THE EMPEROR'S BIVOUAC
Towards the end of September, after three sessions of the Court ofAppeals in which the lawyers for the defence pleaded, and theattorney-general Merlin himself spoke for the prosecution, the appealwas rejected. The Imperial Court of Paris was by this time instituted.Monsieur de Grandville was appointed assistant attorney-general, andthe department of the Aube coming under the jurisdiction of thiscourt, it became possible for him to take certain steps in favor ofthe convicted prisoners, among them that of importuning Cambaceres,his protector. Bordin and Monsieur de Chargeboeuf came to his house inthe Marais the day after the appeal was rejected, where they found himin the midst of his honeymoon, for he had married in the interval. Inspite of all these changes in his condition, Monsieur de Chargeboeufsaw very plainly that the young lawyer was faithful to his lateclients. Certain lawyers, the artists of their profession, treat theircauses like mistresses. This is rare, however, and must not bedepended on.
As soon as they were alone in his study, Monsieur de Grandville saidto the marquis: "I have not waited for your visit; I have alreadyemployed all my influence. Don't attempt to save Michu; if you do, youcannot obtain the pardon of the Messieurs de Simeuse. The law willinsist on one victim."
"Good God!" cried Bordin, showing the young magistrate the threepetitions for mercy; "how can I take upon myself to withdraw theapplication for that man. If I suppress the paper I cut off his head."
He held out the petition; de Grandville took it, looked it over, andsaid:--
"We can't suppress it; but be sure of one thing, if you ask all youwill obtain nothing."
"Have we time to consult Michu?" asked Bordin.
"Yes. The order for execution comes from the office of theattorney-general; I will see that you have some days. We kill men,"he said with some bitterness, "but at least we do it formally,especially in Paris."
Monsieur de Chargeboeuf had already received from the chief justicecertain information which added weight to these sad words of Monsieurde Grandville.
"Michu is innocent, I know," continued the young lawyer, "but what canwe do against so many? Remember, too, that my present influencedepends on my keeping silent. I must order the scaffold to beprepared, or my late client is certain to be beheaded."
Monsieur de Chargeboeuf knew Laurence well enough to be certain shewould never consent to save her cousins at the expense of Michu; hetherefore resolved on making one more effort. He asked an audience ofthe minister of foreign affairs to learn if salvation could be lookedfor through the influence of the great diplomat. He took Bordin withhim, for the latter knew the minister and had done him some service.The two old men found Talleyrand sitting with his feet stretched out,absorbed in contemplation of his fire, his head resting on his hand,his elbow on the table, a newspaper lying at his feet. The ministerhad just read the decision of the Court of Appeals.
"Pray sit down, Monsieur le marquis," said Talleyrand, "and you,Bordin," he added, pointing to a place at the table, "write asfollows:--"
Sire,--Four innocent gentlemen, declared guilty by a jury have just had their condemnation confirmed by your Court of Appeals.
Your Imperial Majesty can now only pardon them. These gentlemen ask this pardon of your august clemency, in the hope that they may enter your army and meet their death in battle before your eyes; and thus praying, they are, of your Imperial and Royal Majesty, with reverence, etc.
"None but princes can do such prompt and graceful kindness," said theMarquis de Chargeboeuf, taking the precious draft of the petition fromthe hands of Bordin that he might have it signed by the fourgentlemen; resolving in his own mind that he would also obtain thesignatures of several august names.
"The life of your young relatives, Monsieur le marquis," said theminister, "now depends on the turn of a battle. Endeavor to reach theEmperor on the morning after a victory and they are saved."
He took a pen and himself wrote a private and confidential letter tothe Emperor, and another of ten lines to Marechal Duroc. Then he rangthe bell, asked his secretary for a diplomatic passport, and saidtranquilly to the old lawyer, "What is your honest opinion of thattrial?"
"Do you know, monseigneur, who was at the bottom of this cruel wrong?"
"I presume I do; but I have reasons to wish for certainty," repliedTalleyrand. "Return to Troyes; bring me the Comtesse de Cinq-Cygne,here, to-morrow at the same hour, but secretly; ask to be ushered intoMadame de Talleyrand's salon; I will tell her you are coming. IfMademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, who shall be placed where she can see aman who will be standing before me, recognizes that man as anindividual who came to her house during the conspiracy of de Polignacand Riviere, tell her to remember that, no matter what I say or whathe answers me, she must not utter a word nor make a gesture. One thingmore, think only of saving the de Simeuse brothers; don't embarrassyourself with that scoundrel of a bailiff--"
"A sublime man, monseigneur!" exclaimed Bordin.
