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The sub-prefect thought to get out of the difficulty by saying, "General, you are my prisoner," and by adding, with a smile, "Do me the honor of breakfasting with me?" He addressed the same words to Charras. The General refused curtly. Charras looked at him fixedly, and did not answer him. Doubts regarding the identity of the prisoners came to the mind of the sub-prefect.
To do without a mass would have appeared easy to others, but not to these staunch believers. The worthy Catholic Democrats with great difficulty at length unearthed in a tiny suburban parish a poor old vicar, who consented to mumble in a whisper this mass in the ear of the Almighty, while begging Him to say nothing about it. On the night of the 7th and 8th of January, Charras was sleeping.
The General gets down, and on putting foot to the ground notices Charras in the depths of his compartment between his two bullies. "Oho! Charras, you are there!" he cries. "Charras!" exclaimed the Commissary. "Charras there! Quick! the passports of these gentlemen!" And looking Charras in the face, "Are you Colonel Charras?" "Egad!" said Charras. Yet another complication.
Shall I see a comrade taken before my eyes? Marie, we must save him." But the lady looked at me with most unfriendly eyes. "Pierre Charras," she said, "you will not rest until you have your house burned over your head. Do you not understand, you blockhead, that if you fought for Napoleon it was because Napoleon ruled Belgium? He does so no longer.
Jomini divides the battle of Waterloo into four moments; Muffling cuts it up into three changes; Charras alone, though we hold another judgment than his on some points, seized with his haughty glance the characteristic outlines of that catastrophe of human genius in conflict with divine chance.
The prefect and town authorities, proud of their own sagacity in capturing State prisoners who were endeavoring to escape from France, held them in custody while they sent word of their exploit to Paris. They at once received orders to put all the party on the train for Belgium. Charras was liberated at Brussels, Changarnier at Mons, Lamoricière was carried to Cologne, M. Baze to Aix-la-Chapelle.
After a pause, however, he ventured to speak, "M. Charras, I am instructed to say that if you want money " Charras interrupted him impetuously. "Hold your tongue, sir! not another word. I have served my country five-and-twenty years as an officer, under fire, at the peril of my life, always for honor, never for gain. Keep your money for your own set!" "But, sir " "Silence!
It was now the turn of Charras's bullies to bluster. They declared that Charras was the man called Vincent, displayed passports and papers, swore and protested. The Commissary's suspicions were fully confirmed. "Very well," said he, "I arrest everybody." And he handed over Changarnier, Charras, and the four police agents to the gendarmes.
"In that case they ought at least to have called me Lerouge," said Charras, with a burst of laughter. In the meantime a group, kept at a distance by the police agents, had formed round them. People had recognized them and saluted them. A little child, whose mother could not hold him back, ran quickly to Charras and took his hand. They got into the train apparently as free as other travellers.
Charamaule had come to the meeting at No. 70 dressed in a sort of blue cloth military cloak, and armed, as we found out later on. The situation was grave; sixteen Representatives arrested, all the generals of the Assembly, and he who was more than a general, Charras. All the journals suppressed, all the printing offices occupied by soldiers.
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