Leaving the princess to settle in, amid a great banging of doors, bumping of boxes, clattering of feet and calling for servants, all of which proceeded under the interested gaze of about fifty of the local inhabitants, who had assembled about the big travelling coaches, Talleyrand accompanied Marianne back to her own house on the excuse of assuring himself that she was comfortably installed there. But scarcely was the rustic door of her little sitting-room closed behind them than the carefree smile faded from the prince's face and Marianne noted with alarm the lines of worry on his forehead and the way his shoulders suddenly seemed to sag wearily.
'Is it – is it so bad?'
'Worse than you can imagine. That is what caused my delay in joining you here. I wanted to learn all I could and for that reason I barely stopped at Valençay. To tell you the truth, my dear, the news is so bad that I scarcely know where to begin.'
He dropped heavily into a chair with a tired sigh and stretched out his bad leg, which was still stiff from travelling. Then he laid his stick against his knee and passed one long, white hand over his grey face. To Marianne, watching in growing horror, it seemed that the hand trembled a little.
'For God's sake! Tell me! Tell me just as it comes! Do not spare me. Any torture is better than ignorance. I have been dying by inches here for two whole weeks, knowing nothing! Is it possible that Jason's innocence is still not proved?'
'His innocence?' Talleyrand said bitterly. 'Each day that passes only serves to plunge him deeper in guilt. If this goes on, we shall have only one course open to us if we are to save him from…' He hesitated.
'From what?'
'From the scaffold.'
Uttering a choking cry, Marianne leapt from her chair as if it had grown suddenly red-hot. Carrying both icy hands to her burning face, she walked up and down the room several times before returning to fall on her knees at the prince's side.
'There can be nothing worse to say,' she said dully. 'Tell me the whole, now, I beg of you, unless you want me to run mad.'
Talleyrand put out his hand and gently stroked the girl's smooth hair. He shook his head. The light eyes, in general so cold and mocking, held a look of deep compassion.:
'I know your courage, Marianne. I will tell you, but you must not stay there. Come, sit here, close by me, on this little sofa, eh?'
When they were seated side by side on the rush-bottomed sofa by the window looking out on to the gardens, hand in hand, like father and daughter, the Prince of Benevento began his tale.
The accusation of murder against Jason Beaufort, which had originally been based on the anonymous letter handed to the police and on the testimony of the seaman Perez, who persisted in his story that he had received orders from Jason to remove the body of Nicolas Mallerousse from the billiard-room and throw it into the Seine, was now reinforced by a good deal of further evidence. First, the seaman Jones, whom Perez asserted was to have assisted him in the removal of the murdered man, had been fished out of a backwater at St Cloud two days later. He had been drowned and as there were no marks of violence on his body the police had concluded that in making his escape from Passy Jones had slipped in the darkness on the river bank, rendered unusually greasy by the night's storm, and fallen into the Seine to his death.
'But that is absurd!' Marianne protested. 'No sailor who fell into the Seine, even in the middle of the night, could fail to swim to safety – especially in summer!'
'Perez says that his companion could not swim. Jason, on the other hand, insists that Jones was one of his best men and swam like a fish.'
'And this wretch Perez is believed?'
'It is apt to go hard with the accused,' Talleyrand said with a sigh, 'and it is all the more unfortunate because by contradicting Perez's lying statements, this Jones might have given the evidence which would have saved our friend. If you ask me, Jones was never in league with this man Perez, whom Beaufort states that he had discharged with a flogging. But whoever arranged our little death trap was not inclined to quibble over one corpse more or less. Besides, I have not come to the end of it. The excise men at Morlaix have searched the holds of the Sea Witch and the cargo they found there has helped to aggravate the case against Jason.'
Marianne made a little movement of irritation. 'A cargo of champagne and burgundy! There's wickedness for you! Enough to cost a man his head, I'm sure! As for their sacred blockade—'
'Enough to cost a man his head, indeed,' the diplomat continued quietly, 'when they also find counterfeit money.'
'C-counterfeit? No – it is not true!'
'That Jason put it there, no, I don't think that. But that it was discovered is, I am afraid, beyond any doubt. They found about a hundred thousand pounds sterling in Bank of England notes. The notes were, unfortunately, brand new. I tell you, the plot has been well thought out.'
'Well then, it must be shown up for what it is!' Marianne cried hotly. 'We know, you and I, we know for certain that the crime and everything that has followed is the work of a gang of people well known to the police. Surely, they are the only ones who possess the means to have manufactured these notes, and that is what we have to find: whoever made those notes! Oh, the police must be blind and stone deaf! When I tried to tell the truth to that Inspector Pâques he treated me as if I were practically an idiot, and the Duke of Rovigo refused to listen to me at all.'
'The Duke of Rovigo is the world's biggest and most obstinate blockhead,' Talleyrand remarked, 'with the possible exception of Monsieur Savary – eh?' However dire the circumstances, he could not, it seemed, resist a witticism, even one that was not altogether new, for he had already made the same comment on the Duke of Bassano. 'Our policeman lives in constant terror of displeasing his idol, the Emperor. But for once, I cannot altogether blame him. Think, my child, of all the weight of evidence against Beaufort, while on your side you have only your private convictions and your word – not the least shadow of proof.'
'What more have they?' Marianne asked bitterly. 'All their evidence is mere slander, uttered by creatures so wretched that they should be beneath contempt. Besides, I fail to understand why Lord Cranmere and his associates should have gone to all this trouble merely to be revenged on me for getting him arrested. Especially as I am not directed involved in this. The real victim is Jason Beaufort. But why?'
'Because he is an American.' Talleyrand gave a little sigh. 'My dear child, it desolates me to be obliged to shatter your illusions but your differences with Lord Cranmere are altogether minor matters in this business. They would not, as you so rightly say, have gone to all this trouble merely to be revenged on you. But to bring about a diplomatic incident involving the United States, to tip a situation which had been rendered delicate by the Continental Blockade but which had recently shown some signs of improvement, now that is something which an English spy might find extremely worth while, something which could justify a little trouble.'
This was the last thing Marianne had expected. It had not before occurred to her that her own affairs might have become involved with international politics. She turned on her companion a look of such total bewilderment and incomprehension that he smiled indulgently and continued: 'Let me explain. In spite of political differences, trade between England and the United States has been resumed since last year. The United States were deeply shocked by the decrees of Berlin and Milan, especially that of Milan by which Napoleon declared all foreign vessels calling at English ports, or even making contact with English vessels, to be lawful prizes. Lord Wellesley has taken advantage of American resentment and early this year huge quantities of English merchandise began entering the United States, greatly to the good of British trade, which had been suffering something of a recession. However President Madison is friendly to France and anxious to see the resumption of good relations with the country of La Fayette, and he would be glad to see the Milan decree repealed, at least so far as the United States is concerned. He has instructed his ambassador in Paris accordingly and John Armstrong has been working along these lines for some weeks past. I know for a fact that he has recently written to Champagny, who replaced me in Foreign Affairs, asking him to name the terms on which the Berlin and Milan decrees might be annulled in relation to the United States. This affair of murder and contraband is aimed much more at nullifying their efforts than at any idea of revenge for Francis Cranmere. You are an excuse, Marianne, and Beaufort a tool.'