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CITIZENS OF PARIS
Fitz's eye went to the foot of the notice and he saw that it was signed by General Gallieni, the military governor of the city. Gallieni, a crusty old soldier, had been brought out of retirement. He was famous for holding meetings at which no one was allowed to sit down: he believed people reached decisions faster that way.
The body of his message was characteristically terse.
The members of the Government of the Republic have left Paris to give new impetus to the national defense.
Fitz was dismayed. The government had fled! There had been rumors for the last few days that ministers would decamp to Bordeaux, but the politicians had hesitated, not wanting to abandon the capital. However, now they had gone. It was a very bad sign.
The rest of the announcement was defiant.
I have been entrusted with the duty of defending Paris against the invader.
So, Fitz thought, Paris will not surrender after all. The city will fight. Good! That was certainly in British interests. If the capital had to fall, at least the enemy should be made to pay heavily for their conquest.
This duty I shall carry out to the last extremity.
Fitz could not help smiling. Thank God for old soldiers.
The people around seemed to have mixed feelings. Some comments were admiring. Gallieni was a fighter, someone said with satisfaction; he would not let Paris be taken. Others were more realistic. The government has left us, a woman said; that means the Germans will be here today or tomorrow. A man with a briefcase said he had sent his wife and children to his brother's house in the country. A well-dressed woman said she had thirty kilos of dried beans in the kitchen cupboard.
Fitz just felt that the British contribution to the war effort, and his part in it, had become even more important.
With a strong sense of doom, he drove on to the Ritz.
He entered the lobby of his favorite hotel and went into a phone booth. There he called the British embassy and left a message for the ambassador, telling him about Gallieni's notice, just in case the news had not yet reached the rue du Faubourg St. -Honore.
When he came out of the booth he ran into Sir John's aide Colonel Hervey.
Hervey looked at Fitz's tuxedo and said: "Major Fitzherbert! Why the devil are you dressed like that?"
"Good morning, Colonel," said Fitz, deliberately not answering the question. It was obvious that he had been out all night.
"It's nine o'clock in the bloody morning! Don't you know we're at war?"
This was another question that did not require an answer. Coolly Fitz said: "Is there something I can do for you, sir?"
Hervey was a bully who hated people he could not intimidate. "Less of your insolence, Major," he said. "We've got enough to do, with interfering bloody visitors from London. "
Fitz raised an eyebrow. "Lord Kitchener is the minister for war. "
"The politicians should leave us to do our job. But someone with friends in high places has stirred them up. " He looked as if he suspected Fitz, but did not have the courage to say so.
"You can hardly have been surprised at the War Office being concerned," Fitz said. "Ten days' rest, with the Germans at the gates!"
"The men are exhausted!"
"In ten days the war might be over. What are we here for, if not to save Paris?"
"Kitchener took Sir John away from his headquarters on a crucial day of battle," Hervey blustered.
"Sir John wasn't in much of a hurry to get back to his troops, I noticed," Fitz rejoined. "I saw him dining here at the Ritz that evening. " He knew he was being insolent but he could not help himself.
"Get out of my sight," said Hervey.
Fitz turned on his heel and went upstairs.
He was not as insouciant as he had pretended. Nothing would make him kowtow to idiots such as Hervey, but it was important to him to have a successful military career. He hated the thought that people might say he was not the man his father was. Hervey was not much use to the army because he spent all his time and energy patronizing his favorites and undermining his rivals, but by the same token he could ruin the careers of men who concentrated on other things, such as winning the war.
