Under Two Flags by Ouida

First published: 1867

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Sentimental

Time of plot: Mid-nineteenth century

Locale: London and environs, continental Europe, and Algeria

Principal characters

• The Honorable Bertie Cecil, a young guardsman
• Berkeley, his younger brother
• Lord Rockingham, “The Seraph,”, Bertie’s friend
• Rake, Bertie’s servant
• Lady Guinevere, Bertie’s married lover in London
• Cigarette, a Frenchwoman patriot
• Colonel Chateauroy, Bertie’s enemy
• Princess Corona d’Amagüe, the Seraph’s sister

The Story:

Although a fashionable member of his London set and an admirable fellow in every other respect, the Honorable Bertie Cecil of the First Life Guards is uncommonly low on credit. No moneylender in London will accept his note after he has mortgaged his whole inheritance. In these circumstances, he stakes everything on winning a race with his six-year-old horse, Forest King. With good-humored generosity, he nevertheless lends his younger brother, Berkeley, fifty pounds. The following day, he rides Forest King to victory over a difficult course and receives the praise of his Lady Guinevere, a fashionable peeress.

His father, Lord Royallieu, lives in the same mortgaged splendor that he has taught his three sons to enjoy. Lord Royallieu loves two of his sons but not Bertie, who looks too much like his dead wife’s lover and, to the old viscount’s detestation, carries the dead lover’s name. The old man takes every occasion to sneer at Bertie’s extravagance, and one day, he reveals his suspicion that Bertie is really the son of Alan Bertie.

Bertie is otherwise lucky in the world. Sought after by half the women in London, he carries on flirtations with many. Lady Guinevere is one of his conquests. Rake, his valet, is devoted to him. Bertie salvaged Rake from a bad scrape in the army and has always treated him with friendly decency.

Bertie is disturbed by his financial affairs, so his head groom promises to drug Forest King for a fee. When it is learned that Forest King was drugged before a race in Baden, Bertie’s friends, far from blaming him, pretend to agree that the horse was merely ill; nevertheless, Bertie feels disgraced.

Bertie’s best friend, Lord Rockingham, is known to his comrades of the Guards as the Seraph. While Lord Rockingham is attempting to discover the mystery of Forest King’s condition, he receives a report that Bertie Cecil has forged the Seraph’s name to a note. Bertie cannot deny the charge, for the note was presented at a time when he was dining with Lady Guinevere. Wishing to protect her name from scandal, Bertie allows himself to be accused. He knows that his brother forged the note, and he hopes to protect Berkeley’s name as well; consequently, Bertie leaves Europe suddenly to escape arrest.

Accompanied by Rake, Bertie makes his escape on Forest King. Rake discovered that the groom had drugged Forest King, and he has pummeled him for it. He and his master ride to a place of safety, and then Bertie orders Rake to take Forest King to Lord Rockingham. He waits in hiding for a time, hoping Lady Guinevere will save him by telling of his whereabouts when the forged note was presented. She chooses to keep silent, however, holding her reputation at greater worth than Bertie’s name.

At last, by a mere throw of the dice in Algeria, Bertie decides to cast his lot with the French Foreign Legion instead of with the Arab cause. The faithful Rake accompanies him. Back in England, it is believed that Bertie has died in a French train wreck. Rockingham has Forest King; the old viscount burns Bertie’s picture.

Using the name Louis Victor, Bertie makes his mark with his new companions in the Foreign Legion. They marvel at his skill with horses, at his bravery, and at his brilliance in conversation. Bertie is a twelve-year veteran Legionnaire when he receives, six months late, the news that his father has died at the age of ninety. His older brother has inherited the viscount’s title.

Cigarette, a woman of independent spirit and a dancer and singer for the troops, comes to understand and admire Bertie. She warns him against Colonel Chateauroy, who hates Bertie because of his gallant record and popularity, and asks him never to disobey any of the colonel’s unreasonable commands. Partly because he pities her, Bertie promises. Shortly afterward, Cigarette saves Bertie’s life when he is in danger from some drunken Arabs. She adores him, but he is indifferent toward her.

Bertie spends his spare time carving chessmen of ivory and walnut. Through this occupation, he meets the lovely Princess Corona d’Amagüe, a woman who had been unhappily married to a man injured while saving her brother’s life. Her husband died soon after, and the princess has felt responsible for his death. Bertie soon falls in love with Princess Corona.

Colonel Chateauroy makes it clear that he will never permit Bertie to be promoted above the rank of corporal. Bertie learns that Rake has purposely been getting himself into trouble to prevent his own promotion, for he does not wish to outrank his master. One day, Bertie reads in an old English journal that his older brother has died suddenly and that Berkeley has become Viscount Royallieu.

The regiment is ordered out. In the gory fighting that follows, Cigarette saves the day when she arrives at the head of a fresh squadron of cavalry. She finds Bertie on the battlefield; he has been badly wounded. In the tent to which she has him carried, Bertie begins to talk incoherently while Cigarette sits beside him. Everything she hears him say makes her more jealous of the princess. She also learns that Bertie is English. No French person ever hated the English more than she. At her request, Bertie is not told who brought him back from the battlefield and cared for him during his sick ravings.

