“Apparently he received a warning; he has fled.  But we found all the others yesterday at their posts; for we had made all our arrangements so secretly that even the conspirators who surrounded the emperor were not aware of it.  The emperor at first intended to act strictly according to the programme of the conspirators; take the ride with his suite, and not permit me to come to his assistance, with a few trustworthy assistants, until after he had entered the hut and been captured.  But he rejected this plan, because he would have been compelled to arrest his most distinguished generals and subject the greater number of his staff officers to a rigid investigation.  The whole army would then have heard of this bold conspiracy, and conspiracies are like contagious diseases, they always have successors.  So the emperor rejected this plan, and, at the moment that his suite were mounting to attend him on his ride, he dismissed them all, saying that he wished to go into the woods alone, accompanied only by Colonel Lejeune, the Mameluke, and myself.  You can imagine the mute horror, the deathlike pallor of the generals.  The emperor did not vouchsafe any of them a glance, but dashed away.  When we had ridden into the woods, the emperor checked his horse and turned to Colonel Lejeune, who, white as a corpse, rode beside him.

“Your sword, colonel!” he exclaimed, in tones of thunder.  “You will not play the part of emperor to-day, but merely the character of an arch-traitor and assassin.”

At the same instant Roustan and I rode to Lejeune’s side, and each seized an arm.  A moment later he was disarmed and deprived of the papers which we found in his breast pocket, and the tender farewell letters to his wife and his mother, in case that the enterprise should fail.

“I will have these sent at once to their addresses the morning after your execution,” the emperor said, with a withering glance from his large flashing eyes.  Then he rode on, and we followed, each holding an arm of Lejeune, who rode between us.  At last we reached the hut and the emperor checked his horse again.  Roustan uttered a low whistle and, at the same instant, six gray-bearded giants of the imperial guard stood beside us as if they had sprung from the earth.  As soon as the conspirators entered the hut, they had cautiously approached it and, concealed behind the trees, awaited the preconcerted signal.

The emperor greeted them with the smile which bewitched his old soldiers, because it reminded them of the days of their great victory.

“I know that you are faithful,” he said, “but I should also like to know whether you are silent.”

“Silent as the grave, if the Little Corporal commands it,” said old Conradin, the emperor’s favorite.

“Well, I believe you, and you shall give me a proof of it to-day.  Clear out the nest you see there, and catch the birds for me!”

“He pointed with uplifted arm and menacing gesture to the hut; the soldiers rushed to it and broke in the door.  Shouts of rage were heard, several shots rang out, then all was still, and the old grenadiers dragged out five men.  Three were wounded, but they had avenged themselves, for three of the soldiers were also injured.”