The Praetorians (30 page)

“And what was the result?” asked Irène.

“The result is that I'm at Saint-Gilles, describing my campaigns like an old dotard. Boisfeuras is dead. Glatigny has resigned himself to serving loyally the master he has chosen for himself. The rest of us refer to him contemptuously as the ‘Unconditional One.' Mahmoudi has fled to Tunis and gone over to the F.L.N. No doubt we're going to lose Algeria, but in dishonourable conditions and with further bloodshed.

“The Restignes project fell flat. Yet I lived through that morning when anything was possible. . . . I have never felt such a thrill in the whole of my life—something which gets you by the guts and the heart and sets your head on fire.

“We were no more than a handful of officers and soldiers, but we were the ones that fate had chosen, on the morning of May
20
th, to change the course of our country, lift her out of her dead-end and launch her on a fresh destiny. Boisfeuras understood this at once; this sort of enterprise was in keeping with his past and his character. For a long time he had been waiting for this tide which would carry him out to some great adventure. He knew at once that we would have to act quickly, to see it through to the end and not hesitate to kill if necessary.

“But Glatigny and I were afraid. The West found in us the defenders it deserved: two worthy little bourgeois!”

“What happened to Restignes?” asked Urbain Donadieu.

“Restignes went back to France and was never seen again in Algeria. He came to see me at the Val-de-Grâce and this is more or less what he said: ‘My dear Captain, I'm like certain
gamblers: when I've lost a packet in the casino I don't set foot in there again.'

“As provoking as ever. But it hurt him to have to leave Algeria. As he left, after offering me a directorship in one of his businesses—a post deliberately created for my benefit—he said again: ‘You see what a bad gambler I am!'”

“For a long time everyone thought that de Gaulle would make him a Minister.”

“It was difficult, Monsieur Donadieu. Restignes isn't easy to get on with; he is insolent and a bad mixer. However that may be, Restignes worked hard, if only for a few days, for integration.”

“This time I must take some notes,” Irène said to herself. “I've never heard about this intervention of Restignes's on the
13
th of May. At the time it was vaguely hinted that there had been contacts with Ferhat Abbas, but no one has ever been able to give an exact date or name the intermediary through whom the contacts were made. If I'm to believe Philippe the whole world was topsy-turvy—the paratroops plotting to bring peace to Algeria, the torturers of the battle of Algiers shoving Ferhat Abbas forward on the balcony of the Forum!”

“Your project involved a great many risks,” observed Urbain Donadieu. “There was not much chance of its succeeding.”

“You forget the atmosphere of the Forum, that sort of basin where every day two thousand people produced, like generators, those waves which electrify a whole country, turn cowards into heroes, misers into prodigals. . . . The whole town was transformed. All social barriers had melted away. Algiers wallowed in eroticism, although puritan by nature, and in generosity, although it's one of the most selfish towns in the world.

“Bristling with flags and pennants, throbbing and screaming, the frigid woman had just woken to love. . . .”

“What happened afterwards?” said Irène, who was getting impatient.

Esclavier hung his head:

“It was not quite ten o'clock in the morning when we met Boisfeuras in the Government General. He was coming out of a meeting of the Public Safety Committee which had been
somewhat stormy. Bonvillain had left in a rage and the Tojun was continuing to oppose Soustelle, de Gaulle's emissary, whom he didn't want.

“In an empty office we explained Restignes's project to Boisfeuras. He listened with eyes closed, and his beaky nose twitched in his flat Chinaman's face. We felt that our words were falling into him as though into a cave, where all sorts of echoes repeated and amplified them.

“‘At one moment I envied Marindelle,' he said, ‘because he was being parachuted into France, but that's a mere adventure. It's only in Algiers that the great game will be played and we're the ones that hold the cards!'

“Like us, Boisfeuras was suffering under a delusion. We didn't hold the cards very long. We had decided to assemble the officers and N.C.O.s of the
10
th Regiment at three o'clock to tell them what we were planning to do. Afterwards we would have to persuade Bonvillain to take us to Soustelle, and Soustelle to agree to a meeting with Restignes.

