The Bronze Eagle (5 page)

And he cast a defiant look on Clyffurde, as much as to say: "Bring on
your Wellington and your armies now! the Emperor has come back! the
whole of France will know how to guard him!" Then he turned to de
Marmont.

"And now tell me about Grenoble," he said.

"Grenoble had an inkling of the news already last night," said de
Marmont, whose enthusiasm was no whit cooler
[Pg 39]
than that of Emery.
"Marchand has been secretly assembling his troops, he has sent to
Chambéry for the 7th and 11th regiment of the line and to Vienne for the
4th Hussars. Inside Grenoble he has the 5th infantry regiment, the 4th
of artillery and 3rd of engineers, with a train squadron. This morning
he is holding a council of war, and I know that he has been in constant
communication with Masséna. The news is gradually filtering through into
the town: people stand at the street corners and whisper among
themselves; the word 'l'Empereur' seemed wafted upon this morning's
breeze. . . ."

"And by to-night we'll have the Emperor's proclamation to his people
pinned up on the walls of the Hôtel de Ville!" exclaimed Emery, and with
hands still trembling with excitement he gathered the precious papers
once more together and slipped them back into his coat pocket. Then he
made a visible effort to speak more quietly: "And now," he said, "for
one very important matter which, by the way, was the chief reason for my
asking you, my good de Marmont, to meet me here before my getting to
Grenoble."

"Yes? What is it?" queried de Marmont eagerly.

Surgeon-Captain Emery leaned across the table; instinctively he dropped
his voice, and though his excitement had not abated one jot, though his
eyes still glowed and his hands still fidgeted nervously, he had forced
himself at last to a semblance of calm.

"The matter is one of money," he said slowly. "The Emperor has some
funds at his disposal, but as you know, that scurvy government of the
Restoration never handed him over one single sou of the yearly revenue
which it had solemnly agreed and sworn to pay to him with regularity.
Now, of course," he continued still more emphatically, "we who believe
in our Emperor as we believe in God, we are absolutely convinced that
the army will rally round
[Pg 40]
him to a man. The army loves him and has
never ceased to love him, the army will follow him to victory and to
death. But the most loyal army in the world cannot subsist without
money, and the Emperor has little or none. The news of his triumphant
march across France will reach Paris long before he does, it will enable
His Most Excellent and Most Corpulent Majesty King Louis to skip over to
England or to Ghent with everything in the treasury on which he can lay
his august hands. Now, de Marmont, do you perceive what the serious
matter is which caused me to meet you here—twenty-five kilomètres from
Grenoble, where I ought to be at the present moment."

"Yes! I do perceive very grave trouble there," said de Marmont with
characteristic insouciance, "but one which need not greatly worry the
Emperor. I am rich, thank God! and . . ."

"And may God bless you, my dear de Marmont, for the thought," broke in
Emery earnestly, "but what may be called a large private fortune is as
nothing before the needs of an army. Soon, of course, the Emperor will
be in peaceful possession of his throne and will have all the resources
of France at his command, but before that happy time arrives there will
be much fighting, and many days—weeks perhaps—of anxiety to go
through. During those weeks the army must be paid and fed; and your
private fortune, my dear de Marmont, would—even if the Emperor were to
accept your sacrifice, which is not likely—be but as a drop in the
mighty ocean of the cost of a campaign. What are two or even three
millions, my poor, dear friend? It is forty, fifty millions that the
Emperor wants."

De Marmont this time had nothing to say. He was staring moodily and
silently before him.

"Now, that is what I have come to talk to you about," continued Emery
after a few seconds' pause, during which he had once more thrown a
quick, half-suspicious glance
[Pg 41]
on the impassive, though obviously
interested face of the Englishman, "always supposing that Monsieur here
is on our side."

"Neither on your side nor on the other, Captain," said Bobby Clyffurde
with a slight tone of impatience. "I am a mere tradesman, as I have had
the honour to tell you: a spectator at this game of political conflicts.
M. de Marmont knows this well, else he had not asked me to accompany him
to-day nor offered me a mount to enable me to do so. But if you prefer
it," he added lightly, "I can go for a stroll while you discuss these
graver matters."

