‘We can barely make out what you are saying, Lieutenant-Colonel,’ said the Tsar irritably.

Varencourt brought his left hand up to his throat while with the right he took hold of the broken brooch he’d found in the ruins of his Muscovite home. It was a card sharp who’d taught him how to distract attention with one hand whilst taking out a card hidden in his sleeve with the other. The officers thought the Frenchman had a neck wound, or had inhaled burning smoke during the fighting, or else was suffering from a sore throat and that was why his voice was so hard to hear. No one saw the jewel, or if they did, they paid it no heed. Varencourt took another step forward.

The aide-de-camp on the Tsar’s right reacted sharply and was about to order him to step back, but Varencourt pre-empted him by saying quickly: ‘I know the murderer’s name but first I want my security guaranteed by Your Imperial Majesty!’

The Tsar frowned. What was going on here? Who was implicated? Was Napoleon the instigator of the crime or was this another of his tricks to divide the coalition by making it look as if one of the Allies were behind the murder of Count Kevlokine? The Frenchman was trying to explain something but he was so hard to follow ... Varencourt took another step forward, brandishing Joseph’s letter in his left hand. He looked worried as he begged the Tsar to promise on his honour, with his staff officers as witnesses, to guarantee his protection if he revealed ... It seemed to him as if the brooch were beating; he imagined it was his wife’s heart he held in his hand ...

Margont, Lefine and Talleyrand entered the house. Margont was like a madman. He interrogated the infantrymen, who stared at him angrily.

When Major Lyzki came over to deal with this new, noisy intruder, Margont yelled at him, ‘You have to warn the Tsar!’

‘Don’t shout, Monsieur. Who are you?’

‘I’m Lieutenant-Colonel Margont. Listen, a man—’

Lyzki gave a nervous laugh. ‘Lieutenant-Colonel Margont? But I’ve just shown him in to see His Imperial Majesty ...’

Talleyrand panicked. ‘I assure you that this is the real Lieutenant-Colonel Margont!’

Lyzki had already spun on his heel and was making for the stairs, shouting in Russian: ‘Protect the Tsar!’ Soldiers hurried to run after him. Talleyrand, who was not going as fast, was knocked against a wall by a passing grenadier. Upstairs, soldiers took up Lyzki’s rallying cry as they began to run. An infantryman grabbed his rifle and used it to bar Margont with all his force against a door to prevent him from going any further.

The din in the corridors reached the great hall. The officers in the hall heard shouts and could make out the odd word: ‘Tsar’, ‘danger’, but they assumed the danger was external - was Napoleon daring to attack Paris to dislodge them? Was there a popular uprising? A second Revolution? An attack by a few desperate imperial soldiers who’d remained in the capital? Only Varencourt understood that he had been found out. It was a little premature, it would have been better if he had been a couple of steps further forward, but too bad! The double doors flew open and he took advantage of the confusion to try to pounce on Alexander. The aide-de-camp’s eyes had never left Varencourt and he threw himself forward to bar his passage.

The Tsar didn’t understand what was happening. He saw Avilovich grab the Frenchman, who was trying to run towards him. But for some unexplained reason, his aide-de-camp suddenly shuddered and collapsed. A guard who had followed Varencourt managed to seize him by the arm, but was pushed back as the Frenchman toppled backwards as if he were losing consciousness. Some of the

generals reacted by unsheathing their sabres, but a quick-witted red-clad Cossack beat them to it and jumped on the assailant, holding him round the waist before he also let go and fell to the ground. Varencourt shouted ‘Ksenia!’ and flung himself on the Tsar, plunging the pin of the brooch into the monarch’s thigh. A bayonet sliced through Varencourt’s shoulder and a rifle butt rammed into his neck; guards began to rain kicks on his inert body.

The Tsar, dazed with shock and terror, contemplated the broken brooch, blackened by grime or rather soot, that was protruding from his thigh. He pulled it out angrily as if he were chasing away a wasp that had just stung him. Nothing happened. The needle had exhausted its poison.

EPILOGUE

As soon as Napoleon was informed that Paris had fallen to the enemy, he was all for launching an attack on the capital. He wanted to trap the Allies, taking them by surprise and crushing them between his incoming army and an armed uprising of the Parisians. His marshals dissuaded him from this, however, convincing him that it was all over and that his best course was to abdicate. Talleyrand succeeded in getting the Senate to confirm officially his role as president of the Provisional French Government. He also used all his wiles to persuade the Allies to restore power to the French monarchy in the person of Louis XVIII. Talleyrand thus entered the service of the King of France.

The Allies occupied Paris. Contrary to the fears of the Parisians, they neither pillaged the city nor maltreated its citizens. They behaved honourably and did not even destroy the buildings that Napoleon had constructed.

Alexander I made Margont a chevalier of the order of Saint-Andre

as a reward for saving his life. Margont was also somewhat surprised to be decorated by ... the King of France. Louis XVIII himself pinned on the‘decoration du lys\ As he did so Margont felt a pain in his chest and thought that the King had accidentally pricked him. Later he realised that his impression had been mistaken! Immediately after his decoration he learnt that he was being retired from the army. Napoleon had built France a gigantic army that was no longer needed now that peace had been signed. A hundred infantry regiments and thirty-eight cavalry regiments were suppressed. This had little effect on common soldiers, since with the departure of all conscripts the number of servicemen was already greatly reduced. But thousands of officers had to abandon their commands, to be replaced by royalist officers from before the Revolution or by aristocratic emigres now returned and keen for a military career. The King took advantage of the suppression of regiments to rid himself of republicans and supporters of Napoleon. To save money, and out of a spirit of vengeance, those officers leaving active service were given only half their pension, which in most cases was not sufficient to live off. Margont, Lefine, Jean-Quenin Brémond and Piquebois all found themselves on half-pension. Saber had survived his injuries and had been taken prisoner by the Russians. As Marshal Marmont’s order had been duly transcribed, and as Napoleon would certainly have confirmed the promotion had he had the chance, Saber was, in a way, the ‘dead’ general of a dead empire. The new authorities remedied the anomaly: he became a retired colonel. On half-pension, of course. In spite of his requests, Margont did not succeed in persuading the Russians to give him the curare that had been found on Varencourt.

Neither did Margont pursue his old dream of launching a newspaper. He judged that the new regime would not be receptive to free-thinking journalists. And as he wasn’t a man who could live without a passion, he found another one! He threw himself into studying medicine, to Jean-Quenin’s great joy. He went as often as he could to the Salpetriere where Pinel welcomed him with open arms.

Varencourt also survived his injuries. The Tsar decided to spare him and had him sent to a prisoner-of-war camp in Siberia where, thanks to his medical knowledge, he was relatively well treated. He was pardoned twenty-two years later by Alexander’s successor, Nicholas I. Varencourt stayed in Siberia, where he finally managed to rebuild a satisfactory life.