‘Yes,’ I replied, ‘and I read in all the newspapers that you made that journey of three hundred and twenty leagues [about nine hundred and sixty miles] in four days and a half.’
‘That’s easily explained. As far as Strasburg, I had the race-horses of the prince, and from the Austrian frontier I had the horses of his brother, Prince Joseph, from stage to stage, as far as Vienna.
‘I’ll spare you the particulars of my stay in Paris. It was a perfect whirl of excitement from beginning to end. Society was the brilliant reflex of the astounding prosperity of France, of her numerous victories, and her enthusiasm for everything pertaining to art. Our Austrian legation met with a specially cordial welcome. It was a succession of entertainments similar to those you are seeing here, but with different capitals for their locale. After having accompanied Prince Schwartzenberg a second time, but on that occasion to St. Petersburg, I exchanged the delightful life of society and drawing-rooms for that of the barracks of my regiment, then quartered at Buda. The transition could not have been more startling if I had retired into a Trappist monastery, when suddenly the whole of Europe breathed fire and flame.
‘I was thirty-four years old, and although the first days of my youth were not idly spent, chance has done more for me during the latter period than I had reason to expect. My mind was soon made up. I decided to go to the spot where the fire raged most fiercely, to embark upon a life so entirely at variance with my former habits. I was living with Baron de ——, a friend of my childhood, who was a major in my regiment, and who like myself was calculating the few chances of rapid promotion in the Austrian service.
‘“This,” I said to him one morning, “is a unique opportunity to provide for the future. Let us go to the Russians and offer them our swords as partisans. This bids fair to be an easy and lucrative campaign, likely to lead to many things by its quickly succeeding phases. Besides, it is sometimes sweet to embark in adventures, and to trust everything to fate. As for me, I have made up my mind to go. Will you, too, come?”[22]
‘The decision of a moment in one’s life often shapes the rest of it. My friend hesitated and left me to go alone. Alas, his regrets proved too much for him.’[23]
‘Yes,’ I replied, ‘I know he regretted it. The regret was intensified by the news of your success, which the papers published in all its detail. He practically lost his head over it, for on no other theory can one account for his suicide, which, curiously enough, happened while I was at Pesth, on my return from Constantinople. He blew out his brains in a room next to my own at the inn where I was staying, and I was told that despair and tardy regret had led him to commit the deed.’
‘No one has regretted this more than I,’ said Tettenborn, ‘for he was a devoted friend as well as a distinguished officer. I have not the least doubt that circumstances would have served him as well as they did me, but one must go with the tide in order that the tide may carry you. When I reached the Russian headquarters, I received orders to raise a regiment. That was soon done, and they gave me the command of it. Three months after I left Buda, I was a general, and empowered to grant commissions equal in grade to that which I held when I turned my back upon my garrison. The papers, perhaps, informed you how I got hold of the private chest of Napoleon. A part of that immense loot came to my share. An attempt to take Berlin by surprise, though it failed, brought my name to the front. At the head of four regiments of cavalry, of two squadrons of hussars, and of an equal number of dragoons, with only two pieces of artillery, I marched on Hamburg. After several engagements, the city surrendered on the 18th March 1813. The inhabitants received me with the greatest enthusiasm, and I was, as others had been before me, the hero of the hour. When appointed military governor of the place, I rescinded the severe orders Marshal Davoust had deemed fit to impose. The grateful Hamburgers conferred upon me the freedom of their city, and sent me the document to that effect in a magnificent golden casket.
‘Events have marched very rapidly, and by their side strode glory and rewards. I have had most of the military orders bestowed upon me, and now the allied sovereigns have still further shown their good-will by presenting me with an estate consisting of two convents in Westphalia, the rent-roll of which will certainly amount to no less than forty thousand florins. Those various bits of success have had the happy result of reducing my affairs to something like order; and, inasmuch as there comes in every man’s life a period for settling down, I, my friend, am going to get married. I simply worship my future wife. There are no regrets about the past, there is no fear about the future, and as far as I can foresee, I’ll let fate take care henceforth of my existence. And albeit the dénouement may appear somewhat abrupt to you, you will admit, I feel certain, that the story promises to be none the less happy.’
‘At which happiness, my dear general, all your friends will rejoice.’