three
such men called together into one room. You cannot see the lettuce and
dressing without suspecting a salad.

'Name of a pipe!' said Tremeau, in his barrack-room fashion. 'Are we
then expecting three champions of the Bourbons?'

To all of us the idea appeared not improbable. Certainly in the whole
army we were the very three who might have been chosen to meet them.

'The Prince of Neufchatel desires to speak with the Brigadier Gerard,'
said a footman, appearing at the door.

In I went, leaving my two companions consumed with impatience behind me.
It was a small room, but very gorgeously furnished. Berthier was seated
opposite to me at a little table, with a pen in his hand and a note-book
open before him. He was looking weary and slovenly--very different from
that Berthier who used to give the fashion to the army, and who had so
often set us poorer officers tearing our hair by trimming his pelisse
with fur one campaign, and with grey astrakhan the next. On his
clean-shaven, comely face there was an expression of trouble, and he
looked at me as I entered his chamber in a way which had in it something
furtive and displeasing.

'Chief of Brigade Gerard!' said he.

'At your service, your Highness!' I answered.

'I must ask you, before I go further, to promise me, upon your honour as
a gentleman and a soldier, that what is about to pass between us shall
never be mentioned to any third person.'

My word, this was a fine beginning! I had no choice but to give the
promise required.

'You must know, then, that it is all over with the Emperor,' said he,
looking down at the table and speaking very slowly, as if he had a hard
task in getting out the words. 'Jourdan at Rouen and Marmont at Paris
have both mounted the white cockade, and it is rumoured that Talleyrand
has talked Ney into doing the same. It is evident that further
resistance is useless, and that it can only bring misery upon our
country. I wish to ask you, therefore, whether you are prepared to join
me in laying hands upon the Emperor's person, and bringing the war to a
conclusion by delivering him over to the allies?'

I assure you that when I heard this infamous proposition put forward by
the man who had been the earliest friend of the Emperor, and who had
received greater favours from him than any of his followers, I could
only stand and stare at him in amazement. For his part he tapped his
pen-handle against his teeth, and looked at me with a slan