On one point Roger took an immediate decision. It could be taken for granted that during the six months the Foreign Minister had been in office he would have established his own service of secret agents. That being so, if he did suspect that Roger was still acting for Mr. Pitt, he would be kept under constant observation from now on until he was safely out of Paris. Therefore, it would be tempting Fate to pay another visit to the secret post-office and hand in his despatch.
That did not particularly worry him. He was in fact relieved that circumstances should prevent his having to carry out a duty at the cost of breaking his word to a friend. He regarded it as a good thing that preparations to resist invasion should continue to be made in England at high pressure; for, although Bonaparte bad refused the gamble, the Directory were so eager that the operation should be undertaken that it was quite possible that during his absence they might persuade Moreau or some other General to undertake it.
As far as the expedition to Egypt was concerned, its preparations would take many weeks, if not months, and must be on such a scale that other British agents could hardly fail to learn their purpose. It was annoying to have acquired this important piece of information long before any other agent was likely to do so, yet be deprived of the kudos for passing it on. But it was better to be safe than sorry, so he quickly resigned himself to leaving it to someone else to report.
That brought him to the all-important question—should he or should he not accompany Bonaparte? If he backed out, it was certain that the clever Talleyrand would think of some way of thoroughly discrediting him without actually bringing him into danger. It would then be useless for him to remain in Paris. Moreover, as Talleyrand had pointed out, to resign his appointment at such a juncture would cost him for good the place he had won in Bonaparte's confidence and, if the General did return safely from his Eastern venture, there could be little doubt that he would prove the dominant figure in the French politics of the future.
Having reasoned so far, it became apparent to Roger that he was faced with clear-cut alternatives—either he must go to Egypt or slip quietly away to England with his tail between his legs and confess to Mr. Pitt that he was finished as a secret agent.
Could he have been certain that Georgina would marry him, he would have been prepared to take the latter course; but he knew that for her to change her mind after all these years was very unlikely. That being the case, there would be nothing to console him for retiring from the ringside seat from which he had observed, and sometimes influenced, High Policy in Europe for so long. Moreover, it was a bitter thought that he would end on a note of complete failure the career he had followed for the past ten years with such outstanding success.
The alternative, too, offered extremely high dividends. By going to Egypt he could convince Talleyrand of his bona fides, and so even win his confidence. He would retain Bonaparte's goodwill and if, as Talleyrand predicted, he returned sooner than might be expected to assume dictatorial powers, his goodwill would then be invaluable.
There were two other smaller points, though important ones to Roger. First, he had promised Talleyrand not to communicate with England only while he was in France. Once outside the country he would again be free to do so by any means he could devise without any feeling of shame at having broken his word, even though it were in the service of his country. Secondly, although he might leave France with Bonaparte, it did not follow that he would remain.with him indefinitely. An occasion might well arise by which, while still retaining the General's goodwill, he could manage to get back to Europe long before Bonaparte.
By the time he was crossing the Place du Louvre towards La Belle £toile he had decided that Talleyrand had, for the present, cornered him; so he must accept the challenge and play the game out or lose all respect for himself. On reaching the inn he went up to his room, lifted a loose floor-board, took the despatch he had written from its hiding place and burned it. Then he resolutely set about accustoming his mind to the fact that he would soon be leaving Europe and might not see his own country again for a long time to come.
During the weeks that followed he spent his time much as he had since his arrival in Paris. The Directory had not yet given its official consent to the expedition to Egypt so no overt preparations for it could be made; but Bonaparte had begun to draw up lists of his requirements, and from time to time used Roger to make discreet enquiries about the availability of different items. Apart from that he continued with his social round, which was rapidly making him one of the best-informed men in Paris. This round included attendance at all receptions given by members of the Bonaparte family, the older members of which he had met in Italy.
The General's mother, Madame Letizia, entertained rarely, but Roger saw her occasionally at the houses of her children. She was a tall, angular woman and had inherited from her peasant ancestors both the best and worst of their qualities. Her husband had died in '85, leaving her far from well-off and with a brood of seven children, ranging from one to seventeen years of age. During the upheavals that had shaken Corsica in the years that followed she had often been in dire straits to support her young family, but had faced every hardship with immense courage and, while treating her children with great strictness, had succeeded in bringing them up in the best traditions of the petit-noblesse.
She was devout, high-principled and unspoilt by her second son's rise to greatness. But she was extremely mean, owing to a belief that such prosperity could not last and that a day would come when to help her extravagant children she would need all she could save from the generous allowance the General made her.
Joseph, her eldest son—now aged thirty—had recently returned from being Ambassador at Rome. He had studied law at Pisa and was a virtuous, good-natured, intelligent man. After the family left Corsica and settled in Marseilles as refugees he had married Julie Clary, the daughter of a wealthy merchant there. She made him an excellent wife and was regarded by all as an angel of goodness, owing to her tireless activity in every form of charity. They had a pretty house in the Rue du Rocher, to which Joseph had brought back with him from Rome his wife's sister, Desiree. She was a great, if somewhat insipid, beauty and some years earlier had inspired Bonaparte with a most tender passion. At the moment she was in deep mourning for General Duphot, for she had become engaged to him before his untimely death in Rome the previous December.
Between Napoleon and Lucien, Letizia's third son, there was a gap of six years. Physically he bore little resemblance to the others, for he was tall, ill-shaped and had a small head and long thin limbs like those of a spider. In addition, he was so nearsighted that he was always peering at people with his head thrust forward and eyes half-closed. After Napoleon he was the most talented and independent-minded of the family, and its firebrand. As a dyed-in-the-wool Republican, he had been imprisoned as a Robespierrist at the end of the Terror, although he was only nineteen at the time. His brother Napoleon had had some difficulty in securing his release. He then got himself work as a storekeeper in St. Maxim and while there had married Christine Boyer, the daughter of the village innkeeper.