Wounded Name — Chapter 9: The Toledo Blade, part 5

Just outside the Hôtel de Ville Laurent saw de Fresne.

He went straight up to him.

"I want to beg your pardon, Monsieur de Fresne, for what I said to you a little while ago about that letter.

It was cruel and unjust."

De Fresne looked at him with those hard blue eyes of his.

"It was certainly cruel.

Do you think I have never said that same thing to myself these three months?"

He began to pale under his tan.

"I have said it a hundred times.

But, as you pointed out----" "Oh, I am sorry!"

broke in Laurent impulsively.

"And in honour you could have done nothing else.

Do forget it!

I was annoyed when I spoke."

"I think you had cause," said the elder man suddenly.

"I had no right to read you a homily."

He held out his hand.

Then Laurent was back in the place which would shortly see the scales dip to one side or the other with his dearest friend's honour in the balance--the place which he hated and which, at the same time, he was only too thankful to set eyes on again.

For he had had a horrible fright.

But a precious grain of consolation was that among the more than doubled number of faces in the audience this morning one was missing.

It would grin here no more and was almost certainly not grinning where it was now.

The President began by saying that he had an announcement to make.

Since M. le Général d'Andigné, now military governor of Maine-et-Loire was staying a couple of nights in the neighbourhood, he himself had so far presumed on their very old acquaintance as to ask him, with the approval of the Court, to give them the benefit of his ripe experience in this difficult and delicate case .

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that was, subject to M. de la Rocheterie's having no objection.

M.

de la Rocheterie here signifying that he had none--on the contrary--Sol de Grisolles intimated that he had sent M. d'Andigné a short summary of the case as far as it had gone yesterday, so that if he came, he would be au courant.

Meanwhile, they had better proceed from the point at which they left off yesterday.

So the hapless de Fresne took his stand once more at the witness-table.

Laurent tried not to listen.

"Fouquier-Tinville" and the stout officer between them seemed determined to probe into every minute of the interval before de Fresne's return to the wood; hence Aymar also was on his feet most of the time.

Laurent began to foresee that every detail of the shooting, too, would have to be gone over again, perhaps more fully.

And all to what purpose?

There was nothing to discover.

Oh, what would happen if they could not see their way to clearing Aymar?

It began to be torture to him to look at the figure in front of him, especially when the bronze head turned a little, and he caught the outline of the sunken cheek.

"I can't stand much more of this!"

he whispered at last to M. Perrelet.

"They will not go on at it forever," the optimist whispered back, and he laid his hand over the young man's and gave it a squeeze.

"But there's nothing else to go on to!"

replied Laurent miserably.

Why could they not believe Aymar's word when he said that he had all but arranged the plan with Saint-Etienne?

How was it possible to look at him and think him capable of infamy?

Were they all blind?

And why did M.

d'Andigné delay?

Perhaps he was not coming, after all?

He was a great man, just about to be made a peer of France, and very busy at the moment settling the King's peace in Brittany But, if he did come, surely he, the Vendean general of so much experience, he, the phenomenally cool-headed and resourceful, the hero of the incredible escapes from the Fort de Joux and the citadel of Besançon, the man of untarnished integrity and honour, _he_ would recognize that Aymar was telling the truth!

Or, suppose that he did not!

The accursed stout officer seemed now to be criticizing Aymar's intentions and dispositions during those three days in the wood, and as it went on Laurent wondered at Aymar's patience under it.

The inquisitor had just ascertained that the nearest Bonapartist troops were no more than eight miles away, at Arbelles.

"Only eight miles!"

he exclaimed.

"I am surprised, Monsieur de la Rocheterie, that you did not try to withdraw to a safer position!

Surely you must have known that you were very dangerously placed, and that you could not hope to do anything there with ninety men!"

And Aymar said nothing.

Suddenly M. du Tremblay leant forward and addressed the speaker.

"Not do anything with ninety men, Monsieur de Noirlieu?

Why not?

