The Black Baroness

Seeing that nothing would dissuade him from his purpose, she helped him on with his clerical suit—the only clothes that he had with him—and once he was up he found that although he was a little shaky he was quite capable of walking about without assistance. She saw him downstairs and on the porter's securing him a taxi he drove to the Surete Generale. Having sent up his name to Lacroix he waited patiently in a room downstairs until nearly six o'clock, when at last a messenger came in to say that the Colonel would see him.

For once the little man was not seated behind his desk but was walking slowly up and down with his hands clasped behind his back. As Gregory was shown in he turned and, having stared at him for a moment, exclaimed:

'Sacre Nom! But what has happened to you, my poor friend? You look as though you have just got up out of your coffin. Sit down at once.'

'Thanks.' Gregory sank into a chair. 'You're right, sir; I have just got up out of my coffin—or near enough. I spent six days chasing that damned woman round Italy and when I at last ran her to earth she made a complete fool of me. Collimard's disguise was admirable, but my hands gave me away. She knew who I was from the word "go" and she put poison in my wine— the hell cat! This time last night I was as near death as makes no difference, out at her villa on Lake Albano, but I managed to save myself by the skin of my teeth, and Collimard behaved magnificently; he and Desaix managed to get me home.'

'But, mon ami, you ought to be in bed.'

'Of course,' Gregory shrugged. 'But how could anyone who has the strength to walk remain in bed at a time like this? I had to know what's happening and I've come back to you again as a failure; but I mean to get that woman if I die for it. She's here in France again—at least, she was leaving for France when I last saw her.'

Lacroix nodded. 'She flew from Italy yesterday evening and arrived back at her chateau in the Forest of Fontainebleau just before midnight. Directly I heard that I knew that you must have failed, so I'm having her watched; but, as you know, there is nothing that I can do against her.'

Gregory laughed a little weakly. 'Maybe. But I'm still game to go after her. I'll drive out there tonight. I've a feeling that she's not going to be so lucky the third time that I get her on her own.'

'I forbid you to do so,' said the Colonel sharply. 'You are in no fit state to undertake any such venture.'

Gregory's chin came out in a stubborn line. 'Forgive me, but I'm not under your orders, mon Colonel.

I'm a free man and I shall make my own decision as to how and when I tackle Madame la Baronne. Still, before I go I'd consider it a real kindness if you'd let me into how things are shaping. The papers say so little.'

Lacroix flung out his small brown hands. 'Matters could hardly be worse. It has been decided to declare Paris an open town, in order to save it from devastation. If it proves necessary our forces will be ordered to withdraw to fresh positions south of the city.'

'Good God!' Gregory exclaimed. 'But the moral effect on your troops will be positively appalling. Paris is now a great, natural bastion in the very centre of your line. If every building in the suburbs were made a machine-gun nest the Germans would never be able to take the city, short of starving it into surrender.

You could hold it for months while the old B.E.F. is being re-equipped and a far greater one being shipped over week by week to your assistance.'

'And in the meantime?' asked Lacroix. 'We are no longer in 1870. The city suffered badly enough then from the German bombardments, but that is nothing compared to what the Germans could do today with both guns and aeroplanes.'

'But Paris covers a huge area. If the Germans bomb and shell it for weeks they may do quite a lot of damage but they couldn't destroy it beyond repair.'

'Would you, I wonder, take the same view if it were London that was threatened with destruction?'

'Yes,' cried Gregory angrily. 'I'm only saying what any Londoner would say when I tell you that I would rather die fighting among the ruins of Piccadilly than live to see the Germans march down it in triumph.'

'I believe you. And many Frenchmen—myself among them —would prefer to die crushed under the ruins of the Arc de Triomphe than allow the Germans to pass through it; but it is not to be.'

'Think what such a surrender means,' Gregory went on urgently. 'It's not only the moral uplift that the capture of the city will give to the whole German nation, and the disastrous effect that it will have on the mind of every Frenchman throughout the world, but if it is to be given up to save its buildings from destruction we won't be able to bomb it afterwards. A million Germans will be able to live here in perfect security, immune from all attack, and its great railway network will give the enemy an enormous advantage for future operations. In the Paris area there are great munition-plants and innumerable factories. All these will fall unharmed into the Nazis' hands and the loot that Hitler will collect is almost beyond imagination.'

The Colonel shrugged wearily. 'I know, my friend, I know; but that is the decision of the High Command and the Government is leaving Paris tonight.'

"Where for?'

'I do not yet know. I am now waiting to hear from de Gaulle.'

'Who is he?'

'You have not heard of him, eh? Well, he is one of our younger Generals and a man in whom I, personally, have great faith. He is Under-Secretary for War and Reynaud's general military adviser.'

'Is it he who has advised the abandonment of Paris?'

'On the contrary. He fought tooth and nail against it, but he was overruled. Today another great battle has been raging— a secret battle in which victory will go to those who succeed in influencing Reynaud to accept their policy. De Gaulle, Georges Mandel, who is the spiritual heir of Clemenceau, and their friends wish the Government to move to Quimpier, in Brittany, and to withdraw our forces to a line from Rouen to Orleans, and thence south-east along the Loire, so that we can make a last stand with our backs to the English Channel. His opponents wish the Government to retire to Bordeaux, where they would be further removed from the influence of the English should it become necessary to accept defeat and capitulate.'

'Capitulate?' cried Gregory. 'But this is ghastly!—unthinkable ! What in God's name can Weygand be thinking of to permit even the suggestion of capitulation to be mentioned in the French War Cabinet?'

Lacroix looked up sadly. 'Mon ami, it is best that you should know the truth. It is Weygand who heads the party that is urging Reynaud to move to Bordeaux.'

Gregory mopped his forehead as he murmured: 'Weygand— France's hope; and Leopold warned me, yet I was fool enough to laugh at him. Is there nobody whom one can trust?'

'You may trust de Gaulle; but Weygand must from now on be counted among the enemy. Almost hourly, from Sunday last—Black Sunday—he has been telephoning Reynaud to say that there is no more than he can do and urging the Government to leave Paris. Today we reach the crisis. This morning Reynaud actually signed the order for the move to Bordeaux, but de Gaulle made him countermand it and preparations are still going forward for a move to Quimpier. But it was necessary for de Gaulle to remain with Reynaud in his office all day in order to ensure that he was not got at and that he did not change his mind once more. Then, an hour ago, your friend, the Baroness arrived there.'