How the King Held the Brigadier

Name: How the King Held the Brigadier
Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Colonel Etienne Gerard, a French hussar officer captured and imprisoned at Dartmoor, refuses to give his parole and is confined among the officers' wing alongside his sullen, uncommunicative cellmate Beaumont of the Flying Artillery. Having learned English from Adjutant Obriant, Gerard spends weeks secretly loosening the window bar and a wall stone in his cell, hiding the debris and concealing his progress from the warders. On a stormy night with no moon, he removes the stone and bar and urges Beaumont through the opening first; Beaumont instead seizes him by the knees and shouts for help, hoping to win a pardon by betraying the escape. Gerard strikes him down with the iron bar, gags and binds him, then uses a rope made from plaited bed sheets to scale the prison's two spiked walls, narrowly avoiding a sentry, and flees across the moor. Keeping the wind in his face to hold a steady course, he runs for hours, only to discover at dawn that the wind shifted overnight and he has circled back to within sight of Dartmoor itself. He hides all day on a knoll overlooking the prison, watching the search and seeing Beaumont, bandaged, led across the yard, which relieves him since it proves his cellmate survived. That night he sets off again, this time steering by the stars, and before dawn encounters a disabled carriage on the moor belonging to Sir Charles Meredith, who has gone for help. Gerard introduces himself to Sir Charles's wife, charms her, and despite her protests takes her husband's astrakhan-trimmed coat to disguise his uniform, promising to return it, before slipping away as a lantern approaches. In the coat's pockets he finds bread, brandy, a snuffbox, a handkerchief, and a sealed letter addressed to the Governor of Dartmoor Prison, which he keeps rather than reads, out of a sense of honour. After resting, he continues north by the stars and comes upon an isolated cottage where he observes a small, powerfully built man exercising under the direction of an older companion. Believing the smaller man an easy target, Gerard confronts him and demands his clothes as a disguise. The man turns out to be the Bristol Bustler, a boxer in training for a championship bout, and swiftly knocks Gerard out with a blow of the kind used in the ring there. Gerard wakes in the cottage, tended with vinegar-soaked paper on his bruised head, overhearing the trainer, Jim, scold the Bustler for risking his upcoming fight by brawling with an escaped prisoner. Despite Gerard's offers of money and appeals to honour, the trainer and boxer — mindful of the twenty-pound reward and the Bustler's Wednesday match — decide to turn him in. Gerard briefly threatens them with one of the training clubs, but exhaustion overcomes him, and as he staggers outside he is met by the Governor of Dartmoor and six mounted warders. Resigned, Gerard hands over the letter he has carried since taking Sir Charles's coat. The Governor opens it and discovers it is the very order for Gerard's release: he has been exchanged for a Colonel Mason held at Verdun. Realizing he has undergone his entire ordeal already a free man, Gerard joins the Governor, the warders, and the boxer and trainer in laughter at the irony of his situation.

By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle · First published 1895 · Genre: Adventure, Historical Fiction, Satire · 11,021 words

First lines

Murat was undoubtedly an excellent cavalry officer, but he had too much swagger, which spoils many a good soldier. Lasalle, too, was a very dashing leader, but he ruined himself with wine and folly. Now I, Etienne Gerard, was always totally devoid of swagger, and at the same time I was very abstemious, except, maybe, at the end of a campaign, or when I met an old comrade-in-arms. For these reasons I might, perhaps, had it not been for a certain diffidence, have claimed to be the most valuable officer in my own branch of the Service. It is true that I never rose to be more than a chief of brigade, but then, as everyone knows, no one had a chance of rising to the top unless he had the good fortune to be with the Emperor in his early campaigns. Except Lasalle, and Lobau, and Drouet, I can hardly remember any one of the generals who had not already made his name before the Egyptian business. Even I, with all my brilliant qualities, could only attain the head of my brigade, and also the special medal of honour, which I received from the Emperor himself, and which I keep at home in a leathern pouch. But though I never rose higher than this, my qualities were very well known by those who had served with me, and also by the English. After they had captured me in the way which I described to you the other night, they kept a very good guard over me at Oporto, and I promise you that they did not give such a formidable opponent a chance of slipping through their fingers. It was on the 10th of August that I was escorted on board the transport which was to take us to England, and behold me before the end of the month in the great prison which had been built for us at Dartmoor! "L'hôtel Francais, et Pension," we used to call it, for you understand that we were all brave men there, and that we did not lose our spirits because we were in adversity.

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How the King Held the Brigadier 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: Adventure, Historical Fiction, Satire, Military Fiction, Comedy
Length: 11,021 words
Structure: 1 section, 131 paragraphs
Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)

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Genres

Adventure — The narrative is fundamentally driven by Gerard's dangerous escape from Dartmoor Prison, his flight across hostile terrain, encounters with obstacles and adversaries, and the constant threat of recapture that propels the entire plot.
Historical Fiction — The story is set during the Napoleonic Wars with authentic historical details, named historical figures (Napoleon, Wellington), specific military units, period-appropriate settings, and real historical conflicts and prison conditions.
Satire — The narrative voice satirizes Gerard's excessive vanity, pride, and self-regard throughout; the ironic ending where his escape was unnecessary directly mocks his inflated sense of importance and the absurdity of his grand struggles.
Military Fiction — Centers on a military officer's perspective during wartime, with detailed references to cavalry units, military strategy, military hierarchy, combat experience, and the soldier's relationship to war, imprisonment, and honor.