It was some weeks before I came to myself in the post-house of Arensdorf, and longer still before I could be told all that had befallen me.  It was Duroc, already able to go soldiering, who came to my bedside and gave me an account of it.  He it was who told me how a piece of timber had struck me on the head and laid me almost dead upon the ground.  From him, too, I learned how the Polish girl had run to Arensdorf, how she had roused our hussars, and how she had only just brought them back in time to save us from the spears of the Cossacks who had been summoned from their bivouac by that same black-bearded secretary whom we had seen galloping so swiftly over the snow.  As to the brave lady who had twice saved our lives, I could not learn very much about her at that moment from Duroc, but when I chanced to meet him in Paris two years later, after the campaign of Wagram, I was not very much surprised to find that I needed no introduction to his bride, and that by the queer turns of fortune he had himself, had he chosen to use it, that very name and title of the Baron Straubenthal, which showed him to be the owner of the blackened ruins of the Castle of Gloom.

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote A:  The term Brigadier is used throughout in its English and not in its French sense.]

2.  HOW THE BRIGADIER SLEW THE BROTHERS OF AJACCIO

When the Emperor needed an agent he was always very ready to do me the honour of recalling the name of Etienne Gerard, though it occasionally escaped him when rewards were to be distributed.  Still, I was a colonel at twenty-eight, and the chief of a brigade at thirty-one, so that I have no reason to be dissatisfied with my career.  Had the wars lasted another two or three years I might have grasped my baton, and the man who had his hand upon that was only one stride from a throne.  Murat had changed his hussar’s cap for a crown, and another light cavalry man might have done as much.  However, all those dreams were driven away by Waterloo, and, although I was not able to write my name upon history, it is sufficiently well known by all who served with me in the great wars of the Empire.

What I want to tell you tonight is about the very singular affair which first started me upon my rapid upward course, and which had the effect of establishing a secret bond between the Emperor and myself.

There is just one little word of warning which I must give you before I begin.  When you hear me speak, you must always bear in mind that you are listening to one who has seen history from the inside.  I am talking about what my ears have heard and my eyes have seen, so you must not try to confute me by quoting the opinions of some student or man of the pen, who has written a book of history or memoirs.  There is much which is unknown by such people, and much which never will be known by the world.  For my own part, I could tell you some very surprising things were it discreet to do so.  The facts which I am about to relate to you tonight were kept secret by me during the Emperor’s lifetime, because I gave him my promise that it should be so, but I do not think that there can be any harm now in my telling the remarkable part which I played.