How Brigadier Gerard Lost his Ear

Brigadier Etienne Gerard recounts how, while serving as General Suchet’s aide-de-camp in occupied Venice, he falls in love with Lucia, a beautiful granddaughter of a former Doge. Gerard had earned her family’s friendship by preventing French sappers from removing paintings from their palace, though Venetian resentment against the French has become fierce because soldiers have carried away or damaged the city’s art. One night Gerard receives an urgent note apparently written by Lucia and takes a gondola to her. The huge gondolier, Matteo, attacks him, disarms him, sacks his head, and carries him to a Venetian palace. Gerard tries to escape but finds himself before a secret masked tribunal. There he sees Captain Auret, a French infantry officer, also imprisoned. The tribunal postpones Gerard’s judgment and locks him in a damp cell. He hears Auret murdered and thrown into the water. When Gerard is brought again before the tribunal, its president denounces the French occupation, the removal of Venetian treasures, and Gerard’s love for Lucia, who is promised to Lorenzo Loredan. The tribunal orders Gerard to be starved until Wednesday, when it will choose his manner of death. Back in his cell, Gerard breaks through a wooden partition and discovers that the neighboring prisoner is Lucia herself. She too was summoned by a forged letter. The tribunal has condemned her to have an ear cut off as a permanent mark of disgrace for loving a Frenchman. As men come to carry out the punishment, Lucia forces Gerard back into his own cell. He devises a desperate exchange: he sends her through the partition, takes her cloak, and hides in her cell. Matteo mistakes him for Lucia and cuts off the top of Gerard’s right ear. Gerard bears the pain silently, satisfied that he has protected her. Before the men discover the deception, French soldiers force their way into the palace in the Emperor’s name. Lorenzo Loredan enters first, having betrayed the tribunal and endangered himself in order to save Lucia. At first he threatens Gerard, but Lucia reveals that Gerard endured her punishment in her place. Lorenzo recognizes Gerard’s courage, forgives him for winning Lucia’s love, and acknowledges that Gerard had helped preserve art in her family’s palace. Lorenzo is later found stabbed to death in the Piazza of St. Mark. Matteo and three other members of the tribunal are shot, while the rest are banished. After the French leave Venice, Lucia retires to a convent at Murano. In old age, Gerard remembers her with enduring devotion and declares that he would gladly lose his remaining ear to serve her.

By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle · First published 1902 · Genre: Historical Adventure, Historical Fiction, Adventure Fiction · 9,868 words

First lines

It was the old brigadier who was talking in the café.

• Open reader

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Genres

• Historical Adventure — Set in Napoleonic-era occupied Venice, the story follows Colonel Etienne Gerard through abduction, imprisonment, escape attempts, secret tribunals, and military rescue.
• Historical Fiction — The narrative uses the French occupation of Venice, Napoleon's campaigns, the removal of Venetian artworks, and period military figures to create a fictional episode within a real historical setting.
• Adventure Fiction — Its plot is driven by perilous action: a deceptive summons, kidnapping by gondola, pursuit through a palace, captivity, attempted escape, and imminent execution.
• Military Fiction — Gerard is a French hussar officer and aide-de-camp whose identity, martial pride, cavalry experience, military loyalties, and relationship to the Grande Armée shape the narration.

Tags

Napoleonic Wars · French occupation of Venice · Venice, Italy · early nineteenth century · Grand Armée · French hussars · military adventure · historical adventure fiction · frame narrative · unreliable boastful narrator · romance and sacrifice · forbidden love

What this Textopian page supports

How Brigadier Gerard Lost his Ear is listed on Textopian as a short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, dated 1902 CE.

This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.

• Work type: Short story
• Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• Date: 1902 CE
• Language: English
• Genres: Historical Adventure, Historical Fiction, Adventure Fiction, Military Fiction, Comic Historical Fiction
• Length: 9,868 words
• Structure: 1 section, 152 paragraphs
• Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)

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• Work identity for How Brigadier Gerard Lost his Ear by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
• Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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More by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

• The Parish Magazine (1914)
• The Great Brown-Pericord Motor (1914)
• The Holocaust of Manor Place (1901)
• The Debatable Case of Mrs. Emsley (1901)
• The Love Affair of George Vincent Parker (1901)
• The Disintegration Machine (1927)
• The Bully of Brocas Court (1914)
• The Brown Hand (1914)
• All works by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle