Memory of Flames (33 page)

‘Monsieur de Talleyrand, it’s not Napoleon Charles de Varencourt

is planning to assassinate, it’s the Tsar! He wants—’

But the Prince de Benevent had turned towards the captain in charge of the guard post. ‘I’ve never seen this man before.’

The officer had really wanted to believe that Margont knew Talleyrand, even if he hadn’t believed the rest of his story. But Margont had dared to make a fool of him, and he would pay dearly for that! Talleyrand was already leaving.

‘You’re signing my death warrant!’ Margont shouted at him.

Two chasseurs grabbed him roughly and Lefine found himself similarly restrained.

‘The Tsar’s about to be assassinated!’ yelled Margont. ‘And he’ll be assassinated in
your house
! The Russians will think you’re an accomplice!’

Talleyrand turned round. ‘Wait a minute! Perhaps I will listen to this man. You never know ...’

Varencourt followed Major Lyzki across a corridor, through a little sitting room, down another corridor ... Two soldiers of the Guard came to attention as the major passed. Four infantrymen brought up the rear of the little convoy.

They came to a small room decorated in the imperial style, with many Greco-Roman touches that were more or less authentic. Two grenadiers of the Pavlovski regiment, in mitred caps, guarded double doors at the back of the room. Varencourt calculated his chances. If Talleyrand were with the Tsar, he would fling himself on Alexander, relying on speed and the element of surprise. If Talleyrand were not in the room, he would take time to get as near as possible before making his attack. And he was sure that Talleyrand would not be there! The Tsar believed he was Napoleon’s emissary so he would take care to receive him without Talleyrand.

The doors opened. Lyzki let him pass and withdrew.

Varencourt advanced into the room, bowed, then advanced further until a general indicated that he should stop. No sign of Talleyrand!

The Tsar was ensconced in the great hall, the hall of the Eagle, in the company of about twenty men. There was Barclay de Tolly, the

commander-in-chief of the Russian army, and generals of the infantry of the line and of the Guard, including the much-decorated Langeron and Raevski. Also present was General Prince Repnine-Volkonski, the Tsar’s chief of general staff, who had led the charge of the Chevalier Guard at the Battle of Austerlitz — a charge that even Napoleon had admired. The illustrious company was completed by two Cossack officers of the Guard in scarlet coats, a colonel of the dragoons and one from the cuirassiers, and a few aides-de-camp, one of whom was Colonel Prince Orlov who had negotiated the surrender of Paris.

Varencourt considered all these exalted Russians who were staring at him, and some of whom he knew by reputation. Certainly a tsar of all the Russias could not know each of his subjects individually. What did a tsar care about a certain Ksenia de Varencourt, who had died in September 1812, just before she should have given birth? No! Tsars spoke of colonising Siberia, of wanting to absorb Poland, of Norway, which the Allies had taken from the pro-French Danes to give to the Swedes in order to encourage them to cede

Finland to the Russians, of the problem posed by the Austrian Empire ... Just as astronomers observe planets and galaxies and don’t waste their time counting specks of dust ... And yet a speck of dust could kill a tsar and annihilate Paris and its six hundred thousand inhabitants. All these ‘great men’ were as straw for his joyous blaze! Yes, he was going to offer his darling wife the most gigantic funeral pyre!

In an armchair a mere ten feet away sat the Tsar, magnificent in his white Chevalier Guard uniform, his chest glittering with medals and decorated with the blue ribbon of the order of Saint-Andre. He had dressed up for his moment of triumph. In fifty years no one would remember his three predecessors, nor probably his three successors. But everyone would remember Alexander I, the Tsar who had vanquished Napoleon. Varencourt reflected that the most glorious day of the Tsar’s life would also be his last.

He began to speak. The Tsar frowned.

An aide-de-camp, who stood beside Alexander, declared: ‘Speak

up, Lieutenant-Colonel. We can hardly hear you!’

