The Eagle of the Empire | Page 2

Army of the Nations that
invaded Russia is scarcely more than a detachment, and battles last for
days, weeks, even months--Waterloo was decided in an afternoon!--yet
war is the same. If there be any difference it simply grows more
horrible. The old principles, however, are unchanged, and over the
fields upon which Napoleon marched and fought, armies are marching
and fighting in practically the same way to-day. And great Captains are
still studying Frederick, Wellington and Bonaparte as they have ever
done.
The author modestly hopes that this book may not only entertain by the
love story, the tragic yet happily ended romance within its pages--for
there is romance here aside from the great Captain and his exploits--but
that in a small way it may serve to set forth not so much the brilliance

and splendor and glory of war as the horror of it.
We are frightfully fascinated by war, even the most peaceable and
peace-loving of us. May this story help to convey to the reader some of
the other side of it; the hunger, the cold, the weariness, the suffering,
the disaster, the despair of the soldier; as well as the love and the joy
and the final happiness of the beautiful Laure and the brave Marteau to
say nothing of redoubtable old Bal-Arrêt, the Bullet-Stopper--whose
fates were determined on the battlefield amid the clash of arms.
CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY.
THE HEMLOCKS, EDGECLIFF TERRACE,
PARK-HILL-ON-HUDSON. YONKERS, N. Y.
EPIPHANY-TIDE, 1915.

CONTENTS
PROLOGUE VIVE L'EMPEREUR
BOOK I: THE EMPEROR AT BAY
Chapter
I.
BEARERS OF EVIL TIDINGS II. THE EMPEROR DREAMS III.
THE ARMY MARCHES AWAY IV. MARTEAU AND BAL-ARRÊT
RIDE V. WHEN THE COSSACKS PASSED VI. MARTEAU
BARGAINS FOR THE WOMAN VII. A RESCUE AND A SIEGE
VIII. A TRIAL OR ALLEGIANCE IX. THE EMPEROR EATS AND
RIDES X. HOW MARTEAU WON THE CROSS XI. AN EMPEROR
AND A GENTLEMAN XII. AN ALLIANCE DECLINED XIII. THE
THUNDERBOLT STROKE XIV. THE HAMMER OF THE WAR
GOD

BOOK II: THE EAGLE'S FLIGHT
XV. THE BRIDGE AT ARCIS XVI. THE GATE IN THE WALL
XVII. A VETERAN OF THE ARMY OF ITALY XVIII. ALMOST A
GENTLEMAN XIX. THE GREAT HONOR ROLL XX. WHEN THE
VIOLETS BLOOM AGAIN XXI. LIKE A THIEF IN THE NIGHT
XXII. IN THE COUNTESS LAURE'S BED-CHAMBER XXIII. THE
MARQUIS GRANTS AN INTERVIEW XXIV. ON THE WHOLE
DEATH MAY BE BETTER THAN LIFE XXV. NOT EVEN LOVE
CAN FIND A WAY XXVI. THEY MEET A LION IN THE WAY
XXVII. COMRADE! GENERAL! EMPEROR!
BOOK III: THE LAST TRY
XXVIII. AT THE STAMP OF THE EMPEROR'S FOOT XXIX.
WATERLOO--THE FINAL REVIEW XXX. WATERLOO--THE
CHARGE OF D'ERLON XXXI. WATERLOO--THE LAST OF THE
GUARD XXXII. AT LAST THE EAGLE AND THE WOMAN

PROLOGUE
VIVE L'EMPEREUR
The weatherworn Château d'Aumenier stands in the midst of a noble
park of trees forming part of an extensive domain not far to the
northwest of the little town of Sézanne, in the once famous county of
Champagne, in France. The principal room of the castle is a great hall
in the oldest part of the venerable pile which dates back for eight
hundred years, or to the tenth century and the times of the famous
Count Eudes himself, for whom it was held by one of his greatest
vassals.
The vast apartment is filled with rare and interesting mementos of its
distinguished owners, including spoils of war and trophies of the chase,
acquired in one way or another in the long course of their history, and
bespeaking the courage, the power, the ruthlessness, and, sometimes,
the unscrupulousness of the hard-hearted, heavy-handed line. Every

country in Europe and every age, apparently, has been levied upon to
adorn this great hall, with its long mullioned windows, its enormous
fireplace, its huge carved stone mantel, its dark oak paneled walls and
beamed ceiling. But, the most interesting, the most precious of all the
wonderful things therein has a place of honor to itself at the end farthest
from the main entrance.
Fixed against this wall is a broken staff, or pole, surmounted by a small
metallic figure. The staff is fastened to the wall by clamps of tempered
steel which are further secured by delicate locks of skillful and intricate
workmanship. The pole is topped by the gilded effigy of an eagle.
In dimensions the eagle is eight inches high, from head to feet, and nine
and a half inches wide, from wing tip to wing tip. Heraldically, "Un
Aigle Éployé" it would be called. That is, an eagle in the act of taking
flight--in the vernacular, a "spread eagle." The eagle looks to the left,
with its wings half expanded. In its talons it grasps a thunderbolt, as in
the old Roman standard. Those who have ever wandered into the
Monastery of the Certosa, at Milan, have