hundred thousand men, at the 
 next he was discussing with de Caulaincourt the 
 curtailing of the expenses of the household, and 
 the possibility of suppressing some of the car- 
 riages. 
 
 " It is my desire to be economical at home so 
 as to make a good show abroad/' said he. " For 
 myself, when I had the honour to be a sub-lieu- 
 tenant I found that I could live very well upon 
 1,200 francs a year, and it would be no hardship 
 to me to go back to it. This extravagance of the 
 palace must be stopped. For example, I see upon 
 your accounts that 155 cups of coffee are drunk a 
 day, which with sugar at 4 francs and coffee at 
 5 francs a pound come to 20 sous a cup. It would 
 be better to make an allowance for coffee. The 
 stable bills are also too high. At the present price 
 of fodder seven or eight francs a week should be 
 enough for each horse in a stable of two hundred. 
 I will not have any waste at the Tuileries." 
 
 Thus within a few minutes he would pass from 
 a question of milliards to a question of sous, and 
 
190 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 from the management of an empire to that of a 
 stable. From time to time I could observe that 
 he threw a little oblique glance at me as if to ask 
 what I thought of it all, and at the time I wondered 
 very much why my approval should be of any 
 consequence*. to him. But now, when I look back 
 and see that my following his fortunes brought 
 over so many others of the young nobility, I 
 understand that he saw very much further than 
 I did. 
 
 " Well, Monsieur de Laval,'* said he suddenly, 
 "you have seen something of my methods. Are 
 you prepared to enter my service? " 
 
 " Assuredly, Sire," I answered. 
 
 " I can be a very hard master when I like," 
 said he, smiling. ' You were there when I spoke 
 to Admiral Bruix. We have all our duty to do, 
 and discipline is as necessary in the highest as in 
 the lowest ranks. But anger with me never rises 
 above here," and he drew his hand across his 
 throat. " I never permit it to cloud my brain. 
 Dr. Corvisart here would tell you that I have the 
 slowest pulse of all his patients." 
 
 " And that you are the fastest eater, Sire," said 
 
THE MAN OF ACTION. igi 
 
 a large-faced, benevolent-looking person who had 
 been whispering to Marshal Berthier. 
 
 " Ohe, you rascal, you rake that up against 
 me, do you? The Doctor will not forgive me be- 
 cause I tell him when I am unwell that I had 
 rather die of the disease than of the remedies. 
 If I eat too fast it is the fault of the State, which 
 does not allow me more than a few minutes for 
 my meals. Which reminds me that it must be 
 rather after my dinner hour, Constant? " 
 
 " It is four hours after it, Sire." 
 
 " Serve it up then at once." 
 
 ' Yes, Sire. Monsieur Isabey is outside, Sire, 
 with his dolls." 
 
 "Ah, we shall see them at once. Show him 
 
 in." 
 
 A man entered who had evidently just arrived 
 from a long journey. Under his arm he carried a 
 large flat wickerwork basket. 
 
 " It is two days since I sent for you, Monsieur 
 Isabey." 
 
 ' The courier arrived yesterday, Sire. I have 
 been travelling from Paris ever since." 
 
 "Have you the models there?" 
 
ig2 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 "Yes, Sire." 
 
 " Then you may lay them out on that table." 
 I could not at first imagine what it meant 
 when I saw, upon Isabey opening his basket, that 
 it was crammed with little puppets about a foot 
 high, all of them dressed in the most gorgeous silk 
 and velvet costumes, with trimmings of ermine 
 and hangings of gold lace. But presently, as the 
 designer took them out one by one and placed 
 them on the table, I understood that the Emperor, 
 with his extraordinary passion for detail and for 
 directly controlling everything in his Court, had 
 had these dolls dressed in order to judge the effect 
 of the gorgeous costumes which had been ordered 
 for his grand functionaries upon State occasions. 
 " What is this? " he asked, holding up a little 
 lady in hunting costume of amaranth and gold 
 with a toque and plume of white feathers. 
 " That is for the Empress's hunt, Sire." 
 " You should have the waist rather lower," 
 said Napoleon, who had very definite opinions 
 about ladies' dresses. "These cursed fashions 
 seem to be the only thing in my dominions which 
 I cannot regulate. My tailor, Duchesne, takes 
 
THE MAN OF ACTION. 193 
 
 three inches from my coat-tails, and all the armies 
 and fleets of France cannot prevent him. Who is 
 this? " 
 
 He had picked up a very gorgeous figure in a 
 green coat. 
 
 " That is the grand master of the hunt, Sire." 
 
 " Then it is you, Berthier. How do you like 
 your new costume? And this In red? " 
 
 "That is the Arch-Chancellor." 
 
 "And the violet?" 
 
 "That is the Grand Chamberlain." 
 
 The Emperor was as much amused as a child 
 with a new toy. He formed little groups of the 
 figures upon the tables, so that he might have an 
 idea of how the dignitaries would look when they 
 chatted together. Then he threw them all back 
 into the basket. 
 
 " Very good," said he. " You and David have 
 done your work very well, Isabey. You will sub- 
 mit these designs to the Court outfitters and have 
 an estimate for the expense. You may tell Lenor- 
 mand that if she ventures to send in such an ac- 
 count as the last which she sent to the Empress 
 she shall see the inside of Vincennes. You would 
 
194 UNCLE BERN AC. 
 
 not think it right, Monsieur de Laval, to spend 
 twenty-five thousand francs upon a single dress, 
 even though it was for Mademoiselle Eugenie de 
 Choiseul." 
 
 Was there anything which this wizard of a man 
 did not know? What could my love affairs be to 
 him amidst the clash of armies and the struggles 
 of nations? When I looked at him, half in amaze- 
 ment and half in fear, that pleasant boyish smile 
 lit up his pale face, and his plump little hand 
 rested for an instant upon my shoulder. His eyes 
 were of a bright blue when he was amused, though 
 they would turn dark when he was thoughtful, 
 and steel-grey in moments of excitement. 
 
 :< You were surprised when I told you a little 
 while ago about your encounter with the English- 
 man in the village inn. You are still more sur- 
 prised now when I tell you about a certain young 
 lady. You must certainly have thought that I was 
 very badly served by my agents in England if I 
 did not know such important details as these." 
 
 " I cannot conceive, Sire, why such trifles 
 should be reported to you, or why you should for 
 one instant remember them." 
 
THE MAN OF ACTION. 
 
 195 
 
 :t You are certainly a very modest young man, 
 and I hope you will not lose that charming qual- 
 ity when you have been for a little time at my 
 Court. So you think that your own private af- 
 fairs are of no importance to me? " 
 
 " I do not know why they should be, Sire." 
 
 " What is the name of your great-uncle? " 
 
 " He is the Cardinal de Laval de Montmo- 
 rency." 
 
 " Precisely. And where is he? " 
 
 " He is in Germany." 
 
 " Quite so in Germany, and not at Notre 
 Dame, where I should have placed him. Who is 
 your first cousin? " 
 
 " The Duke de Rohan." 
 
 " And where is he? " 
 
 " In London." 
 
 " Yes, in London, and not at the Tuileries, 
 where he might have had what he liked for the 
 asking. I wonder if I were to fall whether I 
 should have followers as faithful as those of the 
 Bourbons. Would the men that I have made go 
 into exile and refuse all offers until I should re- 
 turn? Come here, Berthier! " he took his favour- 
 
196 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 ite by the ear with the caressing gesture which 
 was peculiar to him. " Could I count upon you, 
 you rascal eh? " 
 
 " I do not understand you, Sire." Our con- 
 versation had been carried on in a voice which 
 had made it inaudible to the other people in the 
 room, but now they were all listening to what Ber- 
 thier had to say. 
 
 " If I were driven out, would you go into exile 
 also? " 
 
 " No, Sire." 
 
 " Diable! At least you are frank." 
 
 " I could not go into exile, Sire." 
 
 "And why?" 
 
 " Because I should be dead, Sire." 
 
 Napoleon began to laugh. 
 
 " And there are some who say that our Ber- 
 thier is dull-witted," said he. " Well, I think I 
 
 am pretty sure of you, Berthier, for although I 
 i 
 
 am fond of you for reasons of my own I do not 
 think that you would be of much value to anyone 
 else. Now I could not say that of you, Monsieur 
 Talleyrand. You would change very quickly to a 
 new master as you have changed from an old one. 
 
THE MAN OF ACTION. 
 
 I 9 7 
 
 You have a genius, you know, for adapting your- 
 self." 
 
 There was nothing which the Emperor loved 
 more than to suddenly produce little scenes of this 
 sort which made everybody very uncomfortable, 
 for no one could tell what awkward or compro- 
 mising question he was going to put to them next. 
 At present, however, they all forgot their own 
 fears of what might come in their interest at the 
 reply which the famous diplomatist might make 
 to a suggestion which everybody knew to be so 
 true. He stood, leaning upon his black ebony 
 stick, with his bulky shoulders stooping forward, 
 and an amused smile upon his face, as if the most 
 innocent of compliments had been addressed to 
 him. One of his few titles to respect is that he 
 always met Napoleon upon equal terms, and never 
 condescended to fawn upon him or to flatter him. 
 
 " You think I should desert you, Sire, if your 
 enemies offered me more than you have given 
 me?" 
 
 " I am perfectly sure that you would." 
 
 " Well, really I cannot answer for myself, Sire, 
 until the offer has been made. But it will have to 
 
198 UNCLE EERNAC. 
 
 be a very large one. You see, apart from my very 
 nice hotel in the Rue St. Florentin, and the two 
 hundred thousand or so which you are pleased to 
 allow me, there is my position as the first minister 
 in Europe. Really, Sire, unless they put me on 
 the throne I cannot see how I can better my 
 position/' 
 
 " No, I think I have you pretty safe," said 
 Napoleon, looking hard at him with thoughtful 
 eyes. " By the way, Talleyrand, you must either 
 marry Madame Grand or get rid of her, for I can- 
 not have a scandal about the Court." 
 
 I was astounded to hear so delicate and per- 
 sonal a matter discussed in this public way, but 
 this also was characteristic of the rule of this ex- 
 traordinary man, who proclaimed that he looked 
 upon delicacy and good taste as two of the fetters 
 with which mediocrity attempted to cripple gen- 
 ius. There was no question of private life, from 
 the choosing of a wife to the discarding of a mis- 
 tress, that this young conqueror of thirty-six did 
 not claim the right of discussing and of finally 
 settling. Talleyrand broke once more into his 
 benevolent but inscrutable smile. 
 
THE MAN OF ACTION 
 
 I 99 
 
 " I suppose that it is from early association, 
 Sire," said he, " but my instincts are to avoid mar- 
 riage." 
 
 Napoleon began to laugh. 
 
 " I forget sometimes that it is really the Bishop 
 of Autun to whom I am speaking," said he. " I 
 think that perhaps I have interest enough with the 
 Pope to ask him, in return for any little attention 
 which we gave him at the Coronation, to show you 
 some leniency in this matter. She is a clever 
 woman, this Madame Grand. I have observed 
 that she listens with attention." 
 
 Talleyrand shrugged his rounded shoulders. 
 
 " Intellect in a woman is not always an ad- 
 vantage, Sire. A clever woman compromises her 
 husband. A stupid woman only compromises her- 
 self." 
 
 " The cleverest woman," said Napoleon, " is 
 the woman who is clever enough to conceal her 
 cleverness. The women in France have always 
 been a danger, for they are cleverer than the men. 
 They cannot understand that it is their hearts and 
 not their heads that we want. When they have 
 
 had influence upon a monarch, they have invari- 
 14 
 
200 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 ably ruined his career. Look at Henry IV. and 
 Louis XIV. They are all ideologists, dreamers, 
 sentimentalists, full of emotion and energy, but 
 without logic or foresight. Look at that accursed 
 Madame de Stael! Look at the Salons of the 
 Quartier St. Germaine! Their eternal clack, clack, 
 clack give me more trouble than the fleet of Eng- 
 land. Why cannot they look after their babies 
 and their needlework? I suppose you think that 
 these are very dreadful opinions, Monsieur de 
 Laval?" 
 
 It was not an easy question to answer, so I 
 was silent. 
 
 " You have not at your age become a practical 
 man/' said the Emperor. " You will understand 
 then. I daresay that I thought as you do at the 
 time when the stupid Parisians were saying what 
 a misalliance the widow of the famous General de 
 Beauharnais was making by marrying the un- 
 known Buonaparte. It was a beautiful dream! 
 There are nine inns in a single day's journey 
 between Milan and Mantua, and I wrote a let- 
 ter to my wife from each of them. Nine letters 
 in a day but one becomes disillusioned, Mon- 
 
THE MAN OF ACTION. 2OI 
 
 sieur. One learns to accept things as they 
 are." 
 
 I could not but think what a beautiful young 
 man he must have been before he had learned to 
 accept things as they are. The glamour, the ro- 
 mance what a bald dead thing is life without it! 
 His own face had clouded over as if that old life 
 had perhaps had a charm which the Emperor's 
 crown had never given. It may be that those nine 
 letters written in one day at wayside inns had 
 brought him more true joy than all the treaties 
 by which he had torn provinces from his neigh- 
 bours. But the sentiment passed from his face, 
 and he came back in his sudden concise fashion 
 to my own affairs. 
 
 " Eugenie de Choiseul is the niece of the Duke 
 de Choiseul, is she not? " he asked. 
 
 " Yes, Sire." 
 
 " You are affianced? " 
 
 " Yes, Sire." 
 
 He shook his head impatiently. 
 
 " If you wish to advance yourself in my Court, 
 Monsieur de Laval," said he, " you must commit 
 such matters to my care. Is it likely that I can 
 
2Q2 UNCLE BERN AC. 
 
 look with indifference upon a marriage between 
 emigres an alliance between my enemies? " 
 
 " But she shares my opinions, Sire." 
 
 " Ta, ta, ta, at her age one has no opinions. 
 She has the emigre blood in her veins, and it will 
 come out. Your marriage shall be my care, 
 Monsieur de Laval. And I wish you to come to 
 the Pont des Briques that you may be presented 
 to the Empress. What is it, Constant? " 
 
 " There is a lady outside who desires to a . 
 your Majesty. Shall I tell her to come later? " 
 
 " A lady! " cried the Emperor smiling. " T ^ 
 do not see many faces in the camp which have not 
 a moustache upon them. Who is she? What 
 does she want? " 
 
 " Her name, Sire, is Mademoiselle Sibylle 
 Bernac." 
 
 "What!" cried Napoleon. "It must be the 
 daughter of old Bernac of Grosbois. By the way, 
 Monsieur de Laval, he is your uncle upon your 
 mother's side, is he not? " 
 
 I may have flushed with shame as I acknowl- 
 edged it, for the Emperor read my feelings. 
 
 " Well, well, he has not a very savoury trade, 
 
THE MAN OF ACTION. 203 
 
 it is true, and yet I can assure you that it is one 
 which is very necessary to me. By the way, 
 this uncle of yours, as I understand, holds the es- 
 tates which should have descended to you, does 
 he not? " 
 
 " Yes, Sire." 
 
 His blue eyes flashed suspicion at me. 
 
 " I trust that you are not joining my service 
 lerely in the hope of having them restored to 
 ..a." 
 
 " No, Sire. It is my ambition to make a career 
 f myself." 
 
