"Charras!" exclaimed the Commissary. "Charras there! Quick! the pa.s.sports of these gentlemen!" And looking Charras in the face,--
"Are you Colonel Charras?"
"Egad!" said Charras.
Yet another complication. It was now the turn of Charras"s bullies to bl.u.s.ter. They declared that Charras was the man called Vincent, displayed pa.s.sports and papers, swore and protested. The Commissary"s suspicions were fully confirmed.
"Very well," said he, "I arrest everybody."
And he handed over Changarnier, Charras, and the four police agents to the gendarmes. The Commissary saw the Cross of Honor shining in the distance. He was radiant.
The police arrested the police. It happens sometimes that the wolf thinks he has seized a victim and bites his own tail.
The six prisoners--for now there were six prisoners--were taken into a parlor at the railway station. The Commissary informed the town authorities. The town authorities hastened hither, headed by the sub-prefect.
The sub-prefect, who was named Censier, comes in, and does not know whether he ought to salute or to question, to grovel in the dust or to keep his hat on his head. These poor devils of magistrates and local officials were very much exercised in their minds. General Changarnier had been too near the Dictatorship not to make them thoughtful. Who can foresee the course of events? Everything is possible. Yesterday called itself Cavaignac, to-day calls itself Bonaparte, to-morrow may call itself Changarnier. Providence is really cruel not to let sub-prefects have a peep at the future.
It is sad for a respectable functionary, who would ask for nothing better than to be servile or arrogant according to circ.u.mstances, to be in danger of lavishing his plat.i.tudes on a person who is perhaps going to rot forever in exile, and who is nothing more than a rascal, or to risk being insolent to a vagabond of a postscript who is capable of coming back a conqueror in six months" time, and of becoming the Government in his turn. What was to be done? And then they were spied upon. This takes place between officials. The slightest word would be maliciously interpreted, the slightest gesture would be laid to their discredit. How should he keep on good terms at the same time this Cabbage, which is called To-day, and that Goat, which is called To-morrow? To ask too many questions would offend the General, to render to many salutations would annoy the President. How could he be at the same time very much a sub-prefect, and in some degree a lacquey? How could he combine the appearance of obsequiousness, which would please Changarnier, with the appearance of authority, which would please Bonaparte?
The sub-prefect thought to get out of the difficulty by saying, "General, you are my prisoner," and by adding, with a smile, "Do me the honor of breakfasting with me?" He addressed the same words to Charras.
The General refused curtly.
Charras looked at him fixedly, and did not answer him.
Doubts regarding the ident.i.ty of the prisoners came to the mind of the sub-prefect. He whispered to the Commissary "Are you quite sure?"
"Certainly," said the Commissary.
The sub-prefect decided to address himself to Charras, and dissatisfied with the manner in which his advances had been received, asked him somewhat sharply, "But, in short, who are you?"
Charras answered, "We are packages."
And turning to his keepers who were now in their turn in keeping:--
"Apply to our exporters. Ask our Custom House officers. It is a mere matter of goods traffic."
They set the electric telegraph to work. Valenciennes, alarmed, questioned Paris. The sub-prefect informed the Minister of the Interior that, thanks to a strict supervision, which he had trusted to no one but himself, he had just effected an important capture, that he had just discovered a plot, had saved the President, had saved society, had saved religion, etc., that in one word he had just arrested General Changarnier and Colonel Charras, who had escaped that morning from the fort of Ham with false pa.s.sports, doubtless for the purpose of heading a rising, etc., and that, in short, he asked the Government what was to be done with the two prisoners.
At the end of an hour the answer arrived:--"Let them go on their way."
The police perceived that in a burst of zeal they had pushed profundity to the point of stupidity. That sometimes happens.
The next train carried away the prisoners, restored, not to liberty, but to their keepers.
They pa.s.sed Quievrain.
They got down from the carriage, and got in again.
When the train again started Charras heaved the deep, joyous sigh of a freed man, and said, "At last!"
He raised his eyes, and perceived his two jailers by his side.
They had got up behind him into the carriage.
"Ah, indeed!" he said to them; "you there!"
Of these two men there was only one who spoke, that one answered,--
"Yes, Colonel."
"What are you doing here?"
"We are keeping watch over you."
"But we are in Belgium."
"Possibly."
"Belgium is not France."
"Ah, that may be."
"But suppose I put my head out of the carriage? Suppose I call out?
Suppose I had you arrested? Suppose I reclaimed my liberty?"
"You will not do all that, Colonel."
"How will you prevent me?"
The police agent showed the b.u.t.t-end of his pistol and said "Thus."
Charras burst out laughing, and asked them, "Where then are you going to leave me?"
"At Brussels."
"That is to say, that at Brussels you will salute me with your cap; but that at Mons you will salute me with your pistol."
"As you say, Colonel."
"In truth," said Charras, "it does not matter to me. It is King Leopold"s business. The Bonaparte treats countries as he has treated the Representatives. He has violated the a.s.sembly, he violates Belgium. But all the same, you are a medley of strange rascals. He who is at the top is a madman, those who are beneath are blockheads. Very well, my friends, let me go to sleep."
And he went to sleep.
Almost the same incident happened nearly at the same moment to Generals Changarnier and Lamoriciere and to M. Baze.
The police agents did not leave General Changarnier until they had reached Mons. There they made him get down from the train, and said to him, "General, this is your place of residence. We leave you free."
"Ah!" said he, "this is my place of residence, and I am free? Well, then, good-night."