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PART ONE
Anatomy of a plot
1
IT IS COLD at six-forty in theof a March day in Paris, and see squad At that hour on March 11th, 1963, in the main courtyard of the Fort d’lvry, a French Air Force colonel stood before a stake driven into the chilly gravel as his hands were bound behind the post, and stared with slowly di him twenty metres away
A foot scuffed the grit, a tiny release from tension, as the blindfold rapped around the eyes of Lieutenant-Colonel Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry, blotting out the light for the last ti of the priest was a helpless counterpoint to the crackling of twenty rifle bolts as the soldiers charged and cocked their carbines
Beyond the walls a Berliet truck blared for a passage as some smaller vehicle crossed its path towards the centre of the city; the sound died away, e of the squad The crash of rifle fire, when it ca city, other than to send a flutter of pigeons skywards for a few race was lost in the rising din of traffic from beyond the walls
The death of the officer, leader of a gang of Secret Arht to shoot the President of France, was to have been an end—an end to further attempts on the President’s life By a quirk of fate it , and to explain why it must first be necessary to explain why a riddled body ca from its ropes in the courtyard of the…
The sun had dropped at last behind the palace wall and long shadows rippled across the courtyard bringing a welco of the hottest day of the year the terade Across the sweltering city the Parisians piled querulous wives and yelling children into cars and trains to leave for the weekend in the country It was August 22nd, 1962, the day a fewbeyond the city boundaries had decided that the President, General Charles de Gaulle, should die
While the city’s population prepared to flee the heat for the relative cool of the rivers and beaches the Cabinetbehind the ornate façade of the Elysée Palace continued Across the tan gravel of the front courtyard, now cooling in welcome shadow, sixteen black Citroën DS saloons were drawn up nose to tail, for a circle round threequarters of the area
The drivers, lurking in the deepest shade close to the here the shadows had arrived first, exchanged the inconsequential banter of those who spendon their masters’ whims
There was th of the Cabinet’s deliberations until a moment before 730 a chained and belass doors at the top of the six steps of the palace and gestured towards the guards Around into the gravel The security ate and theopen
The chauffeurs were at the wheels of their liroup of Ministers appeared behind the plate glass The usher opened the doors and thea few last-minute pleasantries for a restful weekend In order of precedence the saloons eased up to the base of the steps, the usher opened the rear door with a bow, the Ministers climbed into their respective cars and were driven away past the salutes of the Garde Républicaine and out into the Faubourg St Honoré
Within tenblack DS 19 Citroëns remained in the yard, and each slowly cruised to the base of the steps The first, flying the pennant of the President of the French Republic, was driven by Francis Marroux, a police driver fro and headquarters camp of the Gendarmerie Nationale at Satory His silent te of the ministerial drivers in the courtyard; his ice-cold nerves and ability to drive fast and safely kept him De Gaulle’s personal driver Apart from Marroux the car was eendarme from Satory
At 745 another group appeared behind the glass doors and again the ravel stiffened to attention Dressed in his habitual double-breasted charcoal-grey suit and dark tie Charles de Gaulle appeared behind the glass With old-world courtesy he ushered Madah the doors, then took her ar Citroën They parted at the car, and the President’s wife climbed into the rear seat of the front vehicle on the left-hand side The General got in beside her froht
Their son-in-law, Colonel Alain de Boissieu, then Chief of Staff of the armoured and cavalry units of the French Army, checked that both rear doors were safely shut, then took his place in the front beside Marroux