‘All right, I agree. But it’s going to cost Joseph dear! They’re going to have to pay my wages for the end of 1812, for 1813 and for the beginning of 1814, with interest on top!’
‘Thank you, Fernand! But then who will have access to the police reports?’
‘That will still be me. I’ll just make sure that it is impossible to follow me when I go to see Natai.’
‘Very good. All you have to do is to be seen with me from time to time and the Swords of the King will soon notice you. Let’s take stock. How far, in fact, have the police got?’
‘I read a copy of the report from the inspectors of the civilian police in charge of investigating Berle’s death. Their inquiry - interrogations of the servants, friends and relatives, verification of his fortune, and reading his correspondence - has revealed nothing. No liaison, debts, no enemies so annoyed with him that they would mutilate him and assassinate him ...’
‘Why do you put it in that order when we know he was burnt after
death? Haven’t the inspectors of the general police discovered that?’
‘No.’
‘Have they finally heard that there was a royalist emblem pinned to the victim?’
‘Not that either.’
‘Joseph has divided the investigation in two, and only we know both parts.’
‘It’s us he’s counting on,’ said Lefine. ‘As we thought, nothing of value was taken. The only things that disappeared were the colonel’s notes on the defence of Paris. The civilian police have ruled out the possibility of a privately motivated crime and have reached the conclusion that the murderer or murderers were royalist partisans. The inspectors have reached the point where we started.’
Margont told him what he had discovered that day. Then he tossed the button to Lefine with a challenging look. Lefine caught it, clapping his hands. He examined it carefully, turning it over slowly close to his eyes.
‘It’s a military button ... There’s a number or a letter, or several ... It’s too worn to see ...’
He looked disappointed. The button hid the solution to an enigma, but was like a nut they were unable to crack.
‘So you also think it’s the button from a uniform,’ said Margont. ‘But hundreds of soldiers wear uniforms with decorated gold buttons. The foot artillery of the Imperial Guard have buttons that are decorated with two crossed cannon barrels surmounted by the imperial eagle. The grenadiers of the Old Guard also have the imperial eagle on theirs. Our friend Jean-Quenin still has his button from 1798, even though it’s no longer regulation, and it has the words “Military hospitals” and then “Humanity” with a Phrygian cap above it. His other buttons have a staff entwined with a serpent surmounted by the mirror of prudence and surrounded by an oak branch and a laurel branch. Customs-house officers are similarly decorated, but I don’t know the exact details. The light infantry have the number of their regiment inscribed inside a
hunting horn. Normally they’re silver, but I can’t be certain that there aren’t any light regiments who have gold buttons. Just as the infantry of the line is supposed to have gold buttons but several regiments have silver ones. And I have no idea about other buttons - the navy, for example, or the engineers ...’
‘We don’t get paid but we all have these expensive uniforms. Why can’t all soldiers have the same buttons? And anyway, the regulations for uniforms are not always respected. Each regiment has its own foibles and traditions and variations according to what comes to hand. If Saber suddenly says, “I want all my soldiers to have uniform buttons with the number of our legion in roman numerals preceded by an ‘S’ for Saber,” we’d all have to pay for them from the little money we have left...’
‘Perhaps we’re barking up the wrong tree. Perhaps it’s the button from an expensive civilian suit. I don’t know what a count or a baron would have worn under the
ancien regime
... You’ve got so many contacts, do you know anyone who could help us?’
‘I know the perfect person. I have a friend who works in the
commissariat. If anyone knows about military buttons, he does.’ ‘I’m relying on you. Then there’s the fire - what clues can we draw from that?’
Margont brandished a Bible. Lefine remembered being dragged, in tears - of rage! - to church by his father who hoped that God would put the little miscreant back on the straight and narrow. Ever since, he had given the Holy Scriptures as wide a berth as possible. Margont, on the other hand, was turning the pages with the practised ease of a preacher. ‘Job, chapter l, verse 16: “While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, ‘The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.””
His fingers flicked back a bit further. ‘Leviticus, chapter 10, verses l and 2: “And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them,
and they died before the Lord/”
Lefine felt uncomfortable. He did not believe in Cod. But if He did in fact exist and if the Bible was His word, He did not seem exactly ‘the God of bounty and love’ which He was usually taken to be ... Margont, undeterred, went on and his apparently random quotes started to form a coherent and unsettling whole.
‘Deuteronomy, chapter 5, verses 23 and 24: “And it came to pass, when ye heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, (for the mountain did burn with fire,) that ye came near unto me, even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders; And ye said, ‘Behold, the Lord our Cod hath shewed us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire: we have seen this day that God doth talk with man, and he liveth.”’
‘Isaiah, chapter 66, verses 15 and 16: “For, behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh: and the slain of the Lord shall be many/”
More pages turned. The more the passages mounted up the more impact they made as if each were a fire, which, added to all the others, formed a blazing inferno.
‘Jeremiah, chapter 5, verse 14: “Wherefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts, because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.”
‘And finally, of course, Revelation, chapter 8, verse 5: “And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.” What do you conclude from all that?’ ‘That I prefer to think about the button ...’
Margont slammed the Bible closed. ‘Fire has a double symbolism in the Holy Scriptures. It is either a positive force, the incarnation of the Word of God, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God ... Or, it’s the opposite, the illustration of his all-powerfulness, the instrument of his anger, the Anger of God ... And supposing Jean-Baptiste de Chatel believes he’s been charged with a divine
mission? To overcome the Antichrist, Napoleon, with fire.’
