Castle to Castle (39 page)

Suppose you're a king . . . your people eat, drink, go to church, and leave you alone . . . all of a sudden fireworks on all sides! . . . they knock over your Bastille . . . and wipe out your regime! . . . Pont-Neuf, Grand Army, and all! you've said one little word too many! all it takes to break that "perfectly natural" charm! . . .

Without boasting, I can say that I watched my step . . . not a faux pas! I led them away as if it were the most natural thing in the world . . . Delaunys, his wife and Lili . . . we left the
Löwen
in plain sight of the
shuppo
. . .
Raumnitz befehl!
hush hush! . . . he salutes . . . okay! . . . direct to the Castle! we take the elevator . . . first Madame Mitre . . . actually she's the one that counts . . . I explain the case . . . the two of them are at the door, waiting for me . . . Madame Mitre understands right away . . . "You know how it is, Doctor, the Ambassador right now!"

It was always "the Ambassador right now" for one reason or another! This was a particularly bad time, his wife née Ulmann had just phoned from Constance that he should do this . . . do that . . . oh, Madame nee Ulmann was a power! the story was that she was opposed to her husband's policies . . . pure hokum, according to Pellepoix° who knew them well, they bickered for the gallery, but they both belonged to the "Great Conspiracy!" . . . possible . . . but in the end one thing is sure, he was drilled, she wasn't . . .

I've told you, Brinon was always perfectly regular with me . . . not cordial, no! . . . but regular . . . he might have been put out with me for not having "superb morale," for not writing in
La France
that Boche victory was around the corner . . . for speaking very freely . . . not playing the game . . . what game was he playing? I never found out! . . . the fact remains that he never asked me any questions . . . he could have . . . I was a doctor and that's that! . . . oh, I practiced all right! I knew every passage, every blind alley and attic in that Hohenzollern fortress! bringing the good word to this one and that one . . . Subject of politics, Brinon left me alone . . . that's unusual! . . . mostly the bigshots in the double game aren't satisfied unless you wave your arms and really get yourself hooked . . . occasionally we exchanged a few words on the subject of letters from Berlin, from the Chancellery . . . mentioning medicine . . . and things I had said at one time or another . . .

"What do you think, Monsieur de Brinon?"

"Nothing . . . I'm reading you the letters from Berlin . . . that's all. . ."

As Bonnard said, Brinon was a cave animal . . . gloomy and secretive . . . you couldn't get anything out of him . . . all the same, six months hefore the end, I went to see him about some ointment . . . sulphur and mercury . . . "Oh, Doctor, come along in six months it will all be over" . . . I didn't ask him which way . . . he never said anything about anything.

Anyway, with my raggedy Delaunys, it wasn't exactly the right time . . .

"What do you want of the Ambassador, Doctor?"

To let them stay in the Castle, because if they go back to the
Löwen
you know von Raumnitz? . . ."

Of course she knew him . . . and his little ways . . . I didn't go into details . . . neither did she . . . she knew all about it . . .

I dive right in . . . bull by the horns . . .

"I'll take them up to the music room . . . they'll behave . . . I vouch for them . . . they'll rehearse . . . I'll bed them down . . . they won't move . . . they'll sleep up there . . . Lili will bring them their
Stam
. . . Lili dances up there . . . I'll tell the servants, I'll tell Bridoux, I'll tell everybody it's for the big Celebration . . . all right? . . ."

Madame Mitre hadn't heard . . .

"What big celebration?"

"Oh, it's his idea . . . the banquet for the 'Retaking of the Ardennes!'"

Madame Mitre doesn't get it . . . she looks at me . . . have I gone off my rocker too?

"No, Madame Mitre . . . no . . . that's the pretext! . . . My mind's all right, but he believes in this Celebration! he's dead sure . . . and sure that he'll be promoted to concert master . . . it's his dream . . . Monsieur Langouvé has promised him . . .. you understand?"

She begins to catch on . . .

"But listen to me, Madame Mitre . . . if I take them back to the
Löwen
. . ."

Oh, she understands that . . .

