diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old/prott10.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/prott10.txt | 7532 |
1 files changed, 7532 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/old/prott10.txt b/old/prott10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b8e1773 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/prott10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7532 @@ +*The Project Gutenberg Etext of Prince Otto, by R. L. Stevenson* + +#9 in our Robert Louis Stevenson series + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. We need your donations. + + +Prince Otto + +by Robert Louis Stevenson + +December, 1995 [Etext #372] + + +*The Project Gutenberg Etext of Prince Otto, by R. L. Stevenson* +*****This file should be named prott10.txt or prott10.zip****** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, prott11.txt. +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, prott10a.txt. + + +We are now trying to release all our books one month in advance +of the official release dates, for time for better editing. + +Please note: neither this list nor its contents are final till +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. To be sure you have an +up to date first edition [xxxxx10x.xxx] please check file sizes +in the first week of the next month. Since our ftp program has +a bug in it that scrambles the date [tried to fix and failed] a +look at the file size will have to do, but we will try to see a +new copy has at least one byte more or less. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +fifty hours is one conservative estimate for how long it we take +to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. This +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If our value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $4 +million dollars per hour this year as we release some eight text +files per month: thus upping our productivity from $2 million. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext +Files by the December 31, 2001. [10,000 x 100,000,000=Trillion] +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is 10% of the expected number of computer users by the end +of the year 2001. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +All donations should be made to "Project Gutenberg/IBC", and are +tax deductible to the extent allowable by law ("IBC" is Illinois +Benedictine College). (Subscriptions to our paper newsletter go +to IBC, too) + +For these and other matters, please mail to: + +Project Gutenberg +P. O. Box 2782 +Champaign, IL 61825 + +When all other email fails try our Michael S. Hart, Executive +Director: +hart@vmd.cso.uiuc.edu (internet) hart@uiucvmd (bitnet) + +We would prefer to send you this information by email +(Internet, Bitnet, Compuserve, ATTMAIL or MCImail). + +****** +If you have an FTP program (or emulator), please +FTP directly to the Project Gutenberg archives: +[Mac users, do NOT point and click. . .type] + +ftp uiarchive.cso.uiuc.edu +login: anonymous +password: your@login +cd etext/etext90 through /etext96 +or cd etext/articles [get suggest gut for more information] +dir [to see files] +get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files] +GET INDEX?00.GUT +for a list of books +and +GET NEW GUT for general information +and +MGET GUT* for newsletters. + +**Information prepared by the Project Gutenberg legal advisor** +(Three Pages) + + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you can distribute copies of this etext if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this etext on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG- +tm etexts, is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor +Michael S. Hart through the Project Gutenberg Association at +Illinois Benedictine College (the "Project"). Among other +things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext +under the Project's "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] the Project (and any other party you may receive this +etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold the Project, its directors, +officers, members and agents harmless from all liability, cost +and expense, including legal fees, that arise directly or +indirectly from any of the following that you do or cause: +[1] distribution of this etext, [2] alteration, modification, +or addition to the etext, or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + etext or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word pro- + cessing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the etext (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the + net profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Association / Illinois + Benedictine College" within the 60 days following each + date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) + your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, +scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty +free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution +you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg +Association / Illinois Benedictine College". + +*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + + + +Prince Otto by Robert Louis Stevenson, 1905 edition. Scanned and +proofed by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + + + +PRINCE OTTO - A ROMANCE + + + + +TO NELLY VAN DE GRIFT + + + +(MRS. ADULFO SANCHEZ, OF MONTEREY) + +AT last, after so many years, I have the pleasure of re-introducing +you to 'Prince Otto,' whom you will remember a very little fellow, +no bigger in fact than a few sheets of memoranda written for me by +your kind hand. The sight of his name will carry you back to an old +wooden house embowered in creepers; a house that was far gone in the +respectable stages of antiquity and seemed indissoluble from the +green garden in which it stood, and that yet was a sea-traveller in +its younger days, and had come round the Horn piecemeal in the belly +of a ship, and might have heard the seamen stamping and shouting and +the note of the boatswain's whistle. It will recall to you the +nondescript inhabitants now so widely scattered:- the two horses, +the dog, and the four cats, some of them still looking in your face +as you read these lines; - the poor lady, so unfortunately married +to an author; - the China boy, by this time, perhaps, baiting his +line by the banks of a river in the Flowery Land; - and in +particular the Scot who was then sick apparently unto death, and +whom you did so much to cheer and keep in good behaviour. + +You may remember that he was full of ambitions and designs: so soon +as he had his health again completely, you may remember the fortune +he was to earn, the journeys he was to go upon, the delights he was +to enjoy and confer, and (among other matters) the masterpiece he +was to make of 'Prince Otto'! + +Well, we will not give in that we are finally beaten. We read +together in those days the story of Braddock, and how, as he was +carried dying from the scene of his defeat, he promised himself to +do better another time: a story that will always touch a brave +heart, and a dying speech worthy of a more fortunate commander. I +try to be of Braddock's mind. I still mean to get my health again; +I still purpose, by hook or crook, this book or the next, to launch +a masterpiece; and I still intend - somehow, some time or other - to +see your face and to hold your hand. + +Meanwhile, this little paper traveller goes forth instead, crosses +the great seas and the long plains and the dark mountains, and comes +at last to your door in Monterey, charged with tender greetings. +Pray you, take him in. He comes from a house where (even as in your +own) there are gathered together some of the waifs of our company at +Oakland: a house - for all its outlandish Gaelic name and distant +station - where you are well-beloved. + + +R. L. S. +Skerryvore, +Bournemouth. + + + + + +BOOK I - PRINCE ERRANT + + + + + +CHAPTER I - IN WHICH THE PRINCE DEPARTS ON AN ADVENTURE + + +You shall seek in vain upon the map of Europe for the bygone state +of Grunewald. An independent principality, an infinitesimal member +of the German Empire, she played, for several centuries, her part in +the discord of Europe; and, at last, in the ripeness of time and at +the spiriting of several bald diplomatists, vanished like a morning +ghost. Less fortunate than Poland, she left not a regret behind +her; and the very memory of her boundaries has faded. + +It was a patch of hilly country covered with thick wood. Many +streams took their beginning in the glens of Grunewald, turning +mills for the inhabitants. There was one town, Mittwalden, and many +brown, wooden hamlets, climbing roof above roof, along the steep +bottom of dells, and communicating by covered bridges over the +larger of the torrents. The hum of watermills, the splash of +running water, the clean odour of pine sawdust, the sound and smell +of the pleasant wind among the innumerable army of the mountain +pines, the dropping fire of huntsmen, the dull stroke of the wood- +axe, intolerable roads, fresh trout for supper in the clean bare +chamber of an inn, and the song of birds and the music of the +village-bells - these were the recollections of the Grunewald +tourist. + +North and east the foothills of Grunewald sank with varying profile +into a vast plain. On these sides many small states bordered with +the principality, Gerolstein, an extinct grand duchy, among the +number. On the south it marched with the comparatively powerful +kingdom of Seaboard Bohemia, celebrated for its flowers and mountain +bears, and inhabited by a people of singular simplicity and +tenderness of heart. Several intermarriages had, in the course of +centuries, united the crowned families of Grunewald and Maritime +Bohemia; and the last Prince of Grunewald, whose history I purpose +to relate, drew his descent through Perdita, the only daughter of +King Florizel the First of Bohemia. That these intermarriages had +in some degree mitigated the rough, manly stock of the first +Grunewalds, was an opinion widely held within the borders of the +principality. The charcoal burner, the mountain sawyer, the wielder +of the broad axe among the congregated pines of Grunewald, proud of +their hard hands, proud of their shrewd ignorance and almost savage +lore, looked with an unfeigned contempt on the soft character and +manners of the sovereign race. + +The precise year of grace in which this tale begins shall be left to +the conjecture of the reader. But for the season of the year +(which, in such a story, is the more important of the two) it was +already so far forward in the spring, that when mountain people +heard horns echoing all day about the north-west corner of the +principality, they told themselves that Prince Otto and his hunt +were up and out for the last time till the return of autumn. + +At this point the borders of Grunewald descend somewhat steeply, +here and there breaking into crags; and this shaggy and trackless +country stands in a bold contrast to the cultivated plain below. It +was traversed at that period by two roads alone; one, the imperial +highway, bound to Brandenau in Gerolstein, descended the slope +obliquely and by the easiest gradients. The other ran like a fillet +across the very forehead of the hills, dipping into savage gorges, +and wetted by the spray of tiny waterfalls. Once it passed beside a +certain tower or castle, built sheer upon the margin of a formidable +cliff, and commanding a vast prospect of the skirts of Grunewald and +the busy plains of Gerolstein. The Felsenburg (so this tower was +called) served now as a prison, now as a hunting-seat; and for all +it stood so lonesome to the naked eye, with the aid of a good glass +the burghers of Brandenau could count its windows from the lime-tree +terrace where they walked at night. + +In the wedge of forest hillside enclosed between the roads, the +horns continued all day long to scatter tumult; and at length, as +the sun began to draw near to the horizon of the plain, a rousing +triumph announced the slaughter of the quarry. The first and second +huntsman had drawn somewhat aside, and from the summit of a knoll +gazed down before them on the drooping shoulders of the hill and +across the expanse of plain. They covered their eyes, for the sun +was in their faces. The glory of its going down was somewhat pale. +Through the confused tracery of many thousands of naked poplars, the +smoke of so many houses, and the evening steam ascending from the +fields, the sails of a windmill on a gentle eminence moved very +conspicuously, like a donkey's ears. And hard by, like an open +gash, the imperial high-road ran straight sun-ward, an artery of +travel. + +There is one of nature's spiritual ditties, that has not yet been +set to words or human music: 'The Invitation to the Road'; an air +continually sounding in the ears of gipsies, and to whose +inspiration our nomadic fathers journeyed all their days. The hour, +the season, and the scene, all were in delicate accordance. The air +was full of birds of passage, steering westward and northward over +Grunewald, an army of specks to the up-looking eye. And below, the +great practicable road was bound for the same quarter. + +But to the two horsemen on the knoll this spiritual ditty was +unheard. They were, indeed, in some concern of mind, scanning every +fold of the subjacent forest, and betraying both anger and dismay in +their impatient gestures. + +'I do not see him, Kuno,' said the first huntsman, 'nowhere - not a +trace, not a hair of the mare's tail! No, sir, he's off; broke +cover and got away. Why, for twopence I would hunt him with the +dogs!' + +'Mayhap, he's gone home,' said Kuno, but without conviction. + +'Home!' sneered the other. 'I give him twelve days to get home. +No, it's begun again; it's as it was three years ago, before he +married; a disgrace! Hereditary prince, hereditary fool! There +goes the government over the borders on a grey mare. What's that? +No, nothing - no, I tell you, on my word, I set more store by a good +gelding or an English dog. That for your Otto!' + +'He's not my Otto,' growled Kuno. + +'Then I don't know whose he is,' was the retort. + +'You would put your hand in the fire for him to-morrow,' said Kuno, +facing round. + +'Me!' cried the huntsman. 'I would see him hanged! I'm a Grunewald +patriot - enrolled, and have my medal, too; and I would help a +prince! I'm for liberty and Gondremark.' + +'Well, it's all one,' said Kuno. 'If anybody said what you said, +you would have his blood, and you know it.' + +'You have him on the brain,' retorted his companion. 'There he +goes!' he cried, the next moment. + +And sure enough, about a mile down the mountain, a rider on a white +horse was seen to flit rapidly across a heathy open and vanish among +the trees on the farther side. + +'In ten minutes he'll be over the border into Gerolstein,' said +Kuno. 'It's past cure.' + +'Well, if he founders that mare, I'll never forgive him,' added the +other, gathering his reins. + +And as they turned down from the knoll to rejoin their comrades, the +sun dipped and disappeared, and the woods fell instantly into the +gravity and greyness of the early night. + + + + +CHAPTER II - IN WHICH THE PRINCE PLAYS HAROUN-AL-RASCHID + + +THE night fell upon the Prince while he was threading green tracks +in the lower valleys of the wood; and though the stars came out +overhead and displayed the interminable order of the pine-tree +pyramids, regular and dark like cypresses, their light was of small +service to a traveller in such lonely paths, and from thenceforth he +rode at random. The austere face of nature, the uncertain issue of +his course, the open sky and the free air, delighted him like wine; +and the hoarse chafing of a river on his left sounded in his ears +agreeably. + +It was past eight at night before his toil was rewarded and he +issued at last out of the forest on the firm white high-road. It +lay downhill before him, with a sweeping eastward trend, faintly +bright between the thickets; and Otto paused and gazed upon it. So +it ran, league after league, still joining others, to the farthest +ends of Europe, there skirting the sea-surge, here gleaming in the +lights of cities; and the innumerable army of tramps and travellers +moved upon it in all lands as by a common impulse, and were now in +all places drawing near to the inn door and the night's rest. The +pictures swarmed and vanished in his brain; a surge of temptation, a +beat of all his blood, went over him, to set spur to the mare and to +go on into the unknown for ever. And then it passed away; hunger +and fatigue, and that habit of middling actions which we call common +sense, resumed their empire; and in that changed mood his eye +lighted upon two bright windows on his left hand, between the road +and river. + +He turned off by a by-road, and in a few minutes he was knocking +with his whip on the door of a large farmhouse, and a chorus of dogs +from the farmyard were making angry answer. A very tall, old, +white-headed man came, shading a candle, at the summons. He had +been of great strength in his time, and of a handsome countenance; +but now he was fallen away, his teeth were quite gone, and his voice +when he spoke was broken and falsetto. + +'You will pardon me,' said Otto. 'I am a traveller and have +entirely lost my way.' + +'Sir,' said the old man, in a very stately, shaky manner, 'you are +at the River Farm, and I am Killian Gottesheim, at your disposal. +We are here, sir, at about an equal distance from Mittwalden in +Grunewald and Brandenau in Gerolstein: six leagues to either, and +the road excellent; but there is not a wine bush, not a carter's +alehouse, anywhere between. You will have to accept my hospitality +for the night; rough hospitality, to which I make you freely +welcome; for, sir,' he added with a bow, 'it is God who sends the +guest.' + +'Amen. And I most heartily thank you,' replied Otto, bowing in his +turn. + +'Fritz,' said the old man, turning towards the interior, 'lead round +this gentleman's horse; and you, sir, condescend to enter.' + +Otto entered a chamber occupying the greater part of the ground- +floor of the building. It had probably once been divided; for the +farther end was raised by a long step above the nearer, and the +blazing fire and the white supper-table seemed to stand upon a dais. +All around were dark, brass-mounted cabinets and cupboards; dark +shelves carrying ancient country crockery; guns and antlers and +broadside ballads on the wall; a tall old clock with roses on the +dial; and down in one corner the comfortable promise of a wine +barrel. It was homely, elegant, and quaint. + +A powerful youth hurried out to attend on the grey mare; and when +Mr. Killian Gottesheim had presented him to his daughter Ottilia, +Otto followed to the stable as became, not perhaps the Prince, but +the good horseman. When he returned, a smoking omelette and some +slices of home-cured ham were waiting him; these were followed by a +ragout and a cheese; and it was not until his guest had entirely +satisfied his hunger, and the whole party drew about the fire over +the wine jug, that Killian Gottesheim's elaborate courtesy permitted +him to address a question to the Prince. + +'You have perhaps ridden far, sir?' he inquired. + +'I have, as you say, ridden far,' replied Otto; 'and, as you have +seen, I was prepared to do justice to your daughters cookery.' + +'Possibly, sir, from the direction of Brandenau?' continued Killian. + +'Precisely: and I should have slept to-night, had I not wandered, in +Mittwalden,' answered the Prince, weaving in a patch of truth, +according to the habit of all liars. + +'Business leads you to Mittwalden?' was the next question. + +'Mere curiosity,' said Otto. 'I have never yet visited the +principality of Grunewald.' + +'A pleasant state, sir,' piped the old man, nodding, 'a very +pleasant state, and a fine race, both pines and people. We reckon +ourselves part Grunewalders here, lying so near the borders; and the +river there is all good Grunewald water, every drop of it. Yes, +sir, a fine state. A man of Grunewald now will swing me an axe over +his head that many a man of Gerolstein could hardly lift; and the +pines, why, deary me, there must be more pines in that little state, +sir, than people in this whole big world. 'Tis twenty years now +since I crossed the marshes, for we grow home-keepers in old age; +but I mind it as if it was yesterday. Up and down, the road keeps +right on from here to Mittwalden; and nothing all the way but the +good green pine-trees, big and little, and water-power! water-power +at every step, sir. We once sold a bit of forest, up there beside +the high-road; and the sight of minted money that we got for it has +set me ciphering ever since what all the pines in Grunewald would +amount to.' + +'I suppose you see nothing of the Prince?' inquired Otto. + +'No,' said the young man, speaking for the first time, 'nor want +to.' + +'Why so? is he so much disliked?' asked Otto. + +'Not what you might call disliked,' replied the old gentleman, 'but +despised, sir.' + +'Indeed,' said the Prince, somewhat faintly. + +'Yes, sir, despised,' nodded Killian, filling a long pipe, 'and, to +my way of thinking, justly despised. Here is a man with great +opportunities, and what does he do with them? He hunts, and he +dresses very prettily - which is a thing to be ashamed of in a man - +and he acts plays; and if he does aught else, the news of it has not +come here.' + +'Yet these are all innocent,' said Otto. 'What would you have him +do - make war?' + +'No, sir,' replied the old man. 'But here it is; I have been fifty +years upon this River Farm, and wrought in it, day in, day out; I +have ploughed and sowed and reaped, and risen early, and waked late; +and this is the upshot: that all these years it has supported me and +my family; and been the best friend that ever I had, set aside my +wife; and now, when my time comes, I leave it a better farm than +when I found it. So it is, if a man works hearty in the order of +nature, he gets bread and he receives comfort, and whatever he +touches breeds. And it humbly appears to me, if that Prince was to +labour on his throne, as I have laboured and wrought in my farm, he +would find both an increase and a blessing.' + +'I believe with you, sir,' Otto said; 'and yet the parallel is +inexact. For the farmer's life is natural and simple; but the +prince's is both artificial and complicated. It is easy to do right +in the one, and exceedingly difficult not to do wrong in the other. +If your crop is blighted, you can take off your bonnet and say, +"God's will be done"; but if the prince meets with a reverse, he may +have to blame himself for the attempt. And perhaps, if all the +kings in Europe were to confine themselves to innocent amusement, +the subjects would be the better off.' + +'Ay,' said the young man Fritz, 'you are in the right of it there. +That was a true word spoken. And I see you are like me, a good +patriot and an enemy to princes.' + +Otto was somewhat abashed at this deduction, and he made haste to +change his ground. 'But,' said he, 'you surprise me by what you say +of this Prince Otto. I have heard him, I must own, more favourably +painted. I was told he was, in his heart, a good fellow, and the +enemy of no one but himself.' + +'And so he is, sir,' said the girl, 'a very handsome, pleasant +prince; and we know some who would shed their blood for him.' + +'O! Kuno!' said Fritz. 'An ignoramus!' + +'Ay, Kuno, to be sure,' quavered the old farmer. 'Well, since this +gentleman is a stranger to these parts, and curious about the +Prince, I do believe that story might divert him. This Kuno, you +must know, sir, is one of the hunt servants, and a most ignorant, +intemperate man: a right Grunewalder, as we say in Gerolstein. We +know him well, in this house; for he has come as far as here after +his stray dogs; and I make all welcome, sir, without account of +state or nation. And, indeed, between Gerolstein and Grunewald the +peace has held so long that the roads stand open like my door; and a +man will make no more of the frontier than the very birds +themselves.' + +'Ay,' said Otto, 'it has been a long peace - a peace of centuries.' + +'Centuries, as you say,' returned Killian; 'the more the pity that +it should not be for ever. Well, sir, this Kuno was one day in +fault, and Otto, who has a quick temper, up with his whip and +thrashed him, they do say, soundly. Kuno took it as best he could, +but at last he broke out, and dared the Prince to throw his whip +away and wrestle like a man; for we are all great at wrestling in +these parts, and it's so that we generally settle our disputes. +Well, sir, the Prince did so; and, being a weakly creature, found +the tables turned; for the man whom he had just been thrashing like +a negro slave, lifted him with a back grip and threw him heels +overhead.' + +'He broke his bridle-arm,' cried Fritz - 'and some say his nose. +Serve him right, say I! Man to man, which is the better at that?' + +'And then?' asked Otto. + +'O, then Kuno carried him home; and they were the best of friends +from that day forth. I don't say it's a discreditable story, you +observe,' continued Mr. Gottesheim; 'but it's droll, and that's the +fact. A man should think before he strikes; for, as my nephew says, +man to man was the old valuation.' + +'Now, if you were to ask me,' said Otto, 'I should perhaps surprise +you. I think it was the Prince that conquered.' + +'And, sir, you would be right,' replied Killian seriously. 'In the +eyes of God, I do not question but you would be right; but men, sir, +look at these things differently, and they laugh.' + +'They made a song of it,' observed Fritz. 'How does it go? Ta-tum- +ta-ra . . .' + +'Well,' interrupted Otto, who had no great anxiety to hear the song, +'the Prince is young; he may yet mend.' + +'Not so young, by your leave,' cried Fritz. 'A man of forty.' + +'Thirty-six,' corrected Mr. Gottesheim. + +'O,' cried Ottilia, in obvious disillusion, 'a man of middle age! +And they said he was so handsome when he was young!' + +'And bald, too,' added Fritz. + +Otto passed his hand among his locks. At that moment he was far +from happy, and even the tedious evenings at Mittwalden Palace began +to smile upon him by comparison. + +'O, six-and-thirty!' he protested. 'A man is not yet old at six- +and-thirty. I am that age myself.' + +'I should have taken you for more, sir,' piped the old farmer. 'But +if that be so, you are of an age with Master Ottekin, as people call +him; and, I would wager a crown, have done more service in your +time. Though it seems young by comparison with men of a great age +like me, yet it's some way through life for all that; and the mere +fools and fiddlers are beginning to grow weary and to look old. +Yes, sir, by six-and-thirty, if a man be a follower of God's laws, +he should have made himself a home and a good name to live by; he +should have got a wife and a blessing on his marriage; and his +works, as the Word says, should begin to follow him.' + +'Ah, well, the Prince is married,' cried Fritz, with a coarse burst +of laughter. + +'That seems to entertain you, sir,' said Otto. + +'Ay,' said the young boor. 'Did you not know that? I thought all +Europe knew it!' And he added a pantomime of a nature to explain +his accusation to the dullest. + +'Ah, sir,' said Mr. Gottesheim, 'it is very plain that you are not +from hereabouts! But the truth is, that the whole princely family +and Court are rips and rascals, not one to mend another. They live, +sir, in idleness and - what most commonly follows it - corruption. +The Princess has a lover - a Baron, as he calls himself, from East +Prussia; and the Prince is so little of a man, sir, that he holds +the candle. Nor is that the worst of it, for this foreigner and his +paramour are suffered to transact the State affairs, while the +Prince takes the salary and leaves all things to go to wrack. There +will follow upon this some manifest judgment which, though I am old, +I may survive to see.' + +'Good man, you are in the wrong about Gondremark,' said Fritz, +showing a greatly increased animation; 'but for all the rest, you +speak the God's truth like a good patriot. As for the Prince, if he +would take and strangle his wife, I would forgive him yet.' + +'Nay, Fritz,' said the old man, 'that would be to add iniquity to +evil. For you perceive, sir,' he continued, once more addressing +himself to the unfortunate Prince, 'this Otto has himself to thank +for these disorders. He has his young wife and his principality, +and he has sworn to cherish both.' + +'Sworn at the altar!' echoed Fritz. 'But put your faith in +princes!' + +'Well, sir, he leaves them both to an adventurer from East Prussia,' +pursued the farmer: 'leaves the girl to be seduced and to go on from +bad to worse, till her name's become a tap-room by-word, and she not +yet twenty; leaves the country to be overtaxed, and bullied with +armaments, and jockied into war - ' + +'War!' cried Otto. + +'So they say, sir; those that watch their ongoings, say to war,' +asseverated Killian. 'Well, sir, that is very sad; it is a sad +thing for this poor, wicked girl to go down to hell with people's +curses; it's a sad thing for a tight little happy country to be +misconducted; but whoever may complain, I humbly conceive, sir, that +this Otto cannot. What he has worked for, that he has got; and may +God have pity on his soul, for a great and a silly sinner's!' + +'He has broke his oath; then he is a perjurer. He takes the money +and leaves the work; why, then plainly he's a thief. A cuckold he +was before, and a fool by birth. Better me that!' cried Fritz, and +snapped his fingers. + +'And now, sir, you will see a little,' continued the farmer, 'why we +think so poorly of this Prince Otto. There's such a thing as a man +being pious and honest in the private way; and there is such a +thing, sir, as a public virtue; but when a man has neither, the Lord +lighten him! Even this Gondremark, that Fritz here thinks so much +of - ' + +'Ay,' interrupted Fritz, 'Gondremark's the man for me. I would we +had his like in Gerolstein.' + +'He is a bad man,' said the old farmer, shaking his head; 'and there +was never good begun by the breach of God's commandments. But so +far I will go with you; he is a man that works for what he has.' + +'I tell you he's the hope of Grunewald,' cried Fritz. 'He doesn't +suit some of your high-and-dry, old, ancient ideas; but he's a +downright modern man - a man of the new lights and the progress of +the age. He does some things wrong; so they all do; but he has the +people's interests next his heart; and you mark me - you, sir, who +are a Liberal, and the enemy of all their governments, you please to +mark my words - the day will come in Grunewald, when they take out +that yellow-headed skulk of a Prince and that dough-faced Messalina +of a Princess, march 'em back foremost over the borders, and +proclaim the Baron Gondremark first President. I've heard them say +it in a speech. I was at a meeting once at Brandenau, and the +Mittwalden delegates spoke up for fifteen thousand. Fifteen +thousand, all brigaded, and each man with a medal round his neck to +rally by. That's all Gondremark.' + +'Ay, sir, you see what it leads to; wild talk to-day, and wilder +doings to-morrow,' said the old man. 'For there is one thing +certain: that this Gondremark has one foot in the Court backstairs, +and the other in the Masons' lodges. He gives himself out, sir, for +what nowadays they call a patriot: a man from East Prussia!' + +'Give himself out!' cried Fritz. 'He is! He is to lay by his title +as soon as the Republic is declared; I heard it in a speech.' + +'Lay by Baron to take up President?' returned Killian. 'King Log, +King Stork. But you'll live longer than I, and you will see the +fruits of it.' + +'Father,' whispered Ottilia, pulling at the speaker's coat, 'surely +the gentleman is ill.' + +'I beg your pardon,' cried the farmer, rewaking to hospitable +thoughts; 'can I offer you anything?' + +'I thank you. I am very weary,' answered Otto. 'I have presumed +upon my strength. If you would show me to a bed, I should be +grateful.' + +'Ottilia, a candle!' said the old man. 'Indeed, sir, you look +paley. A little cordial water? No? Then follow me, I beseech you, +and I will bring you to the stranger's bed. You are not the first +by many who has slept well below my roof,' continued the old +gentleman, mounting the stairs before his guest; 'for good food, +honest wine, a grateful conscience, and a little pleasant chat +before a man retires, are worth all the possets and apothecary's +drugs. See, sir,' and here he opened a door and ushered Otto into a +little white-washed sleeping-room, 'here you are in port. It is +small, but it is airy, and the sheets are clean and kept in +lavender. The window, too, looks out above the river, and there's +no music like a little river's. It plays the same tune (and that's +the favourite) over and over again, and yet does not weary of it +like men fiddlers. It takes the mind out of doors: and though we +should be grateful for good houses, there is, after all, no house +like God's out-of-doors. And lastly, sir, it quiets a man down like +saying his prayers. So here, sir, I take my kind leave of you until +to-morrow; and it is my prayerful wish that you may slumber like a +prince.' + +And the old man, with the twentieth courteous inclination, left his +guest alone. + + + + +CHAPTER III - IN WHICH THE PRINCE COMFORTS AGE AND BEAUTY AND +DELIVERS A LECTURE ON DISCRETION IN LOVE + + +THE Prince was early abroad: in the time of the first chorus of +birds, of the pure and quiet air, of the slanting sunlight and the +mile-long shadows. To one who had passed a miserable night, the +freshness of that hour was tonic and reviving; to steal a march upon +his slumbering fellows, to be the Adam of the coming day, composed +and fortified his spirits; and the Prince, breathing deep and +pausing as he went, walked in the wet fields beside his shadow, and +was glad. + +A trellised path led down into the valley of the brook, and he +turned to follow it. The stream was a break-neck, boiling Highland +river. Hard by the farm, it leaped a little precipice in a thick +grey-mare's tail of twisted filaments, and then lay and worked and +bubbled in a lynn. Into the middle of this quaking pool a rock +protruded, shelving to a cape; and thither Otto scrambled and sat +down to ponder. + +Soon the sun struck through the screen of branches and thin early +leaves that made a hanging bower above the fall; and the golden +lights and flitting shadows fell upon and marbled the surface of +that so seething pot; and rays plunged deep among the turning +waters; and a spark, as bright as a diamond, lit upon the swaying +eddy. It began to grow warm where Otto lingered, warm and heady; +the lights swam, weaving their maze across the shaken pool; on the +impending rock, reflections danced like butterflies; and the air was +fanned by the waterfall as by a swinging curtain. + +Otto, who was weary with tossing and beset with horrid phantoms of +remorse and jealousy, instantly fell dead in love with that sun- +chequered, echoing corner. Holding his feet, he stared out of a +drowsy trance, wondering, admiring, musing, losing his way among +uncertain thoughts. There is nothing that so apes the external +bearing of free will as that unconscious bustle, obscurely following +liquid laws, with which a river contends among obstructions. It +seems the very play of man and destiny, and as Otto pored on these +recurrent changes, he grew, by equal steps, the sleepier and the +more profound. Eddy and Prince were alike jostled in their purpose, +alike anchored by intangible influences in one corner of the world. +Eddy and Prince were alike useless, starkly useless, in the +cosmology of men. Eddy and Prince - Prince and Eddy. + +It is probable he had been some while asleep when a voice recalled +him from oblivion. 'Sir,' it was saying; and looking round, he saw +Mr. Killian's daughter, terrified by her boldness and making bashful +signals from the shore. She was a plain, honest lass, healthy and +happy and good, and with that sort of beauty that comes of happiness +and health. But her confusion lent her for the moment an additional +charm. + +'Good-morning,' said Otto, rising and moving towards her. 'I arose +early and was in a dream.' + +'O, sir!' she cried, 'I wish to beg of you to spare my father; for I +assure your Highness, if he had known who you was, he would have +bitten his tongue out sooner. And Fritz, too - how he went on! But +I had a notion; and this morning I went straight down into the +stable, and there was your Highness's crown upon the stirrup-irons! +But, O, sir, I made certain you would spare them; for they were as +innocent as lambs.' + +'My dear,' said Otto, both amused and gratified, 'you do not +understand. It is I who am in the wrong; for I had no business to +conceal my name and lead on these gentleman to speak of me. And it +is I who have to beg of you that you will keep my secret and not +betray the discourtesy of which I was guilty. As for any fear of +me, your friends are safe in Gerolstein; and even in my own +territory, you must be well aware I have no power.' + +' O, sir,' she said, curtsying, 'I would not say that: the huntsmen +would all die for you.' + +'Happy Prince!' said Otto. 'But although you are too courteous to +avow the knowledge, you have had many opportunities of learning that +I am a vain show. Only last night we heard it very clearly stated. +You see the shadow flitting on this hard rock? Prince Otto, I am +afraid, is but the moving shadow, and the name of the rock is +Gondremark. Ah! if your friends had fallen foul of Gondremark! But +happily the younger of the two admires him. And as for the old +gentleman your father, he is a wise man and an excellent talker, and +I would take a long wager he is honest.' + +'O, for honest, your Highness, that he is!' exclaimed the girl. +'And Fritz is as honest as he. And as for all they said, it was +just talk and nonsense. When countryfolk get gossiping, they go on, +I do assure you, for the fun; they don't as much as think of what +they say. If you went to the next farm, it's my belief you would +hear as much against my father.' + +'Nay, nay,' said Otto, 'there you go too fast. For all that was +said against Prince Otto - ' + +'O, it was shameful!' cried the girl. + +'Not shameful - true,' returned Otto. 'O, yes - true. I am all +they said of me - all that and worse.' + +'I never!' cried 'Ottilia. 'Is that how you do? Well, you would +never be a soldier. Now if any one accuses me, I get up and give it +them. O, I defend myself. I wouldn't take a fault at another +person's hands, no, not if I had it on my forehead. And that's what +you must do, if you mean to live it out. But, indeed, I never heard +such nonsense. I should think you was ashamed of yourself! You're +bald, then, I suppose?' + +'O no,' said Otto, fairly laughing. 'There I acquit myself: not +bald!' + +'Well, and good?' pursued the girl. 'Come now, you know you are +good, and I'll make you say so. . . . Your Highness, I beg your +humble pardon. But there's no disrespect intended. And anyhow, you +know you are.' + +'Why, now, what am I to say?' replied Otto. 'You are a cook, and +excellently well you do it; I embrace the chance of thanking you for +the ragout. Well now, have you not seen good food so bedevilled by +unskilful cookery that no one could be brought to eat the pudding? +That is me, my dear. I am full of good ingredients, but the dish is +worthless. I am - I give it you in one word - sugar in the salad.' + +'Well, I don't care, you're good,' reiterated Ottilia, a little +flushed by having failed to understand. + +'I will tell you one thing,' replied Otto: 'You are!' + +'Ah, well, that's what they all said of you,' moralised the girl; +'such a tongue to come round - such a flattering tongue!' + +' O, you forget, I am a man of middle age,' the Prince chuckled. + +'Well, to speak to you, I should think you was a boy; and Prince or +no Prince, if you came worrying where I was cooking, I would pin a +napkin to your tails. . . . And, O Lord, I declare I hope your +Highness will forgive me,' the girl added. 'I can't keep it in my +mind.' + +'No more can I,' cried Otto. 'That is just what they complain of!' + +They made a loverly-looking couple; only the heavy pouring of that +horse-tail of water made them raise their voices above lovers' +pitch. But to a jealous onlooker from above, their mirth and close +proximity might easily give umbrage; and a rough voice out of a tuft +of brambles began calling on Ottilia by name. She changed colour at +that. 'It is Fritz,' she said. 'I must go.' + +'Go, my dear, and I need not bid you go in peace, for I think you +have discovered that I am not formidable at close quarters,' said +the Prince, and made her a fine gesture of dismissal. + +So Ottilia skipped up the bank, and disappeared into the thicket, +stopping once for a single blushing bob - blushing, because she had +in the interval once more forgotten and remembered the stranger's +quality. + +Otto returned to his rock promontory; but his humour had in the +meantime changed. The sun now shone more fairly on the pool; and +over its brown, welling surface, the blue of heaven and the golden +green of the spring foliage danced in fleeting arabesque. The +eddies laughed and brightened with essential colour. And the beauty +of the dell began to rankle in the Prince's mind; it was so near to +his own borders, yet without. He had never had much of the joy of +possessorship in any of the thousand and one beautiful and curious +things that were his; and now he was conscious of envy for what was +another's. It was, indeed, a smiling, dilettante sort of envy; but +yet there it was: the passion of Ahab for the vineyard, done in +little; and he was relieved when Mr. Killian appeared upon the +scene. + +'I hope, sir, that you have slept well under my plain roof,' said +the old farmer. + +'I am admiring this sweet spot that you are privileged to dwell in,' +replied Otto, evading the inquiry. + +'It is rustic,' returned Mr. Gottesheim, looking around him with +complacency, 'a very rustic corner; and some of the land to the west +is most excellent fat land, excellent deep soil. You should see my +wheat in the ten-acre field. There is not a farm in Grunewald, no, +nor many in Gerolstein, to match the River Farm. Some sixty - I +keep thinking when I sow - some sixty, and some seventy, and some an +hundredfold; and my own place, six score! But that, sir, is partly +the farming.' + +'And the stream has fish?' asked Otto. + +'A fishpond,' said the farmer. 'Ay, it is a pleasant bit. It is +pleasant even here, if one had time, with the brook drumming in that +black pool, and the green things hanging all about the rocks, and, +dear heart, to see the very pebbles! all turned to gold and precious +stones! But you have come to that time of life, sir, when, if you +will excuse me, you must look to have the rheumatism set in. Thirty +to forty is, as one may say, their seed-time. And this is a damp +cold corner for the early morning and an empty stomach. If I might +humbly advise you, sir, I would be moving.' + +'With all my heart,' said Otto gravely. 'And so you have lived your +life here?' he added, as they turned to go. + +'Here I was born,' replied the farmer, 'and here I wish I could say +I was to die. But fortune, sir, fortune turns the wheel. They say +she is blind, but we will hope she only sees a little farther on. +My grandfather and my father and I, we have all tilled these acres, +my furrow following theirs. All the three names are on the garden +bench, two Killians and one Johann. Yes, sir, good men have +prepared themselves for the great change in my old garden. Well do +I mind my father, in a woollen night-cap, the good soul, going round +and round to see the last of it. 'Killian,' said he, 'do you see +the smoke of my tobacco? Why,' said he, 'that is man's life.' It +was his last pipe, and I believe he knew it; and it was a strange +thing, without doubt, to leave the trees that he had planted, and +the son that he had begotten, ay, sir, and even the old pipe with +the Turk's head that he had smoked since he was a lad and went a- +courting. But here we have no continuing city; and as for the +eternal, it's a comfortable thought that we have other merits than +our own. And yet you would hardly think how sore it goes against +the grain with me, to die in a strange bed.' + +'And must you do so? For what reason?' Otto asked. + +'The reason? The place is to be sold; three thousand crowns,' +replied Mr. Gottesheim. 