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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/30585-8.txt b/30585-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8569161 --- /dev/null +++ b/30585-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3437 @@ +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: ISO-8859-1 + +*** 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 coupé 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 reënter my coupé I put it +in my card-case for future reference. + + + + +III + + +As I sat down in the coupé, 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 "Sacré!" 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 _sacré_ 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. _Sacré 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 attaché 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 hôtel 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--_à 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 hôtel. 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'état. 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 résumé 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 attaché 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 résumé 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 +être 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. 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Weir Mitchell, M.D., LL.D. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + td {vertical-align: top;} + + hr.large {width: 65%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + hr.tiny {width: 15%; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em;} + + div.centered {text-align:center;} /*work around for IE centering with CSS problem part 1 */ + div.centered table {margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; text-align:left;} /* work around for IE problem part 2 */ + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .gap {margin-top: 3em;} + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + .double {display: block; /* fake hr for double rules */ + width: 65%; + height: 3px; + line-height: 3px; + color: black; + margin: 10px auto 10px auto; + padding: 0; + border-top: 1px solid black; + border-bottom: 1px solid black; } + .n {text-indent:0%;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + .right {text-align: right;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +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: ISO-8859-1 + +*** 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) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 333px;"> +<img src="images/icover.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="double"> </p> + +<h1>A DIPLOMATIC<br /> +ADVENTURE</h1> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>S. WEIR MITCHELL, M.D., LL.D.</h2> + +<p class="gap"> </p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 121px;"> +<img src="images/i001.jpg" width="121" height="100" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="gap"> </p> + +<p class="center">NEW YORK</p> + +<p class="center">THE CENTURY CO.</p> + +<p class="center">1906</p> + +<p class="double"> </p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="center">Copyright, 1906, by<br /> +<span class="smcap">The Century Co.</span></p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<p class="center"><i>Published April, 1906</i></p> + +<p class="center">THE DE VINNE PRESS</p> + +<hr class="large" /> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" width="50%" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="1" summary="CONTENTS"> + +<tr> +<td align="left">CHAPTER I.</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#A_DIPLOMATIC_ADVENTURE">3</a></td> +<td> </td> +<td align="left">CHAPTER IX.</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#IX">82</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">CHAPTER II.</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#II">10</a></td> +<td> </td> +<td align="left">CHAPTER X.</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#X">96</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">CHAPTER III.</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#III">15</a></td> +<td> </td> +<td align="left">CHAPTER XI.</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#XI">112</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">CHAPTER IV.</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#IV">28</a></td> +<td> </td> +<td align="left">CHAPTER XII.</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#XII">122</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">CHAPTER V.</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#V">38</a></td> +<td> </td> +<td align="left">CHAPTER XIII.</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#XIII">131</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">CHAPTER VI.</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#VI">52</a></td> +<td> </td> +<td align="left">CHAPTER XIV.</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#XIV">135</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">CHAPTER VII.</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#VII">59</a></td> +<td> </td> +<td align="left">CHAPTER XV.</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#XV">148</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">CHAPTER VIII.</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#VIII">75</a></td> +<td> </td> +<td align="left">CHAPTER XVI.</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#XVI">153</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + +<hr class="large" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 351px;"> +<img src="images/i003.jpg" width="351" height="500" alt="“She was in an agony of alarm.”" title="" /> +<span class="caption">“She was in an agony of alarm.”</span> +</div> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="A_DIPLOMATIC_ADVENTURE" id="A_DIPLOMATIC_ADVENTURE"></a>A DIPLOMATIC ADVENTURE</h2> + +<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I</h2> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">N</span>o 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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>At this time I had been in the legation two years, and was comfortably +lodged in pleasant apartments in the Rue Rivoli.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>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:</p> + +<p>“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:</p> + +<p>“Yes, but will monsieur permit me to explain?”</p> + +<p>“Certainly.”</p> + +<p>“I was intended by my family to be a priest, but circumstances caused +me to make a change. It was not gay.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span></p><p>“Well, hardly.”</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p>“A spy?” I said.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>I perceived that circumstances appeared to play a large part in this +queer autobiography, and saved the necessity of undesirable fullness +of statement.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>His face became of a sudden what I venture <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>to call luminous with the +pleasure an intelligent man has in finding an answer to a difficult +question.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>The man interested me. I said: “If I engage you, you will, I suppose, +desire to remain what you call an observer.