Robert Tournay Part 25

Under the escort of Karl von Waldenmeer and half a dozen of his French officers, Tournay and Gaillard rode rapidly toward the French boundary.

It had stopped snowing during the night, and the weather was clear and cold.

They rode in silence, no sound being heard but the regular dull beating of their horses' hoofs on the snow-covered ground.

They drew out of the wood and saw the frozen surface of the Rhine before them, the sun dazzling their eyes with its reflected light upon the ice.

With one accord the party reined in their horses and sat motionless, looking at the glorious sight of the ice-bound river.

Karl von Waldenmeer was the first to break the silence. Pointing with his gloved hand toward the opposite sh.o.r.e he said:--

"There, gentlemen, is France, and my road ends here."

Tournay merely made an inclination of the head in a.s.sent. He was thinking sadly of Edme standing by the window in the cheerless old salon at Falzenberg; but as he looked out over the river towards his own land he remembered the army on the other side of the Vosges; the prospect of the impending campaign caused his spirits to revive, and he replied:--

"We owe you thanks, Colonel von Waldenmeer, for the kindness you have been pleased to show us. When we meet again it will doubtless be upon the field of battle, but I shall not even then forget your courtesy of to-day."

"It will always give me pleasure to meet you again, under any circ.u.mstances, Colonel Tournay," said the Prussian, "and if it be on the field, to cross swords with you. A brave foe makes a good friend, and I shall be glad to count you as both of these. And now, gentlemen, we will relieve you of our escort; there lies your way over that bridge, just below here. We return to Falzenberg."

"Let us cross upon the ice," said Gaillard to Tournay; "it will bear our weight easily."

They rode down the bank. At the brink their horses drew back, but being urged by their riders, went forward, feeling the ice daintily with their forefeet with cat-like caution. Seeing that the ice was quite safe, the Frenchmen put spurs into their horses and the animals swung into a gallop, their iron-shod feet cutting into the ice with a pleasant, crunching sound.

Reaching the further side, they rode up the steep bank, then reined in their horses and looked back. The declining rays of the sun tipped the snow-clad hemlock trees on the other side of the river with crimson, and against the dark outline of the forest behind, the figures of Colonel von Waldenmeer and his officers sat motionless as statues. Each party gave the military salute, and the Prussians rode back into the wood, while Tournay and Gaillard sat looking after them until they were no longer in sight.

"We are on French soil once more," exclaimed Tournay, "and now to join General Hoche and fight for it."

"I had best return to Paris," said Gaillard.

"I fear to have you return there now, after having put your head in danger by a.s.sisting me," said Tournay anxiously.

"I shall be as safe in Paris as anywhere in the world," replied his friend. "n.o.body will suspect the actor Gaillard of having any connection with the flight of Mademoiselle de Rochefort. I cannot do better than to return to Paris and resume my usual mode of life there. While, if you are suspected, as is more likely, of instigating or effecting Mademoiselle de Rochefort's escape from Tours, you must look to your military reputation and your influence in the convention to protect you from an inquiry on the part of the rabid revolutionists."

"What you say, Gaillard, is sound reasoning. I will follow your advice.

Embrace me, my friend, and let us part here."

"Good-by until we meet again, my colonel!" was Gaillard's only audible reply, and then he rode off toward the west, while Tournay turned his horse in the direction of the north, where the French troops lay encamped.

It was about noon of the next day when he reached the French army, and stopping only at his own tent to put on his uniform he hurried to the headquarters of General Hoche and reported for duty. He had traveled so rapidly from Tours that he reached the army almost as soon as General Hoche expected him, and the general attributed the delay of a day or so to the bad condition of the roads.

Tournay hesitated to set him right in the matter, as he deemed it more prudent to refrain from mentioning to anyone his part in Mademoiselle de Rochefort's escape.

"What news do you bring from the convention?" was the question of the general as they were seated alone.

"Bad!" replied Tournay, "as you can tell by the tone of these dispatches. The convention has many able men in it, but they are dominated too entirely by the Revolutionary Tribunal, and that body is dominated too much by one man. His power is ruining the Republic. Unless we get rid of Robespierre, we might as well go back to the monarchy."

After a few moments spent in reading the papers Tournay had put in his hand, General Hoche looked up with an expression of annoyance on his brow.