Have you forgotten that M. de la Rocheterie held the famous Moulin Brûlé for four and a half hours against five hundred regulars with--how many men precisely had you with you at Penescouët, Monsieur de la Rocheterie?"

"Eighteen," replied Aymar.

Something hardly distinguishable from applause ran round the audience.

And du Tremblay went on quickly, addressing the President, "I trust, mon Général, that I am in order in laying stress on the necessity of remembering and allowing weight to those brilliant services in the past of which M. de la Rocheterie himself is careful not to remind us.

As regards the handling of irregular levies, has not L'Oiseleur, young as he is, had more experience and successful experience than any one here except yourself?"

Sol de Grisolles nodded, and the Marquis de la Boëssière remarked, "Certainly more than I have had.

I am glad that you have said what you have said, Monsieur du Tremblay."

So was Laurent.

He would have bestowed a decoration on M. du Tremblay.

"Yes," said M. de Noirlieu obstinately, "and that past experience is just why M. de la Rocheterie's remaining so near the enemy at Arbelles is so inexplicable."

There was nothing to be done with that man but drown him!

Surely Aymar was going to give the very good reason he had for staying in the Bois des Fauvettes as long as he could!

But in any case he had not the chance, for "Fouquier-Tinville" observed quickly, "It is explicable enough on a certain hypothesis--which I do not wish to press.

But I should be greatly obliged if M. de la Rocheterie would give us the reason for another delay of his which also needs explanation.

I only trust they are not susceptible of the same."

Aymar's head went up.

"To what delay are you referring, Monsieur?"

"To the very considerable one which you have shown in courting this enquiry.

You were released on the 16th of June.

Even if your health was not then sufficiently re-established for you to go to the General-in-Chief in person, why did you not at least communicate with him if, as you assure us, you were so anxious to clear yourself?

You made no move whatever for a month, until the middle of July.

Is that not true?"

"Yes, it is quite true," said Aymar steadily.

He drew a long breath, and Laurent saw his fingers tighten on the paper he was holding.

"I suggest that the month's inaction, then, needs some justification," observed "Fouquier-Tinville" suavely.

In the silence that followed Laurent said to himself, "He was ill, unfit for it, you bully!"

But would Aymar say that, since it was not the real reason?

No, of course he would not!

He replied at last, very coldly and quietly, looking down a little, "The reason for the delay was a purely private one."

"A reason that you would prefer not to give the Court?"

suggested "Fouquier-Tinville" with a twist of the lips.

"A reason," retorted Aymar, not without a measure of defiance, "that I am not called upon to give the Court!"

At last something had been found which L'Oiseleur would not answer.

"It had nothing in common, then," demanded the inquisitor meaningly, "with your reason for remaining so long near the enemy in the Bois des Fauvettes?"

Aymar started.

"Certainly not.

The one was purely military; the other, as I have said, was personal."

"And you refuse to----" But a stir arose at the end of the hall, and he broke off.

Laurent turned his head, and saw a glitter of staff uniforms.

General d'Andigné had come!

He walked alertly to the dais, while the whole audience rose to their feet, he saluted the Court, who had also risen, was on the platform shaking hands, and, in a very short time indeed, having swept a keen glance round, was reading the notes of the morning's proceedings.

And Laurent, studying him, saw a blue-eyed man in the fifties, of no great height, with a fine, almost leonine head from whose brow the silvering fair hair was receding, and a slightly prominent underlip--a man who gave the impression of exceptional humour and vitality allied to a rare imperturbability.

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But Laurent's deep interest in him was abruptly diverted.

What had happened to Aymar?

He was leaning with both hands on the little table before him almost as if he were physically overcome.

Then he suddenly sat down, and, supporting his head on his hand, pulled his notes towards him.

Laurent could see how deadly pale he was, and that the hand with which he was turning over the papers was shaking.

"It's the strain," he thought desperately.

"It's telling at last; he won't get through!"

D'Andigné suddenly raised his fine head.

"Monsieur le Président, I should like to make a remark.