'Had it been a third of that, I may say +without boasting that, what with my credit and my savings, I could +have met the sum. But at three thousand, unless I have singular +good fortune and the new proprietor continues me in office, there is +nothing left me but to budge.' + +Otto's fancy for the place redoubled at the news, and became joined +with other feelings. If all he heard were true, Grunewald was +growing very hot for a sovereign Prince; it might be well to have a +refuge; and if so, what more delightful hermitage could man imagine? +Mr. Gottesheim, besides, had touched his sympathies. Every man +loves in his soul to play the part of the stage deity. And to step +down to the aid of the old farmer, who had so roughly handled him in +talk, was the ideal of a Fair Revenge. Otto's thoughts brightened +at the prospect, and he began to regard himself with a renewed +respect. + +'I can find you, I believe, a purchaser,' he said, 'and one who +would continue to avail himself of your skill.' + +'Can you, sir, indeed?' said the old man. 'Well, I shall be +heartily obliged; for I begin to find a man may practise resignation +all his days, as he takes physic, and not come to like it in the +end.' + +'If you will have the papers drawn, you may even burthen the +purchase with your interest,' said Otto. 'Let it be assured to you +through life.' + +'Your friend, sir,' insinuated Killian, 'would not, perhaps, care to +make the interest reversible? Fritz is a good lad.' + +'Fritz is young,' said the Prince dryly; 'he must earn +consideration, not inherit.' + +'He has long worked upon the place, sir,' insisted Mr. Gottesheim; +'and at my great age, for I am seventy-eight come harvest, it would +be a troublesome thought to the proprietor how to fill my shoes. It +would be a care spared to assure yourself of Fritz. And I believe +he might be tempted by a permanency.' + +'The young man has unsettled views,' returned Otto. + +'Possibly the purchaser - ' began Killian. + +A little spot of anger burned in Otto's cheek. 'I am the +purchaser,' he said. + +'It was what I might have guessed,' replied the farmer, bowing with +an aged, obsequious dignity. 'You have made an old man very happy; +and I may say, indeed, that I have entertained an angel unawares. +Sir, the great people of this world - and by that I mean those who +are great in station - if they had only hearts like yours, how they +would make the fires burn and the poor sing!' + +'I would not judge them hardly, sir,' said Otto. 'We all have our +frailties.' + +'Truly, sir,' said Mr. Gottesheim, with unction. 'And by what name, +sir, am I to address my generous landlord?' + +The double recollection of an English traveller, whom he had +received the week before at court, and of an old English rogue +called Transome, whom he had known in youth, came pertinently to the +Prince's help. 'Transome,' he answered, 'is my name. I am an +English traveller. It is, to-day, Tuesday. On Thursday, before +noon, the money shall be ready. Let us meet, if you please, in +Mittwalden, at the "Morning Star."' + +'I am, in all things lawful, your servant to command,' replied the +farmer. 'An Englishman! You are a great race of travellers. And +has your lordship some experience of land?' + +'I have had some interest of the kind before,' returned the Prince; +'not in Gerolstein, indeed. But fortune, as you say, turns the +wheel, and I desire to be beforehand with her revolutions.' + +'Very right, sir, I am sure,' said Mr. Killian. + +They had been strolling with deliberation; but they were now drawing +near to the farmhouse, mounting by the trellised pathway to the +level of the meadow. A little before them, the sound of voices had +been some while audible, and now grew louder and more distinct with +every step of their advance. Presently, when they emerged upon the +top of the bank, they beheld Fritz and Ottilia some way off; he, +very black and bloodshot, emphasising his hoarse speech with the +smacking of his fist against his palm; she, standing a little way +off in blowsy, voluble distress. + +'Dear me!' said Mr. Gottesheim, and made as if he would turn aside. + +But Otto went straight towards the lovers, in whose dissension he +believed himself to have a share. And, indeed, as soon as he had +seen the Prince, Fritz had stood tragic, as if awaiting and defying +his approach. + +'O, here you are!' he cried, as soon as they were near enough for +easy speech. 'You are a man at least, and must reply. What were +you after? Why were you two skulking in the bush? God!' he broke +out, turning again upon Ottilia, 'to think that I should waste my +heart on you!' + +'I beg your pardon,' Otto cut in. 'You were addressing me. In +virtue of what circumstance am I to render you an account of this +young lady's conduct? Are you her father? her brother? her +husband?' + +'O, sir, you know as well as I,' returned the peasant. 'We keep +company, she and I. I love her, and she is by way of loving me; but +all shall be above-board, I would have her to know. I have a good +pride of my own.' + +'Why, I perceive I must explain to you what love is,' said Otto. +'Its measure is kindness. It is very possible that you are proud; +but she, too, may have some self-esteem; I do not speak for myself. +And perhaps, if your own doings were so curiously examined, you +might find it inconvenient to reply.' + +'These are all set-offs,' said the young man. 'You know very well +that a man is a man, and a woman only a woman. That holds good all +over, up and down. I ask you a question, I ask it again, and here I +stand.' He drew a mark and toed it. + +'When you have studied liberal doctrines somewhat deeper,' said the +Prince, 'you will perhaps change your note. You are a man of false +weights and measures, my young friend. You have one scale for +women, another for men; one for princes, and one for farmer-folk. +On the prince who neglects his wife you can be most severe. But +what of the lover who insults his mistress? You use the name of +love. I should think this lady might very fairly ask to be +delivered from love of such a nature. For if I, a stranger, had +been one-tenth part so gross and so discourteous, you would most +righteously have broke my head. It would have been in your part, as +lover, to protect her from such insolence. Protect her first, then, +from yourself.' + +'Ay,' quoth Mr. Gottesheim, who had been looking on with his hands +behind his tall old back, 'ay, that's Scripture truth.' + +Fritz was staggered, not only by the Prince's imperturbable +superiority of manner, but by a glimmering consciousness that he +himself was in the wrong. The appeal to liberal doctrines had, +besides, unmanned him. + +'Well,' said he, 'if I was rude, I'll own to it. I meant no ill, +and did nothing out of my just rights; but I am above all these old +vulgar notions too; and if I spoke sharp, I'll ask her pardon.' + +'Freely granted, Fritz,' said Ottilia. + +'But all this doesn't answer me,' cried Fritz. 'I ask what you two +spoke about. She says she promised not to tell; well, then, I mean +to know. Civility is civility, but I'll be no man's gull. I have a +right to common justice, if I DO keep company!' + +'If you will ask Mr. Gottesheim,' replied Otto, 'you will find I +have not spent my hours in idleness. I have, since I arose this +morning, agreed to buy the farm. So far I will go to satisfy a +curiosity which I condemn.' + +'O, well, if there was business, that's another matter,' returned +Fritz. 'Though it beats me why you could not tell. But, of course, +if the gentleman is to buy the farm, I suppose there would naturally +be an end.' + +'To be sure,' said Mr. Gottesheim, with a strong accent of +conviction. + +But Ottilia was much braver. 'There now!' she cried in triumph. +'What did I tell you? I told you I was fighting your battles. Now +you see! Think shame of your suspicious temper! You should go down +upon your bended knees both to that gentleman and me.' + + + + +CHAPTER IV - IN WHICH THE PRINCE COLLECTS OPINIONS BY THE WAY + + +A LITTLE before noon Otto, by a triumph of manoeuvring, effected his +escape. He was quit in this way of the ponderous gratitude of Mr. +Killian, and of the confidential gratitude of poor Ottilia; but of +Fritz he was not quit so readily. That young politician, brimming +with mysterious glances, offered to lend his convoy as far as to the +high-road; and Otto, in fear of some residuary jealousy and for the +girl's sake, had not the courage to gainsay him; but he regarded his +companion with uneasy glances, and devoutly wished the business at +an end. For some time Fritz walked by the mare in silence; and they +had already traversed more than half the proposed distance when, +with something of a blush, he looked up and opened fire. + +'Are you not,' he asked, 'what they call a socialist?' + +'Why, no,' returned Otto, 'not precisely what they call so. Why do +you ask?' + +'I will tell you why,' said the young man. 'I saw from the first +that you were a red progressional, and nothing but the fear of old +Killian kept you back. And there, sir, you were right: old men are +always cowards. But nowadays, you see, there are so many groups: +you can never tell how far the likeliest kind of man may be prepared +to go; and I was never sure you were one of the strong thinkers, +till you hinted about women and free love.' + +'Indeed,' cried Otto, 'I never said a word of such a thing.' + +'Not you!' cried Fritz. 'Never a word to compromise! You was +sowing seed: ground-bait, our president calls it. But it's hard to +deceive me, for I know all the agitators and their ways, and all the +doctrines; and between you and me,' lowering his voice, 'I am myself +affiliated. O yes, I am a secret society man, and here is my +medal.' And drawing out a green ribbon that he wore about his neck, +he held up, for Otto's inspection, a pewter medal bearing the +imprint of a Phoenix and the legend LIBERTAS. 'And so now you see +you may trust me,' added Fritz, 'I am none of your alehouse talkers; +I am a convinced revolutionary.' And he looked meltingly upon Otto. + +'I see,' replied the Prince; 'that is very gratifying. Well, sir, +the great thing for the good of one's country is, first of all, to +be a good man. All springs from there. For my part, although you +are right in thinking that I have to do with politics, I am unfit by +intellect and temper for a leading role. I was intended, I fear, +for a subaltern. Yet we have all something to command, Mr. Fritz, +if it be only our own temper; and a man about to marry must look +closely to himself. The husband's, like the prince's, is a very +artificial standing; and it is hard to be kind in either. Do you +follow that?' + +'O yes, I follow that,' replied the young man, sadly chop-fallen +over the nature of the information he had elicited; and then +brightening up: 'Is it,' he ventured, 'is it for an arsenal that you +have bought the farm?' + +'We'll see about that,' the Prince answered, laughing. 'You must +not be too zealous. And in the meantime, if I were you, I would say +nothing on the subject.' + +'O, trust me, sir, for that,' cried Fritz, as he pocketed a crown. +'And you've let nothing out; for I suspected - I might say I knew it +- from the first. And mind you, when a guide is required,' he +added, 'I know all the forest paths.' + +Otto rode away, chuckling. This talk with Fritz had vastly +entertained him; nor was he altogether discontented with his bearing +at the farm; men, he was able to tell himself, had behaved worse +under smaller provocation. And, to harmonise all, the road and the +April air were both delightful to his soul. + +Up and down, and to and fro, ever mounting through the wooded +foothills, the broad white high-road wound onward into Grunewald. +On either hand the pines stood coolly rooted - green moss +prospering, springs welling forth between their knuckled spurs; and +though some were broad and stalwart, and others spiry and slender, +yet all stood firm in the same attitude and with the same +expression, like a silent army presenting arms. + +The road lay all the way apart from towns and villages, which it +left on either hand. Here and there, indeed, in the bottom of green +glens, the Prince could spy a few congregated roofs, or perhaps +above him, on a shoulder, the solitary cabin of a woodman. But the +highway was an international undertaking and with its face set for +distant cities, scorned the little life of Grunewald. Hence it was +exceeding solitary. Near the frontier Otto met a detachment of his +own troops marching in the hot dust; and he was recognised and +somewhat feebly cheered as he rode by. But from that time forth and +for a long while he was alone with the great woods. + +Gradually the spell of pleasure relaxed; his own thoughts returned, +like stinging insects, in a cloud; and the talk of the night before, +like a shower of buffets, fell upon his memory. He looked east and +west for any comforter; and presently he was aware of a cross-road +coming steeply down hill, and a horseman cautiously descending. A +human voice or presence, like a spring in the desert, was now +welcome in itself, and Otto drew bridle to await the coming of this +stranger. He proved to be a very red-faced, thick-lipped +countryman, with a pair of fat saddle-bags and a stone bottle at his +waist; who, as soon as the Prince hailed him, jovially, if somewhat +thickly, answered. At the same time he gave a beery yaw in the +saddle. It was clear his bottle was no longer full. + +'Do you ride towards Mittwalden?' asked the Prince. + +'As far as the cross-road to Tannenbrunn,' the man replied. 'Will +you bear company?' + +'With pleasure. I have even waited for you on the chance,' answered +Otto. + +By this time they were close alongside; and the man, with the +countryfolk instinct, turned his cloudy vision first of all on his +companion's mount. 'The devil!' he cried. 'You ride a bonny mare, +friend!' And then, his curiosity being satisfied about the +essential, he turned his attention to that merely secondary matter, +his companion's face. He started. 'The Prince!' he cried, +saluting, with another yaw that came near dismounting him. 'I beg +your pardon, your Highness, not to have recognised you at once.' + +The Prince was vexed out of his self-possession. 'Since you know +me,' he said, 'it is unnecessary we should ride together. I will +precede you, if you please.' And he was about to set spur to the +grey mare, when the half-drunken fellow, reaching over, laid his +hand upon the rein. + +'Hark you,' he said, 'prince or no prince, that is not how one man +should conduct himself with another. What! You'll ride with me +incog. and set me talking! But if I know you, you'll preshede me, +if you please! Spy!' And the fellow, crimson with drink and +injured vanity, almost spat the word into the Prince's face. + +A horrid confusion came over Otto. He perceived that he had acted +rudely, grossly presuming on his station. And perhaps a little +shiver of physical alarm mingled with his remorse, for the fellow +was very powerful and not more than half in the possession of his +senses. 'Take your hand from my rein,' he said, with a sufficient +assumption of command; and when the man, rather to his wonder, had +obeyed: 'You should understand, sir,' he added, 'that while I might +be glad to ride with you as one person of sagacity with another, and +so receive your true opinions, it would amuse me very little to hear +the empty compliments you would address to me as Prince.' + +'You think I would lie, do you?' cried the man with the bottle, +purpling deeper. + +'I know you would,' returned Otto, entering entirely into his self- +possession. 'You would not even show me the medal you wear about +your neck.' For he had caught a glimpse of a green ribbon at the +fellow's throat. + +The change was instantaneous: the red face became mottled with +yellow: a thick-fingered, tottering hand made a clutch at the tell- +tale ribbon. 'Medal!' the man cried, wonderfully sobered. 'I have +no medal.' + +'Pardon me,' said the Prince. 'I will even tell you what that medal +bears: a Phoenix burning, with the word LIBERTAS.' The medallist +remaining speechless, 'You are a pretty fellow,' continued Otto, +smiling, 'to complain of incivility from the man whom you conspire +to murder.' + +'Murder!' protested the man. 'Nay, never that; nothing criminal for +me!' + +'You are strangely misinformed,' said Otto. 'Conspiracy itself is +criminal, and ensures the pain of death. Nay, sir, death it is; I +will guarantee my accuracy. Not that you need be so deplorably +affected, for I am no officer. But those who mingle with politics +should look at both sides of the medal.' + +'Your Highness . . . . ' began the knight of the bottle. + +'Nonsense! you are a Republican,' cried Otto; 'what have you to do +with highnesses? But let us continue to ride forward. Since you so +much desire it, I cannot find it in my heart to deprive you of my +company. And for that matter, I have a question to address to you. +Why, being so great a body of men - for you are a great body - +fifteen thousand, I have heard, but that will be understated; am I +right?' + +The man gurgled in his throat. + +'Why, then, being so considerable a party,' resumed Otto, 'do you +not come before me boldly with your wants? - what do I say? with +your commands? Have I the name of being passionately devoted to my +throne? I can scarce suppose it. Come, then; show me your +majority, and I will instantly resign. Tell this to your friends; +assure them from me of my docility; assure them that, however they +conceive of my deficiencies, they cannot suppose me more unfit to be +a ruler than I do myself. I am one of the worst princes in Europe; +will they improve on that?' + +'Far be it from me . . .' the man began. + +'See, now, if you will not defend my government!' cried Otto. 'If I +were you, I would leave conspiracies. You are as little fit to be a +conspirator as I to be a king.' + +'One thing I will say out,' said the man. 'It is not so much you +that we complain of, it's your lady.' + +'Not a word, sir' said the Prince; and then after a moment's pause, +and in tones of some anger and contempt: 'I once more advise you to +have done with politics,' he added; 'and when next I see you, let me +see you sober. A morning drunkard is the last man to sit in +judgment even upon the worst of princes.' + +'I have had a drop, but I had not been drinking,' the man replied, +triumphing in a sound distinction. 'And if I had, what then? +Nobody hangs by me. But my mill is standing idle, and I blame it on +your wife. Am I alone in that? Go round and ask. Where are the +mills? Where are the young men that should be working? Where is +the currency? All paralysed. No, sir, it is not equal; for I +suffer for your faults - I pay for them, by George, out of a poor +man's pocket. And what have you to do with mine? Drunk or sober, I +can see my country going to hell, and I can see whose fault it is. +And so now, I've said my say, and you may drag me to a stinking +dungeon; what care I? I've spoke the truth, and so I'll hold hard, +and not intrude upon your Highness's society.' + +And the miller reined up and, clumsily enough, saluted. + +'You will observe, I have not asked your name,' said Otto. 'I wish +you a good ride,' and he rode on hard. But let him ride as he +pleased, this interview with the miller was a chokepear, which he +could not swallow. He had begun by receiving a reproof in manners, +and ended by sustaining a defeat in logic, both from a man whom he +despised. All his old thoughts returned with fresher venom. And by +three in the afternoon, coming to the cross-roads for Beckstein, +Otto decided to turn aside and dine there leisurely. Nothing at +least could be worse than to go on as he was going. + +In the inn at Beckstein he remarked, immediately upon his entrance, +an intelligent young gentleman dining, with a book in front of him. +He had his own place laid close to the reader, and with a proper +apology, broke ground by asking what he read. + +'I am perusing,' answered the young gentleman, 'the last work of the +Herr Doctor Hohenstockwitz, cousin and librarian of your Prince here +in Grunewald - a man of great erudition and some lambencies of wit.' + +'I am acquainted,' said Otto, 'with the Herr Doctor, though not yet +with his work.' + +'Two privileges that I must envy you,' replied the young man +politely: 'an honour in hand, a pleasure in the bush.' + +'The Herr Doctor is a man much respected, I believe, for his +attainments?' asked the Prince. + +'He is, sir, a remarkable instance of the force of intellect,' +replied the reader. 'Who of our young men know anything of his +cousin, all reigning Prince although he be? Who but has heard of +Doctor Gotthold? But intellectual merit, alone of all distinctions, +has its base in nature.' + +'I have the gratification of addressing a student - perhaps an +author?' Otto suggested. + +The young man somewhat flushed. 'I have some claim to both +distinctions, sir, as you suppose,' said he; 'there is my card. I +am the licentiate Roederer, author of several works on the theory +and practice of politics.' + +'You immensely interest me,' said the Prince; 'the more so as I +gather that here in Grunewald we are on the brink of revolution. +Pray, since these have been your special studies, would you augur +hopefully of such a movement?' + +'I perceive,' said the young author, with a certain vinegary twitch, +'that you are unacquainted with my opuscula. I am a convinced +authoritarian. I share none of those illusory, Utopian fancies with +which empirics blind themselves and exasperate the ignorant. The +day of these ideas is, believe me, past, or at least passing.' + +'When I look about me - ' began Otto. + +'When you look about you,' interrupted the licentiate, 'you behold +the ignorant. But in the laboratory of opinion, beside the studious +lamp, we begin already to discard these figments. We begin to +return to nature's order, to what I might call, if I were to borrow +from the language of therapeutics, the expectant treatment of +abuses. You will not misunderstand me,' he continued: 'a country in +the condition in which we find Grunewald, a prince such as your +Prince Otto, we must explicitly condemn; they are behind the age. +But I would look for a remedy not to brute convulsions, but to the +natural supervenience of a more able sovereign. I should amuse you, +perhaps,' added the licentiate, with a smile, 'I think I should +amuse you if I were to explain my notion of a prince. We who have +studied in the closet, no longer, in this age, propose ourselves for +active service. The paths, we have perceived, are incompatible. I +would not have a student on the throne, though I would have one near +by for an adviser. I would set forward as prince a man of a good, +medium understanding, lively rather than deep; a man of courtly +manner, possessed of the double art to ingratiate and to command; +receptive, accommodating, seductive. I have been observing you +since your first entrance. Well, sir, were I a subject of Grunewald +I should pray heaven to set upon the seat of government just such +another as yourself.' + +'The devil you would!' exclaimed the Prince. + +The licentiate Roederer laughed most heartily. 'I thought I should +astonish you,' he said. 'These are not the ideas of the masses.' + +'They are not, I can assure you,' Otto said. + +'Or rather,' distinguished the licentiate, 'not to-day. The time +will come, however, when these ideas shall prevail.' + +'You will permit me, sir, to doubt it,' said Otto. + +'Modesty is always admirable,' chuckled the theorist. 'But yet I +assure you, a man like you, with such a man as, say, Doctor Gotthold +at your elbow, would be, for all practical issues, my ideal ruler.' + +At this rate the hours sped pleasantly for Otto. But the licentiate +unfortunately slept that night at Beckstein, where he was, being +dainty in the saddle and given to half stages. And to find a convoy +to Mittwalden, and thus mitigate the company of his own thoughts, +the Prince had to make favour with a certain party of wood-merchants +from various states of the empire, who had been drinking together +somewhat noisily at the far end of the apartment. + +The night had already fallen when they took the saddle. The +merchants were very loud and mirthful; each had a face like a +nor'west moon; and they played pranks with each others' horses, and +mingled songs and choruses, and alternately remembered and forgot +the companion of their ride. Otto thus combined society and +solitude, hearkening now to their chattering and empty talk, now to +the voices of the encircling forest. The starlit dark, the faint +wood airs, the clank of the horse-shoes making broken music, +accorded together and attuned his mind. And he was still in a most +equal temper when the party reached the top of that long hill that +overlooks Mittwalden. + +Down in the bottom of a bowl of forest, the lights of the little +formal town glittered in a pattern, street crossing street; away by +itself on the right, the palace was glowing like a factory. + +Although he knew not Otto, one of the wood-merchants was a native of +the state. 'There,' said he, pointing to the palace with his whip, +'there is Jezebel's inn.' + +'What, do you call it that?' cried another, laughing. + +'Ay, that's what they call it,' returned the Grunewalder; and he +broke into a song, which the rest, as people well acquainted with +the words and air, instantly took up in chorus. Her Serene Highness +Amalia Seraphina, Princess of Grunewald, was the heroine, Gondremark +the hero of this ballad. Shame hissed in Otto's ears. He reined up +short and sat stunned in the saddle; and the singers continued to +descend the hill without him. + +The song went to a rough, swashing, popular air; and long after the +words became inaudible the swing of the music, rising and falling, +echoed insult in the Prince's brain. He fled the sounds. Hard by +him on his right a road struck towards the palace, and he followed +it through the thick shadows and branching alleys of the park. It +was a busy place on a fine summer's afternoon, when the court and +burghers met and saluted; but at that hour of the night in the early +spring it was deserted to the roosting birds. Hares rustled among +the covert; here and there a statue stood glimmering, with its +eternal gesture; here and there the echo of an imitation temple +clattered ghostly to the trampling of the mare. Ten minutes brought +him to the upper end of his own home garden, where the small stables +opened, over a bridge, upon the park. The yard clock was striking +the hour of ten; so was the big bell in the palace bell-tower; and, +farther off, the belfries of the town. About the stable all else +was silent but the stamping of stalled horses and the rattle of +halters. Otto dismounted; and as he did so a memory came back to +him: a whisper of dishonest grooms and stolen corn, once heard, long +forgotten, and now recurring in the nick of opportunity. He crossed +the bridge, and, going up to a window, knocked six or seven heavy +blows in a particular cadence, and, as he did so, smiled. Presently +a wicket was opened in the gate, and a man's head appeared in the +dim starlight. + +'Nothing to-night,' said a voice. + +'Bring a lantern,' said the Prince. + +'Dear heart a' mercy!' cried the groom. 'Who's that?' + +'It is I, the Prince,' replied Otto. 'Bring a lantern, take in the +mare, and let me through into the garden.' + +The man remained silent for a while, his head still projecting +through the wicket. + +'His Highness!' he said at last. 'And why did your Highness knock +so strange?' + +'It is a superstition in Mittwalden,' answered Otto, 'that it +cheapens corn.' + +With a sound like a sob the groom fled. He was very white when he +returned, even by the light of the lantern; and his hand trembled as +he undid the fastenings and took the mare. + +'Your Highness,' he began at last, 'for God's sake . . . . ' And +there he paused, oppressed with guilt. + +'For God's sake, what?' asked Otto cheerfully. 'For God's sake let +us have cheaper corn, say I. Good-night!' And he strode off into +the garden, leaving the groom petrified once more. + +The garden descended by a succession of stone terraces to the level +of the fish-pond. On the far side the ground rose again, and was +crowned by the confused roofs and gables of the palace. The modern +pillared front, the ball-room, the great library, the princely +apartments, the busy and illuminated quarters of that great house, +all faced the town. The garden side was much older; and here it was +almost dark; only a few windows quietly lighted at various +elevations. The great square tower rose, thinning by stages like a +telescope; and on the top of all the flag hung motionless. + +The garden, as it now lay in the dusk and glimmer of the starshine, +breathed of April violets. Under night's cavern arch the shrubs +obscurely bustled. Through the plotted terraces and down the marble +stairs the Prince rapidly descended, fleeing before uncomfortable +thoughts. But, alas! from these there is no city of refuge. And +now, when he was about midway of the descent, distant strains of +music began to fall upon his ear from the ball-room, where the court +was dancing. They reached him faint and broken, but they touched +the keys of memory; and through and above them Otto heard the +ranting melody of the wood-merchants' song. Mere blackness seized +upon his mind. Here he was, coming home; the wife was dancing, the +husband had been playing a trick upon a lackey; and meanwhile, all +about them, they were a by-word to their subjects. Such a prince, +such a husband, such a man, as this Otto had become! And he sped +the faster onward. + +Some way below he came unexpectedly upon a sentry; yet a little +farther, and he was challenged by a second; and as he crossed the +bridge over the fish-pond, an officer making the rounds stopped him +once more. The parade of watch was more than usual; but curiosity +was dead in Otto's mind, and he only chafed at the interruption. +The porter of the back postern admitted him, and started to behold +him so disordered. Thence, hasting by private stairs and passages, +he came at length unseen to his own chamber, tore off his clothes, +and threw himself upon his bed in the dark. The music of the ball- +room still continued to a very lively measure; and still, behind +that, he heard in spirit the chorus of the merchants clanking down +the hill. + + + +BOOK II - OF LOVE AND POLITICS + + + + +CHAPTER I - WHAT HAPPENED IN THE LIBRARY + + +AT a quarter before six on the following morning Doctor Gotthold was +already at his desk in the library; and with a small cup of black +coffee at his elbow, and an eye occasionally wandering to the busts +and the long array of many-coloured books, was quietly reviewing the +labours of the day before. He was a man of about forty, flaxen- +haired, with refined features a little worn, and bright eyes +somewhat faded. Early to bed and early to rise, his life was +devoted to two things: erudition and Rhine wine. An ancient +friendship existed latent between him and Otto; they rarely met, but +when they did it was to take up at once the thread of their +suspended intimacy. Gotthold, the virgin priest of knowledge, had +envied his cousin, for half a day, when he was married; he had never +envied him his throne. + +Reading was not a popular diversion at the court of Grunewald; and +that great, pleasant, sunshiny gallery of books and statues was, in +practice, Gotthold's private cabinet. On this particular Wednesday +morning, however, he had not been long about his manuscript when a +door opened and the Prince stepped into the apartment. The doctor +watched him as he drew near, receiving, from each of the embayed +windows in succession, a flush of morning sun; and Otto looked so +gay, and walked so airily, he was so well dressed and brushed and +frizzled, so point-device, and of such a sovereign elegance, that +the heart of his cousin the recluse was rather moved against him. + +'Good-morning, Gotthold,' said Otto, dropping in a chair. + +'Good-morning, Otto,' returned the librarian. 'You are an early +bird. Is this an accident, or do you begin reforming?' + +'It is about time, I fancy,' answered the Prince. + +'I cannot imagine,' said the Doctor. 'I am too sceptical to be an +ethical adviser; and as for good resolutions, I believed in them +when I was young. They are the colours of hope's rainbow.' + +'If you come to think of it,' said Otto, 'I am not a popular +sovereign.' And with a look he changed his statement to a question. + +'Popular? Well, there I would distinguish,' answered Gotthold, +leaning back and joining the tips of his fingers. 'There are +various kinds of popularity; the bookish, which is perfectly +impersonal, as unreal as the nightmare; the politician's, a mixed +variety; and yours, which is the most personal of all. Women take +to you; footmen adore you; it is as natural to like you as to pat a +dog; and were you a saw-miller you would be the most popular citizen +in Grunewald. As a prince - well, you are in the wrong trade. It +is perhaps philosophical to recognise it as you do.' + +'Perhaps philosophical?' repeated Otto. + +'Yes, perhaps. I would not be dogmatic,' answered Gotthold. + +'Perhaps philosophical, and certainly not virtuous,' Otto resumed. + +'Not of a Roman virtue,' chuckled the recluse. + +Otto drew his chair nearer to the table, leaned upon it with his +elbow, and looked his cousin squarely in the face. 'In short,' he +asked, 'not manly?' + +'Well,' Gotthold hesitated, 'not manly, if you will.' And then, +with a laugh, 'I did not know that you gave yourself out to be +manly,' he added. 'It was one of the points that I inclined to like +about you; inclined, I believe, to admire. The names of virtues +exercise a charm on most of us; we must lay claim to all of them, +however incompatible; we must all be both daring and prudent; we +must all vaunt our pride and go to the stake for our humility. Not +so you. Without compromise you were yourself: a pretty sight. I +have always said it: none so void of all pretence as Otto.' + +'Pretence and effort both!' cried Otto. 'A dead dog in a canal is +more alive. And the question, Gotthold, the question that I have to +face is this: Can I not, with effort and self-denial, can I not +become a tolerable sovereign?' + +'Never,' replied Gotthold. 'Dismiss the notion. And besides, dear +child, you would not try.' + +'Nay, Gotthold, I am not to be put by,' said Otto. 'If I am +constitutionally unfit to be a sovereign, what am I doing with this +money, with this palace, with these guards? And I - a thief - am to +execute the law on others?' + +'I admit the difficulty,' said Gotthold. + +'Well, can I not try?' continued Otto. 'Am I not bound to try? And +with the advice and help of such a man as you - ' + +'Me!' cried the librarian. 'Now, God forbid!' + +Otto, though he was in no very smiling humour, could not forbear to +smile. 'Yet I was told last night,' he laughed, 'that with a man +like me to impersonate, and a man like you to touch the springs, a +very possible government could be composed.' + +'Now I wonder in what diseased imagination,' Gotthold said, 'that +preposterous monster saw the light of day?' + +'It was one of your own trade - a writer: one Roederer,' said Otto. + +'Roederer! an ignorant puppy!' cried the librarian. + +'You are ungrateful,' said Otto. 'He is one of your professed +admirers.' + +'Is he?' cried Gotthold, obviously impressed. 'Come, that is a good +account of the young man. I must read his stuff again. It is the +rather to his credit, as our views are opposite. The east and west +are not more opposite. Can I have converted him? But no; the +incident belongs to Fairyland.' + +'You are not then,' asked the Prince, 'an authoritarian?' + +'I? God bless me, no!' said Gotthold. 'I am a red, dear child.' + +'That brings me then to my next point, and by a natural transition. +If I am so clearly unfitted for my post,' the Prince asked; 'if my +friends admit it, if my subjects clamour for my downfall, if +revolution is preparing at this hour, must I not go forth to meet +the inevitable? should I not save these horrors and be done with +these absurdities? in a word, should I not abdicate? O, believe me, +I feel the ridicule, the vast abuse of language,' he added, wincing, +'but even a principulus like me cannot resign; he must make a great +gesture, and come buskined forth, and abdicate.' + +'Ay,' said Gotthold, 'or else stay where he is. What gnat has +bitten you to-day? Do you not know that you are touching, with lay +hands, the very holiest inwards of philosophy, where madness dwells? +Ay, Otto, madness; for in the serene temples of the wise, the inmost +shrine, which we carefully keep locked, is full of spiders' webs. +All men, all, are fundamentally useless; nature tolerates, she does +not need, she does not use them: sterile flowers! All - down to the +fellow swinking in a byre, whom fools point out for the exception - +all are useless; all weave ropes of sand; or like a child that has +breathed on a window, write and obliterate, write and obliterate, +idle words! Talk of it no more. That way, I tell you, madness +lies.' The speaker rose from his chair and then sat down again. He +laughed a little laugh, and then, changing his tone, resumed: 'Yes, +dear child, we are not here to do battle with giants; we are here to +be happy like the flowers, if we can be. It is because you could, +that I have always secretly admired you. Cling to that trade; +believe me, it is the right one. Be happy, be idle, be airy. To +the devil with all casuistry! and leave the state to Gondremark, as +heretofore. He does it well enough, they say; and his vanity enjoys +the situation.' + +'Gotthold,' cried Otto, 'what is this to me? Useless is not the +question; I cannot rest at uselessness; I must be useful or I must +be noxious - one or other. I grant you the whole thing, prince and +principality alike, is pure absurdity, a stroke of satire; and that +a banker or the man who keeps an inn has graver duties. But now, +when I have washed my hands of it three years, and left all - +labour, responsibility, and honour and enjoyment too, if there be +any - to Gondremark and to - Seraphina - ' He hesitated at the +name, and Gotthold glanced aside. 'Well,' the Prince continued, +'what has come of it? Taxes, army, cannon - why, it's like a box of +lead soldiers! And the people sick at the folly of it, and fired +with the injustice! And war, too - I hear of war - war in this +teapot! What a complication of absurdity and disgrace! And when +the inevitable end arrives - the revolution - who will be to blame +in the sight of God, who will be gibbeted in public opinion? I! +Prince Puppet!' + +'I thought you had despised public opinion,' said Gotthold. + +'I did,' said Otto sombrely, 'but now I do not. I am growing old. +And then, Gotthold, there is Seraphina. She is loathed in this +country that I brought her to and suffered her to spoil. Yes, I +gave it her as a plaything, and she has broken it: a fine Prince, an +admirable Princess! Even her life - I ask you, Gotthold, is her +life safe?' + +'It is safe enough to-day,' replied the librarian: 'but since you +ask me seriously, I would not answer for to-morrow. She is ill- +advised.' + +'And by whom? By this Gondremark, to whom you counsel me to leave +my country,' cried the Prince. 'Rare advice! The course that I +have been following all these years, to come at last to this. O, +ill-advised! if that were all! See now, there is no sense in +beating about the bush between two men: you know what scandal says +of her?' + +Gotthold, with pursed lips, silently nodded. + +'Well, come, you are not very cheering as to my conduct as the +Prince; have I even done my duty as a husband?' Otto asked. + +'Nay, nay,' said Gotthold, earnestly and eagerly, 'this is another +chapter. I am an old celibate, an old monk. I cannot advise you in +your marriage.' + +'Nor do I require advice,' said Otto, rising. 'All of this must +cease.' And he began to walk to and fro with his hands behind his +back. + +'Well, Otto, may God guide you!' said Gotthold, after a considerable +silence. 'I cannot.' + +'From what does all this spring?' said the Prince, stopping in his +walk. 'What am I to call it? Diffidence? The fear of ridicule? +Inverted vanity? What matter names, if it has brought me to this? +I could never bear to be bustling about nothing; I was ashamed of +this toy kingdom from the first; I could not tolerate that people +should fancy I believed in a thing so patently absurd! I would do +nothing that cannot be done smiling. I have a sense of humour, +forsooth! I must know better than my Maker. And it was the same +thing in my marriage,' he added more hoarsely. 'I did not believe +this girl could care for me; I must not intrude; I must preserve the +foppery of my indifference. What an impotent picture!' + +'Ay, we have the same blood,' moralised Gotthold. 'You are drawing, +with fine strokes, the character of the born sceptic.' + +'Sceptic? - coward!' cried Otto. 'Coward is the word. A +springless, putty-hearted, cowering coward!' + +And as the Prince rapped out the words in tones of unusual vigour, a +little, stout, old gentleman, opening a door behind Gotthold, +received them fairly in the face. With his parrot's beak for a +nose, his pursed mouth, his little goggling eyes, he was the picture +of formality; and in ordinary circumstances, strutting behind the +drum of his corporation, he impressed the beholder with a certain +air of frozen dignity and wisdom. But at the smallest contrariety, +his trembling hands and disconnected gestures betrayed the weakness +at the root. And now, when he was thus surprisingly received in +that library of Mittwalden Palace, which was the customary haunt of +silence, his hands went up into the air as if he had been shot, and +he cried aloud with the scream of an old woman. + +'O!' he gasped, recovering, 'Your Highness! I beg ten thousand +pardons. But your Highness at such an hour in the library! - a +circumstance so unusual as your Highness's presence was a thing I +could not be expected to foresee.' + +'There is no harm done, Herr Cancellarius,' said Otto. + +'I came upon the errand of a moment: some papers I left over-night +with the Herr Doctor,' said the Chancellor of Grunewald. 'Herr +Doctor, if you will kindly give me them, I will intrude no longer.' + +Gotthold unlocked a drawer and handed a bundle of manuscript to the +old gentleman, who prepared, with fitting salutations, to take his +departure. + +'Herr Greisengesang, since we have met,' said Otto, 'let us talk.' + +'I am honoured by his Highness's commands,' replied the Chancellor. + +'All has been quiet since I left?' asked the Prince, resuming his +seat. + +'The usual business, your Highness,' answered Greisengesang; +'punctual trifles: huge, indeed, if neglected, but trifles when +discharged. Your Highness is most zealously obeyed.' + +'Obeyed, Herr Cancellarius?' returned the Prince. 'And when have I +obliged you with an order? Replaced, let us rather say. But to +touch upon these trifles; instance me a few.' + +'The routine of government, from which your Highness has so wisely +dissociated his leisure . . . ' began Greisengesang. + +'We will leave my leisure, sir,' said Otto. 'Approach the facts.' + +'The routine of business was proceeded with,' replied the official, +now visibly twittering. + +'It is very strange, Herr Cancellarius, that you should so +persistently avoid my questions,' said the Prince. 'You tempt me to +suppose a purpose in your dulness. I have asked you whether all was +quiet; do me the pleasure to reply.' + +'Perfectly - O, perfectly quiet,' jerked the ancient puppet, with +every signal of untruth. + +'I make a note of these words,' said the Prince gravely. 