Chapter 1
And I don’t believe it... it is impossible that these reports are true. He would have the courage, but by what means he would fight? Come on Eric, before you say these things, you must make sure that the source should be reliable. And finally, how much importance do you give to these friends, who like such they are only to embarrass you. Do think if my informants, who work with me for several years, they did not have to inform me.”
After this tirade, Edouard Cabanis gave him a slap on the wrist of his protégé, already became red with shame and mortification.
Eric was a twenty-year-old from a good family, noble country, not particularly targeted and persecuted by the Terror, as they had not been locked up in the Temple waiting for the mower Madame Guillotine, however, they had been robbed of their possessions: a beautiful estate in the fertile countryside near Louviers, on the way to Le Havre along the meandering Seine. Louviers, a charming town in Normandy, on the Eure river, with the gothic Cathedral of the fifteenth century and the Cloister of the Penitents. One place very nice, with its rural tranquility. The estate included the beautiful residence, cattle, horses and stables. They left them to live on, with the conduct of a small farm and a decent house, formerly occupied by the factor.
The young man was educated at the Institut de France. During his studies, he showed a predilection for science and geography. Like all wealthy aristocrats and not, he had received a good training in the use of weapons and, despite having been shown to be brave, he did not much practice dueling with his fellow students. Jovial and cheerful character, typical of his age, he had become reserved, thoughtful and wary, unless he was in the company of friends. The well-known unpleasant facts that had affected his family four years earlier had matured by him in a hurry, leaving annoying memories and a great desire for redemption. He had to abandon his studies with the beautiful and carefree life of a noble scion of a wealthy family.
It then came the Revolution and the Terror. Everyone was shouting, commanding, legislating. The people took advantage of the situation, and the idlers ate their fill, as long they to enroll in that army which was then the civil guard, while wearing the Phrygian cap and arming of an old and rusty musket, which often a burst in their faces. Better than those curved bad swords that commanded a holy terror, especially to the shopkeepers, to this respect, they were stuffed themselves with food.
In addition to the noble appearance, he was of fine features, slim given the age but perfectly shaped, with a broad chest and of medium height. The jet-black hair framed his face shone where regular black big eyes, shaded by heavy eye-brows. The nose, slightly curved, denoting a strong character and giving him a decidedly male appearance, contrasted by a beautiful mouth. Where was staying in a perfect set of teeth of ivory and the whole of the face, without that nose, the young man could look like a girl.
On the eve of his return home, interrupted the studies that were turning almost at their end, he had received a letter from his father asking him to make a visit to the citizen Cabanis, attorney and supplier before of the royal armies and later of those of the newborn Republic. A wealthy man and nice political, Cabanis had become very expert on juggling in an environment where corruption reigned supreme. He was the son of a modest pair of attendants who, at the suite of Messrs. de Muissartes, had moved to Paris in the year in which the Corsica transferred to France by the Genoese. Though he had not received a normal school education, he learned all the rudiments of the art of getting by eavesdropping various speeches during the secret meetings that were held in the house of his master, well attended by the best Parisian society. Several times he had been surprised by his father, who had rebuked up to forbid him to run free in the many rooms of the palace. Fortunately, what he had learned was more than enough for someone like him, with considerable intelligence and a good imagination, to be able to disentangle by himself. In fact, in a period of twenty-five years, thanks to the supplies, at prices not always competitive, to the armies of France and the countless speculative and political vicissitudes, he became very rich. He created a vast sales network in a wide part of Europe and the Mediterranean basin. Some powerful men needed him. At the ripe old age of fifty-nine, having lost his only son in a shipwreck in the stormy Bay of Biscay and, no longer have others, he was worried to convey to someone everything he owned to perpetuate his work.
Some years ago, before the outbreak of the Revolution, he had had an accident on the route. He made a speculation on grain prices upward. It had been a difficult year in France, and three of his ships were traveling from Egypt loaded with grain. The vessel on which was embarked on his son, then just in his early twenties, was lost with the whole crew, another had crashed on the cliffs on the island of Jersey, counting fortunately only three missing and the third, quite battered, arrived after four days of adventures in Portsmouth, from where he joined Le Havre after repairs forty days later. During the trip, he had taken that place, distressed, and vainly hoping to find his son, a wheel of his coach crashed against a stone. The incident had not caused more damage but forced him to stop and ask for help to the farmers of the estate of Lacombe, in that of Louviers. He had been hosted by the owner of those lands, housed and fed while the coach was hospitalized while waiting for the locksmith changed the wheel. The Count de Greville-Lacombe, Eric’s father, had been a perfect host and had persuaded Cabanis to spend the night at his home, as the twilight was starting.