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“And generally every one else,” I said. “Perhaps you, too, are +observed.”</p> + +<p>“Possibly. Monsieur may perceive that it is better I continue in the +pay of the police. It is hardly more than a <i>pourboire</i>, but it is +desirable. I have an old mother at Neuilly.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p><p>I had my doubts in regard to the existence of the mother—but it was +true, as I learned later.</p> + +<p>“It seems to me,” I said, “that you will have to report your +observations.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p><p>“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.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h2> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">O</span>n 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.</p> + +<p>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?”</p> + +<p>“Monsieur may not observe that three letters from America have been +opened in the post-office.”</p> + +<p>I said, “Yes.” In fact, it was common and of course annoying. One of +these letters was from my uncle. He wrote:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p><div class="blockquot"><p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p class="right"><span style="margin-right: 8em;">Yours truly,</span></p> + +<p class="right"><span style="margin-right: 1em;"><i>Harry Wellwood.</i></span></p></div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>I was kept busy at the legation two thirds of the following day. At +five I set out in a coupé 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.</p> + +<p>As I sat in the carriage and looked out at the exterior gaiety of the +open-air life of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>Captain Merton lived so far away from the quarter in which I had been +leaving cards <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>that it was close to dusk when I got out of the +carriage at the hotel I sought.</p> + +<p>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 reënter my coupé I put it +in my card-case for future reference.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h2> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">A</span>s I sat down in the coupé, 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?”</p> + +<p>“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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>have suggested as +compromising, or at least as the Parisian regards such incidents. +Alphonse waited calmly, the door still open.</p> + +<p>Again I offered to leave her the carriage, and again she refused. I +said, “Might I then ask where madame desires to go?”</p> + +<p>She hesitated a moment, and then asked irrelevantly, “Monsieur is not +French?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, no. I am an American.”</p> + +<p>“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—”</p> + +<p>“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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>“It will do—it will do,” she said.</p> + +<p>I thought it strange, but I called out the order to Alphonse and bade +him promise a good <i>pourboire</i>.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>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—”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>carriage. For a moment she +made no remark, and then said with needless emphasis:</p> + +<p>“Yes, yes. It is dreadful. I hope—I mean, I trust—that it will never +occur again.”</p> + +<p>It was odd and hardly courteous. I said only, “Yes, it must be +disagreeable.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I mean—I can’t explain—I mean this—special ride, and I—I am +so wet.”</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>After a time, at her request, we turned into <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>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 “Sacré!” from +the coachman as the lightning flashed.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p><p>“Oh, monsieur, we are followed! I am sure we are followed. What shall +I do?”</p> + +<p>Here was a not very agreeable adventure.</p> + +<p>I said, “No, I think not.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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, “<i>Mon Dieu!</i>” 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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p><p>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.</p> + +<p>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. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“No, I am not much hurt.”</p> + +<p>“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:</p> + +<p>“There is a woman in that carriage.”</p> + +<p>I was anxious to gain time for the fugitive, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>and replied: “Monsieur +must be under some singular misapprehension. There is no one in my +carriage.”</p> + +<p>“I shall see for myself,” he said sharply.</p> + +<p>“By all means. I am quite at a loss to understand you.” I was sure +that he would not be able to see her.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>“Two,” said the rascal.</p> + +<p>“Well, two if you will lie enough.”</p> + +<p>“Good! This <i>sacré</i> animal! Be quiet!”</p> + +<p>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?”</p> + +<p>“No, monsieur; the gentleman was alone, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>and you have smashed my +carriage. <i>Sacré bleu!</i> Who is to pay?”</p> + +<p>“That is of no moment. Here is my card.” The man took it, but said +doubtfully,</p> + +<p>“That’s all well to-day, but to-morrow—”</p> + +<p>“Stuff! Your carriage is not damaged. Here, my man, a half-napoleon +will more than pay.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span></p><p>“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.”</p> + +<p>Then, to my amazement, he said: “You, too, are in this affair, I +presume. You will find it serious.”</p> + +<p>“What affair? Monsieur is enigmatical and anything but courteous.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“With what matter?” I broke in. “This passes endurance.”</p> + +<p>“I fancy you need no explanation. I presume that at least you will not +hesitate to inform me of your name.”</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>said as I gave him a card, +“This will sufficiently inform you who and what I am.”</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>“I shall be at home from eleven until noon to-morrow.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h2> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">A</span>fter 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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>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?</p> + +<p>To refuse to meet him would be social ruin and would seriously affect +my usefulness, as I was the only attaché 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.</p> + +<p>I dined that evening with my chief, but of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>course said nothing of my +adventure. On my return home I found Alphonse.</p> + +<p>“Well,” I said, “what the deuce became of you?”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, I did—I do.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“Did you follow her?”</p> + +<p>“No; she seemed to want to go on alone. I hope monsieur approves.”</p> + +<p>“I do.”