Early in the afternoon the mayor arrived, somewhat drunk, to invite Arthur and his officers to a special performance of patriotic songs and recitals to be held at the town’s theatre that evening, followed by a banquet. In the interests of cementing the friendship of the people of Toulouse, Arthur accepted, and grudgingly made arrangements to have a bath and shave while his baggage was collected from the camp. So it was that he was standing before a mirror, face lathered in soap and razor poised above his throat, when the door to the washroom was unceremoniously opened and Somerset rushed in, accompanied by another officer whom Arthur recognised as Colonel Ponsonby, from the army outside Bayonne.

‘What the devil?’ Arthur growled, lowering the razor. ‘You surprise me like that, and it won’t be an enemy bullet that takes me. I’ll die by my own bloody hand!’

‘Sorry, sir.’ Somerset thrust Ponsonby forward. ‘But you must hear the news.’

‘Ponsonby?’ Arthur frowned. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘I was sent to find you directly General Hope received the officers sent from Paris.’

‘Officers? What officers?’

‘Colonel Cooke, and Colonel St-Simon of the French army, sir.’

‘Well?’

‘Sir, I have extraordinary news for you.’

There was no mistaking what the man would say. Arthur held up his hand to silence the colonel. ‘It’s peace. I knew that we would have it.’

‘Aye, sir, we’ve all expected it. But there’s more. Napoleon has abdicated.’

‘Abdicated? It’s time indeed.’ Arthur replied without thinking. Then the full truth of it struck him. Napoleon was finished. With no throne, he would no longer be able to threaten the peace of Europe. At once his severe expression was split by a wide grin. Tossing his razor down into the basin, he clasped Ponsonby’s hands. ‘Abdicated! You don’t say so?’

‘I do, sir.’

‘By God . . . by God, this is wonderful!’ He turned to Somerset and could not help laughing. His whole mind and body was seized by the most pure and irresistible delight. ‘Hurrah! Hurrah!’ Releasing Ponsonby’s hands, he snapped his fingers and hopped lightly from side to side. ‘That I should live to see this!’

‘Just what I was thinking,’ Somerset chuckled as he stared at his superior’s unprecedented display of jubilation.