The Ravishing of Lady Mary Ware by Dennis Wheatley Page A

beauty who had many influential friends, he decided that it was better not to risk a reprimand from his superiors for having refused to assist her to escape from enemy territory.
    At length a breeches buoy was let down, Roger lashed Georgina firmly into it, then she was hauled up. He had lowered the sails of his yacht and now sat down in the stern while she gently rocked. After waving Georgina away, he sadly watched the ship until she had disappearedinto the darkness. He then hoisted sail and turned the yacht in the direction of St. Tropez, where he intended to sleep that night.
    The following afternoon he told the Dufours that their mistress had received news that a member of her family was dangerously ill; so she had had to leave for Marseilles at a moment’s notice. Next morning, with a heavy heart, he took the road to Paris.

6
A New Mission
    When, on the 12th March, Roger reached the capital, he found it agog with excitement over the Emperor’s approaching marriage, and was glad to learn that the bride was to be the Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria, the nineteen-year-old daughter of the Emperor Francis.
    The Russian alliance, entered into with such enthusiasm by the Czar in the summer of 1808, when the two Emperors had met on a raft in the middle of the river Niemen at Tilsit to agree an armistice, had never been popular with a great part of the Russian nobility; and later, when the two Emperors had met again at Erfurt, Alexander—a mental as well as a born autocrat—had baulked at the suggestion of giving his sister to a Corsican upstart. Finally, to avoid offending Napoleon, his formal proposal had been rejected by the Dowager Czarina on the excuse that her daughter was still too young to marry.
    The result must be a further weakening of the Franco-Russian alliance, which gave Napoleon security in the north and could lead to his becoming still more powerful through the conquest and partition of Turkey; so Talleyrand, Fouché, Roger and everyone else who was secretly hoping for Napoleon’s downfall were very pleased that the new Empress was to be the Austrian.
    Having made his service to the Emperor, Roger rodeout to Malmaison. Josephine received him with delight, had the best guest suite in the house prepared for him and said that he must order anything he desired, at her expense. During the next few days he took over from her Comptroller and found that there was nothing basically wrong with the running of the household. It was simply that the official had endeavoured to check Josephine’s extravagance, and had shown no tact in doing so. Feeling confident that he could always persuade the Emperor to give her more money, Roger made few changes and soon settled down to his new life.
    As spring was now well on the way, much of his time was spent with Josephine in her beautiful garden. Flowers were her chief delight. Tens of thousands of bulbs were blooming in the glades, and in the hot-houses there were many rare tropical plants that she had had sent from her native Martinique. But, although she no longer drove into Paris, she was far from leading the life of a recluse. Apart from the enmity of members of the Bonaparte family, she had been universally popular and her old friends flocked out to Malmaison to visit her; so Roger was kept up-to-date with all that was going on at Court.
    Berthier had been sent to escort Marie Louise from Vienna, and the Emperor was to receive her at St. Cloud. But, with his usual impatience, instead of adhering to the arrangement, as soon as he learned that she had crossed the frontier, he drove at full speed to meet her. To the surprise and dismay of her attendants, he dashed into a house where she had broken her journey to rest and, although soaked to the skin from having been exposed to the pouring rain, fervidly embraced her. He then hustled her out to his carriage and carried the frightened girl off to his palace at Compiègne. Then he declared his intention