'You +assure me, your sovereign, that since the date of my departure +nothing has occurred of which you owe me an account.' + +'I take your Highness, I take the Herr Doctor to witness,' cried +Greisengesang, 'that I have had no such expression.' + +'Halt!' said the Prince; and then, after a pause: 'Herr +Greisengesang, you are an old man, and you served my father before +you served me,' he added. 'It consists neither with your dignity +nor mine that you should babble excuses and stumble possibly upon +untruths. Collect your thoughts; and then categorically inform me +of all you have been charged to hide.' + +Gotthold, stooping very low over his desk, appeared to have resumed +his labours; but his shoulders heaved with subterranean merriment. +The Prince waited, drawing his handkerchief quietly through his +fingers. + +'Your Highness, in this informal manner,' said the old gentleman at +last, 'and being unavoidably deprived of documents, it would be +difficult, it would be impossible, to do justice to the somewhat +grave occurrences which have transpired.' + +'I will not criticise your attitude,' replied the Prince. 'I desire +that, between you and me, all should be done gently; for I have not +forgotten, my old friend, that you were kind to me from the first, +and for a period of years a faithful servant. I will thus dismiss +the matters on which you waive immediate inquiry. But you have +certain papers actually in your hand. Come, Herr Greisengesang, +there is at least one point for which you have authority. Enlighten +me on that.' + +'On that?' cried the old gentleman. 'O, that is a trifle; a matter, +your Highness, of police; a detail of a purely administrative order. +These are simply a selection of the papers seized upon the English +traveller.' + +'Seized?' echoed Otto. 'In what sense? Explain yourself.' + +'Sir John Crabtree,' interposed Gotthold, looking up, 'was arrested +yesterday evening.' + +'It this so, Herr Cancellarius?' demanded Otto sternly. + +'It was judged right, your Highness,' protested Greisengesang. 'The +decree was in due form, invested with your Highness's authority by +procuration. I am but an agent; I had no status to prevent the +measure.' + +'This man, my guest, has been arrested,' said the Prince. 'On what +grounds, sir? With what colour of pretence?' + +The Chancellor stammered. + +'Your Highness will perhaps find the reason in these documents,' +said Gotthold, pointing with the tail of his pen. + +Otto thanked his cousin with a look. 'Give them to me,' he said, +addressing the Chancellor. + +But that gentleman visibly hesitated to obey. 'Baron von +Gondremark,' he said, 'has made the affair his own. I am in this +case a mere messenger; and as such, I am not clothed with any +capacity to communicate the documents I carry. Herr Doctor, I am +convinced you will not fail to bear me out.' + +'I have heard a great deal of nonsense,' said Gotthold, 'and most of +it from you; but this beats all.' + +'Come, sir,' said Otto, rising, 'the papers. I command.' + +Herr Greisengesang instantly gave way. + +'With your Highness's permission,' he said, 'and laying at his feet +my most submiss apologies, I will now hasten to attend his further +orders in the Chancery.' + +'Herr Cancellarius, do you see this chair?' said Otto. 'There is +where you shall attend my further orders. O, now, no more!' he +cried, with a gesture, as the old man opened his lips. 'You have +sufficiently marked your zeal to your employer; and I begin to weary +of a moderation you abuse.' + +The Chancellor moved to the appointed chair and took his seat in +silence. + +'And now,' said Otto, opening the roll, 'what is all this? it looks +like the manuscript of a book.' + +'It is,' said Gotthold, 'the manuscript of a book of travels.' + +'You have read it, Doctor Hohenstockwitz?' asked the Prince. + +'Nay, I but saw the title-page,' replied Gotthold. 'But the roll +was given to me open, and I heard no word of any secrecy.' + +Otto dealt the Chancellor an angry glance. + +'I see,' he went on. 'The papers of an author seized at this date +of the world's history, in a state so petty and so ignorant as +Grunewald, here is indeed an ignominious folly. Sir,' to the +Chancellor, 'I marvel to find you in so scurvy an employment. On +your conduct to your Prince I will not dwell; but to descend to be a +spy! For what else can it be called? To seize the papers of this +gentleman, the private papers of a stranger, the toil of a life, +perhaps - to open, and to read them. And what have we to do with +books? The Herr Doctor might perhaps be asked for his advice; but +we have no INDEX EXPURGATORIUS in Grunewald. Had we but that, we +should be the most absolute parody and farce upon this tawdry +earth.' + +Yet, even while Otto spoke, he had continued to unfold the roll; and +now, when it lay fully open, his eye rested on the title-page +elaborately written in red ink. It ran thus: + + +MEMOIRS +OF A VISIT TO THE VARIOUS +COURTS OF EUROPE, +BY +SIR JOHN CRABTREE, BARONET. + + +Below was a list of chapters, each bearing the name of one of the +European Courts; and among these the nineteenth and the last upon +the list was dedicated to Grunewald. + +'Ah! The Court of Grunewald!' said Otto, 'that should be droll +reading.' And his curiosity itched for it. + +'A methodical dog, this English Baronet,' said Gotthold. 'Each +chapter written and finished on the spot. I shall look for his work +when it appears.' + +'It would be odd, now, just to glance at it,' said Otto, wavering. + +Gotthold's brow darkened, and he looked out of window. + +But though the Prince understood the reproof, his weakness +prevailed. 'I will,' he said, with an uneasy laugh, 'I will, I +think, just glance at it.' + +So saying, he resumed his seat and spread the traveller's manuscript +upon the table. + + + + +CHAPTER II - 'ON THE COURT OF GRUNEWALD,' BEING A PORTION OF THE +TRAVELLER'S MANUSCRIPT + + +IT may well be asked (IT WAS THUS THE ENGLISH TRAVELLER BEGAN HIS +NINETEENTH CHAPTER) why I should have chosen Grunewald out of so +many other states equally petty, formal, dull, and corrupt. +Accident, indeed, decided, and not I; but I have seen no reason to +regret my visit. The spectacle of this small society macerating in +its own abuses was not perhaps instructive, but I have found it +exceedingly diverting. + +The reigning Prince, Otto Johann Friedrich, a young man of imperfect +education, questionable valour, and no scintilla of capacity, has +fallen into entire public contempt. It was with difficulty that I +obtained an interview, for he is frequently absent from a court +where his presence is unheeded, and where his only role is to be a +cloak for the amours of his wife. At last, however, on the third +occasion when I visited the palace, I found this sovereign in the +exercise of his inglorious function, with the wife on one hand, and +the lover on the other. He is not ill-looking; he has hair of a +ruddy gold, which naturally curls, and his eyes are dark, a +combination which I always regard as the mark of some congenital +deficiency, physical or moral; his features are irregular, but +pleasing; the nose perhaps a little short, and the mouth a little +womanish; his address is excellent, and he can express himself with +point. But to pierce below these externals is to come on a vacuity +of any sterling quality, a deliquescence of the moral nature, a +frivolity and inconsequence of purpose that mark the nearly perfect +fruit of a decadent age. He has a worthless smattering of many +subjects, but a grasp of none. 'I soon weary of a pursuit,' he said +to me, laughing; it would almost appear as if he took a pride in his +incapacity and lack of moral courage. The results of his +dilettanteism are to be seen in every field; he is a bad fencer, a +second-rate horseman, dancer, shot; he sings - I have heard him - +and he sings like a child; he writes intolerable verses in more than +doubtful French; he acts like the common amateur; and in short there +is no end to the number of the things that he does, and does badly. +His one manly taste is for the chase. In sum, he is but a plexus of +weaknesses; the singing chambermaid of the stage, tricked out in +man's apparel, and mounted on a circus horse. I have seen this poor +phantom of a prince riding out alone or with a few huntsmen, +disregarded by all, and I have been even grieved for the bearer of +so futile and melancholy an existence. The last Merovingians may +have looked not otherwise. + +The Princess Amalia Seraphina, a daughter of the Grand-Ducal house +of Toggenburg-Tannhauser, would be equally inconsiderable if she +were not a cutting instrument in the hands of an ambitious man. She +is much younger than the Prince, a girl of two-and-twenty, sick with +vanity, superficially clever, and fundamentally a fool. She has a +red-brown rolling eye, too large for her face, and with sparks of +both levity and ferocity; her forehead is high and narrow, her +figure thin and a little stooping. Her manners, her conversation, +which she interlards with French, her very tastes and ambitions, are +alike assumed; and the assumption is ungracefully apparent: Hoyden +playing Cleopatra. I should judge her to be incapable of truth. In +private life a girl of this description embroils the peace of +families, walks attended by a troop of scowling swains, and passes, +once at least, through the divorce court; it is a common and, except +to the cynic, an uninteresting type. On the throne, however, and in +the hands of a man like Gondremark, she may become the authoress of +serious public evils. + +Gondremark, the true ruler of this unfortunate country, is a more +complex study. His position in Grunewald, to which he is a +foreigner, is eminently false; and that he should maintain it as he +does, a very miracle of impudence and dexterity. His speech, his +face, his policy, are all double: heads and tails. Which of the two +extremes may be his actual design he were a bold man who should +offer to decide. Yet I will hazard the guess that he follows both +experimentally, and awaits, at the hand of destiny, one of those +directing hints of which she is so lavish to the wise. + +On the one hand, as MAIRE DU PALAIS to the incompetent Otto, and +using the love-sick Princess for a tool and mouthpiece, he pursues a +policy of arbitrary power and territorial aggrandisement. He has +called out the whole capable male population of the state to +military service; he has bought cannon; he has tempted away +promising officers from foreign armies; and he now begins, in his +international relations, to assume the swaggering port and the +vague, threatful language of a bully. The idea of extending +Grunewald may appear absurd, but the little state is advantageously +placed, its neighbours are all defenceless; and if at any moment the +jealousies of the greater courts should neutralise each other, an +active policy might double the principality both in population and +extent. Certainly at least the scheme is entertained in the court +of Mittwalden; nor do I myself regard it as entirely desperate. The +margravate of Brandenburg has grown from as small beginnings to a +formidable power; and though it is late in the day to try +adventurous policies, and the age of war seems ended, Fortune, we +must not forget, still blindly turns her wheel for men and nations. +Concurrently with, and tributary to, these warlike preparations, +crushing taxes have been levied, journals have been suppressed, and +the country, which three years ago was prosperous and happy, now +stagnates in a forced inaction, gold has become a curiosity, and the +mills stand idle on the mountain streams. + +On the other hand, in his second capacity of popular tribune, +Gondremark- is the incarnation of the free lodges, and sits at the +centre of an organised conspiracy against the state. To any such +movement my sympathies were early acquired, and I would not +willingly let fall a word that might embarrass or retard the +revolution. But to show that I speak of knowledge, and not as the +reporter of mere gossip, I may mention that I have myself been +present at a meeting where the details of a republican Constitution +were minutely debated and arranged; and I may add that Gondremark +was throughout referred to by the speakers as their captain in +action and the arbiter of their disputes. He has taught his dupes +(for so I must regard them) that his power of resistance to the +Princess is limited, and at each fresh stretch of authority +persuades them, with specious reasons, to postpone the hour of +insurrection. Thus (to give some instances of his astute diplomacy) +he salved over the decree enforcing military service, under the plea +that to be well drilled and exercised in arms was even a necessary +preparation for revolt. And the other day, when it began to be +rumoured abroad that a war was being forced on a reluctant +neighbour, the Grand Duke of Gerolstein, and I made sure it would be +the signal for an instant rising, I was struck dumb with wonder to +find that even this had been prepared and was to be accepted. I +went from one to another in the Liberal camp, and all were in the +same story, all had been drilled and schooled and fitted out with +vacuous argument. 'The lads had better see some real fighting,' +they said; 'and besides, it will be as well to capture Gerolstein: +we can then extend to our neighbours the blessing of liberty on the +same day that we snatch it for ourselves; and the republic will be +all the stronger to resist, if the kings of Europe should band +themselves together to reduce it.' I know not which of the two I +should admire the more: the simplicity of the multitude or the +audacity of the adventurer. But such are the subtleties, such the +quibbling reasons, with which he blinds and leads this people. How +long a course so tortuous can be pursued with safety I am incapable +of guessing; not long, one would suppose; and yet this singular man +has been treading the mazes for five years, and his favour at court +and his popularity among the lodges still endure unbroken. + +I have the privilege of slightly knowing him. Heavily and somewhat +clumsily built, of a vast, disjointed, rambling frame, he can still +pull himself together, and figure, not without admiration, in the +saloon or the ball-room. His hue and temperament are plentifully +bilious; he has a saturnine eye; his cheek is of a dark blue where +he has been shaven. Essentially he is to be numbered among the man- +haters, a convinced contemner of his fellows. Yet he is himself of +a commonplace ambition and greedy of applause. In talk, he is +remarkable for a thirst of information, loving rather to hear than +to communicate; for sound and studious views; and, judging by the +extreme short-sightedness of common politicians, for a remarkable +provision of events. All this, however, without grace, pleasantry, +or charm, heavily set forth, with a dull countenance. In our +numerous conversations, although he has always heard me with +deference, I have been conscious throughout of a sort of ponderous +finessing hard to tolerate. He produces none of the effect of a +gentleman; devoid not merely of pleasantry, but of all attention or +communicative warmth of bearing. No gentleman, besides, would so +parade his amours with the Princess; still less repay the Prince for +his long-suffering with a studied insolence of demeanour and the +fabrication of insulting nicknames, such as Prince Featherhead, +which run from ear to ear and create a laugh throughout the country. +Gondremark has thus some of the clumsier characters of the self-made +man, combined with an inordinate, almost a besotted, pride of +intellect and birth. Heavy, bilious, selfish, inornate, he sits +upon this court and country like an incubus. + +But it is probable that he preserves softer gifts for necessary +purposes. Indeed, it is certain, although he vouchsafed none of it +to me, that this cold and stolid politician possesses to a great +degree the art of ingratiation, and can be all things to all men. +Hence there has probably sprung up the idle legend that in private +life he is a gross romping voluptuary. Nothing, at least, can well +be more surprising than the terms of his connection with the +Princess. Older than her husband, certainly uglier, and, according +to the feeble ideas common among women, in every particular less +pleasing, he has not only seized the complete command of all her +thought and action, but has imposed on her in public a humiliating +part. I do not here refer to the complete sacrifice of every rag of +her reputation; for to many women these extremities are in +themselves attractive. But there is about the court a certain lady +of a dishevelled reputation, a Countess von Rosen, wife or widow of +a cloudy count, no longer in her second youth, and already bereft of +some of her attractions, who unequivocally occupies the station of +the Baron's mistress. I had thought, at first, that she was but a +hired accomplice, a mere blind or buffer for the more important +sinner. A few hours' acquaintance with Madame von Rosen for ever +dispelled the illusion. She is one rather to make than to prevent a +scandal, and she values none of those bribes - money, honours, or +employment - with which the situation might be gilded. Indeed, as a +person frankly bad, she pleased me, in the court of Grunewald, like +a piece of nature. + +The power of this man over the Princess is, therefore, without +bounds. She has sacrificed to the adoration with which he has +inspired her not only her marriage vow and every shred of public +decency, but that vice of jealousy which is so much dearer to the +female sex than either intrinsic honour or outward consideration. +Nay, more: a young, although not a very attractive woman, and a +princess both by birth and fact, she submits to the triumphant +rivalry of one who might be her mother as to years, and who is so +manifestly her inferior in station. This is one of the mysteries of +the human heart. But the rage of illicit love, when it is once +indulged, appears to grow by feeding; and to a person of the +character and temperament of this unfortunate young lady, almost any +depth of degradation is within the reach of possibility. + + + + +CHAPTER III - THE PRINCE AND THE ENGLISH TRAVELLER + + +So far Otto read, with waxing indignation; and here his fury +overflowed. He tossed the roll upon the table and stood up. 'This +man,' he said, 'is a devil. A filthy imagination, an ear greedy of +evil, a ponderous malignity of thought and language: I grow like him +by the reading! Chancellor, where is this fellow lodged?' + +'He was committed to the Flag Tower,' replied Greisengesang, 'in the +Gamiani apartment.' + +'Lead me to him,' said the Prince; and then, a thought striking him, +'Was it for that,' he asked, 'that I found so many sentries in the +garden?' + +'Your Highness, I am unaware,' answered Greisengesang, true to his +policy. 'The disposition of the guards is a matter distinct from my +functions.' + +Otto turned upon the old man fiercely, but ere he had time to speak, +Gotthold touched him on the arm. He swallowed his wrath with a +great effort. 'It is well,' he said, taking the roll. 'Follow me +to the Flag Tower.' + +The Chancellor gathered himself together, and the two set forward. +It was a long and complicated voyage; for the library was in the +wing of the new buildings, and the tower which carried the flag was +in the old schloss upon the garden. By a great variety of stairs +and corridors, they came out at last upon a patch of gravelled +court; the garden peeped through a high grating with a flash of +green; tall, old gabled buildings mounted on every side; the Flag +Tower climbed, stage after stage, into the blue; and high over all, +among the building daws, the yellow flag wavered in the wind. A +sentinel at the foot of the tower stairs presented arms; another +paced the first landing; and a third was stationed before the door +of the extemporised prison. + +'We guard this mud-bag like a jewel,' Otto sneered. + +The Gamiani apartment was so called from an Italian doctor who had +imposed on the credulity of a former prince. The rooms were large, +airy, pleasant, and looked upon the garden; but the walls were of +great thickness (for the tower was old), and the windows were +heavily barred. The Prince, followed by the Chancellor, still +trotting to keep up with him, brushed swiftly through the little +library and the long saloon, and burst like a thunderbolt into the +bedroom at the farther end. Sir John was finishing his toilet; a +man of fifty, hard, uncompromising, able, with the eye and teeth of +physical courage. He was unmoved by the irruption, and bowed with a +sort of sneering ease. + +'To what am I to attribute the honour of this visit?' he asked. + +'You have eaten my bread,' replied Otto, 'you have taken my hand, +you have been received under my roof. When did I fail you in +courtesy? What have you asked that was not granted as to an +honoured guest? And here, sir,' tapping fiercely on the manuscript, +'here is your return.' + +'Your Highness has read my papers?' said the Baronet. 'I am +honoured indeed. But the sketch is most imperfect. I shall now +have much to add. I can say that the Prince, whom I had accused of +idleness, is zealous in the department of police, taking upon +himself those duties that are most distasteful. I shall be able to +relate the burlesque incident of my arrest, and the singular +interview with which you honour me at present. For the rest, I have +already communicated with my Ambassador at Vienna; and unless you +propose to murder me, I shall be at liberty, whether you please or +not, within the week. For I hardly fancy the future empire of +Grunewald is yet ripe to go to war with England. I conceive I am a +little more than quits. I owe you no explanation; yours has been +the wrong. You, if you have studied my writing with intelligence, +owe me a large debt of gratitude. And to conclude, as I have not +yet finished my toilet, I imagine the courtesy of a turnkey to a +prisoner would induce you to withdraw.' + +There was some paper on the table, and Otto, sitting down, wrote a +passport in the name of Sir John Crabtree. + +'Affix the seal, Herr Cancellarius,' he said, in his most princely +manner, as he rose. + +Greisengesang produced a red portfolio, and affixed the seal in the +unpoetic guise of an adhesive stamp; nor did his perturbed and +clumsy movements at all lessen the comedy of the performance. Sir +John looked on with a malign enjoyment; and Otto chafed, regretting, +when too late, the unnecessary royalty of his command and gesture. +But at length the Chancellor had finished his piece of +prestidigitation, and, without waiting for an order, had +countersigned the passport. Thus regularised, he returned it to +Otto with a bow. + +'You will now,' said the Prince, 'order one of my own carriages to +be prepared; see it, with your own eyes, charged with Sir John's +effects, and have it waiting within the hour behind the Pheasant +House. Sir John departs this morning for Vienna.' + +The Chancellor took his elaborate departure. + +'Here, sir, is your passport,' said Otto, turning to the Baronet. +'I regret it from my heart that you have met inhospitable usage.' + +'Well, there will be no English war,' returned Sir John. + +'Nay, sir,' said Otto, 'you surely owe me your civility. Matters +are now changed, and we stand again upon the footing of two +gentlemen. It was not I who ordered your arrest; I returned late +last night from hunting; and as you cannot blame me for your +imprisonment, you may even thank me for your freedom.' + +'And yet you read my papers,' said the traveller shrewdly. + +'There, sir, I was wrong,' returned Otto; 'and for that I ask your +pardon. You can scarce refuse it, for your own dignity, to one who +is a plexus of weaknesses. Nor was the fault entirely mine. Had +the papers been innocent, it would have been at most an +indiscretion. Your own guilt is the sting of my offence.' + +Sir John regarded Otto with an approving twinkle; then he bowed, but +still in silence. + +'Well, sir, as you are now at your entire disposal, I have a favour +to beg of your indulgence,' continued the Prince. 'I have to +request that you will walk with me alone into the garden so soon as +your convenience permits.' + +'From the moment that I am a free man,' Sir John replied, this time +with perfect courtesy, 'I am wholly at your Highness's command; and +if you will excuse a rather summary toilet, I will even follow you, +as I am.' + +'I thank you, sir,' said Otto. + +So without more delay, the Prince leading, the pair proceeded down +through the echoing stairway of the tower, and out through the +grating, into the ample air and sunshine of the morning, and among +the terraces and flower-beds of the garden. They crossed the fish- +pond, where the carp were leaping as thick as bees; they mounted, +one after another, the various flights of stairs, snowed upon, as +they went, with April blossoms, and marching in time to the great +orchestra of birds. Nor did Otto pause till they had reached the +highest terrace of the garden. Here was a gate into the park, and +hard by, under a tuft of laurel, a marble garden seat. Hence they +looked down on the green tops of many elm-trees, where the rooks +were busy; and, beyond that, upon the palace roof, and the yellow +banner flying in the blue. I pray you to be seated, sir,' said +Otto. + +Sir John complied without a word; and for some seconds Otto walked +to and fro before him, plunged in angry thought. The birds were all +singing for a wager. + +'Sir,' said the Prince at length, turning towards the Englishman, +'you are to me, except by the conventions of society, a perfect +stranger. Of your character and wishes I am ignorant. I have never +wittingly disobliged you. There is a difference in station, which I +desire to waive. I would, if you still think me entitled to so much +consideration - I would be regarded simply as a gentleman. Now, +sir, I did wrong to glance at these papers, which I here return to +you; but if curiosity be undignified, as I am free to own, falsehood +is both cowardly and cruel. I opened your roll; and what did I find +- what did I find about my wife; Lies!' he broke out. 'They are +lies! There are not, so help me God! four words of truth in your +intolerable libel! You are a man; you are old, and might be the +girl's father; you are a gentleman; you are a scholar, and have +learned refinement; and you rake together all this vulgar scandal, +and propose to print it in a public book! Such is your chivalry! +But, thank God, sir, she has still a husband. You say, sir, in that +paper in your hand, that I am a bad fencer; I have to request from +you a lesson in the art. The park is close behind; yonder is the +Pheasant House, where you will find your carriage; should I fall, +you know, sir - you have written it in your paper - how little my +movements are regarded; I am in the custom of disappearing; it will +be one more disappearance; and long before it has awakened a remark, +you may be safe across the border.' + +'You will observe,' said Sir John, 'that what you ask is +impossible.' + +'And if I struck you?' cried the Prince, with a sudden menacing +flash. + +'It would be a cowardly blow,' returned the Baronet, unmoved, 'for +it would make no change. I cannot draw upon a reigning sovereign.' + +'And it is this man, to whom you dare not offer satisfaction, that +you choose to insult!' cried Otto. + +'Pardon me,' said the traveller, 'you are unjust. It is because you +are a reigning sovereign that I cannot fight with you; and it is for +the same reason that I have a right to criticise your action and +your wife. You are in everything a public creature; you belong to +the public, body and bone. You have with you the law, the muskets +of the army, and the eyes of spies. We, on our side, have but one +weapon - truth.' + +'Truth!' echoed the Prince, with a gesture. + +There was another silence. + +'Your Highness,' said Sir John at last, 'you must not expect grapes +from a thistle. I am old and a cynic. Nobody cares a rush for me; +and on the whole, after the present interview, I scarce know anybody +that I like better than yourself. You see, I have changed my mind, +and have the uncommon virtue to avow the change. I tear up this +stuff before you, here in your own garden; I ask your pardon, I ask +the pardon of the Princess; and I give you my word of honour as a +gentleman and an old man, that when my book of travels shall appear +it shall not contain so much as the name of Grunewald. And yet it +was a racy chapter! But had your Highness only read about the other +courts! I am a carrion crow; but it is not my fault, after all, +that the world is such a nauseous kennel.' + +'Sir,' said Otto, 'is the eye not jaundiced?' + +'Nay,' cried the traveller, 'very likely. I am one who goes +sniffing; I am no poet. I believe in a better future for the world; +or, at all accounts, I do most potently disbelieve in the present. +Rotten eggs is the burthen of my song. But indeed, your Highness, +when I meet with any merit, I do not think that I am slow to +recognise it. This is a day that I shall still recall with +gratitude, for I have found a sovereign with some manly virtues; and +for once - old courtier and old radical as I am - it is from the +heart and quite sincerely that I can request the honour of kissing +your Highness's hand?' + +'Nay, sir,' said Otto, 'to my heart!' + +And the Englishman, taken at unawares, was clasped for a moment in +the Prince's arms. + +'And now, sir,' added Otto, 'there is the Pheasant House; close +behind it you will find my carriage, which I pray you to accept. +God speed you to Vienna!' + +'In the impetuosity of youth,' replied Sir John, 'your Highness has +overlooked one circumstance. I am still fasting.' + +'Well, sir,' said Otto, smiling, 'you are your own master; you may +go or stay. But I warn you, your friend may prove less powerful +than your enemies. The Prince, indeed, is thoroughly on your side; +he has all the will to help; but to whom do I speak? - you know +better than I do, he is not alone in Grunewald.' + +'There is a deal in position,' returned the traveller, gravely +nodding. 'Gondremark loves to temporise; his policy is below +ground, and he fears all open courses; and now that I have seen you +act with so much spirit, I will cheerfully risk myself on your +protection. Who knows? You may be yet the better man.' + +'Do you indeed believe so?' cried the Prince. 'You put life into my +heart!' + +'I will give up sketching portraits,' said the Baronet. 'I am a +blind owl; I had misread you strangely. And yet remember this; a +sprint is one thing, and to run all day another. For I still +mistrust your constitution; the short nose, the hair and eyes of +several complexions; no, they are diagnostic; and I must end, I see, +as I began.' + +'I am still a singing chambermaid?' said Otto. + +'Nay, your Highness, I pray you to forget what I had written,' said +Sir John; 'I am not like Pilate; and the chapter is no more. Bury +it, if you love me.' + + + + +CHAPTER IV - WHILE THE PRINCE IS IN THE ANTE-ROOM . . . + + +GREATLY comforted by the exploits of the morning, the Prince turned +towards the Princess's ante-room, bent on a more difficult +enterprise. The curtains rose before him, the usher called his +name, and he entered the room with an exaggeration of his usual +mincing and airy dignity. There were about a score of persons +waiting, principally ladies; it was one of the few societies in +Grunewald where Otto knew himself to be popular; and while a maid of +honour made her exit by a side door to announce his arrival to the +Princess, he moved round the apartment, collecting homage and +bestowing compliments with friendly grace. Had this been the sum of +his duties, he had been an admirable monarch. Lady after lady was +impartially honoured by his attention. + +'Madam,' he said to one, 'how does this happen? I find you daily +more adorable.' + +'And your Highness daily browner,' replied the lady. 'We began +equal; O, there I will be bold: we have both beautiful complexions. +But while I study mine, your Highness tans himself.' + +'A perfect negro, madam; and what so fitly - being beauty's slave?' +said Otto. - 'Madame Grafinski, when is our next play? I have just +heard that I am a bad actor.' + +'O CIEL!' cried Madame Grafinski. 'Who could venture? What a +bear!' + +'An excellent man, I can assure you,' returned Otto. + +'O, never! O, is it possible!' fluted the lady. 'Your Highness +plays like an angel.' + +'You must be right, madam; who could speak falsely and yet look so +charming?' said the Prince. 'But this gentleman, it seems, would +have preferred me playing like an actor.' + +A sort of hum, a falsetto, feminine cooing, greeted the tiny sally; +and Otto expanded like a peacock. This warm atmosphere of women and +flattery and idle chatter pleased him to the marrow. + +'Madame von Eisenthal, your coiffure is delicious,' he remarked. + +'Every one was saying so,' said one. + +'If I have pleased Prince Charming?' And Madame von Eisenthal swept +him a deep curtsy with a killing glance of adoration. + +'It is new?' he asked. 'Vienna fashion.' + +'Mint new,' replied the lady, 'for your Highness's return. I felt +young this morning; it was a premonition. But why, Prince, do you +ever leave us?' + +'For the pleasure of the return,' said Otto. 'I am like a dog; I +must bury my bone, and then come back to great upon it.' + +'O, a bone! Fie, what a comparison! You have brought back the +manners of the wood,' returned the lady. + +'Madam, it is what the dog has dearest,' said the Prince. 'But I +observe Madame von Rosen.' + +And Otto, leaving the group to which he had been piping, stepped +towards the embrasure of a window where a lady stood. + +The Countess von Rosen had hitherto been silent, and a thought +depressed, but on the approach of Otto she began to brighten. She +was tall, slim as a nymph, and of a very airy carriage; and her +face, which was already beautiful in repose, lightened and changed, +flashed into smiles, and glowed with lovely colour at the touch of +animation. She was a good vocalist; and, even in speech, her voice +commanded a great range of changes, the low notes rich with tenor +quality, the upper ringing, on the brink of laughter, into music. A +gem of many facets and variable hues of fire; a woman who withheld +the better portion of her beauty, and then, in a caressing second, +flashed it like a weapon full on the beholder; now merely a tall +figure and a sallow handsome face, with the evidences of a reckless +temper; anon opening like a flower to life and colour, mirth and +tenderness:- Madame von Rosen had always a dagger in reserve for the +despatch of ill-assured admirers. She met Otto with the dart of +tender gaiety. + + 'You have come to me at last, Prince Cruel,' she said. 'Butterfly! +Well, and am I not to kiss your hand?' she added. + +'Madam, it is I who must kiss yours.' And Otto bowed and kissed it. + +'You deny me every indulgence,' she said, smiling. + +'And now what news in Court?' inquired the Prince. 'I come to you +for my gazette.' + +'Ditch-water!' she replied. 'The world is all asleep, grown grey in +slumber; I do not remember any waking movement since quite an +eternity; and the last thing in the nature of a sensation was the +last time my governess was allowed to box my ears. But yet I do +myself and your unfortunate enchanted palace some injustice. Here +is the last - O positively!' And she told him the story from behind +her fan, with many glances, many cunning strokes of the narrator's +art. The others had drawn away, for it was understood that Madame +von Rosen was in favour with the Prince. None the less, however, +did the Countess lower her voice at times to within a semitone of +whispering; and the pair leaned together over the narrative. + +'Do you know,' said Otto, laughing, 'you are the only entertaining +woman on this earth!' + +'O, you have found out so much,' she cried. + +'Yes, madam, I grow wiser with advancing years,' he returned. + +'Years,' she repeated. 'Do you name the traitors? I do not believe +in years; the calendar is a delusion.' + +'You must be right, madam,' replied the Prince. 'For six years that +we have been good friends, I have observed you to grow younger.' + +'Flatterer!' cried she, and then with a change, 'But why should I +say so,' she added, 'when I protest I think the same? A week ago I +had a council with my father director, the glass; and the glass +replied, "Not yet!" I confess my face in this way once a month. O! +a very solemn moment. Do you know what I shall do when the mirror +answers, "Now"?' + +'I cannot guess,' said he. + +'No more can I,' returned the Countess. 'There is such a choice! +Suicide, gambling, a nunnery, a volume of memoirs, or politics - the +last, I am afraid.' + +'It is a dull trade,' said Otto. + +'Nay,' she replied, 'it is a trade I rather like. It is, after all, +first cousin to gossip, which no one can deny to be amusing. For +instance, if I were to tell you that the Princess and the Baron rode +out together daily to inspect the cannon, it is either a piece of +politics or scandal, as I turn my phrase. I am the alchemist that +makes the transmutation. They have been everywhere together since +you left,' she continued, brightening as she saw Otto darken; 'that +is a poor snippet of malicious gossip - and they were everywhere +cheered - and with that addition all becomes political +intelligence.' + +'Let us change the subject,' said Otto. + +'I was about to propose it,' she replied, 'or rather to pursue the +politics. Do you know? this war is popular - popular to the length +of cheering Princess Seraphina.' + +'All things, madam, are possible,' said the Prince; and this among +others, that we may be going into war, but I give you my word of +honour I do not know with whom.' + +'And you put up with it?' she cried. 'I have no pretensions to +morality; and I confess I have always abominated the lamb, and +nourished a romantic feeling for the wolf. O, be done with +lambiness! Let us see there is a prince, for I am weary of the +distaff.' + +'Madam,' said Otto, 'I thought you were of that faction.' + +'I should be of yours, MON PRINCE, if you had one,' she retorted. +'Is it true that you have no ambition? There was a man once in +England whom they call the kingmaker. Do you know,' she added, 'I +fancy I could make a prince?' + +'Some day, madam,' said Otto, 'I may ask you to help make a farmer.' + +'Is that a riddle?' asked the Countess. + +'It is,' replied the Prince, 'and a very good one too.' + +'Tit for tat. I will ask you another,' she returned. 'Where is +Gondremark?' + +'The Prime Minister? In the prime-ministry, no doubt,' said Otto. + +'Precisely,' said the Countess; and she pointed with her fan to the +door of the Princess's apartments. 'You and I, MON PRINCE, are in +the ante-room. You think me unkind,' she added. 'Try me and you +will see. Set me a task, put me a question; there is no enormity I +am not capable of doing to oblige you, and no secret that I am not +ready to betray.' + +'Nay, madam, but I respect my friend too much,' he answered, kissing +her hand. 'I would rather remain ignorant of all. We fraternise +like foemen soldiers at the outposts, but let each be true to his +own army.' + +'Ah,' she cried, 'if all men were generous like you, it would be +worth while to be a woman!' Yet, judging by her looks, his +generosity, if anything, had disappointed her; she seemed to seek a +remedy, and, having found it, brightened once more. 'And now,' she +said, 'may I dismiss my sovereign? This is rebellion and a CAS +PENDABLE; but what am I to do? My bear is jealous!' + +'Madam, enough!' cried Otto. 'Ahasuerus reaches you the sceptre; +more, he will obey you in all points. I should have been a dog to +come to whistling.' + +And so the Prince departed, and fluttered round Grafinski and von +Eisenthal. But the Countess knew the use of her offensive weapons, +and had left a pleasant arrow in the Prince's heart. That +Gondremark was jealous - here was an agreeable revenge! And Madame +von Rosen, as the occasion of the jealousy, appeared to him in a new +light. + + + + +CHAPTER V - . . . GONDREMARK IS IN MY LADY'S CHAMBER + + +THE Countess von Rosen spoke the truth. The great Prime Minister of +Grunewald was already closeted with Seraphina. The toilet was over; +and the Princess, tastefully arrayed, sat face to face with a tall +mirror. Sir John's description was unkindly true, true in terms and +yet a libel, a misogynistic masterpiece. Her forehead was perhaps +too high, but it became her; her figure somewhat stooped, but every +detail was formed and finished like a gem; her hand, her foot, her +ear, the set of her comely head, were all dainty and accordant; if +she was not beautiful, she was vivid, changeful, coloured, and +pretty with a thousand various prettinesses; and her eyes, if they +indeed rolled too consciously, yet rolled to purpose. They were her +most attractive feature, yet they continually bore eloquent false +witness to her thoughts; for while she herself, in the depths of her +immature, unsoftened heart, was given altogether to manlike ambition +and the desire of power, the eyes were by turns bold, inviting, +fiery, melting, and artful, like the eyes of a rapacious siren. And +artful, in a sense, she was. Chafing that she was not a man, and +could not shine by action, she had conceived a woman's part, of +answerable domination; she sought to subjugate for by-ends, to rain +influence and be fancy free; and, while she loved not man, loved to +see man obey her. It is a common girl's ambition. Such was perhaps +that lady of the glove, who sent her lover to the lions. But the +snare is laid alike for male and female, and the world most artfully +contrived. + +Near her, in a low chair, Gondremark had arranged his limbs into a +cat-like attitude, high-shouldered, stooping, and submiss. The +formidable blue jowl of the man, and the dull bilious eye, set +perhaps a higher value on his evident desire to please. His face +was marked by capacity, temper, and a kind of bold, piratical +dishonesty which it would be calumnious to call deceit. His +manners, as he smiled upon the Princess, were over-fine, yet hardly +elegant. + +'Possibly,' said the Baron, 'I should now proceed to take my leave. +I must not keep my sovereign in the ante-room. Let us come at once +to a decision.' + +'It cannot, cannot be put off?' she asked. + +'It is impossible,' answered Gondremark. 'Your Highness sees it for +herself. In the earlier stages, we might imitate the serpent; but +for the ultimatum, there is no choice but to be bold like lions. +Had the Prince chosen to remain away, it had been better; but we +have gone too far forward to delay.' + +'What can have brought him?' she cried. 'To-day of all days?' + +'The marplot, madam, has the instinct of his nature,' returned +Gondremark. 'But you exaggerate the peril. Think, madam, how far +we have prospered, and against what odds! Shall a Featherhead? - +but no!' And he blew upon his fingers lightly with a laugh. + +'Featherhead,' she replied, 'is still the Prince of Grunewald.' + +'On your sufferance only, and so long as you shall please to be +indulgent,' said the Baron. 'There are rights of nature; power to +the powerful is the law. If he shall think to cross your destiny - +well, you have heard of the brazen and the earthen pot.' + +'Do you call me pot? You are ungallant, Baron,' laughed the +Princess. + +'Before we are done with your glory, I shall have called you by many +different titles,' he replied. + +The girl flushed with pleasure. 'But Frederic is still the Prince, +MONSIEUR LE FLATTEUR,' she said. 'You do not propose a revolution? +- you of all men?' + +'Dear madam, when it is already made!' he cried. 'The Prince reigns +indeed in the almanac; but my Princess reigns and rules.' And he +looked at her with a fond admiration that made the heart of +Seraphina swell. Looking on her huge slave, she drank the +intoxicating joys of power. Meanwhile he continued, with that sort +of massive archness that so ill became him, 'She has but one fault; +there is but one danger in the great career that I foresee for her. +May I name it? may I be so irreverent? It is in herself - her heart +is soft.' + +'Her courage is faint, Baron,' said the Princess. 