"You know how they were treated in Cissen? beaten to a pulp . . . so you see . . . he isn't quite right . . . concussion! . . . at his age! . . . just take a look at his head! . . ."

"Oh, Doctor, I believe you . . . very well, I'll tell Monsieur de Brinon there's an orchestra rehearsing . . . for a benefit performance . . ."

"Fine . . . certainly . . . thank you, Madame Mitre! . . . hardly anybody goes up there . . . nobody but Bridoux . . . and the servants . . . it's too cold . . . if anybody asks, I'll say: it's the retaking of the Ardennes . . . the big celebration . . . good-by, Madame Mitre . . ."

So I climb my people up to the seventh floor, Delaunys, his wife, Lili . . . Delaunys and his wife are scratching even worse than we are . . . they'd reinforced their scabies out there . . . I've seen plenty of scabies, but the insects they brought back from the camp and the brush! . . . real flesh plows! . . . galloping scabies! . . . in addition to their bruises and blotches, they were living Chinese puzzles, checkerboards of scabies

"Haven't you any ointment, Doctor?"

"No, but we'll have some soon, Madame!"

I comfort her . . . I don't want them to stop scratching, to stand still and think . . . the idea was to keep them moving . . . get them up those stairs . . . We made it! . . . here we are! the spacious concert hall . . . "Hall of Neptune" they called it . . .

"Oh, very nice! oh, splendid!"

They keep exclaiming . . . he's delighted . . .

"And excellent acoustics, I hope?"

"Admirable, Monsieur Delaunys!"

Indeed, the Hohenzollern princes hadn't stinted . . . the hall was a good six hundred feet long, all draped in pink and gray brocade . . . and down there on the stage at the end the porphyry statue of Neptune . . . brandishing his trident! . . . terrific! . . . standing in an enormous shell . . . alabaster and granite . . .

I've got it! . . . the idea came to me instantly!

"How about it, Delaunys? . . . Monsieur de Brinon has given his permission . . . you won't have to go out . . . you'll sleep in the shell! . . . over there! both of you! . . . you see? . . . no need to go out! . . . they'd pick you up and send you to Cissen! . . . they'd take you back! . . . I'll bring you blankets! . . . nobody'll see you! . . . you'll be a lot better off than at the
Fidelis!
. . ."

They were only too glad to believe me . . .

"Certainly, Doctor! Certainly!"

"And you'll bring us some ointment?"

"Oh yes, Madame . . . tomorrow morning!"

So that's the story . . .

Just then Bridoux comes through! . . . General Bridoux in his boots and spurs! . . . resplendent! . . . he crossed the hall from end to end at lunchtime . . . to the ministers' table . . . one two! one! two! . . . every day at the stroke of noon! and every day at the stroke of noon he made the same observation . . . "Get out of here!" He couldn't stand seeing Lili dance in this hall! so closed-in! . . . not brutal but authoritarian! . . . outside she had the terraces! and what terraces! . . . the air, the view of the whole valley! . . . Minister of War and cavalry general! . . . "Get out of here!" . . .

As for him, he had escaped from Berlin . . . "Get out of here!" from the Russians . . . later escaped from the Val de Grace from the Fifis . . . "Get out of here!" . . . and ended up in Madrid . . . "Get out of here!" . . . That's life in a nutshell . . .

One thing anyway, I had found a place for the Delaunys . . . they spent about a month in Neptune's shell . . . Lili brought them their
Stam
. . . they slept in blankets she brought from the
Löwen
. . . they got along fine with Bridoux . . . they went out on the terraces to please him . . . Later on things happened . . . a lot of things . . . I'll tell you.

I leave Lili at work . . . rehearsing her dances with the Delaunys, her pieces for the Celebration . . . its no joke any more . . . all "perfectly natural"! . . . chaconnes, passe-pieds, rigadoons! . . . after a while we got very serious about it . . . don't tip the kettle . . . don't let the devils out! the "Retaking of the Ardennes"? Certainly! all the ambassadors will be there! . . . of course! the triumph of Rundstedt's army? Oh la la! triumph is putting it mildly!