With regard to the suppositions raised by this shooting, surely the very fact that the men immediately suspected M.

de Fresne on his return entirely disposes of the theory that in the three preceding days they had discovered some proof of M. de la Rocheterie's guilt?

--I might go further, and point out that it was solely to save M. de Fresne from those unjust suspicions that M. de la Rocheterie showed his men the letter .

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with the consequences to himself of which we know.

Is that not so?"

"That is most certainly so, mon Général," responded de Fresne warmly.

"M. de la Rocheterie undoubtedly sacrificed himself to save me."

"But, in the circumstances, could any honourable man have done less?"

enquired M. de Margadel.

"No, he certainly could not," responded d'Andigné like a flash.

"But then you are trying to show that he is not an honourable man.

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And may I not also point out that, so far from his suppressing witnesses (which I see that some of you gentlemen are inclined to suspect) he here lost an unrivalled opportunity of allowing the most formidable witness against him to be suppressed by other hands.

Had he let things take their course, and allowed M. de Fresne to be shot instead of him--which seems quite a likely thing to have happened--he would have got rid of the odium of the charge as well as of an adverse witness, for the man who had paid the penalty would have carried the guilt also with him to his grave.

His execution would probably have cleared M. de la Rocheterie in popular opinion.

Surely these considerations must have occurred to you?"

"I knew he would see things in a proper light!"

said Laurent, whose spirits had gone up like a balloon, to M. Perrelet, while the Court conferred over this, and M. d'Andigné, his chin propped on his fist, darted glance after glance at L'Oiseleur's bent head.

"I think," announced the President at length, "that the Court does not wish to ask M. de Fresne any further questions.

Have you any more witnesses to call, Monsieur de la Rocheterie?"

"Yes, two!"

ejaculated Laurent under his breath.

And Aymar stood up--but it was not to call him.

He threw back his head.

"I call Monsieur le Général d'Andigné," he said in a clear voice.

"That is, if he has not forgotten," he finished a little breathlessly.

Laurent fell back in his chair.

Amid the universal sensation M. d'Andigné got briskly to his feet.

"I was hoping that I should not have to be so pushing as to call myself," he remarked pleasantly.

"Will you question me, Monsieur de la Rocheterie--I am entirely at your service--or shall I have the honour of myself giving the Court an account of our last--our first--meeting at the _Abeille d'Or_ at Keraven on the afternoon of April the 27th?"

"The latter, if you please, General," answered Aymar.

(11) When Laurent was in an argumentative mood he would assert that it was very wrong of M. d'Andigné, even if he were organizing with great secrecy, not so much to have gone about under an assumed name (since under his own he would have been far too dangerous to be left at large) but to have kept up his incognito in front of L'Oiseleur that day at Keraven when Saint-Etienne, being from his own province of Anjou, knew all the time who "M. du Parc" really was.

However, he would acknowledge that on this occasion M. d'Andigné made what amends he could by the declaration with which he ended his short and convincing narrative.

For he said, with emphasis, that it was he who ought to be exculpating himself.

"I ought to have known better what attractions a risk holds for a young and ardent fighter, when I presented M. de la Rocheterie with the idea of the mouse and the two cats, and even illustrated it from a little piece of good fortune of my own in the old days.

Had I not been all these weeks, as you know, engaged in military operations elsewhere, I should have heard of Pont-aux-Rochers before, and I could have taken some steps to mitigate the terrible consequences which an ill-timed suggestion of mine has brought on a gallant and honourable man.

I am at least thankful that Fate has given me this belated opportunity for testimony."

He sat down again.

Aymar, his hands clenched, tried to thank him, but his words were scarcely audible.

As for Laurent, he was so radiant that it was all he could do to prevent himself darting forward to his friend, and, though he knew it not, M. d'Andigné, whom little escaped, was smiling at his very patent exultation.

"Well, gentlemen," said Sol de Grisolles, looking round with a satisfied air, "this puts a very different complexion on affairs.

I little thought I was summoning the missing witness when I invited M. d'Andigné to attend as an assessor.

