"Where?"
"Wherever you meet him."
Bonaparte laughed.
"Ninny!" he said, with loving familiarity. Then, stooping over the map, he said to Roland, "Come here."
Roland stooped beside him. "There," resumed Bonaparte; "that is where I shall fight him."
"Near Alessandria?"
"Within eight or nine miles of it. He has all his supplies, hospitals, artillery and reserves in Alessandria; and he will not leave the neighborhood. I shall have to strike a great blow; that's the only condition on which I can get peace. I shall cross the Alps"--he pointed to the great Saint-Bernard--"I shall fall upon Melas when he least expects me, and rout him utterly."
"Oh! trust you for that!"
"Yes; but you understand, Roland, that in order to quit France with an easy mind, I can't leave it with an inflammation of the bowels--I can't leave war in the Vendee."
"Ah! now I see what you are after. No Vendee! And you are sending me to the Vendee to suppress it."
"That young man told me some serious things about the Vendee. They are brave soldiers, those Vendeans, led by a man of brains, Georges Cadoudal. I have sent him the offer of a regiment, but he won't accept."
"Jove! He's particular."
"But there's one thing he little knows."
"Who, Cadoudal?"
"Yes, Cadoudal. That is that the Abbe Bernier has made me overtures."
"The Abbe Bernier?"
"Yes."
"Who is the Abbe Bernier?"
"The son of a peasant from Anjou, who may be now about thirty-three or four years of age. Before the insurrection he was curate of Saint-Laud at Angers. He refused to take the oath and sought refuge among the Vendeans. Two or three times the Vendee was pacificated; twice she was thought dead. A mistake! the Vendee was pacificated, but the Abbe Bernier had not signed the peace; the Vendee was dead, but the Abbe Bernier was still alive. One day the Vendee was ungrateful to him.
He wished to be appointed general agent to the royalist armies of the interior; Stofflet influenced the decision and got his old master, Comte Colbert de Maulevrier, appointed in Bernier's stead. When, at two o'clock in the morning, the council broke up, the Abbe Bernier had disappeared. What he did that night, God and he alone can tell; but at four o'clock in the morning a Republican detachment surrounded the farmhouse where Stofflet was sleeping, disarmed and defenceless. At half-past four Stofflet was captured; eight days later he was executed at Angers. The next day Autichamp took command, and, to avoid making the same blunder as Stofflet, he appointed the Abbe Bernier general agent.
Now, do you understand?"
"Perfectly."
"Well, the Abbe Bernier, general agent of the belligerent forces, and furnished with plenary powers by the Comte d'Artois--the Abbe Bernier has made overtures to me."
"To you, to Bonaparte, to the First Consul he deigns to--? Why, that's very kind of the Abbe Bernier? Have you accepted them?"
"Yes, Roland; if the Vendee will give me peace, I will open her churches and give her back her priests."
"And suppose they chant the _Domine, salvum fac regem?_"
"That would be better than not singing at all. God is omnipotent, and he will decide. Does the mission suit you, now that I have explained it?"
"Yes, thoroughly."
"Then, here is a letter for General Hedouville. He is to treat with the Abbe Bernier as the general-in-chief of the Army of the West. But you are to be present at all these conferences; he is only my mouthpiece, you are to be my thought. Now, start as soon as possible; the sooner you get back, the sooner Melas will be defeated."
"General, give me time to write to my mother, that's all."
"Where will she stop?"
"At the Hotel des Ambassadeurs."
"When do you think she will arrive?"
"This is the night of the 21st of January; she will be here the evening of the 23d, or the morning of the 24th."
"And she stops at the Hotel des Ambassadeurs?"
"Yes, general."
"I take it all on myself."
"Take it all on yourself, general?"
"Certainly; your mother can't stay at a hotel."
"Where should she stay?"
"With a friend."
"She knows no one in Paris."
"I beg your pardon, Monsieur Roland; she knows citizen Bonaparte, First Consul, and his wife."
"You are not going to lodge my mother at the Luxembourg. I warn you that that would embarrass her very much."
"No; but I shall lodge her in the Rue de la Victoire."
"Oh, general!"
"Come, come; that's settled. Go, now, and get back as soon as possible."
Roland took the First Consul's hand, meaning to kiss it; but Bonaparte drew him quickly to him.
"Embrace me, my dear Roland," he said, "and good luck to you."
Two hours later Roland was rolling along in a post-chaise on the road to Orleans. The next day, at nine in the morning, he entered Nantes, after a journey of thirty-three hours.