The Complete Brigadier Gerard Stories (32 page)

‘You are Colonel Gerard?’ said the terrible old man.

‘I am.’

‘Aide-de-camp to the robber who calls himself General Suchet, who in turn represents that arch-robber Buonaparte?’

It was on my lips to tell him that he was a liar, but there is a time to argue and a time to be silent.

‘I am an honourable soldier,’ said I. ‘I have obeyed my orders and done my duty.’

The blood flushed into the old man’s face and his eyes blazed through his mask.

‘You are thieves and murderers, every man of you,’ he cried. ‘What are you doing here? You are Frenchmen. Why are you not in France? Did we invite you to Venice? By what right are you here? Where are our pictures? Where are the horses of St Mark? Who are you that you should pilfer those treasures which our fathers through so many centuries have collected? We were a great city when France was a desert. Your drunken, brawling, ignorant soldiers have undone the work of saints and heroes. What have you to say to it?’

He was, indeed, a formidable old man, for his white beard bristled with fury and he barked out the little sentences like a savage hound. For my part I could have told him that his pictures would be safe in Paris, that his horses were really not worth making a fuss about, and that he could see heroes––I say nothing of saints––without going back to his ancestors or even moving out of his chair. All this I could have pointed out, but one might as well argue with a Mamaluke about religion. I shrugged my shoulders and said nothing.

‘The prisoner has no defence,’ said one of my masked judges.

‘Has anyone any observation to make before judgment is passed?’ The old man glared round him at the others.

‘There is one matter, your excellency,’ said another. ‘It can scarce be referred to without re-opening a brother’s wounds, but I would remind you that there is a very particular reason why an exemplary punishment should be inflicted in the case of this officer.’

‘I had not forgotten it,’ the old man answered. ‘Brother, if the tribunal has injured you in one direction, it will give you ample satisfaction in another.’

The young man who had been pleading when I entered the room staggered to his feet.

‘I cannot endure it,’ he cried. ‘Your excellency must forgive me. The tribunal can act without me. I am ill. I am mad.’ He flung his hands out with a furious gesture and rushed from the room.

‘Let him go! Let him go!’ said the president. ‘It is, indeed, more than can be asked of flesh and blood that he should remain under this roof. But he is a true Venetian, and when the first agony is over he will understand that it could not be otherwise.’

I had been forgotten during this episode, and though I am not a man who is accustomed to being overlooked I should have been all the happier had they continued to neglect me. But now the old president glared at me again like a tiger who comes back to his victim.

‘You shall pay for it all, and it is but justice that you should,’ said he. ‘You, an upstart adventurer and foreigner, have dared to raise your eyes in love to the grand-daughter of a Doge of Venice who was already betrothed to the heir of the Loredans. He who enjoys such privileges must pay a price for them.’

‘It cannot be higher than they are worth,’ said I.

‘You will tell us that when you have made a part payment,’ said he. ‘Perhaps your spirit may not be so proud by that time. Matteo, you will lead this prisoner to the wooden cell. To-night is Monday. Let him have no food or water, and let him be led before the tribunal again on Wednesday night. We shall then decide upon the death which he is to die.’

It was not a pleasant prospect, and yet it was a reprieve. One is thankful for small mercies when a hairy savage with a blood-stained knife is standing at one’s elbow. He dragged me from the room and I was thrust down the stairs and back into my cell. The door was locked and I was left to my reflections.

My first thought was to establish connection with my neighbour in misfortune. I waited until the steps had died away, and then I cautiously drew aside the two boards and peeped through. The light was very dim, so dim that I could only just discern a figure huddled in the corner, and I could hear the low whisper of a voice which prayed as one prays who is in deadly fear. The boards must have made a creaking. There was a sharp exclamation of surprise.

‘Courage, friend, courage!’ I cried. ‘All is not lost. Keep a stout heart, for Etienne Gerard is by your side.’

‘Etienne!’ It was a woman’s voice which spoke––a voice which was always music to my ears. I sprang through the gap and I flung my arms round her. ‘Lucia! Lucia!’ I cried.

It was ‘Etienne!’ and ‘Lucia!’ for some minutes, for one does not make speeches at moments like that. It was she who came to her senses first.