As for ambassadors, only one . . . the Japanese . . . and a single consul, the Italian . . . maybe in a pinch the one from Vichy . . . who'd escaped from Dresden? . . . and the German Ambassador? Hoffmann? . . . accredited to Brinon . . . Otto Abetz° still gave little "surprise parties" now and then . . . oh, all very harmless and innocent . . . Without prejudging the future but taking the past into account, the Chancellery of the Greater Reich had worked out a certain mode of existence for the French in Siegmaringen, neither absolutely fictitious nor absolutely real . . . a fictitious status, half way between quarantine and operetta, elaborated by Monsieur Sixte, our great legal expert at the Foreign Ministry in Berlin, who had drawn on every possible precedent: the Revocation of the Edicts, the Palatinate, the Huguenots, the War of the Spanish Succession . . . finally we were granted the "conditional, exceptional, and precarious" status of "refugees in a French enclave" . . . Visible marks of our status were our stamps (portrait of Pétain), his
Milice
in uniform, and our unfurled flag on high! and our clarion reveille! . . . but our "exceptional enclave" was itself an enclave in Prusso-Baden territory . . . and watch yourself! this territory itself was an enclave in South Württemberg! Just to give you an idea . . . The total unity of Germany dates from Hitler and not so very unified at that! for instance: there were trains going from Germany to Switzerland that crossed the border ten times, the same one, in fifteen minutes . . .
länder
, loops, hamlets, riverbeds . . . hell . . . I go on and on . . .

One way or another, we were short on ambassadors for this celebration . . . make do with Japan? . . . of course we could invite Abetz . . . as ambassador of what? . . . Abetz went around in a wood-burning car . . . you were always running into him . . . three hundred yards: breakdown . . . another three hundred yards: another breakdown! . . . his big noggin slashed and battered! . . . bubbling with ideas, all of them wrong . . . everybody in Paris knew Abetz, I didn't know him very well . . . no sympathy . . . really nothing to say to each other . . . practically any time you saw him he was surrounded by "clients" . . . courtiers . . . courtier-clients from every Court! . . . the same ones or their brothers! you can drop in on Mendès . . . Churchill, Nasser, or Khrushchev . . . always the same people or their brothers! Versailles, Kremlin, Vel d'Hiv, Auction Rooms . . . Laval! de Gaulle! . . . you'll see . . . gray eminences, punks, shady characters, Academists or Third Estate, pluri-sexuals, rigorists or proxenetists, eaters of hosts or piddle-bread, you'll find them forever sybilline, reborn from century to century! . . . that's the continuity of Power! . . . you're looking for some little poison? . . . some document? . . . that big chandelier? . . . or that little dressing table? . . . that rolypoly groom? . . . yours! . . . one wink, and it's fixed! . . . On his return from Clichy (Dagobert's court) Agobert, bishop of Lyons, already (632) complained that the Court was a sink! a den of thieves and whores! . . . Agobert of Lyons! . . . he should come back in 3060 . . . thieves and whores! hell find the same! Don't doubt it . . . Groom-Eminences and Court hookers!

I'm taking you away from Siegmaringen . . . my head's a puzzle! . . . I was telling you about the street in Siegmaringen . . .
shuppos
. . . but not just
shuppos!
. . . soldiers of every rank and branch of service . . . chucked out of the station . . . the wounded of disbanded regiments . . . units of Swabian, Magyar, Saxon divisions cut to pieces in Russia . . . cadres from God knows where . . . officers of Balkan armies looking for their generals . . . flummoxed . . . same as you could see right here during the big Schelde-Bayonne "shellac steeplechase" . . . addled colonels . . . Soubises without lanterns° . . . you saw them outside shop windows staring in, as if they were looking for somebody inside . . . pretending . . . Abetz in his woodburner stopped every three hundred yards . . . he couldn't have failed to notice that Adolf's army was in a very bad way . . . Abetz never spoke to me . . . I saw him go by, he didn't see me . . . if his car had broken down, he looked in some other direction . . . okay! . . . and then one morning he stopped me . . .