'Suppose we have +judged ill, suppose we were defeated?' + +'Defeated, madam?' returned the Baron, with a touch of ill-humour. +'Is the dog defeated by the hare? Our troops are all cantoned along +the frontier; in five hours the vanguard of five thousand bayonets +shall be hammering on the gates of Brandenau; and in all Gerolstein +there are not fifteen hundred men who can manoeuvre. It is as +simple as a sum. There can be no resistance.' + +'It is no great exploit,' she said. 'Is that what you call glory? +It is like beating a child.' + +'The courage, madam, is diplomatic,' he replied. 'We take a grave +step; we fix the eyes of Europe, for the first time, on Grunewald; +and in the negotiations of the next three months, mark me, we stand +or fall. It is there, madam, that I shall have to depend upon your +counsels,' he added, almost gloomily. 'If I had not seen you at +work, if I did not know the fertility of your mind, I own I should +tremble for the consequence. But it is in this field that men must +recognise their inability. All the great negotiators, when they +have not been women, have had women at their elbows. Madame de +Pompadour was ill served; she had not found her Gondremark; but what +a mighty politician! Catherine de' Medici, too, what justice of +sight, what readiness of means, what elasticity against defeat! But +alas! madam, her Featherheads were her own children; and she had +that one touch of vulgarity, that one trait of the good-wife, that +she suffered family ties and affections to confine her liberty.' + +These singular views of history, strictly AD USUM SERAPHINAE, did +not weave their usual soothing spell over the Princess. It was +plain that she had taken a momentary distaste to her own +resolutions; for she continued to oppose her counsellor, looking +upon him out of half-closed eyes and with the shadow of a sneer upon +her lips. 'What boys men are!' she said; 'what lovers of big words! +Courage, indeed! If you had to scour pans, Herr Von Gondremark, you +would call it, I suppose, Domestic Courage?' + +'I would, madam,' said the Baron stoutly, 'if I scoured them well. +I would put a good name upon a virtue; you will not overdo it: they +are not so enchanting in themselves.' + +'Well, but let me see,' she said. 'I wish to understand your +courage. Why we asked leave, like children! Our grannie in Berlin, +our uncle in Vienna, the whole family, have patted us on the head +and sent us forward. Courage? I wonder when I hear you!' + +'My Princess is unlike herself,' returned the Baron. 'She has +forgotten where the peril lies. True, we have received +encouragement on every hand; but my Princess knows too well on what +untenable conditions; and she knows besides how, in the publicity of +the diet, these whispered conferences are forgotten and disowned. +The danger is very real' - he raged inwardly at having to blow the +very coal he had been quenching - 'none the less real in that it is +not precisely military, but for that reason the easier to be faced. +Had we to count upon your troops, although I share your Highness's +expectations of the conduct of Alvenau, we cannot forget that he has +not been proved in chief command. But where negotiation is +concerned, the conduct lies with us; and with your help, I laugh at +danger.' + +'It may be so,' said Seraphina, sighing. 'It is elsewhere that I +see danger. The people, these abominable people - suppose they +should instantly rebel? What a figure we should make in the eyes of +Europe to have undertaken an invasion while my own throne was +tottering to its fall!' + +'Nay, madam,' said Gondremark, smiling, 'here you are beneath +yourself. What is it that feeds their discontent? What but the +taxes? Once we have seized Gerolstein, the taxes are remitted, the +sons return covered with renown, the houses are adorned with +pillage, each tastes his little share of military glory, and behold +us once again a happy family! "Ay," they will say, in each other's +long ears, "the Princess knew what she was about; she was in the +right of it; she has a head upon her shoulders; and here we are, you +see, better off than before." But why should I say all this? It is +what my Princess pointed out to me herself; it was by these reasons +that she converted me to this adventure.' + +'I think, Herr von Gondremark,' said Seraphina, somewhat tartly, +'you often attribute your own sagacity to your Princess.' + +For a second Gondremark staggered under the shrewdness of the +attack; the next, he had perfectly recovered. 'Do I?' he said. 'It +is very possible. I have observed a similar tendency in your +Highness.' + +It was so openly spoken, and appeared so just, that Seraphina +breathed again. Her vanity had been alarmed, and the greatness of +the relief improved her spirits. 'Well,' she said, 'all this is +little to the purpose. We are keeping Frederic without, and I am +still ignorant of our line of battle. Come, co-admiral, let us +consult. . . . How am I to receive him now? And what are we to do +if he should appear at the council?' + +'Now,' he answered. 'I shall leave him to my Princess for just now! +I have seen her at work. Send him off to his theatricals! But in +all gentleness,' he added. 'Would it, for instance, would it +displease my sovereign to affect a headache?' + +'Never!' said she. 'The woman who can manage, like the man who can +fight, must never shrink from an encounter. The knight must not +disgrace his weapons.' + +'Then let me pray my BELLE DAME SANS MERCI,' he returned, 'to affect +the only virtue that she lacks. Be pitiful to the poor young man; +affect an interest in his hunting; be weary of politics; find in his +society, as it were, a grateful repose from dry considerations. +Does my Princess authorise the line of battle?' + +'Well, that is a trifle,' answered Seraphina. 'The council - there +is the point.' + +'The council?' cried Gondremark. 'Permit me, madam.' And he rose +and proceeded to flutter about the room, counterfeiting Otto both in +voice and gesture not unhappily. 'What is there to-day, Herr von +Gondremark? Ah, Herr Cancellarius, a new wig! You cannot deceive +me; I know every wig in Grunewald; I have the sovereign's eye. What +are these papers about? O, I see. O, certainly. Surely, surely. +I wager none of you remarked that wig. By all means. I know +nothing about that. Dear me, are there as many as all that? Well, +you can sign them; you have the procuration. You see, Herr +Cancellarius, I knew your wig. And so,' concluded Gondremark, +resuming his own voice, 'our sovereign, by the particular grace of +God, enlightens and supports his privy councillors.' + +But when the Baron turned to Seraphina for approval, he found her +frozen. 'You are pleased to be witty, Herr von Gondremark,' she +said, 'and have perhaps forgotten where you are. But these +rehearsals are apt to be misleading. Your master, the Prince of +Grunewald, is sometimes more exacting.' + +Gondremark cursed her in his soul. Of all injured vanities, that of +the reproved buffoon is the most savage; and when grave issues are +involved, these petty stabs become unbearable. But Gondremark was a +man of iron; he showed nothing; he did not even, like the common +trickster, retreat because he had presumed, but held to his point +bravely. 'Madam,' he said, 'if, as you say, he prove exacting, we +must take the bull by the horns.' + +'We shall see,' she said, and she arranged her skirt like one about +to rise. Temper, scorn, disgust, all the more acrid feelings, +became her like jewels; and she now looked her best. + +'Pray God they quarrel,' thought Gondremark. 'The damned minx may +fail me yet, unless they quarrel. It is time to let him in. Zz - +fight, dogs!' Consequent on these reflections, he bent a stiff knee +and chivalrously kissed the Princess's hand. 'My Princess,' he +said, 'must now dismiss her servant. I have much to arrange against +the hour of council.' + +'Go,' she said, and rose. + +And as Gondremark tripped out of a private door, she touched a bell, +and gave the order to admit the Prince. + + + + +CHAPTER VI - THE PRINCE DELIVERS A LECTURE ON MARRIAGE, WITH +PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS OF DIVORCE + + +WITH what a world of excellent intentions Otto entered his wife's +cabinet! how fatherly, how tender! how morally affecting were the +words he had prepared! Nor was Seraphina unamiably inclined. Her +usual fear of Otto as a marplot in her great designs was now +swallowed up in a passing distrust of the designs themselves. For +Gondremark, besides, she had conceived an angry horror. In her +heart she did not like the Baron. Behind his impudent servility, +behind the devotion which, with indelicate delicacy, he still forced +on her attention, she divined the grossness of his nature. So a man +may be proud of having tamed a bear, and yet sicken at his captive's +odour. And above all, she had certain jealous intimations that the +man was false and the deception double. True, she falsely trifled +with his love; but he, perhaps, was only trifling with her vanity. +The insolence of his late mimicry, and the odium of her own position +as she sat and watched it, lay besides like a load upon her +conscience. She met Otto almost with a sense of guilt, and yet she +welcomed him as a deliverer from ugly things. + +But the wheels of an interview are at the mercy of a thousand ruts; +and even at Otto's entrance, the first jolt occurred. Gondremark, +he saw, was gone; but there was the chair drawn close for +consultation; and it pained him not only that this man had been +received, but that he should depart with such an air of secrecy. +Struggling with this twinge, it was somewhat sharply that he +dismissed the attendant who had brought him in. + +'You make yourself at home, CHEZ MOI,' she said, a little ruffled +both by his tone of command and by the glance he had thrown upon the +chair. + +'Madam,' replied Otto, 'I am here so seldom that I have almost the +rights of a stranger.' + +'You choose your own associates, Frederic,' she said. + +'I am here to speak of it,' he returned. 'It is now four years +since we were married; and these four years, Seraphina, have not +perhaps been happy either for you or for me. I am well aware I was +unsuitable to be your husband. I was not young, I had no ambition, +I was a trifler; and you despised me, I dare not say unjustly. But +to do justice on both sides, you must bear in mind how I have acted. +When I found it amused you to play the part of Princess on this +little stage, did I not immediately resign to you my box of toys, +this Grunewald? And when I found I was distasteful as a husband, +could any husband have been less intrusive? You will tell me that I +have no feelings, no preference, and thus no credit; that I go +before the wind; that all this was in my character. And indeed, one +thing is true, that it is easy, too easy, to leave things undone. +But Seraphina, I begin to learn it is not always wise. If I were +too old and too uncongenial for your husband, I should still have +remembered that I was the Prince of that country to which you came, +a visitor and a child. In that relation also there were duties, and +these duties I have not performed.' + +To claim the advantage of superior age is to give sure offence. +'Duty!' laughed Seraphina, 'and on your lips, Frederic! You make me +laugh. What fancy is this? Go, flirt with the maids and be a +prince in Dresden china, as you look. Enjoy yourself, MON ENFANT, +and leave duty and the state to us.' + +The plural grated on the Prince. 'I have enjoyed myself too much,' +he said, 'since enjoyment is the word. And yet there were much to +say upon the other side. You must suppose me desperately fond of +hunting. But indeed there were days when I found a great deal of +interest in what it was courtesy to call my government. And I have +always had some claim to taste; I could tell live happiness from +dull routine; and between hunting, and the throne of Austria, and +your society, my choice had never wavered, had the choice been mine. +You were a girl, a bud, when you were given me - ' + +'Heavens!' she cried, 'is this to be a love-scene?' + +'I am never ridiculous,' he said; 'it is my only merit; and you may +be certain this shall be a scene of marriage A LA MODE. But when I +remember the beginning, it is bare courtesy to speak in sorrow. Be +just, madam: you would think me strangely uncivil to recall these +days without the decency of a regret. Be yet a little juster, and +own, if only in complaisance, that you yourself regret that past.' + +'I have nothing to regret,' said the Princess. 'You surprise me. I +thought you were so happy.' + +'Happy and happy, there are so many hundred ways,' said Otto. 'A +man may be happy in revolt; he may be happy in sleep; wine, change, +and travel make him happy; virtue, they say, will do the like - I +have not tried; and they say also that in old, quiet, and habitual +marriages there is yet another happiness. Happy, yes; I am happy if +you like; but I will tell you frankly, I was happier when I brought +you home.' + +'Well,' said the Princess, not without constraint, 'it seems you +changed your mind.' + +'Not I,' returned Otto, 'I never changed. Do you remember, +Seraphina, on our way home, when you saw the roses in the lane, and +I got out and plucked them? It was a narrow lane between great +trees; the sunset at the end was all gold, and the rooks were flying +overhead. There were nine, nine red roses; you gave me a kiss for +each, and I told myself that every rose and every kiss should stand +for a year of love. Well, in eighteen months there was an end. But +do you fancy, Seraphina, that my heart has altered?' + +'I am sure I cannot tell,' she said, like an automaton. + +'It has not,' the Prince continued. 'There is nothing ridiculous, +even from a husband, in a love that owns itself unhappy and that +asks no more. I built on sand; pardon me, I do not breathe a +reproach - I built, I suppose, upon my own infirmities; but I put my +heart in the building, and it still lies among the ruins.' + +'How very poetical!' she said, with a little choking laugh, unknown +relentings, unfamiliar softnesses, moving within her. 'What would +you be at?' she added, hardening her voice. + +'I would be at this,' he answered; 'and hard it is to say. I would +be at this:- Seraphina, I am your husband after all, and a poor fool +that loves you. Understand,' he cried almost fiercely, 'I am no +suppliant husband; what your love refuses I would scorn to receive +from your pity. I do not ask, I would not take it. And for +jealousy, what ground have I? A dog-in-the-manger jealousy is a +thing the dogs may laugh at. But at least, in the world's eye, I am +still your husband; and I ask you if you treat me fairly? I keep to +myself, I leave you free, I have given you in everything your will. +What do you in return? I find, Seraphina, that you have been too +thoughtless. But between persons such as we are, in our conspicuous +station, particular care and a particular courtesy are owing. +Scandal is perhaps not easy to avoid; but it is hard to bear.' + +'Scandal!' she cried, with a deep breath. 'Scandal! It is for this +you have been driving!' + +'I have tried to tell you how I feel,' he replied. 'I have told you +that I love you - love you in vain - a bitter thing for a husband; I +have laid myself open that I might speak without offence. And now +that I have begun, I will go on and finish.' + +'I demand it,' she said. 'What is this about?' + +Otto flushed crimson. 'I have to say what I would fain not,' he +answered. 'I counsel you to see less of Gondremark.' + +'Of Gondremark? And why?' she asked. + +'Your intimacy is the ground of scandal, madam,' said Otto, firmly +enough - 'of a scandal that is agony to me, and would be crushing to +your parents if they knew it.' + +'You are the first to bring me word of it,' said she. 'I thank +you.' + +'You have perhaps cause,' he replied. 'Perhaps I am the only one +among your friends - ' + +'O, leave my friends alone,' she interrupted. 'My friends are of a +different stamp. You have come to me here and made a parade of +sentiment. When have I last seen you? I have governed your kingdom +for you in the meanwhile, and there I got no help. At last, when I +am weary with a man's work, and you are weary of your playthings, +you return to make me a scene of conjugal reproaches - the grocer +and his wife! The positions are too much reversed; and you should +understand, at least, that I cannot at the same time do your work of +government and behave myself like a little girl. Scandal is the +atmosphere in which we live, we princes; it is what a prince should +know. You play an odious part. Do you believe this rumour?' + +'Madam, should I be here?' said Otto. + +'It is what I want to know!' she cried, the tempest of her scorn +increasing. 'Suppose you did - I say, suppose you did believe it?' + +'I should make it my business to suppose the contrary,' he answered. + +'I thought so. O, you are made of baseness!' said she. + +'Madam,' he cried, roused at last, 'enough of this. You wilfully +misunderstand my attitude; you outwear my patience. In the name of +your parents, in my own name, I summon you to be more circumspect.' + +'Is this a request, MONSIEUR MON MARI?' she demanded. + +'Madam, if I chose, I might command,' said Otto. + +'You might, sir, as the law stands, make me prisoner,' returned +Seraphina. 'Short of that you will gain nothing.' + +'You will continue as before?' he asked. + +'Precisely as before,' said she. 'As soon as this comedy is over, I +shall request the Freiherr von Gondremark to visit me. Do you +understand?' she added, rising. 'For my part, I have done.' + +'I will then ask the favour of your hand, madam,' said Otto, +palpitating in every pulse with anger. 'I have to request that you +will visit in my society another part of my poor house. And +reassure yourself - it will not take long - and it is the last +obligation that you shall have the chance to lay me under.' + +'The last?' she cried. 'Most joyfully?' + +She offered her hand, and he took it; on each side with an elaborate +affectation, each inwardly incandescent. He led her out by the +private door, following where Gondremark had passed; they threaded a +corridor or two, little frequented, looking on a court, until they +came at last into the Prince's suite. The first room was an +armoury, hung all about with the weapons of various countries, and +looking forth on the front terrace. + +'Have you brought me here to slay me?' she inquired. + +'I have brought you, madam, only to pass on,' replied Otto. + +Next they came to a library, where an old chamberlain sat half +asleep. He rose and bowed before the princely couple, asking for +orders. + +'You will attend us here,' said Otto. + +The next stage was a gallery of pictures, where Seraphina's portrait +hung conspicuous, dressed for the chase, red roses in her hair, as +Otto, in the first months of marriage, had directed. He pointed to +it without a word; she raised her eyebrows in silence; and they +passed still forward into a matted corridor where four doors opened. +One led to Otto's bedroom; one was the private door to Seraphina's. +And here, for the first time, Otto left her hand, and stepping +forward, shot the bolt. + +'It is long, madam,' said he, 'since it was bolted on the other +side.' + +'One was effectual,' returned the Princess. 'Is this all?' + +'Shall I reconduct you?' he asking, bowing. + +'I should prefer,' she asked, in ringing tones, 'the conduct of the +Freiherr von Gondremark.' + +Otto summoned the chamberlain. 'If the Freiherr von Gondremark is +in the palace,' he said, 'bid him attend the Princess here.' And +when the official had departed, 'Can I do more to serve you, madam?' +the Prince asked. + +'Thank you, no. I have been much amused,' she answered. + +'I have now,' continued Otto, 'given you your liberty complete. +This has been for you a miserable marriage.' + +'Miserable!' said she. + +'It has been made light to you; it shall be lighter still,' +continued the Prince. 'But one thing, madam, you must still +continue to bear - my father's name, which is now yours. I leave it +in your hands. Let me see you, since you will have no advice of +mine, apply the more attention of your own to bear it worthily.' + +'Herr von Gondremark is long in coming,' she remarked. + +'O Seraphina, Seraphina!' he cried. And that was the end of their +interview. + +She tripped to a window and looked out; and a little after, the +chamberlain announced the Freiherr von Gondremark, who entered with +something of a wild eye and changed complexion, confounded, as he +was, at this unusual summons. The Princess faced round from the +window with a pearly smile; nothing but her heightened colour spoke +of discomposure. + +Otto was pale, but he was otherwise master of himself. + +'Herr von Gondremark,' said he, 'oblige me so far: reconduct the +Princess to her own apartment.' + +The Baron, still all at sea, offered his hand, which was smilingly +accepted, and the pair sailed forth through the picture-gallery. + +As soon as they were gone, and Otto knew the length and breadth of +his miscarriage, and how he had done the contrary of all that he +intended, he stood stupefied. A fiasco so complete and sweeping was +laughable, even to himself; and he laughed aloud in his wrath. Upon +this mood there followed the sharpest violence of remorse; and to +that again, as he recalled his provocation, anger succeeded afresh. +So he was tossed in spirit; now bewailing his inconsequence and lack +of temper, now flaming up in white-hot indignation and a noble pity +for himself. + +He paced his apartment like a leopard. There was danger in Otto, +for a flash. Like a pistol, he could kill at one moment, and the +next he might he kicked aside. But just then, as he walked the long +floors in his alternate humours, tearing his handkerchief between +his hands, he was strung to his top note, every nerve attent. The +pistol, you might say, was charged. And when jealousy from time to +time fetched him a lash across the tenderest of his feeling, and +sent a string of her fire-pictures glancing before his mind's eye, +the contraction of his face was even dangerous. He disregarded +jealousy's inventions, yet they stung. In this height of anger, he +still preserved his faith in Seraphina's innocence; but the thought +of her possible misconduct was the bitterest ingredient in his pot +of sorrow. + +There came a knock at the door, and the chamberlain brought him a +note. He took it and ground it in his hand, continuing his march, +continuing his bewildered thoughts; and some minutes had gone by +before the circumstance came clearly to his mind. Then he paused +and opened it. It was a pencil scratch from Gotthold, thus +conceived: + + +'The council is privately summoned at once. +G. v. H.' + + +If the council was thus called before the hour, and that privately, +it was plain they feared his interference. Feared: here was a sweet +thought. Gotthold, too - Gotthold, who had always used and regarded +him as a mere peasant lad, had now been at the pains to warn him; +Gotthold looked for something at his hands. Well, none should be +disappointed; the Prince, too long beshadowed by the uxorious lover, +should now return and shine. He summoned his valet, repaired the +disorder of his appearance with elaborate care; and then, curled and +scented and adorned, Prince Charming in every line, but with a +twitching nostril, he set forth unattended for the council. + + + + +CHAPTER VII - THE PRINCE DISSOLVES THE COUNCIL + + +IT was as Gotthold wrote. The liberation of Sir John, +Greisengesang's uneasy narrative, last of all, the scene between +Seraphina and the Prince, had decided the conspirators to take a +step of bold timidity. There had been a period of bustle, liveried +messengers speeding here and there with notes; and at half-past ten +in the morning, about an hour before its usual hour, the council of +Grunewald sat around the board. + +It was not a large body. At the instance of Gondremark, it had +undergone a strict purgation, and was now composed exclusively of +tools. Three secretaries sat at a side-table. Seraphina took the +head; on her right was the Baron, on her left Greisengesang; below +these Grafinski the treasurer, Count Eisenthal, a couple of non- +combatants, and, to the surprise of all, Gotthold. He had been +named a privy councillor by Otto, merely that he might profit by the +salary; and as he was never known to attend a meeting, it had +occurred to nobody to cancel his appointment. His present +appearance was the more ominous, coming when it did. Gondremark +scowled upon him; and the non-combatant on his right, intercepting +this black look, edged away from one who was so clearly out of +favour. + +'The hour presses, your Highness,' said the Baron; 'may we proceed +to business?' + +'At once,' replied Seraphina. + +'Your Highness will pardon me,' said Gotthold; 'but you are still, +perhaps, unacquainted with the fact that Prince Otto has returned.' + +'The Prince will not attend the council,' replied Seraphina, with a +momentary blush. 'The despatches, Herr Cancellarius? There is one +for Gerolstein?' + +A secretary brought a paper. + +'Here, madam,' said Greisengesang. 'Shall I read it?' + +'We are all familiar with its terms,' replied Gondremark. 'Your +Highness approves?' + +'Unhesitatingly,' said Seraphina. + +'It may then be held as read,' concluded the Baron. 'Will your +Highness sign?' + +The Princess did so; Gondremark, Eisenthal, and one of the non- +combatants followed suit; and the paper was then passed across the +table to the librarian. He proceeded leisurely to read. + +'We have no time to spare, Herr Doctor,' cried the Baron brutally. +'If you do not choose to sign on the authority of your sovereign, +pass it on. Or you may leave the table,' he added, his temper +ripping out. + +'I decline your invitation, Herr von Gondremark; and my sovereign, +as I continue to observe with regret, is still absent from the +board,' replied the Doctor calmly; and he resumed the perusal of the +paper, the rest chafing and exchanging glances. 'Madame and +gentlemen,' he said, at last, 'what I hold in my hand is simply a +declaration of war.' + +'Simply,' said Seraphina, flashing defiance. + +'The sovereign of this country is under the same roof with us,' +continued Gotthold, 'and I insist he shall be summoned. It is +needless to adduce my reasons; you are all ashamed at heart of this +projected treachery.' + +The council waved like a sea. There were various outcries. + +'You insult the Princess,' thundered Gondremark. + +'I maintain my protest,' replied Gotthold. + +At the height of this confusion the door was thrown open; an usher +announced, 'Gentlemen, the Prince!' and Otto, with his most +excellent bearing, entered the apartment. It was like oil upon the +troubled waters; every one settled instantly into his place, and +Griesengesang, to give himself a countenance, became absorbed in the +arrangement of his papers; but in their eagerness to dissemble, one +and all neglected to rise. + +'Gentlemen,' said the Prince, pausing. + +They all got to their feet in a moment; and this reproof still +further demoralised the weaker brethren. + +The Prince moved slowly towards the lower end of the table; then he +paused again, and, fixing his eye on Greisengesang, 'How comes it, +Herr Cancellarius,' he asked, 'that I have received no notice of the +change of hour?' + +'Your Highness,' replied the Chancellor, 'her Highness the Princess +. . .' and there paused. + +'I understood,' said Seraphina, taking him up, 'that you did not +purpose to be present.' + +Their eyes met for a second, and Seraphina's fell; but her anger +only burned the brighter for that private shame. + +'And now, gentlemen,' said Otto, taking his chair, 'I pray you to be +seated. I have been absent: there are doubtless some arrears; but +ere we proceed to business, Herr Grafinski, you will direct four +thousand crowns to be sent to me at once. Make a note, if you +please,' he added, as the treasurer still stared in wonder. + +'Four thousand crowns?' asked Seraphina. 'Pray, for what?' + +'Madam,' returned Otto, smiling, 'for my own purposes.' + +Gondremark spurred up Grafinski underneath the table. + +'If your Highness will indicate the destination . . . ' began the +puppet. + +'You are not here, sir, to interrogate your Prince,' said Otto. + +Grafinski looked for help to his commander; and Gondremark came to +his aid, in suave and measured tones. + +'Your Highness may reasonably be surprised,' he said; 'and Herr +Grafinski, although I am convinced he is clear of the intention of +offending, would have perhaps done better to begin with an +explanation. The resources of the state are at the present moment +entirely swallowed up, or, as we hope to prove, wisely invested. In +a month from now, I do not question we shall be able to meet any +command your Highness may lay upon us; but at this hour I fear that, +even in so small a matter, he must prepare himself for +disappointment. Our zeal is no less, although our power may be +inadequate.' + +'How much, Herr Grafinski, have we in the treasury?' asked Otto. + +'Your Highness,' protested the treasurer, 'we have immediate need of +every crown.' + +'I think, sir, you evade me,' flashed the Prince; and then turning +to the side-table, 'Mr. Secretary,' he added, 'bring me, if you +please, the treasury docket.' + +Herr Grafinski became deadly pale; the Chancellor, expecting his own +turn, was probably engaged in prayer; Gondremark was watching like a +ponderous cat. Gotthold, on his part, looked on with wonder at his +cousin; he was certainly showing spirit, but what, in such a time of +gravity, was all this talk of money? and why should he waste his +strength upon a personal issue? + +'I find,' said Otto, with his finger on the docket, 'that we have +20,000 crowns in case.' + +'That is exact, your Highness,' replied the Baron. 'But our +liabilities, all of which are happily not liquid, amount to a far +larger sum; and at the present point of time it would be morally +impossible to divert a single florin. Essentially, the case is +empty. We have, already presented, a large note for material of +war.' + +'Material of war?' exclaimed Otto, with an excellent assumption of +surprise. 'But if my memory serves me right, we settled these +accounts in January.' + +'There have been further orders,' the Baron explained. 'A new park +of artillery has been completed; five hundred stand of arms, seven +hundred baggage mules - the details are in a special memorandum. - +Mr. Secretary Holtz, the memorandum, if you please.' + +'One would think, gentlemen, that we were going to war,' said Otto. + +'We are,' said Seraphina. + +'War!' cried the Prince, 'and, gentlemen, with whom? The peace of +Grunewald has endured for centuries. What aggression, what insult, +have we suffered?' + +'Here, your Highness,' said Gotthold, 'is the ultimatum. It was in +the very article of signature, when your Highness so opportunely +entered.' + +Otto laid the paper before him; as he read, his fingers played +tattoo upon the table. 'Was it proposed,' he inquired, 'to send +this paper forth without a knowledge of my pleasure?' + +One of the non-combatants, eager to trim, volunteered an answer. +'The Herr Doctor von Hohenstockwitz had just entered his dissent,' +he added. + +'Give me the rest of this correspondence,' said the Prince. It was +handed to him, and he read it patiently from end to end, while the +councillors sat foolishly enough looking before them on the table. + +The secretaries, in the background, were exchanging glances of +delight; a row at the council was for them a rare and welcome +feature. + +'Gentlemen,' said Otto, when he had finished, 'I have read with +pain. This claim upon Obermunsterol is palpably unjust; it has not +a tincture, not a show, of justice. There is not in all this ground +enough for after-dinner talk, and you propose to force it as a CASUS +BELLI.' + +'Certainly, your Highness,' returned Gondremark, too wise to defend +the indefensible, 'the claim on Obermunsterol is simply a pretext.' + +'It is well,' said the Prince. 'Herr Cancellarius, take your pen. +"The council," he began to dictate - 'I withhold all notice of my +intervention,' he said, in parenthesis, and addressing himself more +directly to his wife; 'and I say nothing of the strange suppression +by which this business has been smuggled past my knowledge. I am +content to be in time - "The council,"' he resumed, '"on a further +examination of the facts, and enlightened by the note in the last +despatch from Gerolstein, have the pleasure to announce that they +are entirely at one, both as to fact and sentiment, with the Grand- +Ducal Court of Gerolstein." You have it? Upon these lines, sir, +you will draw up the despatch.' + +'If your Highness will allow me,' said the Baron, 'your Highness is +so imperfectly acquainted with the internal history of this +correspondence, that any interference will be merely hurtful. Such +a paper as your Highness proposes would be to stultify the whole +previous policy of Grunewald.' + +'The policy of Grunewald!' cried the Prince. 'One would suppose you +had no sense of humour! Would you fish in a coffee cup?' + +'With deference, your Highness,' returned the Baron, 'even in a +coffee cup there may be poison. The purpose of this war is not +simply territorial enlargement; still less is it a war of glory; +for, as your Highness indicates, the state of Grunewald is too small +to be ambitious. But the body politic is seriously diseased; +republicanism, socialism, many disintegrating ideas are abroad; +circle within circle, a really formidable organisation has grown up +about your Highness's throne.' + +'I have heard of it, Herr von Gondremark,' put in the Prince; 'but I +have reason to be aware that yours is the more authoritative +information.' + +'I am honoured by this expression of my Prince's confidence' +returned Gondremark, unabashed. 'It is, therefore, with a single +eye to these disorders that our present external policy has been +shaped. Something was required to divert public attention, to +employ the idle, to popularise your Highness's rule, and, if it were +possible, to enable him to reduce the taxes at a blow and to a +notable amount. The proposed expedition - for it cannot without +hyperbole be called a war - seemed to the council to combine the +various characters required; a marked improvement in the public +sentiment has followed even upon our preparations; and I cannot +doubt that when success shall follow, the effect will surpass even +our boldest hopes.' + +'You are very adroit, Herr von Gondremark,' said Otto. 'You fill me +with admiration. I had not heretofore done justice to your +qualities.' + +Seraphina looked up with joy, supposing Otto conquered; but +Gondremark still waited, armed at every point; he knew how very +stubborn is the revolt of a weak character. + +'And the territorial army scheme, to which I was persuaded to +consent - was it secretly directed to the same end?' the Prince +asked. + +'I still believe the effect to have been good,' replied the Baron; +'discipline and mounting guard are excellent sedatives. But I will +avow to your Highness, I was unaware, at the date of that decree, of +the magnitude of the revolutionary movement; nor did any of us, I +think, imagine that such a territorial army was a part of the +republican proposals.' + +'It was?' asked Otto. 'Strange! Upon what fancied grounds?' + +'The grounds were indeed fanciful,' returned the Baron. 'It was +conceived among the leaders that a territorial army, drawn from and +returning to the people, would, in the event of any popular +uprising, prove lukewarm or unfaithful to the throne.' + +'I see,' said the Prince. 'I begin to understand.' + +'His Highness begins to understand?' repeated Gondremark, with the +sweetest politeness. 'May I beg of him to complete the phrase?' + +'The history of the revolution,' replied Otto dryly. 'And now,' he +added, 'what do you conclude?' + +'I conclude, your Highness, with a simple reflection,' said the +Baron, accepting the stab without a quiver, 'the war is popular; +were the rumour contradicted to-morrow, a considerable +disappointment would be felt in many classes; and in the present +tension of spirits, the most lukewarm sentiment may be enough to +precipitate events. There lies the danger. The revolution hangs +imminent; we sit, at this council board, below the sword of +Damocles.' + +'We must then lay our heads together,' said the Prince, 'and devise +some honourable means of safety.' + +Up to this moment, since the first note of opposition fell from the +librarian, Seraphina had uttered about twenty words. With a +somewhat heightened colour, her eyes generally lowered, her foot +sometimes nervously tapping on the floor, she had kept her own +counsel and commanded her anger like a hero. But at this stage of +the engagement she lost control of her impatience. + +'Means!' she cried. 'They have been found and prepared before you +knew the need for them. Sign the despatch, and let us be done with +this delay.' + +'Madam, I said "honourable,"' returned Otto, bowing. 'This war is, +in my eyes, and by Herr von Gondremark's account, an inadmissible +expedient. If we have misgoverned here in Grunewald, are the people +of Gerolstein to bleed and pay for our mis-doings? Never, madam; +not while I live. But I attach so much importance to all that I +have heard to-day for the first time - and why only to-day, I do not +even stop to ask - that I am eager to find some plan that I can +follow with credit to myself.' + +'And should you fail?' she asked. + +'Should I fail, I will then meet the blow half-way,' replied the +Prince. 'On the first open discontent, I shall convoke the States, +and, when it pleases them to bid me, abdicate.' + +Seraphina laughed angrily. 'This is the man for whom we have been +labouring!' she cried. 'We tell him of change; he will devise the +means, he says; and his device is abdication? Sir, have you no +shame to come here at the eleventh hour among those who have borne +the heat and burthen of the day? Do you not wonder at yourself? I, +sir, was here in my place, striving to uphold your dignity alone. I +took counsel with the wisest I could find, while you were eating and +hunting. I have laid my plans with foresight; they were ripe for +action; and then - 'she choked - 'then you return - for a forenoon - +to ruin all! To-morrow, you will be once more about your pleasures; +you will give us leave once more to think and work for you; and +again you will come back, and again you will thwart what you had not +the industry or knowledge to conceive. O! it is intolerable. Be +modest, sir. Do not presume upon the rank you cannot worthily +uphold. I would not issue my commands with so much gusto - it is +from no merit in yourself they are obeyed. What are you? What have +you to do in this grave council? Go,' she cried, 'go among your +equals? The very people in the streets mock at you for a prince.' + +At this surprising outburst the whole council sat aghast. + +'Madam,' said the Baron, alarmed out of his caution, 'command +yourself.' + +'Address yourself to me, sir!' cried the Prince. 'I will not bear +these whisperings!' + +Seraphina burst into tears. + +'Sir,' cried the Baron, rising, 'this lady - ' + +'Herr von Gondremark,' said the Prince, 'one more observation, and I +place you under arrest.' + +'Your Highness is the master,' replied Gondremark, bowing. + +'Bear it in mind more constantly,' said Otto. 'Herr Cancellarius, +bring all the papers to my cabinet. Gentlemen, the council is +dissolved.' + +And he bowed and left the apartment, followed by Greisengesang and +the secretaries, just at the moment when the Princess's ladies, +summoned in all haste, entered by another door to help her forth. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII - THE PARTY OF WAR TAKES ACTION + + +HALF an hour after, Gondremark was once more closeted with +Seraphina. + +'Where is he now?' she asked, on his arrival. + +'Madam, he is with the Chancellor,' replied the Baron. 'Wonder of +wonders, he is at work!' + +'Ah,' she said, 'he was born to torture me! O what a fall, what a +humiliation! Such a scheme to wreck upon so small a trifle! But +now all is lost.' + +'Madam,' said Gondremark, 'nothing is lost. Something, on the other +hand, is found. You have found your senses; you see him as he is - +see him as you see everything where your too-good heart is not in +question - with the judicial, with the statesman's eye. So long as +he had a right to interfere, the empire that may be was still +distant. I have not entered on this course without the plain +foresight of its dangers; and even for this I was prepared. But, +madam, I knew two things: I knew that you were born to command, that +I was born to serve; I knew that by a rare conjuncture, the hand had +found the tool; and from the first I was confident, as I am +confident to-day, that no hereditary trifler has the power to +shatter that alliance.' + +'I, born to command!' she said. 'Do you forget my tears?' + +'Madam, they were the tears of Alexander,' cried the Baron. 'They +touched, they thrilled me; I, forgot myself a moment - even I! But +do you suppose that I had not remarked, that I had not admired, your +previous bearing? your great self-command? Ay, that was princely!' +He paused. 'It was a thing to see. I drank confidence! I tried to +imitate your calm. And I was well inspired; in my heart, I think +that I was well inspired; that any man, within the reach of +argument, had been convinced! But it was not to be; nor, madam, do +I regret the failure. Let us be open; let me disclose my heart. I +have loved two things, not unworthily: Grunewald and my sovereign!' +Here he kissed her hand. 'Either I must resign my ministry, leave +the land of my adoption and the queen whom I had chosen to obey - or +- ' He paused again. + +'Alas, Herr von Gondremark, there is no "or,"' said Seraphina. + +'Nay, madam, give me time,' he replied. 'When first I saw you, you +were still young; not every man would have remarked your powers; but +I had not been twice honoured by your conversation ere I had found +my mistress. I have, madam, I believe, some genius; and I have much +ambition. But the genius is of the serving kind; and to offer a +career to my ambition, I had to find one born to rule. This is the +base and essence of our union; each had need of the other; each +recognised, master and servant, lever and fulcrum, the complement of +his endowment. Marriages, they say, are made in heaven: how much +more these pure, alborious, intellectual fellowships, born to found +empires! Nor is this all. We found each other ripe, filled with +great ideas that took shape and clarified with every word. We grew +together - ay, madam, in mind we grew together like twin children. +All of my life until we met was petty and groping; was it not - I +will flatter myself openly - it WAS the same with you! Not till +then had you those eagle surveys, that wide and hopeful sweep of +intuition! Thus we had formed ourselves, and we were ready.' + +'It is true,' she cried. 'I feel it. Yours is the genius; your +generosity confounds your insight; all I could offer you was the +position, was this throne, to be a fulcrum. But I offered it +without reserve; I entered at least warmly into all your thoughts; +you were sure of me - sure of my support - certain of justice. Tell +me, tell me again, that I have helped you.' + +'Nay, madam,' he said, 'you made me. In everything you were my +inspiration. And as we prepared our policy, weighing every step, +how often have I had to admire your perspicacity, your man-like +diligence and fortitude! You know that these are not the words of +flattery; your conscience echoes them; have you spared a day? have +you indulged yourself in any pleasure? Young and beautiful, you +have lived a life of high intellectual effort, of irksome +intellectual patience with details. Well, you have your reward: +with the fall of Brandenau, the throne of your Empire is founded.' + +'What thought have you in your mind?' she asked. 'Is not all +ruined?' + +'Nay, my Princess, the same thought is in both our minds,' he said. + +'Herr von Gondremark,' she replied, 'by all that I hold sacred, I +have none; I do not think at all; I am crushed.' + +'You are looking at the passionate side of a rich nature, +misunderstood and recently insulted,' said the Baron. 