There was no response. He was
insistent. Finally a door opened and an angry voice cried out
in the darkness: "This isn't the time for visitors." For the
owner, who found that there are no such things as small
profits, permitted a visit for the sum of two francs per
person. Surprised, the occupant of the palace submitted, and
our detachment entered _Achilleion_, whose occupants it
assembled--the watchman and two red-haired chambermaids--_en
deshabille_, also a mechanic and an entomologist who wore
spectacles. Pale with fear, the latter threw himself on his
knees before the officer. "If I must die, I ask that it may
be here," said he. He was left in peace. A company of the
Chasseurs arrived and the marines, with their lanterns in
their hands, went back to the ships. The Tricolor floated
over the Kaiser's villa, which was to become a hospital for
the Serbs.
* * * * *
At eleven o'clock in the morning it was all over, and the French
cruisers put out to sea on the return trip to Bizerta.
But the easiest thing had been done. The most difficult was about to
begin. It was not only a question of occupying Corfu; it was also a
matter of arranging to receive a worn-out and decimated army.
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