CHAPTER XVIII
A WHITE SCAR
Two days later, in the afternoon.
"Grumbach," said Carmichael, "what the deuce were you looking at the other night, with those opera-glasses?"
"At the ball?" Grumbach pressed down the ash in his pipe and brushed his thumb on his sleeve. "I was looking into the past."
"With a pair of opera-glasses?"
"Yes." Grumbach was perfectly serious.
"Oh, pshaw! You were following her highness with them. I want to know why."
"She is beautiful."
"You made a promise to me not long ago."
"I did?" non-committally.
"Yes. Soon I shall be shaking the dust of Dreiberg, and I want to know beforehand what this Chinese puzzle is. What did you do that compelled your flight from Ehrenstein?"
Grumbach's pipe hung pendulent in his hand. He swung it to and fro absently.
"I am waiting. Remember, you are an American citizen, for all that you were born here. If anything should happen to you, I must know the whole story in order to help you. You know that you may trust me."
"It isn't that, Captain. I have grown to like you in these few days."
"What has that to do with it?" impatiently.
"Nothing, perhaps. Only, if I tell you, you will not be my friend."
"Nonsense! What you did sixteen years ago doesn't matter now. It is enough for me that you fought in my regiment, and that you were a brave soldier."
"Those opera-glasses; it was an idea. Well, since you will know. I was a gardener's boy. I worked under my brother Hermann. I used to ask the nurse, who had charge of her serene highness, where she would go each day. Then I'd cut flowers and meet them on the road somewhere and give the bouquet to the child. There was never any escort; a footman and a driver. The little one was always greatly pleased, and she would call me Hans. I was in love those days." Grumbach laughed with bitterness. "Yes, even I. Her name was Tekla, and she was a jade. I wanted to run away, but I had no money. I had already secured a passport; no matter how. It was the first affair, and I was desperately hurt. One day a Gipsy came to me. I shall always know him by the yellow spot in one of his black eyes. I was given a thousand crowns to tell him which road her highness was to be driven over the next day. As I said, I was mad with love. Why a Gipsy should want to know where her highness was going to ride was of no consequence to me. I told him. I was to get the money the same night. It was thus that her highness was stolen; it was thus that I became accessory before the fact, as the lawyers say. Flight with a band of Magyar Gipsies; weary days in the mountains, with detachments of troops scouring the whole duchy. Finally I escaped. A fortune was offered for the immediate return of the child. At the time I believed that it was an abduction for ransom. But no one ever came forward for the reward. There was a price on my head when it was known that I had fled." Grumbach stared into his pipe without seeing anything.
"And no one ever came for the reward? That is strange. Was immunity promised?" asked Carmichael.
"It was inferred, but not literally promised."
"Fear kept them away."
"Perhaps. And there is Arnsberg."
"Was he guilty?"
"I never saw his hand anywhere."
"So this is the story! Well, when a man's in love he is, more or less, in the clutch of temporary insanity." Carmichael's tone wasn't exactly cheery.
"Insanity! Then you do not judge me harshly?"
"No, Hans. I've a wild streak in me also. But what I can't understand is why you return and put your head in the lion's mouth. The police will stumble on something. I tell you frankly that if you are arrested I could do little or nothing for you. The United States protects only harmless political outcasts. Yours is a crime such as nullifies your citizenship, and any government would be compelled, according to the terms of treaty, to send you back here, if the demand was made for your extradition."
"I know all that," Grumbach replied, dumping the ash into his palm and casting it into the paper-basket.
"I suppose that when conscience drives we must go on. But the princess has been found. The best thing you can do is to put your passports into immediate use and return to the States. You can do no good here."
"Maybe." Grumbach refilled his pipe, lighted it, and without saying more went out and down into the street.
Carmichael watched him through the window. Cloud after cloud of smoke ran wavering behind the exile. He was smoking like one deeply perturbed.
"He's a queer codger, and it's a queer story. I don't believe I have heard it all, either. What was he really hunting for with those glasses? I give it up."