</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>The point of view was Parisian enough, but <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“Perhaps what?”</p> + +<p>“You gave the very angry gentleman a card.”</p> + +<p>“Nonsense!” I returned. “Look again.” I could see, by the faint smile +and the slight uplift of the brow, that my valet appreciated <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>“Monsieur—circumstances—I mean it is to be feared—I have looked +everywhere.”</p> + +<p>“It is incredible,” said I.</p> + +<p>“But the night, monsieur, and the storm, and the count, who was not +polite.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p><p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>“I should like you to advise me as to a rather odd affair—if not too +late for advice.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p><p>“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.</p> + +<p>“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?’</p> + +<p>“Now I am at times, Mr. Greville, short of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>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.’</p> + +<p>“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.’</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>“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.’</p> + +<p>“‘Monsieur,’ said the colonel, ‘so you still deny—’</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p><p>“‘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?’</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V</h2> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">I</span>  was about to comment on this queer story when Merton said:</p> + +<p>“Pardon me, I must first tell you all; then you will kindly say what +you think of this amazing performance.</p> + +<p>“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.’</p> + +<p>“The little man was posing beautifully. I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>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.’</p> + +<p>“The little man replied that the count could not do otherwise.</p> + +<p>“‘Very good,’ said I.—No, don’t interrupt this charming story, Mr. +Greville; let me go on. There is more of it and better.</p> + +<p>“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.’</p> + +<p>“I said, ‘Yes; captain Second Infantry.’</p> + +<p>“‘Ah, a soldier—really! In the army of the Confederation, I presume. +We shall be enchanted to meet monsieur’s friends.’</p> + +<p>“‘What!’ I said; ‘does monsieur the colonel wish to insult me? I am of +the North.’</p> + +<p>“‘A thousand pardons!’</p> + +<p>“‘No matter. You will hear from me <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>“‘But monsieur, that is unusual, barbarous!’ said the little man.</p> + +<p>“‘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.</p> + +<p>“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.’</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p><p>“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.’</p> + +<p>“‘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.’</p> + +<p>“‘Sir,’ said my little man, ‘do I understand—’</p> + +<p>“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.’</p> + +<p>“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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>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.’</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>“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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>which he still hoped circumstances would eventually +afford him. He was queerly precise and too absurd for belief.</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“And was that all?” I asked.</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p>I had listened in amazement to this arrangement—three <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>duels as the +sequel of my adventure! As Merton ended, he burst into a roar of +laughter.</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p>That was by no means my opinion. “Mr. Merton,” I said, “I came here +about this very matter.”</p> + +<p>“Indeed! How can that be? Pray go on—and did any man ever hear of +such a mix-up? Where do you come in?”</p> + +<p>“I will tell you. Last night in the dark, by mishap, I gave this +infernal count your card instead of my own.”</p> + +<p>“The deuce you did! Great Scott, what fun!”</p> + +<p>“Yes, I did.” I went on to relate my encounter with the lady, and the +manner in which Count le Moyne had behaved.</p> + +<p>“What an adventure! I am so sorry I was not in your place. What a fine +mystery! But <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>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?”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“Sorry! Not I. It is immense!”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p><p>“You did.”</p> + +<p>“They seemed annoyed.”</p> + +<p>“Probably,” said I. Although the whole affair appeared to me comical, +it had, too, its possible tragedy.</p> + +<p>“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—”</p> + +<p>“Oh, the baron—you should see him. I came near to calling him Porthos +to his face. I wish I had.”</p> + +<p>“And the small man, the colonel—”</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes—shade of Dumas! He may pass for Aramis.”</p> + +<p>I laughed. “By the way,” I added, “he is one of the best blades in +France.”</p> + +<p>“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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>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?”</p> + +<p>I said it was.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“Then certainly it cannot be the wife.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p><p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, there has been trouble brewing all summer.” I could not imagine +what the man was after.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, that is true.”</p> + +<p>The blue eyes held mine for a moment, and then he inquired, “Was +she—” and he paused.</p> + +<p>“My dear captain, she is an American and a lady.”</p> + +<p>“I ask her pardon. A lady? You are sure she is a lady?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p><p>“Yes.”</p> + +<p>“Then it is a matter of—let me think—not jealousy? Hardly. We may +leave that out.”</p> + +<p>“Certainly.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t you catch on, Mr. Greville?”</p> + +<p>“No, I must say I do not.”</p> + +<p>“Well, consider it coolly. Exclude love, jealousy, any gross fraud, +and what is left? What can be left?”</p> + +<p>“I do not know.”</p> + +<p>“How about politics,” he smiled. “How does that strike you?”</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>France; +but all this did not do more than enable me to see my D’Artagnan’s +notion as possibly a reasonable guess.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>“We have quite enough on our hands without the woman. I shall see the +count to-day, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>and then we may be in a better position to know what +further should be done.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“The woman? I assure you, I am out of that.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, no, no! We must find her. She is in trouble.”</p> + +<p>I laughed. “Can we find her?”</p> + +<p>“We must. I like her looks.”</p> + +<p>“But you never saw her.”</p> + +<p>“No. But the most beautiful woman is always the one I never saw.