‘That can scarcely be, sir,’ said I, interrupting; ‘I know Kuffstein well I was two years a prisoner there; and, except by famine, the fortress is inaccessible.’
‘What! are you certain of this?’ cried he eagerly; ‘is there not one side on which escalade is possible?’
‘Quite impracticable on every quarter, believe me, sir. A hundred men of the line and twenty gunners might hold Kuffstein against the world.’
You hear what he says, Lefebvre,’ said Marmont to the officer; ‘I think I might venture to bring him up?’ The other shook his head doubtfully, and said nothing. ‘Well, announce me, then,’ said the marshal; ‘and, Tiernay, do you throw yourself on one of those sofas there, and wait for me.’
I did as I was bade, and, partly from the unusual fatigue, and in part from the warmth of a summer evening, soon fell off into a heavy sleep. I was suddenly awakened by a voice saying, ‘Come along, captain, be quick, your name has been called twice!’ I sprang up and looked about me, without the very vaguest notion of where I was. ‘Where to? Where am I going?’ asked I, in my confusion. ‘Follow that gentleman,’ was the brief reply; and so I did, in the same dreamy state that a sleep-walker might have done. Some confused impression that I was in attendance on General Marmont was all that I could collect, when I found myself standing in a great room densely crowded with officers of rank. Though gathered in groups and knots chatting, there was, from time to time, a sort of movement in the mass that seemed communicated by some single impulse; and then all would remain watchful and attentive for some seconds, their eyes turned in the direction of a large door at the end of the apartment. At last this was thrown suddenly open, and a number of persons entered, at whose appearance every tongue was hushed, and the very slightest gesture subdued. The crowd meanwhile fell back, forming a species of circle round the room, in front of which this newly entered group walked. I cannot now remember what struggling efforts I made to collect my faculties, and think where I was then standing; but if a thunderbolt had struck the ground before me, it could not have given me a more terrific shock than that I felt on seeing the Emperor himself address the general officer beside me.
I cannot pretend to have enjoyed many opportunities of royal notice. At the time I speak of, such distinction was altogether unknown to me; but even when most highly favoured in that respect, I have never been able to divest myself of a most crushing feeling of my inferiority—a sense at once so humiliating and painful, that I longed to be away and out of a presence where I might dare to look at him who addressed me, and venture on something beyond mere replies to interrogatories. This situation, good reader, with your courtly breeding and aplomb to boot, is never totally free of constraint; but imagine what it can be when, instead of standing in the faint sunshine of a royal smile, you find yourself cowering under the stern and relentless look of anger, and that anger an emperor’s.
This was precisely my predicament, for in my confusion I had not noticed how, as the Emperor drew near to any individual to converse, the others, at either side, immediately retired out of hearing, preserving an air of obedient attention, but without in any way obtruding themselves on the royal notice. The consequence was, that as his Majesty stood to talk with Marshal Oudinot, I maintained my place, never perceiving my awkwardness till I saw that I made one of three figures isolated in the floor of the chamber. To say that I had rather have stood in face of an enemy’s battery, is no exaggeration. I’d have walked up to a gun with a stouter heart than I felt at this terrible moment; and yet there was something in that sidelong glance of angry meaning that actually nailed me to the spot, and I could not have fallen back to save my life. There were, I afterwards learned, no end of signals and telegraphic notices to me from the officers-in-waiting. Gestures and indications for my guidance abounded, but I saw none of them. I had drawn myself up in an attitude of parade stiffness—neither looked right nor left—and waited as a criminal might have waited for the fall of the axe that was to end his sufferings for ever.
That the Emperor remained something like two hours and a half in conversation with the marshal, I should have been quite ready to verify on oath; but the simple fact was, that the interview occupied under four minutes, and then General Oudinot backed out of the presence, leaving me alone in front of his Majesty.
The silence of the chamber was quite dreadful, as, with his hands clasped behind his back, and his head slightly thrown forward, the Emperor stared steadily at me. I am more than half ashamed of the confession, but, what between the effect of long illness and suffering, the length of time I had been standing, and the emotion I experienced, I felt myself growing dizzy, and a sickly faintness began to creep over me, and, but for the support of my sabre, I should actually have fallen.
‘You seem weak; you had better sit down,’ said the Emperor, in a soft and mild voice.