"Then may I take it that you agree the terms?"
"I know not. I must think. Upon my decision depends the whole future of my country."
"Do you accept and act with vigour, it will make you, after the King, the most powerful man in France."
"I am already near that; and need no help from the Royalists to elevate myself still further. By marching on Paris I could have myself proclaimed Dictator."
"Perhaps; but what of the war in the meantime? Did you turn your army about, the Austrians would be back over the Rhine and hot upon your heels. Only by entering into this pact could you prevent them doing so."
The General shook his head. "Nay, you are in error there. As I hold your life in my hands, I see no reason why I should not speak frankly to you. General Jourdan's army has reached the north bank of the Necker. I have only to make the dash on Heidelberg, which I have been preparing for these past few days, to join up with him. With our combined forces we shall far outnumber either of the Austrian armies. 'Twill be child's-play for us first to defeat Wurmser, then Clerfayt. That done, Austria must sue for peace; then I should be free to march on Paris."
That was the very thing Roger feared, and he saw that he must play every card he had in an attempt to prevent it. Knowing the French hatred of the English, he had intended to pose as a French emigre, but he realized that Pichegru must know that de Conde was penniless, and that the huge money bribe he was offered could come only from England; so now he felt that it might serve him better to disclose his true nationality. After a moment, he said:
"Even if the Austrians cave in you will not be able to secure peace for France. Britain will fight on. The English are a dogged people, and the Scots and Irish no less so. Only twelve years ago, alone m arms, Britain fought all Europe to a standstill. To them surrender is unthinkable."
Pichegru nodded. "I fear you are right in that The English, too, are so vastly rich that with their gold they will suborn other nations to take up arms against us. Moreover, they love fighting for its own sake and are most ferocious enemies. I am told that such is their lust for blood that when at peace they spend all their time hunting, and devour raw the beasts they kill, tearing at them with their big teeth."
Roger could not help laughing. "Nay, they are not quite as uncivilized as that It is true that they make good fighters, but by far the greater part of them would much prefer to remain at home tilling their rich fields, to enduring a hard soldier's life abroad and as often as not dying on some distant battle-field."
"You speak as though you knew and liked them."
"I do; for although I have lived for many years in France, I am an Englishman myself .
"The Devil you are! Then I am inclined more than ever to have you shot."
"No, General, I do not think you will do that." Roger made the statement with quiet confidence, and, opening his coat, displayed the emigre uniform beneath it "You see, I have come to you as one soldier to another; and, apart from the laws of war, I cannot believe that you would act like a Rewbell. So brave a man as yourself would not descend to soil his hands in the manner of these terrorists."
"You have me there." Pichegru's handsome face broke into a smile. "I may, though, have to imprison you for my own protection. But you are a brave fellow yourself, and a clever one. Why in thunder did not that fool of a Prince send you to me before, instead of a woolly-minded fumbler like Fauche-Borel?"
"Because I had not then been brought into this matter. However, we were speaking of the English. Britain holds the seas, and even were you master of all Europe you could not drive her from them: therefore you can never bring her to her knees. While she, if need be for a generation to come, can deny the oceans to your commerce, blockade your ports, starve and harass you. That she will never make peace with a Revolutionary Government I am convinced. On the other hand, she is ready to do so with a Constitutional Monarchy. I give you my solemn word that, whatever you may have been led to believe, Mr. Pitt is at heart a man of peace, and greatly desires it. If you will but bring about a Restoration, I am confident that he will agree to any honourable terms. He would, I believe, even go so far as to support France at a conference of the Powers in her claim to what she asserts to be her natural boundaries, and thus enable her to retain much of the territory that you and her other Generals have won for her in the present war."
Pichegru stared at him, and asked slowly: "Who are you, that though dressed as a private in an army of outlaws, you should speak as though you knew the mind of Mr. Pitt?"
"I am the personal envoy of His Britannic Majesty's Prime Minister," Roger replied with suitable dignity. "I visited de Condé's headquarters only to secure for you the document you are holding."
As he fired his big gun, he watched anxiously for die General's reactions. They came at once. Jumping to his feet he exclaimed: "Then it is not de Condé alone who is behind this proposition! His name written in his own hand should be good enough; but mere have been times when Princes of the House of Bourbon have gone back upon a bargain. If the British Government is prepared to guarantee the terms, I can count the fortune I am offered as good as already placed to my credit in the Bank of England."
Roger bowed at the implied compliment. "That certainly is true as far as the money clauses are concerned. As to the honours, I can only say that, without casting doubt upon the Prince's word, should Mr. Pitt's influence be needed to secure them for you, I feel sure he would exert it in your favour."
With a vigorous nod, Pichegru murmured: "We have got a long way. A very long way. In a quarter of an hour with you I have got further than in all my weeks of dickering with Fauche-Borel."
"You agree, then?" Roger asked, his hopes rising with a bound.
"Nay; I do not say that. There are matters of far more weighty import than my own future to be considered. You spoke just now of the British Government's being willing to agree a peace if France were a Constitutional Monarchy. Can you give me an assurance that the Bourbon Princes are prepared to make her one?"
"No; that I cannot do. I had no converse with de Condé on that subject."
"It is, though, the vital question upon which the whole future hangs. It is my belief that nine-tenths of the French people would now welcome a Restoration, were it based on the Constitution of '91. Last June, when the poor child in the Temple died and that fat dolt the Comte de Provence became technically Louis XVIII, he already had the game in his hands, had he only exercised a modicum of tact. He had but to announce that he accepted the principles of '91 and would grant an amnesty to all who had taken part in the Revolution, for half France to have risen and spontaneously demanded his recall. Yet dull-witted bigot that he is, he had the folly to declare in public that the Constitutionalists were more detestable to him than Robespierre himself. How can we hope to restrain the emigres from taking their revenge for past ills, and the pursuance of liberal policies, should I put such a man upon the Throne?"
It was a hard question to answer, but Roger did his best. "I think," he said, "you overrate that danger. Whatever the personal views of the King and a handful of ultra-Royalists may be, theirs will be voices crying in the wilderness. The Governments of Britain and Austria no longer give a rap for the pretensions of the ancien regime, and should they make peace at all they will use their utmost endeavours to ensure that it has the basis for a lasting one. Such pretensions to autocracy could lead only to another revolution, with the prospect of further war; so you may be certain that the Allies would insist on the new King opening his reign as a monarch with strictly limited powers. After that, matters will be in the hands of yourself and men ike you. Free elections would produce a Chamber almost entirely composed of Moderates, and the King's only alternative to accepting its views would be to go once more into exile."