He Walked Around the Horses | Page 5

It took me a moment or so to digest that, and to appreciate all its implications. Why, this
fellow evidently believed, as a matter of fact, that the French Monarchy had been
overthrown by some military adventurer named Bonaparte, who was calling himself the
Emperor Napoleon, and who had made war on Austria and forced a surrender. I made no
attempt to argue with him--one wastes time arguing with madmen--but if this man could
believe that, the transformation of a coach-and-four into a cabbage wagon was a small
matter indeed. So, to humor him, I asked him if he thought General Bonaparte's agents
were responsible for his trouble at the inn.
"Certainly," he replied. "The chances are they didn't know me to see me, and took Jardine
for the minister, and me for the secretary, so they made off with poor Jardine. I wonder,
though, that they left me my dispatch case. And that reminds me; I'll want that back.
Diplomatic papers, you know."
I told him, very seriously, that we would have to check his credentials. I promised him I
would make every effort to locate his secretary and his servants and his coach, took a
complete description of all of them, and persuaded him to go into an upstairs room,
where I kept him under guard. I did start inquiries, calling in all my informers and spies,
but, as I expected, I could learn nothing. I could not find anybody, even, who had seen
him anywhere in Perleburg before he appeared at the Sword & Scepter, and that rather
surprised me, as somebody should have seen him enter the town, or walk along the street.
In this connection, let me remind your excellency of the discrepancy in the statements of
the servant, Franz Bauer, and of the two peasants. The former is certain the man entered
the inn yard from the street; the latter are just as positive that he did not. Your excellency,
I do not like such puzzles, for I am sure that all three were telling the truth to the best of
their knowledge. They are ignorant common folk, I admit, but they should know what
they did or did not see.

After I got the prisoner into safekeeping, I fell to examining his papers, and I can assure
your excellency that they gave me a shock. I had paid little heed to his ravings about the
King of France being dethroned, or about this General Bonaparte who called himself the
Emperor Napoleon, but I found all these things mentioned in his papers and dispatches,
which had every appearance of being official documents. There was repeated mention of
the taking, by the French, of Vienna, last May, and of the capitulation of the Austrian
Emperor to this General Bonaparte, and of battles being fought all over Europe, and I
don't know what other fantastic things. Your excellency, I have heard of all sorts of
madmen--one believing himself to be the Archangel Gabriel, or Mohammed, or a
werewolf, and another convinced that his bones are made of glass, or that he is pursued
and tormented by devils--but so help me God, this is the first time I have heard of a
madman who had documentary proof for his delusions! Does your excellency wonder,
then, that I want no part of this business?
But the matter of his credentials was even worse. He had papers, sealed with the seal of
the British Foreign Office, and to every appearance genuine--but they were signed, as
Foreign Minister, by one George Canning, and all the world knows that Lord Castlereagh
has been Foreign Minister these last five years. And to cap it all, he had a safe-conduct,
sealed with the seal of the Prussian Chancellery--the very seal, for I compared it, under a
strong magnifying glass, with one that I knew to be genuine, and they were
identical!--and yet, this letter was signed, as Chancellor, not by Count von Berchtenwald,
but by Baron Stein, the Minister of Agriculture, and the signature, as far as I could see,
appeared to be genuine! This is too much for me, your excellency; I must ask to be
excused from dealing with this matter, before I become as mad as my prisoner!
I made arrangements, accordingly, with Colonel Keitel, of the Third Uhlans, to furnish an
officer to escort this man into Berlin. The coach in which they come belongs to this
police station, and the driver is one of my men. He should be furnished expense money to
get back to Perleburg. The guard is a corporal of Uhlans, the orderly of the officer. He
will stay with the Herr Oberleutnant, and both of them will return here at their own
convenience and expense.
I have the honor, your excellency, to be, et cetera,