‘Oh, Etienne, they will kill you. How came you into their hands?’

‘In answer to your letter.’

‘I wrote no letter.’

‘The cunning demons! But you?’

‘I came also in answer to your letter.’

‘Lucia, I wrote no letter.’

‘They have trapped us both with the same bait.’

‘I care nothing about myself, Lucia. Besides, there is no pressing danger with me. They have simply returned me to my cell.’

‘Oh, Etienne, Etienne, they will kill you. Lorenzo is there.’

‘The old greybeard?’

‘No, no, a young dark man. He loved me, and I thought I loved him until … until I learned what love is, Etienne. He will never forgive you. He has a heart of stone.’

‘Let them do what they like. They cannot rob me of the past, Lucia. But you––what about you?’

‘It will be nothing, Etienne. Only a pang for an instant and then all over. They mean it as a badge of infamy, dear, but I will carry it like a crown of honour since it was through you that I gained it.’

Her words froze my blood with horror. All my adventures were insignificant compared to this terrible shadow which was creeping over my soul.

‘Lucia! Lucia!’ I cried. ‘For pity’s sake tell me what these butchers are about to do. Tell me, Lucia! Tell me!’

‘I will not tell you, Etienne, for it would hurt you far more than it would me. Well, well, I will tell you lest you should fear it was something worse. The president has ordered that my ear be cut off, that I may be marked for ever as having loved a Frenchman.’

Her ear! The dear little ear which I had kissed so often. I put my hand to each little velvet shell to make certain that this sacrilege had not yet been committed. Only over my dead body should they reach them. I swore it to her between my clenched teeth.

‘You must not care, Etienne. And yet I love that you should care all the same.’

‘They shall not hurt you––the fiends!’

‘I have hopes, Etienne. Lorenzo is there. He was silent while I was judged, but he may have pleaded for me after I was gone.’

‘He did. I heard him.’

‘Then he may have softened their hearts.’

I knew that it was not so, but how could I bring myself to tell her? I might as well have done so, for with the quick instinct of woman my silence was speech to her.

‘They would not listen to him! You need not fear to tell me, dear, for you will find that I am worthy to be loved by such a soldier. Where is Lorenzo now?’

‘He left the hall.’

‘Then he may have left the house as well.’

‘I believe that he did.’

‘He has abandoned me to my fate. Etienne, Etienne, they are coming!’

Afar off I heard those fateful steps and the jingle of distant keys. What were they coming for now, since there were no other prisoners to drag to judgment? It could only be to carry out the sentence upon my darling. I stood between her and the door, with the strength of a lion in my limbs. I would tear the house down before they should touch her.

‘Go back! Go back!’ she cried. ‘They will murder you, Etienne. My life, at least, is safe. For the love you bear me, Etienne, go back. It is nothing. I will make no sound. You will not hear that it is done.’

She wrestled with me, this delicate creature, and by main force she dragged me to the opening between the cells. But a sudden thought had crossed my mind.

‘We may yet be saved,’ I whispered. ‘Do what I tell you at once and without argument. Go into my cell. Quick!’

I pushed her through the gap and helped her to replace the planks. I had retained her cloak in my hands, and with this wrapped round me I crept into the darkest corner of her cell. There I lay when the door was opened and several men came in. I had reckoned that they would bring no lantern, for they had none with them before. To their eyes I was only a dark blur in the corner.

‘Bring a light,’ said one of them.

‘No, no; curse it!’ cried a rough voice, which I knew to be that of the ruffan Matteo. ‘It is not a job that I like, and the more I saw it the less I should like it. I am sorry, signora, but the order of the tribunal has to be obeyed.’

My impulse was to spring to my feet and to rush through them all and out by the open door. But how would that help Lucia? Suppose that I got clear away, she would be in their hands until I could come back with help, for single-handed I could not hope to clear a way for her. All this flashed through my mind in an instant, and I saw that the only course for me was to lie still, take what came, and wait my chance. The fellow’s coarse hand felt about among my curls––those curls in which only a woman’s fingers had ever wandered. The next instant he gripped my ear and a pain shot through me as if I had been touched with a hot iron. I bit my lip to stifle a cry, and I felt the blood run warm down my neck and back.

