The Last Cavalier: Being the Adventures of Count Sainte-Hermine in the Age of Napoleon. Alexandre Dumas

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СКАЧАТЬ the hypocrite Lepidus and wondered where from the four corners of the earth would rise the genius who’d put an end to the civil wars, no one even thought to consider he’d be an Apollonian schoolboy, Caesar’s nephew, young Octavius. A baker’s son from Velletri, coated with the flour of his ancestors. A feeble child afraid of heat, cold, thunder, everything? Who could have seen in him the future master of the world when limping, pale, his eyes blinking like a bird’s in a spotlight, he passed in review Caesar’s old bands of soldiers? Not even Cicero, perspicacious Cicero: ‘Ornandum et tollendum (Cover him with flowers and raise him to the skies),’ he said. Well, the child they should have celebrated and then gotten rid of at the first possible moment tricked all the graybeards in the Senate and reigned almost as long over Rome, the city that had assassinated Caesar because it did not want a king, as did Louis XIV over France.

      “George, George, don’t fight the Providence that has created me, for Providence will break you.”

      “Well,” George answered with a bow, “at least I shall be broken as I follow the path and religion of my fathers, and God will forgive me my error, the error of a fervent Christian and a pious son.”

      Bonaparte placed his hand on the young leader’s shoulder. “So be it,” he said, “but at least remain neutral. Let events take their course, let thrones quake and crowns fall. Usually it’s the spectator who has to pay to follow the game, but I’ll pay you to watch me in action.”

      “And how much will you give me to do that, Citizen First Consul?” asked Cadoudal.

      “One hundred thousand francs a year, monsieur,” Bonaparte answered.

      “If you can give one hundred thousand francs a year to a simple partisan leader, how much will you give the prince he has been fighting for?”

      “Nothing, sir,” said Bonaparte disdainfully. “In your case, what I’m paying for is your courage, not the principles that drive you. I would like to prove that for me, a self-made man, men exist by their works alone. Please accept, George. I beg you.”

      “And if I refuse?” asked George.

      “You’ll be making a mistake.”

      “Will I nonetheless be free to journey wherever I want?”

      Bonaparte went to the door and opened it.

      “Duroc!” he called.

      Duroc appeared.

      “Please make sure,” he said, “that Monsieur Cadoudal and his two friends can move around Paris as freely as if they were in Muzillac. And if they would like passports for any country in the world, Fouché has been ordered to provide them.”

      “Your word is enough for me, Citizen First Consul,” said Cadoudal, bowing once more. “I shall be leaving this evening.”

      “Might I ask where you’ll be going?”

      “To London, General.”

      “So much the better.”

      “Why so much the better?”

      “Because there you’ll see up close the men you’ve been fighting for, and once you’ve seen them.…”

      “Yes?”

      “Well, you will compare them to those you’ve been fighting against. However, once you’re out of France, Colonel.…” Bonaparte paused.

      “I’m waiting,” said Cadoudal.

      “Please don’t come back without letting me know. If you do not let me know, you must not be surprised to be treated as an enemy.”

      “That will be an honor for me, General, since by treating me thus you prove that I am a man to be feared.”

      George said goodbye to the First Consul and withdrew.

      The next day the newspapers read:

      Following the meeting George Cadoudal had obtained with the First Consul, he asked permission to withdraw freely to England.

      He was granted permission on the condition that he would not return to France without the government’s authorization.

      George Cadoudal promised to release his men from their oath. As long as he fought, they were committed to support him; by retreating, he has freed them from their obligations to him.

      And indeed, on the very evening of his meeting with the First Consul, George was writing in his own hand a letter to his cohorts in every part of France.

      Because a protracted war seems to be a misfortune for France and ruin for my region, I free you from your oath of loyalty to me. I shall never call you back unless the French government should fail to keep the promise it gave to me and that I accepted in your name.

      If there should happen to be some treason hidden beneath a hypocritical peace, I would not hesitate to call once more on your fidelity, and your fidelity, I am sure, would respond.

      George Cadoudal

       IX Two Companions at Arms

      WHILE BONAPARTE WAS MEETING with Cadoudal in the Louis Quatorze salon, Josephine, certain that Bourrienne was alone, put on her dressing gown, wiped her reddened eyes, spread a layer of rice powder on her face, slipped her Creole feet into sky-blue Turkish slippers with gold embroidery, and quickly climbed the little stairway connecting her bedroom to Marie de Medicis’s oratory.

      When she arrived at the study door, she stopped and, bringing both hands up to her heart, peered guardedly into the room. Determining that Bourrienne was indeed alone—writing, with his back to her—she tiptoed across the room and laid her hand on his shoulder.

      Smiling, for he recognized the light touch of her hand, Bourrienne turned around.

      “Well,” Josephine asked. “Was he very angry?”

      “Yes,” Bourrienne said. “I must admit that it was a major storm, if a storm with no rain. But there was thunder and lightning indeed.”

      “In short,” Josephine added, moving directly to the only point that interested her, “will he pay?”

      “Yes.”

      “Do you have the six hundred thousand francs?”

      “Yes, I do,” said Bourrienne.

      Josephine clapped her hands like a child just relieved of its penitence.

      “But,” Bourrienne added, “for the love of God, don’t run up any more debts, or at least be reasonable.”

      “What do you call reasonable debt, Bourrienne?” asked Josephine.

      “How do you expect me to answer that? The best thing would be to run up no debt at all.”

      “You СКАЧАТЬ