Varencourt took a step forward like someone doing his best to make himself understood. The four soldiers behind him similarly moved forward. He went on with what he was saying, deliberately obfuscating and embellishing his story. But much of what he said was nevertheless true, and his audience, although they were suspicious, did try to untangle the threads of his complicated account involving Joseph, Napoleon, Talleyrand, the Swords of the King, fire ...

‘We can barely make out what you are saying, Lieutenant-Colonel,’ said the Tsar irritably.

Varencourt brought his left hand up to his throat while with the right he took hold of the broken brooch he’d found in the ruins of his Muscovite home. It was a card sharp who’d taught him how to distract attention with one hand whilst taking out a card hidden in his sleeve with the other. The officers thought the Frenchman had a neck wound, or had inhaled burning smoke during the fighting, or else was suffering from a sore throat and that was why his voice was so hard to hear. No one saw the jewel, or if they did, they paid it no heed. Varencourt took another step forward.

The aide-de-camp on the Tsar’s right reacted sharply and was about to order him to step back, but Varencourt pre-empted him by saying quickly: ‘I know the murderer’s name but first I want my security guaranteed by Your Imperial Majesty!’

The Tsar frowned. What was going on here? Who was implicated? Was Napoleon the instigator of the crime or was this another of his tricks to divide the coalition by making it look as if one of the Allies were behind the murder of Count Kevlokine? The Frenchman was trying to explain something but he was so hard to follow ... Varencourt took another step forward, brandishing Joseph’s letter in his left hand. He looked worried as he begged the Tsar to promise on his honour, with his staff officers as witnesses, to guarantee his protection if he revealed ... It seemed to him as if the brooch were beating; he imagined it was his wife’s heart he held in his hand ...

Margont, Lefine and Talleyrand entered the house. Margont was like a madman. He interrogated the infantrymen, who stared at him angrily.

When Major Lyzki came over to deal with this new, noisy intruder, Margont yelled at him, ‘You have to warn the Tsar!’

‘Don’t shout, Monsieur. Who are you?’

‘I’m Lieutenant-Colonel Margont. Listen, a man—’

Lyzki gave a nervous laugh. ‘Lieutenant-Colonel Margont? But I’ve just shown him in to see His Imperial Majesty ...’

Talleyrand panicked. ‘I assure you that this is the real Lieutenant-Colonel Margont!’

Lyzki had already spun on his heel and was making for the stairs, shouting in Russian: ‘Protect the Tsar!’ Soldiers hurried to run after him. Talleyrand, who was not going as fast, was knocked against a wall by a passing grenadier. Upstairs, soldiers took up Lyzki’s rallying cry as they began to run. An infantryman grabbed his rifle and used it to bar Margont with all his force against a door to prevent him from going any further.

The din in the corridors reached the great hall. The officers in the hall heard shouts and could make out the odd word: ‘Tsar’, ‘danger’, but they assumed the danger was external - was Napoleon daring to attack Paris to dislodge them? Was there a popular uprising? A second Revolution? An attack by a few desperate imperial soldiers who’d remained in the capital? Only Varencourt understood that he had been found out. It was a little premature, it would have been better if he had been a couple of steps further forward, but too bad! The double doors flew open and he took advantage of the confusion to try to pounce on Alexander. The aide-de-camp’s eyes had never left Varencourt and he threw himself forward to bar his passage.

The Tsar didn’t understand what was happening. He saw Avilovich grab the Frenchman, who was trying to run towards him. But for some unexplained reason, his aide-de-camp suddenly shuddered and collapsed. A guard who had followed Varencourt managed to seize him by the arm, but was pushed back as the Frenchman toppled backwards as if he were losing consciousness. Some of the

generals reacted by unsheathing their sabres, but a quick-witted red-clad Cossack beat them to it and jumped on the assailant, holding him round the waist before he also let go and fell to the ground. Varencourt shouted ‘Ksenia!’ and flung himself on the Tsar, plunging the pin of the brooch into the monarch’s thigh. A bayonet sliced through Varencourt’s shoulder and a rifle butt rammed into his neck; guards began to rain kicks on his inert body.