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h2> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">A</span>fter dinner that evening Merton and I settled ourselves in my little +salon with coffee, cognac, and cigars. Merton said:</p> + +<p>“Are we safe here?”</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>He was much amused. “Can you really trust him?” he said.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p><p>“What a droll arrangement! And are you really sure of him?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, as far as one can be sure of any one in this tangle of spies.”</p> + +<p>“But does he not—must he not—seem to earn his outside pay?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, seem. I will call him in. He will talk if I assure him that he +is safe.”</p> + +<p>“Delightful—most delightful! By all means!”</p> + +<p>I rang for Alphonse.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, monsieur!” exclaimed Alphonse. He was evidently hurt.</p> + +<p>“To relieve him, tell monsieur of our little arrangement.”</p> + +<p>“The letters, monsieur?”</p> + +<p>“Yes.”</p> + +<p>“Well, my master is kind enough to leave <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>open certain letters. They +have been found to be of interest. My pay has been raised. +Circumstances make it desirable.”</p> + +<p>“What is her name?” said Merton, laughing.</p> + +<p>“Louise.”</p> + +<p>“What letters, Greville, do you turn over for the recreation and +service of the Foreign Office?”</p> + +<p>“My uncle’s,” said I, “usually.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>I confessed my own pleasure in the game, and was about to let Alphonse +go when Merton said:</p> + +<p>“May I take a great liberty?”</p> + +<p>“Certainly,” I laughed—“short of taking Alphonse. What is it?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p><p>“Alphonse,” asked Merton, “would you know the lady you followed and +guided that night in the Bois?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, monsieur.”</p> + +<p>“Do you want to make two hundred francs?”</p> + +<p>“Without doubt.”</p> + +<p>“Find that woman and I will give you three hundred.”</p> + +<p>“It will be difficult. Paris is large and women are numerous.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, but there is the Count le Moyne as a clue.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, yes.” He seemed to be thinking. Then he turned to me.</p> + +<p>“If monsieur approves and can do without me for two days?”</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>Alphonse stood still a moment.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p><p>“Well?” I said.</p> + +<p>“The lady, monsieur,—she is, I think, not French.”</p> + +<p>“No; she is an American, and that is all we know.”</p> + +<p>“But that is much. Then I am free to-morrow?”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” and he left us.</p> + +<p>“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, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>the count. +Your cigars were not bought in France; may I have another? Thanks. You +were to see him to-day.”</p> + +<p>“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 <i>trois mousquetaires</i> rather too much on your mind, but +really, the resemblance is certainly fascinating.”</p> + +<p>“But what about the count? You have seen him, I suppose.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, I saw Count le Moyne. He lives in a charming little hôtel 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.’</p> + +<p>“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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>the +darkness had made visible. I observed at once that, although still +extremely courteous, he became more cool and looked puzzled.</p> + +<p>“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.’</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII</h2> + +<p style="float: left; font-size: 100%; line-height: 80%; margin-top: 0;">“</p><p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">A</span>s +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 <i>was</i> 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. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>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—’</p> + +<p>“‘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.’</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>“As I rose to go, I could not help saying <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>that the remarkably good +looks of the woman made my conduct the more excusable.</p> + +<p>“‘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.’</p> + +<p>“I thanked him.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“But about the woman who set all these pots a-boiling—I beg pardon, +simmering—”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p><p>“Oh, the woman. I hope I may never see her again.”</p> + +<p>“You will. That fellow Alphonse will find her.”</p> + +<p>“I hope not. But what a mess! <i>cherchez la femme!</i>”</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p>“And D’Artagnan?” I laughed.</p> + +<p>“If you like, Greville. You are complimentary. Was that all?”</p> + +<p>“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!’ <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>Behind him was a much-made-up little +fellow, the colonel—your Aramis.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, drop him. He is what the arithmeticians call a negligible +quantity. What next?”</p> + +<p>“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.’</p> + +<p>“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.’”</p> + +<p>“Oh, by all that’s jolly! what a situation for the stage! A match, +please. What next?”</p> + +<p>“The baron spoke first. ‘I do not understand you, my dear count.’</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p><p>“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.’</p> + +<p>“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?’</p> + +<p>“‘Yes. I so understood it.’</p> + +<p>“‘Then you said, as I recall it, baron, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>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.’”</p> + +<p>“Lovely!” murmured Merton. “Go on.”</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>“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 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>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.’</p> + +<p>“‘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. <i>Mon Dieu!</i> 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—<i>à faire peur</i>—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?’</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p><p>“‘English for very interesting,’ said I, not wishing to aggravate the +situation.</p> + +<p>“‘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. <i>Mon Dieu!</i> we shall see. It remains to await +his friends. I shall kill him.’</p> + +<p>“‘Pardon me,’ said the baron; ‘he belongs to me.’</p> + +<p>“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.’”</p> + +<p>“Lord, what a chance! What did you say?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p><p>“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.</p> + +<p>“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.’</p> + +<p>“‘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?’