'Look into +your intellect, and tell me.' + +'I find nothing, nothing but tumult,' she replied. + +'You find one word branded, madam,' returned the Baron: +'"Abdication!"' + +'O!' she cried. 'The coward! He leaves me to bear all, and in the +hour of trial he stabs me from behind. There is nothing in him, not +respect, not love, not courage - his wife, his dignity, his throne, +the honour of his father, he forgets them all!' + +'Yes,' pursued the Baron, 'the word Abdication. I perceive a +glimmering there.' + +'I read your fancy,' she returned. 'It is mere madness, midsummer +madness. Baron, I am more unpopular than he. You know it. They +can excuse, they can love, his weakness; but me, they hate.' + +'Such is the gratitude of peoples,' said the Baron. 'But we trifle. +Here, madam, are my plain thoughts. The man who in the hour of +danger speaks of abdication is, for me, a venomous animal. I speak +with the bluntness of gravity, madam; this is no hour for mincing. +The coward, in a station of authority, is more dangerous than fire. +We dwell on a volcano; if this man can have his way, Grunewald +before a week will have been deluged with innocent blood. You know +the truth of what I say; we have looked unblenching into this ever- +possible catastrophe. To him it is nothing: he will abdicate! +Abdicate, just God! and this unhappy country committed to his +charge, and the lives of men and the honour of women . . .' His +voice appeared to fail him; in an instant he had conquered his +emotion and resumed: 'But you, madam, conceive more worthily of your +responsibilities. I am with you in the thought; and in the face of +the horrors that I see impending, I say, and your heart repeats it - +we have gone too far to pause. Honour, duty, ay, and the care of +our own lives, demand we should proceed.' + +She was looking at him, her brow thoughtfully knitted. 'I feel it,' +she said. 'But how? He has the power.' + +'The power, madam? The power is in the army,' he replied; and then +hastily, ere she could intervene, 'we have to save ourselves,' he +went on; 'I have to save my Princess, she has to save her minister; +we have both of us to save this infatuated youth from his own +madness. He in the outbreak would be the earliest victim; I see +him,' he cried, 'torn in pieces; and Grunewald, unhappy Grunewald! +Nay, madam, you who have the power must use it; it lies hard upon +your conscience.' + +'Show me how!' she cried. 'Suppose I were to place him under some +constraint, the revolution would break upon us instantly.' + +The Baron feigned defeat. 'It is true,' he said. 'You see more +clearly than I do. Yet there should, there must be, some way.' And +he waited for his chance. + +'No,' she said; 'I told you from the first there is no remedy. Our +hopes are lost: lost by one miserable trifler, ignorant, fretful, +fitful - who will have disappeared to-morrow, who knows? to his +boorish pleasures!' + +Any peg would do for Gondremark. 'The thing!' he cried, striking +his brow. 'Fool, not to have thought of it! Madam, without perhaps +knowing it, you have solved our problem.' + +'What do you mean? Speak!' she said. + +He appeared to collect himself; and then, with a smile, 'The +Prince,' he said, 'must go once more a-hunting.' + +'Ay, if he would!' cried she, 'and stay there!' + +'And stay there,' echoed the Baron. It was so significantly said, +that her face changed; and the schemer, fearful of the sinister +ambiguity of his expressions, hastened to explain. 'This time he +shall go hunting in a carriage, with a good escort of our foreign +lancers. His destination shall be the Felsenburg; it is healthy, +the rock is high, the windows are small and barred; it might have +been built on purpose. We shall intrust the captaincy to the +Scotsman Gordon; he at least will have no scruple. Who will miss +the sovereign? He is gone hunting; he came home on Tuesday, on +Thursday he returned; all is usual in that. Meanwhile the war +proceeds; our Prince will soon weary of his solitude; and about the +time of our triumph, or, if he prove very obstinate, a little later, +he shall be released upon a proper understanding, and I see him once +more directing his theatricals.' + +Seraphina sat gloomy, plunged in thought. 'Yes,' she said suddenly, +'and the despatch? He is now writing it.' + +'It cannot pass the council before Friday,' replied Gondremark; 'and +as for any private note, the messengers are all at my disposal. +They are picked men, madam. I am a person of precaution.' + +'It would appear so,' she said, with a flash of her occasional +repugnance to the man; and then after a pause, 'Herr von +Gondremark,' she added, 'I recoil from this extremity.' + +'I share your Highness's repugnance,' answered he. 'But what would +you have? We are defenceless, else.' + +'I see it, but this is sudden. It is a public crime,' she said, +nodding at him with a sort of horror. + +'Look but a little deeper,' he returned, 'and whose is the crime?' + +'His!' she cried. 'His, before God! And I hold him liable. But +still - ' + +'It is not as if he would be harmed,' submitted Gondremark. + +'I know it,' she replied, but it was still unheartily. + +And then, as brave men are entitled, by prescriptive right as old as +the world's history, to the alliance and the active help of Fortune, +the punctual goddess stepped down from the machine. One of the +Princess's ladies begged to enter; a man, it appeared, had brought a +line for the Freiherr von Gondremark. It proved to be a pencil +billet, which the crafty Greisengesang had found the means to +scribble and despatch under the very guns of Otto; and the daring of +the act bore testimony to the terror of the actor. For +Greisengesang had but one influential motive: fear. The note ran +thus: 'At the first council, procuration to be withdrawn. - CORN. +GREIS.' + +So, after three years of exercise, the right of signature was to be +stript from Seraphina. It was more than an insult; it was a public +disgrace; and she did not pause to consider how she had earned it, +but morally bounded under the attack as bounds the wounded tiger. + +'Enough,' she said; 'I will sign the order. When shall he leave?' + +'It will take me twelve hours to collect my men, and it had best be +done at night. To-morrow midnight, if you please?' answered the +Baron. + +'Excellent,' she said. 'My door is always open to you, Baron. As +soon as the order is prepared, bring it me to sign.' + +'Madam,' he said, 'alone of all of us you do not risk your head in +this adventure. For that reason, and to prevent all hesitation, I +venture to propose the order should be in your hand throughout.' + +'You are right,' she replied. + +He laid a form before her, and she wrote the order in a clear hand, +and re-read it. Suddenly a cruel smile came on her face. 'I had +forgotten his puppet,' said she. 'They will keep each other +company.' And she interlined and initiated the condemnation of +Doctor Gotthold. + +'Your Highness has more memory than your servant,' said the Baron; +and then he, in his turn, carefully perused the fateful paper. +'Good!' said he. + +'You will appear in the drawing-room, Baron?' she asked. + +'I thought it better,' said he, 'to avoid the possibility of a +public affront. Anything that shook my credit might hamper us in +the immediate future.' + +'You are right,' she said; and she held out her hand as to an old +friend and equal. + + + + +CHAPTER IX - THE PRICE OF THE RIVER FARM; IN WHICH VAINGLORY GOES +BEFORE A FALL + + +THE pistol had been practically fired. Under ordinary circumstances +the scene at the council table would have entirely exhausted Otto's +store both of energy and anger; he would have begun to examine and +condemn his conduct, have remembered all that was true, forgotten +all that was unjust in Seraphina's onslaught; and by half an hour +after would have fallen into that state of mind in which a Catholic +flees to the confessional and a sot takes refuge with the bottle. +Two matters of detail preserved his spirits. For, first, he had +still an infinity of business to transact; and to transact business, +for a man of Otto's neglectful and procrastinating habits, is the +best anodyne for conscience. All afternoon he was hard at it with +the Chancellor, reading, dictating, signing, and despatching papers; +and this kept him in a glow of self-approval. But, secondly, his +vanity was still alarmed; he had failed to get the money; to-morrow +before noon he would have to disappoint old Killian; and in the eyes +of that family which counted him so little, and to which he had +sought to play the part of the heroic comforter, he must sink lower +than at first. To a man of Otto's temper, this was death. He could +not accept the situation. And even as he worked, and worked wisely +and well, over the hated details of his principality, he was +secretly maturing a plan by which to turn the situation. It was a +scheme as pleasing to the man as it was dishonourable in the prince; +in which his frivolous nature found and took vengeance for the +gravity and burthen of the afternoon. He chuckled as he thought of +it: and Greisengesang heard him with wonder, and attributed his +lively spirits to the skirmish of the morning. + +Led by this idea, the antique courtier ventured to compliment his +sovereign on his bearing. It reminded him, he said, of Otto's +father. + +'What?' asked the Prince, whose thoughts were miles away. + +'Your Highness's authority at the board,' explained the flatterer. + +'O, that! O yes,' returned Otto; but for all his carelessness, his +vanity was delicately tickled, and his mind returned and dwelt +approvingly over the details of his victory. 'I quelled them all,' +he thought. + +When the more pressing matters had been dismissed, it was already +late, and Otto kept the Chancellor to dinner, and was entertained +with a leash of ancient histories and modern compliments. The +Chancellor's career had been based, from the first off-put, on +entire subserviency; he had crawled into honours and employments; +and his mind was prostitute. The instinct of the creature served +him well with Otto. First, he let fall a sneering word or two upon +the female intellect; thence he proceeded to a closer engagement; +and before the third course he was artfully dissecting Seraphina's +character to her approving husband. Of course no names were used; +and of course the identity of that abstract or ideal man, with whom +she was currently contrasted, remained an open secret. But this +stiff old gentleman had a wonderful instinct for evil, thus to wind +his way into man's citadel; thus to harp by the hour on the virtues +of his hearer and not once alarm his self-respect. Otto was all +roseate, in and out, with flattery and Tokay and an approving +conscience. He saw himself in the most attractive colours. If even +Greisengesang, he thought, could thus espy the loose stitches in +Seraphina's character, and thus disloyally impart them to the +opposite camp, he, the discarded husband - the dispossessed Prince - +could scarce have erred on the side of severity. + +In this excellent frame he bade adieu to the old gentleman, whose +voice had proved so musical, and set forth for the drawing-room. +Already on the stair, he was seized with some compunction; but when +he entered the great gallery and beheld his wife, the Chancellor's +abstract flatteries fell from him like rain, and he re-awoke to the +poetic facts of life. She stood a good way off below a shining +lustre, her back turned. The bend of her waist overcame him with +physical weakness. This was the girl-wife who had lain in his arms +and whom he had sworn to cherish; there was she, who was better than +success. + +It was Seraphina who restored him from the blow. She swam forward +and smiled upon her husband with a sweetness that was insultingly +artificial. 'Frederic,' she lisped, 'you are late.' It was a scene +of high comedy, such as is proper to unhappy marriages; and her +APLOMB disgusted him. + +There was no etiquette at these small drawing-rooms. People came +and went at pleasure. The window embrasures became the roost of +happy couples; at the great chimney the talkers mostly congregated, +each full-charged with scandal; and down at the farther end the +gamblers gambled. It was towards this point that Otto moved, not +ostentatiously, but with a gentle insistence, and scattering +attentions as he went. Once abreast of the card-table, he placed +himself opposite to Madame von Rosen, and, as soon as he had caught +her eye, withdrew to the embrasure of a window. There she had +speedily joined him. + +'You did well to call me,' she said, a little wildly. 'These cards +will be my ruin.' + +'Leave them,' said Otto. + +'I!' she cried, and laughed; 'they are my destiny. My only chance +was to die of a consumption; now I must die in a garret.' + +'You are bitter to-night,' said Otto. + +'I have been losing,' she replied. 'You do not know what greed is.' + +'I have come, then, in an evil hour,' said he. + +'Ah, you wish a favour!' she cried, brightening beautifully. + +'Madam,' said he, 'I am about to found my party, and I come to you +for a recruit.' + +'Done,' said the Countess. 'I am a man again.' + +'I may be wrong,' continued Otto, 'but I believe upon my heart you +wish me no ill.' + +'I wish you so well,' she said, 'that I dare not tell it you.' + +'Then if I ask my favour?' quoth the Prince. + +'Ask it, MON PRINCE,' she answered. 'Whatever it is, it is +granted.' + +'I wish you,' he returned, 'this very night to make the farmer of +our talk.' + +'Heaven knows your meaning!' she exclaimed. 'I know not, neither +care; there are no bounds to my desire to please you. Call him +made.' + +'I will put it in another way,' returned Otto. 'Did you ever +steal?' + +'Often!' cried the Countess. 'I have broken all the ten +commandments; and if there were more to-morrow, I should not sleep +till I had broken these.' + +'This is a case of burglary: to say the truth, I thought it would +amuse you,' said the Prince. + +'I have no practical experience,' she replied, 'but O! the good- +will! I have broken a work-box in my time, and several hearts, my +own included. Never a house! But it cannot be difficult; sins are +so unromantically easy! What are we to break?' + +'Madam, we are to break the treasury,' said Otto and he sketched to +her briefly, wittily, with here and there a touch of pathos, the +story of his visit to the farm, of his promise to buy it, and of the +refusal with which his demand for money had been met that morning at +the council; concluding with a few practical words as to the +treasury windows, and the helps and hindrances of the proposed +exploit. + +'They refused you the money,' she said when he had done. 'And you +accepted the refusal? Well!' + +'They gave their reasons,' replied Otto, colouring. 'They were not +such as I could combat; and I am driven to dilapidate the funds of +my own country by a theft. It is not dignified; but it is fun.' + +'Fun,' she said; 'yes.' And then she remained silently plunged in +thought for an appreciable time. 'How much do you require?' she +asked at length. + +'Three thousand crowns will do,' he answered, 'for I have still some +money of my own.' + +'Excellent,' she said, regaining her levity. 'I am your true +accomplice. And where are we to meet?' + +'You know the Flying Mercury,' he answered, 'in the Park? Three +pathways intersect; there they have made a seat and raised the +statue. The spot is handy and the deity congenial.' + +'Child,' she said, and tapped him with her fan. 'But do you know, +my Prince, you are an egoist - your handy trysting-place is miles +from me. You must give me ample time; I cannot, I think, possibly +be there before two. But as the bell beats two, your helper shall +arrive: welcome, I trust. Stay - do you bring any one?' she added. +'O, it is not for a chaperon - I am not a prude!' + +'I shall bring a groom of mine,' said Otto. 'I caught him stealing +corn.' + +'His name?' she asked. + +'I profess I know not. I am not yet intimate with my corn-stealer,' +returned the Prince. 'It was in a professional capacity - ' + +'Like me! Flatterer!' she cried. 'But oblige me in one thing. Let +me find you waiting at the seat - yes, you shall await me; for on +this expedition it shall be no longer Prince and Countess, it shall +be the lady and the squire - and your friend the thief shall be no +nearer than the fountain. Do you promise?' + +'Madam, in everything you are to command; you shall be captain, I am +but supercargo,' answered Otto. + +'Well, Heaven bring all safe to port!' she said. 'It is not +Friday!' + +Something in her manner had puzzled Otto, had possibly touched him +with suspicion. + +'Is it not strange,' he remarked, 'that I should choose my +accomplice from the other camp?' + +'Fool!' she said. 'But it is your only wisdom that you know your +friends.' And suddenly, in the vantage of the deep window, she +caught up his hand and kissed it with a sort of passion. 'Now go,' +she added, 'go at once.' + +He went, somewhat staggered, doubting in his heart that he was over- +bold. For in that moment she had flashed upon him like a jewel; and +even through the strong panoply of a previous love he had been +conscious of a shock. Next moment he had dismissed the fear. + +Both Otto and the Countess retired early from the drawing-room; and +the Prince, after an elaborate feint, dismissed his valet, and went +forth by the private passage and the back postern in quest of the +groom. + +Once more the stable was in darkness, once more Otto employed the +talismanic knock, and once more the groom appeared and sickened with +terror. + +'Good-evening, friend,' said Otto pleasantly. 'I want you to bring +a corn sack - empty this time - and to accompany me. We shall be +gone all night.' + +'Your Highness,' groaned the man, 'I have the charge of the small +stables. I am here alone.' + +'Come,' said the Prince, 'you are no such martinet in duty.' And +then seeing that the man was shaking from head to foot, Otto laid a +hand upon his shoulder. 'If I meant you harm,' he said, 'should I +be here?' + +The fellow became instantly reassured. He got the sack; and Otto +led him round by several paths and avenues, conversing pleasantly by +the way, and left him at last planted by a certain fountain where a +goggle-eyed Triton spouted intermittently into a rippling laver. +Thence he proceeded alone to where, in a round clearing, a copy of +Gian Bologna's Mercury stood tiptoe in the twilight of the stars. +The night was warm and windless. A shaving of new moon had lately +arisen; but it was still too small and too low down in heaven to +contend with the immense host of lesser luminaries; and the rough +face of the earth was drenched with starlight. Down one of the +alleys, which widened as it receded, he could see a part of the +lamplit terrace where a sentry silently paced, and beyond that a +corner of the town with interlacing street-lights. But all around +him the young trees stood mystically blurred in the dim shine; and +in the stock-still quietness the upleaping god appeared alive. + +In this dimness and silence of the night, Otto's conscience became +suddenly and staringly luminous, like the dial of a city clock. He +averted the eyes of his mind, but the finger rapidly travelling, +pointed to a series of misdeeds that took his breath away. What was +he doing in that place? The money had been wrongly squandered, but +that was largely by his own neglect. And he now proposed to +embarrass the finances of this country which he had been too idle to +govern. And he now proposed to squander the money once again, and +this time for a private, if a generous end. And the man whom he had +reproved for stealing corn he was now to set stealing treasure. And +then there was Madame von Rosen, upon whom he looked down with some +of that ill-favoured contempt of the chaste male for the imperfect +woman. Because he thought of her as one degraded below scruples, he +had picked her out to be still more degraded, and to risk her whole +irregular establishment in life by complicity in this dishonourable +act. It was uglier than a seduction. + +Otto had to walk very briskly and whistle very busily; and when at +last he heard steps in the narrowest and darkest of the alleys, it +was with a gush of relief that he sprang to meet the Countess. To +wrestle alone with one's good angel is so hard! and so precious, at +the proper time, is a companion certain to be less virtuous than +oneself! + +It was a young man who came towards him - a young man of small +stature and a peculiar gait, wearing a wide flapping hat, and +carrying, with great weariness, a heavy bag. Otto recoiled; but the +young man held up his hand by way of signal, and coming up with a +panting run, as if with the last of his endurance, laid the bag upon +the ground, threw himself upon the bench, and disclosed the features +of Madame von Rosen. + +'You, Countess!' cried the Prince. + +'No, no,' she panted, 'the Count von Rosen - my young brother. A +capital fellow. Let him get his breath.' + +'Ah, madam. . .' said he. + +'Call me Count,' she returned, 'respect my incognito.' + +'Count be it, then,' he replied. 'And let me implore that gallant +gentleman to set forth at once on our enterprise.' + +'Sit down beside me here,' she returned, patting the further corner +of the bench. 'I will follow you in a moment. O, I am so tired - +feel how my heart leaps! Where is your thief?' + +'At his post,' replied Otto. 'Shall I introduce him? He seems an +excellent companion.' + +'No,' she said, 'do not hurry me yet. I must speak to you. Not but +I adore your thief; I adore any one who has the spirit to do wrong. +I never cared for virtue till I fell in love with my Prince.' She +laughed musically. 'And even so, it is not for your virtues,' she +added. + +Otto was embarrassed. 'And now,' he asked, 'if you are anyway +rested?' + +'Presently, presently. Let me breathe,' she said, panting a little +harder than before. + +'And what has so wearied you?' he asked. 'This bag? And why, in +the name of eccentricity, a bag? For an empty one, you might have +relied on my own foresight; and this one is very far from being +empty. My dear Count, with what trash have you come laden? But the +shortest method is to see for myself.' And he put down his hand. + +She stopped him at once. 'Otto,' she said, 'no - not that way. I +will tell, I will make a clean breast. It is done already. I have +robbed the treasury single-handed. There are three thousand two +hundred crowns. O, I trust it is enough!' + +Her embarrassment was so obvious that the Prince was struck into a +muse, gazing in her face, with his hand still outstretched, and she +still holding him by the wrist. 'You!' he said at last. 'How?' And +then drawing himself up, 'O madam,' he cried, 'I understand. You +must indeed think meanly of the Prince.' + +'Well, then, it was a lie!' she cried. 'The money is mine, honestly +my own - now yours. This was an unworthy act that you proposed. +But I love your honour, and I swore to myself that I should save it +in your teeth. I beg of you to let me save it' - with a sudden +lovely change of tone. 'Otto, I beseech you let me save it. Take +this dross from your poor friend who loves you!' + +'Madam, madam,' babbled Otto, in the extreme of misery, 'I cannot - +I must go.' + +And he half rose; but she was on the ground before him in an +instant, clasping his knees. 'No,' she gasped, 'you shall not go. +Do you despise me so entirely? It is dross; I hate it; I should +squander it at play and be no richer; it is an investment, it is to +save me from ruin. Otto,' she cried, as he again feebly tried to +put her from him, 'if you leave me alone in this disgrace, I will +die here!' He groaned aloud. 'O,' she said, 'think what I suffer! +If you suffer from a piece of delicacy, think what I suffer in my +shame! To have my trash refused! You would rather steal, you think +of me so basely! You would rather tread my heart in pieces! O, +unkind! O my Prince! O Otto! O pity me!' She was still clasping +him; then she found his hand and covered it with kisses, and at this +his head began to turn. 'O,' she cried again, 'I see it! O what a +horror! It is because I am old, because I am no longer beautiful.' +And she burst into a storm of sobs. + +This was the COUP DE GRACE. Otto had now to comfort and compose her +as he could, and before many words, the money was accepted. Between +the woman and the weak man such was the inevitable end. Madame von +Rosen instantly composed her sobs. She thanked him with a +fluttering voice, and resumed her place upon the bench, at the far +end from Otto. 'Now you see,' she said, 'why I bade you keep the +thief at distance, and why I came alone. How I trembled for my +treasure!' + +'Madam,' said Otto, with a tearful whimper in his voice, 'spare me! +You are too good, too noble!' + +'I wonder to hear you,' she returned. 'You have avoided a great +folly. You will be able to meet your good old peasant. You have +found an excellent investment for a friend's money. You have +preferred essential kindness to an empty scruple; and now you are +ashamed of it! You have made your friend happy; and now you mourn +as the dove! Come, cheer up. I know it is depressing to have done +exactly right; but you need not make a practice of it. Forgive +yourself this virtue; come now, look me in the face and smile!' + +He did look at her. When a man has been embraced by a woman, he +sees her in a glamour; and at such a time, in the baffling glimmer +of the stars, she will look wildly well. The hair is touched with +light; the eyes are constellations; the face sketched in shadows - a +sketch, you might say, by passion. Otto became consoled for his +defeat; he began to take an interest. 'No,' he said, 'I am no +ingrate.' + +'You promised me fun,' she returned, with a laugh. 'I have given +you as good. We have had a stormy SCENA.' + +He laughed in his turn, and the sound of the laughter, in either +case, was hardly reassuring. + +'Come, what are you going to give me in exchange,' she continued, +'for my excellent declamation?' + +'What you will,' he said. + +'Whatever I will? Upon your honour? Suppose I asked the crown?' +She was flashing upon him, beautiful in triumph. + +'Upon my honour,' he replied. + +'Shall I ask the crown?' she continued. 'Nay; what should I do with +it? Grunewald is but a petty state; my ambition swells above it. I +shall ask - I find I want nothing,' she concluded. 'I will give you +something instead. I will give you leave to kiss me - once.' + +Otto drew near, and she put up her face; they were both smiling, +both on the brink of laughter, all was so innocent and playful; and +the Prince, when their lips encountered, was dumbfoundered by the +sudden convulsion of his being. Both drew instantly apart, and for +an appreciable time sat tongue-tied. Otto was indistinctly +conscious of a peril in the silence, but could find no words to +utter. Suddenly the Countess seemed to awake. 'As for your wife - +' she began in a clear and steady voice. + +The word recalled Otto, with a shudder, from his trance. 'I will +hear nothing against my wife,' he cried wildly; and then, recovering +himself and in a kindlier tone, 'I will tell you my one secret,' he +added. 'I love my wife.' + +'You should have let me finish,' she returned, smiling. 'Do you +suppose I did not mention her on purpose? You know you had lost +your head. Well, so had I. Come now, do not be abashed by words,' +she added somewhat sharply. 'It is the one thing I despise. If you +are not a fool, you will see that I am building fortresses about +your virtue. And at any rate, I choose that you shall understand +that I am not dying of love for you. It is a very smiling business; +no tragedy for me! And now here is what I have to say about your +wife; she is not and she never has been Gondremark's mistress. Be +sure he would have boasted if she had. Good-night!' + +And in a moment she was gone down the alley, and Otto was alone with +the bag of money and the flying god. + + + + +CHAPTER X - GOTTHOLD'S REVISED OPINION; AND THE FALL COMPLETED + + +THE Countess left poor Otto with a caress and buffet simultaneously +administered. The welcome word about his wife and the virtuous +ending of his interview should doubtless have delighted him. But +for all that, as he shouldered the bag of money and set forward to +rejoin his groom, he was conscious of many aching sensibilities. To +have gone wrong and to have been set right makes but a double trial +for man's vanity. The discovery of his own weakness and possible +unfaith had staggered him to the heart; and to hear, in the same +hour, of his wife's fidelity from one who loved her not, increased +the bitterness of the surprise. + +He was about half-way between the fountain and the Flying Mercury +before his thoughts began to be clear; and he was surprised to find +them resentful. He paused in a kind of temper, and struck with his +hand a little shrub. Thence there arose instantly a cloud of +awakened sparrows, which as instantly dispersed and disappeared into +the thicket. He looked at them stupidly, and when they were gone +continued staring at the stars. 'I am angry. By what right? By +none!' he thought; but he was still angry. He cursed Madame von +Rosen and instantly repented. Heavy was the money on his shoulders. + +When he reached the fountain, he did, out of ill-humour and parade, +an unpardonable act. He gave the money bodily to the dishonest +groom. 'Keep this for me,' he said, 'until I call for it to-morrow. +It is a great sum, and by that you will judge that I have not +condemned you.' And he strode away ruffling, as if he had done +something generous. It was a desperate stroke to re-enter at the +point of the bayonet into his self-esteem; and, like all such, it +was fruitless in the end. He got to bed with the devil, it +appeared: kicked and tumbled till the grey of the morning; and then +fell inopportunely into a leaden slumber, and awoke to find it ten. +To miss the appointment with old Killian after all, had been too +tragic a miscarriage: and he hurried with all his might, found the +groom (for a wonder) faithful to his trust, and arrived only a few +minutes before noon in the guest-chamber of the Morning Star. +Killian was there in his Sunday's best and looking very gaunt and +rigid; a lawyer from Brandenau stood sentinel over his outspread +papers; and the groom and the landlord of the inn were called to +serve as witnesses. The obvious deference of that great man, the +innkeeper, plainly affected the old farmer with surprise; but it was +not until Otto had taken the pen and signed that the truth flashed +upon him fully. Then, indeed, he was beside himself. + +'His Highness!' he cried, 'His Highness!' and repeated the +exclamation till his mind had grappled fairly with the facts. Then +he turned to the witnesses. 'Gentlemen,' he said, 'you dwell in a +country highly favoured by God; for of all generous gentlemen, I +will say it on my conscience, this one is the king. I am an old +man, and I have seen good and bad, and the year of the great famine; +but a more excellent gentleman, no, never.' + +'We know that,' cried the landlord, 'we know that well in Grunewald. +If we saw more of his Highness we should be the better pleased.' + +'It is the kindest Prince,' began the groom, and suddenly closed his +mouth upon a sob, so that every one turned to gaze upon his emotion +- Otto not last; Otto struck with remorse, to see the man so +grateful. + +Then it was the lawyer's turn to pay a compliment. 'I do not know +what Providence may hold in store,' he said, 'but this day should be +a bright one in the annals of your reign. The shouts of armies +could not be more eloquent than the emotion on these honest faces.' +And the Brandenau lawyer bowed, skipped, stepped back, and took +snuff, with the air of a man who has found and seized an +opportunity. + +'Well, young gentleman,' said Killian, 'if you will pardon me the +plainness of calling you a gentleman, many a good day's work you +have done, I doubt not, but never a better, or one that will be +better blessed; and whatever, sir, may be your happiness and triumph +in that high sphere to which you have been called, it will be none +the worse, sir, for an old man's blessing!' + +The scene had almost assumed the proportions of an ovation; and when +the Prince escaped he had but one thought: to go wherever he was +most sure of praise. His conduct at the board of council occurred +to him as a fair chapter; and this evoked the memory of Gotthold. +To Gotthold he would go. + +Gotthold was in the library as usual, and laid down his pen, a +little angrily, on Otto's entrance. 'Well,' he said, 'here you +are.' + +'Well,' returned Otto, 'we made a revolution, I believe.' + +'It is what I fear,' returned the Doctor. + +'How?' said Otto. 'Fear? Fear is the burnt child. I have learned +my strength and the weakness of the others; and I now mean to +govern.' + +Gotthold said nothing, but he looked down and smoothed his chin. + +'You disapprove?' cried Otto. 'You are a weather-cock.' + +'On the contrary,' replied the Doctor. 'My observation has +confirmed my fears. It will not do, Otto, not do.' + +'What will not do?' demanded the Prince, with a sickening stab of +pain. + +'None of it,' answered Gotthold. 'You are unfitted for a life of +action; you lack the stamina, the habit, the restraint, the +patience. Your wife is greatly better, vastly better; and though +she is in bad hands, displays a very different aptitude. She is a +woman of affairs; you are - dear boy, you are yourself. I bid you +back to your amusements; like a smiling dominie, I give you holidays +for life. Yes,' he continued, 'there is a day appointed for all +when they shall turn again upon their own philosophy. I had grown +to disbelieve impartially in all; and if in the atlas of the +sciences there were two charts I disbelieved in more than all the +rest, they were politics and morals. I had a sneaking kindness for +your vices; as they were negative, they flattered my philosophy; and +I called them almost virtues. Well, Otto, I was wrong; I have +forsworn my sceptical philosophy; and I perceive your faults to be +unpardonable. You are unfit to be a Prince, unfit to be a husband. +And I give you my word, I would rather see a man capably doing evil +than blundering about good.' + +Otto was still silent, in extreme dudgeon. + +Presently the Doctor resumed: 'I will take the smaller matter first: +your conduct to your wife. You went, I hear, and had an +explanation. That may have been right or wrong; I know not; at +least, you had stirred her temper. At the council she insults you; +well, you insult her back - a man to a woman, a husband to his wife, +in public! Next upon the back of this, you propose - the story runs +like wildfire - to recall the power of signature. Can she ever +forgive that? a woman - a young woman - ambitious, conscious of +talents beyond yours? Never, Otto. And to sum all, at such a +crisis in your married life, you get into a window corner with that +ogling dame von Rosen. I do not dream that there was any harm; but +I do say it was an idle disrespect to your wife. Why, man, the +woman is not decent.' + +'Gotthold,' said Otto, 'I will hear no evil of the Countess.' + +'You will certainly hear no good of her,' returned Gotthold; 'and if +you wish your wife to be the pink of nicety, you should clear your +court of demi-reputations.' + +'The commonplace injustice of a by-word,' Otto cried. 'The +partiality of sex. She is a demirep; what then is Gondremark? Were +she a man - ' + +'It would be all one,' retorted Gotthold roughly. 'When I see a +man, come to years of wisdom, who speaks in double-meanings and is +the braggart of his vices, I spit on the other side. "You, my +friend," say I, "are not even a gentleman." Well, she's not even a +lady.' + +'She is the best friend I have, and I choose that she shall be +respected,' Otto said. + +'If she is your friend, so much the worse,' replied the Doctor. 'It +will not stop there.' + +'Ah!' cried Otto, 'there is the charity of virtue! All evil in the +spotted fruit. But I can tell you, sir, that you do Madame von +Rosen prodigal injustice.' + +'You can tell me!' said the Doctor shrewdly. 'Have you, tried? have +you been riding the marches?' + +The blood came into Otto's face. + +'Ah!' cried Gotthold, 'look at your wife and blush! There's a wife +for a man to marry and then lose! She's a carnation, Otto. The +soul is in her eyes.' + +'You have changed your note for Seraphina, I perceive,' said Otto. + +'Changed it!' cried the Doctor, with a flush. 'Why, when was it +different? But I own I admired her at the council. When she sat +there silent, tapping with her foot, I admired her as I might a +hurricane. Were I one of those who venture upon matrimony, there +had been the prize to tempt me! She invites, as Mexico invited +Cortez; the enterprise is hard, the natives are unfriendly - I +believe them cruel too - but the metropolis is paved with gold and +the breeze blows out of paradise. Yes, I could desire to be that +conqueror. But to philander with von Rosen! never! Senses? I +discard them; what are they? - pruritus! Curiosity? Reach me my +Anatomy!' + +'To whom do you address yourself?' cried Otto. 'Surely you, of all +men, know that I love my wife!' + +'O, love!' cried Gotthold; 'love is a great word; it is in all the +dictionaries. If you had loved, she would have paid you back. What +does she ask? A little ardour!' + +'It is hard to love for two,' replied the Prince. + +'Hard? Why, there's the touchstone! O, I know my poets!' cried the +Doctor. 'We are but dust and fire, too and to endure life's +scorching; and love, like the shadow of a great rock, should lend +shelter and refreshment, not to the lover only, but to his mistress +and to the children that reward them; and their very friends should +seek repose in the fringes of that peace. Love is not love that +cannot build a home. And you call it love to grudge and quarrel and +pick faults? You call it love to thwart her to her face, and bandy +insults? Love!' + +'Gotthold, you are unjust. I was then fighting for my country,' +said the Prince. + +'Ay, and there's the worst of all,' returned the Doctor. 'You could +not even see that you were wrong; that being where they were, +retreat was ruin.' + +Why, you supported me!' cried Otto. + +'I did. I was a fool like you,' replied Gotthold. 'But now my eyes +are open. If you go on as you have started, disgrace this fellow +Gondremark, and publish the scandal of your divided house, there +will befall a most abominable thing in Grunewald. A revolution, +friend - a revolution.' + +'You speak strangely for a red,' said Otto. + +'A red republican, but not a revolutionary,' returned the Doctor. +'An ugly thing is a Grunewalder drunk! One man alone can save the +country from this pass, and that is the double-dealer Gondremark, +with whom I conjure you to make peace. It will not be you; it never +can be you:- you, who can do nothing, as your wife said, but trade +upon your station - you, who spent the hours in begging money! And +in God's name, what for? Why money? What mystery of idiocy was +this?' + +'It was to no ill end. It was to buy a farm,' quoth Otto sulkily. + +'To buy a farm!' cried Gotthold. 'Buy a farm!' + +'Well, what then?' returned Otto. 'I have bought it, if you come to +that.' + +Gotthold fairly bounded on his seat. 'And how that?' he cried. + +'How?' repeated Otto, startled. + +'Ay, verily, how!' returned the Doctor. 'How came you by the +money?' + +The Prince's countenance darkened. 'That is my affair,' said he. + +'You see you are ashamed,' retorted Gotthold. 'And so you bought a +farm in the hour of our country's need - doubtless to be ready for +the abdication; and I put it that you stole the funds. There are +not three ways of getting money: there are but two: to earn and +steal. And now, when you have combined Charles the Fifth and Long- +fingered Tom, you come to me to fortify your vanity! But I will +clear my mind upon this matter: until I know the right and wrong of +the transaction, I put my hand behind my back. A man may be the +pitifullest prince; he must be a spotless gentleman.' + +The Prince had gotten to his feet, as pale as paper. Gotthold,' he +said, 'you drive me beyond bounds. Beware, sir, beware!' + +'Do you threaten me, friend Otto?' asked the Doctor grimly. 'That +would be a strange conclusion.' + +'When have you ever known me use my power in any private animosity?' +cried Otto. 'To any private man your words were an unpardonable +insult, but at me you shoot in full security, and I must turn aside +to compliment you on your plainness. I must do more than pardon, I +must admire, because you have faced this - this formidable monarch, +like a Nathan before David. You have uprooted an old kindness, sir, +with an unsparing hand. You leave me very bare. My last bond is +broken; and though I take Heaven to witness that I sought to do the +right, I have this reward: to find myself alone. You say I am no +gentleman; yet the sneers have been upon your side; and though I can +very well perceive where you have lodged your sympathies, I will +forbear the taunt.' + +'Otto, are you insane?' cried Gotthold, leaping up. 'Because I ask +you how you came by certain moneys, and because you refuse - ' + +'Herr von Hohenstockwitz, I have ceased to invite your aid in my +affairs,' said Otto. 'I have heard all that I desire, and you have +sufficiently trampled on my vanity. It may be that I cannot govern, +it may be that I cannot love - you tell me so with every mark of +honesty; but God has granted me one virtue, and I can still forgive. +I forgive you; even in this hour of passion, I can perceive my +faults and your excuses; and if I desire that in future I may be +spared your conversation, it is not, sir, from resentment - not +resentment - but, by Heaven, because no man on earth could endure to +be so rated. You have the satisfaction to see your sovereign weep; +and that person whom you have so often taunted with his happiness +reduced to the last pitch of solitude and misery. No, - I will hear +nothing; I claim the last word, sir, as your Prince; and that last +word shall be - forgiveness.' + +And with that Otto was gone from the apartment, and Doctor Gotthold +was left alone with the most conflicting sentiments of sorrow, +remorse, and merriment; walking to and fro before his table, and +asking himself, with hands uplifted, which of the pair of them was +most to blame for this unhappy rupture. Presently, he took from a +cupboard a bottle of Rhine wine and a goblet of the deep Bohemian +ruby. The first glass a little warmed and comforted his bosom; with +the second he began to look down upon these troubles from a sunny +mountain; yet a while, and filled with this false comfort and +contemplating life throughout a golden medium, he owned to himself, +with a flush, a smile, and a half-pleasurable sigh, that he had been +somewhat over plain in dealing with his cousin. 'He said the truth, +too,' added the penitent librarian, 'for in my monkish fashion I +adore the Princess.' And then, with a still deepening flush and a +certain stealth, although he sat all alone in that great gallery, he +toasted Seraphina to the dregs. + + + + + +CHAPTER XI - PROVIDENCE VON ROSEN: ACT THE FIRST +SHE BEGUILES THE BARON + + +AT a sufficiently late hour, or to be more exact, at three in the +afternoon, Madame von Rosen issued on the world. She swept +downstairs and out across the garden, a black mantilla thrown over +her head, and the long train of her black velvet dress ruthlessly +sweeping in the dirt. + +At the other end of that long garden, and back to back with the +villa of the Countess, stood the large mansion where the Prime +Minister transacted his affairs and pleasures. This distance, which +was enough for decency by the easy canons of Mittwalden, the +Countess swiftly traversed, opened a little door with a key, mounted +a flight of stairs, and entered unceremoniously into Gondremark's +study. It was a large and very high apartment; books all about the +walls, papers on the table, papers on the floor; here and there a +picture, somewhat scant of drapery; a great fire glowing and flaming +in the blue tiled hearth; and the daylight streaming through a +cupola above. In the midst of this sat the great Baron Gondremark +in his shirt-sleeves, his business for that day fairly at an end, +and the hour arrived for relaxation. His expression, his very +nature, seemed to have undergone a fundamental change. Gondremark +at home appeared the very antipode of Gondremark on duty. He had an +air of massive jollity that well became him; grossness and geniality +sat upon his features; and along with his manners, he had laid aside +his sly and sinister expression. He lolled there, sunning his bulk +before the fire, a noble animal. + +'Hey!' he cried. 