would have given way. But those sharp military accents were exactly what
I needed to bring me to myself. Living or dead, here was the Emperor
standing before me and asking me questions. I sprang to the salute.

'You have killed one, I see,' said he, jerking his head towards the
beech.

'Yes, sire.'

'And the other escaped?'

'No, sire, I killed him also.'

'What!' he cried. 'Do I understand that you have killed them both?' He
approached me as he spoke with a smile which set his teeth gleaming in
the moonlight.

'One body lies there, sire,' I answered. 'The other is in the tool-house
at the quarry.'

'Then the Brothers of Ajaccio are no more,' he cried, and after a
pause, as if speaking to himself: 'The shadow has passed me for ever.'
Then he bent forward and laid his hand upon my shoulder.

'You have done very well, my young friend,' said he. 'You have lived up
to your reputation.'

He was flesh and blood, then, this Emperor. I could feel the little,
plump palm that rested upon me. And yet I could not get over what I had
seen with my own eyes, and so I stared at him in such bewilderment that