He would have risen from the table only that Emery immediately detained
him.

"No offence, Sir," said the surgeon-captain bluntly.

"None, I give you my word," assented the Englishman. "It is only natural
that you should wish to discuss such grave matters in private. Let me go
and see to our
déjeuner
in the meanwhile. I feel sure that the
fricandeau is done to a turn by now. I'll have it dished up in ten
minutes. I pray you take no heed of me," he added in response to
murmured protestations from both de Marmont and Emery. "I would much
prefer to know nothing of these grave matters which you are about to
discuss."

This time Emery did not detain him as he rose and turned to go within in
order to find mine host or Annette. The two Frenchmen took no further
heed of him: wrapped up in the all engrossing subject-matter they
remained seated at the table, leaning across it, their faces close to
one another, their eyes dancing with excitement, questions and
answers—as soon as the stranger's back was turned—already tumbling out
in confusion from their lips.

Clyffurde turned to have a last look at them before he went into the
house, and while he did so his habitual, pleasant, gently-ironical smile
still hovered round his lips. But anon a quickly-suppressed sigh chased
the smile away,
[Pg 42]
and over his face there crept a strange shadow—a look
of longing and of bitter regret.

It was only for a moment, however, the next he had passed his hand
slowly across his forehead, as if to wipe away that shadow and smooth
out those lines of unspoken pain.

Soon his cheerful voice was heard, echoing along the low rafters of the
little inn, loudly calling for Annette and for news of the baked
omelette and the fricandeau.

"You really could have talked quite freely before Mr. Clyffurde, my good
Emery," said de Marmont as soon as Bobby had disappeared inside the inn.
"He really takes no part in politics. He is a friend alike of the Comte
de Cambray and of glovemaker Dumoulin. He has visited our Bonapartist
Club. Dumoulin has vouched for him. You see, he is not a fighting man."

"I suppose that you are equally sure that he is not an English spy,"
remarked Emery drily.

"Of course I am sure," asserted de Marmont emphatically. "Dumoulin has
known him for years in business, though this is the first time that
Clyffurde has visited Grenoble. He is in the glove trade in England: his
interests are purely commercial. He came here with introductions to the
Comte de Cambray from a mutual friend in England who seems to be a
personage of vast importance in his own country and greatly esteemed by
the Comte—else you may be sure that that stiff-necked aristocrat would
never have received a tradesman as a guest in his house. But it was in
Dumoulin's house that I first met Bobby Clyffurde. We took a liking to
one another, and since then have ridden a great deal together. He is a
splendid horseman, and I was very glad to be able to offer him a mount
at different times. But our political conversations
[Pg 43]
have never been
very heated or very serious. Clyffurde maintains a detached impersonal
attitude both to the Bonapartist and the royalist cause. I asked him to
accompany me this morning and he gladly consented, for he dearly loves a
horse. I assure you, you might have said anything before him."

"
Eh bien!
I'm sorry if I've been obstinate and ungracious," said the
surgeon-captain, but in a tone that obviously belied his words, "though,
frankly, I am very glad that we are alone for the moment."

He paused, and with a wave of his thick, short-fingered hand he
dismissed this less important subject-matter and once more spoke with
his wonted eagerness on that which lay nearest his heart.

"Now listen, my good de Marmont," he said, "do you recollect last April
when the Empress—poor wretched, misguided woman—fled so precipitately
from Paris, abandoning the capital, France and her crown at one and the
same time, and taking away with her all the Crown diamonds and money and
treasure belonging to the Emperor? She was terribly ill-advised, of
course, but . . ."

"Yes, I remember all that perfectly well," broke in de Marmont
impatiently.

"Well, then, you know that that abominable Talleyrand sent one of his
emissaries after the Empress and her suite . . . that this
emissary—Dudon was his name—reached Orleans just before Marie Louise
herself got there. . . ."

