"Beau-Pied," said he, "fetch my notary, and Count Steinbock, and my
niece Hortense, and the stockbroker to the Treasury. It is now
half-past ten; they must all be here by twelve. Take hackney cabs
--and go faster than _that_!" he added, a republican allusion which
in past days had been often on his lips. And he put on the scowl that
had brought his soldiers to attention when he was beating the broom
on the heaths of Brittany in 1799. (See _Les Chouans_.)
"You shall be obeyed, Marechal," said Beau-Pied, with a military
salute.
Still paying no heed to his brother, the old man came back into his
study, took a key out of his desk, and opened a little malachite box
mounted in steel, the gift of the Emperor Alexander.
By Napoleon's orders he had gone to restore to the Russian Emperor the
private property seized at the battle of Dresden, in exchange for
which Napoleon hoped to get back Vandamme. The Czar rewarded General
Hulot very handsomely, giving him this casket, and saying that he
hoped one day to show the same courtesy to the Emperor of the French;
but he kept Vandamme. The Imperial arms of Russia were displayed in
gold on the lid of the box, which was inlaid with gold.
The Marshal counted the bank-notes it contained; he had a hundred and
fifty-two thousand francs.
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