“This Colonel Oudet must die,” he said, each word falling slowly and impressively from his lips.  “I cannot crush all the limbs, but I will make the head fall, and that will paralyze them.  Yes, this Colonel Oudet must die!”

Then, as if the sentence of death which he had just uttered had relieved his soul of an oppressive burden, and lightened his heart, the gloomy expression vanished from his face, which was now almost brightened by a ray of joy.

Seizing the silver hand-bell, he rang it violently twice.  Instantly the door leading into his sleeping-room opened and Roustan, gliding in, stood humbly and silently awaiting the emperor’s orders.

Napoleon, with a slight nod, beckoned to him to approach, and when Roustan, like a tiger-cat, noiselessly reached his side with two swift bounds, the emperor gazed with a long, searching look into the crafty, smiling face of his Mameluke.

“So you listened to the conversation between the generals?” asked the emperor.

“I don’t know, sire,” said Roustan, shaking his head eagerly.  “I probably did not understand everything, for they spoke in low tones, and sometimes I lost the connection.  But I heard them talking about my illustrious emperor and master, so, as your majesty meanwhile had awaked, I thought it advisable to inform you that the generals were having a conversation in the drawing-room, because your majesty might perhaps desire to take part in it.”

“You did right, Roustan,” said the emperor, with the pleasant smile that won every heart; “yes, you did right, and I will reward you for it.  You can go to Bourrienne and have him pay you a hundred gold pieces.”

“Oh, sire,” cried Roustan, “then I shall be very happy, for I shall have a hundred portraits of my worshiped emperor.”

“Which you will doubtless scatter to the four winds quickly enough, you spendthrift,” exclaimed Napoleon.  “But listen, you rogue:  besides my hundred gold portraits, I’ll give you a bit of advice which is worth more than the gold coins.  Forget everything that you have heard to-day, beware of treasuring in your memory even a single word of the generals, or recollecting that you have called my attention to it.”

“Sire,” replied Roustan, with an expression of astonishment, “Sire, I really do not know what your majesty is talking about, and what I could have said or heard.  I only know that my gracious emperor and master has given me a hundred gold napoleons, and present happiness has so overpowered me, so bewildered my senses that I have lost my memory.”

The emperor laughed, and as a special proof of his favor pinched the Mameluke’s ear so hard that the latter with difficulty concealed his suffering under a smile of delight.

CHAPTER II.

Leonore de Simonie.

Napoleon’s word was fulfilled!  Scarcely two months had passed when he avenged the battle of Aspern on Austria, and twined fresh laurels of victory around his brow.  On the 6th of July a conflict occurred which completed Austria’s misfortunes and wrested from her all the advantages which the victory of Aspern had scarcely won.