 " It is a prouder thing," said the Emperor, " to 
 found a family than merely to perpetuate one. I 
 could not restore your estates, Monsieur de Laval, 
 for things have come to such a pitch in France that 
 if one once begins restorations the affair is end- 
 less. It would shake all public confidence. I 
 have no more devoted adherents than the men 
 who hold land which does not belong to them. 
 As long as they serve me, as your uncle serves me, 
 the land must remain with them. But what can 
 this young lady require of me? Show her in, 
 Constant!" 
 
204 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 An instant later my cousin Sibylle was con- 
 ducted into the room. Her face was pale and set, 
 but her large dark eyes were filled with resolution, 
 and she carried herself like a princess. 
 
 " Well, mademoiselle, why do you come here? 
 What is it that you want? asked the Emperor in 
 the brusque manner which he adopted to women, 
 even if he were wooing them. 
 
 Sibylle glanced round, and as our eyes met for 
 an instant I felt that my presence had renewed 
 her courage. She looked bravely at the Emperor 
 as she answered him. 
 
 " I come, Sire, to implore a favour of you." 
 
 " Your father's daughter has certain claims 
 upon me, mademoiselle. What is it that you 
 wish? " 
 
 " I do not ask it in my father's name, but in 
 my own. I implore you, Sire, to spare the life 
 of Monsieur Lucien Lesage, who was arrested 
 yesterday upon a charge of treason. He is a stu- 
 dent, Sire a mere dreamer who has lived away 
 from the world and has been made a tool by de- 
 signing men." 
 
 "A dreamer!" cried the Emperor harshly. 
 
THE MAN OF ACTION. 205 
 
 " They are the most dangerous of all." He took 
 a bundle of notes from his table and glanced them 
 over. " I presume that he is fortunate enough 
 to be your lover, mademoiselle? " 
 
 Sibylle's pale face flushed, and she looked 
 down before the Emperor's keen sardonic glance. 
 
 " I have his examination here. He does not 
 come well out of it. I confess that from what I 
 see of the young man's character I should not say 
 that he is worthy of your love." 
 
 " I implore you to spare him, Sire." 
 
 " What you ask is impossible, mademoiselle. I 
 have been conspired against from two sides by 
 the Bourbons and by the Jacobins. Hitherto I 
 have been too long suffering, and they have been 
 encouraged by my patience. Since Cadoudal and 
 the Due d'Enghien died the Bourbons have been 
 quiet. Now I must teach the same lesson to these 
 others." 
 
 I was astonished and am still astonished at the 
 passion with which my brave and pure cousin 
 loved this cowardly and low-minded man, though 
 it is but in accordance with that strange law which 
 draws the extremes of nature together. As she 
 
206 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 heard the Emperor's stern reply the last sign of 
 colour faded from her pale face, and her eyes were 
 dimmed with despairing tears, which gleamed upon 
 her white cheeks like dew upon the petals of a lily. 
 
 " For God's sake, Sire! For the love of your 
 mother spare him! " she cried, falling upon her 
 knees at the Emperor's feet. " I will answer for 
 him that he never offends you again." 
 
 "Tut, tut!" cried Napoleon angrily, turning 
 upon his heel and impatiently walking up and 
 down the room. " I cannot grant you what you 
 ask, mademoiselle. When I say so once it is 
 finished. I cannot have my decisions in high 
 matters of State affected by the intrusion of 
 women. The Jacobins have been dangerous of 
 late, and an example must be made or we shall 
 have the Faubourg St. Antoine upon our hands 
 
 once more." 
 
 The Emperor's set face and firm manner 
 showed it was hopeless, and yet my cousin per- 
 severed as no one but a woman who pleads for 
 her lover would have dared to do. 
 " He is harmless, Sire." 
 "His death will frighten others." 
 
With a face which showed that all hope had not been abandoned. 
 
THE MAN OF ACTION. 2O? 
 
 " Spare him and I will answer for his loyalty." 
 
 " What you ask is impossible." 
 
 Constant and I raised her from the ground. 
 
 " That is right, Monsieur de Laval," said the 
 Emperor. " This interview can lead to nothing. 
 Remove your cousin from the room!" 
 
 But she had again turned to him with a face 
 which showed that even now all hope had not been 
 abandoned. 
 
 " Sire," she cried. " You say that an example 
 must be made. There is Toussac ! " 
 
 " Ah, if I could lay my hands upon Toussac! " 
 
 " He is the dangerous man. It was he and 
 my father who led Lucien on. If an example must 
 be made it should be an example of the guilty 
 rather than of the innocent." 
 
 " They are both guilty. And, besides, we have 
 our hands upon the one but not upon the other." 
 
 " But if I could find him? " 
 
 Napoleon thought for a moment. 
 
 " If you do," said he, " Lesage will be for- 
 given! " 
 
 " But I cannot do it in a day." 
 
 " How long do you ask? " 
 
208 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 " A week at the least." 
 
 " Then he has a respite of a week. If you can 
 find Toussac in the time Lesage will be pardoned. 
 If not he will die upon the eighth day. It is 
 enough. Monsieur de Laval, remove your cousin, 
 for I have matters of more importance to attend 
 to. I shall expect you one evening at the Pont 
 des Briques, when you are ready to be presented 
 to the Empress." 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE MAN OF DREAMS. 
 
 WHEN I had escorted my Cousin Sibylle from 
 the presence of the Emperor, I was surprised to 
 find the same young hussar officer waiting outside 
 who had commanded the guard which had brought 
 me to the camp. 
 
 " Well, mademoiselle, what luck? " he asked 
 excitedly, clanking towards us. 
 
 For answer Sibylle shook her head. 
 
 " Ah, I feared as much, for the Emperor is a 
 terrible man. It was brave, indeed, of you to at- 
 tempt it. I had rather charge an unshaken square 
 upon a spent horse than ask him for anything. 
 But my heart is heavy, mademoiselle, that you 
 should have been unsuccessful." His boyish blue 
 eyes filled with tears and his fair moustache 
 drooped in such a deplorable fashion, that I could 
 have laughed had the matter been less serious. 
 
 " Lieutenant Gerard chanced to meet me, and 
 209 
 
2IO UNCLE BERN AC. 
 
 escorted me through the camp," said my cousin. 
 " He has been kind enough to give me sympathy 
 in my trouble." 
 
 "And so do I, Sibylle," I cried; "you carried 
 yourself like an angel, and it is a lucky man who 
 is blessed with your love. I trust that he may be 
 worthy of it." 
 
 She turned cold and proud in an instant when 
 anyone threw a doubt upon this wretched lover 
 of hers. 
 
 " I know him as neither the Emperor nor you 
 can do," said she. " He has the heart and soul 
 of a poet, and he is too high-minded to suspect 
 the intrigues to which he has fallen a victim. But 
 as to Toussac, I should have no pity upon him, 
 for I know him to be a murderer five times over, 
 and I know also that there will be no peace in 
 France until he has been taken. Cousin Louis, 
 will you help me to do it? " 
 
 The lieutenant had been tugging at his mous- 
 tache and looking me up and down with a jeal- 
 ous eye. 
 
 " Surely, mademoiselle, you will permit me to 
 help you? " he cried in a piteous voice. 
 
THE MAN OF DREAMS. 211 
 
 " I may need you both," said she. " I will 
 come to you if I do. Now I will ask you to ride 
 with me to the edge of the camp and there to 
 leave me." 
 
 She had a quick imperative way which came 
 charmingly from those sweet womanly lips. The 
 grey horse upon which I had come to the camp 
 was waiting beside that of the hussar, so we were 
 soon in the saddle. When we were clear of the 
 huts my cousin turned to us. 
 
 " I had rather go alone now," said she. " It 
 is understood, then, that I can rely upon you." 
 
 " Entirely," said I. 
 
 " To the death," cried Gerard. 
 
 " It is everything to me to have two brave men 
 at my back," said she, and so, with a smile, gave 
 her horse its head and cantered off over the down- 
 land in the direction of Grosbois. 
 
 For my part I remained in thought for some 
 time, wondering what plan she could have in her 
 head by which she hoped to get upon the track of 
 Toussac. A woman's wit, spurred by the danger 
 of her lover, might perhaps succeed where Fouche 
 and Savary had failed, When at last I turned my 
 
212 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 horse I found my young hussar still staring after 
 the distant rider. 
 
 " My faith! There is the woman for you, 
 Etienne!" he kept repeating. "What an eye! 
 What a smile! What a rider! And she is not 
 afraid of the Emperor. Oh, Etienne, here is the 
 woman who is worthy of you!" 
 
 These were the little sentences which he kept 
 muttering to himself until she vanished over the 
 hill, when he became conscious at last of my 
 presence. 
 
 
 
 ' You are mademoiselle's cousin? " he asked. 
 :t You are joined with me in doing something for 
 her. I do not yet know what it is, but I am per- 
 fectly ready to do it." 
 
 " It is to capture Toussac." 
 
 "Excellent!" 
 
 " In order to save the life of her lover." 
 
 There was a struggle in the face of the young 
 hussar, but his more generous nature won. 
 
 " Sapristi! I will do even that if it will make 
 her the happier! " he cried, and he shook the hand 
 which I extended towards him. " The Hussars of 
 Bercheny are quartered over yonder, where you 
 
THE MAN OF DREAMS. 213 
 
 see the lines of picketed horses. If you will send 
 for Lieutenant Etienne Gerard you will find a sure 
 blade always at your disposal. Let me hear from 
 you then, and the sooner the better! " He shook 
 his bridle and was off, with youth and gallantry in 
 every line of him, from his red toupee and flow- 
 ing dolman to the spur which twinkled on his 
 heel. 
 
 But for four long clays no word came from my 
 cousin as to her quest, nor did I hear from this 
 grim uncle of mine at the Castle of Grosbois. For 
 myself I had gone into the town of Boulogne and 
 had hired such a room as my thin purse could 
 afford over the shop of a baker named Vidal, next 
 to the Church of St. Augustin, in the Rue des 
 Vents. Only last year I went back there under 
 that strange impulse which leads the old to tread 
 once more with dragging feet the same spots which 
 have sounded to the crisp tread of their youth. 
 The room is still there, the very pictures and the 
 plaster head of Jean Bart which used to stand upon 
 the side table. As I stood with my back to the 
 narrow window, I had around me every smallest 
 detail upon which my young eyes had looked; nor 
 
214 
 
 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 was I conscious that my own heart and feelings 
 had undergone much change. And yet there, in 
 the little round glass which faced me, was the long 
 drawn, weary face of an aged man, and out of the 
 window, when I turned, were the bare and lonely 
 downs which had been peopled by that mighty 
 host of a hundred and fifty thousand men. To 
 think that the Grand Army should have vanished 
 away like a shredding cloud upon a windy day, and 
 yet that every sordid detail of a bourgeois lodg- 
 ing should remain unchanged! Truly, if man is 
 not humble it is not for want of having his lesson 
 taught to him by Nature. 
 
 My first care after I had chosen my room was 
 to send to Grosbois for that poor little bundle 
 which I had carried ashore with me that squally 
 night from the English lugger. My next was to 
 use the credit which my favourable reception by 
 the Emperor and his assurance of employment had 
 given me in order to obtain such a wardrobe as 
 would enable me to appear without discredit 
 among the richly-dressed courtiers and soldiers 
 who surrounded him. It was well known that it 
 was his whim that he should himself be the only 
 
THE MAN OF DREAMS. 21$ 
 
 plainly-dressed man in the company, and that in 
 the most luxurious times of the Bourbons there 
 was never a period when fine linen and a brave 
 coat were more necessary for a man who would 
 keep in favour. A new court and a young em- 
 pire cannot afford to take anything for granted. 
 
 It was upon the morning of the fifth day that I 
 received a message from Duroc, who was the head 
 of the household, that I was to attend the Em- 
 peror at the headquarters in the camp, and that 
 a seat in one of the Imperial carriages would be 
 at my disposal that I might proceed with the Court 
 to Pont des Briques, there to be present at the 
 reception of the Empress. When I arrived I was 
 shown at once through the large entrance tent, 
 and admitted by Constant into the room beyond, 
 where the Emperor stood with his back to the 
 fire, kicking his heels against the grate. Talley- 
 rand and Berthier were in attendance, and de 
 Meneval, the secretary, sat at the writing-table. 
 
 " Ah, Monsieur de Laval," said the Emperor 
 with a friendly nod. " Have you heard anything 
 yet of your charming cousin? '* 
 
 " Nothing, Sire," I answered. 
 15 
 
2i6 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 " I fear that her efforts will be in vain. I wish 
 her every success, for we have no reason at all to 
 fear this miserable poet, while the other is formida- 
 ble. All the same, an example of some sort must 
 be made." 
 
 The darkness was drawing in, and Constant 
 had appeared with a taper to light the candles, 
 but the Emperor ordered him out. 
 
 " I like the twilight/' said he. " No doubt, 
 Monsieur de Laval, after your long residence in 
 England you find yourself also most at home in 
 a dim light. I think that the brains of these peo- 
 ple must be as dense as their fogs to judge by the 
 nonsense which they write in their accursed pa- 
 pers." With one of those convulsive gestures 
 which accompanied his sudden outbursts of pas- 
 sion he seized a sheaf of late London papers from 
 the table, and ground them into the fire with his 
 heel. " An editor! " he cried in the guttural rasp- 
 ing voice which I had heard when I first met him. 
 " What is he? A dirty man with a pen in a back 
 office. And he will talk like one of the great 
 Powers of Europe. I have had enough of this 
 freedom of the Press. There are some who would 
 
THE MAN OF DREAMS. 2i; 
 
 like to see it established in Paris. You are among 
 them, Talleyrand. For my part I see no need for 
 any paper at all except the Moniteur by which the 
 Government may make known its decisions to the 
 people." 
 
 " I am of opinion, Sire/' said the minister, 
 " that it is better to have open foes than secret 
 ones, and that it is less dangerous to shed ink than 
 blood. What matter if your enemies have leave 
 to rave in a few Paris papers, as long as you are 
 at the head of five hundred thousand armed men? " 
 
 " Ta, ta, ta! " cried the Emperor impatiently. 
 " You speak as if I had received my crown from 
 my father the late king. But even if I had, it 
 would be intolerable, this government by news- 
 paper. The Bourbons allowed themselves to be 
 criticised, and where are they now? Had they 
 used their Swiss Guards as I did the Grenadiers 
 upon the eighteenth Brumaire what would have 
 become of their precious National Assembly? 
 There was a time when a bayonet in the stomach 
 of Mirabeau might have settled the whole mat- 
 ter. Later it took the heads of a king and queen 
 and the blood of a hundred thousand people." 
 
218 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 He sat down, and stretched his plump, white- 
 clad legs towards the fire. Through the blackened 
 shreds of the English papers the red glow beat 
 upwards upon the beautiful, pallid, sphinx-like face 
 the face of a poet, of a philosopher of anything 
 rather than of a ruthless and ambitious soldier. 
 I have heard folk remark that no two portraits of 
 the Emperor are alike, and the fault does not lie 
 with the artists but with the fact that every vary- 
 ing mood made him a different man. But in his 
 prime, before his features became heavy, I, who 
 have seen sixty years of mankind, can say that 
 in repose I have never looked upon a more beau- 
 tiful face. 
 
