The Man who Killed the King

by Dennis Wheatley

  The choice of the 5th had spared him this anxiety, but he now began to consider how best to arrange his affairs after the escape of the Royal Family. One thing was clear—his participation in the escape would put an end for good and all to his activities as a Commissar, and never again would he be able to come face to face with any prominent Revolutionary without risk of recognition, arrest and death. Therefore the coup would also put an end to his usefulness to Mr. Pitt in France; but it would, if successful, more than compensate for that. He had, with some skill, led de Batz to disclose his views on the disposal of the Royal Family before giving his own; and, since the Baron had already settled with Lady Atkyns on England as their final destination, there was no reason at all to suppose that he would go back on his word. Mr. Pitt had stated in no uncertain manner that the greatest service Roger could possibly render him was to get the little King to England; so he certainly would not complain if his agent sacrificed all else to achieve that one great triumph. Furthermore, Roger felt that, as he was to play a principal part in the affair, he would be entitled to claim the magnificent reward.

  Had the plans for the escape been entirely to Roger’s liking, they would have ensured that he would never have to leave the little King until they were both safely across the Channel. But the overruling objection was that, whereas he was to be removed in the birdcage at seven o’clock by two Royalists disguised as workmen—this being considered the earliest hour at which it would be plausible for them to appear—Roger and Michonis, being on night duty, could not leave the tower until a few minutes before eight, when anyone seeing them walk out would assume that they had just been relieved.

  While they remained holding the fort for this anxious hour, the trolley on which the birdcage had been taken away was to be wheeled half a mile to a house where de Batz and Lady Atkyns would be waiting. There, the boy’s clothes were to be changed for those of a girl, then Lady Atkyns was to take him out of Paris as her daughter, the Baron acting as their coachman.

  It was hoped that they would be going through the St. Honoré barrier at about the time that Roger and Michonis left the Temple, but for them the margin was going to be dangerously short. It could only be a matter of minutes between their coming out through the gates and a hue and cry starting after them. Both were well known to hundreds of people, and their descriptions would be swiftly circulated. Any attempt by either of them to catch up with the little King would therefore be the height of folly, as that might lead their pursuers to him. Obviously they must disappear as soon as possible, disguise themselves, and make their way separately out of Paris.

  Even then, for Roger to go to the house at Neuilly, where the Baron meant temporarily to conceal the Royal Family, would, de Batz considered, entail a certain unnecessary risk, as he intended them to remain there for a week or more, and was most averse to making the party bigger than it need be. So Roger had had to content himself with an understanding that he should join them in Normandy, and accompany them only on the last lap of their journey to England.

  For nearly fourteen months his work had entailed his participation in the Revolution and tacit approval while innumerable crimes were committed in its name. He was sick to death of the life he had been compelled to lead; and the idea of settling down at home on a handsome fortune seemed, at times, the most desirable of all possible visions—but only at times. There was Athénaïs; there were, too, the thousands of unfortunate people who so desperately needed the help that he could give them to escape, and in his heart of hearts he knew that he would never be really content to settle down for very long.

  His three weeks with Athénaïs had not even blunted the edge of his passion for her; on the contrary, it had been just the right length of time for her to get into his blood and, now that he was separated from her, to appear more desirable than ever before. Only when he was with Amanda, or engaged in some important affair, could he shut his mind to her; at no other time could he do so completely. Mentally he could re-create her image in a score of attitudes, and hear again her provocative laughter; so the idea of going home and abandoning her for good was unthinkable.

  Had the attempt to rescue the prisoners in the Temple been fixed for any date later than the 7th, he had intended, somehow or other, to persuade Amanda to rejoin Lady Atkyns. Since he could not stop Athénaïs coming to Passy, he had not seen how else he could prevent their meeting, distasteful as the thought was, of deceiving his wife so flagrantly; but now the plan, as finally agreed, would spare him this embarrassment.

  On the 5th, Amanda would go to Neuilly, in order to be there to receive the Queen the following night, and remain with her while the Baron and Lady Atkyns returned to bring the little King out to them in the morning. Although the Queen had not yet been informed of the decision, de Batz intended to split the party into four for their journey to Normandy, in order to minimise the chances of their being recognised. He meant to take the Queen himself, with Amanda as her companion, while three other Royalist gentlemen separately escorted the two Princesses and Lady Atkyns, who would have charge of the little King. Amanda, therefore, would be in constant attendance on the Queen from the night of the 5th until they reached the coast, and would not expect to see anything of Roger until he joined them there; so after the escape he would be free of all responsibility for ten days or more.

  Since he had to go into hiding for that time, where could he do so better than at Passy? Athénaïs should join him there after he had been lying low for three or four days, and they would still have the best part of a week together in which to make future plans. As to what those plans were to be he was still a little vague; but he knew that Athénaïs would never consent to leave France, and that her dearest wish was to continue fighting the Revolution. In the back of his mind lay the thought that she should accompany him to Normandy, and remain there while he delivered the little King to Mr. Pitt; after which he would return to her, and they would then both take a hand in rescuing the refugees, of whom an ever greater number stood in need of succour as the Terror mounted in ferocity.