'At last!' + +The Countess stepped into the room in silence, threw herself on a +chair, and crossed her legs. In her lace and velvet, with a good +display of smooth black stocking and of snowy petticoat, and with +the refined profile of her face and slender plumpness of her body, +she showed in singular contrast to the big, black, intellectual +satyr by the fire. + +'How often do you send for me?' she cried. 'It is compromising.' + +Gondremark laughed. 'Speaking of that,' said he, 'what in the +devil's name were you about? You were not home till morning.' + +'I was giving alms,' she said. + +The Baron again laughed loud and long, for in his shirt-sleeves he +was a very mirthful creature. 'It is fortunate I am not jealous,' +he remarked. 'But you know my way: pleasure and liberty go hand in +hand. I believe what I believe; it is not much, but I believe it. - +But now to business. Have you not read my letter?' + +'No,' she said; 'my head ached.' + +'Ah, well! then I have news indeed!' cried Gondremark. 'I was mad +to see you all last night and all this morning: for yesterday +afternoon I brought my long business to a head; the ship has come +home; one more dead lift, and I shall cease to fetch and carry for +the Princess Ratafia. Yes, 'tis done. I have the order all in +Ratafia's hand; I carry it on my heart. At the hour of twelve to- +night, Prince Featherhead is to be taken in his bed and, like the +bambino, whipped into a chariot; and by next morning he will command +a most romantic prospect from the donjon of the Felsenburg. +Farewell, Featherhead! The war goes on, the girl is in my hand; I +have long been indispensable, but now I shall be sole. I have +long,' he added exultingly, 'long carried this intrigue upon my +shoulders, like Samson with the gates of Gaza; now I discharge that +burthen.' + +She had sprung to her feet a little paler. 'Is this true?' she +cried. + +'I tell you a fact,' he asseverated. 'The trick is played.' + +'I will never believe it,' she said. 'An order in her own hand? I +will never believe it, Heinrich.' + +'I swear to you,' said he. + +'O, what do you care for oaths - or I either? What would you swear +by? Wine, women, and song? It is not binding,' she said. She had +come quite close up to him and laid her hand upon his arm. 'As for +the order - no, Heinrich, never! I will never believe it. I will +die ere I believe it. You have some secret purpose - what, I cannot +guess - but not one word of it is true.' + +'Shall I show it you?' he asked. + +'You cannot,' she answered. 'There is no such thing.' + +'Incorrigible Sadducee!' he cried. 'Well, I will convert you; you +shall see the order.' He moved to a chair where he had thrown his +coat, and then drawing forth and holding out a paper, 'Read,' said +he. + +She took it greedily, and her eye flashed as she perused it. + +'Hey!' cried the Baron, 'there falls a dynasty, and it was I that +felled it; and I and you inherit!' He seemed to swell in stature; +and next moment, with a laugh, he put his hand forward. Give me the +dagger,' said he. + +But she whisked the paper suddenly behind her back and faced him, +lowering. 'No, no,' she said. 'You and I have first a point to +settle. Do you suppose me blind? She could never have given that +paper but to one man, and that man her lover. Here you stand - her +lover, her accomplice, her master - O, I well believe it, for I know +your power. But what am I?' she cried; 'I, whom you deceive!' + +'Jealousy!' cried Gondremark. 'Anna, I would never have believed +it! But I declare to you by all that's credible that I am not her +lover. I might be, I suppose; but I never yet durst risk the +declaration. The chit is so unreal; a mincing doll; she will and +she will not; there is no counting on her, by God! And hitherto I +have had my own way without, and keep the lover in reserve. And I +say, Anna,' he added with severity, 'you must break yourself of this +new fit, my girl; there must be no combustion. I keep the creature +under the belief that I adore her; and if she caught a breath of you +and me, she is such a fool, prude, and dog in the manger, that she +is capable of spoiling all.' + +'All very fine,' returned the lady. 'With whom do you pass your +days? and which am I to believe, your words or your actions?' + +'Anna, the devil take you, are you blind?' cried Gondremark. 'You +know me. Am I likely to care for such a preciosa? 'Tis hard that +we should have been together for so long, and you should still take +me for a troubadour. But if there is one thing that I despise and +deprecate, it is all such figures in Berlin wool. Give me a human +woman - like myself. You are my mate; you were made for me; you +amuse me like the play. And what have I to gain that I should +pretend to you? If I do not love you, what use are you to me? Why, +none. It is as clear as noonday.' + +'Do you love me, Heinrich?' she asked, languishing. 'Do you truly?' + +'I tell you,' he cried, 'I love you next after myself. I should be +all abroad if I had lost you.' + +'Well, then,' said she, folding up the paper and putting it calmly +in her pocket, 'I will believe you, and I join the plot. Count upon +me. At midnight, did you say? It is Gordon, I see, that you have +charged with it. Excellent; he will stick at nothing - ' + +Gondremark watched her suspiciously. 'Why do you take the paper?' +he demanded. 'Give it here.' + +'No,' she returned; 'I mean to keep it. It is I who must prepare +the stroke; you cannot manage it without me; and to do my best I +must possess the paper. Where shall I find Gordon? In his rooms?' +She spoke with a rather feverish self-possession. + +'Anna,' he said sternly, the black, bilious countenance of his +palace ROLE taking the place of the more open favour of his hours at +home, 'I ask you for that paper. Once, twice, and thrice.' + +'Heinrich,' she returned, looking him in the face, 'take care. I +will put up with no dictation.' + +Both looked dangerous; and the silence lasted for a measurable +interval of time. Then she made haste to have the first word; and +with a laugh that rang clear and honest, 'Do not be a child,' she +said. 'I wonder at you. If your assurances are true, you can have +no reason to mistrust me, nor I to play you false. The difficulty +is to get the Prince out of the palace without scandal. His valets +are devoted; his chamberlain a slave; and yet one cry might ruin +all.' + +'They must be overpowered,' he said, following her to the new +ground, 'and disappear along with him.' + +'And your whole scheme along with them!' she cried. 'He does not +take his servants when he goes a-hunting: a child could read the +truth. No, no; the plan is idiotic; it must be Ratafia's. But hear +me. You know the Prince worships me?' + +'I know,' he said. 'Poor Featherhead, I cross his destiny!' + +'Well now,' she continued, 'what if I bring him alone out of the +palace, to some quiet corner of the Park - the Flying Mercury, for +instance? Gordon can be posted in the thicket; the carriage wait +behind the temple; not a cry, not a scuffle, not a footfall; simply, +the Prince vanishes! - What do you say? Am I an able ally? Are my +BEAUX YUEX of service? Ah, Heinrich, do not lose your Anna! - she +has power!' + +He struck with his open hand upon the chimney. 'Witch!' he said, +'there is not your match for devilry in Europe. Service! the thing +runs on wheels.' + +'Kiss me, then, and let me go. I must not miss my Featherhead,' she +said. + +'Stay, stay,' said the Baron; 'not so fast. I wish, upon my soul, +that I could trust you; but you are, out and in, so whimsical a +devil that I dare not. Hang it, Anna, no; it's not possible!' + +'You doubt me, Heinrich?' she cried. + +'Doubt is not the word,' said he. 'I know you. Once you were clear +of me with that paper in your pocket, who knows what you would do +with it? - not you, at least - nor I. You see,' he added, shaking +his head paternally upon the Countess, 'you are as vicious as a +monkey.' + +'I swear to you,' she cried, 'by my salvation . . . ' + +'I have no curiosity to hear you swearing,' said the Baron. + +'You think that I have no religion? You suppose me destitute of +honour. Well,' she said, 'see here: I will not argue, but I tell +you once for all: leave me this order, and the Prince shall be +arrested - take it from me, and, as certain as I speak, I will upset +the coach. Trust me, or fear me: take your choice.' And she +offered him the paper. + +The Baron, in a great contention of mind, stood irresolute, weighing +the two dangers. Once his hand advanced, then dropped. 'Well,' he +said, 'since trust is what you call it . . .' + +'No more,' she interrupted, 'Do not spoil your attitude. And now +since you have behaved like a good sort of fellow in the dark, I +will condescend to tell you why. I go to the palace to arrange with +Gordon; but how is Gordon to obey me? And how can I foresee the +hours? It may be midnight; ay, and it may be nightfall; all's a +chance; and to act, I must be free and hold the strings of the +adventure. And now,' she cried, 'your Vivien goes. Dub me your +knight!' And she held out her arms and smiled upon him radiant. + +'Well,' he said, when he had kissed her, 'every man must have his +folly; I thank God mine is no worse. Off with you! I have given a +child a squib.' + + + + +CHAPTER XII - PROVIDENCE VON ROSEN: ACT THE SECOND +SHE INFORMS THE PRINCE + + +IT was the first impulse of Madame von Rosen to return to her own +villa and revise her toilette. Whatever else should come of this +adventure, it was her firm design to pay a visit to the Princess. +And before that woman, so little beloved, the Countess would appear +at no disadvantage. It was the work of minutes. Von Rosen had the +captain's eye in matters of the toilette; she was none of those who +hang in Fabian helplessness among their finery and, after hours, +come forth upon the world as dowdies. A glance, a loosened curl, a +studied and admired disorder in the hair, a bit of lace, a touch of +colour, a yellow rose in the bosom; and the instant picture was +complete. + +'That will do,' she said. 'Bid my carriage follow me to the palace. +In half an hour it should be there in waiting.' + +The night was beginning to fall and the shops to shine with lamps +along the tree-beshadowed thorough-fares of Otto's capital, when the +Countess started on her high emprise. She was jocund at heart; +pleasure and interest had winged her beauty, and she knew it. She +paused before the glowing jeweller's; she remarked and praised a +costume in the milliner's window; and when she reached the lime-tree +walk, with its high, umbrageous arches and stir of passers-by in the +dim alleys, she took her place upon a bench and began to dally with +the pleasures of the hour. It was cold, but she did not feel it, +being warm within; her thoughts, in that dark corner, shone like the +gold and rubies at the jewellers; her ears, which heard the brushing +of so many footfalls, transposed it into music. + +What was she to do? She held the paper by which all depended. Otto +and Gondremark and Ratafia, and the state itself, hung light in her +balances, as light as dust; her little finger laid in either scale +would set all flying: and she hugged herself upon her huge +preponderance, and then laughed aloud to think how giddily it might +be used. The vertigo of omnipotence, the disease of Caesars, shook +her reason. 'O the mad world!' she thought, and laughed aloud in +exultation. + +A child, finger in mouth, had paused a little way from where she +sat, and stared with cloudy interest upon this laughing lady. She +called it nearer; but the child hung back. Instantly, with that +curious passion which you may see any woman in the world display, on +the most odd occasions, for a similar end, the Countess bent herself +with singleness of mind to overcome this diffidence; and presently, +sure enough, the child was seated on her knee, thumbing and +glowering at her watch. + +'If you had a clay bear and a china monkey,' asked Von Rosen, 'which +would you prefer to break?' + +'But I have neither,' said the child. + +'Well,' she said, 'here is a bright florin, with which you may +purchase both the one and the other; and I shall give it you at +once, if you will answer my question. The clay bear or the china +monkey - come?' + +But the unbreeched soothsayer only stared upon the florin with big +eyes; the oracle could not be persuaded to reply; and the Countess +kissed him lightly, gave him the florin, set him down upon the path, +and resumed her way with swinging and elastic gait. + +'Which shall I break?' she wondered; and she passed her hand with +delight among the careful disarrangement of her locks. 'Which?' and +she consulted heaven with her bright eyes. 'Do I love both or +neither? A little - passionately - not at all? Both or neither - +both, I believe; but at least I will make hay of Ratafia.' + +By the time she had passed the iron gates, mounted the drive, and +set her foot upon the broad flagged terrace, the night had come +completely; the palace front was thick with lighted windows; and +along the balustrade, the lamp on every twentieth baluster shone +clear. A few withered tracks of sunset, amber and glow-worm green, +still lingered in the western sky; and she paused once again to +watch them fading. + +'And to think,' she said, 'that here am I - destiny embodied, a +norn, a fate, a providence - and have no guess upon which side I +shall declare myself! What other woman in my place would not be +prejudiced, and think herself committed? But, thank Heaven! I was +born just!' Otto's windows were bright among the rest, and she +looked on them with rising tenderness. 'How does it feel to be +deserted?' she thought. 'Poor dear fool! The girl deserves that he +should see this order.' + +Without more delay, she passed into the palace and asked for an +audience of Prince Otto. The Prince, she was told, was in his own +apartment, and desired to be private. She sent her name. A man +presently returned with word that the Prince tendered his apologies, +but could see no one. 'Then I will write,' she said, and scribbled +a few lines alleging urgency of life and death. 'Help me, my +Prince,' she added; 'none but you can help me.' This time the +messenger returned more speedily, and begged the Countess to follow +him: the Prince was graciously pleased to receive the Frau Grafin +von Rosen. + +Otto sat by the fire in his large armoury, weapons faintly +glittering all about him in the changeful light. His face was +disfigured by the marks of weeping; he looked sour and sad; nor did +he rise to greet his visitor, but bowed, and bade the man begone. +That kind of general tenderness which served the Countess for both +heart and conscience, sharply smote her at this spectacle of grief +and weakness; she began immediately to enter into the spirit of her +part; and as soon as they were alone, taking one step forward and +with a magnificent gesture - 'Up!' she cried. + +'Madame von Rosen,' replied Otto dully, 'you have used strong words. +You speak of life and death. Pray, madam, who is threatened? Who +is there,' he added bitterly, 'so destitute that even Otto of +Grunewald can assist him?' + +'First learn,' said she, 'the names of the conspirators; the +Princess and the Baron Gondremark. Can you not guess the rest?' +And then, as he maintained his silence - 'You!' she cried, pointing +at him with her finger. "Tis you they threaten! Your rascal and +mine have laid their heads together and condemned you. But they +reckoned without you and me. We make a PARTIE CARREE, Prince, in +love and politics. They lead an ace, but we shall trump it. Come, +partner, shall I draw my card?' + +'Madam,' he said, 'explain yourself. Indeed I fail to comprehend.' + +'See, then,' said she; and handed him the order. + +He took it, looked upon it with a start; and then, still without +speech, he put his hand before his face. She waited for a word in +vain. + +'What!' she cried, 'do you take the thing down-heartedly? As well +seek wine in a milk-pail as love in that girl's heart! Be done with +this, and be a man. After the league of the lions, let us have a +conspiracy of mice, and pull this piece of machinery to ground. You +were brisk enough last night when nothing was at stake and all was +frolic. Well, here is better sport; here is life indeed.' + +He got to his feet with some alacrity, and his face, which was a +little flushed, bore the marks of resolution. + +'Madame von Rosen,' said he, 'I am neither unconscious nor +ungrateful; this is the true continuation of your friendship; but I +see that I must disappoint your expectations. You seem to expect +from me some effort of resistance; but why should I resist? I have +not much to gain; and now that I have read this paper, and the last +of a fool's paradise is shattered, it would be hyperbolical to speak +of loss in the same breath with Otto of Grunewald. I have no party, +no policy; no pride, nor anything to be proud of. For what benefit +or principle under Heaven do you expect me to contend? Or would you +have me bite and scratch like a trapped weasel? No, madam; signify +to those who sent you my readiness to go. I would at least avoid a +scandal.' + +'You go? - of your own will, you go?' she cried. + +'I cannot say so much, perhaps,' he answered; 'but I go with good +alacrity. I have desired a change some time; behold one offered me! +Shall I refuse? Thank God, I am not so destitute of humour as to +make a tragedy of such a farce.' He flicked the order on the table. +'You may signify my readiness,' he added grandly. + +'Ah,' she said, 'you are more angry than you own.' + +'I, madam? angry?' he cried. 'You rave! I have no cause for anger. +In every way I have been taught my weakness, my instability, and my +unfitness for the world. I am a plexus of weaknesses, an impotent +Prince, a doubtful gentleman; and you yourself, indulgent as you +are, have twice reproved my levity. And shall I be angry? I may +feel the unkindness, but I have sufficient honesty of mind to see +the reasons of this COUP D'ETAT.' + +'From whom have you got this?' she cried in wonder. 'You think you +have not behaved well? My Prince, were you not young and handsome, +I should detest you for your virtues. You push them to the verge of +commonplace. And this ingratitude - ' + +'Understand me, Madame von Rosen,' returned the Prince, flushing a +little darker, 'there can be here no talk of gratitude, none of +pride. You are here, by what circumstance I know not, but doubtless +led by your kindness, mixed up in what regards my family alone. You +have no knowledge what my wife, your sovereign, may have suffered; +it is not for you - no, nor for me - to judge. I own myself in +fault; and were it otherwise, a man were a very empty boaster who +should talk of love and start before a small humiliation. It is in +all the copybooks that one should die to please his lady-love; and +shall a man not go to prison?' + +'Love? And what has love to do with being sent to gaol?' exclaimed +the Countess, appealing to the walls and roof. 'Heaven knows I +think as much of love as any one; my life would prove it; but I +admit no love, at least for a man, that is not equally returned. +The rest is moonshine.' + +'I think of love more absolutely, madam, though I am certain no more +tenderly, than a lady to whom I am indebted for such kindnesses,' +returned the Prince. 'But this is unavailing. We are not here to +hold a court of troubadours.' + +'Still,' she replied, 'there is one thing you forget. If she +conspires with Gondremark against your liberty, she may conspire +with him against your honour also.' + +'My honour?' he repeated. 'For a woman, you surprise me. If I have +failed to gain her love or play my part of husband, what right is +left me? or what honour can remain in such a scene of defeat? No +honour that I recognise. I am become a stranger. If my wife no +longer loves me, I will go to prison, since she wills it; if she +love another, where should I be more in place? or whose fault is it +but mine? You speak, Madame von Rosen, like too many women, with a +man's tongue. Had I myself fallen into temptation (as, Heaven +knows, I might) I should have trembled, but still hoped and asked +for her forgiveness; and yet mine had been a treason in the teeth of +love. But let me tell you, madam,' he pursued, with rising +irritation, 'where a husband by futility, facility, and ill-timed +humours has outwearied his wife's patience, I will suffer neither +man nor woman to misjudge her. She is free; the man has been found +wanting.' + +'Because she loves you not?' the Countess cried. 'You know she is +incapable of such a feeling.' + +'Rather, it was I who was born incapable of inspiring it,' said +Otto. + +Madame von Rosen broke into sudden laughter. 'Fool,' she cried, 'I +am in love with you myself!' + +'Ah, madam, you are most compassionate,' the Prince retorted, +smiling. 'But this is waste debate. I know my purpose. Perhaps, +to equal you in frankness, I know and embrace my advantage. I am +not without the spirit of adventure. I am in a false position - so +recognised by public acclamation: do you grudge me, then, my issue?' + +'If your mind is made up, why should I dissuade you?' said the +Countess. 'I own, with a bare face, I am the gainer. Go, you take +my heart with you, or more of it than I desire; I shall not sleep at +night for thinking of your misery. But do not be afraid; I would +not spoil you, you are such a fool and hero.' + +'Alas! madam,' cried the Prince, 'and your unlucky money! I did +amiss to take it, but you are a wonderful persuader. And I thank +God, I can still offer you the fair equivalent.' He took some +papers from the chimney. 'Here, madam, are the title-deeds,' he +said; 'where I am going, they can certainly be of no use to me, and +I have now no other hope of making up to you your kindness. You +made the loan without formality, obeying your kind heart. The parts +are somewhat changed; the sun of this Prince of Grunewald is upon +the point of setting; and I know you better than to doubt you will +once more waive ceremony, and accept the best that he can give you. +If I may look for any pleasure in the coming time, it will be to +remember that the peasant is secure, and my most generous friend no +loser.' + +'Do you not understand my odious position?' cried the Countess. +'Dear Prince, it is upon your fall that I begin my fortune.' + +'It was the more like you to tempt me to resistance,' returned Otto. +'But this cannot alter our relations; and I must, for the last time, +lay my commands upon you in the character of Prince.' And with his +loftiest dignity, he forced the deeds on her acceptance. + +'I hate the very touch of them,' she cried. + +There followed upon this a little silence. 'At what time,' resumed +Otto, '(if indeed you know) am I to be arrested?' + +'Your Highness, when you please!' exclaimed the Countess. 'Or, if +you choose to tear that paper, never!' + +'I would rather it were done quickly,' said the Prince. 'I shall +take but time to leave a letter for the Princess.' + +'Well,' said the Countess, 'I have advised you to resist; at the +same time, if you intend to be dumb before your shearers, I must say +that I ought to set about arranging your arrest. I offered' - she +hesitated - 'I offered to manage it, intending, my dear friend - +intending, upon my soul, to be of use to you. Well, if you will not +profit by my goodwill, then be of use to me; and as soon as ever you +feel ready, go to the Flying Mercury where we met last night. It +will be none the worse for you; and to make it quite plain, it will +be better for the rest of us.' + +'Dear madam, certainly,' said Otto. 'If I am prepared for the chief +evil, I shall not quarrel with details. Go, then, with my best +gratitude; and when I have written a few lines of leave-taking, I +shall immediately hasten to keep tryst. To-night I shall not meet +so dangerous a cavalier,' he added, with a smiling gallantry. + +As soon as Madame von Rosen was gone, he made a great call upon his +self-command. He was face to face with a miserable passage where, +if it were possible, he desired to carry himself with dignity. As +to the main fact, he never swerved or faltered; he had come so +heart-sick and so cruelly humiliated from his talk with Gotthold, +that he embraced the notion of imprisonment with something bordering +on relief. Here was, at least, a step which he thought blameless; +here was a way out of his troubles. He sat down to write to +Seraphina; and his anger blazed. The tale of his forbearances +mounted, in his eyes, to something monstrous; still more monstrous, +the coldness, egoism, and cruelty that had required and thus +requited them. The pen which he had taken shook in his hand. He +was amazed to find his resignation fled, but it was gone beyond his +recall. In a few white-hot words, he bade adieu, dubbing +desperation by the name of love, and calling his wrath forgiveness; +then he cast but one look of leave-taking on the place that had been +his for so long and was now to be his no longer; and hurried forth - +love's prisoner - or pride's. + +He took that private passage which he had trodden so often in less +momentous hours. The porter let him out; and the bountiful, cold +air of the night and the pure glory of the stars received him on the +threshold. He looked round him, breathing deep of earth's plain +fragrance; he looked up into the great array of heaven, and was +quieted. His little turgid life dwindled to its true proportions; +and he saw himself (that great flame-hearted martyr!) stand like a +speck under the cool cupola of the night. Thus he felt his careless +injuries already soothed; the live air of out-of-doors, the quiet of +the world, as if by their silent music, sobering and dwarfing his +emotions. + +'Well, I forgive her,' he said. 'If it be of any use to her, I +forgive.' + +And with brisk steps he crossed the garden, issued upon the Park, +and came to the Flying Mercury. A dark figure moved forward from +the shadow of the pedestal. + +'I have to ask your pardon, sir,' a voice observed, 'but if I am +right in taking you for the Prince, I was given to understand that +you would be prepared to meet me.' + +'Herr Gordon, I believe?' said Otto. + +'Herr Oberst Gordon,' replied that officer. 'This is rather a +ticklish business for a man to be embarked in; and to find that all +is to go pleasantly is a great relief to me. The carriage is at +hand; shall I have the honour of following your Highness?' + +'Colonel,' said the Prince, 'I have now come to that happy moment of +my life when I have orders to receive but none to give.' + +'A most philosophical remark,' returned the Colonel. 'Begad, a very +pertinent remark! it might be Plutarch. I am not a drop's blood to +your Highness, or indeed to any one in this principality; or else I +should dislike my orders. But as it is, and since there is nothing +unnatural or unbecoming on my side, and your Highness takes it in +good part, I begin to believe we may have a capital time together, +sir - a capital time. For a gaoler is only a fellow-captive.' + +'May I inquire, Herr Gordon,' asked Otto, 'what led you to accept +this dangerous and I would fain hope thankless office?' + +'Very natural, I am sure,' replied the officer of fortune. 'My pay +is, in the meanwhile, doubled.' + +'Well, sir, I will not presume to criticise,' returned the Prince. +'And I perceive the carriage.' + +Sure enough, at the intersection of two alleys of the Park, a coach +and four, conspicuous by its lanterns, stood in waiting. And a +little way off about a score of lancers were drawn up under the +shadow of the trees. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII - PROVIDENCE VON ROSEN: ACT THE THIRD +SHE ENLIGHTENS SERAPHINA + + +WHEN Madame von Rosen left the Prince, she hurried straight to +Colonel Gordon; and not content with directing the arrangements, she +had herself accompanied the soldier of fortune to the Flying +Mercury. The Colonel gave her his arm, and the talk between this +pair of conspirators ran high and lively. The Countess, indeed, was +in a whirl of pleasure and excitement; her tongue stumbled upon +laughter, her eyes shone, the colour that was usually wanting now +perfected her face. It would have taken little more to bring Gordon +to her feet - or so, at least, she believed, disdaining the idea. + +Hidden among some lilac bushes, she enjoyed the great decorum of the +arrest, and heard the dialogue of the two men die away along the +path. Soon after, the rolling of a carriage and the beat of hoofs +arose in the still air of the night, and passed speedily farther and +fainter into silence. The Prince was gone. + +Madame von Rosen consulted her watch. She had still, she thought, +time enough for the tit-bit of her evening; and hurrying to the +palace, winged by the fear of Gondremark's arrival, she sent her +name and a pressing request for a reception to the Princess +Seraphina. As the Countess von Rosen unqualified, she was sure to +be refused; but as an emissary of the Baron's, for so she chose to +style herself, she gained immediate entry. + +The Princess sat alone at table, making a feint of dining. Her +cheeks were mottled, her eyes heavy; she had neither slept nor +eaten; even her dress had been neglected. In short, she was out of +health, out of looks, out of heart, and hag-ridden by her +conscience. The Countess drew a swift comparison, and shone +brighter in beauty. + +'You come, madam, DE LA PART DE MONSIEUR LE BARON,' drawled the +Princess. 'Be seated! What have you to say?' + +'To say?' repeated Madame von Rosen, 'O, much to say! Much to say +that I would rather not, and much to leave unsaid that I would +rather say. For I am like St. Paul, your Highness, and always wish +to do the things I should not. Well! to be categorical - that is +the word? - I took the Prince your order. He could not credit his +senses. "Ah," he cried "dear Madame von Rosen, it is not possible - +it cannot be I must hear it from your lips. My wife is a poor girl +misled, she is only silly, she is not cruel." "MON PRINCE," said I, +"a girl - and therefore cruel; youth kills flies." - He had such +pain to understand it!' + +'Madame von Rosen,' said the Princess, in most steadfast tones, but +with a rose of anger in her face, 'who sent you here, and for what +purpose? Tell your errand.' + +'O, madam, I believe you understand me very well,' returned von +Rosen. 'I have not your philosophy. I wear my heart upon my +sleeve, excuse the indecency! It is a very little one,' she +laughed, 'and I so often change the sleeve!' + +'Am I to understand the Prince has been arrested?' asked the +Princess, rising. + +'While you sat there dining!' cried the Countess, still nonchalantly +seated. + +'You have discharged your errand,' was the reply; 'I will not detain +you.' + +'O no, madam,' said the Countess, 'with your permission, I have not +yet done. I have borne much this evening in your service. I have +suffered. I was made to suffer in your service.' She unfolded her +fan as she spoke. Quick as her pulses beat, the fan waved +languidly. She betrayed her emotion only by the brightness of her +eyes and face, and by the almost insolent triumph with which she +looked down upon the Princess. There were old scores of rivalry +between them in more than one field; so at least von Rosen felt; and +now she was to have her hour of victory in them all. + +'You are no servant, Madame von Rosen, of mine,' said Seraphina. + +'No, madam, indeed,' returned the Countess; 'but we both serve the +same person, as you know - or if you do not, then I have the +pleasure of informing you. Your conduct is so light - so light,' +she repeated, the fan wavering higher like a butterfly, 'that +perhaps you do not truly understand.' The Countess rolled her fan +together, laid it in her lap, and rose to a less languorous +position. 'Indeed,' she continued, 'I should be sorry to see any +young woman in your situation. You began with every advantage - +birth, a suitable marriage - quite pretty too - and see what you +have come to! My poor girl, to think of it! But there is nothing +that does so much harm,' observed the Countess finely, 'as giddiness +of mind.' And she once more unfurled the fan, and approvingly +fanned herself. + +'I will no longer permit you to forget yourself,' cried Seraphina. +'I think you are mad.' + +'Not mad,' returned von Rosen. 'Sane enough to know you dare not +break with me to-night, and to profit by the knowledge. I left my +poor, pretty Prince Charming crying his eyes out for a wooden doll. +My heart is soft; I love my pretty Prince; you will never understand +it, but I long to give my Prince his doll, dry his poor eyes, and +send him off happy. O, you immature fool!' the Countess cried, +rising to her feet, and pointing at the Princess the closed fan that +now began to tremble in her hand. 'O wooden doll!' she cried, 'have +you a heart, or blood, of any nature? This is a man, child - a man +who loves you. O, it will not happen twice! it is not common; +beautiful and clever women look in vain for it. And you, you +pitiful schoolgirl, tread this jewel under foot! you, stupid with +your vanity! Before you try to govern kingdoms, you should first be +able to behave yourself at home; home is the woman's kingdom.' She +paused and laughed a little, strangely to hear and look upon. 'I +will tell you one of the things,' she said, 'that were to stay +unspoken. Von Rosen is a better women than you, my Princess, though +you will never have the pain of understanding it; and when I took +the Prince your order, and looked upon his face, my soul was melted +- O, I am frank - here, within my arms, I offered him repose!' She +advanced a step superbly as she spoke, with outstretched arms; and +Seraphina shrank. 'Do not be alarmed!' the Countess cried; 'I am +not offering that hermitage to you; in all the world there is but +one who wants to, and him you have dismissed! "If it will give her +pleasure I should wear the martyr's crown," he cried, "I will +embrace the thorns." I tell you - I am quite frank - I put the +order in his power and begged him to resist. You, who have betrayed +your husband, may betray me to Gondremark; my Prince would betray no +one. Understand it plainly,' she cried, ''tis of his pure +forbearance that you sit there; he had the power - I gave it him - +to change the parts; and he refused, and went to prison in your +place.' + +The Princess spoke with some distress. 'Your violence shocks me and +pains me,' she began, 'but I cannot be angry with what at least does +honour to the mistaken kindness of your heart: it was right for me +to know this. I will condescend to tell you. It was with deep +regret that I was driven to this step. I admire in many ways the +Prince - I admit his amiability. It was our great misfortune, it +was perhaps somewhat of my fault, that we were so unsuited to each +other; but I have a regard, a sincere regard, for all his qualities. +As a private person I should think as you do. It is difficult, I +know, to make allowances for state considerations. I have only with +deep reluctance obeyed the call of a superior duty; and so soon as I +dare do it for the safety of the state, I promise you the Prince +shall be released. Many in my situation would have resented your +freedoms. I am not' - and she looked for a moment rather piteously +upon the Countess - 'I am not altogether so inhuman as you think.' + +'And you can put these troubles of the state,' the Countess cried, +'to weigh with a man's love?' + +'Madame von Rosen, these troubles are affairs of life and death to +many; to the Prince, and perhaps even to yourself, among the +number,' replied the Princess, with dignity. 'I have learned, +madam, although still so young, in a hard school, that my own +feelings must everywhere come last.' + +'O callow innocence!' exclaimed the other. 'Is it possible you do +not know, or do not suspect, the intrigue in which you move? I find +it in my heart to pity you! We are both women after all - poor +girl, poor girl! - and who is born a woman is born a fool. And +though I hate all women - come, for the common folly, I forgive you. +Your Highness' - she dropped a deep stage curtsey and resumed her +fan - 'I am going to insult you, to betray one who is called my +lover, and if it pleases you to use the power I now put unreservedly +into your hands, to ruin my dear self. O what a French comedy! You +betray, I betray, they betray. It is now my cue. The letter, yes. +Behold the letter, madam, its seal unbroken as I found it by my bed +this morning; for I was out of humour, and I get many, too many, of +these favours. For your own sake, for the sake of my Prince +Charming, for the sake of this great principality that sits so heavy +on your conscience, open it and read!' + +'Am I to understand,' inquired the Princess, 'that this letter in +any way regards me?' + +'You see I have not opened it,' replied von Rosen; 'but 'tis mine, +and I beg you to experiment.' + +'I cannot look at it till you have,' returned Seraphina, very +seriously. 'There may be matter there not meant for me to see; it +is a private letter.' + +The Countess tore it open, glanced it through, and tossed it back; +and the Princess, taking up the sheet, recognised the hand of +Gondremark, and read with a sickening shock the following lines:- + + +'Dearest Anna, come at once. Ratafia has done the deed, her husband +is to be packed to prison. This puts the minx entirely in my power; +LE TOUR EST JOUE; she will now go steady in harness, or I will know +the reason why. Come. + +HEINRICH.' + + +'Command yourself, madam,' said the Countess, watching with some +alarm the white face of Seraphina. 'It is in vain for you to fight +with Gondremark; he has more strings than mere court favour, and +could bring you down to-morrow with a word. I would not have +betrayed him otherwise; but Heinrich is a man, and plays with all of +you like marionnettes. And now at least you see for what you +sacrificed my Prince. Madam, will you take some wine? I have been +cruel.' + +'Not cruel, madam - salutary,' said Seraphina, with a phantom smile. +'No, I thank you, I require no attentions. The first surprise +affected me: will you give me time a little? I must think.' + +She took her head between her hands, and contemplated for a while +the hurricane confusion of her thoughts. + +'This information reaches me,' she said, 'when I have need of it. I +would not do as you have done, but yet I thank you. I have been +much deceived in Baron Gondremark.' + +'O, madam, leave Gondremark, and think upon the Prince!' cried von +Rosen. + +'You speak once more as a private person,' said the Princess; 'nor +do I blame you. But my own thoughts are more distracted. However, +as I believe you are truly a friend to my - to the - as I believe,' +she said, 'you are a friend to Otto, I shall put the order for his +release into your hands this moment. Give me the ink-dish. There!' +And she wrote hastily, steadying her arm upon the table, for she +trembled like a reed. 'Remember; madam,' she resumed, handing her +the order, 'this must not be used nor spoken of at present; till I +have seen the Baron, any hurried step - I lose myself in thinking. +The suddenness has shaken me.' + +'I promise you I will not use it,' said the Countess, 'till you give +me leave, although I wish the Prince could be informed of it, to +comfort his poor heart. And O, I had forgotten, he has left a +letter. Suffer me, madam, I will bring it you. This is the door, I +think?' And she sought to open it. + +'The bolt is pushed,' said Seraphina, flushing. + +'O! O!' cried the Countess. + +A silence fell between them. + +'I will get it for myself,' said Seraphina; 'and in the meanwhile I +beg you to leave me. I thank you, I am sure, but I shall be obliged +if you will leave me.' + +The Countess deeply curtseyed, and withdrew. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV - RELATES THE CAUSE AND OUTBREAK OF THE REVOLUTION + + +BRAVE as she was, and brave by intellect, the Princess, when first +she was alone, clung to the table for support. The four corners of +her universe had fallen. She had never liked nor trusted Gondremark +completely; she had still held it possible to find him false to +friendship; but from that to finding him devoid of all those public +virtues for which she had honoured him, a mere commonplace +intriguer, using her for his own ends, the step was wide and the +descent giddy. Light and darkness succeeded each other in her +brain; now she believed, and now she could not. She turned, blindly +groping for the note. But von Rosen, who had not forgotten to take +the warrant from the Prince, had remembered to recover her note from +the Princess: von Rosen was an old campaigner, whose most violent +emotion aroused rather than clouded the vigour of her reason. + +The thought recalled to Seraphina the remembrance of the other +letter - Otto's. She rose and went speedily, her brain still +wheeling, and burst into the Prince's armoury. The old chamberlain +was there in waiting; and the sight of another face, prying (or so +she felt) on her distress, struck Seraphina into childish anger. + +'Go!' she cried; and then, when the old man was already half-way to +the door, 'Stay!' she added. 'As soon as Baron Gondremark arrives, +let him attend me here.' + +'It shall be so directed,' said the chamberlain. + +'There was a letter . . .' she began, and paused. + +'Her Highness,' said the chamberlain, 'will, find a letter on the +table. I had received no orders, or her Highness had been spared +this trouble.' + +'No, no, no,' she cried. 'I thank you. I desire to be alone.' + +And then, when he was gone, she leaped upon the letter. Her mind +was still obscured; like the moon upon a night of clouds and wind, +her reason shone and was darkened, and she read the words by +flashes. + +'Seraphina,' the Prince wrote, 'I will write no syllable of +reproach. I have seen your order, and I go. What else is left me? +I have wasted my love, and have no more. To say that I forgive you +is not needful; at least, we are now separate for ever; by your own +act, you free me from my willing bondage: I go free to prison. This +is the last that you will hear of me in love or anger. I have gone +out of your life; you may breathe easy; you have now rid yourself of +the husband who allowed you to desert him, of the Prince who gave +you his rights, and of the married lover who made it his pride to +defend you in your absence. How you have requited him, your own +heart more loudly tells you than my words. There is a day coming +when your vain dreams will roll away like clouds, and you will find +yourself alone. Then you will remember + +OTTO.' + + +She read with a great horror on her mind; that day, of which he +wrote, was come. She was alone; she had been false, she had been +cruel; remorse rolled in upon her; and then with a more piercing +note, vanity bounded on the stage of consciousness. She a dupe! she +helpless! she to have betrayed herself in seeking to betray her +husband! she to have lived these years upon flattery, grossly +swallowing the bolus, like a clown with sharpers! she - Seraphina! +Her swift mind drank the consequences; she foresaw the coming fall, +her public shame; she saw the odium, disgrace, and folly of her +story flaunt through Europe. She recalled the scandal she had so +royally braved; and alas! she had now no courage to confront it +with. To be thought the mistress of that man: perhaps for that. . . +. She closed her eyes on agonising vistas. Swift as thought she had +snatched a bright dagger from the weapons that shone along the wall. +Ay, she would escape. From that world-wide theatre of nodding heads +and buzzing whisperers, in which she now beheld herself unpitiably +martyred, one door stood open. At any cost, through any stress of +suffering, that greasy laughter should be stifled. She closed her +eyes, breathed a wordless prayer, and pressed the weapon to her +bosom. + +At the astonishing sharpness of the prick, she gave a cry and awoke +to a sense of undeserved escape. A little ruby spot of blood was +the reward of that great act of desperation; but the pain had braced +her like a tonic, and her whole design of suicide had passed away. + +At the same instant regular feet drew near along the gallery, and +she knew the tread of the big Baron, so often gladly welcome, and +even now rallying her spirits like a call to battle. She concealed +the dagger in the folds of her skirt; and drawing her stature up, +she stood firm-footed, radiant with anger, waiting for the foe. + +The Baron was announced, and entered. To him, Seraphina was a hated +task: like the schoolboy with his Virgil, he had neither will nor +leisure to remark her beauties; but when he now beheld her standing +illuminated by her passion, new feelings flashed upon him, a frank +admiration, a brief sparkle of desire. He noted both with joy; they +were means. 