"Enthusiasm! in you, Bordin! The man must be remarkable. Our sovereignhas an immense self-love, Monsieur le marquis," he said, changing theconversation. "He is about to dismiss me that he may commit follieswithout warning. The Emperor is a great soldier who can change thelaws of time and distance, but he cannot change men; yet he persistsin trying to run them in his own mould! Now, remember this; the youngmen's pardon can be obtained by one person only--Mademoiselle deCinq-Cygne."
The marquis went alone to Troyes and told the whole matter toLaurence. She obtained permission from the authorities to see Michu,and the marquis accompanied her to the gates of the prison, where hewaited for her. When she came out her face was bathed in tears.
"Poor man!" she said; "he tried to kneel to me, praying that I wouldnot think of him, and forgetting the shackles that were on his feet!Ah, marquis, I will plead his cause. Yes, I'll kiss the boot oftheir Emperor. If I fail--well, the memory of that man shall liveeternally honored in our family. Present his petition for mercy so asto gain time; meantime I am resolved to have his portrait. Come, letus go."
The next day, when Talleyrand was informed by a sign agreed upon thatLaurence was at her post, he rang the bell; his orderly came to him,and received orders to admit Monsieur Corentin.
"My friend, you are a very clever fellow," said Talleyrand, "and Iwish to employ you."
"Monsiegneur--"
"Listen. In serving Fouche you will get money, but never honor nor anyposition you can acknowledge. But in serving me, as you have latelydone at Berlin, you can win credit and repute."
"Monseigneur is very good."
"You displayed genius in that late affair at Gondreville."
"To what does Monseigneur allude?" said Corentin, with a manner thatwas neither too reserved nor too surprised.
"Ah, Monsieur!" observed the minister, dryly, "you will never make asuccessful man; you fear--"
"What, monseigneur?"
"Death!" replied Talleyrand, in his fine, deep voice. "Adieu, my goodfriend."
"That is the man," said the Marquis de Chargeboeuf entering the roomafter Corentin was dismissed; "but we have nearly killed thecountess."
"He is the only man I know capable of playing such a trick," repliedthe minister. "Monsieur le marquis, you are in danger of notsucceeding in your mission. Start ostensibly for Strasburg; I'll sendyou double passports in blank to be filled out. Provide yourself withsubstitutes; change your route and above all your carriage; let yoursubstitutes go on to Strasburg, and do you reach Prussia throughSwitzerland and Bavaria. Not a word--prudence! The police are againstyou; and you do not know what the police are--"
Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne offered the then celebrated Robert Lefebvrea sufficient sum to induce him to go to Troyes and take Michu'sportrait. Monsieur de Grandville promised to afford the painter everypossible facility. Monsieur de Chargeboeuf then started in the oldberlingot, with Laurence and a servant who spoke German. Not farfrom Nancy they overtook Mademoiselle Goujet and Gothard, who hadpreceded them in an excellent carriage, which the marquis took, givingthem in exchange the berlingot.
Talleyrand was right. At Strasburg the commissary-general of policerefused to countersign the passport of the travellers, and gave thempositive orders to return. By that time the marquis and Laurence wereleaving France by way of Besancon with the diplomatic passport.
Laurence crossed Switzerland in the first days of October, withoutpaying the slightest attention to that glorious land. She lay back inthe carriage in the torpor which overtakes a criminal on the eve ofhis execution. To her eyes all nature was shrouded in a seethingvapor; even common things assumed fantastic shapes. The one thought,"If I do not succeed they will kill themselves," fell upon her soulwith reiterated blows, as the bar of the executioner fell upon thevictim's members when tortured on the wheel. She felt herselfbreaking; she lost her energy in this terrible waiting for the cruelmoment, short and decisive, when she should find herself face to facewith that man on whom the fate of the condemned depended. She chose toyield to her depression rather than waste her strength uselessly. Themarquis, who was incapable of understanding this resolve of firmminds, which often assumes quite diverse aspects (for in such momentsof tension certain superior minds give way to surprising gaiety),began to fear that he might never bring Laurence alive to themomentous interview, solemn to them only, and yet beyond the ordinarylimits of private life. To Laurence, the necessity of humiliatingherself before that man, the object of her hatred and contempt, meantthe sacrifice of all her noblest feelings.
