Wolf Hunt

EPILOGUE

NAPOLEON expected further combat. But Austria, shaken by its defeat, capitulated. The Emperor imposed tough conditions. The Austrian Empire lost several provinces that were divided between the kingdom of Bavaria, the Grand-Duchy ofVarsovia and Russia. Three and a half million people were thus forced to change nationality. What was more, Austria had to pay heavy war indemnities and its army was reduced to a hundred and fifty thousand men. It was the end of Archduke Charles’s military career and his brother John was banished from political life because of his inexcusable lateness in joining the battle. Austria rapidly became a friend and ally of France, to the point that less than a year later, Napoleon divorced Josephine de Beauharnais and married Marie-Louise of Habsburg-Lorraine, Francis I’s daughter. The Emperor wanted in this way to secure Austria’s support definitively.

Napoleon always awarded titles linked to the arenas of battle. General Mouton was thus made Comte de Lobau, Marshal Berthier,

Napoleon’s confidant and chief of staff, became Prince de Wa-gram, and Massena, Prince de Essling. The Emperor also promoted Macdonald, Oudinot and Marmont to the rank of marshal. This flood of rewards could not hide the fact that the campaign had been much more difficult than previous ones. However, Napoleon had triumphed again. It was the end of the European insurrection against him. Now only England, Spain and Portugal continued to be at war with him.

Luise refused to see Margont again. In her mind, Relmyer and he were indissolubly linked and as a result Margont’s face would always be spattered with the blood of her dear Lukas. In a way, the death of one of them signified the death of the other.

Margont found the separation from Luise most painful.

But in one respect at least, the investigation had wrought a positive change in him. Relmyer had proved that one could triumph over one’s past, even if, for him, the triumph had only lasted a couple of hours. He had finally succeeded in escaping his cellar, not only bodily but in spirit as well, and this allowed Margont to escape his own cell. It was Relmyer’s deliverance that allowed Margont to free himself completely from the grip of the memories of his childhood years spent sequestered in the Abbey of Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert.