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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Diplomatic Adventure, by S. Weir Mitchell
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Diplomatic Adventure
+
+Author: S. Weir Mitchell
+
+Release Date: December 2, 2009 [EBook #30585]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DIPLOMATIC ADVENTURE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by D Alexander and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ A DIPLOMATIC
+ ADVENTURE
+
+ BY
+
+ S. WEIR MITCHELL, M.D., LL.D.
+
+ NEW YORK
+
+ THE CENTURY CO.
+
+ 1906
+
+
+
+
+ Copyright, 1906, by
+
+ THE CENTURY CO.
+
+ _Published April, 1906_
+
+ THE DE VINNE PRESS
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "She was in an agony of alarm."]
+
+
+
+
+A DIPLOMATIC ADVENTURE
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+No man has ever been able to write the history of the greater years of
+a nation so as to include the minor incidents of interest. They pass
+unnoted, although in some cases they may have had values influential
+in determining the course of events. It chanced that I myself was an
+actor in one of these lesser incidents, when second secretary to our
+legation in France, during the summer of 1862. I may possibly
+overestimate the ultimate importance of my adventure, for Mr. Adams,
+our minister of the court of St. James, seems to have failed to
+record it, or, at least, there is no allusion to it in his biography.
+In the perplexing tangle of the diplomacy of the darker days of our
+civil war, many strange stories must have passed unrecorded, but
+surely none of those remembered and written were more singular than
+the occurrences which disturbed the quiet of my uneventful official
+life in the autumn of 1862.
+
+At this time I had been in the legation two years, and was comfortably
+lodged in pleasant apartments in the Rue Rivoli.
+
+Somewhere about the beginning of July I had occasion to engage a new
+servant, and of this it becomes needful to speak because the man I
+took chanced to play a part in the little drama which at last involved
+many more important people.
+
+I had dismissed a stout Alsatian because of my certainty that, like
+his predecessor, he was a spy in the employ of the imperial police.
+There was little for him to learn; but to feel that I was watched,
+and, once, that my desk had been searched, was disagreeable. This time
+I meant to be on safer ground, and was inquiring for a suitable
+servant when a lean, alert little man presented himself with a good
+record as a valet in England and France. He was very neat and had a
+humorous look which caught my fancy. His name was Alphonse Duret. We
+agreed easily as to wages and that he was to act as valet, take care
+of my salon, and serve as footman at need. Yes, he could come at once.
+Upon this I said:
+
+"A word more and I engage you." And then, sure that his reply would be
+a confident negative, "Are you not a spy in the service of the
+police?" To my amused surprise he said:
+
+"Yes, but will monsieur permit me to explain?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"I was intended by my family to be a priest, but circumstances caused
+me to make a change. It was not gay."
+
+"Well, hardly."
+
+"I was for a time a valet, but circumstances occurred--monsieur may
+observe that I am frank. Later I was on the police force, but after
+two years I fell ill and lost my place. When I was well again, I was
+taken on as an observer. Monsieur permits me to describe it as an
+observer?"
+
+"A spy?" I said.
+
+"I cannot contradict monsieur. I speak English--I learned it when I
+was valet for Mr. Parker in London. That is why I am sent here. The
+pay is of a minuteness. Circumstances make some addition desirable."
+
+I perceived that circumstances appeared to play a large part in this
+queer autobiography, and saved the necessity of undesirable fullness
+of statement.
+
+I said: "You appear to be frank, but are you to belong to me or to the
+police? In your studies for the priesthood you may have heard that a
+man cannot serve two masters."
+
+His face became of a sudden what I venture to call luminous with the
+pleasure an intelligent man has in finding an answer to a difficult
+question.
+
+He replied modestly: "A man has many masters. One of mine has used me
+badly. I became ill from exposure in the service, but they refused to
+take me back. If monsieur will trust me, there shall be but one real
+master."
+
+The man interested me. I said: "If I engage you, you will, I suppose,
+desire to remain what you call an observer."
+
+"Yes. Monsieur may be sure that either I or another will observe.
+Since the unfortunate war in America, monsieur and all others of his
+legation are watched."
+
+"And generally every one else," I said. "Perhaps you, too, are
+observed."
+
+"Possibly. Monsieur may perceive that it is better I continue in the
+pay of the police. It is hardly more than a _pourboire_, but it is
+desirable. I have an old mother at Neuilly."
+
+I had my doubts in regard to the existence of the mother--but it was
+true, as I learned later.
+
+"It seems to me," I said, "that you will have to report your
+observations."
+
+"Yes; I cannot avoid that. Monsieur may feel assured that I shall
+communicate very important information to my lesser master,"--he
+grinned,--"in fact, whatever monsieur pleases. If I follow and report
+at times to the police where monsieur visits, I may be trusted to be
+at need entirely untrustworthy and prudent. I do not smoke. Monsieur's
+cigars are safe. If monsieur has absinthe about, I might--monsieur
+permits me to be suggestive."
+
+The man's gaiety, his intelligence, and his audacious frankness took
+my fancy. I said: "There is nothing in my life, my man, which is not
+free for all to know. I shall soon learn whether or not I may trust
+you. If you are faithful you shall be rewarded. That is all." As I
+spoke his pleasant face became grave.
+
+"Monsieur shall not be disappointed." Nor was he. Alphonse proved to
+be a devoted servant, a man with those respectful familiarities which
+are rare except in French and Italian domestics. When once I asked him
+how far his superiors had profited by his account of me, he put on a
+queer, wry face and said circumstances had obliged him to become
+inventive. He had been highly commended. It seemed as well to inquire
+no further.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+On the 6th of October I found on my table a letter of introduction and
+the card of Captain Arthur Merton, U.S.A. (2d Infantry), 12 Rue du Roi
+de Rome.
+
+The note was simple but positive. My uncle, Harry Wellwood, a cynical,
+pessimistic old bachelor and a rank Copperhead, wrote me to make the
+captain welcome, which meant much to those who knew my uncle. On that
+day the evening mail was large. Alphonse laid the letters on my table,
+and as he lingered I said, "Well, what is it?"
+
+"Monsieur may not observe that three letters from America have been
+opened in the post-office."
+
+I said, "Yes." In fact, it was common and of course annoying. One of
+these letters was from my uncle. He wrote:
+
+     I gave Arthur Merton an open letter to you, but I add this
+     to state that he is one of the few decent gentlemen in the
+     army of the North.
+
+     He inherited his father's share in the mine of which I am
+     part owner, and has therefore no need to serve an evil
+     cause. He was born in New Orleans of Northern parents, spent
+     two years in the School of Mines in Paris, and until this
+     wretched war broke out has lived for some years among mining
+     camps and in the ruffian life of the far West. It is a fair
+     chance which side turns up, the ways of the salon, the
+     accuracy of the man of science, or the savagery of the
+     Rockies. You will like him.
+
+     He has been twice wounded, and then had the good sense to
+     acquire the mild typhoid fever which gave him an excuse to
+     ask for leave of absence. He has no diplomatic or political
+     errand, and goes abroad merely to recruit his health. Things
+     here are not yet quite as bad as I could desire to see
+     them. Antietam was unfortunate, but in the end the European
+     States will recognize the South and end the war. I shall
+     then reside in Richmond.
+
+                         Yours truly,
+
+                              _Harry Wellwood._
+
+I hoped that the imperial government profited by my uncle's letter. It
+was or may have been of use, as things turned out, in freeing Captain
+Merton from police observation, which at this time rarely failed to
+keep under notice every American.
+
+I was kept busy at the legation two thirds of the following day. At
+five I set out in a coupe having Alphonse on the seat with the
+coachman. He left cards for me at a half-dozen houses, and then I told
+him to order the driver to leave me at Rue du Roi de Rome, No.
+12.--Captain Merton's address.
+
+As I sat in the carriage and looked out at the exterior gaiety of the
+open-air life of Paris, my mind naturally turned in contrast to the
+war at home and the terrible death harvest of Antietam, news of which
+had lately reached Europe. The sense of isolation in a land of hostile
+opinion often oppressed me, and rarely was as despotic as on this
+afternoon. I turned for relief to speculative thought of the
+numberless dramas of the lives of the busy multitude among which I
+drove. I wondered how many lived simple and uneventful days, like
+mine, in the pursuit of mere official or domestic duties. Not the
+utmost imaginative ingenuity of the novelist could have anticipated,
+as I rode along amidst the hurries and the leisures of a Parisian
+afternoon, that my next hour or two was about to bring into the
+monotony of office life an adventure as strange as any which I could
+have conceived as possible for any human unit of these numberless men
+and women.
+
+Captain Merton lived so far away from the quarter in which I had been
+leaving cards that it was close to dusk when I got out of the
+carriage at the hotel I sought.
+
+I meant to return on foot, but hearing thunder, and rain beginning to
+fall heavily, I told Alphonse to keep the carriage. The captain was
+not at home. I had taken his card from my pocket to assure me in
+regard to the address, and as I hurried to reenter my coupe I put it
+in my card-case for future reference.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+As I sat down in the coupe, and Alphonse was about to close the door,
+I saw behind him a lady standing in the heavy downfall of rain. I said
+in my best French: "Get in, madame. I will get out and leave you the
+carriage." For a moment she hesitated, and then got in and stood a
+moment, saying, "Thank you, but I insist that monsieur does not get
+out in the rain." It was just then a torrent. "Let me leave monsieur
+where he would desire to go." I said I intended to go to the Rue de la
+Paix, but I added, "If madame has no objection, may I not first drop
+her wherever she wishes to go?"
+
+"Oh, no, no! It is far--too far." She was, as it seemed to me,
+somewhat agitated. For a moment I supposed this to be due to
+the annoyance a ride with a strange man might have suggested as
+compromising, or at least as the Parisian regards such incidents.
+Alphonse waited calmly, the door still open.
+
+Again I offered to leave her the carriage, and again she refused. I
+said, "Might I then ask where madame desires to go?"
+
+She hesitated a moment, and then asked irrelevantly, "Monsieur is not
+French?"
+
+"Oh, no. I am an American."
+
+"And I, too." She showed at once a certain relief, and I felt with
+pleasure that had I been other than her countryman she would not have
+trusted me as she did. She added: "On no account could I permit you to
+get out in this storm. If I ask you to set me down in the Bois--I
+mean, if not inconvenient--"
+
+"Of course," I replied. "Get up, Alphonse." It was, I thought, a
+rather vague direction, but there was already something odd in this
+small adventure. No doubt she would presently be more specific. "The
+Bois, Alphonse," I repeated. A glance at my countrywoman left with me
+the impression of a lady, very handsome, about twenty-five, and
+presumably married. Why she was so very evidently perturbed I could
+not see. As we drove on I asked her for a more definite direction. She
+hesitated for a moment and then said Avenue du Bois de Boulogne.
+
+"That will answer," I returned. "But that is only a road, and it is
+raining hard. You have no umbrella. Surely you do not mean me to drop
+you on an open road in this storm." I was becoming curious.
+
+"It will do--it will do," she said.
+
+I thought it strange, but I called out the order to Alphonse and bade
+him promise a good _pourboire_.
+
+As we drove away, all of the many people in the streets were hurrying
+to take refuge from the sudden and unexpected downfall of heavy rain.
+Women picked their way with the skill of the Parisienne, men ran for
+shelter, and the carriages coming in haste from the afternoon drives
+thronged the great avenue. The scene was not without amusement for
+people not subject to its inconvenience and to the damage of gay
+gowns. I made some laughing comment. She made no reply. Presently,
+however, she took out her purse and said, "Monsieur will at least
+permit me to--"
+
+"Pardon me," I returned gaily: "I am just now the host, and as it may
+never again chance that I have the pleasure of madame for a guest, I
+must insist on my privileges."
+
+For the first time she laughed, as if more at ease, and said, looking
+up from her purse and flushing a little: "Unluckily, I cannot insist,
+as I find that I am, for the time, too poor to be proud. I can only
+pay in thanks. I am glad it is a fellow-countryman to whom I am
+indebted."
+
+We seemed to be getting on to more agreeable social terms, and I
+expressed my regret that the torrent outside was beginning to leak in
+at the window and through the top of the carriage. For a moment she
+made no remark, and then said with needless emphasis:
+
+"Yes, yes. It is dreadful. I hope--I mean, I trust--that it will never
+occur again."
+
+It was odd and hardly courteous. I said only, "Yes, it must be
+disagreeable."
+
+"Oh, I mean--I can't explain--I mean this--special ride, and I--I am
+so wet."
+
+Of course I accepted this rather inadequate explanation of language
+which somehow did not seem to me to fit a woman evidently of the best
+social class. As if she too felt the need to substitute a material
+inconvenience for a less comprehensible and too abrupt statement, she
+added: "I am really drenched," and then, as though with a return of
+some more urgent feeling, "but there are worse things."
+
+I said, "That may very well be." I began to realize as singular the
+whole of this interview--the broken phrases which I could not
+interpret, the look of worry, the embarrassment of long silences.
+
+After a time, at her request, we turned into one of the smaller
+avenues. Meanwhile I made brief efforts at impersonal talk--the rain,
+the vivid lightning,--wondering if it were the latter which made her
+so nervous. She murmured short replies, and at last I gave up my
+efforts at talk, and we drove on in silence, the darkness meanwhile
+coming the sooner for the storm.
+
+By and by she said, "I owe you an apology for my preoccupation. I
+am--I have reason to be--troubled. You must pardon my silence."
+
+Much surprised, I acquiesced with some trifling remark, and we went
+on, neither of us saying a word, while the rain beat on the leaky
+cover of the carriage, and now and then I heard a loud "Sacre!" from
+the coachman as the lightning flashed.
+
+It was now quite dark. We were far across the Bois and in a narrow
+road. To set her more at ease, I was about to tell her my name and
+official position, when of a sudden she cried:
+
+"Oh, monsieur, we are followed! I am sure we are followed. What shall
+I do?"
+
+Here was a not very agreeable adventure.
+
+I said, "No, I think not."
+
+However, I did hear a carriage behind us; and as she persisted, I
+looked back and saw through the night the lamps of what I took to be a
+cabriolet.
+
+As at times we moved more slowly, so it seemed did the cabriolet; and
+when our driver, who had no lights, saw better at some open place and
+went faster, so did the vehicle behind us. I felt sure that she was
+right, and to reassure her said: "We have two horses. He has one. We
+ought to beat him." I called to Alphonse to tell the driver to drive
+as fast as he could and he should have a napoleon. He no doubt
+comprehended the situation, and began to lash his horses furiously.
+Meantime the woman kept ejaculating, "_Mon Dieu!_" and then, in
+English, "Oh, I am so afraid! What shall we do?" I said, "I will take
+care of you." How, I did not know.
+
+It was an awkward business--probably a jealous husband; but there was
+no time to ask for explanations, nor was I so inclined. It seemed to
+me that we were leaving our pursuers, when again I heard the vehicle
+behind us, and, looking back, saw that it was rapidly approaching, and
+then, from the movement of the lanterns, that the driver in trying to
+overtake us must have lost control of his horse, as the lights were
+now on this side of the road, now on that. My driver drew in to the
+left, close to the wood, thinking, I presume, that they would pass us.