He was not angry with Grumbach; rather he seemed to be drawn to him more closely than ever. Mad with love. That was the phrase. He conned it over and over; mad with love. That excused many things. How strangely the chess-men were moved! Had Grumbach not assisted in the abduction, her highness would in all probability have grown up as other princesses, artificial, cold, reserved, seldom touched by the fires of animated thought or action. In fact, had things been otherwise, he never would have ridden with her highness in the freshness of the morning—or fallen in love with her. By rights he ought to curse Grumbach; but for him he would still be captain of his heart. Mad with love! There was no doubt of it. And the phrase rang in his ear for some time.
Grumbach was indeed perturbed, and this sensation was the result of what he had not told his friend. Gott! What was going on? He hadn't the least idea where his footsteps were leading him. He went on, his teeth set strongly on the horn mouthpiece of his pipe, his hands jammed in his pockets. And after a time he woke. He was in the Adlergasse. And of all that happy, noisy family, only he and Hermann left! In one of the open doorways, for it was warm, a final caress of vanishing summer, he saw a fat, youngish woman knitting woolen hose. Two or three children sprawled about her knees. There was that petulance of lip and forehead which marked the dissatisfaction of the coquette married.
"Tekla!" Grumbach murmured.
He was not conscious that he had paused, but the woman was. She eyed him with the mild indifference of the bovine. Then she dropped her glance and the shining needles clicked afresh. Grumbach forced his step onward. And for this! He laughed discordantly. The woman looked up again wonderingly. Now, why should this stranger laugh all by himself like that?
Hans saw the sign of the Black Eagle, and directed his steps thitherward. He sat down and ordered a beer, drinking it quickly. He repeated the order, but he did not touch the second glass. He threw back the lid and stared at the creamy froth as a seer stares at his ball of crystal. Carmichael was right; he was a doddering fool. What was done was done, and a thousand consciences would not right it. And what right had conscience to drag him back to Ehrenstein, where he had known the bitterest and happiest moments of his life? And yet, rail as he might at this invisible restraint called conscience, he saw God's direction in this return. Only he, Hans Grumbach, knew and one other. And that other, who?
Fat, Tekla was fat; and he had treasured the fair picture of her youth these long years! Well, there was an end to that. Little fat Tekla, to have nearly overturned a duchy, and never a bit the wiser! And then Hans became aware of voices close at hand, for he sat near the bar.
"Yes, Fräu, he is at work in the grand duke's vineyards. And think, the first day he picked nine baskets."
"That is good. But I know many a one who can pick their twelve. And you are to be married when the vintage is done? You will make a fine wife, Gretchen."
"And he, a fine husband."
"And you will bring him a dowry, too. But his own people; what does he say of them?"
"He has no parents; only an uncle, who doesn't count. We shall live with grandmother and pay her rent."
"And you are wearing a new dress," admiringly.
Gretchen preened herself. Hans dropped the lid of his stein and pushed it away. His heart always warmed at the sight of this goose~girl. So she had a dowry and was going to be married? He felt of his wallet, and a kindly thought came into being. He counted down the small change for the beer, slid back his chair, and sauntered to the bar. Gretchen recognized him, and the recognition brought a smile to her face.
"Good day to you, Herr," was her greeting.
"When is the wedding?"
Gretchen blushed.
"I should like to come to it."
"You will be welcome, Herr."
"And may I bring along a little present?"
"If it so please you. I must be going," she added to Fräu Bauer.
"May I walk along with you?" asked Hans.
"If you wish," diffidently.
So Grumbach walked with her to the Krumerweg, and he asked her many questions, and some of her answers surprised him.
"Never knew father or mother?"
"No, Herr. I am only a foundling who fell into kind hands. This is where I live."
"And if I should ask to come in?"
"But I shall be too busy to talk. This is bread-day," evasively.
"I promise to sit very quiet in a chair."