The Tsar, dazed with shock and terror, contemplated the broken brooch, blackened by grime or rather soot, that was protruding from his thigh. He pulled it out angrily as if he were chasing away a wasp that had just stung him. Nothing happened. The needle had exhausted its poison.

As soon as Napoleon was informed that Paris had fallen to the enemy, he was all for launching an attack on the capital. He wanted to trap the Allies, taking them by surprise and crushing them between his incoming army and an armed uprising of the Parisians. His marshals dissuaded him from this, however, convincing him that it was all over and that his best course was to abdicate. Talleyrand succeeded in getting the Senate to confirm officially his role as president of the Provisional French Government. He also used all his wiles to persuade the Allies to restore power to the French monarchy in the person of Louis XVIII. Talleyrand thus entered the service of the King of France.

The Allies occupied Paris. Contrary to the fears of the Parisians, they neither pillaged the city nor maltreated its citizens. They behaved honourably and did not even destroy the buildings that Napoleon had constructed.

Alexander I made Margont a chevalier of the order of Saint-Andre

as a reward for saving his life. Margont was also somewhat surprised to be decorated by ... the King of France. Louis XVIII himself pinned on the
‘decoration du lys\
 
As he did so Margont felt a pain in his chest and thought that the King had accidentally pricked him. Later he realised that his impression had been mistaken! Immediately after his decoration he learnt that he was being retired from the army. Napoleon had built France a gigantic army that was no longer needed now that peace had been signed. A hundred infantry regiments and thirty-eight cavalry regiments were suppressed. This had little effect on common soldiers, since with the departure of all conscripts the number of servicemen was already greatly reduced. But thousands of officers had to abandon their commands, to be replaced by royalist officers from before the Revolution or by aristocratic emigres now returned and keen for a military career. The King took advantage of the suppression of regiments to rid himself of republicans and supporters of Napoleon. To save money, and out of a spirit of vengeance, those officers leaving active service were given only half their pension, which in most cases was not sufficient to live off. Margont, Lefine, Jean-Quenin Brémond and Piquebois all found themselves on half-pension. Saber had survived his injuries and had been taken prisoner by the Russians. As Marshal Marmont’s order had been duly transcribed, and as Napoleon would certainly have confirmed the promotion had he had the chance, Saber was, in a way, the ‘dead’ general of a dead empire. The new authorities remedied the anomaly: he became a retired colonel. On half-pension, of course. In spite of his requests, Margont did not succeed in persuading the Russians to give him the curare that had been found on Varencourt.

Neither did Margont pursue his old dream of launching a newspaper. He judged that the new regime would not be receptive to free-thinking journalists. And as he wasn’t a man who could live without a passion, he found another one! He threw himself into studying medicine, to Jean-Quenin’s great joy. He went as often as he could to the Salpetriere where Pinel welcomed him with open arms.

Varencourt also survived his injuries. The Tsar decided to spare him and had him sent to a prisoner-of-war camp in Siberia where, thanks to his medical knowledge, he was relatively well treated. He was pardoned twenty-two years later by Alexander’s successor, Nicholas I. Varencourt stayed in Siberia, where he finally managed to rebuild a satisfactory life.

Vicomte de Leaume and the other survivors of his organisation were not rewarded by Louis XVIII, because the new authorities did not want to be seen to be associated with anyone linked to the man who had murdered an imperial dignitary and who had almost - perhaps involuntarily - caused the death of the Tsar. Disgusted, Louis de Leaume went to try his luck in the New World. By the time he disembarked in Louisiana, he had already formulated ambitious new projects.

Catherine de Saltonges had always been opposed to any of the group’s plans involving violence. Louis de Leaume confirmed this and she was allowed to remain in Paris, where she eventually remarried.

In return for Baron Honoré de Nolant’s betrayal of Louis XVI, he was gaoled by the King and spent the rest of his days behind bars.

It was Claude Bernard, a French physiologist and pupil of Magendie, who discovered years later that curare caused neuromuscular paralysis by acting on the nerves. This discovery caused a huge leap forward in understanding the functioning of the nervous system. For that discovery and his other scientific research, Claude Bernard became known as one of the greatest scientists of all time.