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.'