+
+A moment later there was a crash. One of our horses went down, and the
+cabriolet--the lighter vehicle--upset, falling over to the right. As
+we came to a standstill I threw open the left-hand door saying: "Get
+out, madame! Quick! Into the wood!" She was out in an instant and,
+favored by the gloom, was at once lost to sight among the thick
+shrubbery. I shut the door and got out on the other side. It was very
+dark and raining hard as I saw Alphonse slip away into the wood
+shadows. Next I made out the driver of the cabriolet, who had been
+thrown from his seat and was running up to join us.
+
+In a moment I saw more clearly. The two coachmen were swearing, the
+horses down, the two vehicles, as it proved later, not much injured. A
+man was standing on the farther side of the roadway. I went around the
+fallen cab and said: "An unlucky accident, monsieur. I hope you are
+not hurt." He was holding a handkerchief to his head.
+
+"No, I am not much hurt."
+
+"I am well pleased," said I, "that it is no worse." I expected that
+the presumably jealous husband would at once make himself unpleasant.
+To my surprise, he stood a moment without speaking, and, as I fancied,
+a little dazed by his fall. Then he said:
+
+"There is a woman in that carriage."
+
+I was anxious to gain time for the fugitive, and replied: "Monsieur
+must be under some singular misapprehension. There is no one in my
+carriage."
+
+"I shall see for myself," he said sharply.
+
+"By all means. I am quite at a loss to understand you." I was sure
+that he would not be able to see her.
+
+He staggered as he moved past me, and was evidently more hurt than he
+was willing to admit. I went quickly to my coachman, who was busy with
+a broken trace. Here was the trouble--the risk. I bent over him and
+whispered, putting a napoleon in his hand, "There was no woman in the
+carriage."
+
+"Two," said the rascal.
+
+"Well, two if you will lie enough."
+
+"Good! This _sacre_ animal! Be quiet!"
+
+I busied myself helping the man, and a moment later the gentleman went
+by me and, as I expected, asked the driver. "There was a woman in your
+carriage?"
+
+"No, monsieur; the gentleman was alone, and you have smashed my
+carriage. _Sacre bleu!_ Who is to pay?"
+
+"That is of no moment. Here is my card." The man took it, but said
+doubtfully,
+
+"That's all well to-day, but to-morrow--"
+
+"Stuff! Your carriage is not damaged. Here, my man, a half-napoleon
+will more than pay."
+
+The driver, well pleased with this accumulation of unlooked-for good
+fortune, expressed himself contented. The gentleman stood, mopping the
+blood from his forehead, while the two drivers set up the cabriolet
+and continued to repair the broken harness. Glad of the delay, I too,
+stood still in the rain saying nothing. My companion of the hour was
+as silent.
+
+At last the coachmen declared themselves ready to leave. Upon this,
+the gentleman said to me: "You have denied, monsieur, that there was a
+woman with you. It is my belief that she has escaped into the wood."
+
+"I denied nothing," said I. "I invited you to look for yourself. The
+wood is equally at your disposal. I regret--or, rather I do not
+regret--to be unable to assist you."
+
+Then, to my amazement, he said: "You, too, are in this affair, I
+presume. You will find it serious."
+
+"What affair? Monsieur is enigmatical and anything but courteous."
+
+"You are insulting, and my friends will ask you to-morrow to explain
+your conduct. I think you will further regret your connection with
+this matter."
+
+"With what matter?" I broke in. "This passes endurance."
+
+"I fancy you need no explanation. I presume that at least you will not
+hesitate to inform me of your name."
+
+As he spoke his coachman called out to him to hold his horse for a
+moment, and before I could answer, he turned aside toward the man. I
+followed him, took out my card-case, and said as I gave him a card,
+"This will sufficiently inform you who and what I am."
+
+As I spoke he in turn gave me his card, saying: "I am the Count le
+Moyne. I shall have the honor to ask through my friends for an
+explanation."
+
+He was evidently somewhat cooler. As he spoke I knew his name as that
+of a recently appointed under-secretary of the Foreign Office. I had
+never before seen him. As we parted I said:
+
+"I shall be at home from eleven until noon to-morrow."
+
+We lifted our hats, and the two carriages having been put in
+condition, I drove away, with enough to think about and with some
+wonder as to what had become of Alphonse.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+After a slow drive with a lame horse I reached my club, where I
+attended to a small matter, and then, as the rain was over, walked to
+my rooms. A bath and a change of garments left me free to consider the
+adventure and its too probable results. What was meant by the affair?
+It was really a somewhat bewildering business.
+
+I looked at the count's card. His name was, as I have said, somewhat
+unfamiliar, although it was part of duty at our legation to learn all
+I could in the upper social life of Paris where, at this time, we had
+few friends and many foes. If, still unsatisfied, he chose to look up
+my driver, I felt that the man would readily tell all he knew. The
+count had said I was in the affair. A confederate? What affair? I
+could not--indeed, I did not mean to--explain how I came to be with
+the woman, nor to admit that there was a woman concerned. There had
+been, however, enough to make me sure that in that case I might have
+to face a duel, and that the next day I should hear from this angry
+gentleman. But who was my handsome and terrified companion, and what
+was the affair?
+
+To refuse to meet him would be social ruin and would seriously affect
+my usefulness, as I was the only attache who spoke French with entire
+ease, and it was, as I said, a part of my duty to learn at the clubs
+and in society the trend of opinion in regard to the war with the
+rebel States. I could do nothing but wait. I was the victim of
+circumstances and of an embarrassing situation not of my making, and
+in regard to which I could offer no explanation. There was nothing
+left for me except to see what the morning would bring.
+
+I dined that evening with my chief, but of course said nothing of my
+adventure. On my return home I found Alphonse.
+
+"Well," I said, "what the deuce became of you?"
+
+"I dived into the edge of the wood, and after hearing what passed I
+considered that you might desire to know who the lady was."
+
+"Yes, I did--I do."
+
+"I overtook her very easily, and as she seemed quite lost, I said I
+was your servant. When I had set her on the avenue she wanted to find,
+she said I might go, and gave me a napoleon, and I was to thank you."
+
+"Did you follow her?"
+
+"No; she seemed to want to go on alone. I hope monsieur approves."
+
+"I do."
+
+There was a curious delicacy about this which was explained when he
+added: "She is quite sure to let monsieur hear of her again. I
+ventured to mention your name."
+
+The point of view was Parisian enough, but I contented myself with a
+further word of satisfaction, although I had my doubts as to whether
+his theory would fit the case of my handsome countrywoman.
+
+As I rose, about to go to bed, I said to Alphonse: "You will find in
+my card-case the card and address of Captain Merton. I shall want you
+to take a note to him in the morning."
+
+He came back with the case in his hand and said: "I saw you take out a
+card, sir, when we were at 12 Rue du Roi de Rome. You looked at it and
+put it back in the case. It is not there now, nor in any of your
+pockets, but I remember the address. Perhaps--" and he paused.
+
+"Perhaps what?"
+
+"You gave the very angry gentleman a card."
+
+"Nonsense!" I returned. "Look again." I could see, by the faint smile
+and the slight uplift of the brow, that my valet appreciated the
+situation. He was gone for at least ten minutes. Meanwhile I sat
+still, more and more sure that I had made one of those blunders which
+might bear unpleasant interpretations. At length, impatient, I joined
+Alphonse in his search. It was vain. He stood at last facing me with a
+pair of pantaloons on one arm, a coat on the other, all the pockets
+turned inside out.
+
+"Monsieur--circumstances--I mean it is to be feared--I have looked
+everywhere."
+
+"It is incredible," said I.
+
+"But the night, monsieur, and the storm, and the count, who was not
+polite."
+
+He was sorry for me and perfectly understood what had happened. Yes,
+undoubtedly I had given the count Captain Merton's card. I said as
+much while Alphonse stood still with a look in which his constant
+sense of the comic contended for expression with his desire to
+sympathize in what he was shrewd enough to know was, for me, that form
+of the socially tragic which has for its catastrophe ridicule.
+
+I went back to my salon and sat down to reflect on the consequences of
+my mishap. Of course, it was easy to set the matter right, but what a
+muddle! I must make haste in the morning to correct my blunder.
+
+Desirous to be on time, about ten the next morning I called on the
+count. He had gone out. At the Foreign Office I again failed to find
+him. I was told that he had gone to his club for breakfast, but would
+be back very shortly. I waited a half-hour and then tried the club. He
+had left. Remembering that I had said I should be at home from eleven
+to twelve, I looked at my watch and saw, to my annoyance, that it was
+close to noon. I had hoped to anticipate the call of the count's
+seconds on Merton. I felt sure, however, that the captain would simply
+deny any share in my adventure, and that a word or a note from me to
+the count would set things straight. Although I regretted the delay my
+vain pursuit of the count had caused, a little reflection put me at
+ease, and calling a cab, I drove to Captain Merton's. I was so
+fortunate as to find him at home. As I entered he threw on the table a
+number of letters and made me welcome with a certain cordiality which
+in its manner had both refinement and the open-air frankness of a
+dweller in camps.
+
+I liked him from the first, and being myself a small man, envied the
+six feet one of well-knit frame, and was struck with a way he had of
+quick backward head movement when the large blue eyes considered you
+with smiling attention. My first impression was that nothing as
+embarrassing as the absurd situation in which my blunder might have
+placed him could as yet have fallen upon this tranquil gentleman.
+There was therefore no occasion for haste.
+
+We talked pleasantly of home, the war, my uncle, and Paris, and I was
+about to mention my mistake in regard to his card when he said rather
+abruptly:
+
+"I should like you to advise me as to a rather odd affair--if not too
+late for advice.
+
+"About eleven to-day, the Baron la Garde and a Colonel St. Pierre
+called upon me on the part of a certain Count le Moyne. The baron
+explained that, as a lady was involved, it would be better if it were
+supposed that we had quarreled at cards. As you may imagine, I rather
+surprised, and asked what he meant. He replied, and not very
+pleasantly, that I must know, as I had given my card to the count and
+said I should be at home from eleven to twelve. I said: 'Pardon me,
+gentlemen, but there is some mistake. I do not know Count le Moyne,
+and I never saw him. As to my card--I have given no one my card.' I
+was, of course, very civil and quiet in my denial, and the more so
+because the baron's manner was far from agreeable.
+
+"Then the baron, to my amazement, handed me my own card, saying, 'Do
+we understand you to say that last night, in the Bois de Boulogne, you
+did not give Count le Moyne your card?'
+
+"Now I am at times, Mr. Greville, short of temper, and the supply was
+giving out. I checked myself, however, and said as calmly as possible:
+'Really, gentlemen, this is rather absurd. I was at home last night. I
+never saw or heard of your count, and you will be so good as to accept
+for him my absolute denial.'
+
+"Upon this the baron said, 'It appears to us that you contradict
+flatly the statement of our principal, a man of the highest character,
+and that we are therefore forced to suppose that you are endeavoring
+to escape the consequence of having last night insulted the count.'
+
+"Before I could reply, the other man--the colonel--remarked in a
+casual way that there was only one word to characterize my conduct.
+Here I broke in--but, for a wonder, kept myself in hand.
+
+"I said: 'This has gone far enough. Count le Moyne has rather
+imprudent friends. Some one has played me and your principal a trick.
+At all events, I am not the man.'
+
+"'Monsieur,' said the colonel, 'so you still deny--'
+
+"'Wait a little,' said I. 'I allow no man to doubt my word. But let us
+be clear as to this. Am I to understand that the language now used to
+me represents the instructions of the count?'
+
+"By George! the colonel said, 'Yes.' They really believed me to be
+lying. I had gotten past any desire to explain or contradict, and so I
+replied that it was all damn nonsense, but that I had supposed French
+gentlemen were on these occasions courteous.
+
+"You should have seen the baron. He is as tall as I am, and must weigh
+two hundred and fifty pounds. He got red and said that if it were not
+for his principal's prior claim on me, he should himself at once call
+me to account. I replied sweetly that need not interfere, for that,
+after I had killed the count, I should be most glad to accommodate his
+friend. He did seem a bit amazed."
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+
+I was about to comment on this queer story when Merton said:
+
+"Pardon me, I must first tell you all; then you will kindly say what
+you think of this amazing performance.
+
+"The little colonel, who had the leanness and redness of a boiled
+shrimp, now took up the talk, and this other idiot said: 'My friend
+the baron will, no doubt, postpone the pleasure of meeting monsieur;
+and now, as monsieur is no longer indisposed to satisfy our principal,
+and, as we understand it, declines to explain or apologize,--in fact,
+admits, by his inclination to meet our friend, what he seemed to
+deny,--may we have the honor to know when monsieur's seconds will wait
+on us? Here is my card.'
+
+"The little man was posing beautifully. I laid his card on the table
+and said, 'Be so good, gentlemen, as to understand that I have not
+retracted my statement, but that if the count insists, as you do, that
+I lie,--that, at least, is decent cause for a quarrel,--he can have
+it.'
+
+"The little man replied that the count could not do otherwise.
+
+"'Very good,' said I.--No, don't interrupt this charming story, Mr.
+Greville; let me go on. There is more of it and better.
+
+"My colonel then said, 'We shall expect to hear from you--and, by the
+way, I understand from monsieur's card that he is an American.'
+
+"I said, 'Yes; captain Second Infantry.'
+
+"'Ah, a soldier--really! In the army of the Confederation, I presume.
+We shall be enchanted to meet monsieur's friends.'
+
+"'What!' I said; 'does monsieur the colonel wish to insult me? I am of
+the North.'
+
+"'A thousand pardons!'
+
+"'No matter. You will hear from me shortly, or as soon as I am able
+to find gentlemen who will be my seconds.' This seemed to suit them
+until I remarked that, to save time, being the challenged party, I
+might as well say that my friends would insist on the rifle at thirty
+paces.
+
+"'But monsieur, that is unusual, barbarous!' said the little man.
+
+"'Indeed!' said I. 'Then suppose we say revolvers at twelve paces or
+less. I have no prejudices.' It seems that the baron had, for he said
+my new proposition was also unheard of, uncivilized.
+
+"Upon this I stood up and said: 'Gentlemen, you have insisted on
+manufacturing for me a quarrel with a man I never saw, and have
+suggested--indeed, said--that I, a soldier, am afraid and have lied to
+you. I accepted the situation thus forced on me, and in place of the
+wretched little knitting-needles with which you fight child duels in
+France, I propose to take it seriously.'
+
+"I saw the little man--the colonel--was beginning to fidget. As I
+stopped he said, 'Pardon me; I have not the honor fully to
+comprehend.'
+
+"'Indeed?' said I. 'So far I have hesitated to ascribe to gentlemen,
+to a soldier, any motive for your difficulty in accepting weapons
+which involve peril, and I thought that I had at last done so. I do
+not see how I can make myself more clear.'
+
+"'Sir,' said my little man, 'do I understand--'
+
+"I was at the end of the sweetest temper west of the Mississippi. I
+broke into English and said: 'You may understand what you damn
+please.'