Three weeks later, Bertie is startled when the Seraph comes as an English tourist to visit the Legion camp. Bertie does not wish to encounter his former friend, so he asks for and receives permission to carry dispatches through hostile territory to another Legion post. With the faithful Rake, he rides away on a mission that means almost certain death. Rake is killed in an Arab ambush, but Bertie delivers his dispatches safely. On his return trip, he stops at an inn and there sees his brother Berkeley, who is one of a party of tourists traveling with Princess Corona. Bertie gives no sign of recognition; he merely spurs his horse and continues on.

Berkeley follows Bertie, however, and catches up with his older brother. Berkeley reveals his fear that Bertie might claim the title. Indifferent to all except Berkeley’s selfishness, Bertie asks his brother to leave Algeria at once. Shortly afterward, Bertie discovers that Princess Corona is really the younger sister of the Seraph. She also becomes aware of Bertie’s real name and insists that he make himself known to her brother. She begs him to claim his title, but he refuses.

Princess Corona asks Cigarette to tell Bertie that the Seraph is looking for his former friend. In another interview with Bertie, the princess asks him to tell his story and let the world be the judge. As Bertie leaves her tent, he is intercepted by Colonel Chateauroy, who insults the princess. In a sudden rage, Bertie strikes his superior officer. He is subsequently arrested and sentenced to death.

When Cigarette hears about Bertie’s fate, she forces Berkeley, whom she has met accidentally, to acknowledge that Bertie is in reality his brother, an exile for Berkeley’s crime and the true heir to the estate of Royallieu. She carries her story to a marshal of France and demands that Bertie’s honor be saved although his life is already to be forfeited. With a stay of execution signed by the marshal, Cigarette rides at full speed to reach the Legion camp before the hour set for Bertie’s execution.

The Seraph, not Cigarette, reaches Bertie first. Despite the Seraph’s entreaties, Colonel Chateauroy refuses to delay the time of execution. Cigarette reaches the spot just as the firing squad fires its volley, and with her own body, she takes the bullets intended for Bertie. She dies, but the marshal’s order is safely delivered. A child of the army and a soldier of France, Cigarette has given her life to save a comrade. It is a sacrifice that Bertie and Princess Corona, happily reunited, are never to forget. In the end, Bertie is even reunited with Forest King.

Bibliography

Beerbohm, Max. “Ouida.” In More. London: John Lane, 1899. Still one of the finest essays available on Ouida. Praises her energy, her love of beauty in nature and art, the fascination of her discursive plots, her characters, and her scenic range and store of information.

Benchérif, Osman. The Image of Algeria in Anglo-American Writings, 1785-1962. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1997. Examines how American and British writers in the period discussed experienced and represented Algeria, and how Algerians responded to these literary images. Includes a chapter discussing perception and depiction of the French conquest of Algeria in Under Two Flags.

Bigland, Eileen. Ouida: The Passionate Victorian. London: Jarrolds, 1950. Praises Under Two Flags as Ouida’s deservedly most famous romantic extravaganza, noting in particular her description of desert action. Argues that Cigarette is hauntingly vital and lovable, especially when compared with Guinevere and Corona.

Gilbert, Pamela K. “Ouida: Romantic Exchange.” In Disease, Desire, and the Body in Victorian Women’s Popular Novels. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Chapter focusing on Ouida is part of a larger work that analyzes her works, including Under Two Flags, as well as the works of other Victorian popular novelists. Argues that these works were regarded as a feminine disease infecting the healthy, male, imperial culture.

Porch, Douglas. The French Foreign Legion: A Complete History of the Legendary Fighting Force. New York: HarperCollins, 1991. Discusses the maneuvers of the Emir Abd el-Kader, Arab resistance leader, against the French near Oran. In criticizing novels and films that have been produced about the Foreign Legion, approvingly quotes one commentator who calls Under Two Flags “giddy [and] romantic.”

Schaffer, Talia. “The Dandy in the House: Ouida and the Origin of the Aesthetic Novel.” In The Forgotten Female Aesthetes: Literary Culture in Late-Victorian England. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2000. Chapter on Ouida is part of an examination of the work of several nineteenth century women writers, “the female aesthetes.” Describes how Oscar Wilde and other male writers adapted these women’s plots, ideas, and literary styles.

Schroeder, Natalie, and Shari Hodges Holt. Ouida the Phenomenon: Evolving Social, Political, and Gender Concerns in Her Fiction. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2008. Analyzes Ouida’s life and work as a complex reflection of Victorian cultural paradoxes, including debates about the New Woman and aestheticism.

Stirling, Monica. The Fine and the Wicked: The Life and Times of Ouida. New York: Coward-McCann, 1958. Biography includes high praise for Under Two Flags. Relates several elements in the work to the events of Ouida’s personal life and to contemporary society, art, and literature.