The Strand Magazine/Volume 19/Issue 109/The Crime of the Brigadier

The Crime of the Brigadier.
By A. Conan Doyle.

N all the great hosts of France
there was only one officer
towards whom the English of
Wellington’s Army retained a
deep, steady, and
unchangeable hatred. There were
plunderers among the French, and men of
violence, gamblers, duellists, and roués. All
these could be forgiven, for others of their
kidney were to be found among the ranks of
the English. But one officer of Massena’s
force had committed a crime which was
unspeakable, unheard of, abominable; only
to be alluded to with curses late in the
evening, when a second bottle had loosened
the tongues of men. The news of it was
carried back to England, and country
gentlemen who knew little of the details of the
war grew crimson with passion when they
heard of it, and yeomen of the shires raised
freckled fists to Heaven and swore. And yet
who should be the doer of this dreadful deed
but our friend the Brigadier, Etienne Gerard,
of the Hussars of Conflans, gay-riding,
plumetossing, debonnaire, the darling of the ladies
and of the six brigades of light cavalry.
But the strange part of it is that this gallant
gentleman did this hateful thing, and made
himself

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