+
+"You see, Mr. Greville, it was getting to be fatiguing--these two
+improbable Frenchmen. I suppose the small man took my English as some
+recondite insult, for he drew himself up, clicked his heels together,
+and said, 'I shall have the honor to send to monsieur those who will
+ask him, for me,--for me, personally,--to translate his words, and, I
+trust, to withdraw the offensive statement which, no doubt, they are
+meant to convey.'
+
+"I replied that I had no more to say, except that I should instruct my
+friends to abide by the weapons I had mentioned. On this he lost his
+temper and exclaimed that it was murder. I said that was my desire;
+that they were hard to please; and that bowie-knives exhausted the
+list of weapons I should accept.
+
+"The colonel said further that, as I seemed to be ignorant of the
+customs of civilized countries, it appeared proper to let me know that
+the seconds were left to settle these preliminaries, and he supposed
+that I was making a jest of a grave situation.
+
+"When I replied that he was as lacking in courtesy as the baron, the
+little man became polite and regretted that the prior claim of of his
+two friends would, he feared, deprive him of the pleasure of exacting
+that satisfaction which he still hoped circumstances would eventually
+afford him. He was queerly precise and too absurd for belief.
+
+"I replied lightly that I should be sorry if any accident were to
+deprive him of the happiness of meeting me, but that I had the
+pleasant hope of being at his service after I had shot the count and
+the baron. I began to enjoy this unique situation.
+
+"The colonel said I was most amiable--but really, my dear Mr.
+Greville, it is past my power to do justice to this scene. They were
+like the Count Considines and the Irish gentlemen in Lever's novels."
+
+"And was that all?" I asked.
+
+"No, not quite. After the colonel ceased to criticize my views of the
+duel, he again informed me that his own friends would call upon me to
+withdraw my injurious language. Then these two peacemakers departed.
+Now what do you think of my comedy?"
+
+I had listened in amazement to this arrangement--three duels as the
+sequel of my adventure! As Merton ended, he burst into a roar of
+laughter.
+
+"Now," he said, "what will they do?--rifle, revolver, or bowie? By
+George, I am like D'Artagnan--my second day in Paris and three duels
+on my hands! Isn't it jolly?"
+
+That was by no means my opinion. "Mr. Merton," I said, "I came here
+about this very matter."
+
+"Indeed! How can that be? Pray go on--and did any man ever hear of
+such a mix-up? Where do you come in?"
+
+"I will tell you. Last night in the dark, by mishap, I gave this
+infernal count your card instead of my own."
+
+"The deuce you did! Great Scott, what fun!"
+
+"Yes, I did." I went on to relate my encounter with the lady, and the
+manner in which Count le Moyne had behaved.
+
+"What an adventure! I am so sorry I was not in your place. What a fine
+mystery! But what will you do? Was she his wife? I have had many
+adventures, but nothing to compare with this. I envy you. And you were
+sure she was not his wife?"
+
+"No, she was not his wife; and as to what I shall do, it is simple. I
+shall go to the count and explain the card and my mistake. I meant to
+anticipate the visit to you of Count le Moyne's seconds. I am sorry to
+have been late."
+
+"Sorry! Not I. It is immense!"
+
+"The count will call me out. There will be the usual farce of a sword
+duel. I am in fair practice. This will relieve you so far as concerns
+the count, and nobody else will fight you with the weapons you offer."
+
+"Won't they, indeed? I have been insulted. Do you suppose I can sit
+quiet under it? No, Mr. Greville. You, I hope, may make yourself
+unpleasant to this count, but I shall settle with him and the others,
+too. Did I happen to mention that I told them I did not fight with
+knitting-needles?"
+
+"You did."
+
+"They seemed annoyed."
+
+"Probably," said I. Although the whole affair appeared to me comical,
+it had, too, its possible tragedy.
+
+"Well," I continued, "I shall find the count, and set right the matter
+of the cards. After that we may better see our way. These matters are
+never hurried over here. Dine with me to-night at my rooms at
+seven-thirty; and meanwhile, as for the baron--"
+
+"Oh, the baron--you should see him. I came near to calling him Porthos
+to his face. I wish I had."
+
+"And the small man, the colonel--"
+
+"Oh, yes--shade of Dumas! He may pass for Aramis."
+
+I laughed. "By the way," I added, "he is one of the best blades in
+France."
+
+"Is he? However he comes in third. But can he shoot? If I accept the
+sword,--and it may come to that,--I am pretty sure to be left with
+something to remember. If we use rifles, I assure you they will
+remember me still longer or not at all." There was savage menace in
+his blue eyes as he spoke. "But is it not ridiculous?"
+
+I said it was.
+
+"And now about this count who is interested in the anonymous lady. I
+suppose he may pass for Athos. That makes it complete. Have some rye.
+Smuggled it. Said it was medicine. The customs fellow tried it neat,
+and said I had poisoned him."
+
+I declined the wine of my country, and answered him that Athos, as I
+had learned, was a man of high character who had lately joined the
+Foreign Office, a keen imperialist, happily married and rich.
+
+"Then certainly it cannot be the wife."
+
+"No, I think I said so; I am thankful to be able to say that it is
+not. But what part the woman has in this muddle is past my
+comprehension."
+
+"Stop a little," said my D'Artagnan. "You are having a good deal of
+trouble to keep this short-legged Emperor from getting John Bull and
+the rest to bully us into peace."
+
+"Yes, there has been trouble brewing all summer." I could not imagine
+what the man was after.
+
+"Well, the woman seemed pleased when she learned that you were an
+American. You said so, and also that the count charged you with being
+in that affair. He slipped up a bit there. He seemed to believe you to
+be engaged in something of which he did not want to talk freely."
+
+"Yes, that is true."
+
+The blue eyes held mine for a moment, and then he inquired, "Was
+she--" and he paused.
+
+"My dear captain, she is an American and a lady."
+
+"I ask her pardon. A lady? You are sure she is a lady?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then it is a matter of--let me think--not jealousy? Hardly. We may
+leave that out."
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Don't you catch on, Mr. Greville?"
+
+"No, I must say I do not."
+
+"Well, consider it coolly. Exclude love, jealousy, any gross fraud,
+and what is left? What can be left?"
+
+"I do not know."
+
+"How about politics," he smiled. "How does that strike you?"
+
+The moment he let fall this key-word, "Politics," I began to suspect
+that he was right. The woman had exhibited relief when I had said I
+was an American. We lived in a maze of spies of nearly every class of
+life, rarely using the post-office, trusting no one. With our own
+secret agents I had little to do. The first secretary or the minister
+saw them, and we were not badly served either in England or France;
+but all this did not do more than enable me to see my D'Artagnan's
+notion as possibly a reasonable guess.
+
+After a moment's thought I said: "You may be right; but even if you
+are, the matter remains a problem which we are very unlikely ever to
+solve. But how can a handsome young American woman be so deeply
+concerned in some political affair as to account for this amazing
+conduct of a secretary not yet a week old in the work of the imperial
+Foreign Office."
+
+Merton smiled. "We exhaust personal motives--what else is left?
+Politics! She may know something which it seems to be desirable she
+should not know. We must find her."
+
+The more I considered his theory, the more I inclined to doubt it. At
+all events as things stood it was none of our business--and after a
+moment's reflection I said:
+
+"We have quite enough on our hands without the woman. I shall see the
+count to-day, and then we may be in a better position to know what
+further should be done."
+
+"Done?" laughed the captain. "I shall give all three fools what is
+called satisfaction. I don't take much stock in them. I hate Aramis.
+It's the woman interests me the most."
+
+"The woman? I assure you, I am out of that."
+
+"Oh, no, no! We must find her. She is in trouble."
+
+I laughed. "Can we find her?"
+
+"We must. I like her looks."
+
+"But you never saw her."
+
+"No. But the most beautiful woman is always the one I never saw."
+
+He was delightful, my D'Artagnan, with his amused acceptance of three
+duels, and now his interest in an unknown woman. But I held fast to my
+opinion, and after some further talk I went away to make my belated
+explanation to Count le Moyne.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+
+After dinner that evening Merton and I settled ourselves in my little
+salon with coffee, cognac, and cigars. Merton said:
+
+"Are we safe here?"
+
+"Yes. There are two doors, and the outer one I have locked. My last
+valet was a spy. The information he got for their Foreign Office must
+have been valuable. My present man--the fellow who waited on us just
+now--is also a spy," and upon this I told the captain of my
+arrangement with Alphonse.
+
+He was much amused. "Can you really trust him?" he said.
+
+"Yes, he has an old mother whom I have seen and have helped. I believe
+that it is his desire and interest to serve me and at the same time to
+keep his place as a paid spy."
+
+"What a droll arrangement! And are you really sure of him?"
+
+"Yes, as far as one can be sure of any one in this tangle of spies."
+
+"But does he not--must he not--seem to earn his outside pay?"
+
+"Yes, seem. I will call him in. He will talk if I assure him that he
+is safe."
+
+"Delightful--most delightful! By all means!"
+
+I rang for Alphonse.
+
+"Alphonse," I said, "this gentleman is my friend. He cannot quite
+believe that you can be true to me and yet satisfy your superiors in
+the police."
+
+"Oh, monsieur!" exclaimed Alphonse. He was evidently hurt.
+
+"To relieve him, tell monsieur of our little arrangement."
+
+"The letters, monsieur?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, my master is kind enough to leave open certain letters. They
+have been found to be of interest. My pay has been raised.
+Circumstances make it desirable."
+
+"What is her name?" said Merton, laughing.
+
+"Louise."
+
+"What letters, Greville, do you turn over for the recreation and
+service of the Foreign Office?"
+
+"My uncle's," said I, "usually."
+
+"Ah, I see. The old gentleman's opinions must be
+refreshing--authoritative they are, I am sure. When last I saw him he
+had, as usual, secret intelligence from the army. He always has. I
+think with joy of the effect of his letters on the young secretaries
+of the Foreign Office."
+
+I confessed my own pleasure in the game, and was about to let Alphonse
+go when Merton said:
+
+"May I take a great liberty?"
+
+"Certainly," I laughed--"short of taking Alphonse. What is it?"
+
+"Alphonse," asked Merton, "would you know the lady you followed and
+guided that night in the Bois?"
+
+"Yes, monsieur."
+
+"Do you want to make two hundred francs?"
+
+"Without doubt."
+
+"Find that woman and I will give you three hundred."
+
+"It will be difficult. Paris is large and women are numerous."
+
+"Yes, but there is the Count le Moyne as a clue."
+
+"Yes, yes." He seemed to be thinking. Then he turned to me.
+
+"If monsieur approves and can do without me for two days?"
+
+"Certainly." I was not very anxious to add the woman to our increasing
+collection of not easily solved problems, but Merton was so eager that
+I decided to make this new move in our complicated game.
+
+Alphonse stood still a moment.
+
+"Well?" I said.
+
+"The lady, monsieur,--she is, I think, not French."
+
+"No; she is an American, and that is all we know."
+
+"But that is much. Then I am free to-morrow?"
+
+"Yes," and he left us.
+
+"What a fine specimen!" said the captain; "scamp rather than
+scoundrel. Well, I suppose I shall hear from the count and Porthos and
+the little man with the pink kid gloves--Aramis. I hate the little
+animal, but Porthos--I want you to see Porthos. He has gigantic
+manners. He is so conscious of his bigness, and makes chests at you
+like a pouter pigeon. He has a bass voice like a war-drum. Things
+shake. Oh, I like Porthos. Pardon my nonsense, Greville, but the whole
+thing is so big, so grotesquely huge. Tell me about Athos, the count.
+Your cigars were not bought in France; may I have another? Thanks. You
+were to see him to-day."
+
+"Yes; I called on him, and I assure you," I replied, "that nothing you
+have told me is more wonderful than my sequel. I did think you had the
+original _trois mousquetaires_ rather too much on your mind, but
+really, the resemblance is certainly fascinating."
+
+"But what about the count? You have seen him, I suppose."
+
+"Yes, I saw Count le Moyne. He lives in a charming little hotel near
+the Parc Monceaux. He had my card in his hand when I entered. He
+welcomed me quite warmly, and said, 'It is odd, as you are of your
+legation, that we have never met; but then I am only of late
+transferred from Vienna. Pray sit down.'
+
+"I was sure that for a fraction of a moment he did not identify me,
+but as I spoke, my voice, as so often happens, revealed more than the
+darkness had made visible. I observed at once that, although still
+extremely courteous, he became more cool and looked puzzled.
+
+"I said: 'Monsieur, last night, in the darkness, I gave you by mistake
+the card of my friend Captain Merton in place of my own. I have called
+in person solely to apologize for my blunder.' As I spoke I stood up,
+adding, 'As this is my only purpose, I shall leave you to rearrange
+matters as may seem best to you.'
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+
+"As I turned to go he said: 'May I ask you to sit down? Now that I
+know you to be of your legation, and I being, as you are aware, in the
+Foreign Office, an affair between us would be for both services
+unadvisable. Having left myself in the hands of my friends, I am now
+doing, as you will understand, an unusual thing; but whatever may be
+the result, I feel that, as a gentleman, you will hold me excused.
+There _was_ a woman in your carriage. Of course our police found the
+cabman and got it out of him. I have no direct personal interest in
+her--none; nor can I explain myself further. I regret that in the
+annoyance of my failure to effect my purpose I was guilty of a grave
+discourtesy. If you had told me that you would send your seconds to
+me to-day, I should have felt that you were fully justified. I can
+very well afford to say that I owe you an apology; and, fortunately,
+my friends will have learned that I sent them to the wrong man and
+will return for instructions. If, however, you feel--'
+
+"'Oh, no,' I said; 'pardon me, I am quite willing to forget an
+unfortunate incident, and to add that the lady, by the merest
+accident, took shelter from the rain in my carriage. I never met her
+before.'
+
+"I saw at once that he had a look of what I took to be relief. He
+smiled, became quite cordial, and when I added that whatever I might
+have said or done the night before was really unavoidable, he returned
+that it was quite true that he had been hasty, and that, as he had
+said very little to his friends, it would rest between us.
+
+"As I rose to go, I could not help saying that the remarkably good
+looks of the woman made my conduct the more excusable.
+
+"'Yes,' he said; 'at least she is handsome, but--' and here he paused
+and then added, 'I hope before long to have the pleasure of presenting
+you to my wife.'
+
+"I thanked him."
+
+"One moment," said Merton, "before you go on. It is clear that the
+woman is a lady; that he was wildly eager to catch her, and especially
+at that time; that, being foiled, he lost his temper; that he believes
+you, or makes believe to do so; and, finally, that he is sensible
+enough to know that a duel with an American secretary is undesirable.
+You let him off easy."
+
+"I did, but I had the same kind of reason to avoid a hostile meeting
+that he has. Moreover, he is really a charming fellow, and it must
+have cost him something to apologize."
+
+"But about the woman who set all these pots a-boiling--I beg pardon,
+simmering--"
+
+"Oh, the woman. I hope I may never see her again."
+
+"You will. That fellow Alphonse will find her."
