An Infamous Army Read online

  ‘Yes,’ she acknowledged. ‘Lady Barbara dances very well.’

  ‘Audley’s a fortunate fellow,’ said the Duke decidedly. ‘Won’t thank me for taking him away from Brussels, I daresay. Don’t blame him! But it can’t be helped.’

  ‘You are leaving us, then?’

  ‘Oh yes—yes! for a few days. No secret about it: I have to visit the Army.’

  ‘Of course. We shall await your return with impatience, I assure you, praying the Ogre may not descend upon us while you are absent!’

  He gave one of his sudden whoops of laughter. ‘No fear of that! It’s all nonsense, this talk about Bonaparte! Ogre! Pooh! Jonathan Wild, that’s my name for him!’ He saw her look of astonishment, and laughed again, apparently much amused, either by her surprise or by his own words.

  She was conscious of disappointment. He had been described to her as unaffected: he seemed to her almost inane.

  Eight

  Upon the following day was published a General Order, directing officers in future to make their reports to the Duke of Wellington. Upon the same day, a noble-browed gentleman with a suave address and great tact, was sent from Brussels to the Prussian Headquarters, there to assume the somewhat arduous duties of military commissioner to the Prussian Army. Sir Henry Hardinge had lately been employed by the Duke in watching Napoleon’s movements in France. He accepted his new rôle with his usual equanimity, and commiserated with by his friends on the particularly trying nature of his commission, merely smiled, and said that General von Gneisenau was not likely to be as tiresome as he was painted.

  The Moniteur of this 11th day of April published gloomy tidings. In the south of France, the Duc d’Angoulême’s enterprise had failed. Angoulême had led his mixed force on Lyons, but the arrival from Paris of a competent person of the name of Grouchy had ended Royalist hopes in the south. Angoulême and his masterful wife had both set sail from France, and his army was fast dwindling away.

  It was not known what King Louis, in Ghent, made of these tidings, but those who were acquainted with his character doubted whether his nephew’s failure would much perturb him. Never was there so lethargic a monarch: one could hardly blame France for welcoming Napoleon back.

  The news disturbed others, however. It seemed as though it were all going to start again: victory upon victory for Napoleon; France overrunning Europe. Shocking to think of the Emperor’s progress through France, of the men who flocked to join his little force, of the crowds who welcomed him, hysterical with joy! Shocking to think of Marshal Ney, with his oath to King Louis on his conscience, deserting with his whole force to the Emperor’s side! There must be some wizardry in the man, for in all France there had not been found sufficient loyal men to stand by the King and make it possible for him to hold his capital in Napoleon’s teeth. He had fled, with his little Court, and his few troops, and if ever he found himself on his throne again it would be once more because foreign soldiers had placed him there.

  But how unlikely it seemed that he would find himself there! With Napoleon at large, summoning his Champ de Mai assemblies, issuing his dramatic proclamations, gathering together his colossal armies, only the very optimistic could feel that there was any hope for King Louis.

  Even Wellington doubted the ability of the Allies to put King Louis back on the throne, but this doubt sprang more from a just appreciation of the King’s character than from any fear of Napoleon. Sceptical people might ascribe the Duke’s attitude to the fact of his never having met Napoleon in the field, but the fact remained that his lordship was one of the few generals in Europe who did not prepare to meet Napoleon in a mood of spiritual defeat.

  He accorded the news of Angoulême’s failure a sardonic laugh, and laid the Moniteur aside. He was too busy to waste time over that.

  He kept his staff busy too, a circumstance which displeased Barbara Childe. To be loved by a man who sent her brief notes announcing his inability to accompany her on expeditions of her planning was a new experience. When she saw him at the end of a tiring day, she rallied him on his choice of profession. ‘For the future I shall be betrothed only to civilians.’

  He laughed. He had been all the way to Oudenarde and back, with a message for General Colville, commanding the 4th Division, but he had found time to buy a ring of emeralds and diamonds for Barbara, and although there was a suggestion of weariness about his eyelids, he seemed to desire nothing as much as to dance with her the night through.

  Waltzing with him, she said abruptly: ‘Are you tired?’

  ‘Tired! Do I dance as though I were tired?’

  ‘No, but you’ve been in the saddle nearly all day.’

  ‘Oh, that’s nothing! In Spain I have been used to ride fifteen or twenty miles to a ball, and be at work again by ten o’clock the next day.’

  ‘Wellington trains admirable suitors,’ she remarked. ‘How fortunate it is that you dance so well, Charles!’

  ‘I know. You would not otherwise have accepted me.’

  ‘Yes, I think perhaps I should. But I should not dance with you so much. I wish you need not leave Brussels just now.’

  ‘So do I. What will you do while I am away? Flirt with your Belgian admirer?’

  She looked up at him. ‘Don’t go!’

  He smiled, but shook his head.

  ‘Apply to the Duke for leave, Charles!’

  He looked startled. As his imagination played with the scene her words evoked, his eyes began to dance. ‘Unthinkable!’

  ‘Why? You might well ask the Duke!’

  ‘Believe me, I might not!’

  She jerked up a shoulder. ‘Perhaps you don’t wish for leave?’

  ‘I don’t,’ he said frankly. ‘Why, what a fellow I should be if I did!’

  ‘Don’t I come first with you?’

  He glanced down at her. ‘You don’t understand, Bab.’

  ‘Oh, you mean to talk to me of your duty!’ she said impatiently. ‘Tedious stuff!’

  ‘Very. Tell me what you will do while I am away.’

  ‘Flirt with Etienne. You have already said so. Have I your permission?’

  ‘If you need it. It’s very lucky: I leave Brussels on the 16th, and Lavisse will surely arrive on the 15th for the dinner in honour of the Prince of Orange. I daresay he’ll remain a day or two, and so be at your disposal.’

  ‘Not jealous, Charles?’

  ‘How should I be? You wear my ring, not his.’

  His guess was correct. The Comte de Lavisse appeared in Brussels four days later to attend the Belgian dinner at the Hôtel d’Angleterre. He lost no time in calling in the Rue Ducale, and on learning that Lady Barbara was out, betook himself to the Park, and very soon came upon her ladyship, in company with Colonel Audley, Lady Worth and her offspring, Sir Peregrine Taverner, and Miss Devenish.

  The party seemed to be a merry one, Judith being in spirits and Barbara in a melting mood. It was she who held Lord Temperley’s leading strings, and directed his attention to a bed of flowers. ‘Pretty lady!’ Lord Temperley called her, with weighty approval.

  ‘Famous!’ she said. She glanced up at Judith, and said with a touch of archness: ‘I count your son one of my admirers, you see!’

  ‘You are so kind to him I am sure it is no wonder,’ Judith responded, liking her in this humour.

  ‘Thank you! Charles, set him on your shoulder, and let us take him to see the swans on the water. Lady Worth, you permit?’

  ‘Yes indeed, but I don’t wish you to be teased by him!’

  ‘No such thing!’ She swooped upon the child, and lifted him up in her arms. ‘There! I declare I could carry you myself!’

  ‘He’s too heavy for you!’

  ‘He will crush your pelisse!’

  She shrugged as these objections were uttered, and relinquished the child. Colonel Audley tossed him up on to his shoulder, and the whole party was about to walk in the direction of the pavilion when Lavisse, who had been watching from a little distance, came forward, and clicked his