  July ’93 had been a desperate month for the Convention, and it had won a breathing space only by the extraordinary energy and ruthlessness of its Citoyens Représentants en mission. Their strongest weapon with which to confuse and divide their internal enemies had been the argument that, while invasion threatened on every frontier, it was the basest treachery to France to take up arms against the central Government. Such reasoning made no appeal to the Royalists of La Vendée, but it had a great effect on the Federalists in all parts of the Republic. It enabled Fabre to subdue 30,000 insurgents in the Eastern Pyrenees, Dubois-Crancé to bring Grenoble back to its allegiance, other Representatives to be equally successful in Bordeaux and manage to prevent the Federalists of Lyons from openly declaring war on the Convention. In other areas, where the Commissars found negotiation useless, they stamped out revolt with terror, and inspired or menaced the Generals of the Revolutionary forces to unceasing efforts.

  In Normandy, after a brief, muddled, half-hearted campaign, the Federalists under General Wimpffen had been defeated and dispersed. In the Jura 15,000 equally ill-led Federalists had been broken up by 15,000 fanatical “patriots”. The Revolutionary General, Cateaux, had cut off Lyons from Marseilles, and the Terrorist, Westermann, had made a daring penetration with his Alsatian Legion into the heart of La Vendée.

  Had the Allies, during this month of desperate internecine strife, chosen to concentrate their efforts on invasion, they could easily have conquered the whole country; but the opportunity was lost through divided counsels, the sloth of their generals and the selfish aims of their respective Governments. The Spaniards wanted Roussillon, the Sardinians wanted Nice, the Piedmontese wanted Chambéry, the Prussians wanted Mayence, the Austrians wanted Valenciennes, and the English wanted Dunkirk; so, instead of by-passing these fortresses, they tied up the bulk of their forces by besieging them.

  Here, again, the fanatic ardour of the Citizen Representatives with the armie
s proved the deciding factor. Knowing that their own lives were at stake, they worked ruthlessly, tirelessly and with great bravery to animate the defenders of these cities. On the 17th of July, Dagobert and Brabantane won a victory over the Spaniards which relieved Roussillon, and restored the morale of the Revolutionary troops in the south; Dubois-Crancé assumed the command of the army of the east, and held off the Piedmontese; Cochon and Briest defeated all the endeavours of the Prince of Coburg and the Duke of York to take Valenciennes, and Rewbell and Merlin performed prodigies of valour in holding Mayence against the King of Prussia.

  Yet the fate of these last two cities temporarily brought to naught the plans upon which Roger was engaged. After being reduced to living on horseflesh, cats and rats, the garrisons of both surrendered—Mayence on the 25th of July and Valenciennes on the 28th. Now that there was no longer anything to keep the two Allied armies from marching on Paris, the Convention was again rendered desperate. In this extremity the Committee of Public Safety decided to use the Queen. To threaten her with death was at once a gesture of defiance and at the same time a possible means of making the Allies halt their offensive while bargaining for her release. At midnight on the 2nd of August she was removed from the Temple to the Conciergerie.

  From La Force, L’Abbaye and other prisons in which aristocrats were confined there was always some hope of release, but from the Conciergerie there was none, and for that reason it had become known as “the ante-chamber of Death”; so without any announcement being made, the intentions of the Comité were plain both to their friends and to their enemies.

  Roger learned what was afoot on the 1st of August; and having told Amanda to write a note in the code she used with de Batz, he took it to the grocer’s shop. Next morning, as he approached the Hôtel de Ville to attend a session of the Commune, the orange-seller handed him a reply; it read To-night: 10 o’clock.

  In the upstairs room at the Café Coraeza he found Michonis already with the Baron, and they at once went into anxious consultation. The Inspector of Prisons had known of the contemplated move even before Roger, and said at once that it was beyond his power either to stop or delay it, so, although the two of them would still have to go on duty at the Temple on the 5th, the job was definitely off.

  Roger at once pointed out that since the rescues of the Queen and the little King had been planned as entirely separate operations, there was nothing to stop their going ahead with the latter, but de Batz shook his head.

  “That is so; but at a price which I consider it too high to pay. To get the boy out, you and Michonis would have to overcome the Simons. Such an act entails official suicide, and both of you would have to seek safety in immediate flight. Deprived of the invaluable help you two can give me, what hope should I have left of rescuing Her Majesty?”

  Loath as Roger was to sacrifice the Queen, he had already made up his mind that, for reasons of State, the boy must be given priority over his mother; so he replied, “I admit that once Michonis and I have shot our bolt it will be impossible for either of us to play a similar part in another rescue; but better half a loaf than no bread. Now that the Queen and her son are in separate buildings it is obvious that any attempt to combine their escapes, as we had hoped to do, is out of the question. The Queen’s removal to the Conciergerie confronts us with an entirely new problem, and one which may prove impossible of solution; whereas everything connected with the rescue of the little King is in hand, down to the last detail; so surely common sense dictates that we should make certain of him while we have the chance?”

