How the Brigadier Joined the Hussars of Conflans

Name: How the Brigadier Joined the Hussars of Conflans
Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Etienne Gerard, newly transferred as senior captain from the Hussars of Chamberan to the Hussars of Conflans during the siege of Saragossa, finds his new regiment ill disciplined and its officers resentful of his criticism. At mess, he boasts of his past exploits, but the officers mock him as a braggart. Gerard demands satisfaction from all of them and arranges to fight them successively with sabres before the morning assembly. Before the duels can take place, Colonel Perrin seeks a volunteer for an exceptionally dangerous mission. Gerard claims it as senior captain and because the regiment scarcely knows him. Marshal Lannes and General Razout explain that a French agent, Hubert, was meant to ignite a powder magazine inside the Convent of the Madonna, whose destruction would aid the French assault. Hubert has failed to communicate for two days. Disguised as a Franciscan friar and armed only with a knife, Gerard must enter the city, find Hubert, and learn whether the plan can still succeed. Gerard climbs into Saragossa by way of a chestnut tree beside the convent wall. A Spanish sentry shoots the Engineer sergeant who guided him; when the sentry descends into the tree, Gerard kills him, and the wounded sergeant finishes the man below. Gerard enters the city through a roof trapdoor, passes through streets crowded with soldiers, peasants, fires, filth, wounded people, and monks, and uses scraps of Latin to sustain his disguise. At Hubert’s house, Gerard discovers the agent nailed alive to a wall and dying of thirst after torture. Hubert reveals that the powder is in the Mother Superior’s room and that its train ends in Sister Angela’s cell near the chapel. Gerard gives Hubert wine mixed with the poison intended for his own capture, hoping to spare him pain, but two Spaniards enter. One cruelly taunts Hubert with the wine and drinks it himself, dying instantly; his companion flees in terror. Hubert dies as well, leaving Gerard shaken but determined to complete the mission before the French assault at four. Gerard reaches the Convent of the Madonna and enters by carrying buckets of water past the guard. He finds the guarded magazine and then enters the adjoining cell, where the Mother Superior and two younger nuns expect a friar to lead them to safety. He moves them into the chapel, but the Mother Superior notices the blood on his hand and the gold ring that proves he cannot be a poverty-sworn friar. She raises the alarm. Gerard escapes into the powder-room cell, bolts the door, and searches while soldiers batter it and fire through it. He finally discovers the hidden powder train beneath leaves surrounding a statue of St. Joseph, overturns the nearby lamp, and ignites it. The explosion fails to breach the massive convent walls, but it throws the defenders into panic. French grenadiers storm through the windows and doors, and the convent is carried. Marshal Lannes praises Gerard, but Gerard insists that Hubert deserves credit for planning and preparing the operation. Still bound by his challenge to the Hussars of Conflans, Gerard returns at dawn in uniform to meet the twelve officers. Exhausted and blackened by powder, he asks to fight them all together because Marshal Lannes has invited him to breakfast. Instead of drawing against him, the officers raise their sabres in salute. Overcome by their homage and then embraced by Olivier, Pelletan, Mortier, and the others, Gerard realizes that he has earned his place in the Hussars of Conflans.

By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle · First published 1895 · Genre: Historical Adventure, War Fiction, Historical Fiction · 9,610 words

First lines

Have I ever told you, my friends, the circumstances connected with my joining the Hussars of Conflans at the time of the siege of Saragossa and the very remarkable exploit which I performed in connection with the taking of that city? No? Then you have indeed something still to learn. I will tell it to you exactly as it occurred. Save for two or three men and a score or two of women, you are the first who have ever heard the story.

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Genres

Historical Adventure — Set during the Peninsular War and the siege of Saragossa, the story centers on a perilous infiltration, espionage mission, explosion, and military exploit.
War Fiction — The plot is embedded in Napoleonic warfare, depicting siege conditions, military command, combat, resistance, and the brutal realities of urban battle.
Historical Fiction — Real historical figures, places, and events—including Marshal Lannes, Saragossa, and the French siege of 1808–1809—provide the setting for fictional characters and incidents.
Military Fiction — Its concerns include regimental discipline, officer hierarchy, cavalry identity, duelling, military honor, tactics, and the operation of a storming force.

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How the Brigadier Joined the Hussars of Conflans is listed on Textopian as a short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, dated 1895 CE.

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Work type: Short story
Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Date: 1895 CE
Language: English
Genres: Historical Adventure, War Fiction, Historical Fiction, Military Fiction, Adventure Fiction
Length: 9,610 words
Structure: 1 section, 113 paragraphs
Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)

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