Her laughter rippled; she was always close to that expression. "You are a funny man. Come in, then; but mind, you will be dusty with flour when you leave."
"I will undertake that risk," he replied, with a seriousness not in tune with the comedy of the situation.
Into the kitchen she led him. She was moved with curiosity. Why should any man wish to see a woman knead bread?
"Sit there, Herr." And she pointed to a stool at the left of the table. The sunlight came in through the window, and an aureola appeared above her beautiful head. "Have you never seen a woman knead flour?"
"Not for many years," said Hans, thinking of his mother.
Gretchen deliberately rolled up her sleeves and began work.
There are three things which human growth never changes: the lines in the hand, the shape of the ear, and scars. The head grows, and the general features enlarge to their predestined mold, but these three things remain. Upon Gretchen's left arm, otherwise perfection, there was a white scar, rough and uneven, more like an ancient burn than anything else. Grumbach's eyes rested upon the scar and became fixed.
"Where did you get that?" he asked. He spoke with a strange calm.
"The scar? I do not remember. Grandmother says that when I was little I must have been burned."
"Gott!"
"What did you say, Herr?"
"Nothing. You can't remember? Think!" tensely now.
"What's all this nonsense about?" she cried, with a nervous laugh. "It's only a scar."
She went on with the kneading. She patted the dough into four squares. These she placed on the oven-stove. She wiped her hands on a cloth for that purpose, and sighed contentedly.
"There! It's a fine mystery, isn't it?"
"Yes." But Grumbach was shaking as with ague.
"What is the matter, Herr?" with concern.
"I grow dizzy like this sometimes. It doesn't amount to anything."
Gretchen turned down her sleeves. "You must go now, for I have other work."
"And so have I, Gretchen."
He gained the street, but how he never knew. He floated. Objects near at hand were shadowy and unusual. A great calm suddenly winged down upon him, and the world became clear, clear as his purpose, his courage, his duty. They might shoot or hang him, as they saw fit; this would not deter him. It might be truthfully said that he blundered back to the Grand Hotel. He must lay the whole matter before Carmichael. There lay his one hope. Carmichael should be his ambassador. But, God in Heaven, where should he begin? How?
The Gipsy, standing in the center of the walk, did not see Grumbach, for he was looking toward the palaces, a kind of whimsical mockery in his dark eyes. Grumbach, even more oblivious, crashed into him.
Grumbach stammered an apology, and the other replied in his peculiar dialect that no harm had been done. The jar, however, had roused Hans out of his tragic musings. There was a glint of yellow in the Gipsy's eye, a flaw in the iris. Hans gave a cry.
"You? I find you at this moment, of all others?"
The Gipsy retreated. "I do not know you. It is a mistake."
"But I know you," whispered Hans. "And you will know me when I tell you that I am the gardener's boy you ruined some sixteen years ago!"
CHAPTER XIX
DISCLOSURES
The office of the American consulate in the Adlergasse ran from the front to the rear of the building. Carmichael's desk overlooked the street. But whenever a flying dream came to him he was wont to take his pipe to the chair by the rear window, whence he could view the lofty crests of the Jugendheit mountains. Directly below this window and running parallel with it was the Biergarten of the Black Eagle.
It is a quiet tonic to the mind to look off, to gaze at sunlit, cloud-embraced mountain peaks, Walter Pater to the contrary. Carmichael's mind that morning needed quiet, and so he came to this window; and with a smoldering pipe let himself to dreams. He was still in the uniform of the royal hunt, a meet having taken place that morning. He saw darling faces in the rugged outlines of the mountains, in the white clouds billowing across, in the patches of dazzling blue in between. Such is the fancy of a man in love!
His letter of resignation was on its way, but it would be in November before he heard definitely from the department. By that time the great snows would have blanketed the earth, and the nadir of his discontent would be reached. But what to do till that time? He could ride for some weeks, but riding without companionship was rather a lonesome affair. His own defiance of the chancellor had erected an impassable barrier between her highness and himself. They would watch him now, evade him, put small obstacles in his path, obstacles against which he could enter no reasonable complaint. A withered leaf, a glove, and a fan; these represented the sum of his romance.