‘There, thank Heaven, that’s over,’ said the fellow, giving me a friendly pat on the head. ‘You’re a brave girl, signora, I’ll say that for you, and I only wish you’d have better taste than to love a Frenchman. You can blame him and not me for what I have done.’

What could I do save to lie still and grind my teeth at my own helplessness? At the same time my pain and my rage were always soothed by the reflection that I had suffered for the woman whom I loved. It is the custom of men to say to ladies that they would willingly endure any pain for their sake, but it was my privilege to show that I had said no more than I meant. I thought also how nobly I would seem to have acted if ever the story came to be told, and how proud the regiment of Conflans might well be of their colonel. These thoughts helped me to suffer in silence
while the blood still trickled over my neck and dripped upon the stone floor. It was that sound which nearly led to my destruction.

‘She’s bleeding fast,’ said one of the valets. ‘You had best fetch a surgeon or you will find her dead in the morning.’

‘She lies very still and she has never opened her mouth,’ said another. ‘The shock has killed her.’

‘Nonsense; a young woman does not die so easily.’ It was Matteo who spoke. ‘Besides, I did but snip off enough to leave the tribunal’s mark upon her. Rouse up, signora, rouse up!’

He shook me by the shoulder, and my heart stood still for fear he should feel the epaulette under the mantle.

‘How is it with you now?’ he asked.

I made no answer.

‘Curse it, I wish I had to do with a man instead of a woman, and the fairest woman in Venice,’ said the gondolier. ‘Here, Nicholas, lend me your handkerchief and bring a light.’

It was all over. The worst had happened. Nothing could save me. I still crouched in the corner, but I was tense in every muscle, like a wild cat about to spring. If I had to die I was determined that my end should be worthy of my life.

One of them had gone for a lamp and Matteo was stooping over me with a handkerchief. In another instant my secret would be discovered. But he suddenly drew himself straight and stood motionless. At the same instant there came a confused murmuring sound through the little window far above my head. It was the rattle of oars and the buzz of many voices. Then there was a crash upon the door upstairs, and a terrible voice roared: ‘Open! Open in the name of the Emperor!’

The Emperor! It was like the mention of some saint which, by its very sound, can frighten the demons. Away they ran with cries of terror––Matteo, the valets, the steward, all of the murderous gang. Another shout and then the crash of a hatchet and the splintering of planks. There were the rattle of arms and the cries of French
soldiers in the hall. Next instant feet came flying down the stair and a man burst frantically into my cell.

‘Lucia!’ he cried, ‘Lucia!’ He stood in the dim light, panting and unable to find his words. Then he broke out again. ‘Have I not shown you how I love you, Lucia? What more could I do to prove it? I have betrayed my country, I have broken my vow, I have ruined my friends, and I have given my life in order to save you.’

It was young Lorenzo Loredan, the lover whom I had superseded. My heart was heavy for him at the time, but after all it is every man for himself in love, and if one fails in the game it is some consolation to lose to one who can be a graceful and considerate winner. I was about to point this out to him, but at the first word I uttered he gave a shout of astonishment, and, rushing out, he seized the lamp which hung in the corridor and flashed it in my face.

‘It is you, you villain!’ he cried. ‘You French coxcomb. You shall pay me for the wrong which you have done me.’

But the next instant he saw the pallor of my face and the blood which was still pouring from my head.

‘What is this?’ he asked. ‘How come you to have lost your ear?’

I shook off my weakness, and pressing my handkerchief to my wound I rose from my couch, the debonair colonel of Hussars.

‘My injury, sir, is nothing. With your permission we will not allude to a matter so trifling and so personal.’

But Lucia had burst through from her cell and was pouring out the whole story while she clasped Lorenzo’s arm.

‘This noble gentleman – he has taken my place, Lorenzo! He has borne it for me. He has suffered that I might be saved.’

I could sympathize with the struggle which I could see in the Italian’s face. At last he held out his hand to me.

‘Colonel Gerard,’ he said, ‘you are worthy of a great love. I forgive you, for if you have wronged me you have made a noble atonement. But I wonder to see you alive. I left the tribunal before you were judged, but I understood that no mercy would be shown to
any Frenchman since the destruction of the ornaments of Venice.’