</p> + +<p>“‘That does not alter my opinion. If monsieur—’</p> + +<p>“‘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.’</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p><p>“‘My dear cousin’ did not like it, but said stiffly, ‘So far as M. +Greville is concerned, I withdraw them.’</p> + +<p>“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.’</p> + +<p>“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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>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.’”</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>“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?’</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span></p><p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“Well, well,” said Merton. “When I left the regiment I thought I was +out of the world of adventure.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, this is comic opera. I do not suppose that you really want to +fight these idiots.”</p> + +<p>“No; but I will, if they desire to be thus amused. Otherwise there +will have to be some word-eating. I was not bluffing.”</p> + +<p>“Porthos will stick it out. You won’t be too stiff-necked, I trust.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“It has,” I returned with warmth. “You dine with the minister next +week, I believe.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p><p>“Yes, Monday.”</p> + +<p>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?”</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p><p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>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 <i>impasse</i>.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII</h2> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">A</span>t 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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p><p>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.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>“Yes; it was all that there is of simple. Monsieur had said she is an +American—I went to the American church.”</p> + +<p>Merton looked at me, smiling, as he remarked, “Like all the great +things, it was simple.”</p> + +<p>“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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>to me, the lady was uneasy, and, I think, aware that she +was watched.”</p> + +<p>Here Merton stopped him. “You are sure that is the same woman you saw +in the carriage.”</p> + +<p>“Monsieur, when once this lady has been seen, she is not to be +forgotten.”</p> + +<p>“Ha!” exclaimed the captain; “I told you so, Greville. But go on, +Alphonse.”</p> + +<p>“And cut it short,” said I, impatient.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>“And her name?” I asked.</p> + +<p>“Mme. Bellegarde, Rue de St. Victor, No. 31—a small private hôtel. 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.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p><p>I regarded my valet with increasing respect, while Merton ejaculated, +“Damn such a country!” and I asked:</p> + +<p>“Is that all?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, monsieur; but circumstances—”</p> + +<p>“Oh, that will do,” I said. “You may go.”</p> + +<p>When alone with Merton, he said to me, “You must call on her.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>For a moment we considered the situation in silence. At last Merton +said, “If <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>this woman goes out into society, might you not chance to +meet her?”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p><p>I said, laughing: “Yes; there are two replies to invitations and a +note to my tailor.”</p> + +<p>That would do, and might he venture to say that monsieur would be well +advised to keep out of the matter?</p> + +<p>I thanked him, and there the thing stood over for several days longer.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX</h2> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">T</span>wo 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:</p> + +<p>“You are my countrywoman, and are, as I know, in trouble. What is it? +After we <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>met I learned your name, but I have been prudent enough to +refrain from calling.”</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>I said, “Yes; I will arrange it.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p><p>“Oh, thank you. Talk now of something else.”</p> + +<p>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!”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“Good-by,” I said, as we parted, “and be assured that you have +friends.”</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>Early in the morning of the next day I went to the rooms of our first +secretary. In <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>It was after three in the morning when he aroused me from the nap into +which I had fallen.</p> + +<p>“By George!” he cried, “she is a delightful <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>and a brave woman. I told +you so; but, good heavens! she is in a sad scrape.”</p> + +<p>“Well, what is it? Has she robbed the Bank of France?”</p> + +<p>“Worse. I told you it was some diplomatic tangle. I was right. It is a +big one.”</p> + +<p>“For Heaven’s sake, go on!”</p> + +<p>“She is beautiful.”</p> + +<p>“Of course; I know that. But what happened?”</p> + +<p>“I said she was beautiful.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, twice, and you have never seen her face.”</p> + +<p>“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, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>‘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.”</p> + +<p>“By George!” said I, “a woman of resources. How clever that was!”</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>“‘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, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>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, ‘<i>Mon Dieu!</i>’ 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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>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: “<i>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>” I stood still. For a moment, believe me, +I forgot the fire—everything. I suppose the devil was at my side.’</p> + +<p>“‘A good devil,’ said I.</p> + +<p>“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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>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.’”</p> + +<p>“Good heavens! Merton,” said I, “She stole it!”</p> + +<p>“Stole it! Nonsense! It was war—glorious.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>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!’</p> + +<p>“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?’</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p><p>“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.</p> + +<p>He asked in turn, “What do you think she said?”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“Yes, of course you were right; but what did she say?”</p> + +<p>“‘Say?’ She said: ‘I am not a child, sir. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>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 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>shall at all risks see this thing through.’ She said, ‘Thank you,’ +and did sit down.</p> + +<p>“Then I went on: ‘I want to ask you a question or two. Did the count +recognize you?’