Armand Cabasson - Wolf Hunt

Lefine shook his head at this. ‘Because you would have gone there anyway?’

Pagin brought his horse closer to nudge the flank of Lefine’s mount.

‘Infantrymen only know how to advance in line, in their thousands, elbow to elbow, once the artillery have carefully prepared the terrain. Let’s proceed as normal: let the hussars do the work and then join us in a week when it’s all over. We’ll tell you— '

Lefine was not amused.

‘Insolent at seventeen, dead at twenty.’

Relmyer was worried. His eyes searched Margont’s.

‘You are coming with us, aren’t you? Having you there is very important to me.’

‘I’m coming. I’ve promised Luise I’ll look after you, and I have decided to help with this affair until it’s resolved.’

Lefine grunted his agreement. Relmyer bounded into his saddle with the dexterity of the hussar. Margont held out his arm to calm his impetuosity.

‘Allow me to warn you that you are in great danger: four hussars are searching for you to fight duels with you.’

‘Only four?’joked Pagin.

Relmyer greeted the news with equanimity. He was used to it, and in any case, he had somewhere to go and the rest of the world was irrelevant to him at the moment.

‘Is it because of my duel with your friend Piquebois? Unfortunately it’s just like that.’

‘Just like that?’ choked Margont. ‘Everywhere, all around you, people are pointing sabres in your direction and ...’

He could not even finish his sentence, he was so put out by Relmyer’s calm.

Lefine leant towards him. ‘Methinks we have been taken for idiots.’

Three of the four hussars in question had just appeared behind them, sneering. The hussar from the 5th Regiment rode out in front. The two élite troopers were behind on either side, ready to encircle Relmyer should he try to escape. Adjutant Grendet was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps he was lying in wait nearby or perhaps he was looking for Relmyer elsewhere. Lefine felt like a hare that, believing he has escaped a hunter, now sees the snout of the hunter’s dog ferreting around its form.

‘They followed us and we didn’t notice anything! But I’m usually so careful!’

‘What is this nonsense?’ fumed Relmyer.

‘You’ll leave one for me, won’t you, Lieutenant?’ asked Pagin, his hand on the hilt of his sword.

Lefine was already moving away.

‘Hussars are as twisted as their sabres!’

‘Remember your promise,’ Margont said fiercely to Relmyer. Relmyer was very diplomatic. He explained his proposed expedition without going into detail about the reasons for it and insisted that it could not be delayed. He won himself a reprieve but the three hussars insisted on coming with them, which Relmyer agreed to. The hussars were convinced that Relmyer was trying to escape them and did not intend to let him out of their sight. Relmyer, smiling again, set off, indicating with a sweeping gesture that everyone should follow. Three duels were hanging over him, but he paid them as little heed as if they were three specks of dust on his pelisse.

CHAPTER 19

THE little troop made its way north. They skirted Vienna before plunging into the forest. Margont lost all sense of direction and had no idea where they were. He had deployed some of his men as vanguard and some on the flanks. He scanned the area, his gaze seeming to slide through the foliage. The green and scarlet troopers were redolent of drops of bloody sap scattered over the vast vegetation. The trees, giants weighed down with leaves, seemed to crush them in their vertiginous grasp. They formed a sort of palace of alarming proportions. Had it not been for the war Margont would have liked to lose himself here.

The three duellists followed Relmyer. The two élite troopers never spoke to the hussar of the 5th Regiment. They only knew each other because of the magnetic draw of Relmyer’s blade to theirs. Yet Margont told himself that he was hardly less idiotic than they were. Had he not become involved in this business for complex motives, which he couldn’t share with anyone else? Twenty men

found themselves united here but for very differing reasons. None of them belonged to the same world.

‘Is it much further, Lieutenant?’ asked Lefine.

Relmyer asked the guide in German. The guide’s back sagged as if the officer’s questions were blows.

‘No, a little more than two leagues, Monsieur,’ he replied fearfully. Margont spoke quietly. ‘Is it really impossible to avoid those duels?’

‘Clearly I won’t be able to escape them. As soon as we’ve finished questioning this Grich, I will have to fight them.’

‘What?’

Relmyer spread his hands slightly. ‘They will never leave me alone unless I agree to fight them. We will fight at Mazenau, which will suit everyone. We won’t lose any time and they will get what they want in a quiet spot. On the Isle of Lobau, we risk being disturbed by a superior officer opposed to duels, or by the imperial police with their excessive zeal. I remember the promise I made you but this is not a situation of my making.’

In spite of the shade, Margont was sweating as if he was under a midday sun.

Three duels ... The first will perhaps be one. But if you’re wounded the second will be a murder, an execution!’

‘Not at all. If I’m hurt we’ll examine the wound together. If it’s decided that the wound is superficial, my adversary will be declared winner and I will go on with the next duel.’

Margont interrupted with a gesture. He could no longer bear these rules and the logic that conferred an illusion of rationality on the madness.

However, Relmyer, caught up in his explanation, continued: ‘Of course, a serious injury would mean the end of fighting, but there would be a problem if the wound was disputed. If a unanimous view cannot be amicably reached, we will have to ask the opinion of a doctor whose word will be final. Exhaustion postpones the duel by one day, a serious injury postpones it to the day following complete recovery.’

‘But why? Why take still more risks?’

‘You’re asking that question because you don’t understand the life of a renowned duellist. Of course he attracts other duellists avid to fight him. He’s famous and everywhere he is feared in the same measure as he is admired and envied. He makes money giving lessons and winning duels that are wagers he gambles on. He progresses rapidly up the ranks. Without my sabre I would not be a lieutenant. Lieutenant at twenty years old! Certain women - superb ones, I can tell you - are ready to do anything to have a well-known swashbuckler hold them in his arms.’

‘And all that’s worth risking death for?’

‘It’s worth risking death ten times over. If any one of these sabre-fighters succeeds in piercing my chest, that life will be his. Take Pagin, for example. A few months ago he was afraid of everything and everyone. His apprenticeship with the sabre has transformed him. Look at his assurance today, his joie de vivre ... that’s why he’s always dashing about the place: he is catching up the years that he lost in inertia, held back by his fears.’

Margont chased away the flies buzzing round his horse’s head, endlessly irritating it.

‘You are just like him. Pagin is “fortifying himself with iron” to confront a nameless danger that torments him. You’re acting the same way. Except that you have a clearer idea of the threat you’re confronting.’

‘Yes and no. Only in part. I was damaged by what happened to me. My sword is my crutch: take it away from me and I’ll collapse. I am grateful to it for helping me to walk again but at the same time it reminds me of the past and it attracts duellists.’

Margont looked at him with a mixture of compassion and fear: in his eyes, Relmyer was suffering from a malady that was little by little increasing its stranglehold on him.