+
+"I hope not. But what a mess! _cherchez la femme!_"
+
+"That we must do," laughed Merton. "The mosquitoes illustrate the
+proverb: only the females bite. Good, that, isn't it? But what next? I
+interrupted you. You are out of it, but where do I come in? What about
+Porthos and that little red weasel Aramis?"
+
+"And D'Artagnan?" I laughed.
+
+"If you like, Greville. You are complimentary. Was that all?"
+
+"No. The count said, 'I will at once write to Captain Merton and
+apologize, but I fancy my friends have already done so.' I was about
+to take leave of the count when in walked the baron, behind the
+biggest mustache in Paris, a ponderous person. 'Shade of Dumas!' I
+muttered; 'Porthos! Porthos!' Behind him was a much-made-up little
+fellow, the colonel--your Aramis."
+
+"Oh, drop him. He is what the arithmeticians call a negligible
+quantity. What next?"
+
+"The count said, 'Allow me to present M. Greville of the American
+Legation--the Baron la Garde, my cousin, and the Colonel St. Pierre.'
+We bowed, and the count said, 'M. Greville is somewhat concerned in
+the affair in which you have been so kind as to act for me.'
+
+"The two gentlemen looked a little bewildered, but bowed again and sat
+down, while the count added: 'You may speak freely. I suppose M.
+Merton explained that he was not the person.'"
+
+"Oh, by all that's jolly! what a situation for the stage! A match,
+please. What next?"
+
+"The baron spoke first. 'I do not understand you, my dear count.'
+
+"The count said: 'Why not? It was very simple. I presume you to have
+said that you regretted the mistake, and then I suppose you apologized
+and came away to report to me. I am sorry to have sent you on a
+fruitless errand. Kindly tell us what passed.'
+
+"The colonel sat up, and, as I thought, was a little embarrassed. He
+said: 'With your permission, baron, I shall have the honor to relate
+our conversation. We put the matter, count, as you desired. You had
+been insulted. What explanation had M. Merton to offer? Then this
+amazing American said that it was not true that he had insulted you;
+that he had not given you his card; that he had never seen you; that
+it was a droll mistake--"that you were unfortunate in your friends." I
+think I am correct, baron?'
+
+"'Yes. I so understood it.'
+
+"'Then you said, as I recall it, baron, that--that--there was only
+one word to apply to a man who could insult another and try to escape
+the consequences. Then he said--well, to cut it short, he would send
+his friends to us, and that, as he was the challenged party, it would
+save time if he now declared it must be rifles--or revolvers--or, yes,
+what he called bowie. What that is I know not.'"
+
+"Lovely!" murmured Merton. "Go on."
+
+"I explained to the count's friends that the bowie was a big knife
+with which our Western gentlemen chopped one another. The count sat
+still, with a look of repressed mirth, I choking with the fun of it,
+Aramis fidgeting, the baron swelling with rage. The count asked if
+that were all.
+
+"Aramis went on: 'When I assured M. Merton that the methods proposed
+were barbarous, he made himself unpleasant, and I was forced to say
+that his language was of such incorrectness--in fact, so monstrous
+that as a French soldier I held him personally responsible. The
+animal assured me that when he was through with you and the baron, he
+would attend to my own case. I grieve to admit, count, that our friend
+the baron, usually so amiable, had previously lost his temper. That
+was when our brigand proposed revolvers and the knife-bowie, and said
+we were difficult.'
+
+"'I did,' said the baron; 'I, who am all that there is of amiable.
+Yes, I lost my temper.' He stood up as he went on. 'I said it was
+uncivilized, that it was no jest, but a grave matter. _Mon Dieu!_ That
+man, he told me that we fought with knitting-needles, that our duels
+were baby-play--me--me--he said that to me! What could I reply? I said
+I should ask him to retract. That man laughed--_a faire peur_--the
+room shook. Then he said to excuse him, it was--so what he called
+"damn nonsense." I think, colonel, I am correct? What means that, M.
+Greville--damn nonsense?'
+
+"'English for very interesting,' said I, not wishing to aggravate the
+situation.
+
+"'Ah, thanks,' said Aramis. 'This American he was pleasant of a
+sudden, and would be happy to hear from us all. He did regret that I
+came third, but that after he had killed you and the baron he would be
+most happy to kill me. _Mon Dieu!_ we shall see. It remains to await
+his friends. I shall kill him.'
+
+"'Pardon me,' said the baron; 'he belongs to me.'
+
+"Meanwhile the count's face was a study. What it cost him not to
+explode into laughter I shall never guess except by my knowledge of
+the internal convulsions of my own organs of mirth. But Athos--I like
+him. He said at last very quietly: 'Here, gentlemen, are three
+duels--a fair morning's work. May I ask you, M. Greville, if you know
+Captain Merton? I mean well.'"
+
+"Lord, what a chance! What did you say?"
+
+"I saw what he meant, and said you were a captain in our army, had
+been twice wounded, and were here to recruit your health; that you
+were of first force with the rifle and revolver, but knew nothing of
+the small sword.
+
+"The baron's shoulders were lifted and he spread out huge hands of
+disgust. 'But these weapons are impossible. Only a semi-civilized
+people could desire to employ the weapons of savages.'
+
+"'Pardon me,' I said; 'I presume that the rifle and revolver are both
+used in your service; and, also, may I ask you to remember that I,
+too, am an American?'
+
+"'That does not alter my opinion. If monsieur--'
+
+"'Oh, stop, stop!' cried the count. 'M. Greville is my guest. He will
+allow me to reply. Do you mean to create four duels in a day? My dear
+cousin will recall his words.'
+
+"'My dear cousin' did not like it, but said stiffly, 'So far as M.
+Greville is concerned, I withdraw them.'
+
+"I bowed and said: 'Permit me, count. These gentlemen, as it seems to
+me, have put you and themselves in the position of challengers, which
+everywhere gives to the challenged party the right to choose his
+weapon. As M. Merton's friends will abide by his decision, your own
+seconds must, I fancy, accept what is or would be usual with us. They
+have no choice except to decline and allow their refusal to be made
+public, as it will be, or to choose one of the three weapons so
+generously offered.'
+
+"The baron glared at me, the colonel was silent, and the count said:
+'M. Greville is correct. I regret to have been the means of putting
+you in a false position. M. Greville has come to explain to me that in
+the darkness of the night, when our vehicles came together and we said
+some angry words, he gave me by mistake the card of M. le Capitaine
+Merton. M. Greville and I--you will pardon me--have amicably arranged
+our little trouble, as I shall tell you more fully.'"
+
+"Oh, joy!" cried Merton; "close of fourth act. Every one on but
+D'Artagnan and the woman. Athos, Porthos, Aramis! What next? Was there
+ever anything more dramatically all that could be desired? What next?"
+
+"The count was very pleasant, and thought only a little explanation
+was required to reconcile his friends and the captain. This by no
+means satisfied Porthos.
+
+"The baron said he would fight with a cannon if necessary, and he
+will. Aramis is degenerate. He observed that it would require
+consideration. Then the count said: 'The captain's ideas are certainly
+somewhat original, and why not leave it to M. Greville and me and such
+others as we may choose?'
+
+"I was well pleased. Whether they were or not, I cannot tell. They
+said, however, a variety of agreeable nothings, and I am to see the
+count to-morrow. He kept Porthos and Aramis and, I suspect, gave the
+two fools a lecture."
+
+"Well, well," said Merton. "When I left the regiment I thought I was
+out of the world of adventure."
+
+"Oh, this is comic opera. I do not suppose that you really want to
+fight these idiots."
+
+"No; but I will, if they desire to be thus amused. Otherwise there
+will have to be some word-eating. I was not bluffing."
+
+"Porthos will stick it out. You won't be too stiff-necked, I trust."
+
+"Oh, no. I leave myself in your hands--I mean absolutely; and I want
+also to say, Greville, that this queer affair ought to make us
+friends."
+
+"It has," I returned with warmth. "You dine with the minister next
+week, I believe."
+
+"Yes, Monday."
+
+We talked for a few minutes of the campaigns at home, and then he
+returned to the subject which just now more immediately interested
+him. "What about that woman? I have an impression that we are not at
+the end, but at the beginning, of an adventure. Are you not curious?"
+
+"Yes, I am, and my curiosity has ripened. There may be some politics
+in the matter, just as you say. If, as is barely possible, it is our
+international affairs that are involved, it is my duty to follow it up
+and to know more. But how to follow it up? In what way an unknown
+American lady can be concerned in them, I am unable to imagine. This,
+however, is, I think, certain, the count did not want to be involved
+in an affair of honor about this lady. We were to be supposed to have
+quarreled over cards. He wanted her to disappear from the scene. But
+why?"
+
+"Well, it is late," said Merton, looking at the clock. "Good night. I
+shall stay at home to-morrow until I hear from you and the count."
+
+I may add that Merton at once accepted the count's explanation and
+called on him. The affair of Baron Porthos and my friend proved more
+difficult. Both declined to apologize. Somehow, it got out at the
+clubs, and Paris was gaily amused over paragraphs about the Wild West
+man who would fight only with the knife-bowie. Merton was furious, and
+I had hard work to keep him within bounds.
+
+Meanwhile the count and another gentleman met me, a friend of mine,
+Lieutenant West, a naval officer, and made vain efforts to bring about
+peace or a duel with swords; at which Merton only laughed, saying that
+when he went "a-cat-fishing, he went a-cat-fishing," a piece of
+national wisdom which I found myself incompetent to make clear to my
+French friends. Aramis was easier to manage than his namesake.
+Meanwhile, our minister was very much troubled over the matter, and
+the count hardly less so. But Porthos was as inexorable as his
+namesake, and Merton merely obstinate. It was what the count described
+as an _impasse_.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+
+At this time the Emperor--for this was in the fall of '62--was busy
+about his Mexican venture, and our legations were disturbed by vague
+rumors of efforts to combine the great powers in an agreement to bring
+about a perilous intervention in our affairs, which at home were going
+badly enough, with one disaster after another. No one at the legation
+knew how deep the Emperor was in the matter, but there was a chill of
+expectation in the air, and yet no distinct evidence of the trouble
+which was brewing.
+
+It was, as I have said, an essential part of my work to frequent the
+best houses and in every way to learn what was the tone of feeling. It
+was, in fact, so hostile that it was now and then hard to avoid
+personal quarrels. In England it was, if possible, worse. Mr.
+Gladstone had spoken in public, and with warm praise of Mr. Jefferson
+Davis and the confederation. Roebuck had described our army as the
+"scum of Europe." We had few important friends in England or France.
+The English premier was, to say the least, unfriendly, and Lord John
+Russell in their Foreign Office was not much better.
+
+Meanwhile I came to know and like the Count le Moyne, who was a warm
+Napoleonist, and whom I had to see often, either on our impossible
+duel or on diplomatic business. During this familiar intercourse, I
+began to notice that he was distracted and, I thought, worried.
+
+When I spoke of it to Merton, he said, "That's the woman." He had no
+reason to think so, but he was one of the rare men whose intuitions
+are apt to be correct. This business of the duel went on for a week.
+
+To go back a little, I should have said that at the end of his two
+days' leave Alphonse appeared and asked for three days more. He had no
+report to make, and went away again.
+
+On the next day but one I was writing letters in my salon, and Merton
+was growling over the unpleasant news our papers were bringing us.
+Suddenly Alphonse appeared. He waited without a word until I said,
+"You have found her."
+
+"Yes; it was all that there is of simple. Monsieur had said she is an
+American--I went to the American church."
+
+Merton looked at me, smiling, as he remarked, "Like all the great
+things, it was simple."
+
+"I saw the lady come out after the morning service. When I began to
+follow her at a distance I saw that she was also followed by one of
+the best men of the police. I know him well. I also perceived that, as
+it seemed to me, the lady was uneasy, and, I think, aware that she
+was watched."
+
+Here Merton stopped him. "You are sure that is the same woman you saw
+in the carriage."
+
+"Monsieur, when once this lady has been seen, she is not to be
+forgotten."
+
+"Ha!" exclaimed the captain; "I told you so, Greville. But go on,
+Alphonse."
+
+"And cut it short," said I, impatient.
+
+Alphonse paused. "Circumstances, monsieur, oblige me to speak in some
+detail. I was two years in the service. Those who watch and follow
+madame are of the best. I know them. Therefore there is something
+serious."
+
+"And her name?" I asked.
+
+"Mme. Bellegarde, Rue de St. Victor, No. 31--a small private hotel. I
+regret not to be able to report more fully, but I am well known as
+monsieur's valet. To appear too curious would be unwise."
+
+I regarded my valet with increasing respect, while Merton ejaculated,
+"Damn such a country!" and I asked:
+
+"Is that all?"
+
+"Yes, monsieur; but circumstances--"
+
+"Oh, that will do," I said. "You may go."
+
+When alone with Merton, he said to me, "You must call on her."
+
+"No," I said; "she is suspected of something and I, at least for a
+time, was taken to be an accomplice. That would never do."
+
+"You are right," returned Merton, thoughtfully; "quite right. You must
+keep quiet. The matter, whatever it may be, is still unsettled; but I
+am resolute to find what this woman has done, and why she is watched
+like a suspected thief. I never was more curious."
+
+For a moment we considered the situation in silence. At last Merton
+said, "If this woman goes out into society, might you not chance to
+meet her?"
+
+"Yes, but I never as yet have done so, and I remember faces well. I
+may meet her any day, or never meet her at all, but any direct
+approach we must give up. The more I think of it, the graver it
+appears. If it be a police affair, no letter reaches her unopened.
+Rest assured of that. She is like a fly in a cobweb. Chance may help
+us, but so far the luck has been against us."
+
+"No," said Merton; "the game is not played out. There is something
+they don't know, and they are, therefore, no better off than we."
+
+With this he went away and Alphonse returned. The man was plainly
+troubled. He said he could do no more, and that when he had made his
+report to the police that day he had been told to keep a closer watch
+on me and my letters. Might he show them a note or two?
+
+I said, laughing: "Yes; there are two replies to invitations and a
+note to my tailor."
+
+That would do, and might he venture to say that monsieur would be well
+advised to keep out of the matter?
+
+I thanked him, and there the thing stood over for several days longer.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+
+Two days later I dined at one of the great Bonapartist houses. I was
+late, and as the guests were about to go to dinner, our hostess said,
+"Let me present you to a fellow countrywoman, M. Greville of the
+American Legation--Mme. Bellegarde." I was so taken aback that I could
+hardly find words to speak to her until we sat down together at
+dinner. She, too, was equally agitated. I talked awhile to my
+left-hand neighbor, but presently her adjoining table companion spoke
+to her and being thus set free, I said to Mme. Bellegarde in English,
+speaking low:
+
+"You are my countrywoman, and are, as I know, in trouble. What is it?
+After we met I learned your name, but I have been prudent enough to
+refrain from calling."
+
+She said: "Yes; you are right. I am in trouble, and of my own making.
