‘My horse, if you please.’

Chaumert handed Arthur the reins and offered his hands to help Arthur up into the saddle. Arthur ignored him and climbed into the saddle unaided. Chaumert mounted his own horse and the two men rode out of the farm, back up the road towards Brussels. As they reached the place where Arthur’s escort was waiting, he turned to Chaumert.

‘Before I go, tell me something.’

Chaumert shrugged. ‘What is it?’

‘You are a good man, I take it.’

‘I have tried to be.’

‘Then what is it that makes a good man prepared to follow a tyrant to the very end?’

Chaumert thought for a moment. ‘Even tyrants have the seeds of true greatness in them. A good man sees that, and he serves in the hope that one day the greatness will out.’

‘And if it doesn’t? What do you do then?’

‘Then I am wrong, in which case I deserve oblivion, for all those who suffered at the hands of the tyrant I served so faithfully.’

‘Then why stay at his side?’

‘Because there is still time for some measure of redemption.’

Arthur held out his hand. ‘I fear you will be disappointed.’

‘And I fear you may be right.’ Chaumert smiled as he clasped Arthur’s hand. ‘Sir, in another life, I would rather have found a man like you to serve. But then what man ever truly has the chance to choose his own fate?’

Arthur stared at him and then nodded sadly. ‘Goodbye, Colonel.’

‘Farewell, sir. I hope you, of all men, live to enjoy the fruits of peace.’

‘The fruits of peace?’ Arthur paused as he considered the future. Home. Kitty and his unknown sons. A return to the flummery of social life, and the poison of politics. The war had made him, furnished him with the closest friends he had ever known. It had shown him the heights of human endeavour, as well as the depths of depravity. He smiled. ‘For men like us the fruit of peace is the absence of war. Little else. It’s over. All over.’

Then he turned his horse in the direction of Waterloo and galloped away as the first rays of a new dawn seeped across the worn, torn continent.

Chapter 65 - Plymouth, 30 July 1815

Chapter 65

Plymouth, 30 July 1815