Translation of the story Le guide de l'empereur, from the collection of the same name.

Release date is 2025-12-20

Tuula Temonen

"Keisarin opas" by René Bazin is a novel written in the early 20th century. Set in the French border town of Toul after the Franco-Prussian War, it explores duty, compassion, and national feeling through an aging ex-cuirassier, Captain Audouin, and his dutiful daughter Véronique, a music teacher. When a destitute young mother appears in a storm intending to drown herself and abandon her newborn, their household is transformed by the decision to save—and possibly raise—the child.

The opening of the story unfolds during a violent night in Lorraine, where Captain Audouin broods over his lost military life while Véronique practices music to support them. A soaked, desperate Maria Huber arrives with a week-old baby and confesses she plans to throw herself into the Moselle; Véronique’s calm resolve forces the mother to nurse the child, and they shelter both through the night. At dawn Maria slips away, later found to have reclaimed debts and likely fled across the border, leaving the infant behind. After a tense clash—fueled by the captain’s anti-German bitterness—Véronique persuades him to keep the boy; they have him baptized Charles, enlist a kindly neighbor’s help, and begin shaping a fragile new family around the rescued child. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Originally published: Porvoo: WSOY, 1922