‘But what exactly is the Antichrist?’
‘A man in the pay of the devil. He starts off quietly, then launches into a frenetic series of conquests. “He shall subdue three kings” - according to Daniel - and will himself become a king. His power will grow still greater and will spread “over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations,” as Revelation says.’
There are strange similarities, actually ... coincidences ... but that’s all that would be needed to stir up a religious fanatic.’
‘He will wage war on God and the Church - Napoleon annexed the pontifical states to the Empire and, by his order, Pius VII spent almost five years in a supervised residence, at Savone, then at Fontainebleau. He will try to pass himself off as a god. But his reign will not last. God will easily and rapidly overturn it. Most of that comes from Revelation, also known as the Apocalypse of St John, because it’s the coming of the Antichrist that sets off the Apocalypse.’
He paused for a moment before going calmly on: ‘Jean-Baptiste
Chatel seems to want to follow the Bible to the letter. Because of that, when I immerse myself in the Bible it’s as if I can read his thoughts ... If you think about it, it’s hardly surprising that he has nothing in his head except for the Holy Scriptures. He spent several years imprisoned by the Inquisition with only the Bible for company.’
‘So you think that’s the “third plan” - to assassinate the Emperor with flames?’
‘Aren’t the damned supposed to burn in hell? It’s a suggestion. Chatel would have mystical motives but the other members might support it for political reasons. However, there is someone else who might well be influenced by the Bible ...’
‘Who’s that?’
‘Louis de Leaume. Like all aristocrats, his childhood would have been steeped in religion. His family must have taken him to church, spoken of Cod, quoted the Bible ... I don’t know how much importance he attached to his faith at the time. But later he was in a way dead, and then brought to life again. He pulled
himself out from amongst the dead ... It’s unimaginable that he would not have made a connection between his resurrection and that of Christ. So the question is: what sort of connection exactly? Did he just see it as a coincidence? Or a sign from God? Did it tip him into religious fanaticism as well?’
‘One should never mix religion and politics ...’
‘How right you are.’
‘Alas, not right enough, obviously. How did you find all those passages in the Bible? You couldn’t have read it all.’
‘I spent part of my nights reading it. But I was able to find the parts I wanted quite easily because I know it well. My years of apprenticeship in the monastery have proved very useful.’
As far as Lefine was concerned, Margont’s religious training constituted a useless episode from his past, a splinter he had given up trying to remove from Margont’s soul. Margont, on the other hand, drew great strength from it, more than he would have liked to admit.
‘I’m sure we haven’t explored the fire connection sufficiently,’ concluded Margont. ‘We’re going to have to find another way of approaching this investigation ...’
They agreed to meet the next day and Lefine left.
He had not been gone many minutes when there was a knock at the door. Margont grabbed a pistol and pointed it straight in front of him.
‘It’s me again,’ Lefine called.
Margont opened the door and Lefine crashed into him, pushed from behind by several people. The little room was suddenly overcrowded. There was Louis de Leaume, Jean-Baptiste de Chatel and Honoré de Nolant, as well as two other men whom Margont did not know. They were all armed and Margont’s pistol was immediately seized, much to Vicomte de Leaume’s delight.
Lefine declared: ‘I brought a few friends ...’
LOUIS de Leaume was exultant, as if he and Margont were playing a game of chess and he had just checked his adversary. ‘Who is this man?’ he asked Margont, pointing at Lefine.
‘My name is Fernand Lami, Monsieur le Vicomte,’ the latter replied. ‘I know everything and I’m one of you.’
Jean-Baptiste de Chatel smiled ironically. ‘Oh, but you don’t know everything ...’
Margont noticed that this comment annoyed Louis de Leaume, and took it as another sign that the group was preparing a third plan, which he had not been told about. Lefine kept his cool.
‘I’ve known Monsieur le Chevalier de Langes for many years. We served in the same regiments, the 18th and then the 84th. Facing death together inevitably forges bonds ... You want a return to the monarchy? So do l! Not for the same reasons, but so what?’
‘And what are your reasons?’
‘I want an end to war so that I can leave the army and work for
Monsieur de Langes, as he’s promised me. I’m going to look after the forests on his future lands! A well-paid but not too taxing job. Perhaps my ambitions are small, but that is my dream.’
‘You hid him from us,’ Louis de Leaume told Margont.
He seemed unwilling to address someone of the lower classes. That irritated Margont but he knew he had to take it in his stride and pretend to find it normal.
‘But Monsieur le Vicomte, you hid those men from me.’ He indicated the two unknown men who had started to search the room. They lifted up the mattress, turned the pages of the books, moved things around, emptied the trunk ...
‘They’re other members of our group—’ began Louis de Leaume. ‘We haven’t time for that!’ interrupted Jean-Baptiste de Chatel. Margont felt that Chatel was playing a tactical game. He continually provoked Vicomte de Leaume. If the latter should lose his temper he would discredit himself - who would want a leader incapable of controlling himself? But if he did not react, he would gradually lose his authority because it would look as if he were
unable to oppose Chatel. The Swords of the King were not a homogenous group, but a fragile coalition, perpetually on the verge of splitting apart.
Honoré de Nolant searched Lefine. He found a knife and a pistol, which he placed on the floor. As he patted Lefine down, he felt something in a pocket. He pulled out the gold button and looked at it, but put it back without comment. Margont was searched by Chatel, who then said to him, ‘Chevalier, you won’t mind if we go straight away to your print works?’