"After this," she said, "the Laurence who survives will bear nolikeness to her who is now to perish."
The travellers could not fail to be aware of the vast movement of menand material which surrounded them the moment they entered Prussia.The campaign of Jena had just begun. Laurence and the marquis beheldthe magnificent divisions of the French army deploying and parading asif at the Tuileries. In this display of military power, which can beadequately described only with the words and images of the Bible, theproportions of the Man whose spirit moved these masses grew giganticto Laurence's imagination. Soon, the cry of victory resounded in herears. The Imperial arms had just obtained two signal advantages. ThePrince of Prussia had been killed the evening before the day on whichthe travellers arrived at Saalfeld on their endeavor to overtakeNapoleon, who was marching with the rapidity of lightning.
At last, on the 13th of October (date of ill-omen) Mademoiselle deCinq-Cygne was skirting a river in the midst of the Grand Army, seeingnought but confusion, sent hither and thither from one village toanother, from division to division, frightened at finding herselfalone with one old man tossed about in an ocean of a hundred and fiftythousand armed men facing a hundred and fifty thousand more. Weary ofwatching the river through the hedges of the muddy road which she wasfollowing along a hillside, she asked its name of a passing soldier.
"That's the Saale," he said, showing her the Prussian army, grouped ingreat masses on the other side of the stream.
Night came on. Laurence beheld the camp-fires lighted and the glitterof stacked arms. The old marquis, whose courage was chivalric, drovethe horses himself (two strong beasts bought the evening before), hisservant sitting beside him. He knew very well he should find neitherhorses nor postilions within the lines of the army. Suddenly the boldequipage, an object of great astonishment to the soldiers, was stoppedby a gendarme of the military gendarmerie, who galloped up to thecarriage, calling out to the marquis: "Who are you? where are yougoing? what do you want?"
"The Emperor," replied the Marquis de Chargeboeuf; "I have animportant dispatch for the Grand-marechal Duroc."
"Well, you can't stay here," said the gendarme.
Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne and the marquis were, however, compelled toremain where they were on account of the darkness.
"Where are we?" she asked, stopping two officers whom she saw passing,whose uniforms were concealed by cloth overcoats.
"You are among the advanced guard of the French army," answered one ofthe officers. "You cannot stay here, for if the enemy makes a movementand the artillery opens you will be between two fires."
"Ah!" she said, with an indifferent air.
Hearing that "Ah!" the other officer turned and said: "How did thatwoman come here?"
"We are waiting," said Laurence, "for a gendarme who has gone to findGeneral Duroc, a protector who will enable us to speak to theEmperor."
"Speak to the Emperor!" exclaimed the first officer; "how can youthink of such a thing--on the eve of a decisive battle?"
"True," she said; "I ought to speak to him on the morrow--victorywould make him kind."
The two officers stationed themselves at a little distance and satmotionless on their horses. The carriage was now surrounded by a massof generals, marshals, and other officers, all extremely brilliant inappearance, who appeared to pay deference to the carriage merelybecause it was there.
"Good God!" said the marquis to Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne; "I amafraid you spoke to the Emperor."
"The Emperor?" said a colonel, beside them, "why there he is!"pointing to the officer who had said, "How did that woman get here?"He was mounted on a white horse, richly caparisoned, and wore thecelebrated gray top-coat over his green uniform. He was scanning witha field-glass the Prussian army massed beyond the Saale. Laurenceunderstood then why the carriage remained there, and why the Emperor'sescort respected it. She was seized with a convulsive tremor--the hourhad come! She heard the heavy sound of the tramp of men and the clangof their arms as they arrived at a quick step on the plateau. Thebatteries had a language, the caissons thundered, the brass glittered.
"Marechal Lannes will take position with his whole corps in theadvance; Marechal Lefebvre and the Guard will occupy this hill," saidthe other officer, who was Major-general Berthier.
The Emperor dismounted. At his first motion Roustan, his famousmameluke, hastened to hold his horse. Laurence was stupefied withamazement; she had never dreamed of such simplicity.