As the Court has felt all along, the great weakness of M. de la Rocheterie's case has been the lack of conclusive evidence that his plan was already all but settled upon.

But now we have impeccable testimony to that fact."

He looked round the table once more.

"I suggest, therefore .

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Yes, Monsieur de Noirlieu?"

"In spite of what M. le Général d'Andigné has pointed out to us," said that persistent investigator, "there is still one more point which I emphatically feel should be cleared up.

What happened after M. de la Rocheterie was found shot, in the--how many weeks was it?

--that he was at the château d'Arbelles?

Might it not be said that it was because he had rendered a great service to the Imperialists that they rescued him, nursed him, and released him of their own free will .

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that he was, in short, less their prisoner than .

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their guest?"

Laurent, bristling, gave a kind of snort, and Aymar raised his head sharply.

D'Andigné's face was a study in expression.

The Court themselves seemed a little taken aback, then someone remarked, "Yes, if any evidence is available, it might be as well to know what were M. de la Rocheterie's relations with the Imperialists during his captivity, and the reason for his release."

"Perhaps M. de la Rocheterie will enlighten us," said Sol de Grisolles.

"I can do better, mon Général," responded Aymar rather grimly.

"As it happens I can produce two witnesses as to the terms on which I was with the occupants of Arbelles.

I will call first M. le Comte de Courtomer, late aide-de-camp to M. d'Autichamp, who was imprisoned in the same room with me for the whole time, excepting the first night.

Monsieur de Courtomer!"

At last!

Had Laurent not been so furious with M. de Noirlieu at that moment he might have been grateful to him for procuring him this chance.

But--Aymar a guest at Arbelles!

He could hear for once in his friend's voice his deep and justifiable indignation.

But it was M. de Noirlieu who was going to be annoyed before he, Laurent, had finished, for he would look the fool he was.

He was excited but fairly self-possessed as he stood at the little table, and began with reasonable lucidity to tell the story of those weeks at Arbelles.

The early days came back to him so clearly as he spoke that, when he got to the happenings of "Friday," the memory of that scene, bubbling up fresh like lava, led him into an account of it more vivid than Aymar appeared to appreciate, as he sat there with his head between his fists, enduring it as best he might.

At any rate, Laurent made abundantly clear the point he had so desired at supper last night to emphasize--that Aymar, fighting with his last conscious breath that nothing should escape his lips, had nearly given his life for his comrade's victory.

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Du Tremblay had his hand over his eyes as Laurent went on to testify that for the remaining weeks there were no relations whatever between the Bonapartists and their prisoner, and to detail what occurred on Colonel Guitton's return.

"And that is how and for what reason," he concluded, "M. de la Rocheterie was released--or, as some might say, turned out--from Arbelles."

"Thank you, Monsieur de Courtomer," said the President out of the ensuing silence, and Laurent turned and went to his place.

He had not been asked a single question; and, as nobody seemed disposed to put one, Aymar observed that, since this evidence did not cover the first hours of his sojourn at Arbelles, and it might be supposed that he had had friendly relations with the Bonapartists on the day of his arrival, if on no other, he would call the doctor who attended him to prove that that was impossible.

M.

Perrelet, looking very rotund as he stood forth, was extremely business-like and medical.

He described in technical language M. de la Rocheterie's very critical condition when he was summoned to him, and during the whole of that first night; while Laurent behind whispered delightedly to de Fresne, "That will knock that idiot into a cocked hat!

Listen to the long words and the Latin rolling out!"

"My patient," pronounced the little doctor, "was profoundly unconscious from the moment of his arrival.

In any case a man so near death as he from haemorrhage is not capable of having relations with any one, friend or foe.

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And since I am here," he went on unasked, but unchecked, "you will like to know, gentlemen, that I can more than corroborate what M. de Courtomer has said of the disastrous effects of Colonel Guitton's inquisition a few days later.

As to the turning out, which was done in my absence, I was thunderstruck when I heard of it, and not in the least surprised that in consequence I had to attend M. de la Rocheterie for a threatened attack of pneumonia.