'If I have to play the lover,' thought he, for that was +his constant preoccupation, 'I believe I can put soul into it.' +Meanwhile, with his usual ponderous grace, he bent before the lady. + +'I propose,' she said in a strange voice, not known to her till +then, 'that we release the Prince and do not prosecute the war.' + +'Ah, madam,' he replied, ' 'tis as I knew it would be! Your heart, +I knew, would wound you when we came to this distasteful but most +necessary step. Ah, madam, believe me, I am not unworthy to be your +ally; I know you have qualities to which I am a stranger, and count +them the best weapons in the armoury of our alliance:- the girl in +the queen - pity, love, tenderness, laughter; the smile that can +reward. I can only command; I am the frowner. But you! And you +have the fortitude to command these comely weaknesses, to tread them +down at the call of reason. How often have I not admired it even to +yourself! Ay, even to yourself,' he added tenderly, dwelling, it +seemed, in memory on hours of more private admiration. 'But now, +madam - ' + +'But now, Herr von Gondremark, the time for these declarations has +gone by,' she cried. 'Are you true to me? are you false? Look in +your heart and answer: it is your heart I want to know.' + +'It has come,' thought Gondremark. 'You, madam!' he cried, starting +back - with fear, you would have said, and yet a timid joy. 'You! +yourself, you bid me look into my heart?' + +'Do you suppose I fear?' she cried, and looked at him with such a +heightened colour, such bright eyes, and a smile of so abstruse a +meaning, that the Baron discarded his last doubt. + +'Ah, madam!' he cried, plumping on his knees. 'Seraphina! Do you +permit me? have you divined my secret? It is true - I put my life +with joy into your power - I love you, love with ardour, as an +equal, as a mistress, as a brother-in-arms, as an adored, desired, +sweet-hearted woman. O Bride!' he cried, waxing dithyrambic, 'bride +of my reason and my senses, have pity, have pity on my love!' + +She heard him with wonder, rage, and then contempt. His words +offended her to sickness; his appearance, as he grovelled bulkily +upon the floor, moved her to such laughter as we laugh in +nightmares. + +'O shame!' she cried. 'Absurd and odious! What would the Countess +say?' + +That great Baron Gondremark, the excellent politician, remained for +some little time upon his knees in a frame of mind which perhaps we +are allowed to pity. His vanity, within his iron bosom, bled and +raved. If he could have blotted all, if he could have withdrawn +part, if he had not called her bride - with a roaring in his ears, +he thus regretfully reviewed his declaration. He got to his feet +tottering; and then, in that first moment when a dumb agony finds a +vent in words, and the tongue betrays the inmost and worst of a man, +he permitted himself a retort which, for six weeks to follow, he was +to repent at leisure. + +'Ah,' said he, 'the Countess? Now I perceive the reason of your +Highness's disorder.' + +The lackey-like insolence of the words was driven home by a more +insolent manner. There fell upon Seraphina one of those storm- +clouds which had already blackened upon her reason; she heard +herself cry out; and when the cloud dispersed, flung the blood- +stained dagger on the floor, and saw Gondremark reeling back with +open mouth and clapping his hand upon the wound. The next moment, +with oaths that she had never heard, he leaped at her in savage +passion; clutched her as she recoiled; and in the very act, stumbled +and drooped. She had scarce time to fear his murderous onslaught +ere he fell before her feet. + +He rose upon one elbow; she still staring upon him, white with +horror. + +'Anna!' he cried, 'Anna! Help!' + +And then his utterance failed him, and he fell back, to all +appearance dead. + +Seraphina ran to and fro in the room; she wrung her hands and cried +aloud; within she was all one uproar of terror, and conscious of no +articulate wish but to awake. + +There came a knocking at the door; and she sprang to it and held it, +panting like a beast, and with the strength of madness in her arms, +till she had pushed the bolt. At this success a certain calm fell +upon her reason. She went back and looked upon her victim, the +knocking growing louder. O yes, he was dead. She had killed him. +He had called upon von Rosen with his latest breath; ah! who would +call on Seraphina? She had killed him. She, whose irresolute hand +could scarce prick blood from her own bosom, had found strength to +cast down that great colossus at a blow. + +All this while the knocking was growing more uproarious and more +unlike the staid career of life in such a palace. Scandal was at +the door, with what a fatal following she dreaded to conceive; and +at the same time among the voices that now began to summon her by +name, she recognised the Chancellor's. He or another, somebody must +be the first. + +'Is Herr von Greisengesang without?' she called. + +'Your Highness - yes!' the old gentleman answered. 'We have heard +cries, a fall. Is anything amiss?' + +'Nothing,' replied Seraphina 'I desire to speak with you. Send off +the rest.' She panted between each phrase; but her mind was clear. +She let the looped curtain down upon both sides before she drew the +bolt; and, thus secure from any sudden eyeshot from without, +admitted the obsequious Chancellor, and again made fast the door. + +Greisengesang clumsily revolved among the wings of the curtain, so +that she was clear of it as soon as he. + +'My God!' he cried 'The Baron!' + +'I have killed him,' she said. 'O, killed him!' + +'Dear me,' said the old gentleman, 'this is most unprecedented. +Lovers' quarrels,' he added ruefully, 'redintegratio - ' and then +paused. 'But, my dear madam,' he broke out again, 'in the name of +all that is practical, what are we to do? This is exceedingly +grave; morally, madam, it is appalling. I take the liberty, your +Highness, for one moment, of addressing you as a daughter, a loved +although respected daughter; and I must say that I cannot conceal +from you that this is morally most questionable. And, O dear me, we +have a dead body!' + +She had watched him closely; hope fell to contempt; she drew away +her skirts from his weakness, and, in the act, her own strength +returned to her. + +'See if he be dead,' she said; not one word of explanation or +defence; she had scorned to justify herself before so poor a +creature: 'See if he be dead' was all. + +With the greatest compunction, the Chancellor drew near; and as he +did so the wounded Baron rolled his eyes. + +'He lives,' cried the old courtier, turning effusively to Seraphina. +'Madam, he still lives.' + +'Help him, then,' returned the Princess, standing fixed. 'Bind up +his wound.' + +'Madam, I have no means,' protested the Chancellor. + +'Can you not take your handkerchief, your neck-cloth, anything?' she +cried; and at the same moment, from her light muslin gown she rent +off a flounce and tossed it on the floor. 'Take that,' she said, +and for the first time directly faced Greisengesang. + +But the Chancellor held up his hands and turned away his head in +agony. The grasp of the falling Baron had torn down the dainty +fabric of the bodice; and - 'O Highness!' cried Greisengesang, +appalled, 'the terrible disorder of your toilette!' + +'Take up that flounce,' she said; 'the man may die.' + +Greisengesang turned in a flutter to the Baron, and attempted some +innocent and bungling measures. 'He still breathes,' he kept +saying. 'All is not yet over; he is not yet gone.' + +'And now,' said she 'if that is all you can do, begone and get some +porters; he must instantly go home.' + +'Madam,' cried the Chancellor, 'if this most melancholy sight were +seen in town - O dear, the State would fall!' he piped. + +'There is a litter in the Palace,' she replied. 'It is your part to +see him safe. I lay commands upon you. On your life it stands.' + +'I see it, dear Highness,' he jerked. 'Clearly I see it. But how? +what men? The Prince's servants - yes. They had a personal +affection. They will be true, if any.' + +'O, not them!' she cried. 'Take Sabra, my own man.' + +'Sabra! The grand-mason?' returned the Chancellor, aghast. 'If he +but saw this, he would sound the tocsin - we should all be +butchered.' + +She measured the depth of her abasement steadily. 'Take whom you +must,' she said, 'and bring the litter here.' + +Once she was alone she ran to the Baron, and with a sickening heart +sought to allay the flux of blood. The touch of the skin of that +great charlatan revolted her to the toes; the wound, in her ignorant +eyes, looked deathly; yet she contended with her shuddering, and, +with more skill at least than the Chancellor's, staunched the +welling injury. An eye unprejudiced with hate would have admired +the Baron in his swoon; he looked so great and shapely; it was so +powerful a machine that lay arrested; and his features, cleared for +the moment both of temper and dissimulation, were seen to be so +purely modelled. But it was not thus with Seraphina. Her victim, +as he lay outspread, twitching a little, his big chest unbared, +fixed her with his ugliness; and her mind flitted for a glimpse to +Otto. + +Rumours began to sound about the Palace of feet running and of +voices raised; the echoes of the great arched staircase were voluble +of some confusion; and then the gallery jarred with a quick and +heavy tramp. It was the Chancellor, followed by four of Otto's +valets and a litter. The servants, when they were admitted, stared +at the dishevelled Princess and the wounded man; speech was denied +them, but their thoughts were riddled with profanity. Gondremark +was bundled in; the curtains of the litter were lowered; the bearers +carried it forth, and the Chancellor followed behind with a white +face. + +Seraphina ran to the window. Pressing her face upon the pane, she +could see the terrace, where the lights contended; thence, the +avenue of lamps that joined the Palace and town; and overhead the +hollow night and the larger stars. Presently the small procession +issued from the Palace, crossed the parade, and began to thread the +glittering alley: the swinging couch with its four porters, the +much-pondering Chancellor behind. She watched them dwindle with +strange thoughts: her eyes fixed upon the scene, her mind still +glancing right and left on the overthrow of her life and hopes. +There was no one left in whom she might confide; none whose hand was +friendly, or on whom she dared to reckon for the barest loyalty. +With the fall of Gondremark, her party, her brief popularity, had +fallen. So she sat crouched upon the window-seat, her brow to the +cool pane; her dress in tatters, barely shielding her; her mind +revolving bitter thoughts. + +Meanwhile, consequences were fast mounting; and in the deceptive +quiet of the night, downfall and red revolt were brewing. The +litter had passed forth between the iron gates and entered on the +streets of the town. By what flying panic, by what thrill of air +communicated, who shall say? but the passing bustle in the Palace +had already reached and re-echoed in the region of the burghers. +Rumour, with her loud whisper, hissed about the town; men left their +homes without knowing why; knots formed along the boulevard; under +the rare lamps and the great limes the crowd grew blacker. + +And now through the midst of that expectant company, the unusual +sight of a closed litter was observed approaching, and trotting hard +behind it that great dignitary Cancellarius Greisengesang. Silence +looked on as it went by; and as soon as it was passed, the +whispering seethed over like a boiling pot. The knots were +sundered; and gradually, one following another, the whole mob began +to form into a procession and escort the curtained litter. Soon +spokesmen, a little bolder than their mates, began to ply the +Chancellor with questions. Never had he more need of that great art +of falsehood, by whose exercise he had so richly lived. And yet now +he stumbled, the master passion, fear, betraying him. He was +pressed; he became incoherent; and then from the jolting litter came +a groan. In the instant hubbub and the gathering of the crowd as to +a natural signal, the clear-eyed quavering Chancellor heard the +catch of the clock before it strikes the hour of doom; and for ten +seconds he forgot himself. This shall atone for many sins. He +plucked a bearer by the sleeve. 'Bid the Princess flee. All is +lost,' he whispered. And the next moment he was babbling for his +life among the multitude. + +Five minutes later the wild-eyed servant burst into the armoury. +'All is lost!' he cried. 'The Chancellor bids you flee.' And at +the same time, looking through the window, Seraphina saw the black +rush of the populace begin to invade the lamplit avenue. + +'Thank you, Georg,' she said. 'I thank you. Go.' And as the man +still lingered, 'I bid you go,' she added. 'Save yourself.' + +Down by the private passage, and just some two hours later, Amalia +Seraphina, the last Princess, followed Otto Johann Friedrich, the +last Prince of Grunewald. + + + + +BOOK III - FORTUNATE MISFORTUNE + + + + +CHAPTER I - PRINCESS CINDERELLA + + +THE porter, drawn by the growing turmoil, had vanished from the +postern, and the door stood open on the darkness of the night. As +Seraphina fled up the terraces, the cries and loud footing of the +mob drew nearer the doomed palace; the rush was like the rush of +cavalry; the sound of shattering lamps tingled above the rest; and, +overtowering all, she heard her own name bandied among the shouters. +A bugle sounded at the door of the guard-room; one gun was fired; +and then with the yell of hundreds, Mittwalden Palace was carried at +a rush. + +Sped by these dire sounds and voices, the Princess scaled the long +garden, skimming like a bird the starlit stairways; crossed the +Park, which was in that place narrow; and plunged upon the farther +side into the rude shelter of the forest. So, at a bound, she left +the discretion and the cheerful lamps of Palace evenings; ceased +utterly to be a sovereign lady; and, falling from the whole height +of civilisation, ran forth into the woods, a ragged Cinderella. + +She went direct before her through an open tract of the forest, full +of brush and birches, and where the starlight guided her; and, +beyond that again, must thread the columned blackness of a pine +grove joining overhead the thatch of its long branches. At that +hour the place was breathless; a horror of night like a presence +occupied that dungeon of the wood; and she went groping, knocking +against the boles - her ear, betweenwhiles, strained to aching and +yet unrewarded. + +But the slope of the ground was upward, and encouraged her; and +presently she issued on a rocky hill that stood forth above the sea +of forest. All around were other hill-tops, big and little; sable +vales of forest between; overhead the open heaven and the brilliancy +of countless stars; and along the western sky the dim forms of +mountains. The glory of the great night laid hold upon her; her +eyes shone with stars; she dipped her sight into the coolness and +brightness of the sky, as she might have dipped her wrist into a +spring; and her heart, at that ethereal shock, began to move more +soberly. The sun that sails overhead, ploughing into gold the +fields of daylight azure and uttering the signal to man's myriads, +has no word apart for man the individual; and the moon, like a +violin, only praises and laments our private destiny. The stars +alone, cheerful whisperers, confer quietly with each of us like +friends; they give ear to our sorrows smilingly, like wise old men, +rich in tolerance; and by their double scale, so small to the eye, +so vast to the imagination, they keep before the mind the double +character of man's nature and fate. + +There sat the Princess, beautifully looking upon beauty, in council +with these glad advisers. Bright like pictures, clear like a voice +in the porches of her ear, memory re-enacted the tumult of the +evening: the Countess and the dancing fan, the big Baron on his +knees, the blood on the polished floor, the knocking, the swing of +the litter down the avenue of lamps, the messenger, the cries of the +charging mob; and yet all were far away and phantasmal, and she was +still healingly conscious of the peace and glory of the night. She +looked towards Mittwalden; and above the hill-top, which already hid +it from her view, a throbbing redness hinted of fire. Better so: +better so, that she should fall with tragic greatness, lit by a +blazing palace! She felt not a trace of pity for Gondremark or of +concern for Grunewald: that period of her life was closed for ever, +a wrench of wounded vanity alone surviving. She had but one clear +idea: to flee; - and another, obscure and half-rejected, although +still obeyed: to flee in the direction of the Felsenburg. She had a +duty to perform, she must free Otto - so her mind said, very coldly; +but her heart embraced the notion of that duty even with ardour, and +her hands began to yearn for the grasp of kindness. + +She rose, with a start of recollection, and plunged down the slope +into the covert. The woods received and closed upon her. Once +more, she wandered and hasted in a blot, uncheered, unpiloted. Here +and there, indeed, through rents in the wood-roof, a glimmer +attracted her; here and there a tree stood out among its neighbours +by some force of outline; here and there a brushing among the +leaves, a notable blackness, a dim shine, relieved, only to +exaggerate, the solid oppression of the night and silence. And +betweenwhiles, the unfeatured darkness would redouble and the whole +ear of night appear to be gloating on her steps. Now she would +stand still, and the silence, would grow and grow, till it weighed +upon her breathing; and then she would address herself again to run, +stumbling, falling, and still hurrying the more. And presently the +whole wood rocked and began to run along with her. The noise of her +own mad passage through the silence spread and echoed, and filled +the night with terror. Panic hunted her: Panic from the trees +reached forth with clutching branches; the darkness was lit up and +peopled with strange forms and faces. She strangled and fled before +her fears. And yet in the last fortress, reason, blown upon by +these gusts of terror, still shone with a troubled light. She knew, +yet could not act upon her knowledge; she knew that she must stop, +and yet she still ran. + +She was already near madness, when she broke suddenly into a narrow +clearing. At the same time the din grew louder, and she became +conscious of vague forms and fields of whiteness. And with that the +earth gave way; she fell and found her feet again with an incredible +shock to her senses, and her mind was swallowed up. + +When she came again to herself, she was standing to the mid-leg in +an icy eddy of a brook, and leaning with one hand on the rock from +which it poured. The spray had wet her hair. She saw the white +cascade, the stars wavering in the shaken pool, foam flitting, and +high overhead the tall pines on either hand serenely drinking +starshine; and in the sudden quiet of her spirit she heard with joy +the firm plunge of the cataract in the pool. She scrambled forth +dripping. In the face of her proved weakness, to adventure again +upon the horror of blackness in the groves were a suicide of life or +reason. But here, in the alley of the brook, with the kind stars +above her, and the moon presently swimming into sight, she could +await the coming of day without alarm. + +This lane of pine-trees ran very rapidly down-hill and wound among +the woods; but it was a wider thoroughfare than the brook needed, +and here and there were little dimpling lawns and coves of the +forest, where the starshine slumbered. Such a lawn she paced, +taking patience bravely; and now she looked up the hill and saw the +brook coming down to her in a series of cascades; and now approached +the margin, where it welled among the rushes silently; and now gazed +at the great company of heaven with an enduring wonder. The early +evening had fallen chill, but the night was now temperate; out of +the recesses of the wood there came mild airs as from a deep and +peaceful breathing; and the dew was heavy on the grass and the +tight-shut daisies. This was the girl's first night under the naked +heaven; and now that her fears were overpast, she was touched to the +soul by its serene amenity and peace. Kindly the host of heaven +blinked down upon that wandering Princess; and the honest brook had +no words but to encourage her. + +At last she began to be aware of a wonderful revolution, compared to +which the fire of Mittwalden Palace was but the crack and flash of a +percussion-cap. The countenance with which the pines regarded her +began insensibly to change; the grass too, short as it was, and the +whole winding staircase of the brook's course, began to wear a +solemn freshness of appearance. And this slow transfiguration +reached her heart, and played upon it, and transpierced it with a +serious thrill. She looked all about; the whole face of nature +looked back, brimful of meaning, finger on lip, leaking its glad +secret. She looked up. Heaven was almost emptied of stars. Such +as still lingered shone with a changed and waning brightness, and +began to faint in their stations. And the colour of the sky itself +was the most wonderful; for the rich blue of the night had now +melted and softened and brightened; and there had succeeded in its +place a hue that has no name, and that is never seen but as the +herald of morning. 'O!' she cried, joy catching at her voice, 'O! +it is the dawn!' + +In a breath she passed over the brook, and looped up her skirts and +fairly ran in the dim alleys. As she ran, her ears were aware of +many pipings, more beautiful than music; in the small dish-shaped +houses in the fork of giant arms, where they had lain all night, +lover by lover, warmly pressed, the bright-eyed, big-hearted singers +began to awaken for the day. Her heart melted and flowed forth to +them in kindness. And they, from their small and high perches in +the clerestories of the wood cathedral, peered down sidelong at the +ragged Princess as she flitted below them on the carpet of the moss +and tassel. + +Soon she had struggled to a certain hill-top, and saw far before her +the silent inflooding of the day. Out of the East it welled and +whitened; the darkness trembled into light; and the stars were +extinguished like the street-lamps of a human city. The whiteness +brightened into silver, the silver warmed into gold, the gold +kindled into pure and living fire; and the face of the East was +barred with elemental scarlet. The day drew its first long breath, +steady and chill; and for leagues around the woods sighed and +shivered. And then, at one bound, the sun had floated up; and her +startled eyes received day's first arrow, and quailed under the +buffet. On every side, the shadows leaped from their ambush and +fell prone. The day was come, plain and garish; and up the steep +and solitary eastern heaven, the sun, victorious over his +competitors, continued slowly and royally to mount. + +Seraphina drooped for a little, leaning on a pine, the shrill joy of +the woodlands mocking her. The shelter of the night, the thrilling +and joyous changes of the dawn, were over; and now, in the hot eye +of the day, she turned uneasily and looked sighingly about her. +Some way off among the lower woods, a pillar of smoke was mounting +and melting in the gold and blue. There, surely enough, were human +folk, the hearth-surrounders. Man's fingers had laid the twigs; it +was man's breath that had quickened and encouraged the baby flames; +and now, as the fire caught, it would be playing ruddily on the face +of its creator. At the thought, she felt a-cold and little and lost +in that great out-of-doors. The electric shock of the young sun- +beams and the unhuman beauty of the woods began to irk and daunt +her. The covert of the house, the decent privacy of rooms, the +swept and regulated fire, all that denotes or beautifies the home +life of man, began to draw her as with cords. The pillar of smoke +was now risen into some stream of moving air; it began to lean out +sideways in a pennon; and thereupon, as though the change had been a +summons, Seraphina plunged once more into the labyrinth of the wood. + +She left day upon the high ground. In the lower groves there still +lingered the blue early twilight and the seizing freshness of the +dew. But here and there, above this field of shadow, the head of a +great out-spread pine was already glorious with day; and here and +there, through the breaches of the hills, the sun-beams made a great +and luminous entry. Here Seraphina hastened along forest paths. +She had lost sight of the pilot smoke, which blew another way, and +conducted herself in that great wilderness by the direction of the +sun. But presently fresh signs bespoke the neighbourhood of man; +felled trunks, white slivers from the axe, bundles of green boughs, +and stacks of firewood. These guided her forward; until she came +forth at last upon the clearing whence the smoke arose. A hut stood +in the clear shadow, hard by a brook which made a series of +inconsiderable falls; and on the threshold the Princess saw a sun- +burnt and hard-featured woodman, standing with his hands behind his +back and gazing skyward. + +She went to him directly: a beautiful, bright-eyed, and haggard +vision; splendidly arrayed and pitifully tattered; the diamond ear- +drops still glittering in her ears; and with the movement of her +coming, one small breast showing and hiding among the ragged covert +of the laces. At that ambiguous hour, and coming as she did from +the great silence of the forest, the man drew back from the Princess +as from something elfin. + +'I am cold,' she said, 'and weary. Let me rest beside your fire.' + +The woodman was visibly commoved, but answered nothing. + +'I will pay,' she said, and then repented of the words, catching +perhaps a spark of terror from his frightened eyes. But, as usual, +her courage rekindled brighter for the check. She put him from the +door and entered; and he followed her in superstitious wonder. + +Within, the hut was rough and dark; but on the stone that served as +hearth, twigs and a few dry branches burned with the brisk sounds +and all the variable beauty of fire. The very sight of it composed +her; she crouched hard by on the earth floor and shivered in the +glow, and looked upon the eating blaze with admiration. The woodman +was still staring at his guest: at the wreck of the rich dress, the +bare arms, the bedraggled laces and the gems. He found no word to +utter. + +'Give me food,' said she, - 'here, by the fire.' + +He set down a pitcher of coarse wine, bread, a piece of cheese, and +a handful of raw onions. The bread was hard and sour, the cheese +like leather; even the onion, which ranks with the truffle and the +nectarine in the chief place of honour of earth's fruits, is not +perhaps a dish for princesses when raw. But she ate, if not with +appetite, with courage; and when she had eaten, did not disdain the +pitcher. In all her life before, she had not tasted of gross food +nor drunk after another; but a brave woman far more readily accepts +a change of circumstances than the bravest man. All that while, the +woodman continued to observe her furtively, many low thoughts of +fear and greed contending in his eyes. She read them clearly, and +she knew she must begone. + +Presently she arose and offered him a florin. + +'Will that repay you?' she asked. + +But here the man found his tongue. 'I must have more than that,' +said he. + +'It is all I have to give you,' she returned, and passed him by +serenely. + +Yet her heart trembled, for she saw his hand stretched forth as if +to arrest her, and his unsteady eyes wandering to his axe. A beaten +path led westward from the clearing, and she swiftly followed it. +She did not glance behind her. But as soon as the least turning of +the path had concealed her from the woodman's eyes, she slipped +among the trees and ran till she deemed herself in safety. + +By this time the strong sunshine pierced in a thousand places the +pine-thatch of the forest, fired the red boles, irradiated the cool +aisles of shadow, and burned in jewels on the grass. The gum of +these trees was dearer to the senses than the gums of Araby; each +pine, in the lusty morning sunlight, burned its own wood-incense; +and now and then a breeze would rise and toss these rooted censers, +and send shade and sun-gem flitting, swift as swallows, thick as +bees; and wake a brushing bustle of sounds that murmured and went +by. + +On she passed, and up and down, in sun and shadow; now aloft on the +bare ridge among the rocks and birches, with the lizards and the +snakes; and anon in the deep grove among sunless pillars. Now she +followed wandering wood-paths, in the maze of valleys; and again, +from a hill-top, beheld the distant mountains and the great birds +circling under the sky. She would see afar off a nestling hamlet, +and go round to avoid it. Below, she traced the course of the foam +of mountain torrents. Nearer hand, she saw where the tender springs +welled up in silence, or oozed in green moss; or in the more +favoured hollows a whole family of infant rivers would combine, and +tinkle in the stones, and lie in pools to be a bathing-place for +sparrows, or fall from the sheer rock in rods of crystal. Upon all +these things, as she still sped along in the bright air, she looked +with a rapture of surprise and a joyful fainting of the heart; they +seemed so novel, they touched so strangely home, they were so hued +and scented, they were so beset and canopied by the dome of the blue +air of heaven. + +At length, when she was well weary, she came upon a wide and shallow +pool. Stones stood in it, like islands; bulrushes fringed the +coast; the floor was paved with the pine needles; and the pines +themselves, whose roots made promontories, looked down silently on +their green images. She crept to the margin and beheld herself with +wonder, a hollow and bright-eyed phantom, in the ruins of her palace +robe. The breeze now shook her image; now it would be marred with +flies; and at that she smiled; and from the fading circles, her +counterpart smiled back to her and looked kind. She sat long in the +warm sun, and pitied her bare arms that were all bruised and marred +with falling, and marvelled to see that she was dirty, and could not +grow to believe that she had gone so long in such a strange +disorder. + +Then, with a sigh, she addressed herself to make a toilette by that +forest mirror, washed herself pure from all the stains of her +adventure, took off her jewels and wrapped them in her handkerchief, +re-arranged the tatters of her dress, and took down the folds of her +hair. She shook it round her face, and the pool repeated her thus +veiled. Her hair had smelt like violets, she remembered Otto +saying; and so now she tried to smell it, and then shook her head, +and laughed a little, sadly, to herself. + +The laugh was returned upon her in a childish echo. + +She looked up; and lo! two children looking on, - a small girl and a +yet smaller boy, standing, like playthings, by the pool, below a +spreading pine. Seraphina was not fond of children, and now she was +startled to the heart. + +'Who are you?' she cried hoarsely. + +The mites huddled together and drew back; and Seraphina's heart +reproached her that she should have frightened things so quaint and +little, and yet alive with senses. She thought upon the birds and +looked again at her two visitors; so little larger and so far more +innocent. On their clear faces, as in a pool, she saw the +reflection of their fears. With gracious purpose she arose. + +'Come,' she said, 'do not be afraid of me,' and took a step towards +them. + +But alas! at the first moment, the two poor babes in the wood turned +and ran helter-skelter from the Princess. + +The most desolate pang was struck into the girl's heart. Here she +was, twenty-two - soon twenty-three - and not a creature loved her; +none but Otto; and would even he forgive? If she began weeping in +these woods alone, it would mean death or madness. Hastily she trod +the thoughts out like a burning paper; hastily rolled up her locks, +and with terror dogging her, and her whole bosom sick with grief, +resumed her journey. + +Past ten in the forenoon, she struck a high-road, marching in that +place uphill between two stately groves, a river of sunlight; and +here, dead weary, careless of consequences, and taking some courage +from the human and civilised neighbourhood of the road, she +stretched herself on the green margin in the shadow of a tree. +Sleep closed on her, at first with a horror of fainting, but when +she ceased to struggle, kindly embracing her. So she was taken home +for a little, from all her toils and sorrows, to her Father's arms. +And there in the meanwhile her body lay exposed by the highwayside, +in tattered finery; and on either hand from the woods the birds came +flying by and calling upon others, and debated in their own tongue +this strange appearance. + +The sun pursued his journey; the shadow flitted from her feet, +shrank higher and higher, and was upon the point of leaving her +altogether, when the rumble of a coach was signalled to and fro by +the birds. The road in that part was very steep; the rumble drew +near with great deliberation; and ten minutes passed before a +gentleman appeared, walking with a sober elderly gait upon the +grassy margin of the highway, and looking pleasantly around him as +he walked. From time to time he paused, took out his note-book and +made an entry with a pencil; and any spy who had been near enough +would have heard him mumbling words as though he were a poet testing +verses. The voice of the wheels was still faint, and it was plain +the traveller had far outstripped his carriage. + +He had drawn very near to where the Princess lay asleep, before his +eye alighted on her; but when it did he started, pocketed his note- +book, and approached. There was a milestone close to where she lay; +and he sat down on that and coolly studied her. She lay upon one +side, all curled and sunken, her brow on one bare arm, the other +stretched out, limp and dimpled. Her young body, like a thing +thrown down, had scarce a mark of life. Her breathing stirred her +not. The deadliest fatigue was thus confessed in every language of +the sleeping flesh. The traveller smiled grimly. As though he had +looked upon a statue, he made a grudging inventory of her charms: +the figure in that touching freedom of forgetfulness surprised him; +the flush of slumber became her like a flower. + +'Upon my word,' he thought, 'I did not think the girl could be so +pretty. And to think,' he added, 'that I am under obligation not to +use one word of this!' He put forth his stick and touched her; and +at that she awoke, sat up with a cry, and looked upon him wildly. + +'I trust your Highness has slept well,' he said, nodding. + +But she only uttered sounds. + +'Compose yourself,' said he, giving her certainly a brave example in +his own demeanour. 'My chaise is close at hand; and I shall have, I +trust, the singular entertainment of abducting a sovereign +Princess.' + +'Sir John!' she said, at last. + +'At your Highness's disposal,' he replied. + +She sprang to her feet. 'O!' she cried, 'have you come from +Mittwalden?' + +'This morning,' he returned, 'I left it; and if there is any one +less likely to return to it than yourself, behold him!' + +'The Baron - ' she began, and paused. + +'Madam,' he answered, 'it was well meant, and you are quite a +Judith; but after the hours that have elapsed, you will probably be +relieved to hear that he is fairly well. I took his news this +morning ere I left. Doing fairly well, they said, but suffering +acutely. Hey? - acutely. They could hear his groans in the next +room.' + +'And the Prince,' she asked, 'is anything known of him?' + +'It is reported,' replied Sir John, with the same pleasurable +deliberation, 'that upon that point your Highness is the best +authority.' + +'Sir John,' she said eagerly, 'you were generous enough to speak +about your carriage. Will you, I beseech you, will you take me to +the Felsenburg? I have business there of an extreme importance.' + +'I can refuse you nothing,' replied the old gentleman, gravely and +seriously enough. 'Whatever, madam, it is in my power to do for +you, that shall be done with pleasure. As soon as my chaise shall +overtake us, it is yours to carry you where you will. But,' added +he, reverting to his former manner, 'I observe you ask me nothing of +the Palace.' + +'I do not care,' she said. 'I thought I saw it burning.' + +'Prodigious!' said the Baronet. 'You thought? And can the loss of +forty toilettes leave you cold? Well, madam, I admire your +fortitude. And the state, too? As I left, the government was +sitting, - the new government, of which at least two members must be +known to you by name: Sabra, who had, I believe, the benefit of +being formed in your employment - a footman, am I right? - and our +old friend the Chancellor, in something of a subaltern position. +But in these convulsions the last shall be first, and the first +last.' + +'Sir John,' she said, with an air of perfect honesty, 'I am sure you +mean most kindly, but these matters have no interest for me.' + +The Baronet was so utterly discountenanced that he hailed the +appearance of his chaise with welcome, and, by way of saying +something, proposed that they should walk back to meet it. So it +was done; and he helped her in with courtesy, mounted to her side, +and from various receptacles (for the chaise was most completely +fitted out) produced fruits and truffled liver, beautiful white +bread, and a bottle of delicate wine. With these he served her like +a father, coaxing and praising her to fresh exertions; and during +all that time, as though silenced by the laws of hospitality, he was +not guilty of the shadow of a sneer. Indeed his kindness seemed so +genuine that Seraphina was moved to gratitude. + +'Sir John,' she said, 'you hate me in your heart; why are you so +kind to me?' + +'Ah, my good lady,' said he, with no disclaimer of the accusation, +'I have the honour to be much your husband's friend, and somewhat +his admirer.' + +'You!' she cried. 'They told me you wrote cruelly of both of us.' + +'Such was the strange path by which we grew acquainted,' said Sir +John. 'I had written, madam, with particular cruelty (since that +shall be the phrase) of your fair self. Your husband set me at +liberty, gave me a passport, ordered a carriage, and then, with the +most boyish spirit, challenged me to fight. Knowing the nature of +his married life, I thought the dash and loyalty he showed +delightful. "Do not be afraid," says he; "if I am killed, there is +nobody to miss me." It appears you subsequently thought of that +yourself. But I digress. I explained to him it was impossible that +I could fight! "Not if I strike you?" says he. Very droll; I wish +I could have put it in my book. However, I was conquered, took the +young gentleman to my high favour, and tore up my bits of scandal on +the spot. That is one of the little favours, madam, that you owe +your husband.' + +Seraphina sat for some while in silence. She could bear to be +misjudged without a pang by those whom she contemned; she had none +of Otto's eagerness to be approved, but went her own way straight +and head in air. To Sir John, however, after what he had said, and +as her husband's friend, she was prepared to stoop. + +'What do you think of me?' she asked abruptly. + +'I have told you already,' said Sir John: 'I think you want another +glass of my good wine.' + +'Come,' she said, 'this is unlike you. You are not wont to be +afraid. You say that you admire my husband: in his name, be +honest.' + +'I admire your courage,' said the Baronet. 'Beyond that, as you +have guessed, and indeed said, our natures are not sympathetic.' + +'You spoke of scandal,' pursued Seraphina. 'Was the scandal great?' + +'It was considerable,' said Sir John. + +'And you believed it?' she demanded. + +'O, madam,' said Sir John, 'the question!' + +'Thank you for that answer!' cried Seraphina. 'And now here, I will +tell you, upon my honour, upon my soul, in spite of all the scandal +in this world, I am as true a wife as ever stood.' + +'We should probably not agree upon a definition,' observed Sir John. + +'O!' she cried, 'I have abominably used him - I know that; it is not +that I mean. But if you admire my husband, I insist that you shall +understand me: I can look him in the face without a blush.' + +'It may be, madam,' said Sir John; 'nor have I presumed to think the +contrary.' + +'You will not believe me?' she cried. 'You think I am a guilty +wife? You think he was my lover?' + +'Madam,' returned the Baronet, 'when I tore up my papers, I promised +your good husband to concern myself no more with your affairs; and I +assure you for the last time that I have no desire to judge you.' + +'But you will not acquit me! Ah!' she cried, 'HE will - he knows me +better!' + +Sir John smiled. + +'You smile at my distress?' asked Seraphina. + +'At your woman's coolness,' said Sir John. 'A man would scarce have +had the courage of that cry, which was, for all that, very natural, +and I make no doubt quite true. But remark, madam - since you do me +the honour to consult me gravely - I have no pity for what you call +your distresses. You have been completely selfish, and now reap the +consequence. Had you once thought of your husband, instead of +singly thinking of yourself, you would not now have been alone, a +fugitive, with blood upon your hands, and hearing from a morose old +Englishman truth more bitter than scandal.' + +'I thank you,' she said, quivering. 'This is very true. Will you +stop the carriage?' + +'No, child,' said Sir John, 'not until I see you mistress of +yourself.' + +There was a long pause, during which the carriage rolled by rock and +woodland. + +'And now,' she resumed, with perfect steadiness, 'will you consider +me composed? I request you, as a gentleman, to let me out.' + +'I think you do unwisely,' he replied. 