+In my distress that awful night I did not want to give my name to a
+stranger, and now to recognize in my companion one of our own legation
+is really a piece of great good fortune. We cannot talk here. I may be
+able to be of service to the legation--to my country, but we dare not
+talk here. What I have to say is long. You must not call on me, but we
+must meet. Come to the masked ball at the palace to-morrow--no, not
+you. Some one who is not of the legation--some one you can trust. It
+is a masquerade as you must know. I shall wear a mask--a black domino
+with a red rose on one sleeve, a white one on the other. Let your
+friend say, 'Lincoln.' I shall answer, 'America.' But do let him be
+careful."
+
+I said, "Yes; I will arrange it."
+
+"Oh, thank you. Talk now of something else."
+
+I said, "Yes, in a moment." It occurred to me that I might use Merton.
+"My friend will be in our army uniform, an entirely unsuspected man.
+How pretty those flowers are!"
+
+I found her charming, a widow, and if I might judge from her jewels,
+one at ease in regard to money. Before we left, after dinner, I had a
+few minutes more of talk with her in the drawing-room. She was free
+from the look of care I had observed when presented.
+
+"Good-by," I said, as we parted, "and be assured that you have
+friends."
+
+"Oh, thank you!" she murmured. "But I am involving others in my
+difficulties. I wish I had never done it. Good night." I went home,
+curious and perplexed.
+
+Early in the morning of the next day I went to the rooms of our first
+secretary. In reply to my request, he said he had two cards for the
+ball at my disposal, and would arrange matters with the master of
+ceremonies. I accepted one card for Merton, and went away well pleased
+and regretful that I found it better, as she had done, to leave this
+singular errand to another.
+
+I made haste to call on Merton, and finding him in, related my
+fortunate meeting with Mme. Bellegarde, and told him what she expected
+us to do. He was much pleased, and I happy in finding for our purpose
+a man whom no one was likely to watch. I urged him, however, to be
+cautious, and went away, arranging that he should call on me after the
+ball, even though his visit might be far on in the night. I was too
+curious and too anxious to wait longer.
+
+It was after three in the morning when he aroused me from the nap into
+which I had fallen.
+
+"By George!" he cried, "she is a delightful and a brave woman. I told
+you so; but, good heavens! she is in a sad scrape."
+
+"Well, what is it? Has she robbed the Bank of France?"
+
+"Worse. I told you it was some diplomatic tangle. I was right. It is a
+big one."
+
+"For Heaven's sake, go on!"
+
+"She is beautiful."
+
+"Of course; I know that. But what happened?"
+
+"I said she was beautiful."
+
+"Yes, twice, and you have never seen her face."
+
+"No, but you told me so. However, I went early and waited about the
+door until she came in. I kept her in sight. It wasn't easy. A
+half-hour later I got my chance. She had been left by her last partner
+near a small picture-gallery, and was chatting with an old lady. I
+said, 'It is my dance, I believe.' She rose at once. As we moved away
+I whispered, 'Lincoln,' and on her replying, 'America,' she guided me
+through the gallery and at last into a small conservatory and behind
+some orange-trees. No one was near. 'One moment,' she said; 'even here
+I am not free.' I saw no evidence of her being watched, but she was, I
+fancied, in an agony of apprehension. As I mentioned my name and tried
+to reassure her, she let fall her black domino saying, 'Quick, push it
+under that sofa!' She wore beneath it a pearl-colored silk domino,
+and, of course, was still masked."
+
+"By George!" said I, "a woman of resources. How clever that was!"
+
+Merton went on: "Then we sat down, I saying: 'Be cool, and don't
+hurry. You are entirely secure.' She did go on, and what a story! She
+said:
+
+"'On the night before I involved Mr Greville in trouble, I went to an
+evening party at Count le Moyne's. I was never there before, or only
+to call on the countess, and at that time talked a few minutes with
+the count. They have been here hardly more than a month. When I
+arrived there was a great crush in the hall and on the stair. As I
+waited to get rid of my wraps the count came through the crowd and
+passed me. He had, I suppose, been belated at the Foreign Office. He
+seemed to be in haste and went behind a screen and into a room on the
+side of the hall. A little later the music up-stairs ceased. I heard
+cries of fire. People rushed down the stairway screaming. There was a
+jam in the hall and a terrible crush at the outer doors. A curtain had
+been blown across a console and taken fire; that was all, but the
+alarm and confusion were dreadful. Women fainted. One or two men made
+brutal efforts to escape. I have a temperament which leaves me pretty
+cool in real danger. There was none but what the terror of these
+people created. I was hustled about and, with others, driven against
+the Chinese screen which covered the doorway of the count's office. I
+said he had entered it--yes, I told you that. As the alarm grew, it
+must have reached him, for he came out and had to use violence to push
+the screen away so as to let him pass. The tumult was at its height as
+he went by me crying, '_Mon Dieu!_' He ran along a back passageway and
+disappeared. There were other women near, but I was so placed as to be
+able to slip behind the screen he had pushed away. I am afraid that he
+recognized me. As I thus took refuge in the doorway the screen was
+crushed against it, and I was caught. Of course I was excited, but I
+was cool compared with the people outside. I tried the door behind me
+and felt it open. Then I saw that I was in the count's private office.
+On the table a lamp was burning. As I was crossing the room to try a
+side-door entrance into the garden, I caught sight of a large paper
+envelop on the table. I could not help seeing the largely written
+inscription. I paused. In an instant I realized that I was in an
+enemy's country and had a quick sense of anger as I read: "_Foreign
+Office. Confidential. Recognition of the Confederate States. Note
+remarks by his Majesty the Emperor. Make full digest at once. Haste
+required! Drouyn de Lhuys._" I stood still. For a moment, believe me,
+I forgot the fire--everything. I suppose the devil was at my side.'
+
+"'A good devil,' said I.
+
+"She said: 'Oh, please not to laugh. It was terrible. If you had lived
+in France these two years you would know. I have been all summer in
+the utmost distress about my country. I have been insulted and mocked
+because of our failures. Women can be very cruel. The desirability of
+France and England acknowledging the Confederacy was almost daily
+matter of talk among the people I met. Here before me, in my power,
+was information sure to be valuable to our legation--to my country. I
+little dreamed of its importance. I did not reflect. I acted on
+impulse. I seized the big envelop and drew my cloak around me. The
+package was bulky and heavy.'"
+
+"Good heavens! Merton," said I, "She stole it!"
+
+"Stole it! Nonsense! It was war--glorious."
+
+I shook my head in disapproval, and had at once a vast longing to see
+our worried and anxious envoys profit by the beautiful thief's
+outrageous robbery.
+
+Merton continued: "I will go on to state it as well as I can in her
+own words. She said: 'I stood a moment in doubt, but the noise in the
+hall increased. The screen was driven in fragments against the door. I
+might be caught at any moment. That would mean ruin. I tried the side
+door. It was not locked, and in a moment I found myself outside, in
+the garden. I went around to the front of the house, and in a minute
+or two secured a cabriolet and was driven home. Then my worst troubles
+began. I had acted on impulse. It was wrong. I was a thief. Was it not
+wrong? Oh, I know it was wicked! To think, sir, that I should have
+done such a thing!'
+
+"When she spoke out in this way," said Merton, "I saw that if we were
+to help her, it was essential that we should know whether she was
+becoming irresolute. To test her I said: 'But, madame, you could have
+given it back to the count next day. You may be sure he would never
+have told; and now, poor man, he is in a terrible scrape, and that
+unlucky Foreign Office! It is not yet too late. Why not return the
+papers?'
+
+"For a moment I felt ashamed, because even before I made this effort
+to see if it was worth while to take the grave risks which I saw
+before us, I knew that she was sobbing."
+
+"It was worth while. But what," I asked, "did she say?" If Merton had
+said that she was weakening, I should have felt some relief and more
+disappointment.
+
+He asked in turn, "What do you think she said?"
+
+For my part, I could only reply that it was a question of character,
+but that while she might feel regret and express her penitence in
+words, a woman who had done what she had done would never express it
+in acts.
+
+Merton said, "Thank you," which seemed to me a rather odd reply. He
+rose as he spoke and for a moment walked about in silence, and then
+said: "By George! Greville, I felt as if I had insulted her. You think
+I was right--it is quite a relief." He spoke with an amount of emotion
+which appeared to me uncalled for.
+
+"Yes, of course you were right; but what did she say?"
+
+"'Say?' She said: 'I am not a child, sir. I did what I know to be
+wrong. I did it for no personal advantage. I am punished when I think
+of myself as a thief. I have already suffered otherwise. I do not
+care. I did it for my country, as--as you kill men for it. I shall
+abide by what I did and may God forgive me! But if you are ashamed--if
+you are shocked--if you think--oh, if you fear to assist me, you will
+at least consider what I have said as a confidence.' She stood up as
+she answered me, and spoke out with entire absence of care about being
+overheard. Ah, but I wanted to see that masked face! I said twice as
+she spoke: 'Be careful. You mistake me.' She took not the least notice
+of my caution. Then at last I said: 'Pray sit down. It was--it is
+clear, madame, that all concerned or who may concern themselves, with
+this matter must feel absolute security that there will be no weakness
+anywhere. After what you have said, and with entire trust in you, we
+shall at all risks see this thing through.' She said, 'Thank you,'
+and did sit down.
+
+"Then I went on: 'I want to ask you a question or two. Did the count
+recognize you?'
+
+"'I was not sure at the time, but he must have at least suspected me,
+for he called next day at an unusually early hour, insisted on seeing
+me, and frankly told me that on the night before, during the fire, a
+document had been stolen from his table. He had remembered me as near
+to the office. Did I know anything about it? I said, "How could I?" I
+was dreadfully scared, but I replied that I had certainly gone through
+his office and had left both doors open. Then he said, "It is too
+grave a matter for equivocation, and I ask, Did you take it?" I said I
+was insulted, and upon this he lost his temper and threatened all
+manner of consequences.'
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+
+"To cut it short, Greville, she refused to be questioned, and, I
+fancy, lied rather more plainly than she was willing to admit to me.
+He went away furious and reasonably sure, or so I think, that she had
+the papers."
+
+"I see," said I. "He had been careless. Of course, he hesitated for a
+day or two to confess his loss. But what about those papers? Where are
+they? She ought to have taken them at once to the legation."
+
+"Yes, but that is easily explained. The count called early, and after
+that she felt sure that she would be promptly arrested. He was too
+ashamed to go at once to any such length. He must be an indecisive
+man. At all events, he took no positive action until after our
+encounter and her escape, when he became still more sure where she
+was going and why. You see, he lacked the good sense to confess
+instantly to the head of his office. Arrest would have been
+instantaneous. He waited, ashamed to confess, and I presume did not
+fully inform the police he called in. Now, I suppose, he has had to
+confess his loss to his superiors."
+
+"But these papers?" said I.
+
+"Well, don't hurry me. When she got home that night and read the
+papers she had--well, taken, she saw their enormous value to our
+government. Their importance increased her alarm, and the count's
+visit added to her sense of need to conceal somewhere the proofs of
+her guilt. After her first fatal delay of the next morning, she was
+afraid to carry the papers to the legation. She could trust no one.
+She believed the Emperor's minister would act at once. She knew that,
+soon or late, her town house would be searched. To keep the papers
+about her would not do. She must hide them at once, and then we must
+hear of them; and no letters would serve her purpose. She was
+panic-stricken. I fancy the count, having been careless, was as
+anxious, but told no one that day. This gave her a chance until luck
+played her a trick. The count's interview in the morning, while it
+frightened her, had not helped him. The next day his superiors would
+have to be told, and I have no doubt have been.
+
+"Then, as you know, it came his turn to have a bit of good fortune.
+Walking in haste to escape a ducking, he must have turned into the Rue
+du Roi de Rome to get a cab, and was just in time to see her enter
+your carriage. Very likely he did not see you at all. Indeed, we may
+be sure that he did not. When, too, the count saw that, in place of
+turning homeward, she was being driven toward the Bois, his suspicions
+were at once aroused. I ought to say that, to avoid using her own
+carriage, she had set out to walk. She was not yet watched, though she
+may have thought she was, and her plan was a good one. Curious and
+troubled, he caught a cabriolet and followed, as was natural enough.
+
+"The direction of your flight through the Bois confirmed his
+suspicions. He may have guessed, and he was right, that she was about
+to go to her well-known little country house and meant to hide the
+papers. I am trying to follow what must have been his course of
+thought and would have been mine. He would catch her and get them,
+even at the cost of arresting her. So far this is in part her account
+and in part my inferences. As we talked thus at length, she was again
+indescribably uneasy and took every one who passed for a spy."
+
+"Well," said I, "I do not wonder. The court is cool to us. Something
+hostile to our country is going on between France and England. The
+English abuse is exhausting their adjectives. If they propose
+intervention in any shape, Mr. Adams has instructions of which every
+American should be proud."
+
+"Good!" cried Merton. "We have not put forth our power, and people
+over here do not dream of the way in which we could and would rise to
+meet new foes. But here is our own little battle. I have yet to tell
+you what she did and my further reflections. After you got her away
+from the count, and Alphonse guided her, she walked through the rain
+in the darkness to her small chalet beyond the Bois."
+
+"But," said I, "why did not the count follow and get there, as he
+could have done, before her?"
+
+"I do not know. He was, you said, a bit dazed and his head cut.
+Probably he felt it to be needful to secure aid from the police, as he
+did later."
+
+"Yes, that must have been the case."
+
+"Her old American nurse has charge of the chalet. At times madame
+spends a few days there. She explained her condition as the result of
+a carriage accident, and, I fancy, must have taken her nurse into her
+confidence. She did not tell me. A fire was made in her boudoir, and,
+with some change of dress, she sat down to think. She knew that, soon
+or late, the count must confess his loss, and then that the whole
+police force of Paris would concentrate its skill first on preventing
+her from using the papers, and finally on securing them. They would at
+once suspect that she had made her singular dash for the chalet to
+conceal the papers, as the count must have inferred. She was one woman
+against the power, intelligence, and limitless resources of an army.
+If the count acted with reasonable promptness, the time left her to
+hide the papers was likely to be short.
+
+"She had adopted and dropped one plan after another as she walked
+through the night. Then, as she sat in despair, she had an
+inspiration. The fireplace was kept, after the common American way,
+full of unremoved wood ashes. It suggested a resource. To lessen the
+size of the package she hastily removed the many envelops of the
+contained papers and also the thick double outside cover. Then she
+tied them together, raked away the newly made fire, and setting the
+lessened package on the hearth, far back, piled the cold ashes over
+it. It was safe from combustion. Finally, she replaced the cinders and
+set on top some burning twigs and a small log or two. The fire was
+soon burning brightly. For a few minutes she sat thinking that she
+must burn the envelops. It was now late. The gate-bell rang. Three
+hours had gone by since she left the count. In great haste she tore up
+the thick outside envelops and other covers and hastily scattered
+them on the flames. She did succeed in burning the larger part of the
+covers, and only by accident, or rather by reason of her haste, was,
+as I shall tell you, lucky enough to leave unburned a bit of the outer
+cover. However, she piled on more twigs, and had settled herself by
+the fire when her nurse entered in company with a man in civilian
+dress and two of the police. They used little ceremony and said simply
+that she was believed to have certain papers. Best to give them up and
+save trouble. Of course, she denied the charge and was indignant. Then
+they made a very complete search, after which two of them remained
+with her, and the other, leaving, came back in an hour with a woman
+who went with her to her room and there made a very rigorous personal
+search of her own and her nurse's garments. She, of course, protested
+vigorously. At last, returning to her boudoir, she found the man in
+civilian dress kneeling beside the fire. She was in an agony of
+alarm. The man had gathered the fragments of half-burned paper, and
+when she entered was staring at the unconsumed corner of the outer
+official envelop. Without a word, he raked away the fire and a part of
+the ashes, but seeing there no evidence of interest, contented himself
+with what proof he had of the destruction of the documents he sought.
