Pont Neuf by Max Byrd

Author:Max Byrd
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: N/A
Publisher: Permuted
Published: 2020-05-23T00:00:00+00:00

Five

In Versailles, General Eberhardt’s history lessons continued.

The day after Annie’s visit to the place d’Italie, Adams found himself summoned to a staircase outside the Cour Royale and then hustled downstairs and out into the cold. It was just past four o’clock in the afternoon, a frigid, iron-gray December afternoon that for some reason had made the contrarian Eberhardt think he would like to take a stroll in the king of France’s gardens. To beat the cold he was wearing an aviator’s leather jacket with a fleece collar and very prominent, very polished silver stars on the shoulders, because Eberhardt was a man who much enjoyed being a general.

“You know where the water for all these fountains comes from, Major?”

Adams looked around helplessly. The hedges and trees were gray, the sky was gray, the water in the gray fountains was gray. He had no idea where the water came from.

“Machine de Marly,” Eberhardt said. “Over those hills a couple of miles. Louis XIV had it built to pump water to the Palace. Some kind of crazy hydraulic pump that took sixty men to run. It broke down all the time and finally gave up for good in 1817, and now they use steam power. The French have never been any good with plumbing.”

Eberhardt had spent most of the day in staff meetings with Eisenhower and Omar Bradley, and he invariably came back from these meetings fretting about some four-star stupidity or injustice. Invariably, he took his time getting around to what was bothering him.

“You know our terms for Germany, Adams?”

“Yes, sir. ‘Unconditional surrender.’”

“Yep. Unconditional surrender.” Eberhardt’s voice was surprisingly flat. “Roosevelt announced it after Yalta. Churchill had no idea he was going to say that, but then of course Churchill had to go along. Stalin didn’t give a shit.” He stopped to pull the collar higher and sniff the late afternoon air. “Snow coming,” he announced. “You know where that ‘unconditional’ stuff comes from?”

“I don’t, sir.”

“Ulysses S. Grant, the Yankee Butcher of Virginia. Those were the terms he offered Bobby Lee at Appomattox. You think it’s a good idea?”

Adams frowned and scuffed his boot in the gravel path to buy time. He had no idea what Eberhardt wanted him to say. “I guess it’s a good idea.”

“It’s a horrible idea,” Eberhardt said. “Think about it, son. Think about the casualties. We’re sitting on the fucking German border right now. For all intents and purposes the war’s over. We could negotiate a peace. We don’t have to kill another quarter million boys, just to prove we’ve won. The smart Germans already know it.”

“They’re fanatics, sir.”

Eberhardt sighed and pulled out a cigar. “Yeah. And we’re not,” he said in the same dead, flat voice.

They walked almost to the end of the endless gardens, mostly in silence. Near the Petit Trianon, Eberhardt stopped to explain that the quite grand classical building in front of them had once been Marie Antoinette’s “cottage,” where she liked to dress as a shepherdess and tend sheep. They leaned

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.