Finally their way was clear and they were able to trot rapidly into the forest. It was denser and more massive than Margont could have imagined. Visibility dropped dramatically, as did the heat, which became more bearable. The hussars spread out one behind the other, a few paces apart. They held themselves at the ready, sabres or muskets in hand. Lefine and Margont were ill at ease. They passed a dead tree, suddenly revealing bushes, invisible the moment before. A group of shrubs trembled; was that just the wind? The tree trunks obscured their vision. If there were danger you would definitely not realise it until too late.
‘How much further, Lieutenant?’ asked Lefine.
Relmyer, lost in his memories, did not answer. Margont recalled an old history lesson. What was it now? Shortly after Jesus Christ, the Germanic Armin, chief of the Cherusci, annihilated three Roman legions that had imprudently taken a short cut through the Teutoburg forest. Margont moved up alongside Relmyer.
‘I hope we’re not going to linger here.’
‘No.’
‘Can you describe the man we’re looking for?’
The irregular shadows of the foliage flickered slowly across Relmyer’s tormented features.
‘I’m tempted to say he was tall, but I was shorter at the time. His clothes were unremarkable, neither rich nor poor. His hair? Brown.’
‘And his face?’
Relmyer grew agitated at that question. ‘His face – I see it, but I can’t describe it! It’s like a splinter perfectly visible beneath the skin, but impossible to pull out. I only saw it briefly; then he made us turn our backs. It was so long ago … Everything is so vivid but at the same time blurry. He was thirty-five or a bit younger … with heavy eyebrows. No moustache or beard, blue eyes.’
‘Would you recognise him?’
‘Most probably. At least I think so …’
‘And would he recognise you? Have you changed much?’
‘Yes, I have changed! Today I know how to fight.’
Actually, the answer to Margont’s question was obvious: Relmyer still looked very young.
‘Let’s put that to one side for the moment. What can you tell me about his hands?’
‘His hands? He had two of them, each with five fingers. Flesh-coloured. Does that get you anywhere?’
‘You must have seen his hands, at least the one brandishing the weapon. Was he right-or left-handed?’
‘Right-handed, I’m sure about that.’
‘He knew this forest well, according to what you’ve told me. Did he have the calloused hands of a woodcutter?’
Relmyer brightened. ‘No, not at all! His hands were slender with clean nails.’
‘Are you certain you’re remembering correctly?’
‘I’m not remembering, I’m seeing them.’
After a while, Relmyer stopped. ‘It’s somewhere near here that he surprised us. But I can’t tell you exactly where.’ He made an effort to overcome his apprehension. ‘We have to go this way, now,’ he added, forcing his way through a curtain of branches.
They abandoned the path they had followed up to that point. The interplay of greens and shadows became even more pronounced. The horses picked their way painfully through bushes and branches.
‘We are a long way past Vienna now. You must have strayed far from your orphanage,’ remarked Margont.
‘At the time, I loved to ramble as far as possible. I had even thought of leaving, never to return. In the hope of abandoning my problems and grief at the orphanage. As if everything was their fault. But if I hadn’t gone back of my own accord, I would have been dragged back by the police or the orphanage staff …’
They continued on their way in silence. Birds sang with full throat, not the least bit intimidated by the presence of the horsemen.
‘Here we are,’ declared Relmyer finally.
Margont and Lefine stared, unable to make out anything unusual. Tree trunks, foliage, shrubbery, bushes …
Relmyer leant over his horse, dumbfounded. Pagin joined him in three bounds of his horse, pistol at the ready. The area had been burnt. The bushes, ivy and tall grasses, which had previously carpeted the clearing, were all singed. The remains of the walls, eaten away by the depredations of time and bad weather, had collapsed. They lay there, a heap of blackened rubble. Relmyer leapt from his horse and hurried over to the cellar. The roof had given way. Relmyer froze at the sight of the spectacle, his boots in the cinders. His back shook, a pale indication of his inner turmoil.
‘He came back and destroyed everything.’
Lefine and Margont dismounted in their turn and went over to him.
‘That’s just supposition,’ objected Margont. ‘Why would he do that? To—’
Relmyer rushed at Pagin, yelling, ‘Damn your eyes! I ordered you to stay here lying in wait! I’m going to have you arrested!’
The young hussar paled, looking suddenly more dead than alive. ‘I really wanted to, but it was impossible, Lieutenant … I couldn’t do it on my own. Several Frenchmen have been assassinated by—’
Relmyer continued to fulminate, expecting the impossible. Margont intervened.
‘If Pagin had stayed here, his incinerated corpse would have been laid out in the middle of these ruins. It would have needed fifty to stay and keep watch; one is useless. You don’t have fifty troopers under your command. And even if you did, I doubt that your major would have let you do it.’
‘I should have stayed myself then!’ fumed Relmyer, going forward amongst the ruins.
‘That would have made you a deserter. Your men would have been forced to reveal where you were and—’
The carbonised debris gave way under Relmyer’s weight and he was suddenly buried up to his waist. He struggled to free himself, stirring up ash and staining his dolman and his dark green greatcoat with sooty marks. Then, realising how pitiful he looked, he pulled himself together and extricated himself. Margont crouched down beside him.
‘Look at that beam beside you.’
The thick piece of wood, eaten away by the fire, had broken in two, but the extremities were still intact.
‘The flames attacked it from underneath. The top is not burnt, and it’s the same with the other beams. It’s astonishing. It means that the fire that ravaged the cellar was started inside and not outside. Was there anything flammable in there?’
‘No.’
‘So branches were arranged inside first. You’re right: this fire is linked to the cellar, and therefore to your affair. In fact there were two fires. The trap door is in a room where the walls act as a fire screen. The cellar was destroyed by the fire lit inside it, but I don’t see how the burning twigs could escape from there, jumping over the walls and starting off new fires. So obviously there were two fires, one inside and one outside to destroy the surrounding area. If anyone had passed by, they would have thought that someone had abandoned a badly extinguished campfire. The fire outside was designed to hide the other fire, which itself hid any possible clues.’
‘There were no clues. I had already examined everything from top to bottom.’
‘When did you come?’
Relmyer, covered in soot and ashes, seemed to belong to the ruins rather than to the world of the living.
‘Thirteenth of May. We were scouting out the area ahead of the arrival