</p> + +<p>“‘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.’</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>X</h2> + +<p style="float: left; font-size: 100%; line-height: 80%; margin-top: 0;">“</p><p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">T</span>o +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.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>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.”</p> + +<p>“But these papers?” said I.</p> + +<p>“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 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>“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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“Well,” said I, “I do not wonder. The court is cool to us. Something +hostile to our country is going on between France and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>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.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“But,” said I, “why did not the count follow and get there, as he +could have done, before her?”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p><p>“Yes, that must have been the case.”</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p><p>“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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>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.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p><p>“I suppose so. They were less clever than usual.”</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p>“Certainly this time the luck is hers,” said I; “but this will not +satisfy them.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“Is that all?”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“Well, what next?” I asked.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p><p>“She says we must get those papers. That is our business.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>“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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>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.”</p> + +<p>“But, Merton, how can we get into the house, even if we enter the +garden unseen?”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>I replied: “Her late husband’s people are <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>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?”</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p>“No, I do not.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“But,” said I, “if he meets there a resolute guard.”</p> + +<p>“And if,” said Merton, “the guard is met <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>by a more resolute man, let +us say, with a revolver.”</p> + +<p>“Merton, it is a thing to be done without violence.”</p> + +<p>“Or not at all?” queried Merton, with what I may call an examining +glance.</p> + +<p>“No, I did not say that.”</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>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.”</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>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.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI</h2> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">O</span>n 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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>asked Merton to breakfast, +and a half-hour later he came in, apologizing and laughing.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>Alphonse reappeared.</p> + +<p>“I gave you three hundred francs,” said Merton.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span></p><p>“Yes, monsieur.”</p> + +<p>“Where is it?”</p> + +<p>“My mother has it.”</p> + +<p>“Very good. Are you for the emperor?”</p> + +<p>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’état. I am a +republican.”</p> + +<p>“If so,” said Merton, “for what amount would you sell your republican +body and soul?”</p> + +<p>“As to my body, monsieur, that is for sale cheap.”</p> + +<p>“And souls are not dear in France,” said Merton.</p> + +<p>“Yes, monsieur; but the price varies.”</p> + +<p>“What would you say to—well, a thousand francs down and a thousand in +three months?”</p> + +<p>“If monsieur would explain.”</p> + +<p>I did not dislike his caution, but I still had a residue of doubt as +to the man who <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>was serving two masters. Merton had none. He went on:</p> + +<p>“We mean to be plain with you. We are caught in the net of a big and +dangerous business.”</p> + +<p>“I had thought as much,” said Alphonse. “Would M. le Capitaine +explain? No doubt there are circumstances—”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“And my master?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, he may lose his position. You and I and madame may be worse off.”</p> + +<p>“As to my position,” I said, “leave me out of the question. We shall +all take risks.”</p> + +<p>“Then I accept,” said Alphonse. “Monsieur has been most kind to my +mother, and circumstances have always attracted me—monsieur<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> will +understand. What am I to do?”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“No, monsieur, not quite entirely,” said Alphonse, smiling.</p> + +<p>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?”</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>something: “No, monsieur, no. +Circumstances make it not to be desired.”</p> + +<p>From that moment I trusted the man. “Is that all, monsieur?” he said.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, that is all at present. The danger comes later. Let us hear at +nine to-morrow morning.”</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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?”</p> + +<p>“If there was no one within.”</p> + +<p>“But we do not know, and that we must risk.”</p> + +<p>“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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>house and take away certain papers, +the guard may resist, and in that case—”</p> + +<p>“In that case,” laughed Merton, “circumstances—”</p> + +<p>“Monsieur does not desire me to enter the house.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Not so Merton. When the valet left us, the captain said: “We are +utterly in the hands of that man.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p><p>“Yes,” I returned thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>“If he knew,” said Merton, “he might—”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p>“No.”</p> + +<p>“I will lend you mine.”</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>involved failure of our purpose. I, too, had my moral +limitations.</p> + +<p>We lost a day, but on the following night there was such a storm as +satisfied us to the full.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII</h2> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">A</span>bout 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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>and about a +hundred feet from where the wall turned at a right angle.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Alphonse said: “Two; there are two at the gate.”</p> + +<p>“Hush,” said I, as a man came around the angle and along the narrow +way between us and the garden wall.</p> + +<p>“Wait, monsieur; he will come again.” In some ten minutes he +reappeared, as before.