The Luck of Barry Lyndon, William Makepeace Thackeray [best ereader under 100 .txt] 📗

once or twice cleared a handsome sum out of their purses. It was in vain I told him that I must carry the news to my captain, before whom his comrades would not fail to talk, and who would thus know of the intrigue even without my information.

“Tell him,” said my uncle.

“They will send you away,” said I; “then what is to become of me?”

“Make your mind easy,” said the latter, with a smile; “you shall not be left behind, I warrant you. Go take a last look at your barracks, make your mind easy; say a farewell to your friends in Berlin. The dear souls, how they will weep when they hear you are out of the country; and, as sure as my name is Barry, out of it you shall go!”

“But how, sir?” said I.

“Recollect Mr. Fakenham of Fakenham,” said he knowingly. “ ’Tis you yourself taught me how. Go get me one of my wigs. Open my despatch-box yonder, where the great secrets of the Austrian Chancery lie; put your hair back off you forehead; clap me on this patch and these moustaches, and now look in the glass!”

“The Chevalier de Balibari,” said I, bursting with laughter, and began walking the room in his manner with his stiff knee.

The next day, when I went to make my report to Monsieur de Potzdorff, I told him of the young Prussian officers that had been of late gambling; and he replied, as I expected, that the King had determined to send the Chevalier out of the country.

“He is a stingy curmudgeon,” I replied; “I have had but three Frederics from him in two months, and I hope you will remember your promise to advance me!”

“Why, three Frederics were too much for the news you have picked up,” said the Captain, sneering.

“It is not my fault that there has been no more,” I replied. “When is he to go, sir?”

“The day after tomorrow. You say he drives after breakfast and before dinner. When he comes out to his carriage, a couple of gendarmes will mount the box, and the coachman will get his orders to move on.”

“And his baggage, sir?” said I.

“Oh! that will be sent after him. I have a fancy to look into that red box which contains his papers, you say; and at noon, after parade, shall be at the inn. You will not say a word to anyone there regarding the affair, and will wait for me at the Chevalier’s rooms until my arrival. We must force that box. You are a clumsy hound, or you would have got the key long ago!”

I begged the Captain to remember me, and so took my leave of him. The next night I placed a couple of pistols under the carriage seat; and I think the adventures of the following day are quite worthy of the honours of a separate chapter.

IX I Appear in a Manner Becoming My Name and Lineage

Fortune smiling at parting upon Monsieur de Balibari, enabled him to win a handsome sum with his faro-bank.

At ten o’clock the next morning, the carriage of the Chevalier de Balibari drew up as usual at the door of his hotel; and the Chevalier, who was at his window, seeing the chariot arrive, came down the stairs in his usual stately manner.

“Where is my rascal Ambrose?” said he, looking around and not finding his servant to open the door.

“I will let down the steps for your honour,” said a gendarme, who was standing by the carriage; and no sooner had the Chevalier entered, than the officer jumped in after him, another mounted the box by the coachman, and the latter began to drive.

“Good gracious!” said the Chevalier, “what is this?”

“You are going to drive to the frontier,” said the gendarme, touching his hat.

“It is shameful⁠—infamous! I insist upon being put down at the Austrian Ambassador’s house!”

“I have orders to gag your honour if you cry out,” said the gendarme.

“All Europe shall hear of this!” said the Chevalier, in a fury.

“As you please,” answered the officer, and then both relapsed into silence.

The silence was not broken between Berlin and Potsdam, through which place the Chevalier passed as His Majesty was reviewing his guards there, and the regiments of Bülow, Zitwitz, and Henkel de Donnersmark. As the Chevalier passed His Majesty, the King raised his hat and said, “Qu’il ne descende pas: je lui souhaite un bon voyage.” The Chevalier de Balibari acknowledged this courtesy by a profound bow.

They had not got far beyond Potsdam, when boom! the alarm cannon began to roar.

“It is a deserter,” said the officer.

“Is it possible?” said the Chevalier, and sank back into his carriage again.

Hearing the sound of the guns, the common people came out along the road with fowling-pieces and pitchforks, in hopes to catch the truant. The gendarmes seemed very anxious to be on the lookout for him too. The price of a deserter was fifty crowns to those who brought him in.

“Confess, sir,” said the Chevalier to the police officer in the carriage with him, “that you long to be rid of me, from whom you can get nothing, and to be on the lookout for the deserter who may bring you in fifty crowns? Why not tell the postilion to push on? You may land me at the frontier and get back to your hunt all the sooner.” The officer told the postillion to get on; but the way seemed intolerably long to the Chevalier. Once or twice he thought he heard the noise of horse galloping behind: his own horses did not seem to go two miles an hour; but they did go. The black and white barriers came in view at last, hard by Bruck, and opposite them the green and yellow of Saxony. The Saxon customhouse officers came out.

“I have no luggage,” said the Chevalier.

“The gentleman has nothing contraband,” said the Prussian officers, grinning, and took their leave of their prisoner with much