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.