'Continue, if you please, to +use my carriage.' + +'Sir John,' she said, 'if death were sitting on that pile of stones, +I would alight! I do not blame, I thank you; I now know how I +appear to others; but sooner than draw breath beside a man who can +so think of me, I would - O!' she cried, and was silent. + +Sir John pulled the string, alighted, and offered her his hand; but +she refused the help. + +The road had now issued from the valleys in which it had been +winding, and come to that part of its course where it runs, like a +cornice, along the brow of the steep northward face of Grunewald. +The place where they had alighted was at a salient angle; a bold +rock and some wind-tortured pine-trees overhung it from above; far +below the blue plains lay forth and melted into heaven; and before +them the road, by a succession of bold zigzags, was seen mounting to +where a tower upon a tall cliff closed the view. + +'There,' said the Baronet, pointing to the tower, 'you see the +Felsenburg, your goal. I wish you a good journey, and regret I +cannot be of more assistance.' + +He mounted to his place and gave a signal, and the carriage rolled +away. + +Seraphina stood by the wayside, gazing before her with blind eyes. +Sir John she had dismissed already from her mind: she hated him, +that was enough; for whatever Seraphina hated or contemned fell +instantly to Lilliputian smallness, and was thenceforward steadily +ignored in thought. And now she had matter for concern indeed. Her +interview with Otto, which she had never yet forgiven him, began to +appear before her in a very different light. He had come to her, +still thrilling under recent insult, and not yet breathed from +fighting her own cause; and how that knowledge changed the value of +his words! Yes, he must have loved her! this was a brave feeling - +it was no mere weakness of the will. And she, was she incapable of +love? It would appear so; and she swallowed her tears, and yearned +to see Otto, to explain all, to ask pity upon her knees for her +transgressions, and, if all else were now beyond the reach of +reparation, to restore at least the liberty of which she had +deprived him. + +Swiftly she sped along the highway, and, as the road wound out and +in about the bluffs and gullies of the mountain, saw and lost by +glimpses the tall tower that stood before and above her, purpled by +the mountain air. + + + + +CHAPTER II - TREATS OF A CHRISTIAN VIRTUE + + +WHEN Otto mounted to his rolling prison he found another occupant in +a corner of the front seat; but as this person hung his head and the +brightness of the carriage lamps shone outward, the Prince could +only see it was a man. The Colonel followed his prisoner and +clapped-to the door; and at that the four horses broke immediately +into a swinging trot. + +'Gentlemen,' said the Colonel, after some little while had passed, +'if we are to travel in silence, we might as well be at home. I +appear, of course, in an invidious character; but I am a man of +taste, fond of books and solidly informing talk, and unfortunately +condemned for life to the guard-room. Gentlemen, this is my chance: +don't spoil it for me. I have here the pick of the whole court, +barring lovely woman; I have a great author in the person of the +Doctor - ' + +'Gotthold!' cried Otto. + +'It appears,' said the Doctor bitterly, 'that we must go together. +Your Highness had not calculated upon that.' + +'What do you infer?' cried Otto; 'that I had you arrested?' + +'The inference is simple,' said the Doctor. + +'Colonel Gordon,' said the Prince, 'oblige me so far, and set me +right with Herr von Hohenstockwitz.' + +'Gentlemen,' said the Colonel, 'you are both arrested on the same +warrant in the name of the Princess Seraphina, acting regent, +countersigned by Prime Minister Freiherr von Gondremark, and dated +the day before yesterday, the twelfth. I reveal to you the secrets +of the prison-house,' he added. + +'Otto,' said Gotthold, 'I ask you to pardon my suspicions.' + +'Gotthold,' said the Prince, 'I am not certain I can grant you +that.' + +'Your Highness is, I am sure, far too magnanimous to hesitate,' said +the Colonel. 'But allow me: we speak at home in my religion of the +means of grace: and I now propose to offer them.' So saying, the +Colonel lighted a bright lamp which he attached to one side of the +carriage, and from below the front seat produced a goodly basket +adorned with the long necks of bottles. 'TU SPEM REDUCIS - how does +it go, Doctor?' he asked gaily. 'I am, in a sense, your host; and I +am sure you are both far too considerate of my embarrassing position +to refuse to do me honour. Gentlemen, I drink to the Prince!' + +'Colonel,' said Otto, 'we have a jovial entertainer. I drink to +Colonel Gordon.' + +Thereupon all three took their wine very pleasantly; and even as +they did so, the carriage with a lurch turned into the high-road and +began to make better speed. + +All was bright within; the wine had coloured Gotthold's cheek; dim +forms of forest trees, dwindling and spiring, scarves of the starry +sky, now wide and now narrow, raced past the windows, through one +that was left open the air of the woods came in with a nocturnal +raciness; and the roll of wheels and the tune of the trotting horses +sounded merrily on the ear. Toast followed toast; glass after glass +was bowed across and emptied by the trio; and presently there began +to fall upon them a luxurious spell, under the influence of which +little but the sound of quiet and confidential laughter interrupted +the long intervals of meditative silence. + +'Otto,' said Gotthold, after one of these seasons of quiet, 'I do +not ask you to forgive me. Were the parts reversed, I could not +forgive you.' + +'Well,' said Otto, 'it is a phrase we use. I do forgive you, but +your words and your suspicions rankle; and not yours alone. It is +idle, Colonel Gordon, in view of the order you are carrying out, to +conceal from you the dissensions of my family; they have gone so far +that they are now public property. Well, gentlemen, can I forgive +my wife? I can, of course, and do; but in what sense? I would +certainly not stoop to any revenge; as certainly I could not think +of her but as one changed beyond my recognition.' + +'Allow me,' returned the Colonel. 'You will permit me to hope that +I am addressing Christians? We are all conscious, I trust, that we +are miserable sinners.' + +'I disown the consciousness,' said Gotthold. 'Warmed with this good +fluid, I deny your thesis.' + +'How, sir? You never did anything wrong? and I heard you asking +pardon but this moment, not of your God, sir, but of a common +fellow-worm!' the Colonel cried. + +'I own you have me; you are expert in argument, Heir Oberst,' said +the Doctor. + +'Begad, sir, I am proud to hear you say so,' said the Colonel. 'I +was well grounded indeed at Aberdeen. And as for this matter of +forgiveness, it comes, sir, of loose views and (what is if anything +more dangerous) a regular life. A sound creed and a bad morality, +that's the root of wisdom. You two gentlemen are too good to be +forgiving.' + +'The paradox is somewhat forced,' said Gotthold. + +'Pardon me, Colonel,' said the Prince; 'I readily acquit you of any +design of offence, but your words bite like satire. Is this a time, +do you think, when I can wish to hear myself called good, now that I +am paying the penalty (and am willing like yourself to think it +just) of my prolonged misconduct?' + +'O, pardon me!' cried the Colonel. 'You have never been expelled +from the divinity hall; you have never been broke. I was: broke for +a neglect of military duty. To tell you the open truth, your +Highness, I was the worse of drink; it's a thing I never do now,' he +added, taking out his glass. 'But a man, you see, who has really +tasted the defects of his own character, as I have, and has come to +regard himself as a kind of blind teetotum knocking about life, +begins to learn a very different view about forgiveness. I will +talk of not forgiving others, sir, when I have made out to forgive +myself, and not before; and the date is like to be a long one. My +father, the Reverend Alexander Gordon, was a good man, and damned +hard upon others. I am what they call a bad one, and that is just +the difference. The man who cannot forgive any mortal thing is a +green hand in life.' + +'And yet I have heard of you, Colonel, as a duellist,' said +Gotthold. + +'A different thing, sir,' replied the soldier. 'Professional +etiquette. And I trust without unchristian feeling.' + +Presently after the Colonel fell into a deep sleep and his +companions looked upon each other, smiling. + +'An odd fish,' said Gotthold. + +'And a strange guardian,' said the Prince. 'Yet what he said was +true.' + +'Rightly looked upon,' mused Gotthold, 'it is ourselves that we +cannot forgive, when we refuse forgiveness to our friend. Some +strand of our own misdoing is involved in every quarrel.' + +'Are there not offences that disgrace the pardoner?' asked Otto. +'Are there not bounds of self-respect?' + +'Otto,' said Gotthold, 'does any man respect himself? To this poor +waif of a soldier of fortune we may seem respectable gentlemen; but +to ourselves, what are we unless a pasteboard portico and a +deliquium of deadly weaknesses within?' + +'I? yes,' said Otto; 'but you, Gotthold - you, with your +interminable industry, your keen mind, your books - serving mankind, +scorning pleasures and temptations! You do not know how I envy +you.' + +'Otto,' said the Doctor, 'in one word, and a bitter one to say: I am +a secret tippler. Yes, I drink too much. The habit has robbed +these very books, to which you praise my devotion, of the merits +that they should have had. It has spoiled my temper. When I spoke +to you the other day, how much of my warmth was in the cause of +virtue? how much was the fever of last night's wine? Ay, as my poor +fellow-sot there said, and as I vaingloriously denied, we are all +miserable sinners, put here for a moment, knowing the good, choosing +the evil, standing naked and ashamed in the eye of God.' + +'Is it so?' said Otto. 'Why, then, what are we? Are the very best +- ' + +'There is no best in man,' said Gotthold. 'I am not better, it is +likely I am not worse, than you or that poor sleeper. I was a sham, +and now you know me: that is all.' + +'And yet it has not changed my love,' returned Otto softly. 'Our +misdeeds do not change us. Gotthold, fill your glass. Let us drink +to what is good in this bad business; let us drink to our old +affection; and, when we have done so, forgive your too just grounds +of offence, and drink with me to my wife, whom I have so misused, +who has so misused me, and whom I have left, I fear, I greatly fear, +in danger. What matters it how bad we are, if others can still love +us, and we can still love others?' + +'Ay!' replied the Doctor. 'It is very well said. It is the true +answer to the pessimist, and the standing miracle of mankind. So +you still love me? and so you can forgive your wife? Why, then, we +may bid conscience "Down, dog," like an ill-trained puppy yapping at +shadows.' + +The pair fell into silence, the Doctor tapping on his empty glass. + +The carriage swung forth out of the valleys on that open balcony of +high-road that runs along the front of Grunewald, looking down on +Gerolstein. Far below, a white waterfall was shining to the stars +from the falling skirts of forest, and beyond that, the night stood +naked above the plain. On the other hand, the lamp-light skimmed +the face of the precipices, and the dwarf pine-trees twinkled with +all their needles, and were gone again into the wake. The granite +roadway thundered under wheels and hoofs; and at times, by reason of +its continual winding, Otto could see the escort on the other side +of a ravine, riding well together in the night. Presently the +Felsenburg came plainly in view, some way above them, on a bold +projection of the mountain, and planting its bulk against the starry +sky. + +'See, Gotthold,' said the Prince, 'our destination.' + +Gotthold awoke as from a trance. + +'I was thinking,' said he, 'if there is any danger, why did you not +resist? I was told you came of your free will; but should you not +be there to help her?' + +The colour faded from the Prince's cheeks. + + + + +CHAPTER III - PROVIDENCE VON ROSEN: ACT THE LAST +IN WHICH SHE GALLOPS OFF + + +WHEN the busy Countess came forth from her interview with Seraphina, +it is not too much to say that she was beginning to be terribly +afraid. She paused in the corridor and reckoned up her doings with +an eye to Gondremark. The fan was in requisition in an instant; but +her disquiet was beyond the reach of fanning. 'The girl has lost +her head,' she thought; and then dismally, 'I have gone too far.' +She instantly decided on secession. Now the MONS SACER of the Frau +von Rosen was a certain rustic villa in the forest, called by +herself, in a smart attack of poesy, Tannen Zauber, and by everybody +else plain Kleinbrunn. + +Thither, upon the thought, she furiously drove, passing Gondremark +at the entrance to the Palace avenue, but feigning not to observe +him; and as Kleinbrunn was seven good miles away, and in the bottom +of a narrow dell, she passed the night without any rumour of the +outbreak reaching her; and the glow of the conflagration was +concealed by intervening hills. Frau von Rosen did not sleep well; +she was seriously uneasy as to the results of her delightful +evening, and saw herself condemned to quite a lengthy sojourn in her +deserts and a long defensive correspondence, ere she could venture +to return to Gondremark. On the other hand, she examined, by way of +pastime, the deeds she had received from Otto; and even here saw +cause for disappointment. In these troublous days she had no taste +for landed property, and she was convinced, besides, that Otto had +paid dearer than the farm was worth. Lastly, the order for the +Prince's release fairly burned her meddling fingers. + +All things considered, the next day beheld an elegant and beautiful +lady, in a riding-habit and a flapping hat, draw bridle at the gate +of the Felsenburg, not perhaps with any clear idea of her purpose, +but with her usual experimental views on life. Governor Gordon, +summoned to the gate, welcomed the omnipotent Countess with his most +gallant bearing, though it was wonderful how old he looked in the +morning. + +'Ah, Governor,' she said, 'we have surprises for you, sir,' and +nodded at him meaningly. + +'Eh, madam, leave me my prisoners,' he said; 'and if you will but +join the band, begad, I'll be happy for life.' + +'You would spoil me, would you not?' she asked. + +'I would try, I would try,' returned the Governor, and he offered +her his arm. + +She took it, picked up her skirt, and drew him close to her. 'I +have come to see the Prince,' she said. 'Now, infidel! on business. +A message from that stupid Gondremark, who keeps me running like a +courier. Do I look like one, Herr Gordon?' And she planted her eyes +in him. + +'You look like an angel, ma'am,' returned the Governor, with a great +air of finished gallantry. + +The Countess laughed. 'An angel on horseback!' she said. 'Quick +work.' + +'You came, you saw, you conquered,' flourished Gordon, in high good +humour with his own wit and grace. 'We toasted you, madam, in the +carriage, in an excellent good glass of wine; toasted you fathom +deep; the finest woman, with, begad, the finest eyes in Grunewald. +I never saw the like of them but once, in my own country, when I was +a young fool at College: Thomasina Haig her name was. I give you my +word of honour, she was as like you as two peas.' + +'And so you were merry in the carriage?' asked the Countess, +gracefully dissembling a yawn. + +'We were; we had a very pleasant conversation; but we took perhaps a +glass more than that fine fellow of a Prince has been accustomed +to,' said the Governor; 'and I observe this morning that he seems a +little off his mettle. We'll get him mellow again ere bedtime. +This is his door.' + +'Well,' she whispered, 'let me get my breath. No, no; wait. Have +the door ready to open.' And the Countess, standing like one +inspired, shook out her fine voice in 'Lascia ch'io pianga'; and +when she had reached the proper point, and lyrically uttered forth +her sighings after liberty, the door, at a sign, was flung wide +open, and she swam into the Prince's sight, bright-eyed, and with +her colour somewhat freshened by the exercise of singing. It was a +great dramatic entrance, and to the somewhat doleful prisoner within +the sight was sunshine. + +'Ah, madam,' he cried, running to her - 'you here!' + +She looked meaningly at Gordon; and as soon as the door was closed +she fell on Otto's neck. 'To see you here!' she moaned and clung to +him. + +But the Prince stood somewhat stiffly in that enviable situation, +and the Countess instantly recovered from her outburst. + +'Poor child,' she said, 'poor child! Sit down beside me here, and +tell me all about it. My heart really bleeds to see you. How does +time go?' + +'Madam,' replied the Prince, sitting down beside her, his gallantry +recovered, 'the time will now go all too quickly till you leave. +But I must ask you for the news. I have most bitterly condemned +myself for my inertia of last night. You wisely counselled me; it +was my duty to resist. You wisely and nobly counselled me; I have +since thought of it with wonder. You have a noble heart.' + +'Otto,' she said, 'spare me. Was it even right, I wonder? I have +duties, too, you poor child; and when I see you they all melt - all +my good resolutions fly away.' + +'And mine still come too late,' he replied, sighing. 'O, what would +I not give to have resisted? What would I not give for freedom?' + +'Well, what would you give?' she asked; and the red fan was spread; +only her eyes, as if from over battlements, brightly surveyed him. + +'I? What do you mean? Madam, you have some news for me,' he cried. + +'O, O!' said madam dubiously. + +He was at her feet. 'Do not trifle with my hopes,' he pleaded. +'Tell me, dearest Madame von Rosen, tell me! You cannot be cruel: +it is not in your nature. Give? I can give nothing; I have +nothing; I can only plead in mercy.' + +'Do not,' she said; 'it is not fair. Otto, you know my weakness. +Spare me. Be generous.' + +'O, madam,' he said, 'it is for you to be generous, to have pity.' +He took her hand and pressed it; he plied her with caresses and +appeals. The Countess had a most enjoyable sham siege, and then +relented. She sprang to her feet, she tore her dress open, and, all +warm from her bosom, threw the order on the floor. + +'There!' she cried. 'I forced it from her. Use it, and I am +ruined!' And she turned away as if to veil the force of her +emotions. + +Otto sprang upon the paper, read it, and cried out aloud. 'O, God +bless her!' he said, 'God bless her.' And he kissed the writing. + +Von Rosen was a singularly good-natured woman, but her part was now +beyond her. 'Ingrate!' she cried; 'I wrung it from her, I betrayed +my trust to get it, and 'tis she you thank!' + +'Can you blame me?' said the Prince. 'I love her.' + +'I see that,' she said. 'And I?' + +'You, Madame von Rosen? You are my dearest, my kindest, and most +generous of friends,' he said, approaching her. 'You would be a +perfect friend, if you were not so lovely. You have a great sense +of humour, you cannot be unconscious of your charm, and you amuse +yourself at times by playing on my weakness; and at times I can take +pleasure in the comedy. But not to-day: to-day you will be the +true, the serious, the manly friend, and you will suffer me to +forget that you are lovely and that I am weak. Come, dear Countess, +let me to-day repose in you entirely.' + +He held out his hand, smiling, and she took it frankly. 'I vow you +have bewitched me,' she said; and then with a laugh, 'I break my +staff!' she added; 'and I must pay you my best compliment. You made +a difficult speech. You are as adroit, dear Prince, as I am - +charming.' And as she said the word with a great curtsey, she +justified it. + +'You hardly keep the bargain, madam, when you make yourself so +beautiful,' said the Prince, bowing. + +'It was my last arrow,' she returned. 'I am disarmed. Blank +cartridge, O MON PRINCE! And now I tell you, if you choose to leave +this prison, you can, and I am ruined. Choose!' + +'Madame von Rosen,' replied Otto, 'I choose, and I will go. My duty +points me, duty still neglected by this Featherhead. But do not +fear to be a loser. I propose instead that you should take me with +you, a bear in chains, to Baron Gondremark. I am become perfectly +unscrupulous: to save my wife I will do all, all he can ask or +fancy. He shall be filled; were he huge as leviathan and greedy as +the grave, I will content him. And you, the fairy of our pantomime, +shall have the credit.' + +'Done!' she cried. 'Admirable! Prince Charming no longer - Prince +Sorcerer, Prince Solon! Let us go this moment. Stay,' she cried, +pausing. 'I beg dear Prince, to give you back these deeds. 'Twas +you who liked the farm - I have not seen it; and it was you who +wished to benefit the peasants. And, besides,' she added, with a +comical change of tone, 'I should prefer the ready money.' + +Both laughed. 'Here I am, once more a farmer,' said Otto, accepting +the papers, 'but overwhelmed in debt.' + +The Countess touched a bell, and the Governor appeared. + +'Governor,' she said, 'I am going to elope with his Highness. The +result of our talk has been a thorough understanding, and the COUP +D'ETAT is over. Here is the order.' + +Colonel Gordon adjusted silver spectacles upon his nose. 'Yes,' he +said, 'the Princess: very right. But the warrant, madam, was +countersigned.' + +'By Heinrich!' said von Rosen. 'Well, and here am I to represent +him.' + +'Well, your Highness,' resumed the soldier of fortune, 'I must +congratulate you upon my loss. You have been cut out by beauty, and +I am left lamenting. The Doctor still remains to me: PROBUS, +DOCTUS, LEPIDUS, JUCUNDUS: a man of books.' + +'Ay, there is nothing about poor Gotthold,' said the Prince. + +'The Governor's consolation? Would you leave him bare?' asked von +Rosen. + +'And, your Highness,' resumed Gordon, 'may I trust that in the +course of this temporary obscuration, you have found me discharge my +part with suitable respect and, I may add, tact? I adopted +purposely a cheerfulness of manner; mirth, it appeared to me, and a +good glass of wine, were the fit alleviations.' + +'Colonel,' said Otto, holding out his hand, 'your society was of +itself enough. I do not merely thank you for your pleasant spirits; +I have to thank you, besides, for some philosophy, of which I stood +in need. I trust I do not see you for the last time; and in the +meanwhile, as a memento of our strange acquaintance, let me offer +you these verses on which I was but now engaged. I am so little of +a poet, and was so ill inspired by prison bars, that they have some +claim to be at least a curiosity.' + +The Colonel's countenance lighted as he took the paper; the silver +spectacles were hurriedly replaced. 'Ha!' he said, 'Alexandrines, +the tragic metre. I shall cherish this, your Highness, like a +relic; no more suitable offering, although I say it, could be made. +"DIEUX DE L'IMMENSE PLAINE ET DES VASTES FORETS." Very good,' he +said, 'very good indeed! "ET DU GEOLIER LUI-MEME APPRENDRE DES +LECONS." Most handsome, begad!' + +'Come, Governor,' cried the Countess, 'you can read his poetry when +we are gone. Open your grudging portals.' + +'I ask your pardon,' said the Colonel. 'To a man of my character +and tastes, these verses, this handsome reference - most moving, I +assure you. Can I offer you an escort?' + +'No, no,' replied the Countess. 'We go incogniti, as we arrived. +We ride together; the Prince will take my servant's horse. Hurry +and privacy, Herr Oberst, that is all we seek.' And she began +impatiently to lead the way. + +But Otto had still to bid farewell to Dr. Gotthold; and the Governor +following, with his spectacles in one hand and the paper in the +other, had still to communicate his treasured verses, piece by +piece, as he succeeded in deciphering the manuscript, to all he came +across; and still his enthusiasm mounted. 'I declare,' he cried at +last, with the air of one who has at length divined a mystery, 'they +remind me of Robbie Burns!' + +But there is an end to all things; and at length Otto was walking by +the side of Madame von Rosen, along that mountain wall, her servant +following with both the horses, and all about them sunlight, and +breeze, and flying bird, and the vast regions of the air, and the +capacious prospect: wildwood and climbing pinnacle, and the sound +and voice of mountain torrents, at their hand: and far below them, +green melting into sapphire on the plains. + +They walked at first in silence; for Otto's mind was full of the +delight of liberty and nature, and still, betweenwhiles, he was +preparing his interview with Gondremark. But when the first rough +promontory of the rock was turned, and the Felsenburg concealed +behind its bulk, the lady paused. + +'Here,' she said, 'I will dismount poor Karl, and you and I must ply +our spurs. I love a wild ride with a good companion.' + +As she spoke, a carriage came into sight round the corner next below +them in the order of the road. It came heavily creaking, and a +little ahead of it a traveller was soberly walking, note-book in +hand. + +'It is Sir John,' cried Otto, and he hailed him. + +The Baronet pocketed his note-book, stared through an eye-glass, and +then waved his stick; and he on his side, and the Countess and the +Prince on theirs, advanced with somewhat quicker steps. They met at +the re-entrant angle, where a thin stream sprayed across a boulder +and was scattered in rain among the brush; and the Baronet saluted +the Prince with much punctilio. To the Countess, on the other hand, +he bowed with a kind of sneering wonder. + +'Is it possible, madam, that you have not heard the news?' he asked. + +'What news?' she cried. + +'News of the first order,' returned Sir John: 'a revolution in the +State, a Republic declared, the palace burned to the ground, the +Princess in flight, Gondremark wounded - ' + +'Heinrich wounded?' she screamed. + +'Wounded and suffering acutely,' said Sir John. 'His groans - ' + +There fell from the lady's lips an oath so potent that, in smoother +hours, it would have made her hearers jump. She ran to her horse, +scrambled to the saddle, and, yet half seated, dashed down the road +at full gallop. The groom, after a pause of wonder, followed her. +The rush of her impetuous passage almost scared the carriage horses +over the verge of the steep hill; and still she clattered further, +and the crags echoed to her flight, and still the groom flogged +vainly in pursuit of her. At the fourth corner, a woman trailing +slowly up leaped back with a cry and escaped death by a hand's- +breadth. But the Countess wasted neither glance nor thought upon +the incident. Out and in, about the bluffs of the mountain wall, +she fled, loose-reined, and still the groom toiled in her pursuit. + +'A most impulsive lady!' said Sir John. 'Who would have thought she +cared for him?' And before the words were uttered, he was +struggling in the Prince's grasp. + +'My wife! the Princess? What of her?' + +'She is down the road,' he gasped. 'I left her twenty minutes +back.' + +And next moment, the choked author stood alone, and the Prince on +foot was racing down the hill behind the Countess. + + + + +CHAPTER IV - BABES IN THE WOOD + + +WHILE the feet of the Prince continued to run swiftly, his heart, +which had at first by far outstripped his running, soon began to +linger and hang back. Not that he ceased to pity the misfortune or +to yearn for the sight of Seraphina; but the memory of her obdurate +coldness awoke within him, and woke in turn his own habitual +diffidence of self. Had Sir John been given time to tell him all, +had he even known that she was speeding to the Felsenburg, he would +have gone to her with ardour. As it was, he began to see himself +once more intruding, profiting, perhaps, by her misfortune, and now +that she was fallen, proffering unloved caresses to the wife who had +spurned him in prosperity. The sore spots upon his vanity began to +burn; once more, his anger assumed the carriage of a hostile +generosity; he would utterly forgive indeed; he would help, save, +and comfort his unloving wife; but all with distant self-denial, +imposing silence on his heart, respecting Seraphina's disaffection +as he would the innocence of a child. So, when at length he turned +a corner and beheld the Princess, it was his first thought to +reassure her of the purity of his respect, and he at once ceased +running and stood still. She, upon her part, began to run to him +with a little cry; then, seeing him pause, she paused also, smitten +with remorse; and at length, with the most guilty timidity, walked +nearly up to where he stood. + +'Otto,' she said, 'I have ruined all!' + +'Seraphina!' he cried with a sob, but did not move, partly withheld +by his resolutions, partly struck stupid at the sight of her +weariness and disorder. Had she stood silent, they had soon been +locked in an embrace. But she too had prepared herself against the +interview, and must spoil the golden hour with protestations. + +'All!' she went on, 'I have ruined all! But, Otto, in kindness you +must hear me - not justify, but own, my faults. I have been taught +so cruelly; I have had such time for thought, and see the world so +changed. I have been blind, stone-blind; I have let all true good +go by me, and lived on shadows. But when this dream fell, and I had +betrayed you, and thought I had killed - ' She paused. 'I thought +I had killed Gondremark,' she said with a deep flush, 'and I found +myself alone, as you said.' + +The mention of the name of Gondremark pricked the Princes generosity +like a spur. 'Well,' he cried, 'and whose fault was it but mine? +It was my duty to be beside you, loved or not. But I was a skulker +in the grain, and found it easier to desert than to oppose you. I +could never learn that better part of love, to fight love's battles. +But yet the love was there. And now when this toy kingdom of ours +has fallen, first of all by my demerits, and next by your +inexperience, and we are here alone together, as poor as Job and +merely a man and a woman - let me conjure you to forgive the +weakness and to repose in the love. Do not mistake me!' he cried, +seeing her about to speak, and imposing silence with uplifted hand. +'My love is changed; it is purged of any conjugal pretension; it +does not ask, does not hope, does not wish for a return in kind. +You may forget for ever that part in which you found me so +distasteful, and accept without embarrassment the affection of a +brother.' + +'You are too generous, Otto,' she said. 'I know that I have +forfeited your love. I cannot take this sacrifice. You had far +better leave me. O, go away, and leave me to my fate!' + +'O no!' said Otto; 'we must first of all escape out of this hornet's +nest, to which I led you. My honour is engaged. I said but now we +were as poor as Job; and behold! not many miles from here I have a +house of my own to which I will conduct you. Otto the Prince being +down, we must try what luck remains to Otto the Hunter. Come, +Seraphina; show that you forgive me, and let us set about this +business of escape in the best spirits possible. You used to say, +my dear, that, except as a husband and a prince, I was a pleasant +fellow. I am neither now, and you may like my company without +remorse. Come, then; it were idle to be captured. Can you still +walk? Forth, then,' said he, and he began to lead the way. + +A little below where they stood, a good-sized brook passed below the +road, which overleapt it in a single arch. On one bank of that +loquacious water a foot-path descended a green dell. Here it was +rocky and stony, and lay on the steep scarps of the ravine; here it +was choked with brambles; and there, in fairy haughs, it lay for a +few paces evenly on the green turf. Like a sponge, the hillside +oozed with well-water. The burn kept growing both in force and +volume; at every leap it fell with heavier plunges and span more +widely in the pool. Great had been the labours of that stream, and +great and agreeable the changes it had wrought. It had cut through +dykes of stubborn rock, and now, like a blowing dolphin, spouted +through the orifice; along all its humble coasts, it had undermined +and rafted-down the goodlier timber of the forest; and on these +rough clearings it now set and tended primrose gardens, and planted +woods of willow, and made a favourite of the silver birch. Through +all these friendly features the path, its human acolyte, conducted +our two wanderers downward, - Otto before, still pausing at the more +difficult passages to lend assistance; the Princess following. From +time to time, when he turned to help her, her face would lighten +upon his - her eyes, half desperately, woo him. He saw, but dared +not understand. 'She does not love me,' he told himself, with +magnanimity. 'This is remorse or gratitude; I were no gentleman, +no, nor yet a man, if I presumed upon these pitiful concessions.' + +Some way down the glen, the stream, already grown to a good bulk of +water, was rudely dammed across, and about a third of it abducted in +a wooden trough. Gaily the pure water, air's first cousin, fleeted +along the rude aqueduct, whose sides and floor it had made green +with grasses. The path, bearing it close company, threaded a +wilderness of briar and wild-rose. And presently, a little in +front, the brown top of a mill and the tall mill-wheel, spraying +diamonds, arose in the narrows of the glen; at the same time the +snoring music of the saws broke the silence. + +The miller, hearing steps, came forth to his door, and both he and +Otto started. + +'Good-morning, miller,' said the Prince. 'You were right, it seems, +and I was wrong. I give you the news, and bid you to Mittwalden. +My throne has fallen - great was the fall of it! - and your good +friends of the Phoenix bear the rule.' + +The red-faced miller looked supreme astonishment. 'And your +Highness?' he gasped. + +'My Highness is running away,' replied Otto, 'straight for the +frontier.' + +'Leaving Grunewald?' cried the man. 'Your father's son? It's not +to be permitted!' + +'Do you arrest us, friend?' asked Otto, smiling. + +'Arrest you? I?' exclaimed the man. 'For what does your Highness +take me? Why, sir, I make sure there is not a man in Grunewald +would lay hands upon you.' + +'O, many, many,' said the Prince; 'but from you, who were bold with +me in my greatness, I should even look for aid in my distress.' + +The miller became the colour of beetroot. 'You may say so indeed,' +said he. 'And meanwhile, will you and your lady step into my +house.' + +'We have not time for that,' replied the Prince; 'but if you would +oblige us with a cup of wine without here, you will give a pleasure +and a service, both in one.' + +The miller once more coloured to the nape. He hastened to bring +forth wine in a pitcher and three bright crystal tumblers. 'Your +Highness must not suppose,' he said, as he filled them, 'that I am +an habitual drinker. The time when I had the misfortune to +encounter you, I was a trifle overtaken, I allow; but a more sober +man than I am in my ordinary, I do not know where you are to look +for; and even this glass that I drink to you (and to the lady) is +quite an unusual recreation.' + +The wine was drunk with due rustic courtesies; and then, refusing +further hospitality, Otto and Seraphina once more proceeded to +descend the glen, which now began to open and to be invaded by the +taller trees. + +'I owed that man a reparation,' said the Prince; 'for when we met I +was in the wrong and put a sore affront upon him. I judge by +myself, perhaps; but I begin to think that no one is the better for +a humiliation.' + +'But some have to be taught so,' she replied. + +'Well, well,' he said, with a painful embarrassment. 'Well, well. +But let us think of safety. My miller is all very good, but I do +not pin my faith to him. To follow down this stream will bring us, +but after innumerable windings, to my house. Here, up this glade, +there lies a cross-cut - the world's end for solitude - the very +deer scarce visit it. Are you too tired, or could you pass that +way?' + +'Choose the path, Otto. I will follow you,' she said. + +'No,' he replied, with a singular imbecility of manner and +appearance, 'but I meant the path was rough. It lies, all the way, +by glade and dingle, and the dingles are both deep and thorny.' + +'Lead on,' she said. 'Are you not Otto the Hunter?' + +They had now burst across a veil of underwood, and were come into a +lawn among the forest, very green and innocent, and solemnly +surrounded by trees. Otto paused on the margin, looking about him +with delight; then his glance returned to Seraphina, as she stood +framed in that silvan pleasantness and looking at her husband with +undecipherable eyes. A weakness both of the body and mind fell on +him like the beginnings of sleep; the cords of his activity were +relaxed, his eyes clung to her. 'Let us rest,' he said; and he made +her sit down, and himself sat down beside her on the slope of an +inconsiderable mound. + +She sat with her eyes downcast, her slim hand dabbling in grass, +like a maid waiting for love's summons. The sound of the wind in +the forest swelled and sank, and drew near them with a running rush, +and died away and away in the distance into fainting whispers. +Nearer hand, a bird out of the deep covert uttered broken and +anxious notes. All this seemed but a halting prelude to speech. To +Otto it seemed as if the whole frame of nature were waiting for his +words; and yet his pride kept him silent. The longer he watched +that slender and pale hand plucking at the grasses, the harder and +rougher grew the fight between pride and its kindly adversary. + +'Seraphina,' he said at last, 'it is right you should know one +thing: I never . . .' He was about to say 'doubted you,' but was +that true? And, if true, was it generous to speak of it? Silence +succeeded. + +'I pray you, tell it me,' she said; 'tell it me, in pity.' + +'I mean only this,' he resumed, 'that I understand all, and do not +blame you. I understand how the brave woman must look down on the +weak man. I think you were wrong in some things; but I have tried +to understand it, and I do. I do not need to forget or to forgive, +Seraphina, for I have understood.' + +'I know what I have done,' she said. 'I am not so weak that I can +be deceived with kind speeches. I know what I have been - I see +myself. I am not worth your anger, how much less to be forgiven! +In all this downfall and misery, I see only me and you: you, as you +have been always; me, as I was - me, above all! O yes, I see +myself: and what can I think?' + +'Ah, then, let us reverse the parts!' said Otto. 'It is ourselves +we cannot forgive, when we deny forgiveness to another - so a friend +told me last night. On these terms, Seraphina, you see how +generously I have forgiven myself. But am not I to be forgiven? +Come, then, forgive yourself - and me.' + +She did not answer in words, but reached out her hand to him +quickly. He took it; and as the smooth fingers settled and nestled +in his, love ran to and fro between them in tender and transforming +currents. + +'Seraphina,' he cried, 'O, forget the past! Let me serve and help +you; let me be your servant; it is enough for me to serve you and to +be near you; let me be near you, dear - do not send me away.' He +hurried his pleading like the speech of a frightened child. 'It is +not love,' he went on; 'I do not ask for love; my love is enough . . +.' + +'Otto!' she said, as if in pain. + +He looked up into her face. It was wrung with the very ecstasy of +tenderness and anguish; on her features, and most of all in her +changed eyes, there shone the very light of love. + +'Seraphina?' he cried aloud, and with a sudden, tuneless voice, +'Seraphina?' + +'Look round you at this glade,' she cried, 'and where the leaves are +coming on young trees, and the flowers begin to blossom. This is +where we meet, meet for the first time; it is so much better to +forget and to be born again. O what a pit there is for sins - God's +mercy, man's oblivion!' + +'Seraphina,' he said, 'let it be so, indeed; let all that was be +merely the abuse of dreaming; let me begin again, a stranger. I +have dreamed, in a long dream, that I adored a girl unkind and +beautiful; in all things my superior, but still cold, like ice. And +again I dreamed, and thought she changed and melted, glowed and +turned to me. And I - who had no merit but a love, slavish and +unerect - lay close, and durst not move for fear of waking.' + +'Lie close,' she said, with a deep thrill of speech. + +So they spake in the spring woods; and meanwhile, in Mittwalden +Rath-haus, the Republic was declared. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHICAL POSTSCRIPT TO COMPLETE THE STORY + + +THE reader well informed in modern history will not require details +as to the fate of the Republic. The best account is to be found in +the memoirs of Herr Greisengesang (7 Bande: Leipzig), by our passing +acquaintance the licentiate Roederer. Herr Roederer, with too much +of an author's licence, makes a great figure of his hero - poses +him, indeed, to be the centre-piece and cloud-compeller of the +whole. But, with due allowance for this bias, the book is able and +complete. + +The reader is of course acquainted with the vigorous and bracing +pages of Sir John (2 vols., London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and +Brown). Sir John, who plays but a tooth-comb in the orchestra of +this historical romance, blows in his own book the big bassoon. His +character is there drawn at large; and the sympathy of Landor has +countersigned the admiration of the public. One point, however, +calls for explanation; the chapter on Grunewald was torn by the hand +of the author in the palace gardens; how comes it, then, to figure +at full length among my more modest pages, the Lion of the caravan? +That eminent literatus was a man of method; 'Juvenal by double +entry,' he was once profanely called; and when he tore the sheets in +question, it was rather, as he has since explained, in the search +for some dramatic evidence of his sincerity, than with the thought +of practical deletion. At that time, indeed, he was possessed of +two blotted scrolls and a fair copy in double. But the chapter, as +the reader knows, was honestly omitted from the famous 'Memoirs on +the various Courts of Europe.' It has been mine to give it to the +public. + +Bibliography still helps us with a further glimpse of our +characters. I have here before me a small volume (printed for +private circulation: no printer's name; n.d.), 'Poesies par Frederic +et Amelie.' Mine is a presentation copy, obtained for me by Mr. +Bain in the Haymarket; and the name of the first owner is written on +the fly-leaf in the hand of Prince Otto himself. The modest +epigraph - 'Le rime n'est pas riche' - may be attributed, with a +good show of likelihood, to the same collaborator. It is strikingly +appropriate, and I have found the volume very dreary. Those pieces +in which I seem to trace the hand of the Princess are particularly +dull and conscientious. But the booklet had a fair success with +that public for which it was designed; and I have come across some +evidences of a second venture of the same sort, now unprocurable. +Here, at least, we may take leave of Otto and Seraphina - what do I +say? of Frederic and Amelie - ageing together peaceably at the court +of the wife's father, jingling French rhymes and correcting joint +proofs. + +Still following the book-lists, I perceive that Mr. Swinburne has +dedicated a rousing lyric and some vigorous sonnets to the memory of +Gondremark; that name appears twice at least in Victor Hugo's +trumpet-blasts of patriot enumeration; and I came latterly, when I +supposed my task already ended, on a trace of the fallen politician +and his Countess. It is in the 'Diary of J. Hogg Cotterill, Esq.' +(that very interesting work). Mr. Cotterill, being at Naples, is +introduced (May 27th) to 'a Baron and Baroness Gondremark - he a man +who once made a noise - she still beautiful - both witty. She +complimented me much upon my French - should never have known me to +be English - had known my uncle, Sir John, in Germany - recognised +in me, as a family trait, some of his GRAND AIR and studious +courtesy - asked me to call.' And again (May 30th), 'visited the +Baronne de Gondremark - much gratified - a most REFINED, INTELLIGENT +woman, quite of the old school, now, HELAS! extinct - had read my +REMARKS ON SICILY - it reminds her of my uncle, but with more of +grace - I feared she thought there was less energy - assured no - a +softer style of presentation, more of the LITERARY GRACE, but the +same firm grasp of circumstance and force of thought - in short, +just Buttonhole's opinion. Much encouraged. I have a real esteem +for this patrician lady.' The acquaintance lasted some time; and +when Mr. Cotterill left in the suite of Lord Protocol, and, as he is +careful to inform us, in Admiral Yardarm's flag-ship, one of his +chief causes of regret is to leave 'that most SPIRITUELLE and +sympathetic lady, who already regards me as a younger brother.' + + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Prince Otto, by Stevenson + + |