"I shall pass the night on the plateau," said the Emperor.
Just then the Grand-marechal Duroc, whom the gendarme had finallyfound, came up to the Marquis de Chargeboeuf and asked the reason ofhis coming. The marquis replied that a letter from the Prince deTalleyrand, of which he was the bearer, would explain to the marshalhow urgent it was that Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne and himself shouldobtain an audience of the Emperor.
"His Majesty will no doubt dine at his bivouac," said Duroc, takingthe letter, "and when I find out what your object is, I will let youknow if you can see him. Corporal," he said to the gendarme,"accompany this carriage, and take it close to that hut at the rear."
Monsieur de Chargeboeuf followed the gendarme and stopped his horsesbehind a miserable cabin, built of mud and branches, surrounded by afew fruit-trees, and guarded by pickets of infantry and cavalry.
It may be said that the majesty of war appeared here in all itsgrandeur. From this height the lines of the two armies were visible inthe moonlight. After an hour's waiting, the time being occupied by theincessant coming and going of the aides-de-camp, Duroc himself camefor Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne and the marquis, and made them enterthe hut, the floor of which was of battened earth like that of astable.
Before a table with the remains of dinner, and before a fire made ofgreen wood which smoked, Napoleon was seated in a clumsy chair. Hismuddy boots gave evidence of a long tramp across country. He had takenoff the famous top-coat; and his equally famous green uniform, crossedby the red cordon of the Legion of honor and heightened by the whiteof his kerseymere breeches and of his waistcoat, brought out vividlyhis pale and terrible Caesarian face. One hand was on a map which layunfolded on his knees. Berthier stood near him in the brilliantuniform of the vice-constable of the Empire. Constant, the valet, wasoffering the Emperor his coffee from a tray.
"What do you want?" said Napoleon, with a show of roughness, dartinghis eye like a flash through Laurence's head. "You are no longerafraid to speak to me before the battle? What is it about?"
"Sire," she said, looking at him with as firm an eye, "I amMademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne."
"Well?" he replied, in an angry voice, thinking her look braved him.
"Do you not understand? I am the Comtesse de Cinq-Cygne, come to askmercy," she said, falling on her knees and holding out to him thepetition drawn up by Talleyrand, endorsed by the Empress, byCambaceres and by Malin.
The Emperor raised her graciously, and said with a keen look: "Haveyou come to your senses? Do you now understand what the French Empireis and must be?"
"Ah! at this moment I understand only the Emperor," she said,vanquished by the kindly manner with which the man of destiny had saidthe words that foretold to her ears success.
"Are they innocent?" asked the Emperor.
"Yes, all of them," she said with enthusiasm.
"All? No, that bailiff is a dangerous man, who would have killed mysenator without taking your advice."
"Ah, Sire," she said, "if you had a friend devoted to you, would youabandon him? Would you not rather--"
"You are a woman," he said, interrupting her in a faint tone ofridicule.
"And you, a man of iron!" she replied with a passionate sternnesswhich pleased him.
"That man has been condemned to death by the laws of his country," hecontinued.
"But he is innocent!"
"Child!" he said.
He took Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne by the hand and led her from thehut to the plateau.
"See," he continued, with that eloquence of his which changed evencowards to brave men, "see those three hundred thousand men--allinnocent. And yet to-morrow thirty thousand of them will be lyingdead, dead for their country! Among those Prussians there is, perhaps,some great mathematician, a man of genius, an idealist, who will bemown down. On our side we shall assuredly lose many a great man neverknown to fame. Perhaps even I shall see my best friend die. Shall Iblame God? No. I shall bear it silently. Learn from this,mademoiselle, that a man must die for the laws of his country just asmen die here for her glory." So saying, he led her back into the hut."Return to France," he said, looking at the marquis; "my orders shallfollow you."
Laurence believed in a commutation of Michu's punishment, and in hergratitude she knelt again before the Emperor and kissed his hand.
"You are the Marquis de Chargeboeuf?" said Napoleon, addressing themarquis.
"Yes, Sire."
"You have children?"
"Many children."
"Why not give me one of your grandsons? he shall be my page."
"Ah!" thought Laurence, "there's the sub-lieutenant after all; hewants to be paid for his mercy."
The marquis bowed without replying. Happily at this moment GeneralRapp rushed into the hut.