"And that he ordered, in Talleyrand's name, the seizure of the Empress'
convoy as soon as it arrived in the city," broke in de Marmont again.
"Yes. I recollect that abominable outrage perfectly. Dudon, backed by
the officers of the gendarmerie, managed to rob the Empress of
everything she had, even to the last knife and fork, even to the last
pocket handkerchief belonging to the Emperor and
[Pg 44]
marked with his
initials. Oh! it was monstrous! hellish! devilish! It makes my blood
boil whenever I think of it . . . whenever I think of those fatuous,
treacherous Bourbons gloating over those treasures at the Tuileries,
while our Empress went her way as effectually despoiled as if she had
been waylaid by so many brigands on a public highway."

"Just so," resumed Emery quietly after de Marmont's violent storm of
wrath had subsided. "But I don't know if you also recollect that when
the various cases containing the Emperor's belongings were opened at the
Tuileries, there was just as much disappointment as gloating. Some of
those fatuous Bourbons—as you so rightly call them—expected to find
some forty or fifty millions of the Emperor's personal savings
there—bank-notes and drafts on the banks of France, of England and of
Amsterdam, which they were looking forward to distributing among
themselves and their friends. Your friend the Comte de Cambray would no
doubt have come in too for his share in this distribution. But M. de
Talleyrand is a very wise man! always far-seeing, he knows the
improvidence, the prodigality, the ostentation of these new masters whom
he is so ready to serve. Ere Dudon reached Paris with his booty, M. de
Talleyrand had very carefully eliminated therefrom some five and twenty
million francs in bank-notes and bankers' drafts, which he felt would
come in very usefully once for a rainy day."

"But M. de Talleyrand is immensely rich himself," protested de Marmont.

"Ah! he did not eliminate those five and twenty millions for his own
benefit," said Emery. "I would not so boldly accuse him of theft. The
money has been carefully put away by M. de Talleyrand for the use of His
Corpulent Majesty Louis de Bourbon, XVIIIth of that name."

Then as Emery here made a dramatic pause and looked
[Pg 45]
triumphantly across
at his companion, de Marmont rejoined somewhat bewildered:

"But . . . I don't understand . . ."

"Why I am telling you this?" retorted Emery, still with that triumphant
air. "You shall understand in a moment, my friend, when I tell you that
those five and twenty millions were never taken north to Paris, they
were conveyed in strict secrecy south to Grenoble!"

"To Grenoble?" exclaimed de Marmont.

"To Grenoble," reasserted Emery.

"But why? . . . why such a long way?—why Grenoble?" queried the young
man in obvious puzzlement.

"For several reasons," replied Emery. "Firstly both the préfet of the
department and the military commandant are hot royalists, whilst the
province of Dauphiné is not. In case of any army corps being sent down
there to quell possible and probable revolt, the money would have been
there to hand: also, if you remember, there was talk at the time of the
King of Naples proving troublesome. There, too, in case of a campaign on
the frontier, the money lying ready to hand at Grenoble could prove very
useful. But of course I cannot possibly pretend to give you all the
reasons which actuated M. de Talleyrand when he caused five and twenty
millions of stolen money to be conveyed secretly to Grenoble rather than
to Paris. His ways are more tortuous than any mere army-surgeon can
possibly hope to gauge. Enough that he did it and that at this very
moment there are five and twenty millions which are the rightful
property of the Emperor locked up in the cellars of the Hôtel de Ville
at Grenoble."

"But . . ." murmured de Marmont, who still seemed very bewildered at all
that he had heard, "are you sure?"

"Quite sure," affirmed Emery emphatically. "Dumoulin brought news of it
to the Emperor at Elba several months ago, and you know that he and his
Bonapartist Club always
[Pg 46]
have plenty of spies in and around the
préfecture. The money is there," he reiterated with still greater
emphasis, "now the question is how are we going to get hold of it."

"Easily," rejoined de Marmont with his habitual enthusiasm, "when the
Emperor marches into Grenoble and the whole of the garrison rallies
around him, he can go straight to the Hôtel de Ville and take everything
that he wants."

"Always supposing that M. le préfet does not anticipate the Emperor's
coming by conveying the money to Paris or elsewhere before we can get
hold of it," quoth Emery drily.