</p> + +<p>“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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p><p>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.</p> + +<p>“First actor on,” murmured Merton. “Should like to have seen that +interview. Can’t be actor and audience both.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>At last he said: “I think Alphonse has had time enough.”</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>“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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>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.”</p> + +<p>“Hush!” I said. “There he is again.”</p> + +<p>“All right; give him a moment,” said Merton, “and now you have a full +half-hour. Come.”</p> + +<p>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 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>My time had come. That the gate guards would make for the direction of +the sound <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>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.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>XIII</h2> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">I</span>  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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>the value of my prize. The ashes +fell about as I laid the packet on the table.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>My own doubts did, I fear, weaken as, turning over the documents, I +saw revealed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>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.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a>XIV</h2> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">A</span>t 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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>stern while +I translated to him the emperor’s comments.</p> + +<p>“It is evident,” he said, “that a résumé 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.”</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>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:</p> + +<p>“If they were sure these papers were in the villa,—and they were, I +fancy,—I wonder they did not accidentally burn the house.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span></p><p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“Good morning, Mr. Dayton. All right, Greville?”</p> + +<p>I said: “Yes, the papers are here. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>These gentlemen all know. Had you +any trouble?”</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>The minister said: “No. Sit down, captain.”</p> + +<p>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?”</p> + +<p>“By all means,” said the chief. “It is almost as much your concern as +ours.”</p> + +<p>“I suppose,” said Merton, “the despatches to Berlin and St. Petersburg +may go in cipher by trusty messengers or any chance <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>tourist, and that +there is no need for haste.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, that is true.”</p> + +<p>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?”</p> + +<p>“No, sir.”</p> + +<p>“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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>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.”</p> + +<p>“As I understand it,” replied Merton, “you assume that the Foreign +Office here will be sure these papers are in your hands.”</p> + +<p>“We may take that for granted. They are not stupid, and the matter as +it stands is for them, to say the least, awkward.”</p> + +<p>“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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>resources +of the imperial police will be used, and without scruple, to prevent +them from leaving Paris or reaching London.”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” said the chief, “of that we may be certain.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“It is possible,” said the minister, “quite possible.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“May I, sir,” said Merton, “venture to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>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?”</p> + +<p>“Well,” said the minister, smiling, “what next?”</p> + +<p>“He will be robbed on the way, or something will happen. It will never +get there.”</p> + +<p>“No. They will stop at nothing,” said I.</p> + +<p>“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—”</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>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.”</p> + +<p>“I will do all in my power; rest assured of that. But what next? The +papers! Mr. Adams!” He was anxious.</p> + +<p>“Might I again venture?”</p> + +<p>“Pray do.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“May I ask why you go to Belgium?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, I want it known. I have arranged to satisfy a gentleman named +Porthos, who thinks himself injured.”</p> + +<p>“Porthos!” exclaimed the minister. “Why, that is a character in one of +Dumas’s novels.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, I beg pardon; we call him Porthos. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>Mr. Greville will explain +later. He is the Baron la Garde. An absurd affair.”</p> + +<p>“I deeply regret it,” said the minister. “I hoped it was settled. But +you may be hurt, and, pardon me, killed.”</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p>“Not I. Rest easy as to that. We owe her too much.”</p> + +<p>“Then I am at your service.”</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>“I think, sir,” said Merton, “it will be <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>well if one, or, better, two +responsible people remain here overnight.” This seemed to us a proper +precaution.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>“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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>my life for my country? It must be +lightly talked about in the clubs to-night.” West and I took care that +it was.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="center">Trust you will find this interesting,</p> + +<p class="right"><span style="margin-right: 8em;">Yours,</span></p> + +<p class="right"><span style="margin-right: 1em;"><i>Uncle Sam.</i></span></p></div> + +<p>We went out, Merton and I looking at our passports and talking loudly. +At ten that morning the first secretary and an attaché 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.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="XV" id="XV"></a>XV</h2> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">T</span>he 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 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span>me to his other employers as having gone to Belgium as one of +Merton’s friends.</p> + +<p>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 <small>A.M.</small> 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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>right lung. Then both men +staggered back and Porthos fell.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="XVI" id="XVI"></a>XVI</h2> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">L</span>ate 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:</p> + +<p>“I told you we should meet, and really I should like to tell him how +sorry I was for him.”