The dinner was rich and varied and superb at the wines. Madame de Greville, with exquisite politeness, put the host in its complete ease. She was a good-looking, petite and with regular features. Simple in her manner of dress, without ostentation with jewels, she had the grace and poise of a true aristocrat. Such was her sympathy and her care in seeing him so depressed, that she had invited him to tell her his troubles. The family of the Count de Greville-Lacombe comes acquainted with his desperate conditions. The Count de Greville, at that time a very wealthy person and who boasted to recognize an honest man only after having exchanged a few words, offered to help him to countersign a letter of credit to the banker Laffitte in Paris, four hundred thousand francs, a sum which the beneficiary had used to patch up its finances, momentarily compromised because of the sinking of his ships.
As this unexpected help in the most tragic moment of his life, produced the eternal gratitude of Cabanis. Later, it had been thanks to him that was spared the life within the family of the Count de Greville. Cabanis had been able to preserve something of the goods that had served them, in those dark and stormy moments, for their own maintenance to an acceptable level. Furthermore, by allowing to their only son to continue his studies in Paris at the Institut de France, afterward renamed Ecole Polytechnique.
The young man, following the instructions from his father, showed himself up at the home of Cabanis, who had welcomed him as a son. Great was his surprise to learn that Eric had decided to abandon his studies.
“Like, I’m sorry!” He said. “Your father had not informed me.”
“I think, sir, that I’ve learned enough. I would like to find a job for not weigh more than the meager income of my parents, now resigned to live modestly in the country and whose only desire is to see me well underway in society.”
“Dear boy, I hope you allow me, to address you with this paternal appellation having you knew when you were just a teenager, at a time then so painful for me. Your father was well advised, sending you to me. I know him enough to understand that he must have won his usual reticence, knowing that I am indebted for life. It’s a privilege to host you in my house, and if you want, direct you to a future which, I hope, will be quite promising. You must know ...” and at this point Cabanis had a crack in his voice, assailed by memories, “... that years ago I lost my son in the sinking of the ship on which sailed as my representative. He would be my successor and for that purpose, he had wanted to participate in the first, and, unfortunately, last trip. He wanted to learn the craft well and, therefore, had expressed a desire to start at the lowest rung. Dear Eric, now that you come to me, you’ll make a profit. You will be under my protection, and I will teach you the basics of this craft. Before accepting, however, you do know that this will be a very difficult task and, in some cases, even dangerous. After you have learned the basic things, I will send you to the suite of the French armies, now shabby and lacking everything, of whom I am the official supplier. Some few goods, for the moment. It’s not like the old days of King Louis. The Convention does not pay if by paper assignments, which devalue day by day. I really hope that these ragged armies of commoners, led by officers unprepared, will fight like tigers over than for the country, with the only purpose to fill their belly and make booty. As my representative, you will follow one of these armies and precisely that one intended to Italy, to provide the supplies but, above all, to stock up on how valuable’s things a colonel, a friend of mine, will direct you if the army should win the battles. You will realize the greed of those who will raid and how, unable to carry bulky pieces of art, prefer to sell the loot in exchange for a gold coin to be spent with prostitutes or in the taverns. You’ll bring then in your hands some masterpieces and extraordinary jewels. Italy is well-known as a patchwork of peoples divided politically, it is true, but many people keen on art and lover of beautiful things. Never in a country already magnificent for its natural beauties, there blossomed wonders created by many excellent artists as painters, engravers, jewelers, carvers, sculptors, architects, and engineers. You’ll have to be ready to pay for the person who will show you, the money you need because they distribute it to the soldiers in exchange for looted material. These are your tasks with a minimum personal risk since you’ll perform away from the battlefield, staying safe at the rear. ”
Eric, after had listened attentively, thanked Cabanis promising him to perform at his best the tasks him assigned.