 " You have no dreams and no illusions, Tal- 
 leyrand/' said he. " You are always practical, 
 cold, and cynical. But with me, when I am in 
 the twilight, as now, or when I hear the sound of 
 the sea, my imagination begins to work. It is the 
 same when I hear some music especially music 
 which repeats itself again and again like some 
 pieces of Passaniello. They have a strange effect 
 upon me, and I begin to Ossianise. I get large 
 ideas and great aspirations. It is at such times 
 
THE MAN OF DREAMS. 219 
 
 that my mind always turns to the East, that 
 swarming ant-heap of the human race, where alone 
 it is possible to be very great. I renew my dreams 
 of '98. I think of the possibility of drilling and 
 arming these vast masses of men, and of precipi- 
 tating them upon Europe. Had I conquered 
 Syria I should have done this, and the fate of the 
 world was really decided at the siege of Acre. 
 With Egypt at my feet I already pictured myself 
 approaching India, mounted upon an elephant, 
 and holding in my hand a new version of the 
 Koran which I had myself composed. I have been 
 born too late. To be accepted as a world's con- 
 queror one must claim to be divine. Alexander 
 declared himself to be the son of Jupiter, and no 
 one questioned it. But the world has grown old, 
 and has lost its enthusiasms. What would hap- 
 pen if I were to make the same claim? Monsieur 
 de Talleyrand would smile behind his hand, and 
 the Parisians would write little lampoons upon 
 the walls." 
 
 He did not appear to be addressing us, but 
 rather to be expressing his thoughts aloud, while 
 allowing them to run to the most fantastic and 
 
220 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 extravagant lengths. This it was which he called 
 Ossianising, because it recalled to him the wild 
 vague dreams of the Gaelic Ossian, whose poems 
 had always had a fascination for him. De Mene- 
 val has told me that for an hour at a time he 
 has sometimes talked in this strain of the most 
 intimate thoughts and aspirations of his heart, 
 while his courtiers have stood round in silence 
 waiting for the instant when he would return once 
 more to his practical and incisive self. 
 
 " The great ruler," said he, " must have the 
 power of religion behind him as well as the power 
 of the sword. It is more important to command 
 the souls than the bodies of men. The Sultan, 
 for example, is the head of the faith as well as of 
 the army. So were some of the Roman Emperors. 
 My position must be incomplete until this is ac- 
 complished. At the present instant there are 
 thirty departments in France where the Pope is 
 more powerful than I am. It is only by universal 
 dominion that peace can be assured in the world. 
 When there is only one authority in Europe, 
 seated at Paris, and when all the kings are so 
 many lieutenants who hold their crowns from the 
 
THE MAN OF DREAMS. 221 
 
 central power of France, it is then that the reign 
 of peace will be established. Many powers of 
 equal strength must always lead to struggles until 
 one becomes predominant. Her central position, 
 her wealth and her history, all mark France out 
 as being the power which will control and regulate 
 the others. Germany is divided. Russia is bar- 
 barous. England is insular. France only re- 
 
 mains/' 
 
 I began to understand as I listened to him 
 that my friends in England had not been so far 
 wrong when they had declared that as long as he 
 lived this little thirty-six year old artilleryman 
 there could not possibly be any peace in the world. 
 He drank some coffee which Constant had placed 
 upon the small round table at his elbow. Then 
 he leaned back in his chair once more, still star- 
 ing moodily at the red glow of the fire, with his 
 chin sunk upon his chest. 
 
 " In those days," said he, " the kings of Eu- 
 rope will walk behind the Emperor of France in 
 order to hold up his train at his coronation. Each 
 of them will have to maintain a palace in Paris, 
 and the city will stretch as far as Versailles. These 
 
222 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 are the plans which I have made for Paris if she 
 will show herself to be worthy of them. But I 
 have no love for them, these Parisians, and they 
 have none for me, for they cannot forget that I 
 turned my guns upon them once before, and they 
 know that I am ready to do so again. I have 
 made them admire me and fear me, but I have 
 never made them like me. Look what I have done 
 for them. Where are the treasures of Genoa, the 
 pictures and statues of Venice and of the Vatican? 
 They are in the Louvre. The spoils of my victories 
 have gone to decorate her. But they must always 
 be changing, always chattering. They wave their 
 hats at me now, but they would soon be waving 
 their fists if I did not give them something to talk 
 over and to wonder at. When other things are 
 quiet, I have the dome of the Invalides regilded to 
 keep their thoughts from mischief. Louis XIV. 
 gave them wars. Louis XV. gave them the gal- 
 lantries and scandals of his Court. Louis XVI. 
 gave them nothing, so they cut off his head. It 
 was you who helped to bring him to the scaffold, 
 Talleyrand." 
 
 " No, Sire, I was always a moderate." 
 
THE MAN OF DREAMS. 
 
 223 
 
 " At least, you did not regret his death." 
 " The less so, since it has made room for you, 
 Sire." 
 
 " Nothing could have held me down, Talley- 
 rand. I was born to reach the highest. It has 
 always been the same with me. I remember when 
 we were arranging the Treaty of Campo Formio 
 I a young general under thirty there was a high 
 vacant throne with the Imperial arms in the Com- 
 missioner's tent. I instantly sprang up the steps, 
 and threw myself down upon it. I could not en- 
 dure to think that there was anything above my- 
 self. And all the time I knew in my heart all that 
 was going to happen to me. Even in the days 
 when my brother Lucien and I lived in a little 
 room upon a few francs a week, I knew perfectly 
 well that the day would come w r hen I should stand 
 where I am now. And yet I had no prospects and 
 no reason for any great hopes. I was not clever 
 at school. I was only the forty-second out of fifty- 
 eight. At mathematics I had perhaps some abil- 
 ity, but at nothing else. The truth is that I was 
 always dreaming when the others were working. 
 There was nothing to encourage my ambition, 
 
224 
 
 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 for the only thing which I inherited from my father 
 was a weak stomach. Once, when I was very 
 young, I went up to Paris with my father and my 
 sister Caroline. We were in the Rue Richelieu, 
 and we saw the king pass in his carriage. Who 
 would have thought that the little boy from 
 Corsica, who took his hat off and stared, was des- 
 tined to be the next monarch of France? And 
 yet even then I felt as if that carriage ought to 
 belong to me. What is it, Constant? " 
 
 The discreet valet bent down and whispered 
 something to the Emperor. 
 
 " Ah, of course," said he. " It was an appoint- 
 ment. I had forgotten it. Is she there? " 
 
 " Yes, Sire." 
 
 " In the side room? " 
 
 " Yes, Sire." 
 
 Talleyrand and Berthier exchanged glances, 
 and the minister began to move towards the door. 
 
 " No, no, you can remain here," said the Em- 
 peror. " Light the lamps, Constant, and have 
 the carriages ready in half-an-hour. Look over 
 this draft of a letter to the Emperor of Austria, 
 and let me have your observations upon it, Tal- 
 
THE MAN OF DREAMS. 
 
 225 
 
 leyrand. De Meneval, there is a lengthy report 
 here as to the new dockyard at Brest. Extract 
 what is essential from it, and leave it upon my 
 desk at five o'clock to-morrow morning. Ber- 
 thier, I will have the whole army into the boats 
 at seven. We will see if they can embark within 
 three hours. Monsieur de Laval, you will wait 
 here until we start for Pont des Briques." So 
 with a crisp order to each of us, he walked with 
 little swift steps across the room, and I saw his 
 square green back and white legs framed for an 
 instant in the doorway. There was the flutter of 
 a pink skirt beyond, and then the curtains closed 
 behind him. 
 
 Berthier stood biting his nails, while Talley- 
 rand looked at him with a slight raising of his 
 bushy eyebrows. De Meneval with a rueful face 
 was turning over the great bundle of papers which 
 had to be copied by morning. Constant, with a 
 noiseless tread, was lighting the candles upon the 
 sconces round the room. 
 
 " Which is it? " I heard the minister whisper. 
 
 "The girl from the Imperial Opera," said 
 Berthier. 
 
226 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 " Is the little Spanish lady out of favour 
 then? " 
 
 " No, I think not. She was here yesterday." 
 "And the other, the Countess?" 
 " She has a cottage at Ambleteuse? " 
 " But we must have no scandal about the 
 Court," said Talleyrand, with a sour smile, recall- 
 ing the moral sentiments with which the Emperor 
 had reproved him. " And now, Monsieur de 
 Laval," he added, drawing me aside, " I very much 
 wish to hear from you about the Bourbon party 
 in England. You must have heard their views. 
 Do they imagine that they have any chance of 
 success? " 
 
 And so for ten minutes he plied me with ques- 
 tions, which showed me clearly that the Emperor 
 had read him aright, and that he was determined, 
 come what might, to be upon the side which won. 
 We were still talking when Constant entered hur- 
 riedly, with a look of anxiety and perplexity which 
 I could not have imagined upon so smooth and 
 imperturbable a face. 
 
 " Good Heavens, Monsieur Talleyrand," 
 he cried, clasping and unclasping his hands. 
 
THE MAN OF DREAMS. 
 
 227 
 
 "Such a misfortune! Who could have expected 
 it?" 
 
 "What is it, then, Constant?" 
 
 " Oh, Monsieur, I dare not intrude upon the 
 Emperon And yet . . . And yet . . . The Em- 
 press is outside, and she is coming in." 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 JOSEPHINE. 
 \ 
 
 AT this unexpected announcement Talleyrand 
 and Berthier looked at each other in silence, and 
 for once the trained features of the great diplo- 
 matist, who lived behind a mask, betrayed the fact 
 that he was still capable of emotion. The spasm 
 which passed over them was caused, however, 
 rather by mischievous amusement than by con- 
 sternation, while Berthier -who had an honest 
 affection for both Napoleon and Josephine ran 
 frantically to the door as if to bar the Empress 
 from entering. Constant rushed towards the cur- 
 tains which screened the Emperor's room, and 
 then, losing courage, although he was known to 
 be a stout-hearted man, he came running back to 
 Talleyrand for advice. It was too late now, how- 
 ever, for Roustem the Mameluke had opened the 
 door, and two ladies had entered the room. The 
 
 first was tall and graceful, with a smiling face, and 
 
 228 
 
JOSEPHINE. 229 
 
 an affable though dignified manner. She was 
 dressed in a black velvet cloak with white lace at 
 the neck and sleeves, and she wore a black hat 
 with a curling white feather. Her companion was 
 shorter, with a countenance which would have 
 been plain had it not been for the alert expression 
 and large dark eyes, which gave it charm and char- 
 acter. A small black terrier "dog had followed 
 them in, but the first lady turned and handed the 
 thin steel chain with which she led it to the Mame- 
 luke attendant. 
 
 " You had better keep Fortune outside, Rous- 
 tem," said she, in a peculiarly sweet musical voice. 
 " The Emperor is not very fond of dogs, and if 
 we intrude upon his quarters we cannot do less 
 than consult his tastes. Good evening, Monsieur 
 de Talleyrand! Madame de Remusat and I have 
 driven all along the cliffs, and we have stopped 
 as we passed to know if the Emperor is coming 
 to Pont des Briques. But perhaps he has already 
 started. I had expected to find him here." 
 
 " His Imperial Majesty was here a short time 
 ago," said Talleyrand, bowing and rubbing his 
 hands. 
 
230 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 " I hold my salon such a salon as Pont des 
 Briques is capable of this evening, and the Em- 
 peror promised me that he would set his work 
 aside for once, and favour us with his presence. I 
 wish we could persuade him to work less, Monsieur 
 de Talleyrand. He has a frame of iron, but he 
 cannot continue in this way. These nervous at- 
 tacks come more frequently upon him. He will 
 insist upon doing everything, everything himself. 
 It is noble, but it is to be a martyr. I have no 
 doubt that at the present moment but you have 
 not yet told me where he is, Monsieur de Talley- 
 rand." 
 
 " We expect him every instant, your Majesty." 
 
 " In that case we shall sit down and await his 
 return. Ah, Monsieur de Meneval, how I pity you 
 when I see you among all those papers! I was 
 desolate when Monsieur de Bourienne deserted 
 the Emperor, but you have more than taken his 
 place. Come up to the fire, Madame de Remusat ! 
 Yes, yes, I insist upon it, for I know that you 
 must be cold. Constant, come and put the rug 
 under Madame de Remusat's feet." 
 
 It was by little acts of thoughtfulness and 
 
JOSEPHINE. 231 
 
 kindness like this that the Empress so endeared 
 herself that she had really no enemies in France, 
 even among those who were most bitterly opposed 
 to her husband. Whether as the consort of the 
 first man in Europe, or as the lonely divorced 
 woman eating her heart out at Malmaison, she 
 was always praised and beloved by those who 
 knew her. Of all the sacrifices which the Em- 
 peror ever made to his ambition that of his wife 
 was the one which cost him the greatest struggle 
 and the keenest regret. 
 
 Now as she sat before the fire in the same chair 
 which had so recently been occupied by the Em- 
 peror, I had an opportunity of studying this per- 
 son, whose strange fate had raised her from being 
 the daughter of a lieutenant of artillery to the 
 first position among the women of Europe. She 
 was six years older than Napoleon, and on this 
 occasion, when I saw her first, she was in her forty- 
 second year; but at a little distance or in a dis- 
 creet light, it was no courtier's flattery to say that 
 she might very well have passed for thirty. Her 
 tall, elegant figure was girlish in its supple slim- 
 ness, and she had an easy and natural grace in 
 16 
 
232 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 every movement, which she inherited with her 
 tropical West Indian blood. Her features were 
 delicate, and I have heard that in her youth she 
 was strikingly beautiful; but, like most Creole 
 women, she had become passee in early middle 
 age. She had made a brave fight, however with 
 art as her ally against the attacks of time, and 
 her success had been such that when she sat aloof 
 upon a dais or drove past in a procession, she 
 might still pass as a lovely woman. In a small 
 room, however, or in a good light, the crude pinks 
 and whites with which she had concealed her sal- 
 low cheeks became painfully harsh and artificial. 
 Her own natural beauty, however, still lingered in 
 that last refuge of beauty the eyes, which were 
 large, dark, and sympathetic. Her mouth, too, 
 was small and amiable, and her most frequent ex- 
 pression was a smile, which seldom broadened into 
 a laugh, as she had her own reasons for preferring 
 that her teeth should not be seen. As to her 
 bearing, it was so dignified, that if this little West 
 Indian had come straight from the loins of Charle- 
 magne, it could not have been improved upon. 
 Her walk, her glance, the sweep of her dress, the 
 
JOSEPHINE. 233 
 
 wave of her hand they had all the happiest mix- 
 ture of the sweetness of a woman and the conde- 
 scension of a queen. I watched her with admira- 
 tion as she leaned forward, picking little pieces of 
 aromatic aloes wood out of the basket and throw- 
 ing them on to the fire. 
 
 " Napoleon likes the smell of burning aloes," 
 said she. " There was never anyone who had such 
 a nose as he, for he can detect things which are 
 quite hidden from me." 
 
 f< The Emperor has an excellent nose for many 
 things," said Talleyrand. " The State contractors 
 have found that out to their cost." 
 
 " Oh, it is dreadful when he comes to examine 
 accounts dreadful, Monsieur de Talleyrand ! 
 Nothing escapes him. He will make no allow- 
 ances. Everything must be exact. But who is 
 this young gentleman, Monsieur de Talleyrand? 
 I do not think that he has been presented to me." 
 
 The minister explained in a few words that I 
 had been received into the Emperor's personal 
 service, and Josephine congratulated me upon it 
 with the most kindly sympathy. 
 
 "It eases my mind so to know that he has 
 
234 
 
 UNCLE EERNAC. 
 
 brave and loyal men round him. Ever since that 
 dreadful affair of the infernal machine I have al- 
 ways been uneasy if he is away from me. He is 
 really safest in time of war, for it is only then that 
 he is away from the assassins who hate him. And 
 now I understand that a new Jacobin plot has only 
 just been discovered." 
 
