The Twin Lieutenants | Page 8

never doubt.
They doubted now--what? his good fortune.
They even blamed! and from whence had he first been censured? in his
army, in his guard, in his veterans.
Baylen, with its fatal capitulation, had dealt a terrible blow to his
renown.
Varus, at least, had been slain with the three legions he had asked of
Augustus: Varus had not surrendered.
Before quitting Valladolid even, Napoleon was instructed upon all
which Cambaceres had told him, and on more beside.
The evening of his departure, he had reviewed his grenadiers; he had
been informed that these praetorians murmured at his leaving them in

Spain; he wished to see all these old faces embrowned by the sun of
Italy and Egypt, to know if they had the audacity to be discontented.
He dismounted and passed their ranks on foot.
The grenadiers, mute and gloomy, presented arms; not a single cry of
"Vive l'Empereur!" was to be heard. One man muttered;
"Sire, in France!"
This is what Napoleon expected.
With an irresistible movement he snatched the gun from his hands and
drawing him from the ranks, said;
"Wretch! you deserve to be shot, and but little keeps me from doing it."
Then addressing the others, he added:
"Ah, I know how it is; you wish to return to Paris, to resume your
habits and your mistresses. Well, I will keep you under arms
twenty-four years!"
And he threw the gun back to the grenadier, who let it fall from grief.
In this moment of exasperation, he perceived General Legendre, one of
the signers of the capitulation of Baylen.
He went right up to him with a threatening eye.
The general stopped as if his feet had taken root in the ground.
"Your hand, general," said he.
The general held out his hand with hesitation.
"This hand," said the Emperor, regarding it, "how is it that it has not
withered by signing the capitulation of Baylen!"

And he threw it from him as he would have done that of a traitor.
The general who, in signing, had only obeyed superior orders, remained
thunderstruck.
Then Napoleon, mounting his horse, with flaming visage, had returned
to Valladolid from whence, as we have said, he started the following
day for France.
He was still in this frame of mind when the usher, again opening the
door, announced:
"His Excellency the Minister of Police."
And Fouche's pale face, more pallid from fear, appeared hesitatingly
upon the door-sill.
"Yes, sire," said Napoleon, "I can understand why you hesitate to
present yourself to me."
Fouche was one of those characters which recede before the unknown
danger, but who march to it, or await it, when it has taken a form.
"I, sire?" said he raising his head with its yellow hair, livid tint, sleepy
blue eyes and large mouth; "I, the former iron monger of Lyons, why
should I hesitate to present myself before your Majesty?"
"Because I am not a Louis XVI. !"
"Your Majesty makes allusion--and it is not the first time--to my vote
of the 19th January--"
"What if I do make allusion to that?"
"I answer then that, as deputy to the National Convention, I swore an
oath to the nation and not to the king; I kept my oath to the nation."
"And to whom did you make oath on the 13th Thermidor, the year VII.?
Was it to me?"

"No, sire."
"Why did you then serve me so well on the 18th Brumaire?"
"Does your Majesty recollect the saying of Louis XIV.: 'The State, it is
I?'"
"Yes, sir."
"Well, sire, on the 18th Brumaire, the nation was you; that is why I
served you."
"That did not prevent me, in 1803, from taking away the portfolio from
you."
"Your Majesty hoped to find a Minister of Police, if not more faithful,
at least more skilful, than I--He returned me my portfolio in 1804."
Napoleon made a few paces before the mantel, his head bowed upon
his breast, crushing in his hand the paper on which Josephine had
written some words.
"Who authorized you," demanded he, suddenly stopping, uplifting his
bead and fixing his falcon eye, as Dante says, upon his Minister of
Police, "who authorized you to speak of divorce to the Empress?"
If Fouche had not been too far from the light, one could have seen a
more livid tint than the first pass over his countenance.
"Sire," responded he, "I thought I knew that your Majesty ardently
desires divorce."
"Have I confided that desire to you?"
"I said I thought I knew, and I also thought it would be agreeable to
your Majesty to prepare the Empress for the sacrifice."
"Yes, brutally, according to your habit."

"Sire, one never changes his nature; I commenced by being perfect
among the Oratorians and by commanding unruly children: there