Margont told him what he had discovered that day. Then he tossed the button to Lefine with a challenging look. Lefine caught it, clapping his hands. He examined it carefully, turning it over slowly close to his eyes.
‘It’s a military button ... There’s a number or a letter, or several ... It’s too worn to see ...’
He looked disappointed. The button hid the solution to an enigma, but was like a nut they were unable to crack.
‘So you also think it’s the button from a uniform,’ said Margont. ‘But hundreds of soldiers wear uniforms with decorated gold buttons. The foot artillery of the Imperial Guard have buttons that are decorated with two crossed cannon barrels surmounted by the imperial eagle. The grenadiers of the Old Guard also have the imperial eagle on theirs. Our friend Jean-Quenin still has his button from 1798, even though it’s no longer regulation, and it has the words “Military hospitals” and then “Humanity” with a Phrygian cap above it. His other buttons have a staff entwined with a serpent surmounted by the mirror of prudence and surrounded by an oak branch and a laurel branch. Customs-house officers are similarly decorated, but I don’t know the exact details. The light infantry have the number of their regiment inscribed inside a
hunting horn. Normally they’re silver, but I can’t be certain that there aren’t any light regiments who have gold buttons. Just as the infantry of the line is supposed to have gold buttons but several regiments have silver ones. And I have no idea about other buttons - the navy, for example, or the engineers ...’
‘We don’t get paid but we all have these expensive uniforms. Why can’t all soldiers have the same buttons? And anyway, the regulations for uniforms are not always respected. Each regiment has its own foibles and traditions and variations according to what comes to hand. If Saber suddenly says, “I want all my soldiers to have uniform buttons with the number of our legion in roman numerals preceded by an ‘S’ for Saber,” we’d all have to pay for them from the little money we have left...’
‘Perhaps we’re barking up the wrong tree. Perhaps it’s the button from an expensive civilian suit. I don’t know what a count or a baron would have worn under the ancien regime ... You’ve got so many contacts, do you know anyone who could help us?’
‘I know the perfect person. I have a friend who works in the
commissariat. If anyone knows about military buttons, he does.’ ‘I’m relying on you. Then there’s the fire - what clues can we draw from that?’
Margont brandished a Bible. Lefine remembered being dragged, in tears - of rage! - to church by his father who hoped that God would put the little miscreant back on the straight and narrow. Ever since, he had given the Holy Scriptures as wide a berth as possible. Margont, on the other hand, was turning the pages with the practised ease of a preacher. ‘Job, chapter l, verse 16: “While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, ‘The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.””
His fingers flicked back a bit further. ‘Leviticus, chapter 10, verses l and 2: “And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them,
and they died before the Lord/”
Lefine felt uncomfortable. He did not believe in Cod. But if He did in fact exist and if the Bible was His word, He did not seem exactly ‘the God of bounty and love’ which He was usually taken to be ... Margont, undeterred, went on and his apparently random quotes started to form a coherent and unsettling whole.
‘Deuteronomy, chapter 5, verses 23 and 24: “And it came to pass, when ye heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, (for the mountain did burn with fire,) that ye came near unto me, even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders; And ye said, ‘Behold, the Lord our Cod hath shewed us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire: we have seen this day that God doth talk with man, and he liveth.”’
‘Isaiah, chapter 66, verses 15 and 16: “For, behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh: and the slain of the Lord shall be many/”
More pages turned. The more the passages mounted up the more impact they made as if each were a fire, which, added to all the others, formed a blazing inferno.
‘Jeremiah, chapter 5, verse 14: “Wherefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts, because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.”
‘And finally, of course, Revelation, chapter 8, verse 5: “And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.” What do you conclude from all that?’ ‘That I prefer to think about the button ...’
Margont slammed the Bible closed. ‘Fire has a double symbolism in the Holy Scriptures. It is either a positive force, the incarnation of the Word of God, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God ... Or, it’s the opposite, the illustration of his all-powerfulness, the instrument of his anger, the Anger of God ... And supposing Jean-Baptiste de Chatel believes he’s been charged with a divine
mission? To overcome the Antichrist, Napoleon, with fire.’
‘But what exactly is the Antichrist?’
‘A man in the pay of the devil. He starts off quietly, then launches into a frenetic series of conquests. “He shall subdue three kings” - according to Daniel - and will himself become a king. His power will grow still greater and will spread “over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations,” as Revelation says.’
There are strange similarities, actually ... coincidences ... but that’s all that would be needed to stir up a religious fanatic.’
‘He will wage war on God and the Church - Napoleon annexed the pontifical states to the Empire and, by his order, Pius VII spent almost five years in a supervised residence, at Savone, then at Fontainebleau. He will try to pass himself off as a god. But his reign will not last. God will easily and rapidly overturn it. Most of that comes from Revelation, also known as the Apocalypse of St John, because it’s the coming of the Antichrist that sets off the Apocalypse.’
He paused for a moment before going calmly on: ‘Jean-Baptiste
Chatel seems to want to follow the Bible to the letter. Because of that, when I immerse myself in the Bible it’s as if I can read his thoughts ... If you think about it, it’s hardly surprising that he has nothing in his head except for the Holy Scriptures. He spent several years imprisoned by the Inquisition with only the Bible for company.’
‘So you think that’s the “third plan” - to assassinate the Emperor with flames?’
‘Aren’t the damned supposed to burn in hell? It’s a suggestion. Chatel would have mystical motives but the other members might support it for political reasons. However, there is someone else who might well be influenced by the Bible ...’
‘Who’s that?’
‘Louis de Leaume. Like all aristocrats, his childhood would have been steeped in religion. His family must have taken him to church, spoken of Cod, quoted the Bible ... I don’t know how much importance he attached to his faith at the time. But later he was in a way dead, and then brought to life again. He pulled