  Again de Batz shook his head. “No; I consider that Her Majesty’s removal to the Conciergerie makes it incumbent on us to redouble our efforts on her behalf. It would be little short of criminal were I to prejudice our chances of saving her by depriving myself of my two most valuable allies through going ahead with this other venture.”

  “But would you be prejudicing your chances?” Roger argued. “Remember, the Queen’s situation will be such that totally different measures will have to be adopted. On her leaving the Temple tonight the Commune will cease to be responsible for her and the Minister of Justice will become so. She will no longer be guarded by Commissioners, but by the professional jailers at the Conciergerie. It is with them that any new project for her rescue will have to be arranged, not with Michonis and myself. I doubt if either of us would even be allowed inside the prison.”

  “I shall be,” Michonis put in. “As Inspector of Prisons I can enter any one of them at any time, and I have the right to demand to see and speak to any prisoner.”

  Although Roger had an extremely strong financial interest in the little King’s rescue, he was really fighting Mr. Pitt’s battle rather than pressing his own inclinations as he replied, “Perhaps; but for how long? And how far will that get you? It is one thing for a pair of us who are of the same mind to have her in our care for a whole night, but quite another for you to slip in and merely exchange a few whispered words with her.”

  “Nevertheless, the fact that Michonis can get in and speak with her at any time is a very great deal,” persisted de Batz, “and as long as you remain in Paris with your rank of Commissioner you also may prove useful to us in due course.”

  “I quite see that; but if we abandon the little King in order to concentrate on the Queen, are we not liable to fail on both counts? What of the guard at the Conciergerie? At the Temple we have Cortey and his loyal company already primed to turn a blind eye at the right moment; they cannot be transferred to duty at a different prison.”

  “No; but men might gradually be infiltrated into the battalion which supplies the Conciergerie guard, and a suitable officer found in it to play Cortey’s rôle.”

  “That will take time.”

  “All the more reason that we should not deprive ourselves of Michonis by proceeding with the latter half of our old plan for the 5th. With him to aid us we need not lose a moment in resuming communication with the Queen, and ascertaining the exact conditions of her new confinement. No one has threatened the little King with death, nor is anyone likely to do so. Chaumette and Hébert mean to keep him as a hostage for their own necks. But, having him, they do not need Her Majesty; and Hébert has already promised the sans-culottes her head. In the matter of the boy there is no great urgency; but if we are to save his mother we must now work fast and use every single asset we possess to that end.”

  The Baron’s last argument was unanswerable, and Roger felt no personal reluctance in giving way to it; but on his ride out to Passy he had ample cause to cudgel his wits. Athénaïs was due to turn up there in five days’ time.

  After telling Amanda of de Batz’s decision, he gave her his own honest view about the Queen’s chances. Incarceration in the Conciergerie always meant a fairly quick trial, and anyone who was condemned by the Revolutionary Tribunal was invariably executed the following day. He said that in the Queen’s case a special indictment would undoubtedly be prepared and this might take a week or two; but he did not believe that even a delay of a month would be enough to enable the Baron to complete all the complicated arrangements necessary for a rescue. There was, therefore, little point now in Amanda remaining near Paris, and he suggested that Dan should escort her back to England.

  Amanda would not hear of this. She at once declared that as long as there was any chance at all of the Queen being rescued she intended to remain where she was.

  Roger then pointed out, quite truthfully, that her own position was none too secure, and therefore a source of anxiety to him. Under a medical instruction, she had been transferred to Doctor Despard’s private asylum, and was officially supposed still to be there. Should some officious little representative of Authority decide at any time to check up, he would be shown a young woman in a padded cell; so that side of the business was all right. But, should Amanda chance to be recognised by any “patriot” who had seen her while she was in Paris and knew of her arrest, she would promptly be rearrested, and it would prove very difficult indeed to
effect her release from prison a second time.

  She countered that by saying that she rarely ventured more than a mile from the house, and that the chances of her being recognised in a village like Passy were infinitesimal; but she offered to give up her afternoon walks if Roger so wished.

  Temporarily defeated, he did not press the matter; but he returned to it next evening by suggesting that she must find it very lonely with no one to talk to day after day, and that it would surely be better if she joined her friend, Lady Atkyns, at Neuilly, if only for a while.

  Amanda promptly replied that, although he could not get out to Passy every night, and it was often late when he did, she infinitely preferred even a few hours of his company to whole days with Lady Atkyns; or, for that matter, to moving in the most amusing society.

  Her answer made Roger mentally squirm, but he was determined if he possibly could to save her the distress she would feel if she found out about Athénaïs; so the following day he put on a worried look and told her that the Comité was thinking of shortly sending him on another mission. But even that did not shift her. She appeared much concerned at the thought that if Roger had to leave Paris he would no longer be able to assist de Batz in any further plans for the Queen’s rescue, but said that he must not worry about her, as she had developed a great fondness for old Antoine and his wife, and would be quite content to remain with them until Roger’s return.