 " This is the same Monsieur de Laval who was 
 there when the conspirator was taken," said Tal- 
 leyrand. 
 
 The Empress overwhelmed me with questions, 
 hardly waiting for the answers in her anxiety. 
 
 " But this dreadful man Toussac has not been 
 taken yet," she cried. " Have I not heard that a 
 young lady is endeavouring to do what has baffled 
 the secret police, and that the freedom of her lover 
 is to be the reward of her success? " 
 
 " She is my cousin, your Imperial Majesty. 
 Mademoiselle Sibylle Bernac is her name." 
 
 " You have only been in France a few days, 
 Monsieur de Laval," said Josephine, smiling, " but 
 it seems to me that all the affairs of the Empire are 
 already revolving round you. You must bring this 
 pretty cousin of yours the Emperor said that she 
 
JOSEPHINE. 235 
 
 is pretty to Court with you, and present her to 
 me. Madame de Remusat, you will take a note 
 of the name." 
 
 The Empress had stooped again to the basket 
 of aloes wood which stood beside the fireplace. 
 Suddenly I saw her stare hard at something, and 
 then, with a little cry of surprise, she stooped and 
 lifted an object from the carpet. It was the Em- 
 peror's soft flat beaver with the little tricolour 
 cockade. Josephine sprang up, and looked from 
 the hat in her hand to the imperturbable face of 
 the minister. 
 
 " How is this, Monsieur de Talleyrand," she 
 cried, and the dark eyes began to shine with anger 
 and suspicion. " You said to me that the Em- 
 peror was out, and here is his hat ! " 
 
 " Pardon me, your Imperial Majesty, I did not 
 say that he was out." 
 
 " What did you say then? " 
 
 " I said that he left the room a short time 
 before." 
 
 " You are endeavouring to conceal something 
 from me," she cried, with the quick instinct of a 
 woman. 
 
236 UNCLE BERNAC.; 
 
 " I assure you that I tell you all I know." 
 
 The Empress's eyes darted from face to face. 
 
 " Marshal Berthier," she cried, " I insist upon 
 your telling me this instant where the Emperor is, 
 and what he is doing." 
 
 The slow-witted soldier stammered and twisted 
 his cocked hat about. 
 
 " I know no more than Monsieur de Talleyrand 
 does," said he; " the Emperor left us some time 
 ago." 
 
 " By which door? " 
 
 Poor Berthier was more confused than ever. 
 
 " Really, your Imperial Majesty, I cannot un- 
 dertake to say by which door it was that the Em- 
 peror quitted the apartment." 
 
 Josephine's eyes flashed round at me, and my 
 heart shrunk within me as I thought that she was 
 about to ask me that same dreadful question. But 
 I had just time to breathe one prayer to the good 
 Saint Ignatius, who has always been gracious to 
 our family, and the danger passed. 
 
 " Come, Madame de Remusat," said she. " If 
 these gentlemen will not tell us we shall very soon 
 find out for ourselves." 
 
JOSEPHINE. 237 
 
 She swept with great dignity towards the cur- 
 tained door, followed at the distance of a few yards 
 by her waiting lady, whose frightened face and 
 lagging, unwilling steps showed that she per- 
 fectly appreciated the situation. Indeed, the Em- 
 peror's open infidelities, and the public scenes to 
 which they gave rise, were so notorious, that even 
 in Ashford they had reached our ears. Napoleon's 
 self-confidence and his contempt of the world had 
 the effect of making him careless as to what was 
 thought or said of him, while Josephine, when she 
 was carried away by jealousy, lost all the dignity 
 and restraint which usually marked her conduct; 
 so between them they gave some embarrassing 
 moments to those who were about them. Talley- 
 rand turned away with his fingers over his lips, 
 while Berthier, in an agony of apprehension, con- 
 tinued to double up and to twist the cocked hat 
 which he held between his hands. Only Constant, 
 the faithful valet, ventured to intervene between 
 his mistress and the fatal door. 
 
 " If your Majesty will resume your seat I shall 
 inform the Emperor that you are here," said he, 
 with two deprecating hands outstretched. 
 
238 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 "Ah, then he is there!" she cried furiously. 
 " I see it all! I understand it all! But I will ex- 
 pose him I will reproach him with his perfidy! 
 Let me pass, Constant! How dare you stand in 
 my way? " 
 
 " Allow me to announce you, your Majesty." 
 
 " I shall announce myself." With swift undu- 
 lations of her beautiful figure she darted past the 
 protesting valet, parted the curtains, threw open 
 the door, and vanished into the next room. 
 
 She had seemed a creature full of fire and of 
 spirit as, with a flush which broke through the 
 paint upon her cheeks, and with eyes which 
 gleamed with the just anger of an outraged wife, 
 she forced her way into her husband's presence. 
 But she was a woman of change and impulse, full 
 of little squirts of courage and corresponding re- 
 actions into cowardice. She had hardly vanished 
 from our sight when there was a harsh roar, like 
 an angry beast, and the next instant Josephine 
 came flying into the room again, with the Em- 
 peror, inarticulate with passion, raving at her 
 heels. So frightened was she, that she began to 
 run towards the fireplace, upon which Madame 
 
JOSEPHINE. 239 
 
 de Remusat, who had no wish to form a rearguard 
 upon such an occasion, began running also, and 
 the two of them, like a pair of startled hens, came 
 rustling and fluttering back to the seats which 
 they had left. There they cowered whilst the 
 Emperor, with a convulsed face and a torrent of 
 camp-fire oaths, stamped and raged about the 
 room. 
 
 "You, Constant, you!" he shouted; "is this 
 the way in which you serve me? Have you no 
 sense then no discretion? Am I never to have 
 any privacy? Must I eternally submit to be spied 
 upon by women? Is everyone else to have liberty, 
 and I only to have none? As to you, Josephine, 
 this finishes it all. I had hesitations before, but 
 now I have none. This brings everything to an 
 end between us." 
 
 We would all, I am sure, have given a good 
 deal to slip from the room at least, my own em- 
 barrassment far exceeded my interest but the 
 Emperor from his lofty standpoint cared as little 
 about our presence as if we had been so many 
 articles of furniture. In fact, it was one of this 
 strange man's peculiarities that it was just those 
 
240 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 delicate and personal scenes with which privacy is 
 usually associated that he preferred to have in 
 public, for he knew that his reproaches had an 
 additional sting when they fell upon other ears 
 besides those of his victim. From his wife to his 
 groom there was not one of those who were about 
 him who did not live in dread of being held up to 
 ridicule and infamy before a smiling crowd, whose 
 amusement was only tempered by the reflection 
 that each of them might be the next to endure the 
 same exposure. 
 
 As to Josephine, she had taken refuge in a 
 woman's last resource, and was crying bitterly, 
 with her graceful neck stooping towards her knees 
 and her two hands over her face. Madame de 
 Remusat was weeping also, and in every pause of 
 his hoarse scolding for his voice was very hoarse 
 and raucous when he was angry there came the 
 soft hissing and clicking of their sobs. Sometimes 
 his fierce taunts would bring some reply from the 
 Empress, some gentle reproof to him for his gal- 
 lantries, but each remonstrance only excited him 
 to a fresh rush of vituperation. In one of his out- 
 bursts he threw his snuff-box with a crash upon 
 
JOSEPHINE. 241 
 
 the floor as a spoiled child would hurl down its 
 toys. 
 
 " Morality! " he cried, " morality was not made 
 for me, and I was not made for morality. I am a 
 man apart, and I accept nobody's conditions. I 
 tell you always, Josephine, that these are the fool- 
 ish phrases of mediocre people who wish to fetter 
 the great. They do not apply to me. I will never 
 consent to frame my conduct by the puerile ar- 
 rangements of society." 
 
 " Have you no feeling then? " sobbed the Em- 
 press. 
 
 " A great man is not made for feeling. It is 
 for him to decide what he shall do, and then to do 
 it without interference from anyone. It is your 
 place, Josephine, to submit to all my fancies, and 
 you should think it quite natural that I should 
 allow myself some latitude." 
 
 It was a favourite device of the Emperor's, 
 when he was in the wrong upon one point, to 
 turn the conversation round so as to get upon 
 some other one on which he was in the right. 
 Having worked off the first explosion of his pas- 
 sion, he now assumed the offensive, for in argu- 
 
242 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 ment, as in war, his instinct was always to at- 
 tack. 
 
 " I have been looking over Lenormand's ac- 
 counts, Josephine," said he. " Are you aware how 
 many dresses you have had last year? You have 
 had a hundred and forty no less and many of 
 them cost as much as twenty-five thousand livres. 
 I am told that you have six hundred dresses in 
 your wardrobes, many of which have hardly ever 
 been used. Madame de Remusat knows that what 
 I say is true. She cannot deny it." 
 
 " You like me to dress well, Napoleon." 
 
 " I will not have such monstrous extravagance. 
 I could have two regiments of cuirassiers, or a 
 fleet of frigates, with the money which you squan- 
 der upon foolish silks and furs. It might turn the 
 fortunes of a campaign. Then again, Josephine, 
 who gave you permission to order that parure of 
 diamonds and sapphires from Lefebvre? The bill 
 has been sent to me and I have refused to pay 
 for it. If he applies again, I shall have him marched 
 to prison between a file of grenadiers, and your 
 milliner shall accompany him there." 
 
 The Emperor's fits of anger, although tern- 
 
JOSEPHINE. 243 
 
 pestuous, were never very prolonged. The curi- 
 ous convulsive wriggle of one of his arms, which 
 always showed when he was excited, gradually 
 died away, and after looking for some time at the 
 papers of de Meneval who had written away like 
 an automaton during all this uproar he came 
 across to the fire with a smile ,upon his lips, and 
 a brow from which the shadow had departed. 
 
 " You have no excuse for extravagance, Jose- 
 phine," said he, laying his hand upon her shoulder. 
 " Diamonds and fine dresses are very necessary to 
 an ugly woman in order to make her attractive, 
 but you cannot need them for such a purpose. 
 You had no fine dresses when first I saw you in 
 the Rue Chautereine, and yet there was no woman 
 in the world who ever attracted me so. Why will 
 you vex me, Josephine, and make me say things 
 which seem unkind? Drive back, little one, to 
 Pont des Briques, and see that you do not catch 
 cold." 
 
 " You will come to the salon, Napoleon? " 
 asked the Empress, whose bitterest resentment 
 seemed to vanish in an instant at the first kindly 
 touch from his hand. She still held her handker- 
 
244 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 chief before her eyes, but it was chiefly, I think, 
 to conceal the effect which her tears had had upon 
 her cheeks. 
 
 ' Yes, yes, I will come. Our carriages will 
 follow yours. See the ladies into the berline, Con- 
 stant. Have you ordered the embarkation of the 
 troops, Berthier? Come here, Talleyrand, for I 
 wish to describe my views about the future of 
 Spain and Portugal. Monsieur de Laval, you may 
 escort the Empress to Pont des Briques, where I 
 shall see you at the reception." 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE RECEPTION OF TIT# EMPRESS. 
 
 PONT DES BRIQUES is but a small village, and 
 this sudden arrival of the Court, which was to re- 
 main for some weeks, had crammed it with Visitors. 
 It would have been very much simpler to have 
 come to Boulogne, where there were more suit- 
 able buildings and better accommodation, but 
 Napoleon had named Pont des Briques, so Pont 
 des Briques it had to be. The word impossible 
 was not permitted amongst those who had to 
 carry out his wishes. So an army of cooks and 
 footmen settled upon the little place, and then 
 there arrived the dignitaries of the new Empire, 
 and then the ladies of the Court, and then their 
 admirers from the camp. The Empress had a cha- 
 teau for her accommodation. The rest quartered 
 themselves in cottages or where they best might, 
 
 and waited ardently for the moment which was 
 
 245 
 
246 UNCLE EERNAC. 
 
 to take them back to the comforts of Versailles or 
 Fontainebleau. 
 
 The Empress had graciously offered me a seat 
 in her berline, and all the way to the village, en- 
 tirely forgetful apparently of the scene through 
 which she passed, she chatted away, asking me a 
 thousand personal questions about myself and my 
 affairs, for a kindly curiosity in the doings of every- 
 one around her was one of her most marked char- 
 acteristics. Especially was she interested in Eu- 
 genie, and as the subject was one upon which I 
 was equally interested in talking it ended in a 
 rhapsody upon my part, amid little sympathetic 
 ejaculations from the Empress and titterings from 
 Madame de Remusat. 
 
 " But you must certainly bring her over to the 
 Court ! " cried the kindly woman. " Such a para- 
 gon of beauty and of virtue must not be allowed 
 to waste herself in this English village. Have you 
 spoken about her to the Emperor? " 
 
 " I found that he knew all about her, your 
 Majesty." 
 
 " He knows all about everything. Oh, what a 
 man he is! You heard him about those diamonds 
 
THE RECEPTION OF THE EMPRESS. 247 
 
 and sapphires. Lefebvre gave me his word that no 
 one should know of it but ourselves, and that I 
 should pay at my leisure, and yet you see that the 
 Emperor knew. But what did he say, Monsieur 
 de Laval?" 
 
 " He said that my marriage should be his af- 
 fair." 
 
 Josephine shook her head and groaned. 
 
 " But this is serious, Monsieur de Laval. He 
 is capable of singling out any one of the ladies of 
 the Court and marrying you to her within a week. 
 It is a subject upon which he will not listen to 
 argument. He has brought about some extraor- 
 dinary matches in this way. But I will speak to 
 the Emperor before I return to Paris, and I will 
 see what I can arrange for you." 
 
 I was still endeavouring to thank her for her 
 sympathy and kindness when the berline rattled 
 up the drive and pulled up at the entrance to the 
 chateau, where the knot of scarlet footmen and 
 the bearskins of two sentries from the Guards 
 announced the Imperial quarters. The Empress 
 and her lady hurried away to prepare their toilets 
 
 for the evening, and I was shown at once into the 
 17 
 
248 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 salon, in which the guests had already begun to 
 assemble. 
 
 This was a large square room furnished as mod- 
 estly as the sitting-room of a provincial gentle- 
 man would be likely to be. The wall-paper was 
 gloomy, and the furniture was of dark mahogany 
 upholstered in faded blue nankeen, but there were 
 numerous candles in candelabra upon the tables 
 and in sconces upon the walls which gave an air 
 of festivity even to these sombre surroundings. 
 Out of the large central room were several smaller 
 ones in which card-tables had been laid out, and 
 the doorways between had been draped with Ori- 
 ental chintz. A number of ladies and gentlemen 
 were standing about, the former in the high even- 
 ing dresses to which the Emperor had given his 
 sanction, the latter about equally divided between 
 the civilians in black court costumes and the sol- 
 diers in their uniforms. Bright colours and grace- 
 ful draperies predominated, for in spite of his lec- 
 tures about economy the Emperor was very harsh 
 to any lady who did not dress in a manner which 
 would sustain the brilliancy of his Court. The 
 prevailing fashions gave an opening to taste and 
 
THE RECEPTION OF THE EMPRESS. 
 
 249 
 
 to display, for the simple classical costumes had 
 died out with the Republic, and oriental dresses 
 had taken their place as a compliment to the Con- 
 queror of Egypt. Lucretia had changed to Zulei- 
 ka, and the salons which had reflected the auster- 
 ity of old Rome had turned suddenly into so many 
 Eastern harems. 
 