“Having a substantial crowd of Moslems in the Forum at our disposal, we would have no difficulty in having Restignes acclaimed, which would enable us to face the Tojun with a
fait accompli
.

“We eventually found ourselves in the villa at Birmandreis with Mahmoudi, Glatigny, Dia, Pinières and a dozen officers belonging to other parachute regiments whom we had picked up in the Forum.

“While helping ourselves to Boisfeuras's whisky—he must have stayed behind at the Government General—we heatedly discussed Restignes's presence in our movement——”

Irène corrected him:

“It wasn't a movement, it was merely a plot, a
putsch
. . . .”

“Don't forget that by then this
putsch
had succeeded and assumed such dimensions in the Forum that it had gone beyond its initial scope. The appearance of Restignes and the unexpected extension this gave to our action tended to disturb a certain number of our comrades.

“In the army we do our best to become rough diamonds, and on the people with whom we have to deal we pass judgements
which are more often than not unsubtle. In the case of such a complicated and controversial creature as Restignes could be it was more difficult.

“The same old objection kept cropping up: ‘The chap's been mixed up with the F.L.N.' But he brought with him a promise of peace and I can assure you that by then we had all had enough of the war in Algeria and the twinges of conscience it entailed.

“The military profession is traditionally the profession of the sluggard. We get up early to do nothing and regulations enable one, if one knows them well, to confront any situation. In Algeria that type of officer died out. When we came in from operations we had to deal with the police, build sports grounds, attend classes. Regulations? They hadn't provided for anything, even if one tried to make an exegesis of them with the subtlety of a rabbi. Our regulations had to be created on the basis of the half-digested leavings of Mao Tse-Tung and Chakhotine.”

“Chakhotine?” Irène enquired.

“
The Rape of the Masses
, six hundred pages. What captain on active service could find the time to read it from cover to cover? So one, who has dipped into it, mentions it to another, who discusses it with a third, and everyone has the impression he knows the book by heart. The same applies to Mao's instructions on guerrilla warfare.

“Our discussion went round in circles, because everyone had ‘heard' that Restignes was this or that. But at the time I felt sure that our comrades were going to follow us, simply because we were fond of one another and belonged to the same outfit. But at two o'clock in the afternoon, when the orderlies began opening a few tins to cook up some sort of a stew, the telephone rang. On the other end of the line was Colonel Puysanges asking in a smooth voice to be put on to Glatigny. Jacques handed me the other receiver:

“‘Major de Glatigny, you have been appointed as from now to command the Saharan troops at Ouargla. You will leave in an aircraft which takes off at sixteen hundred hours, which I imagine gives you sufficient time to pack. Captain Esclavier has been posted on a course at the Arzeu base, where he will
be instructed in landing techniques and amphibious operations. The captain must report there this evening, as the course starts tomorrow morning. Captain Mahmoudi will join the
8
th R.T.A. at Koblenz, to which he has just been transferred.'

“As a result of this posting, Glatigny left the paratroops and found himself back in the cavalry, in a junior command. I had repeatedly been offered the post of chief instructor on this course on which I was now being sent as a pupil. And to send Mahmoudi to Germany was the most unfortunate move of all!”

“Well, did you just snap to attention and salute?” asked Irène.

“We asked Puysanges the reasons for this ruthless decision.

“‘A personal order from the Commander-in-Chief,' he replied. ‘I once invited you to take pot luck with me at luncheon; I also told you that I could be of help to you on certain occasions. . . . Now it's too late, the Commander-in-Chief knows all about it.'

“Glatigny had gone as white as a sheet. He asked in a low, almost inaudible, voice:

“‘What if we refuse?'