+The appearance of much burned paper and the brightly blazing fire, I
+suppose, helped to confirm his belief. To her angry protests he
+replied civilly that it was a matter for his superiors. Finally, an
+officer was left in charge, but she was allowed to send for a carriage
+and to return home. It is clear that they are not satisfied, and the
+house has been watched ever since. Of course, the man who found the
+charred fragments of the official envelop concluded that she had
+burned the contents. But some one else who knows their value will
+doubt."
+
+"I suppose so. They were less clever than usual."
+
+"No; her haste saved her. The unburned corner of the envelop fooled
+the man. How could he dream that under a hot fire, cool and safe, were
+papers worth a fortune?"
+
+"Certainly this time the luck is hers," said I; "but this will not
+satisfy them."
+
+"No. More than once since they have been over the house and garden and
+utterly devastated it, so says her nurse. They searched a tool-house
+and a small conservatory. Madame Bellegarde has been cool enough to go
+there for flowers, but is in the utmost apprehension. And now ten days
+have passed."
+
+"Is that all?"
+
+"No. She has been questioned pretty brutally over and over, but as yet
+they have not searched her town house. They are sure that the papers
+are in the villa."
+
+"Well, what next?" I asked.
+
+"She says we must get those papers. That is our business."
+
+"It will be difficult," I returned; "and there should be no delay. It
+must be done, and done soon. You or I would have found her cache."
+
+"No, I should not; but if those people are still in doubt, as seems to
+be the case, and decide that no one but a fool would have burned the
+documents, some fellow with a little more imaginative capacity to put
+himself in her place will find them.
+
+"By the way," added Merton, "she described the house to me. Now let us
+think it over. I shall be here at nine to-morrow morning. When I
+return, you will give me your own thoughts about it. Given a house
+already watched day and night, how to get a paper out of it? No one
+will be allowed to leave it without being overhauled. The old nurse,
+you may be sure, will be searched and followed, even when she goes to
+market. To communicate with madame would not be easy, and would give
+us no further help and only hurt her. It is so grave a matter that the
+police, after another search, will arrest Mme. Bellegarde secretly
+and, if possible, scare her into confession. We have no time to lose.
+It must be done, too, in some simple way. For her sake we must avoid
+violence, and whatever is done must be done by us."
+
+"But, Merton, how can we get into the house, even if we enter the
+garden unseen?"
+
+"Oh, I forgot to say that she has said she would contrive to tell her
+nurse to leave the conservatory unlocked, and also the door between it
+and the house. I told you she has been there twice. On each occasion
+she was watched, but was allowed to enter and pick flowers. She feels
+sure of being able to warn the nurse. We must give her a day. But why
+do they not arrest her? That would have been my first move."
+
+I replied: "Her late husband's people are Bonapartists and very
+influential. It would have to be explained, and the situation is an
+awkward one. The mere destruction of the papers is not what they most
+desire; neither do they want the loss known, and very likely they
+desire to conceal it as long as possible from the Emperor. I have been
+unable to think of any plan. Has the night left you any wiser?"
+
+"I? Yes, indeed. I have a plan--a good one and simple. When I was a
+boy and coveted apples, one fellow got over the fence and attracted
+the attention of the farmer, while the other secured apples in a far
+corner of the orchard. Don't you see?"
+
+"No, I do not."
+
+"Well, it is simple. Just see how easy it is. We attract the attention
+of the guards, and then one of us goes into the house."
+
+"But," said I, "if he meets there a resolute guard."
+
+"And if," said Merton, "the guard is met by a more resolute man, let
+us say, with a revolver."
+
+"Merton, it is a thing to be done without violence."
+
+"Or not at all?" queried Merton, with what I may call an examining
+glance.
+
+"No, I did not say that."
+
+The captain, I suppose, understood my state of mind, for he said: "I
+feel as you do. You are quite right; but if it becomes needful to use
+positive means,--I say positive means to get these papers,--then--" I
+shook my head and he went on, "You may rest assured that I shall use
+no violence unless I am obliged to do so."
+
+"You will have no chance," said I, "because I, as a member of the
+legation, must be the one to enter the house. No one else should. You
+may readily see why."
+
+Merton was disappointed, and in fact said so, while admitting that I
+was in the right. He looked grave as he added: "We are playing a
+game, you and I, in which, quite possibly, the fate of our country is
+involved, and, also, the character and fate of a woman. If we win, no
+one can convict her of having taken these papers. On their side there
+will be no hesitation. There should be none on ours."
+
+I said nothing to relieve his evident doubt as to the spirit with
+which I had undertaken a perilous venture. I, on my part, simply
+insisted that the larger risk must be mine. He finally assented with a
+laugh, saying he was sorry to miss the fun of it. After some careful
+consideration of his plan and of our respective shares in carrying it
+out, he went away, leaving me to my reflections. They would, I
+presume, have amused and surprised the man who had just left me. I had
+led a quiet, studious life, and never once had I been where it was
+requisite to face great danger or possible death. I had often wondered
+whether I possessed the form of courage which makes certain men more
+competent, the greater the peril. As I sat I confessed to myself an
+entire absence of the joy in risks with which Merton faced our
+venture, but at the same time I knew that I was not sorry for a chance
+to satisfy myself in regard to an untested side of my own character. I
+knew, too, that I should be afraid, but would that lessen my
+competence? I had a keen interest in the matter, and was well aware
+that there was very real danger and possible disgrace if we were
+caught in a position which we could not afford to explain.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+
+On the following morning I was at breakfast, when Alphonse said to me:
+"I made last night sir, pretense of following monsieur, and discovered
+that another man was doing the same thing. Circumstances permitted me
+to observe that he was stupid, but monsieur will perceive that either
+I am mistrusted by the police, or that the affair of madame is growing
+more difficult and has so far baffled the detectives. The count must
+have mentioned your name to them." There he paused and busied himself
+with the coffee-urn, and, for my part, I sat still, wondering whether
+I had not better be more entirely frank with this unusual valet. He
+knew enough to be very dangerous, and now stood at ease, evidently
+expecting some comment on my part. I had asked Merton to breakfast,
+and a half-hour later he came in, apologizing and laughing.
+
+"Well," he said, "I am late. I had Lieutenant West to see me, and, to
+my grief, Aramis is out of it and has explained, and so on; but
+Porthos is inexorable. I said at last I was so tired of them all that
+I should accept rapiers if the big man would give me time. The fact
+is, we must first dispose of this other business. A wound, or what
+not, might cripple me. I am not a bad hand with the sword, and I take
+lessons twice a day. But now about the other affair. This duel is a
+trifle to it."
+
+Alphonse had meanwhile gone, at a word from me, and I was free to open
+my mind to Merton. He did not hesitate a moment. "Call him back," he
+said, "and let me talk to him."
+
+Alphonse reappeared.
+
+"I gave you three hundred francs," said Merton.
+
+"Yes, monsieur."
+
+"Where is it?"
+
+"My mother has it."
+
+"Very good. Are you for the emperor?"
+
+The man's face changed. "M. le Capitaine knows that a man must live. I
+was of the police, but my father was shot in the coup d'etat. I am a
+republican."
+
+"If so," said Merton, "for what amount would you sell your republican
+body and soul?"
+
+"As to my body, monsieur, that is for sale cheap."
+
+"And souls are not dear in France," said Merton.
+
+"Yes, monsieur; but the price varies."
+
+"What would you say to--well, a thousand francs down and a thousand in
+three months?"
+
+"If monsieur would explain."
+
+I did not dislike his caution, but I still had a residue of doubt as
+to the man who was serving two masters. Merton had none. He went on:
+
+"We mean to be plain with you. We are caught in the net of a big and
+dangerous business."
+
+"I had thought as much," said Alphonse. "Would M. le Capitaine
+explain? No doubt there are circumstances--"
+
+"Precisely. A woman has done what makes it necessary for us to recover
+a certain document despite the police and the government. Understand
+that if we succeed you get two thousand francs and run meanwhile risks
+of a very serious nature."
+
+"And my master?"
+
+"Oh, he may lose his position. You and I and madame may be worse off."
+
+"As to my position," I said, "leave me out of the question. We shall
+all take risks."
+
+"Then I accept," said Alphonse. "Monsieur has been most kind to my
+mother, and circumstances have always attracted me--monsieur will
+understand. What am I to do?"
+
+"You are to examine the outside of Madame Bellegarde's villa by day
+and at night--to-night--and report to us to-morrow morning. I have a
+scheme for entering it and securing the document we want, but of that
+we will speak when we hear your report. I have already ridden around
+the place. I am trusting you entirely."
+
+"No, monsieur, not quite entirely," said Alphonse, smiling.
+
+Merton understood this queer fellow as I did not, for, as I sat
+wondering what he meant, my friend said quietly: "No we have not told
+you where the papers are concealed nor what they are. And you want to
+know?"
+
+A sudden panic seemed to fall on the valet. He winked rapidly, looked
+to right and left, and then cried in a decisive way, with open hands
+upraised as if to push away something: "No, monsieur, no.
+Circumstances make it not to be desired."
+
+From that moment I trusted the man. "Is that all, monsieur?" he said.
+
+"No. I do not want you to act without knowing that we, all of us, are
+about to undertake what is against the law and may bring death or, to
+you at least, the galleys."
+
+"I accept." He said it very quietly. "What other directions has
+monsieur, or am I merely to report about the house and the guards? It
+is easy."
+
+"Yes, that is all at present. The danger comes later. Let us hear at
+nine to-morrow morning."
+
+His report at that time was clear and not very reassuring. There were
+guards at or near the gateway. At night a patrol moved at times around
+the outside. He saw a man enter the garden and remain within. He could
+not say whether there was another one in the house. It was likely.
+Madame Bellegarde had driven to the villa. She had been allowed to
+enter, and came out with a basket of flowers. As no one went in with
+her, it was pretty sure that they trusted some one within to watch
+her.
+
+Merton said: "And now, Alphonse, have you any plan, any means by which
+we can enter that house at night and get away safe without violent
+methods?"
+
+"If there was no one within."
+
+"But we do not know, and that we must risk."
+
+"It would be necessary," said Alphonse, "to get the police away from
+the gate for a time, and, if I am not mistaken, their orders will be
+capture, dead or alive. They believe your papers are still hidden in
+that house and that an effort may be made to secure them. You observe,
+monsieur, that all this care would never be taken in an ordinary case.
+If monsieur proposes to enter the house and take away certain papers,
+the guard may resist, and in that case--"
+
+"In that case," laughed Merton, "circumstances--"
+
+"Monsieur does not desire me to enter the house."
+
+I said promptly that we did not. Alphonse seemed relieved, and Merton
+went on to state with care his own plan. Alphonse listened with the
+joy of an expert, adding suggestions and twice making very good
+comments on our arrangements. It would be necessary he thought, to
+wait for a stormy night, but already it was overclouded.
+
+Alphonse went away to see his mother and to make his own preparations
+for the share assigned to him in an adventure to which I looked
+forward with keen interest and with small satisfaction.
+
+Not so Merton. When the valet left us, the captain said: "We are
+utterly in the hands of that man."
+
+"Yes," I returned thoughtfully.
+
+"If he knew," said Merton, "he might--"
+
+"No. That he did not want to know what these papers are was an
+expression of his own doubt concerning the extent to which he might
+trust himself. I think we must trust him."
+
+"Yes," returned the captain. "Whether or not we have been wise to use
+him, I rather doubted, but now I do not. The limitations of the moral
+code of a man like Alphonse are strange enough. It is hard to guess
+beforehand what he will do and what he will not. However, we are in
+for it. You have a revolver?"
+
+"No."
+
+"I will lend you mine."
+
+I said I should be glad to borrow it, but I may say that I took care,
+before we set out, to see that the barrels were not loaded. I might
+use it to threaten, but was resolute not to fire on any one, even if
+not to do so involved failure of our purpose. I, too, had my moral
+limitations.
+
+We lost a day, but on the following night there was such a storm as
+satisfied us to the full.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+
+About eight o'clock we drove to a little restaurant in the Bois de
+Boulogne, dined quietly, and about nine set out on foot to walk to the
+villa. There was a brief lull in the storm, but very soon the rain
+fell again heavily, and as, of course, we took no umbrellas, we were
+soon wet to the skin.
+
+Making sure that we were not followed, we approached the garden
+cautiously through the wood, the rain falling in torrents. At the edge
+of the forest, near a well known fountain, beyond the house, we met by
+appointment my man, Alphonse. He was dressed as an old woman and had
+an empty basket on his arm. Together we moved through the wood and
+shrubbery until we were opposite the side of the garden and about a
+hundred feet from where the wall turned at a right angle.
+
+Here, facing an avenue, the wall was broken midway by the arch of the
+entrance gateway. The wind blew toward us, and we could hear now and
+then the sound of voices.
+
+Alphonse said: "Two; there are two at the gate."
+
+"Hush," said I, as a man came around the angle and along the narrow
+way between us and the garden wall.
+
+"Wait, monsieur; he will come again." In some ten minutes he
+reappeared, as before.
+
+"Now," said Merton, and in a pour of wildly driven rain Alphonse
+disappeared. He found his way through the wood and in to the main
+avenue, which in front of the gate turned to the left and passed
+around the farther side of the grounds. Then he walked up to the gate.
+Before long we heard words of complaint. Would the guards tell
+her--This was all gleefully related afterward. She had lost her way.
+Yes, a little glass of absinthe--only one. She was not used to it. And
+she had the money for her market sales, and alas! so she was all wrong
+and must go back. The guards laughed. No doubt it was the absinthe.
+The old woman was reeling now and then. Wouldn't one of them show her
+the way? No. And was it down the avenue? Yes. With this she set off
+unsteadily along the road to the left. They called out that it was the
+wrong way, and then, laughing, dismissed her.
+
+When once around the remote angle of the wall, Alphonse slipped aside
+into the forest, got rid of gown and basket, and moving through the
+wood, took up his station on the side of the main avenue of approach
+to the villa, and out of sight of the guards. Here he waited until a
+few minutes later he was joined by the captain.
+
+Meanwhile I stood in the wood with Merton. I think he enjoyed it. I
+did not. A first attempt at burglary is not in all its aspects heroic,
+and I was wet, chilled, and anxious.
+
+"First actor on," murmured Merton. "Should like to have seen that
+interview. Can't be actor and audience both."
+
+I hazily reflected that for myself I was both, and that the actor had
+just then a sharp fit of stage-scare. I let him run on unanswered,
+while the rain poured down my back.