 On entering the room I had retired into a 
 corner, fearing that I should find none there whom 
 I knew; but someone plucked at my arm, and 
 turning round I found myself looking into the 
 yellow inscrutable face of my Uncle Bernac. He 
 seized my unresponsive hand and wrung it with a 
 false cordiality. 
 
 " My dear Louis," said he. " It was really the 
 hope of meeting you here which brought me over 
 from Grosbois although you can understand that 
 living so far from Paris I cannot afford to miss 
 such an opportunity of showing myself at Court. 
 Nevertheless I can assure you that it was of you 
 principally that I was thinking. I hear that you 
 have had a splendid reception from the Emperor, 
 and that you have been taken into his personal 
 service. I had spoken to him about you, and I 
 
250 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 made him fully realise that if he treats you well 
 he is likely to coax some of the other young 
 emigres into his service." 
 
 I was convinced that he was lying, but none 
 the less I had to bow and utter a few words of 
 cold thanks. 
 
 " I see that you still bear me some grudge for 
 what passed between us the other day/' said he, 
 " but really, my dear Louis, you have no occasion 
 to do so. It was your own good which I had 
 chiefly at heart. I am neither a young nor a 
 strong man, Louis, and my profession, as you have 
 seen, is a dangerous one. There is my child, and 
 there is my estate. Who takes one, takes both. 
 Sibylle is a charming girl, and you must not allow 
 yourself to be prejudiced against her by any ill 
 temper which she may have shown towards me. 
 I will confess that she had some reason to be an- 
 noyed at the turn which things had taken. But 
 I hope to hear that you have now thought better 
 upon this matter." 
 
 " I have never thought about it at all, and I 
 beg that you will not discuss it," said I curtly. 
 
 He stood in deep thought for a few moments, 
 
THE RECEPTION OF THE EMPRESS. 251 
 
 and then he raised his evil face and his cruel grey 
 eyes to mine. 
 
 "Well, well, that is settled then," said he. 
 " But you cannot bear me a grudge for having 
 wished you to be my successor. Be reasonable, 
 Louis. You must acknowledge that you would 
 now be six feet deep in the salt-marsh with your 
 neck broken if I had not stood your friend, at 
 some risk to myself. Is that not true? " 
 
 " You had your own motive for that," said I. 
 
 " Very likely. But none the less I saved you. 
 Why should you bear me ill will. It is no fault 
 of mine if I hold your estate." 
 
 " It is not on account of that." 
 
 " Why is it then? " 
 
 I could have explained that it was because he 
 had betrayed his comrades, because his daughter 
 hated him, because he had ill-used his wife, be- 
 cause my father regarded him as the source of all 
 his troubles but the salon of the Empress was 
 no place for a family quarrel, so I merely shrugged 
 my shoulders, and was silent. 
 
 " Well, I am very sorry," said he, " for I had 
 the best of intentions towards you. I could have 
 
252 
 
 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 advanced you, for there are few men in France 
 who exercise more influence. But I have one re- 
 quest to make to you." 
 
 " What is that, sir? " 
 
 " I have a number of personal articles, belong- 
 ing to your father his sword, his seals, a deskful 
 of letters, some silver plate such things in short 
 as you would wish to keep in memory of him. I 
 should be glad if you will come to Grosbois if 
 it is only for one night and look over these 
 things, choosing what you wish to take away. My 
 conscience will then be clear about them." 
 
 I promised readily that I would do so. 
 
 " And when would you come? " he asked 
 eagerly. Something in the tone of his voice 
 aroused my suspicions, and glancing at him I saw 
 exultation in his eyes. I remembered the warning 
 of Sibylle. 
 
 " I cannot come until I have learned what my 
 duties with the Emperor are to be. When that 
 is settled I shall come." 
 
 >l Very good. Next week perhaps, or the 
 week afterwards. I shall expect you eagerly, 
 Louis. I rely upon your promise, for a Laval was 
 
THE RECEPTION OF THE EMPRESS. 
 
 253 
 
 never known to break one." With another un- 
 answered squeeze of my hand, he slipped off 
 among the crowd, which was growing denser every 
 instant in the salon. 
 
 I was standing in silence thinking over this 
 sinister invitation of my uncle's, when I heard my 
 own name, and, looking up, I saw de Caulain- 
 court, with his brown handsome face and tall ele- 
 gant figure, making his way towards me. 
 
 " It is your first entrance at Court, is it not, 
 Monsieur de Laval," said he in his high-bred cor- 
 dial manner; " you should not feel lonely, for there 
 are certainly many friends of your father here who 
 will be overjoyed to make the acquaintance of your 
 father's son. From what de Meneval told me I 
 gather that you know hardly anyone even by 
 sight." 
 
 " I know the Marshals," said I; " I saw them 
 all at the council in the Emperor's tent. There 
 is Ney with the red head. And there is Lefebvre 
 with his singular mouth, and Bernadotte with the 
 beak of a bird of prey." 
 
 " Precisely. And that is Rapp, with the round, 
 bullet head. He is talking to Junot, the hand- 
 
254 
 
 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 some dark man with the whiskers. These poor 
 soldiers are very unhappy." 
 
 "Why so?" I asked. 
 
 " Because they are all men who have risen from 
 nothing. This society and etiquette terrifies them 
 much more than all the dangers of war. When 
 they can hear their sabres clashing against their 
 big boots they feel at home, but when they have 
 to stand about with their cocked hats under their 
 arms, and have to pick their spurs out of the ladies' 
 trains, and talk about David's picture or Passiello's 
 opera, it prostrates them. The Emperor will not 
 even permit them to swear, although he has no 
 scruples upon his own account. He tells them 
 to be soldiers with the army, and courtiers with 
 the court, but the poor fellows cannot help being 
 soldiers all the time. Look at Rapp with his 
 twenty wounds, endeavouring to exchange little 
 delicate drolleries with that young lady. There, 
 you see, he has said something which would have 
 passed very well with a vivandiere, but it has 
 made her fly to her mamma, and he is scratching 
 his head, for he cannot imagine how he has of- 
 fended her," 
 
THE RECEPTION OF THE EMPRESS. 255 
 
 " Who is the beautiful woman with the white 
 dress and the tiara of diamonds? " I asked. 
 
 " That is Madame Murat, who is the sister of 
 the Emperor. Caroline is beautiful, but she is 
 not as pretty as her sister Marie, w r hom you see 
 over yonder in the corner. Do you see the tall, 
 stately, dark-eyed old lady with whom she is talk- 
 ing? That is Napoleon's mother a wonderful 
 woman, the source of all their strength, shrewd, 
 brave, vigorous, forcing respect from everyone 
 who knows her. She is as careful and as saving 
 as when she was the wife of a small country gen- 
 tleman in Corsica, and it is no secret that she has 
 little confidence in the permanence of the present 
 state of things, and that she is always laying by 
 for an evil day. The Emperor does not know 
 whether to be amused or exasperated by her pre- 
 cautions. Well, Murat, I suppose we shall see 
 you riding across the Kentish hop-fields before 
 long." 
 
 The famous soldier had paused opposite to us, 
 and shook hands with my companion. His ele- 
 gant well-knit figure, large fiery eyes, and noble 
 bearing made this innkeeper's boy a man who 
 
256 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 would have drawn attention and admiration to 
 himself in any assembly in Europe. His mop of 
 curly hair and thick red lips gave that touch of 
 character and individuality to his appearance which 
 redeem a handsome face from insipidity. 
 
 " I am told that it is devilish bad country for 
 cavalry all cut up into hedges and ditches," said 
 he. " The roads are good, but the fields are im- 
 possible. I hope that we are going soon, Mon- 
 sieur de Caulaincourt, for our men will all settle 
 down as gardeners if this continues. They are 
 learning more about watering-pots and spuds than 
 about horses and sabres." 
 
 " The army, I hear, is to embark to-morrow." 
 
 " Yes, yes, but you know very well that they 
 will disembark again upon the wrong side of the 
 Channel. Unless Villeneuve scatters the English 
 fleet, nothing can be attempted." 
 
 " Constant tells me that the Emperor was 
 whistling ' Malbrook ' all the time that he was 
 dressing this morning, and that usually comes be- 
 fore a move." 
 
 " It was very clever of Constant to tell what 
 tune it was which the Emperor was whistling," 
 
THE RECEPTION OF THE EMPRESS. 257 
 
 said Murat laughing. " For my part I do not 
 think that he knows the difference between the 
 ' Malbrook ' and the Marseillaise/ Ah, here is 
 the Empress and how charming she is look- 
 ing." 
 
 Josephine had entered, with several of her 
 ladies in her train, and the whole assembly rose 
 to do her honour. The Empress was dressed in 
 an evening gown of rose-coloured tulle, spangled 
 with silver stars an effect which might have 
 seemed meretricious and theatrical in another 
 woman, but which she carried off with great grace 
 and dignity. A little sheaf of diamond wheat-ears 
 rose above her head, and swayed gently as she 
 walked. No one could entertain more charmingly 
 than she, for she moved about among the people 
 with her amiable smile, setting everybody at their 
 ease by her kindly natural manner, and by the 
 conviction which she gave them that she was thor- 
 oughly at her ease herself. 
 
 " How amiable she is! " I exclaimed. "Who 
 could help loving her? " 
 
 " There is only one family which can resist 
 her," said de Caulaincourt, glancing round to see 
 
258 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 that Murat was out of hearing. " Look at the 
 faces of the Emperor's sisters." 
 
 I was shocked when I followed his direction to 
 see the malignant glances with which these two 
 beautiful women were following the Empress as 
 she walked about the room. They whispered to- 
 gether and tittered maliciously. Then Madame 
 Murat turned to her mother behind her, and the 
 stern old lady tossed her haughty head in derision 
 and contempt. 
 
 ' They feel that Napoleon is theirs and that 
 they ought to have everything. They cannot bear 
 to think that she is Her Imperial Majesty and they 
 are only Her Highness. They all hate her, Joseph, 
 Lucien all of them. When they had to carry 
 her train at the coronation they tried to trip her 
 up, and the Emperor had to interfere. Oh yes, 
 they have the real Corsican blood, and they are 
 not very comfortable people to get along with." 
 
 But in spite of the evident hatred of her hus- 
 band's family, the Empress appeared to be entirely 
 unconcerned and at her ease as she strolled about 
 among the groups of her guests with a kindly 
 glance and a pleasant word for each of them. A 
 
THE RECEPTION OF THE EMPRESS. 259 
 
 tall, soldierly man, brown-faced and moustached, 
 walked beside her, and she occasionally laid her 
 hand with a caressing motion upon his arm. 
 
 " That is her son, Eugene de Beauharnais," 
 said my companion. 
 
 " Her son! " I exclaimed, for he seemed to me 
 to be the older of the two. 
 
 De Caulaincourt smiled at my surprise. 
 
 " You know she married Beauharnais when she 
 was very young in fact she was hardly sixteen. 
 She has been sitting in her boudoir while her son 
 has been baking in Egypt and Syria, so that they 
 have pretty well bridged over the gap between 
 them. Do you see the tall, handsome, clean- 
 shaven man who has just kissed Josephine's hand? 
 That is Talma the famous actor. He once helped 
 Napoleon at a critical moment of his career, and 
 the Emperor has never forgotten the debt which 
 the Consul contracted. That is really the secret 
 of Talleyrand's power. He lent Napoleon a hun- 
 dred thousand francs before he set out for Egypt, 
 and now, however much he distrusts him, the Em- 
 peror cannot forget that old kindness. I have 
 never known him to abandon a friend or to forgive 
 
260 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 an enemy. If you have once served him well you 
 may do what you like afterwards. There is one of 
 his coachmen who is drunk from morning to night. 
 But he gained the cross at Marengo, and so he is 
 safe." 
 
 De Caulaincourt had moved on to speak with 
 some lady, and I was again left to my own 
 thoughts, which turned upon this extraordinary 
 man, who presented himself at one moment as a 
 hero and at another as a spoiled child, with his 
 nobler and his worse side alternating so rapidly 
 that I had no sooner made up my mind about him 
 than some new revelation would destroy my views 
 and drive me to some fresh conclusion. That he 
 was necessary to France was evident, and that in 
 serving him one was serving one's country. But 
 was it an honour or a penance to serve him? 
 Was he worthy merely of obedience, or might 
 love and esteem be added to it? These were the 
 questions which we found it difficult to answer 
 and some of us will never have answered them up 
 to the end of time. 
 
 The company had now lost all appearance of 
 formality, and even the soldiers seemed to be at 
 
THE RECEPTION OF THE EMPRESS. 2 6l 
 
 their ease. Many had gone into the side rooms, 
 
 where they had formed tables for whist and for 
 
 > 4- A " 
 
 vmgt-et-un. For my own part I was quite enter- 
 tained by watching the people, the beautiful 
 women, the handsome men, the bearers of names 
 which had been heard of in no previous genera- 
 tion, but which now rung round the world. Im- 
 mediately in front of me were Ney, Lannes, and 
 Murat chatting together and laughing with the 
 freedom of the camp. Of the three, two were des- 
 tined to be executed in cold blood, and the third 
 to die upon the battle-field, but no coming shadow 
 ever cast a gloom upon their cheery, full-blooded 
 lives. 
 
 A small, silent, middle-aged man, who looked 
 unhappy and ill at ease, had been leaning against 
 the wall beside me. Seeing that he was as great a 
 stranger as myself, I addressed some observation 
 to him, to which he replied with great good will, 
 but in the most execrable French. 
 
 'You don't happen to understand English? " 
 he asked. " I've never met one living soul in this 
 country who did." 
 
 " Oh yes, I understand it very well, for I have 
 
262 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 lived most of my life over yonder. But surely you 
 are not English, sir. I understood that every 
 Englishman in France was under lock and key 
 ever since the breach of the treaty of Amiens." 
 
 " No, I am not English," he answered, " I am 
 an American. My name is Robert Fulton, and I 
 have to come to these receptions because it is the 
 only way in which I can keep myself in the mem- 
 ory of the Emperor, who is examining some inven- 
 tions of mine which will make great changes in 
 naval warfare." 
 
 Having nothing else to do, I asked this curi- 
 ous American what his inventions might be, and 
 his replies very soon convinced me that I had to 
 do with a madman. He had some idea of making 
 a ship go against the wind and against the current 
 by means of coal or wood which was to be burned 
 inside of her. There was some other nonsense 
 about floating barrels full of gunpowder which 
 would blow a ship to pieces if she struck against 
 them. I listened to him at the time with an in- 
 dulgent smile, but now looking back from the 
 point of vantage of my old age I can see that not 
 all the warriors and statesmen in that room no, 
 
THE RECEPTION OF THE EMPRESS. 263 
 
 not even the Emperor himself have had as great 
 an effect upon the history of the world as that 
 silent American who looked so drab and so com- 
 monplace among the gold-slashed uniforms and 
 the oriental dresses. 
 
 But suddenly our conversation was interrupted 
 by a hush in the room such a cold, uncomfortable 
 hush as comes over a roomful of happy, romping 
 children when a grave-faced elder comes amongst 
 them. The chatting and the laughter died away. 
 The sound of the rustling cards and of the clicking 
 counters had ceased in the other rooms. Every- 
 one, men and women, had risen to their feet with 
 a constrained expectant expression upon their 
 faces. And there in the doorway were the pale 
 face and the green coat with the red cordon across 
 the white waistcoat. 
 
 There was no saying how he might behave 
 upon these occasions. Sometimes he was capable 
 of being the merriest and most talkative of the 
 company, but this was rather in his consular than 
 in his imperial days. On the other hand he might 
 be absolutely ferocious, with an insulting observa- 
 tion for everyone with whom he came in contact. 
 it 
 
264 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 As a rule he was between these two extremes, 
 silent, morose, ill at ease, shooting out curt little 
 remarks which made everyone uncomfortable. 
 There was always a sigh of relief when he would 
 pass from one room into the next. 
 