“‘You'll be considered rebels, mutineers, because you'll be rising against a commander-in-chief who is still legally recognized by the Paris Government and who at the same time, with Massu as his spokesman, is head of the Public Safety Committee. But you, Glatigny, are loyal to the traditions of the army, I know that you won't turn mutinous. Only your friends might not follow you; I have therefore taken certain precautions: the paratroops of the
10
th Regiment are no longer guarding the Government General, they've just been relieved by the legionaries.

“‘Feelings are high against Restignes, who is accused of sometimes playing the F.L.N. game. To avoid an incident—in case the crowd turns on him or some hothead tries to assassinate him—we have just had him driven under escort to the property he owns in the Chelif Plain. He went quite quietly, incidentally. You'd do well to follow his example.

“‘To help you bear this temporary exile I have just given permission for your wife Claude, who has repeatedly requested it, to come out and join you at Ouargla. . . . This will put a stop to
certain rumours which make out that you are seeing rather too much of a young Moslem girl who was recently arrested for carrying bombs.

“‘This is by far the best solution all round, don't you think? Good-bye, my dear fellow.'

“Puysanges hung up.

“Three jeeps had just stopped in front of the villa, laden with military police.

“I at once rang up Boisfeuras at the Government General. The line was probably being tapped, but that couldn't be helped.

“He confirmed that the legionaries were piling out of their trucks to replace our men, but he hadn't worried about it, thinking we knew about this change, which was, after all, quite normal.

“I told him in a few words what had happened, and I didn't have to spell them out for him!

“‘I see,' he said. ‘I'll stop the legionaries coming in. I'll leave Pieron to argue it out, and meanwhile take twenty chaps along the secret corridor between the Government General and Region Ten H.Q. I've got the keys.

“‘Salan and Puysanges have just gone back. We'll nab them in the dining-room with the whole of their staff.

“‘Meanwhile you assemble all the officers of the division who are wandering about the sector and put them in the picture. We'll create a committee, and send a few more generals down the drain. But hurry up about it.'

“Glatigny had the other receiver glued to his ear.

“He snatched the instrument out of my hand.

“‘Hello, Boisfeuras. Glatigny here, and I'm still in command of the
10
th Regiment detachment in Algiers. I order you to let the legionaries through. You'll take your companies back to Zeralda. I hold you personally responsible for the execution of this order.

“‘I will never agree to men of the same army firing on one another, nor to officers forming committees or soviets and calling discipline and unity in question. Our aim is not to seize power but to bring back de Gaulle. Esclavier agrees with me.'

“Glatigny looked me straight in the eye; I hung my head. The
dozen officers who were there with us felt relieved. Everything was fitting into place. At the same time they longed to be off as quickly as possible, to escape from us because we had become infected with the plague.

“I couldn't resist the temptation of telling them that the door was wide open.

“Still glued to the telephone, Glatigny went on:

“‘Yes, Esclavier agrees with me, and so do all the others who are here, yes, even Mahmoudi, because first and foremost Mahmoudi is a French officer. . . .'

“Mahmoudi had not voiced his agreement; he had simply turned his back. This time we had lost him for good.

“Glatigny hung up a few moments later and turned round to us:

“‘Do you know what Boisfeuras replied?—“I took you for men, and you're nothing but good soldiers. . . .” He's submitting, however. He's going to hand in his resignation to the Public Safety Committee, rejoin our companies tonight at Zeralda and leave with them for Z tomorrow morning. But he doesn't feel like seeing us again. . . .'

“Dia shook his great head:

“‘I don't like the idea of that wonderful crowd in the Forum being left in the hands of men like Puysanges. They hate it and are frightened of it. It's all going to turn out badly. I shall go back to Z, but it makes me sick at heart. Maybe the new-born infant would have died in any case, but one never knows. . . .'

“Glatigny then tried to get in touch with Bonvillain. Warned in advance by Puysanges, Bonvillain refused to intervene in our favour. He had the makings of a politician, since he had the politician's chief characteristic: cowardice.

“He even came out with this unfortunate phrase which I should have liked to stuff down his throat:

“‘If I hadn't remembered your glorious past I might have believed you were traitors.'