8. Tales of Secret Service (19)
The Substitute Baron
Next night the Baron was brought before Fouché himself, who affected an ironical and bantering style of interrogatory, not destitute of a certain feigned compassion. “Why should a man of courage and resource set himself to an impossible task, with a hopeless and rotten set of confederates? To begin with, what indication was there that Ferdinand would have the pluck to lend himself to the plan?” Kolli, seeing that the Duke was fishing for information as to the extent of his relation with Valençay, replied that the young King was a Bourbon, had been through the tragedy of Bayonne, and must surely have some self-respect and some resentment in his heart. “You don’t know him”, was the reply; “if you got to him, with King George’s letters and your precious plan, he would refuse to budge. You have come on a fool’s errand, one more victim of the British Foreign Office, which cares not a farthing for what becomes of its wretched tools.”
And so Kolli was relegated to the donjon of Vincennes, warned that he would be sent for once more for a final interview, on which his fate would depend.
A few days later the Baron was taken not to the Ministry of Police but to Fouché’s mansion, where he found not the Duke himself but his factotum Desmarest. The Under Secretary dictated his ultimatum. He and his chief had no particular desire to get their prisoner shot, but the Emperor had been asking why there was so much delay in sending him before a military court. However, they could pacify their master if the Baron would name the British agents in Paris to whom he had been accredited, and explain his method of communicating with Valençay. Moreover, they were so convinced that Ferdinand would refuse to meddle with the plot, that they could promise that the Baron should be given back his English letters, conveyed to Valençay, and allowed to show his credentials to the Spanish prince. He would certainly receive a rebuff, and be told to go back to England. And this should be permitted. Moreover, he would find his deposit of diamonds safe at his bank, and would be allowed to take it off with him to London.
The fact, of course, was that Fouché was by no means certain that Ferdinand would refuse the offer, when it was presented to him by a bearer with such credentials. But what the Emperor would have done if Kolli had stooped to this service, and the King had consented to fly, we shall never know. The Baron professes to believe that Fouché might have staged a scene of attempted escape, which would have ended with pistol shots and the removal of an inconvenient and legitimate claimant to the Spanish crown. More probably the finale would have been the consignment of Ferdinand to close confinement in a fortress; his death would have been taken all round Europe as a deliberate political murder.
Kolli naturally foamed with rage at the proposal made to him of acting as an agent provocateur and getting off with his liberty and his diamonds. “Infamous! Take me back to Vincennes: I care nothing for my life, it would be insupportable if I stooped to this treason.” “Well,” replied Desmarest, “if you do not go to Valençay someone else will—someone who is not such a proud fool as you are. Meanwhile, back you go to your dungeon.”
And so it befell. Kolli was reconducted to the Castle of Vincennes, which he was not destined to leave for nearly four years. And someone did go to Valençay, under the Baron’s name and furnished with his British credentials, with orders to betray Ferdinand, if possible, into an open attempt to escape. The traitor was the same Richard who had already ruined the Baron; he had been terrified with threats of lifelong prison unless he consented to this further infamy, and promised a round sum of money if he should succeed.
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