 On this occasion he seemed to have not wholly 
 recovered from the storm of the afternoon, and 
 he looked about him with a brooding eye and a 
 lowering brow. It chanced that I was not very 
 far from the door, and that his glance fell 
 upon me. 
 
 " Come here, Monsieur de Laval," said he. He 
 laid his hand upon my shoulder and turned to a 
 big, gaunt man who had accompanied him into 
 the room. " Look here, Cambaceres, you simple- 
 ton," said he. ' You always said that the old 
 families would never come back, and that they 
 would settle in England as the Huguenots have 
 done. You see that, as usual, you have miscalcu- 
 lated, for here is the heir of the de Lavals come 
 to offer his services. Monsieur de Laval, you are 
 now my aide-de-camp, and I beg you to keep with 
 me wherever I go." 
 
 This was promotion indeed, and yet I had 
 
THE RECEPTION OF THE EMPRESS. 
 
 265 
 
 sense enough to know that it was not for my own 
 sweet sake that the Emperor had done it, but in 
 order to encourage others to follow me. My'con- 
 science approved what I had done, for no sordid 
 motive and nothing but the love of my country 
 had prompted me; but now, as I walked round 
 behind Napoleon, I felt humiliated and ashamed, 
 like a prisoner led behind the car of his captor. 
 
 And soon there was something else to make 
 me ashamed, and that was the conduct of him 
 whose servant I had become. His manners were 
 outrageous. As he had himself said, it was his 
 nature to be always first, and this being so he 
 resented those courtesies and gallantries by which 
 men are accustomed to disguise from women the 
 fact that they are the weaker sex. The Emperor, 
 unlike Louis XIV., felt that even a temporary and 
 conventional attitude of humility towards a wom- 
 an was too great a condescension from his own 
 absolute supremacy. Chivalry was among those 
 conditions of society which he refused to accept. 
 
 To the soldiers he was amiable enough, with a 
 nod and a joke for each of them. To his sisters 
 also he said a few words, though rather in the tone 
 
2 66 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 of a drill sergeant to a pair of recruits. It was 
 only when the Empress had joined him that his 
 ill-humour came to a head. 
 
 " I wish you would not wear those wisps of pink 
 about your head, Josephine," said he, pettishly. 
 " All that women have to think about is how to 
 dress themselves, and yet they cannot even do that 
 with moderation or taste. If I see you again in 
 such a thing I will thrust it in the fire as I did 
 your shawl the other day." 
 
 ' You are so hard to please, Napoleon. You 
 like one day what you cannot abide the next. But 
 I will certainly change it if it offends you," said 
 Josephine, with admirable patience. 
 
 The Emperor took a few steps between the 
 people, who had formed a lane for us to pass 
 through. Then he stopped and looked over his 
 shoulder at the Empress. 
 
 " How often have I told you, Josephine, that I 
 cannot tolerate fat women." 
 
 " I always bear it in mind, Napoleon." 
 " Then why is Madame de Chevreux present? " 
 " But surely, Napoleon, madame is not very 
 fat." 
 
THE RECEPTION OF THE EMPRESS. 267 
 
 " She is fatter than she should be. I should 
 prefer not to see her. Who is this? " He had 
 paused before a young lady in a blue dress, whose 
 knees seemed to be giving way under her as the 
 terrible Emperor transfixed her with his searching 
 eyes. 
 
 " This is Mademoiselle de Bergerot." 
 
 " How old are you? " 
 
 " Twenty-three, Sire." 
 
 " It is time that you were married. Every 
 woman should be married at twenty-three. How 
 is it that you are not married? " 
 
 The poor girl appeared to be incapable of an- 
 swering, so the Empress gently remarked that 
 it was to the young men that that question should 
 be addressed. 
 
 " Oh, that is the difficulty, is it," said the Em- 
 peror. " We must look about and find a husband 
 for you." He turned, and to my horror I found his 
 eyes fixed with a questioning gaze upon my face. 
 
 " We have to find you a wife also, Monsieur de 
 Laval," said he. "Well, well, we shall see we 
 shall see. What is your name? " to a quiet refined 
 man in black. 
 
268 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 " I am Gretry the musician." 
 
 " Yes, yes, I remember you. I have seen you 
 a hundred times, but I can never recall your name. 
 Who are you? " 
 
 " I am Joseph de Chenier." 
 
 " Of course. I have seen your tragedy. I have 
 forgotten the name of it, but it was not good. 
 You have written some other poetry, have you 
 not?" 
 
 " Yes, Sire. I had your permission to dedicate 
 my last volume to you." 
 
 " Very likely, but I have not had time to read 
 it. It is a pity that we have no poets now in 
 France, for the deeds of the last few years would 
 have given a subject for a Homer or a Virgil. It 
 seems that I can create kingdoms but not poets. 
 Whom do you consider to be the greatest French 
 writer? " 
 
 " Racine, Sire." 
 
 " Then you are a blockhead, for Corneille was 
 infinitely greater. I have no ear for metre or 
 trivalities of the kind, but I can sympathise with 
 the spirit of poetry, and I am conscious that Cor- 
 neille is far the greatest of poets. I would have 
 
THE RECEPTION OF THE EMPRESS. 269 
 
 made him my prime minister had he had the good 
 fortune to live in my epoch. It is his intellect 
 which I admire, his knowledge of the human heart, 
 and his profound feeling. Are you writing any- 
 thing at present? " 
 
 " I am writing a tragedy upon Henry IV., 
 Sire." 
 
 " It will not do, sir. It is too near the present 
 day, and I will not have politics upon the stage. 
 Write a play about Alexander. What is your 
 name? " 
 
 He had pitched upon the same person whom 
 he had already addressed. 
 
 " I am still Gretry the musician," said he 
 meekly. 
 
 The Emperor flushed for an instant at the im- 
 plied rebuke. He said nothing, however, but 
 passed on to where several ladies were standing 
 together near the door of the card-room. 
 
 " Well, madame," said he to the nearest of 
 them, " I hope you are behaving rather better. 
 When last I heard from Paris your doings were 
 furnishing the Quartier St. Germaine with a good 
 deal of amusement and gossip." 
 
270 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 " I beg that your Majesty will explain what 
 you mean," said she with spirit. 
 
 " They had coupled your name with that of 
 Colonel Lasalle." 
 
 " It is a foul calumny, Sire." 
 
 " Very possibly, but it is awkward when so 
 many calumnies cluster round one person. You 
 are certainly a most unfortunate lady in that re- 
 spect. You had a scandal once before with Gen- 
 eral Rapp's aide-de-camp. This must come to an 
 end. What is your name? " he continued, turn- 
 ing to another. 
 
 " Mademoiselle de Perigord." 
 
 " Your age? " 
 
 " Twenty." 
 
 " You are very thin and your elbows are red. 
 My God, Madame Boismaison, are we never to see 
 anything but this same grey gown and the red 
 turban with the diamond crescent?" 
 
 " I have never worn it before, Sire." 
 
 " Then you had another the same, for I am 
 weary of the sight of it. Let me never see you in 
 it again. Monsieur de Remusat, I make you a 
 good allowance. Why do you not spend it? " 
 
THE RECEPTION OF THE EMPRESS. 
 
 271 
 
 " I do, Sire." 
 
 " I hear that you have been putting down your 
 carnage. I do not give you money to hoard in a 
 bank, but I give it to you that you may keep up a 
 fitting appearance with it. Let me hear that your 
 carriage is back in the coach-house when I return 
 to Paris. Junot, you rascal, I hear that you have 
 been gambling and losing." 
 
 " The most infernal run of luck, Sire," said the 
 soldier, " I give you my word that the ace fell 
 four times running." 
 
 " Ta, ta, you are a child, with no sense of the 
 value of money. How much do you owe? " 
 
 " Forty thousand, Sire." 
 
 " Well, well, go to Lebrun and see what he 
 can do for you. After all we were together at 
 Toulon." 
 
 " A thousand thanks, Sire." 
 
 "Tut! You and Rapp and Lasalle are the 
 spoiled children of the army. But no more cards, 
 you rascal! I do not like low dresses, Madame 
 Picard. They spoil even pretty women, but in 
 you they are inexcusable. Now, Josephine, I am 
 going to my room, and you can come in half an 
 
272 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 hour and read me to sleep. I am tired to-night, 
 but I came to your salon, since you desired that I 
 should help you in welcoming and entertaining 
 your guests. You can remain here, Monsieur de 
 Laval, for your presence will not be necessary until 
 I send you my orders." 
 
 And so the door closed behind him, and with 
 a long sigh of relief from everyone, from the Em- 
 press to the waiter with the negus, the friendly 
 chatter began once more, with the click of the 
 counters and the rustle of the cards just as they 
 had been before he came to help in the entertain- 
 ment. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE LIBRARY OF GROSBOIS. 
 
 AND now, my friends, I am coming to the end 
 of those singular adventures which I encountered 
 upon my arrival in France, adventures which might 
 have been of some interest in themselves had I 
 not introduced the figure of the Emperor, who 
 has eclipsed them all as completely as the sun 
 eclipses the stars. Even now, you see, after all 
 these years, in an old man's memoirs, the Em- 
 peror is still true to his traditions, and will not 
 brook any opposition. As I draw his words and 
 his deeds I feel that my own poor story withers 
 before them. And yet if it had not been for that 
 story I should not have had an excuse for describ- 
 ing to you my first and most vivid impressions of 
 him, and so it has served a purpose after all. You 
 
 must bear with me now while I tell you of our 
 
 273 
 
274 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 expedition to the Red Mill and of what befell in 
 the library of Grosbois. 
 
 Two days had passed away since the reception 
 of the Empress Josephine, and only one remained 
 of the time which had been allowed to my cousin 
 Sibylle in which she might save her lover, and 
 capture the terrible Toussac. For my own part I 
 was not so very anxious that she should save this 
 craven lover of hers, whose handsome face belied 
 the poor spirit within him. And yet this lonely 
 beautiful woman, with the strong will and the 
 loyal heart, had touched my feelings, and I felt that 
 I would help her to anything even against my 
 own better judgment, if she should desire it. It 
 was then with a mixture of feelings that late in the 
 afternoon I saw her and General Savary enter the 
 little room in which I lodged at Boulogne. One 
 glance at her flushed cheeks and triumphant eyes 
 told me that she was confident in her own suc- 
 cess. 
 
 " I told you that I would find him, Cousin 
 Louis! " she cried; " I have come straight to you, 
 because you said that you would help in the tak- 
 ing of him." 
 
THE LIBRARY OF GROSBOIS. 
 
 275 
 
 "Mademoiselle insists upon it that I should not 
 use soldiers/' said Savary, shrugging his shoulders. 
 
 " No, no, no," she cried with vehemence. " It 
 has to be done with discretion, and at the sight of 
 a soldier he would fly to some hiding place, where 
 you would never be able to follow him. I cannot 
 afford to run a risk. There is too much already 
 at stake." 
 
 " In such an affair three men are as useful as 
 thirty," said Savary. " I should not in any case 
 have employed more. You say that you have 
 another friend, Lieutenant ? " 
 
 " Lieutenant Gerard of the Hussars of Ber- 
 cheny." 
 
 " Quite so. There is not a more gallant officer 
 in the Grand Army than Etienne Gerard. The 
 three of us, Monsieur de Laval, should be equal 
 to any adventure." 
 
 " I am at your disposal." 
 
 " Tell us then, mademoiselle, where Toussac 
 is hiding." 
 
 " He is hiding at the Red Mill." 
 
 " But we have searched it, I assure you that 
 he is not there." 
 
276 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 "When did you search it?" 
 
 "Two days ago." 
 
 " Then he has come there since. I knew that 
 Jeanne Portal loved him. I have watched her for 
 six days. Last night she stole down to the Red 
 Mill with a basket of wine and fruit. All the 
 morning I have seen her eyes sweeping the coun- 
 try side, and I have read the terror in them when- 
 ever she has seen the twinkle of a bayonet. I am 
 as sure that Toussac is in the mill as if I had seen 
 him with my own eyes." 
 
 " In that case there is not an instant to be 
 lost," cried Savary. " If he knows of a boat upon 
 the coast he is as likely as not to slip away after 
 dark and make his escape for England. From 
 the Red Mill one can see all the surrounding coun- 
 try, and Mademoiselle is right in thinking that a 
 large body of soldiers would only warn him to 
 escape." 
 
 " What do you propose then? " I asked. 
 
 :t That you meet us at the south gate of the 
 camp in an hour's time dressed as you are. You 
 might be any gentleman travelling upon the high 
 road. I shall see Gerard, and we shall adopt some 
 
THE LIBRARY OF GROSBOIS. 
 
 277 
 
 suitable disguise. Bring your pistols, for it is with 
 the most desperate man in France we have to do. 
 We shall have a horse at your disposal." 
 
 The setting sun lay dull and red upon the 
 western horizon, and the white chalk cliffs of the 
 French coast had all flushed into pink when I 
 found myself once more at the gate of the Bou- 
 logne Camp. There was no sign of my compan- 
 ions, but a tall man, dressed in a blue coat with 
 brass buttons like a small country farmer, was 
 tightening the girth of a magnificent black horse, 
 whilst a little further on a slim young ostler was 
 waiting by the roadside, holding the bridles of two 
 others. It was only when I recognised one of the 
 pair as the horse which I had ridden on my first 
 coming to camp that I answered the smile upon 
 the keen handsome face of the ostler, and saw 
 the swarthy features of Savary under the broad- 
 brimmed hat of the farmer. 
 
 " I think that we may travel without fearing 
 to excite suspicion," said he. " Crook that straight 
 back of yours a little, Gerard! And now we shall 
 push upon our way, or we may find that we are too 
 late." 
 
2 ;8 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 My life has had its share of adventures, and 
 yet somehow, this ride stands out above the others. 
 There over the waters I could dimly see the loom 
 of the English coast, with its suggestions of 
 dreamy villages, humming bees, and the pealing of 
 Sunday bells. I thought of the long, white High 
 Street of Ashford, with its red brick houses, and 
 the inn with the great swinging sign. All my life 
 had been spent in these peaceful surroundings, 
 and now, here I was with a spirited horse between 
 my knees, two pistols peeping out of my holsters, 
 and a commission upon which my whole future 
 might depend, to arrest the most redoubtable con- 
 spirator in France. No wonder that, looking back- 
 over many dangers and many vicissitudes, it is 
 still that evening ride over the short crisp turf of 
 the downs which stands out most clearly in my 
 memory. One becomes blase to adventure, as one 
 becomes blase to all else which the world can give, 
 save only the simple joys of home, and to taste the 
 full relish of such an expedition one must approach 
 it with the hot blood of youth still throbbing in 
 one's veins. 
 
 Our route, when we had left the uplands of 
 
THE LIBRARY OF GROSBOIS. 
 
 279 
 
 Boulogne behind us, lay along the skirts of that 
 desolate marsh in which I had wandered, and so 
 inland, through plains of fern and bramble, until 
 the familiar black keep of the Castle of Grosbois 
 rose upon the left. Then, under the guidance of 
 Savary, we struck to the right down a sunken 
 road, and so over the shoulder of a hill until, on a 
 further slope beyond, we saw the old windmill 
 black against the evening sky. Its upper window 
 burned red like a spot of blood in the last rays of 
 the setting sun. Close by the door stood a cart 
 full of grain sacks, with the shafts pointing down- 
 wards and the horse grazing at some distance. 
 As we gazed, a woman appeared upon the downs 
 and stared round, with her hand over her eyes. 
 