"Yes; the insulting tone of this dispatch is almost beyond endurance. I am glad after all that my business is out here fighting the external enemies of France. Were I at Paris, I should be embroiling myself daily with some of those who are in power. If we meet with the slightest reverses here at the front there is a howl from St. Just and that crowd that we are betraying the Republic. Meanwhile they furnish us with a beggarly equipment. It is they who are betraying the Republic. Were it not for Danton we should get nothing. He alone makes success against our enemies possible. And we must be successful, Colonel Tournay; look here at the plan of campaign."

And the young general, in his military ardor, forgetting entirely the insulting dispatch, turned with enthusiasm to the maps which lay spread out on the table.

"Here are the bulk of the Austrian forces at Wissembourg. That old German beer-barrel von Waldenmeer is at Falzenberg. He intends to concentrate his troops there and then bring them up to join the Austrian general, Wurmser."

Tournay started at his own general's accurate information in regard to the enemy's position and plans.

"We must attack Wurmser at once before he can receive reinforcements, and then proceed to Landau. They have beaten us once at Wissembourg and will not be looking for us to take the offensive again so soon. I have already given the order to mobilize the troops. I and my staff will ride forward this evening. By to-morrow night we shall have retaken Wissembourg."

"One moment, general," interrupted Tournay, as Hoche took up another map. "I wish to tell you that I have just seen General von Waldenmeer at Falzenberg."

Hoche looked at his officer with surprise.

"I went to the Prussian frontier on an errand, the nature of which I should prefer to keep secret for the present. I was suspected of being a spy, taken prisoner, and brought before General von Waldenmeer. He listened to my explanations and released me under circ.u.mstances no less peculiar than those which brought me within his lines." Here Tournay stopped, the blood coming to the surface under the bronze of his cheek at the steady gaze of General Hoche.

"Is that all?" inquired the latter.

"That is all," answered his colonel, "except that had I not made this detour I should have been here twenty-four hours earlier, and that as I got within the Prussian lines by mistake and did not go as a spy, I can give you no information which you have not already obtained."

"If you had arrived twenty-four hours later you would have missed the grandest opportunity of your life; I intend to give you, Colonel Tournay, the command of a brigade in the approaching battle."

"A brigade?" echoed Tournay in surprise.

"You shall atone for your breach of discipline by bearing great responsibility in the attack. I intend your brigade to be where the fight is hottest, and if there is anything left of it after the engagement, and of you, colonel, you shall continue to command it and I will recommend you for promotion."

Tournay grasped his chief by the hand.

"You may be sure, General Hoche, that I shall do my utmost to deserve the honor you have done me."

"I was persuaded of that before I determined to give you the command,"

replied Hoche; "now go forward and join your regiment. By midnight I shall be at Wissembourg and shall have one last word with all of my generals. I do not believe in protracted councils of war."

That evening Colonel Tournay was encamped before the field of Wissembourg. He sat in his tent waiting for the summons that should bring him to General Hoche's council board.

An orderly entered with the word that a commission of four men from the Committee of Public Safety at Paris wished to speak to him.

Tournay started from the reverie into which he had fallen. His thoughts had been dwelling upon the events of the past week, and the announcement struck a discordant note in his meditation. "Show them in," he replied briefly.

In another moment the four commissioners stood before him. Three of the men were unknown to him, but the fourth was Gardin. The latter, as spokesman, stood a little in advance of the others. On his face there was a look of mingled insolence and triumph.

Tournay's gorge rose at sight of the man, but remembering that he was the recognized emissary from the committee he controlled his impulse to kick him from the tent.

"Will you be seated, citizens?" he said, rising and addressing his remark more to the three commissioners who were not known to him than to Gardin. "Orderly, bring seats."

"Our business with you will be of such short duration that we shall have no need to sit down," answered Gardin curtly.

"Orderly, do not bring the seats," was Tournay's quick order, as he resumed his former place on a camp-chair and sat carelessly looking at the four men standing before him. This placed Gardin in just the opposite role from that he had intended to a.s.sume. He saw his mistake at once, and hastened to recover his lost ground.

"Citizen colonel," he said, drawing a paper from his pocket and putting it in Tournay's hands, "here is a doc.u.ment from the committee which even you cannot question. It is addressed to Robert Tournay."