</p> + +<p>“I fancy,” said I, “that the count will hardly think a return to that +little corner of history desirable.”</p> + +<p>“Even,” said Merton, laughing, “with the belated consolation of the +penitence of successful crime.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span></p><p>“But I am not, I never was penitent. I was only sorry.”</p> + +<p>“Well,” said I, “you will never have the chance to confess your +regret.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>the +slight feeling of aloofness natural to a situation unmatched in my +social experience.</p> + +<p>The two women were delightful, the menu admirable, the wines past +praise. It was an artful and agreeable <i>lever du rideau</i>, 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:</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span></p><p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, at times acute!” cried the countess.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“And me,” said the countess, “many tears.”</p> + +<p>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?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, no. I, too, am curious.” And, turning to her husband, “Arthur, I +am sure you will be as well pleased as I.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span></p><p>Merton said: “I am entirely at your service, count. How is it, +Greville?”</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p>“I like that,” laughed Mrs. Merton, “interference. There is nothing so +amiable as the charity of time.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“And no wonder,” said the count. “Of course enough got out to make +every <i>chancellerie</i> 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.”</p> + +<p>“Well,” said Mrs. Merton, “I am still faintly penitent, but this is a +delightful inquisition. Pray go on. I shall be frank.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span></p><p>“To begin with, I may presume that you took those papers.”</p> + +<p>“Stole them,” said Mrs. Merton.</p> + +<p>“Oh, madame! Why did you not take them at once to Mr. Dayton?”</p> + +<p>“I was too scared. I was alarmed when I saw the emperor’s handwriting. +Was he cross?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I had later a bad quarter of an hour.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“What about false witness?” cried the countess, amused.</p> + +<p>“That hardly covers the ground, but,” said Mrs. Merton, “I do not +defend myself.”</p> + +<p>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 résumé I was to make for the emperor ought to have +been <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>made at the Foreign Office. I was rash enough to take the papers +home.”</p> + +<p>“But why did you not arrest me at once?”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“Yes.”</p> + +<p>“You concealed the papers, and the police for a while thought you had +burned them. You were clever.”</p> + +<p>“Not very,” said Mrs. Merton. “I tried to burn all the big double +envelops, but the men hurried me.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“But why?” asked I.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span></p><p>“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.”</p> + +<p>Mrs. Merton laughed. “Ah, my good old nurse.”</p> + +<p>“But the man in charge of the house never left it, or so he said, and +the doors, all of them, were locked.”</p> + +<p>“Indeed!” I exclaimed. “That dear old nurse.”</p> + +<p>“The police found no trace of what might have been present if a man +had entered—I mean muddy footmarks in the house.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“And,” remarked Le Moyne, “of course <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>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.”</p> + +<p>“Not to leave you puzzled,” said Merton, “and really it must have been +rather bewildering, I beg that Greville tell you the whole story.”</p> + +<p>“With pleasure,” I said. “Colonel Merton and I were the burglars”; and +thereupon I related our adventure.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“I see no objection,” said I.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span></p><p>“Better not,” said Merton. “My wife’s share should not, even now, be +told.”</p> + +<p>“You are right,” said the countess, “quite right. But how did it occur +to you, Madame Merton, to use the ashes as you did?”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“How stupid the losing side appears,” said the count, “when one hears +all of both sides!”</p> + +<p>“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, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>and yet to the end every one was in the dark.”</p> + +<p>“You must have played your game well,” said Le Moyne.</p> + +<p>“Luck is a very good player,” I said, “and we had our share.”</p> + +<p>“Ah, there was more than luck when no amount of cross-questioning +could get a word out of Madame Merton.”</p> + +<p>“My husband insists that I have never been able to make up for that +long silence.”</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>“And the original papers?” insisted the countess. “Paris was almost in +a state of siege.”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” said her husband, “tell us.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p><p>“Well,” said I, laughing, “you escorted them to Belgium when we had +that affair with Porthos.”</p> + +<p>“<i>I!</i>” exclaimed the count.</p> + +<p>“Yes; Colonel Merton insisted on fighting in Belgium merely to enable +us to get the papers out of France.”</p> + +<p>“Indeed! One man did suspect you, but it was too late.”</p> + +<p>“But Porthos?” cried the countess. “Delightful! Is that the baron?”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” laughed the count. “My cousin is to this day known as Porthos. +But who took the papers? Not you!”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“D’Artagnan?” cried the countess. “That makes it complete.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span></p><p>Merton merely smiled, and the blue eyes narrowed a little as the +countess said:</p> + +<p>“And so you are D’Artagnan. How delightful! The man of three duels. +And pray, who was my husband?”</p> + +<p>“That high-minded gentleman, Athos,” said Merton, lifting his glass +and bowing to the count.</p> + +<p>“Gracious!” cried the countess. “What delightfully ingenious people! I +shall always call him Athos.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“Perhaps. One never can tell,” said D’Artagnan, simply.</p> + +<p>“Ah, well,” said our host, rising, “I have long since forgiven you, +Madame Merton, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>and no one is now more glad than I that you helped to +prevent the recognition of the Confederacy.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“Come,” said the count, “you Americans will want a cigar. <i>On peut +être fin, mais pas plus fin que tout le monde.</i>”</p> + +<hr class="large" /> +<h2><span class="smcap">Transcriber’s Notes:</span></h2> + +<p>1. 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.</p> + +<p>2. The original of this e-text did not have a Table of Contents; one has +been added for the reader’s convenience.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's A Diplomatic Adventure, by S. 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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. 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