"Sire, the cavalry of the Guard, and that of the Grand-duc de Bergcannot be set up before midday to-morrow."
"Never mind," said Napoleon, turning to Berthier, "we, too, get ourreprieves; let us profit by them."
At a sign of his hand the marquis and Laurence retired and againentered their carriage; the corporal showed them their road andaccompanied them to a village where they passed the night. The nextday they left the field of battle behind them, followed by the thunderof the cannon,--eight hundred pieces,--which pursued them for tenhours. While still on their way they learned of the amazing victory ofJena.
Eight days later, they were driving through the faubourg of Troyes,where they learned that an order of the chief justice, transmittedthrough the procureur imperial of Troyes, commanded the release ofthe four gentlemen on bail during the Emperor's pleasure. But Michu'ssentence was confirmed, and the warrant for his execution had beenforwarded from the ministry of police. These orders had reached Troyesthat very morning. Laurence went at once to the prison, though it wastwo in the morning, and obtained permission to stay with Michu, whowas about to undergo the melancholy ceremony called "the toilet." Thegood abbe, who had asked permission to accompany him to the scaffold,had just given absolution to the man, whose only distress in dying washis uncertainty as to the fate of his young masters. When Laurenceentered his cell he uttered a cry of joy.
"I can die now," he said.
"They are pardoned," she said; "I do not know on what conditions, butthey are pardoned. I did all I could for you, dear friend--against theadvice of others. I thought I had saved you; but the Emperor deceivedme with his graciousness."
"It was written above," said Michu, "that the watch-dog should bekilled on the spot where his old masters died."
The last hour passed rapidly. Michu, at the moment of parting, askedto kiss her hand, but Laurence held her cheek to the lips of the noblevictim that he might sacredly kiss it. Michu refused to mount thecart.
"Innocent men should go afoot," he said.
He would not let the abbe give him his arm; resolutely and withdignity he walked alone to the scaffold. As he laid his head on theplank he said to the executioner, after asking him to turn down thecollar of his coat, "My clothes belong to you; try not to spot them."
* * * * * * *
The four gentlemen had hardly time to even see Mademoiselle deCinq-Cygne. An orderly of the general commanding the division to whichthey were assigned, brought them their commissions as sub-lieutenantsin the same regiment of cavalry, with orders to proceed at once toBayonne, the base of supplies for its particular army-corps. After ascene of heart-rending farewells, for they all foreboded what thefuture should bring forth, Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne returned to herdesolate home.
The two brothers were killed together under the eyes of the Emperor atSommo-Sierra, the one defending the other, both being already incommand of their troop. The last words of each were, "Laurence, cymeurs!"
The elder d'Hauteserre died a colonel at the attack on the redoubt atMoscow, where his brother took his place.
Adrien d'Hauteserre, appointed brigadier-general at the battle ofDresden, was dangerously wounded there and was sent to Cinq-Cygne forproper nursing. While endeavoring to save this relic of the fourgentlemen who for a few brief months had been so happy around her,Laurence, then thirty-two years of age, married him. She offered him awithered heart, but he accepted it; those who truly love doubt nothingor doubt all.
The Restoration found Laurence without enthusiasm. The Bourbonsreturned too late for her. Nevertheless, she had no cause forcomplaint. Her husband, made peer of France with the title of Marquisde Cinq-Cygne, became lieutenant-general in 1816, and was rewardedwith the blue ribbon for the eminent services which he then performed.
Michu's son, of whom Laurence took care as though he were her ownchild, was admitted to the bar in 1817. After practising two years hewas made assistant-judge at the court of Alencon, and from there hebecame procureur-du-roi at Arcis in 1827. Laurence, who had alsotaken charge of Michu's property, made over to the young man on theday of his majority an investment in the public Funds which yieldedhim an income of twelve thousand francs a year. Later, she arranged amarriage for him with Mademoiselle Girel, an heiress at Troyes.
The Marquis de Cinq-Cygne died in 1829, in the arms of his wife,surrounded by his father and mother, and his children who adored him.At the time of his death no one had ever fathomed the mystery of thesenator's abduction. Louis XVIII. did not neglect to repair, as faras possible, the wrongs done by that affair; but he was silent as tothe causes of the disaster. From that time forth the Marquise deCinq-Cygne believed him to have been an accomplice in the catastrophe.