Evil in a Mask

Roger dropped his fork. 'Lisala! You cannot mean that!'

'Indeed I do. 'Tis, I am told, a most profitable occupation.'

'But. .. but... all else apart, you are one of the Empress' ladies.'

Lisala made a derisive gesture. 'Oh, Josephine! I am much wearied of dancing attendance on her. And, in any case, she is finished.'

'What mean you?'

'Surely you must have heard that the Emperor intends to put her from him?'

Roger had heard. Everyone had known for a long time past that Napoleon's dearest wish was to found a dynasty. Although Josephine had had two children by her earlier marriage, she had failed to give him one. He had, therefore, come to believe himself to be incapable of becoming a father. This belief had been invalidated when one of his many temporary mistresses, Elenora Denuelle, had borne him a son, about the identity of whose father there could be no possible shadow of doubt. It was this that, dearly as he had come to love Josephine, had first put into his mind the idea of divorcing her.

But if he was to take a new wife, nothing less could now satisfy him as a consort than a lady having the royal blood of one of the great hereditary ruling families. It was, therefore, not until the conference at Erfurt that he had disclosed his secret intention to anyone. There, as Roger and a few of Talleyrand's other intimates knew, Napoleon had contemplated asking the Czar for the hand of his sister. Talleyrand, being strenuously opposed to a Russian alliance, had warned the Czar that the proposal was likely to be put forward; so, when Napoleon had broached the matter, Alexander had been ready to evade committing himself, by replying that the selection of a husband for his sister was entirely in the hands of her mother.

This feeler and polite rebuff had been whispered about only among a very limited circle; but recently there had been much more widely-spread rumours that, when Napoleon had conquered Austria, he intended to ask, as part of the peace terms, to be given a Hapsburg Princess as a bride.

As one of Josephine's oldest and staunchest friends, Roger deplored the possibility that, for reasons of State, she might be deprived of the husband that she had come to love so deeply. But, knowing Talleyrand's pro-Austrian leanings, he saw the great statesman's hand in this. Abused and insulted by the Emperor as he had been six months earlier, he had regained considerable influence with him. And it could not be denied that a Franco-Austrian alliance fortified by an Imperial marriage would materially strengthen both countries.

Staring hard-eyed at Lisala, Roger said, 'Naturally, I am aware that certain people would like to see the Empress replaced by a Hapsburg Princess; but Austria is far from having been conquered yet.'

Lisala shrugged. 'Whether Josephine stays or goes is all one to me. I intend to submit my resignation to her, and employ myself in more profitable activities.'

'But a brothel!' Roger cried. 'You seek only to shock and horrify me for your amusement. You cannot possibly really mean that you intend to run a brothel.'

'I do, and out of doing so I'll get even more amusement than seeing your face as it is at this moment. In brothels, as you must know...'

'I do not know,' he cut in harshly. 'I entered one only once, when I was in my teens, then fled from it in disgust.'

'Then I'll inform you. There are peepholes in the walls of all the rooms. Through them one can witness the peculiar games in which couples at times indulge. That will provide me with much entertainment. And, when I witness some gallant who performs with unusual vigour, I'll give him an assignation to come another day and have me "on the house".'

'You . . . you vile creature!' Roger burst out. 'Undertake this foul enterprise, and I vow I'll burn the place down with you in it.'

'For that you will have no opportunity, as it will be neither here in Vienna nor in Paris.' 'Where then?' 'That is my affair.'

'Wherever it may be, I'll run you to earth. Yes, whatever it may cost me, I'll not submit to the ghastly humiliation of it becoming known that my wife is running a whorehouse. And it will become known. Satan has endowed you with too great a beauty for your identity not be bruited abroad in any city.'

'In that you are mistaken. I am as anxious as yourself to keep this matter secret. I intend, from time to time, to return and inflict my company on you. Now that I am a Baroness, I shall find Court functions more enjoyable than ever.'

'What you propose is impossible. From having been a member of the Court for above a year, your face is known to hundreds—nay, thousands of people. Inevitably some officer: French, German, Dutch, Italian, will visit your brothel, recognise you and tell others of your infamy.'

'Again you are wrong.' Lisala smiled and shook her head. *While exercising my profession I mean to wear a black velvet mask with a long fringe. My body is beautiful enough to tempt any man I desire, without his seeing my face. In fact, a mask will prove an added seduction for such encounters. And, should a lover of the moment be so imprudent as to tear it off, I'll drive my stiletto between his ribs.'

Roger could find no more to say. Short of killing her, there was no way in which he could prevent her carrying out her plan; and that he could not bring himself to do. Rising, he flung his glass of wine in her face, then left the room and the house.

That night, the little sleep he got was at an inn, and next morning he sent a message to Berthier that he was ill after having eaten bad fish. For three days he did not go out, and ceaselessly pondered the problem of what he could do about having been cursed with such a wife. To that he could find no answer. Even making off to England was no longer a fully satisfactory solution, as he could not bear the thought that if Lisala was found out, the fine name he had made for himself in the French Army would for ever be besmirched. He could only endeavour to comfort himself with the possibility that Lisala would succeed in remaining incognito while pandering to her insatiable lust for sexual excitement.

When he forced himself to return to Court, several people condoled with him on his wife's illness. Then Josephine spoke to him most kindly, regretting that Lisala had had to leave her on account of having been ordered by a doctor to take the waters at Baden-Baden. A good actor, as he had always been, Roger produced the reactions expected of him. That evening he returned to the little house, to find that most of Lisala's clothes were still there, but she had gone; so he sealed in again.

The armistice continued, but negotiations for a peace got no further, as the terms proposed by Napoleon were unacceptable to the Emperor Francis.

Early in August, it was learned that the British had landed a strong force on the large island of Walcheren at the mouth of the Scheldt. Roger deplored this strategy both for timing and place. Had the landing been made six weeks earlier it could have enormously encouraged the Austrians to still greater efforts, and had it been made at Stralsund it could have incited the Prussian patriots to force their King into joining Austria in her war against France. As things were now, it seemed to be a grievous waste of effort, for he felt sore the Dutch would not rise against the Emperor, and knew the malarial swamps in the estuary of the Scheldt to be one of the most unsuitable places possible to form a bridgehead for an invasion of the Continent.

News then came in from Spain. The remnant of Soult's army had straggled back, without guns or baggage, into Galicia. There Ney's men had derided them as cowards and tempers flown so high that the two Marshals had been with difficulty prevented from fighting a duel. Meanwhile, Wellesley had turned speedily upon Victor. Realising his peril, the Marshal had swiftly retreated towards Madrid; but, on July 27th,

Wellesley, supported by a Spanish army, had brought him to bay at Talavera and inflicted a severe defeat upon him.

In the middle of August, Lisala returned to Vienna for a few days. Roger refused to speak to her, and took his meals out. She made no attempt to be received again at the Palace and, having collected a few more of her clothes, disappeared again.