 "See that!" said Savary eagerly. "He is 
 there sure enough, or why should they be on their 
 guard? Let us take this road which winds round 
 the hill, and they will not see us until we are at 
 the very door." 
 
 " Should we not gallop forward? " I suggested. 
 
 " The ground is too cut up. The longer way 
 is the safer. As long as we are upon the road they 
 cannot tell us from any other travellers." 
 
28O UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 We walked our horses along the path, there- 
 fore, with as unconcerned an air as we could as- 
 sume; but a sharp exclamation made us glance 
 suddenly round, and there was the woman stand- 
 ing on a hillock by the roadside and gazing down 
 at us with a face that was rigid with suspicion. 
 The sight of the military bearing of my compan- 
 ions changed all her fears into certainties. In an 
 instant she had whipped the shawl from her shoul- 
 ders, and was waving it frantically over her head. 
 With a hearty curse Savary spurred his horse up 
 the bank and galloped straight for the mill, with 
 Gerard and myself at his heels. 
 
 It was only just in time. We were still a hun- 
 dred paces from the door when a man sprang out 
 from it, and gazed about him, his head whisking 
 this way and that. There could be no mistaking 
 the huge bristling beard, the broad chest, and the 
 rounded shoulders of Toussac. A glance showed 
 him that we would ride him down before he could 
 get away, and he sprang back into the mill, closing 
 the heavy door with a clang behind him. 
 
 "The window, Gerard, the window!" cried 
 Savary. 
 
THE LIBRARY OF GROSBOIS. 2 8l 
 
 , There was a small, square window opening into 
 the basement room of the mill. The young hus- 
 sar disengaged himself from the saddle and flew 
 through it as the clown goes through the hoops 
 at Franconi's. An instant later he had opened 
 the door for us, with the blood streaming from his 
 face and hands. 
 
 " He has fled up the stairs," said he. 
 " Then we need be in no hurry, since he cannot 
 pass us," said Savary, as we sprang from our 
 horses. " You have carried his first line of en- 
 trenchments most gallantly, Lieutenant Gerard. 
 I hope you are not hurt? " 
 
 " A few scratches, General, nothing more." 
 " Get your pistols, then. Where is the miller? " 
 " Here I am," said a squat, rough little fellow, 
 appearing in the open doorway. " What do you 
 mean, you brigands, by entering my mill in this 
 fashion? I am sitting reading my paper and smok- 
 ing my pipe of coltsfoot, as my custom is about 
 this time of the evening, and suddenly, without 
 a word, a man comes flying through my window, 
 covers me with glass, and opens my door to his 
 friends outside. I've had trouble enough with 
 
2 g2 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 my one lodger all day without three more of you 
 turning up." 
 
 " You have the conspirator Toussac in your 
 house." 
 
 " Toussac! " cried the miller. " Nothing of the 
 kind. His name is Maurice, and he is a merchant 
 in silks." 
 
 " He is the man we want. We come in the 
 Emperor's name." 
 
 The miller's jaw dropped as he listened. 
 
 " I don't know who he is, but he offered a good 
 price for a bed and I asked no more questions. 
 In these days one cannot expect a certificate of 
 character from every lodger. But, of course, if it 
 is a matter of State, why, it is not for me to inter- 
 fere. But, to do him justice, he was a quiet gen- 
 tleman enough until he had that letter just now." 
 
 " What letter? Be careful what you say, you 
 rascal, for your own head may find its way into 
 the sawdust basket." 
 
 " It was a woman who brought it. I can only 
 tell you what I know. He has been talking like a 
 madman ever since. It made my blood run cold to 
 hear him. There's someone whom he swears he 
 
THE LIBRARY OF GROSBOIS. 283 
 
 will murder. I shall be very glad to see the last 
 of him." 
 
 " Now, gentlemen," said Savary, drawing his 
 sword, " we may leave our horses here. There is 
 no window for forty feet, so he cannot escape from 
 us. If you will see that your pistols are primed, 
 we shall soon bring the fellow to terms." 
 
 The stair was a narrow winding one made of 
 wood, which led to a small loft lighted from a slit 
 in the wall. 
 
 Some remains of wood and a litter of straw 
 showed that this was where Toussac had spent his 
 day. There was, however, no sign of him now, and 
 it was evident that he had ascended the next flight 
 of steps. We climbed them, only to find our way 
 barred by a heavy door. 
 
 " Surrender, Toussac!" cried Savary. "It is 
 useless to attempt to escape us." 
 
 A hoarse laugh sounded from behind the door. 
 
 " I am not a man who surrenders. But I will 
 make a bargain with you. I have a small matter 
 of business to do to-night. If you will leave me 
 alone, I will give you my solemn pledge to surren- 
 der at the camp to-morrow. I have a little debt 
 
284 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 that I wish to pay. It is only to-day that I under- 
 stood to whom I owed it." 
 
 " What you ask is impossible." 
 
 " It would save you a great deal of trouble." 
 
 " We cannot grant such a request. You must 
 surrender." 
 
 " You'll have some work first." 
 
 " Come, come, you cannot escape us. Put 
 your shoulders against the door! Now, all to- 
 gether? " 
 
 There was the hot flash of a pistol from the 
 keyhole, and a bullet smacked against the wall 
 between us. We hurled ourselves against the door. 
 It was massive, but rotten with age. With a splin- 
 tering and rending it gave way before us. We 
 rushed in, weapons in hand, to find ourselves in an 
 empty room. 
 
 "Where the devil has he got to?" cried Sa- 
 vary, glaring round him. " This is the top room 
 of all. There is nothing above it." 
 
 It was a square empty space with a few corn- 
 bags littered about. At the further side was an 
 open window, and beside it lay a pistol, still smok- 
 ing from the discharge. We all rushed across, 
 
We rushed in, weapons in hand. 
 
THE LIBRARY OF GROSBOIS. 285 
 
 and, as we craned our heads over, a simultaneous 
 cry of astonishment escaped from us. 
 
 The distance to the ground was so great that 
 no one could have survived the fall, but Toussac 
 had taken advantage of the presence of that cart 
 full of grain-sacks, which I have described as hav- 
 ing lain close to the mill. This had both shortened 
 the distance and given him an excellent means of 
 breaking the fall. Even so, however, the shock 
 had been tremendous, and as we looked out he 
 was lying panting heavily upon the top of the 
 bags. Hearing our cry, however, he looked up, 
 shook his fist defiantly, and rolling from the cart, 
 he sprang on to the back of Savary's black horse, 
 and galloped off across the downs, his great beard 
 flying in the wind, untouched by the pistol bullets 
 with which we tried to bring him down. 
 
 How we flew down those creaking wooden 
 stairs and out through the open door of the mill! 
 Quick as we were, he had a good start, and by the 
 time Gerard and I were in the saddle he had be- 
 come a tiny man upon a small horse galloping 
 up the green slope of the opposite hill. The 
 shades of evening, too, were drawing in, and upon 
 
286 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 his left was the huge salt-marsh, where we should 
 have found it difficult to follow him. The chances 
 were certainly in his favour. And yet he never 
 swerved from his course, but kept straight on 
 across the downs on a line which took him farther 
 and farther from the sea. Every instant we feared 
 to see him dart away in the morass, but still he 
 held his horse's head against the hill-side. What 
 could he be making for? He never pulled rein and 
 never glanced round, but flew onwards, like a man 
 with a definite goal in view. 
 
 Lieutenant Gerard and I were lighter men, and 
 our mounts were as good as his, so that it was not 
 long before we began to gain upon him. If we 
 could only keep him in sight it was certain that 
 we should ride him down; but there was always 
 the danger that he might use his knowledge of 
 the country to throw us off his track. As we sank 
 beneath each hill my heart sank also, to rise again 
 with renewed hope as we caught sight of him once 
 more galloping in front of us. 
 
 But at last that which I had feared befell us. 
 We were not more than a couple of hundred paces 
 behind him when we lost all trace of him. He 
 
THE LIBRARY OF GROSBOIS. 287 
 
 had vanished behind some rolling ground, and 
 we could see nothing of him when we reached the 
 summit. 
 
 " There is a road there to the left," cried Ge- 
 rard, whose Gascon blood was aflame with excite- 
 ment. " On, my friend, on, let us keep to the 
 left!" 
 
 "Wait a moment!" I cried. "There is a 
 bridle-path upon the right, and it is as likely that 
 he took that." 
 
 " Then do you take one and I the other." 
 
 "One moment, I hear the sound of hoofs!" 
 
 "Yes, yes, it is his horse!" 
 
 A great black horse, which was certainly that 
 of General Savary, had broken out suddenly 
 through a dense tangle of brambles in front of us. 
 The saddle was empty. 
 
 " He has found some hiding place here amongst 
 the brambles," I cried. 
 
 Gerard had already sprung from his horse, and 
 was leading him through the bushes. I followed 
 his example, and in a minute or two we made our 
 way down a winding path into a deep chalk 
 quarry. 
 
288 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 " There is no sign of him! " cried Gerard. " He 
 has escaped us." 
 
 But suddenly I had understood it all. His 
 furious rage which the miller had described to us 
 was caused no doubt by his learning how he came 
 to be betrayed upon the night of his arrival. This 
 sweetheart of his had in some way discovered it, 
 and had let him know. His promise to deliver 
 himself up to-morrow was in order to give him 
 time to have his revenge upon my uncle. And 
 now with one idea in his head he had ridden to this 
 chalk quarry. Of course, it must be the same 
 chalk quarry into which the underground passage 
 of Grosbois opened, and no doubt during his trea- 
 sonable meetings with my uncle he had learned 
 the secret. Twice I hit upon the wrong spot, but 
 at the third trial I gained the face of the cliff, made 
 my way between it and the bushes, and found the 
 narrow opening, which was hardly visible in the 
 gathering darkness. During our search Savary 
 had overtaken us on foot, so now, leaving our 
 horses in the chalk-pit, my two companions fol- 
 lowed me through the narrow entrance tunnel, 
 and on into the larger and older passage beyond. 
 
THE LIBRARY OF GROSBOIS. 
 
 289 
 
 We had no lights, and it was as black as pitch 
 within, so I stumbled forward as best I might, 
 feeling my way by keeping one hand upon the side 
 wall, and tripping occasionally over the stones 
 which were scattered along the path. It had 
 seemed no very great distance when my uncle had 
 led the way with the light, but now, what with 
 the darkness, and what with the uncertainty and 
 the tension of our feelings, it appeared to be a long 
 journey, and Savary's deep voice at my elbow 
 growled out questions as to how many more miles 
 we were to travel in this moleheap. 
 
 " Hush! " whispered Gerard. " I hear someone 
 in front of us." 
 
 We stood listening in breathless silence. Then 
 far away through the darkness I heard the sound 
 of a door creaking upon its hinges. 
 
 " On, on! " cried Savary eagerly. :< The rascal 
 is there, sure enough. This time at least we have 
 got him!" 
 
 But for my part I had my fears. I remembered 
 that my uncle had opened the door which led into 
 the castle by some secret catch. This sound which 
 we had heard seemed to show that Toussac had 
 
290 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 also known how to open it. But suppose that he 
 had closed it behind him. I remembered its size 
 and the iron clampings which bound it together. 
 It was possible that even at the last moment we 
 might find ourselves face to face with an insuper- 
 able obstacle. On and on we hurried in the dark, 
 and then suddenly I could have raised a shout of 
 joy, for there in the distance was a grey glimmer 
 of light, only visible in contrast with the black 
 darkness which lay between. The door was open. 
 In his mad thirst for vengeance Toussac had never 
 given a thought to the pursuers at his heels. 
 
 And now we need no longer grope. It was a 
 race along the passage and up the winding stair, 
 through the second door, and into the stone- 
 flagged corridor of the Castle of Grosbois, with 
 the oil-lamp still burning at the end of it. A 
 frightful cry a long-drawn scream of terror and 
 of pain rang through it as we entered. 
 
 " He is killing him! He is killing him! " cried 
 a voice, and a woman servant rushed madly out 
 into the passage. " Help, help; he is killing Mon- 
 sieur Bernac! " 
 
 " Where is he? " shouted Savary. 
 
THE LIBRARY OF GROSBOIS. 
 
 2 9 I 
 
 " There! The library! The door with the 
 green curtain! " Again that horrible cry rang out, 
 dying down to a harsh croaking. It ended in a 
 loud, sharp snick, as when one cracks one's joint, 
 but many times louder. I knew only too well 
 what that dreadful sound portended. We rushed 
 together into the room, but the hardened Savary 
 and the dare-devil hussar both recoiled in horror 
 from the sight which met our gaze. 
 
 My uncle had been seated writing at his desk, 
 with his back to the door, when his murderer had 
 entered. No doubt it was at the first glance over 
 his shoulder that he had raised the scream when 
 he saw that terrible hairy face coming in upon 
 him, while the second cry may have been when 
 those great hands clutched at his head. He had 
 never risen from his chair perhaps he had been 
 too paralysed by fear and he still sat with his 
 back to the door. But what struck the colour 
 from our cheeks was that his head had been turned 
 completely round, so that his horribly distorted 
 purple face looked squarely at us from between 
 his shoulders. Often in my dreams that thin face, 
 with the bulging grey eyes, and the shockingly 
 
292 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 open mouth, comes to disturb me. Beside him 
 stood Toussac, his face flushed with triumph, and 
 his great arms folded across his chest. 
 
 " Well, my friends," said he, " you are too 
 late, you see. I have paid my debts after all." 
 
 " Surrender! " cried Savary. 
 
 " Shoot away! Shoot away! " he cried, drum- 
 ming his hands upon his breast. " You don't 
 suppose I fear your miserable pellets, do you? Oh, 
 you imagine you will take me alive! I'll soon 
 knock that idea out of your heads." 
 
 In an instant he had swung a heavy chair over 
 his head, and was rushing furiously at us. We all 
 fired our pistols into him together, but nothing 
 could stop that thunderbolt of a man. With the 
 blood spurting from his wounds, he lashed madly 
 out with his chair, but his eyesight happily failed 
 him, and his swashing blow came down upon the 
 corner of the table with a crash which broke it 
 into fragments. Then with a mad bellow of rage 
 he sprang upon Savary, tore him down to the 
 ground, and had his hand upon his chin before 
 Gerard and I could seize him by the arms. We 
 were three strong men, but he was as strong as all 
 
THE LIBRARY OF GROSBOIS. 
 
 293 
 
 of us put together, for again and again he shook 
 himself free, and again and again we got our grip 
 upon him once more. But he was losing blood 
 fast. Every instant his huge strength ebbed away. 
 With a supreme effort he staggered to his feet, 
 the three of us hanging on to him like hounds on 
 to a bear. Then with a shout of rage and despair 
 which thundered through the whole castle, his 
 knees gave way under him, and he fell in a huge 
 inert heap upon the floor, his black beard bristling 
 up towards the ceiling. We all stood panting 
 round, ready to spring upon him if he should move; 
 but it was over. He was dead. 
 
 Savary, deadly pale, was leaning with his hand 
 to his side against the table. It was not for noth- 
 ing that those mighty arms had been thrown 
 round him. 
 