He had a very narrow escape of it.

Hardly the treatment, altogether, that one accords to a 'guest'!"

M.

de Noirlieu, to Laurent's joy, was looking sour enough now.

He fidgeted with some papers for an instant and then said: "Yes, that's very convincing--medically.

One cannot argue with a doctor.

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You were not present, I understand, at the interview with the Colonel over those cipher notes?"

"No, but I came in the moment afterwards, to find M. de la Rocheterie almost _in extremis_," replied M. Perrelet rather snappily.

"I should like M. de Courtomer recalled," said M. de Noirlieu.

Laurent came back, full of fight, but wondering what the stout imbecile wanted now.

"M. de la Rocheterie was, I presume, aware of your presence in the room, Monsieur de Courtomer, throughout this .

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unpleasant scene with the Colonel?"

"I should imagine he had something else to think about!"

retorted Laurent with hostility.

In a flash he saw what he was after--the man was a second Guitton!

"He must have known that you were present.

Did you, Monsieur de la Rocheterie?"

"I did," said Aymar curtly.

"And you were aware that he was a Royalist officer--one of your own side?"

"I was aware of it."

M.

de Noirlieu lifted his shoulders.

"I think, gentlemen, that significant fact considerably detracts from the value of M. de la Rocheterie's refusal to give information--viewed as evidence to character, that is.

Is it likely that he would have given it in front of a fellow-officer?"

"May I speak, Monsieur le Président?"

burst out the witness.

Sol de Grisolles nodded.

"That--that .

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(he managed to swallow the qualification) "point of view was precisely Colonel Guitton's when he had failed.

I should have thought that this Court .

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(again he struggled with himself and abandoned the sentence).

"Gentlemen, as this last interpretation has been launched, you ought in justice to know that when, later on, Colonel Guitton--for it was by his connivance--resorted to other means to make M. de la Rocheterie betray a comrade, and there was nobody there but the----" Aymar made a little gesture, and said in a low, quick voice, "For Heaven's sake, stop, Laurent!

That is not relevant!"

But Laurent took no notice, and went on as fast as he could, "--He opposed precisely the same refusal to that different method.

You see, mon Général, I was safely hidden, but when the search-party found M. de la Rocheterie ill at the farm----" He was interrupted again.

"One moment, please," said the Marquis de la Boëssière.

"This is a little too elliptical for us to follow.

Are we to understand that you were released at the same time as M. de la Rocheterie, or what?"

And Aymar seized the opportunity to rise and say with authority, "That will do, thank you, Monsieur de Courtomer.

We need not trouble the Court with totally irrelevant matter.

You can stand down."

But a distinct murmur of "No, no!"

went round.

Laurent glanced at Aymar;

he meant what he said, no doubt of it.

Then he hesitated and looked at the tribunal.

"--But we should like to hear it, irrelevant or no," said the President.

Aymar was obliged to give in.

He sat down.

Laurent did not look at him.

He answered the previous question.

"No, I was not released, sir.

I

escaped the same evening and joined M. de la Rocheterie.

We went to a farm, and, as you have heard, he was ill from the exposure, and it was then that a party from the château came to search for me; and when they could not find me, but had M. de la Rocheterie at their mercy, _alone_, they tried just as vainly to make him betray me by----" But here Laurent came to an abrupt stop.

"Well, Monsieur de Courtomer?"

asked the President after a moment.

Awful and surprising finish!

Laurent had so ached to tell this story of heroism and endurance, and now he could not.

His own sensations of the time came back too vividly, and closed up his throat, precluding speech.

Besides, his tongue did not seem able to find a way of uttering the thing.

He stood there, mute and agonized, with everyone--save Aymar--gazing at him.

"Do you mean that they threatened him?"

suggested the Marquis de la Boëssière.

And as the hitherto voluble witness shook his head he said almost impatiently, "What were the means they used, then?"

At that Laurent managed--but only just--to bring it out.

"They used .

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a red-hot ramrod!"

he gasped; and fled the table.

(12)