+
+At last he said: "I think Alphonse has had time enough."
+
+"Hardly," said I. I did not want to talk. I was longing to do
+something--to begin. The punctual guard went by twenty feet away, the
+smoke of his pipe blown toward us.
+
+"I never liked pipe-smoking on the picket-line," said Merton. "You can
+smell it of a damp night at any distance. Remind me to tell you a
+story about it. Heavens!" he cried, as a flash of lightning for an
+instant set everything in noon-day clearness, "I hope we shall not
+have much of that. Keep down, Greville. Ever steal apples? Strike that
+repeater." I did so. "It's a good deal like waiting for the word to
+charge. I remember that once we labeled ourselves for recognition in
+case we did not come out alive. Just after that I fell ill."
+
+"Hush!" I said. "There he is again."
+
+"All right; give him a moment," said Merton, "and now you have a full
+half-hour. Come."
+
+We crossed the narrow road and stood below the garden wall. He gave me
+the aid of his bent knee and then his shoulder, and I was at once
+lying flat on the garden wall. My repeater rang 10:15, and then, as I
+lay, I heard voices. This time there were two men. They paused on the
+road just below me to light cigarettes. One of them consigned the
+weather to a place where it might have proved more agreeable. The
+other said Jean had a pleasanter station in the house. This was not
+very reassuring news, but I was in for it and wildly eager to be
+through with a perilous adventure.
+
+As they disappeared, I dropped from the wall into the garden and fell
+with an alarming crash, rolling over on a pile of flower-pots. There
+was such a clatter as on any quiet night must have been surely heard.
+For a moment I lay still, and then, hearing no signals of alarm, I
+rose and groped along the wall to the door of the conservatory. It was
+not locked. Pausing on the step outside for a moment, I took off my
+shoes and secured them by tying them to a belt I wore for this
+purpose. Then I went in. I found the door of the house ajar, and
+entering, knew that I was in the drawing-room. I moved with care, in
+the gloom, through the furniture, and, aided by a flash of lightning,
+found my way into the hall. Before me, to left, across the hall, was
+a small room. The door was open. I smelled very vile pipe-smoke and
+heard footfalls overhead, but no sound of voices. I became at once
+hopeful that I should have to deal with but one man. I opened
+cautiously a window in the little room and sat down to listen and
+wait. I had been given a half-hour. My repeater at last struck 10:45.
+Meanwhile the clouds broke in places, and there were now gleams of
+unwelcome moonlight and now gusts of wind-driven rain.
+
+I rose and shut to a crack the door of the room and waited. Beyond the
+wall, to my right, I heard of a sudden a wild shriek of "Murder!
+murder! Help! help!" shrill, feminine, convincing. Then came a
+pistol-shot, then another, and in a moment a third more remote, and,
+far away, the cries of men.
+
+My time had come. That the gate guards would make for the direction of
+the sound we had felt sure, but what would happen in regard to the
+house guard was left to chance. At all events, he would be isolated
+for a time. To my relief, the ruse answered. I shut the window
+noiselessly as I heard my host running down the stairway.
+
+He opened the hall door in haste and was dimly seen from my window
+hurrying toward the gate. I rushed into the hall, bolted the hall
+door, and ran up-stairs. The old nurse had been prepared for my coming
+and met me on the first landing.
+
+"Quick," I said. "You expected me. The boudoir." She had her good
+Yankee wits about her, and in a minute I was kneeling, wildly anxious,
+and groping in the ashes. Thrusting the package of paper within my
+shirt-bosom, I ran down-stairs, and as she came after, I cried that I
+had locked the hall door, and to unlock it when I was gone. "Be
+quick," I added, "and lock the conservatory door behind me. No one
+has been seen by you. Go to your own room." Pausing to put on my
+shoes, I fled across the garden, neither hearing nor seeing the guard
+who must have joined his fellows outside.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+
+I had an awful five minutes in my efforts to climb the wall. We had
+forgotten that. For a minute I was in despair, and then I fell over a
+garden chair. I dragged it to the wall and somehow scrambled up, and,
+panting, lay still for a moment, listening. I suppose that, becoming
+suspicious, they had returned, for two of the men passed by below me,
+talking fast, and if they had been less busy over the pistol-shots and
+had merely looked up from a few feet away, I should have been caught.
+I waited, breathing hard. A few minutes passed. They seemed to be
+hours. The noises ceased. I saw dimly through the torrents of rain my
+house guard returning to his post. He went in, and at once I turned
+over, dropped, and in a moment was deep in the wood. I was drenched
+and as tired of a sudden as if I had walked all day. I suppose it was
+due to the intense anxiety and excitement of my adventure. I went on
+for a half-mile, keeping my hand on the package. It was now after
+eleven, and I sat down in the wood and rested for a while. I knew
+Paris well. I had been there two years. I walked on for nearly an
+hour, and then within one of the barriers, remote from the Bois, I
+caught a cab and drove to the Rue Rivoli, where I left the man and
+walked to our legation in the Rue de Presbourg. We kept there a
+night-watchman, and both he and the concierge must have been amazed at
+my appearance. I went up to my own room, had a roaring fire kindled,
+locked the door, found a smoking-jacket, and then, with a glass of
+good rye and a cigar, sat down, feeling a delightful sense of joy and
+security. Next I turned to examine the value of my prize. The ashes
+fell about as I laid the packet on the table.
+
+I was by degrees becoming warm, and although wet, for I had had no
+complete change of garments, I was so elated that I hardly gave a
+thought to my condition. As I sat, the unopened papers before me, I
+began to consider, as others have done, the ethical aspects of the
+matter. A woman had stolen the documents now on the table. To have
+returned them would have convicted her. We were on the verge of war
+with two great nations. One of them had us in a net of spies. War,
+which changes all moral obligations, was almost on us. I would leave
+it to my chief. No more scrupulous gentleman was ever known to me. I
+undid the knotted ribbon with which Madame Bellegarde had hastily tied
+the papers together and turned to consider them.
+
+My own doubts did, I fear, weaken as, turning over the documents, I
+saw revealed the secrets of my country's enemies. In the crisis we
+were facing they were of inestimable value. Some of the papers were
+original letters; others were copies of letters from the French
+embassy in London. Among them was a draft of a letter of Drouyn de
+Lhuys, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and on this and on others
+were sharp comments in the emperor's well-known hand, giving reasons
+for acknowledging the Confederacy without delay. There were even hints
+at intervention by the European powers as desirable. I sat amazed as
+at last I tied up the papers, and placing them again within my
+waistcoat, lay down on a lounge before the fire to rest, for sleep was
+not for me. I lay quiet, thinking of what had become of Merton and
+Alphonse, and wondering at the amazing good fortune of my first
+attempt at burglary.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+
+At seven in the morning I sent a guarded note to our chief, and at
+eight he appeared. I need not dwell upon his surprise as he listened
+to the full relation of my encounter with Le Moyne, about which and
+our subsequent difficulty he already knew something. When I quietly
+told him the rest of the story and, untying the ribbon, laid the dusty
+package on the table, he became grave. He very evidently did not
+approve of our method of securing the papers, but whatever he may
+have felt as to the right or wrong of what we had done was lost in
+astonishment as he saw before him the terribly plain revelation
+of all we had been so long dreading. Here was the hatching of an
+international conspiracy. As he sat, his kindly face grew stern while
+I translated to him the emperor's comments.
+
+"It is evident," he said, "that a resume of certain of these papers
+should go to Berlin and Russia in cipher, but this may wait. The
+originals must as soon as possible reach our minister in London."
+
+While Mr. Dayton considered the several questions involved, the first
+secretary, who had been sent for, arrived. The minister at once set
+before him the startling character of the papers on the table, and my
+story was briefly retold. Upon this there was a long consultation
+concerning the imminence of the crisis they suggested, and in regard
+to the necessity of the originals being placed as soon as possible in
+the hands of Mr. Adams, our able representative at the court of St.
+James. No one for a moment seemed to consider the documents as other
+than a lawful prize. We could not burn them. To admit of our having
+them was to convict Madame Bellegarde; and not to use them was almost
+treason to our country. So much I gathered from the rapid interchange
+of opinions. When the method of sending them to Mr. Adams came before
+us, the first secretary said shrewdly enough:
+
+"If they were sure these papers were in the villa,--and they were, I
+fancy,--I wonder they did not accidentally burn the house."
+
+"That would have been simple and complete," said the chief, smiling,
+"but there are original letters here which it was very desirable to
+keep, and I presume them to have felt sure soon or late of recovering
+them."
+
+"Yes," said the first secretary, "that is no doubt true. Now the whole
+affair is changed. I am certain that the house will have been searched
+and the scattered ashes seen. They will then feel sure that we have
+the papers."
+
+I had to confess that, in my haste, I had taken no pains about
+restoring the ashes. My footprints in the garden soil and my want of
+care would help to make plain that the papers had been removed, and
+any clever detective would then infer what had been the purpose of the
+pistol-shots. I had been stupid and had to agree with the secretary
+that they would now know they had been tricked and see that the game
+so far had been lost. The legation and all of us would be still more
+closely watched, and I, for one, was also sure that the messenger to
+England would never see London with the papers still in his
+possession.
+
+Meanwhile, as the secretary and our chief discussed the question, my
+mind was on Merton. About ten, to my relief, he sent in his card. He
+entered smiling.
+
+"Good morning, Mr. Dayton. All right, Greville?"
+
+I said: "Yes, the papers are here. These gentlemen all know. Had you
+any trouble?"
+
+"A little. When I fired shot after shot in the air and our man was
+screaming murder, they all ran toward us like ducks to a decoy. I ran,
+too, and Alphonse. As I crossed a road, I came upon a big gendarme. I
+am afraid I hurt him. Oh, not much. After that I had no difficulty.
+And now perhaps I am in the way." He rose as he spoke.
+
+The minister said: "No. Sit down, captain."
+
+He resumed his seat, and sat a quiet listener to our statement of
+difficulties. At last he said: "Will you pardon me if I make a
+suggestion?"
+
+"By all means," said the chief. "It is almost as much your concern as
+ours."
+
+"I suppose," said Merton, "the despatches to Berlin and St. Petersburg
+may go in cipher by trusty messengers or any chance tourist, and that
+there is no need for haste."
+
+"Yes, that is true."
+
+There was a moment's pause in this interesting consultation, the
+captain evidently waiting to be again invited to state his opinion. At
+last our chief said: "You have never seen these papers?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Then I had better make clear to you, in strict confidence, that they
+reveal to us urgent pressure on the part of the emperor to induce
+England to intervene with France in our sad war. The English cabinet,
+most fortunately, is not unanimously hostile, and Lord John Russell is
+hesitating. Our friends are the queen and the great middle class of
+dissenters, and, strange to say, the Lancashire operatives. The
+aristocracy, the church, finance, and literature are all our enemies,
+and at home, you know, things are not altogether as one could wish.
+Just now no general, no, not the President, is of such moment to us
+as our minister in London. He has looked to us for information. We
+could only send back mere echoes of his own fears. And now"--he struck
+the pile of papers with his hand--"here is the whole story. Mr. Adams
+must have these without delay. I should like to see his interview with
+Lord John. You seemed to me to have in mind something further to say.
+I interrupted only to let you feel the momentous character of this
+revelation."
+
+"As I understand it," replied Merton, "you assume that the Foreign
+Office here will be sure these papers are in your hands."
+
+"We may take that for granted. They are not stupid, and the matter as
+it stands is for them, to say the least, awkward."
+
+"Yes, sir, and they will know what a man of sense should do with these
+papers and do at once. I may assume, then, that the whole resources
+of the imperial police will be used, and without scruple, to prevent
+them from leaving Paris or reaching London."
+
+"Yes," said the chief, "of that we may be certain."
+
+"And if now," said Merton, "some one of note, or two persons, go with
+them to London, there is a fair probability of the man or the papers
+being--we may say--mislaid, on the way."
+
+"It is possible," said the minister, "quite possible."
+
+"I think, sir," said I, "that is probable, oh, quite certain, and we
+cannot accept the least risk of their being lost. No copies will
+answer."
+
+"No. As you all are aware--as we all know, Captain Merton, affairs are
+at a crisis. The evidence must be complete, past doubt or dispute,
+such as to enable Mr. Adams to speak decisively--and he will."
+
+"May I, sir," said Merton, "venture to further suggest that some one,
+say the first secretary, take a dummy envelop marked 'Important and
+confidential,' addressed to Mr. Adams, and be not too careful of it
+while he crosses the Channel?"
+
+"Well," said the minister, smiling, "what next?"
+
+"He will be robbed on the way, or something will happen. It will never
+get there."
+
+"No. They will stop at nothing," said I.
+
+"I ought to tell you," said the minister, "that now Madame Bellegarde
+is sure to be arrested" (as in fact did occur). "She will be subject
+to one of those cruel cross-examinations which are so certain to break
+down a witness. If this should happen before we can act, they will be
+so secure of what we shall do that--"
+
+Merton interrupted him. "Excuse me. She will never speak. They will
+get nothing from her. That is an exceptional woman." The minister cast
+a half-smiling glance at him. He was deeply distressed, as I saw, and
+added: "You will, I trust, sir, stand by her. They can prove nothing,
+and she will hold her tongue and resolutely."
+
+"I will do all in my power; rest assured of that. But what next? The
+papers! Mr. Adams!" He was anxious.
+
+"Might I again venture?"
+
+"Pray do."
+
+"I have or can have an errand in Belgium. Give me the papers. They
+will reach their destination if I am alive, and, so far, I at least
+must be entirely unsuspected. My obvious reason for going will leak
+out and be such as to safeguard my real reason."
+
+"May I ask why you go to Belgium?"
+
+"Yes, I want it known. I have arranged to satisfy a gentleman named
+Porthos, who thinks himself injured."
+
+"Porthos!" exclaimed the minister. "Why, that is a character in one of
+Dumas's novels."
+
+"Yes, I beg pardon; we call him Porthos. Mr. Greville will explain
+later. He is the Baron la Garde. An absurd affair."
+
+"I deeply regret it," said the minister. "I hoped it was settled. But
+you may be hurt, and, pardon me, killed."
+
+"In that case my second, Lieutenant West of our navy, will have the
+papers and carry them to London. Count le Moyne is one of the baron's
+seconds. He will hardly dream that he is an escort of the papers he
+lost. But, sir, one word more. Madame Bellegarde is an American. You
+will not desert her?"
+
+"Not I. Rest easy as to that. We owe her too much."
+
+"Then I am at your service."
+
+"I regret, deeply regret this duel," said our chief, "but it does seem
+to me, if it must take place, a sure means of effecting our purpose."
+As he spoke, the secretary gathered up the various papers.
+
+"I think, sir," said Merton, "it will be well if one, or, better, two
+responsible people remain here overnight." This seemed to us a proper
+precaution.