 " I feel as if I had been hugged by a bear,'* 
 said he. " Well, there is one dangerous man the 
 less in France, and the Emperor has lost one of his 
 enemies. And yet he was a brave man too! " 
 
 " What a soldier he would have made!" said 
 Gerard thoughtfully. " What a quartermaster for 
 the Hussars of Bercheny! He must have been a 
 
294 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 very foolish person to set his will against that of 
 the Emperor." 
 
 I had seated myself, sick and dazed, upon the 
 settee, for scenes of bloodshed were new to me 
 then, and this one had been enough to shock the 
 most hardened. Savary gave us all a little cognac 
 from his flask, and then tearing down one of the 
 curtains he laid it over the terrible figure of my 
 Uncle Bernac. 
 
 " We can do nothing here/' said he. " I must 
 get back and report to the Emperor as soon as 
 possible. But all these papers of Bernac's must 
 be seized, for many of them bear upon this and 
 other conspiracies." As he spoke he gathered 
 together a number of documents which were scat- 
 tered about the table among the others a letter 
 which lay before him upon the desk, and which 
 he had apparently just finished at the time of 
 Toussac's irruption. 
 
 " Hullo, what's this? " said Savary, glancing 
 over it. " I fancy that our friend Bernac was a 
 dangerous man also. ' My dear Catulle I beg 
 of you to send me by the very first mail another 
 phial of the same tasteless essence which you sent 
 
THE LIBRARY OF GROSBOIS. 
 
 295 
 
 three years ago. I mean the almond decoction 
 which leaves no traces. I have particular reasons 
 for wanting it in the course of next week, so I im- 
 plore you not to delay. You may rely upon my 
 interest with the Emperor whenever you have oc- 
 casion to demand it.' ' 
 
 " Addressed to a chemist in Amiens/' said 
 Savary, turning over the letter. " A poisoner 
 then, on the top of his other virtues. I wonder 
 for whom this essence of almonds which leaves 
 no trace was intended." 
 
 " I wonder," said I. 
 
 After all he was my uncle, and he was dead, 
 so why should I say further? 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 GENERAL SAVARY rode straight to Pont des 
 Briques to report to the Emperor, while Gerard 
 returned with me to my lodgings to share a bottle 
 of wine. I had expected to find my Cousin Sibylle 
 there, but to my surprise there was no sign of her, 
 nor had she left any word to tell us whither she 
 had gone. 
 
 It was just after daybreak in the morning when 
 I woke to find an equerry of the Emperor with 
 his hand upon my shoulder. 
 
 " The Emperor desires to see you, Monsieur de 
 Laval," said he. 
 
 " Where? " 
 
 " At the Pont des Briques." 
 
 I knew that promptitude was the first requisite 
 for those who hoped to advance themselves in his 
 
 service. In ten minutes I was in the saddle, and 
 
 296 
 
THE END. 297 
 
 in half an hour I was at the chateau. I was con- 
 ducted upstairs to a room in which were the Em- 
 peror and Josephine, she reclining upon a sofa in 
 a charming dressing-gown of pink and lace, he 
 striding about the room in his energetic fashion, 
 dressed in the curious costume which he assumed 
 before his official hours had begun a white sleep- 
 ing suit, red Turkish slippers, and a white ban- 
 danna handkerchief tied round his head, the whole 
 giving him the appearance of a West Indian 
 planter. From the strong smell of eau-de-Cologne 
 I judged that he had just come from his bath. 
 He was in the best of humours, and she, as usual, 
 reflected him, so that they were two smiling faces 
 which were turned upon me as I was announced. 
 It was hard to believe that it was this man with 
 the kindly expression and the genial eye who had 
 come like an east wind into the reception-room 
 the other night, and left a trail of wet cheeks and 
 downcast faces wherever he had passed. 
 
 " You have made an excellent debut as aide- 
 de-camp," said he; " Savary has told me all that 
 has occurred, and nothing could have been better 
 arranged. I have not time to think of such things 
 
298 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 myself, but my wife will sleep more soundly now 
 that she knows that this Toussac is out of the 
 way." 
 
 " Yes, yes, he was a terrible man," cried the 
 Empress. " So was that George Cadoudal. They 
 were both terrible men." 
 
 " I have my star, Josephine," said Napoleon, 
 patting her upon the head. " I see my own career 
 lying before me and I know exactly what I am 
 destined to do. Nothing can harm me until my 
 work is accomplished. The Arabs are believers in 
 Fate, and the Arabs are in the right." 
 
 " Then why should you plan, Napoleon, if 
 everything is to be decided by Fate." 
 
 " Because it is fated that I should plan, you 
 little stupid. Don't you see that that is part of 
 Fate also, that I should have a brain which is 
 capable of planning. I am always building behind 
 a scaffolding, and no one can see what I am build- 
 ing until I have finished. I never look forward 
 for less than two years, and I have been busy all 
 morning, Monsieur de Laval, in planning out the 
 events which will occur in the autumn and winter 
 of 1807. By the way, that good-looking cousin 
 
THE END. 
 
 299 
 
 of yours appears to have managed this affair very 
 cleverly. She is a very fine girl to be wasted upon 
 such a creature as the Lttcien Lesage, who has 
 been screaming for mercy for a week past. Do 
 you not think that it is a great pity? " 
 
 I acknowledged that I did. 
 
 " It is always so with women ideologists, 
 dreamers, carried away by whims and imaginings. 
 They are like the Easterns, who cannot conceive 
 that a man is a fine soldier unless he has a formi- 
 dable presence. I could not get the Egyptians 
 to believe that I was a greater general than Kleber, 
 because he had the body of a porter and the head 
 of a hair-dresser. So it is with this poor creature 
 Lesage, who will be made a hero by women 
 because he has an oval face and the eyes of a 
 calf. Do you imagine that if she were to see 
 him in his true colours it would turn her against 
 him? " 
 
 " I am convinced of it, Sire. From the little 
 that I have seen of my cousin I am sure that no 
 one could have a greater contempt for cowardice 
 or for meanness/' 
 
 " You speak warmly, sir. You are not by 
 
300 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 chance just a little touched yourself by this fair 
 cousin of yours? " 
 
 " Sire, I have already told you " 
 
 " Ta, ta, ta, but she is across the water, and 
 many things have happened since then." 
 
 Constant had entered the room. 
 
 " He has been admitted, Sire." 
 
 :< Very good. We shall move into the next 
 room. Josephine, you shall come too, for it is 
 your business rather than mine." 
 
 The room into which we passed was a long, 
 narrow one. There were two windows at one side, 
 but the curtains had been drawn almost across, so 
 that the light was not very good. At the further 
 door was Roustem the Mameluke, and beside him, 
 with arms folded and his face sunk downwards in 
 an attitude of shame and contrition, there was 
 standing the very man of whom we had been 
 talking. He looked up with scared eyes, and 
 started with fear when he saw the Emperor ap- 
 proaching him. Napoleon stood with legs apart 
 and his hands behind his back, and looked at him 
 long and searchingly. 
 
 "Well, my fine fellow," said he at last, "you 
 
THE END. 
 
 have burned your fingers, and I do not fancy that 
 you will come near the fire again. Or do you 
 perhaps think of continuing with politics as a pro- 
 fession? " 
 
 " If your Majesty will overlook what I have 
 done," Lesage stammered, " I shall faithfully 
 promise you that I will be your most loyal servant 
 until the day of my death." 
 
 " Hum! " said the Emperor, spilling a pinch of 
 snuff over the front of his white jacket. " There 
 is some sense in what you say, for no one makes 
 so good a servant as the man who has had a thor- 
 ough fright. But I am a very exacting master." 
 
 " I do not care what you require of me. Every- 
 thing will be welcome, if you will only give me 
 your forgiveness." 
 
 " For example," said the Emperor. " It is one 
 of my whims that when a man enters my service 
 I shall marry him to whom I like. Do you agree 
 to that?" 
 
 There was a struggle upon the poet's face, and 
 he clasped and unclasped his hands. 
 
 " May I ask, Sire ? " 
 
 " You may ask nothing." 
 
302 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 " But there are circumstances, Sire " 
 
 " There, there, that is enough! " cried the Em- 
 peror harshly, turning upon his heel. " I do not 
 argue, I order. There is a young lady, Mademoi- 
 selle de Bergerot, for whom I desire a husband. 
 Will you marry her, or will you return to prison? " 
 
 Again there was the struggle in the man's face, 
 and he was silent, twitching and writhing in his 
 indecision. 
 
 " It is enough! " cried the Emperor. " Rou- 
 stem, call the guard! " 
 
 " No, no, Sire, do not send me back to prison/' 
 
 "The guard, Roustem! " 
 
 " I will do it, Sire! I will do it! I will marry 
 whomever you please! " 
 
 " You villain ! " cried a voice, and there was 
 Sibylle standing in the opening of the curtains at 
 one of the windows. Her face was pale with anger 
 and her eyes shining with scorn; the parting cur- 
 tains framed her tall, slim figure, which leaned 
 forwards in her fury of passion. She had forgotten 
 the Emperor, the Empress, everything, in her re- 
 vulsion of feeling against this craven whom she 
 had loved, 
 
THE END. 303 
 
 " They told me what you were,'* she cried. " I 
 would not believe them, I could not believe them 
 for I did not know that there was upon this earth 
 a thing so contemptible. They said that they 
 would prove it, and I defied them to do so, and 
 now I see you as you are. Thank God that I have 
 found you out in time! And to think that for 
 your sake I have brought about the death of a man 
 who was worth a hundred of you! Oh, I am right- 
 ly punished for an unwomanly act. Toussac has 
 had his revenge." 
 
 " Enough! " said the Emperor sternly. " Con- 
 stant, lead Mademoiselle Bernac into the next 
 room. As to you, sir, I do not think that I can 
 condemn any lady of my Court to take such a man 
 as a husband. Suffice it that you have been shown 
 in your true colours, and that Mademoiselle Bernac 
 has been cured of a foolish infatuation. Roustem, 
 remove the prisoner! " 
 
 "There, Monsieur de Laval," said the Em- 
 peror, when the wretched Lesage had been con- 
 ducted from the room. " We have not done such 
 a bad piece of work between the coffee and the 
 breakfast. It was your idea, Josephine, and I give 
 
304 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 you credit for it. But now, de Laval, I feel that 
 we owe you some recompense for having set the 
 young aristocrats a good example, and for hav- 
 ing had a share in this Toussac business. You 
 have certainly acted very well." 
 
 " I ask no recompense, Sire," said I, with an 
 uneasy sense of what was coming. 
 
 " It is your modesty that speaks. But I have 
 already decided upon your reward. You shall 
 have such an allowance as will permit you to keep 
 up a proper appearance as my aide-de-camp, and 
 I have determined to marry you suitably to one 
 of the ladies-in-waiting of the Empress." 
 
 My heart turned to lead within me. 
 
 " But, Sire," I stammered, " this is impossi- 
 ble." 
 
 " Oh, you have no occasion to hesitate. The 
 lady is of excellent family and she is not want- 
 ing in personal charm. In a word the affair is 
 settled, and the marriage takes place upon Thurs- 
 day." 
 
 " But it is impossible, Sire," I repeated. 
 
 " Impossible! When you have been longer in 
 my service, sir, you will understand that that is a 
 
THE END. 305 
 
 word which I do not tolerate. I tell you that it 
 is settled." 
 
 " My love is given to another, Sire. It is not 
 possible for me to change." 
 
 " Indeed! " said the Emperor coldly. " If you 
 persist in such a resolution you cannot expect to 
 retain your place in my household." 
 
 Here was the whole structure which my am- 
 bition had planned out crumbling hopelessly about 
 my ears. And yet what was there for me to do? 
 
 " It is the bitterest moment of my life, Sire," 
 said I, " and yet I must be true to the promise 
 which I have given. If I have to be a beggar by 
 the roadside, I shall none the less marry Eugenie 
 de Choiseul or no one." 
 
 The Empress had risen and had approached 
 the window. 
 
 " Well, at least, before you make up your mind, 
 Monsieur de Laval," said she, " I should certainly 
 take a look at this lady-in-waiting of mine, whom 
 you refuse with such indignation." 
 
 With a quick rasping of rings she drew back 
 the curtain of the second window. A woman was 
 standing in the recess. She took a step forward 
 
306 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 into the room, and then and then with a cry and 
 a spring my arms were round her, and hers round 
 me, and I was standing like a man in a dream, 
 looking down into the sweet laughing eyes of my 
 Eugenie. It was not until I had kissed her and 
 kissed her again upon her lips, her cheeks, her 
 hair, that I could persuade myself that she was 
 indeed really there. 
 
 " Let us leave them," said the voice of the 
 Empress behind me. " Come, Napoleon. It makes 
 me sad! It reminds me too much of the old days 
 in the Rue Chautereine." 
 
 So there is an end of my little romance, for 
 the Emperor's plans were, as usual, carried out, 
 and we were married upon the Thursday, as he 
 had said. That long and all-powerful arm had 
 plucked her out from the Kentish town, and had 
 brought her across the Channel, in order to make 
 sure of my allegiance, and to strengthen the Court 
 by the presence of a de Choiseul. As to my cousin 
 Sibylle, it shall be written some day how she mar- 
 ried the gallant Lieutenant Gerard many years 
 afterwards, when he had become the chief of a 
 
THE END. 
 
 307 
 
 brigade, and one of the most noted cavalry leaders 
 in all the armies of France. Some day also I may 
 tell how I came back into my rightful inheritance 
 of Grosbois, which is still darkened to me by the 
 thought of that terrible uncle of mine, and of what 
 happened that night when Toussac stood at bay in 
 the library. But enough of me and of my small 
 fortunes. You have already heard more of them, 
 perhaps, than you care for. 
 
 As to the Emperor, some faint shadow of 
 whom I have tried in these pages to raise before 
 you, you have heard from history how, despairing 
 of gaining command of the Channel, and fearing 
 to attempt an invasion which might be cut off 
 from behind, he abandoned the camp of Boulogne. 
 You have heard also how, with this very army 
 which was meant for England, he struck down 
 Austria and Russia in one year, and Prussia in the 
 next. From the day that I entered his service 
 until that on which he sailed forth over the Atlan- 
 tic, never to return, I have faithfully shared his 
 fortunes, rising with his star and sinking with it 
 also. And yet, as I look back at my old master, 
 I find it very difficult to say if he was a very good 
 
308 UNCLE BERNAC. 
 
 man or a very bad one. I only know that he was 
 a very great one, and that the things in which he 
 dealt were also so great that it is impossible to 
 judge him by any ordinary standard. Let him rest 
 silently, then, in his great red tomb at the In- 
 valides, for the workman's work is done, and the 
 mighty hand which moulded France and traced 
 the lines of modern Europe has crumbled into 
 dust. The Fates have used him, and the Fates 
 have thrown him away, but still it lives, the mem- 
 ory of the little man in the grey coat, and still it 
 moves the thoughts and actions of men. Some 
 have written to praise and some to blame, but for 
 my own part I have tried to do neither one nor 
 the other, but only to tell the impression which 
 he made upon me in those far-off days when the 
 army of England lay at Boulogne, and I came back 
 once more to my Castle of Grosbois. 
 
 (4) 
 
 THE END. 
 
THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW 
 
 AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS 
 
 WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN 
 THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY 
 WILL INCREASE TO SO CENTS ON THE FOURTH 
 DAY AND TO $1.OO ON THE SEVENTH DAY 
 OVERDUE. 
 
 EC 
 
 >:.; 
 
 ,UG 51978 
 
 PEG 231937 
 
 
 MAR 5 1979 
 
 6JuV56 N B 
 
 P.T241982/ / 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY