ATERLOO--THE CHARGE OF D'ERLON
XXXI. WATERLOO--THE LAST OF THE GUARD
XXXII. AT LAST THE EAGLE AND THE WOMAN

PROLOGUE

VIVE L'EMPEREUR

The weatherworn Chateau d'Aumenier stands in the midst of a noble park
of trees forming part of an extensive domain not far to the northwest
of the little town of Sezanne, in the once famous county of Champagne,
in France. The principal room of the castle is a great hall in the
oldest part of the venerable pile which dates back for eight hundred
years, or to the tenth century and the times of the famous Count Eudes
himself, for whom it was held by one of his greatest vassals.

The vast apartment is filled with rare and interesting mementos of its
distinguished owners, including spoils of war and trophies of the
chase, acquired in one way or another in the long course of their
history, and bespeaking the courage, the power, the ruthlessness, and,
sometimes, the unscrupulousness of the hard-hearted, heavy-handed line.
Every country in Europe and every age, apparently, has been levied upon
to adorn this great hall, with its long mullioned windows, its enormous
fireplace, its huge carved stone mantel, its dark oak paneled walls and
beamed ceiling. But, the most interesting, the most precious of all
the wonderful things therein has a place of honor to itself at the end
farthest from the main entrance.

Fixed against this wall is a broken staff, or pole, surmounted by a
small metallic figure. The staff is fastened to the wall by clamps of
tempered steel which are further secured by delicate locks of skillful
and intricate workmanship. The pole is topped by the gilded effigy of
an eagle.

In dimensions the eagle is eight inches high, from head to feet, and
nine and a half inches wide, from wing tip to wing tip. Heraldically,
"_Un Aigle Eploye_" it would be called. That is, an eagle in the act
of taking flight--in the vernacular, a "spread eagle." The eagle looks
to the left, with its wings half expanded. In its talons it grasps a
thunderbolt, as in the old Roman standard. Those who have ever
wandered into the Monastery of the Certosa, at Milan, have seen just
such an eagle on one of the tombs of the great Visconti family. For,
in truth, this emblem has been modeled after that one.

Below the thunderbolt is a tablet of brass, three inches square, on
which is a raised number. In this instance, the number is five. The
copper of which the eagle is molded was origi