+
+As we had talked I saw Merton playing with the dusty blue ribbon
+which, when he entered, lay beside the papers. As we rose I missed it,
+and knew that he had put it in his pocket. After we had arranged for
+our passports I left with Merton. As we walked away he said:
+
+"I propose that you say at once to the baron's friends that we will
+leave for Belgium to-morrow. It is not unusual, and I have a right to
+choose. You must insist. Porthos is wild for a fight, and--confound
+it, don't look so anxious. This affair has hurried things a little; I
+wanted more practice. I should be a fool to say I am a match for
+Porthos, but he is very big. If I can tire him, or get a scratch such
+as stops these affairs--somehow it will come to an end, and, at all
+events, how better could I risk my life for my country? It must be
+lightly talked about in the clubs to-night." West and I took care that
+it was.
+
+The next day early we were at the legation. The first secretary was
+preparing the dummy. "Pity," said Merton, "to leave the enclosure a
+blank." The secretary laughed and wrote on the inside cover:
+
+     Trust you will find this interesting,
+
+                         Yours,
+
+                              _Uncle Sam._
+
+We went out, Merton and I looking at our passports and talking loudly.
+At ten that morning the first secretary and an attache started for
+London. To anticipate, he was jostled by two men on the Dover pier
+that afternoon, and until a few minutes later did not detect his loss
+of the papers. It was cleverly done. Of course he made a complaint and
+the police proved useless.
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+
+The duel had been duly discussed at the clubs, and it is probable that
+no one suspected Merton of any other purpose. The baron was eager and
+Belgium a common resort for duels. On the same day after the
+secretary's departure for London, Merton took the train for Brussels
+with Lieutenant West, the baron and his friends, Count le Moyne and
+the colonel. The captain had the papers fastened under his shirt, and,
+as I learned later, was well armed. Not the least suspicion was
+entertained in regard to our double errand, and, as I had talked
+freely of being one of the seconds, I was able to follow them, as far
+as I could see, unwatched, except by Alphonse, who promptly reported
+me to his other employers as having gone to Belgium as one of
+Merton's friends.
+
+In the evening we met Le Moyne and the little colonel at the
+small town of Meule, just over the border, and settled the usual
+preliminaries. The next day at 7 A.M. we met on an open grassy space
+within a wood. The lieutenant had the precious papers. We stepped
+aside. The word was given and the blades met. Merton surprised me. It
+is needless to enter into details. He was clearly no match for
+Porthos, but his wonderful agility and watchful blue eyes served him
+well. Then, of a sudden, there was a quicker contest. The baron's
+sword entered Merton's right arm above the elbow. The seconds ran in
+to stop the fight, but as the baron was trying to recover his blade,
+instead of recoiling, Merton threw himself forward, keeping the
+baron's weapon caught in his arm, and thrust madly, driving his
+own sword downward through the baron's right lung. Then both men
+staggered back and Porthos fell.
+
+I hurried Merton away to an inn, where the wound his own act had made
+serious was dressed. Although in much pain, he insisted on our leaving
+him at once. Lieutenant West and I crossed the Channel that night. At
+noon next day Mr. Adams had the papers and this queer tale which, as I
+said, is unaccountably left out of his biography. I have often
+wondered where, to-day, are those papers.
+
+The count remained with Porthos at a farm-house near by. He made a
+slow recovery, the colonel complaining bitterly that M. Merton's
+methods lacked the refinement of the French duel.
+
+The papers contained, among other documents, a rough draft of a letter
+dated October 15, 1862, from M. Drouyn de Lhuys proposing intervention
+to the courts of England and Russia. It appeared in the French
+journals about November 14, when the crisis had passed. Mr. Adams
+acted on the manly instructions of Mr. Seward, and Mr. Gladstone lived
+to change his opinions on this matter, as in time he changed almost
+all his opinions. Madame Bellegarde, unknown to history, had saved the
+situation. The English minister declined the French proposals.
+
+Soon after I returned, Madame Bellegarde reappeared, and, as soon as
+he was well enough, Merton went to see her. She had been released,
+as we supposed she would be, with a promise to say nothing of her
+examination, and she kept her word. I thought it as well not to call
+upon her, but when Merton told me of his visit I was malicious enough
+to ask whether he had returned to her the ribbon. To this he replied
+that I had a talent for observation and that I had better ask her.
+She had been ordered to leave France for six months. I am under the
+impression that he wrote to her and she to him. The thrust in his
+arm, which would otherwise have been of small moment, his own decisive
+act had converted into a rather bad open wound, and, as it healed very
+slowly, under advice he resigned from the army and for a time remained
+in Paris, where we were much together. In December he left for Italy.
+I was not surprised to receive in the spring an invitation to the
+marriage of the two actors in this notable affair. I ought to add that
+Le Moyne lost his place in the Foreign Office, but, being of an
+influential family, was later employed in the diplomatic service.
+
+Circumstances, as Alphonse remarked, made it desirable for him to
+disappear. Merton was additionally generous and my valet married and
+became the prosperous master of a well-known restaurant in New York.
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+
+Late in 1868 Merton rejoined the army, and I did not see him again
+until in 1869, when I was American minister at The Hague. In June of
+that year Colonel and Mrs. Merton became my guests. When I told Mrs.
+Merton that Count le Moyne was the French ambassador in Holland, she
+said to her husband:
+
+"I told you we should meet, and really I should like to tell him how
+sorry I was for him."
+
+"I fancy," said I, "that the count will hardly think a return to that
+little corner of history desirable."
+
+"Even," said Merton, laughing, "with the belated consolation of the
+penitence of successful crime."
+
+"But I am not, I never was penitent. I was only sorry."
+
+"Well," said I, "you will never have the chance to confess your
+regret."
+
+I was wrong. A week later the countess left cards for my guests, and
+an invitation to dine followed. If Merton hesitated, Mrs. Merton did
+not, and expecting to find a large official dinner, we agreed among us
+that the count had been really generous and that we must all accept.
+In fact, if Mrs. Merton might be embarrassed by meeting in his own
+house the man she had so seriously injured, Merton and I were at ease,
+seeing that we were entirely unknown to the count as having been
+receivers of the property which so mysteriously disappeared.
+
+We were met by the count and Madame le Moyne with the utmost
+cordiality. To my surprise, there were no other guests. All of those
+thus brought together may have felt just enough the awkwardness of the
+occasion to make them quick to aid one another in dispersing the
+slight feeling of aloofness natural to a situation unmatched in my
+social experience.
+
+The two women were delightful, the menu admirable, the wines past
+praise. It was an artful and agreeable _lever du rideau_, and I knew
+it for that when, at a word from the count, the servants left us at
+the close of the meal. Then, smiling, he turned to Mrs. Merton and
+said:
+
+"Perhaps, madame, you may have understood that in asking you all here
+and alone I had more than the ordinary pleasant reasons. If in the
+least degree you object to my saying more, we will consider that I
+have said nothing, and," he added gaily, "we shall then chat of Rachel
+and the June exhibition of tulips."
+
+It was neatly done, and Mrs. Merton at once replied: "I wish to say
+for myself that I have for years desired to talk freely with you of
+what is no doubt in your mind just now."
+
+"Thank you," he returned; "and if no one else objects,"--and no one
+did,--"I may say that, apart from my own eager desire to ask you
+certain questions, my wife has had, for years, what I may call chronic
+curiosity."
+
+"Oh, at times acute!" cried the countess.
+
+"Her curiosity is, as you must know, in regard to certain matters
+connected with that mysterious diplomatic affair in the autumn of
+1862. It cost me pretty dear."
+
+"And me," said the countess, "many tears."
+
+Mrs. Merton's face became serious. She was about to speak, when the
+count added: "Pardon me. I am most sincere in my own wish not to
+embarrass you, our guests, and if, on reflection, you feel that our
+very natural curiosity ought to die a natural death, we will dismiss
+the matter. Tell me, would you prefer to drop it?"
+
+"Oh, no. I, too, am curious." And, turning to her husband, "Arthur, I
+am sure you will be as well pleased as I."
+
+Merton said: "I am entirely at your service, count. How is it,
+Greville?"
+
+"But," said the count, interposing, "what has M. Greville to do with
+it, except as we know that his legation profited by madame's--may I
+say--interference?"
+
+"I like that," laughed Mrs. Merton, "interference. There is nothing so
+amiable as the charity of time."
+
+"Ah," said I, laughing, "I, too, had a trifling share in the business.
+Let us all agree to be frank and to consider as confidential for some
+years to come what we hear. I am as curious as the countess."
+
+"And no wonder," said the count. "Of course enough got out to make
+every _chancellerie_ in Europe wonder how Mr. Adams was able to report
+the opinions and even the words of the emperor and his foreign
+secretary to Lord John."
+
+"Well," said Mrs. Merton, "I am still faintly penitent, but this is a
+delightful inquisition. Pray go on. I shall be frank."
+
+"To begin with, I may presume that you took those papers."
+
+"Stole them," said Mrs. Merton.
+
+"Oh, madame! Why did you not take them at once to Mr. Dayton?"
+
+"I was too scared. I was alarmed when I saw the emperor's handwriting.
+Was he cross?"
+
+"Oh, I had later a bad quarter of an hour."
+
+"I am sorry. And now you are quite free to tell me next--that I--well,
+fibbed to you. I did. But lying is not forbidden in the decalogue."
+
+"What about false witness?" cried the countess, amused.
+
+"That hardly covers the ground, but," said Mrs. Merton, "I do not
+defend myself."
+
+The count laughed. "You did it admirably, and for a half-day I was in
+doubt. In fact, to confess, I was in such distress that I did not know
+what to do. The resume I was to make for the emperor ought to have
+been made at the Foreign Office. I was rash enough to take the papers
+home."
+
+"But why did you not arrest me at once?"
+
+"Will madame look in the glass for an answer? You were--well, a lady,
+your people loyal, and I was frantic for a day. I hesitated until I
+saw you driving toward the Bois de Boulogne in a storm. What followed
+you know."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You concealed the papers, and the police for a while thought you had
+burned them. You were clever."
+
+"Not very," said Mrs. Merton. "I tried to burn all the big double
+envelops, but the men hurried me."
+
+"I see," returned the count. "Your ruse, if it was that, deceived
+them, delayed things, and then the papers somehow were removed. And
+here my curiosity reaches a climax. It puzzled me for years, and, as I
+know, has puzzled the police."
+
+"But why?" asked I.
+
+"The pistol-shots were, of course, believed to have been a means of
+decoying away the guard. The old caretaker was found in her room and
+the room locked. She was greatly alarmed at the cries and the shots,
+and for a while would not open the door."
+
+Mrs. Merton laughed. "Ah, my good old nurse."
+
+"But the man in charge of the house never left it, or so he said, and
+the doors, all of them, were locked."
+
+"Indeed!" I exclaimed. "That dear old nurse."
+
+"The police found no trace of what might have been present if a man
+had entered--I mean muddy footmarks in the house."
+
+"No," I said; "that was pure accident. I took off my shoes when I went
+in, but with no thought of anything except the noise they might make."
+
+"And," remarked Le Moyne, "of course any footprints there were
+outside had been partly worn away by the rain. None of any use were
+found, and besides for days the police had tramped over every foot of
+the garden."
+
+"Not to leave you puzzled," said Merton, "and really it must have been
+rather bewildering, I beg that Greville tell you the whole story."
+
+"With pleasure," I said. "Colonel Merton and I were the burglars"; and
+thereupon I related our adventure.
+
+"No one suspected you," said the count; "but what astonishes me the
+most is the concealment under a blazing fire of things as easily
+burned as papers. I see now, but even after the ashes were thrown
+about by you, the police refused to believe they could have been used
+to safeguard papers. I should like to tell your story to our old chief
+of police. He is now retired."
+
+"I see no objection," said I.
+
+"Better not," said Merton. "My wife's share should not, even now, be
+told."
+
+"You are right," said the countess, "quite right. But how did it occur
+to you, Madame Merton, to use the ashes as you did?"
+
+"Let me answer," said the colonel. "Any American would know how
+completely ashes are non-conductors of heat. I knew of their use on
+one occasion in our Civil War to hide and preserve the safe-conduct of
+a spy."
+
+"And," said I, "their protective power explains some of the so-called
+miracles when, as in Japan, men walk over what seems to be a bed of
+glowing red-hot coals."
+
+"How stupid the losing side appears," said the count, "when one hears
+all of both sides!"
+
+"But," asked the countess, "how did you get the papers to London? It
+seems a simple thing, but my husband will tell you that never have
+there been such extreme measures taken as in this case. The emperor
+was furious, and yet to the end every one was in the dark."
+
+"You must have played your game well," said Le Moyne.
+
+"Luck is a very good player," I said, "and we had our share."
+
+"Ah, there was more than luck when no amount of cross-questioning
+could get a word out of Madame Merton."
+
+"My husband insists that I have never been able to make up for that
+long silence."
+
+We laughed as the count said: "One can jest over it now, but at the
+time the only amusement I got out of the whole affair was when your
+dummy envelop came back from London with a savage criticism of the
+police by our not overpleased embassy in England. I did want to laugh,
+but M. de Lhuys did not."
+
+"And the original papers?" insisted the countess. "Paris was almost in
+a state of siege."
+
+"Yes," said her husband, "tell us."
+
+"Well," said I, laughing, "you escorted them to Belgium when we had
+that affair with Porthos."
+
+"_I!_" exclaimed the count.
+
+"Yes; Colonel Merton insisted on fighting in Belgium merely to enable
+us to get the papers out of France."
+
+"Indeed! One man did suspect you, but it was too late."
+
+"But Porthos?" cried the countess. "Delightful! Is that the baron?"
+
+"Yes," laughed the count. "My cousin is to this day known as Porthos.
+But who took the papers? Not you!"
+
+"No, D'Artagnan--I mean, Merton took them as far as Belgium, and then
+Lieutenant West and I carried them to London. D'Artagnan's share was a
+bad rapier-wound."
+
+"D'Artagnan?" cried the countess. "That makes it complete."
+
+Merton merely smiled, and the blue eyes narrowed a little as the
+countess said:
+
+"And so you are D'Artagnan. How delightful! The man of three duels.
+And pray, who was my husband?"
+
+"That high-minded gentleman, Athos," said Merton, lifting his glass
+and bowing to the count.
+
+"Gracious!" cried the countess. "What delightfully ingenious people! I
+shall always call him Athos."
+
+"It was well, colonel," said the count, "that no one suspected you.
+The absence of secrecy in the duel put the police at fault. Had you
+been supposed to be carrying those papers, you would never have
+reached the field."
+
+"Perhaps. One never can tell," said D'Artagnan, simply.
+
+"Ah, well," said our host, rising, "I have long since forgiven you,
+Madame Merton, and no one is now more glad than I that you helped to
+prevent the recognition of the Confederacy."
+
+"You must permit me to thank you all," said the countess; "my
+curiosity may now sleep in peace. You were vastly clever folk to have
+defeated our sharp police."
+
+"Come," said the count, "you Americans will want a cigar. _On peut
+etre fin, mais pas plus fin que tout le monde._"
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:
+
+Minor changes have been made to correct obvious typesetter errors;
+otherwise, every effort has been made to remain true to the author's
+words and intent.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's A Diplomatic Adventure, by S. Weir Mitchell
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