Two figures moved in the garden beneath. At first he gave no attention to them. But when the two heads came together swiftly, and then separated, both smiling, he realized that he had witnessed a kiss. Ah, here was the opportunity; and, by the Lord Harry, he would not let it slip. If this fellow meant wrongly toward Gretchen—and how could he mean else?—he, Carmichael, would take the matter boldly in his hands to do some caning. He laughed. Here would be another souvenir; to have caned—
He jumped to his feet, dropped his pipe on the sill of the window, and made for his hat and sword-cane. The clerk went on with his writing. Nothing the consul did these days either alarmed or distracted him.
To gain the garden Carmichael would have to pass through the tavern. The first person he encountered was Colonel von Wallenstein. The sight of this gentleman changed his plans for the moment. He had a presentiment that this would became rather a complicated affair. He waited. Wallenstein spoke to Fräu Bauer, who answered him with cold civility. She heartily despised this fine officer. Wallenstein twirled his mustache, laughed and went into the garden. Carmichael was in a quandary. What should he do?
Neither Gretchen nor the vintner saw Wallenstein, who remained quietly by the door. He watched them with an evil smile. He would teach this pretty fellow a lesson. After some deliberation he walked lightly toward the lovers. They did not hear him till he was almost upon them.
Gretchen colored and the vintner flushed, the one with dismay and the other with anger.
"A charming idyl!"
"Leave us, Gretchen," said the vintner, with a deceiving gentleness.
Gretchen started reluctantly down the path, her glance bravely before her. She knew that Wallenstein would not move; so she determined to go round him. She was not afraid to leave her vintner alone with this officer. But she miscalculated the colonel's reckless audacity. As she stepped off the path to go round him he grasped her rudely and kissed her on the cheek. She screamed as much in surprise as in anger.
And this scream brought Carmichael upon the scene. He was witness to the second kiss. He saw the vintner run forward and dash his fist into the soldier's face. Wallenstein, to whom such an assault was unexpected, fell back, hurt and blinded. The vintner, active as a cat, saw Carmichael coming on a run. He darted toward him, and before Carmichael could prevent him, dragged the sword-cane away. The blade, thin and pliant, flashed. And none too soon. The colonel had already drawn his saber.
"Save him!" Gretchen wrung her hands.
The two blades met spitefully, and there were method and science on both sides. But the sword-cane was no match for the broad, heavy saber. Half a dozen thrusts and parries convinced the colonel that the raging youth knew what he was doing. Down swooped the saber cuttingly. The blade of the sword-cane snapped like a pipe-stem. The vintner flung the broken part at the colonel's head. The latter dodged it and came on, and there was death's intent.
Meantime Carmichael had found a short hop-pole, and with this he took a hand in the contest. The pole was clumsy, but the tough wood was stronger than steel. He hit the saber with good-will. Back came the steel. The colonel did not care whom or what he struck at now. When Carmichael returned the compliment he swung his hop-pole as the old crusaders did their broadswords. And this made short work of the duel. The saber dropped uninjured, but the colonel's arm dangled at his side. He leaned back against the arbor, his teeth set in his lip, for he was in agony. Carmichael flung aside his primitive weapon, his anger abated none.
"You're a fine example of a soldier! Are you mad to attack a man this way? They will break you for this, or my name's not Carmichael. You couldn't leave her in peace, could you? Well, those two kisses will prove expensive."
"I shall kill you for this!"
"Bah! I have fought more times than you have years to your counting," with good Yankee spirit. "But if you think I'll waste my time in fighting a duel with you, you're up the wrong tree."
"Go to the devil!"
"Not just at present; there's too much for me to do. But this is my advice to you: apply for a leave of absence and take the waters of Wiesbaden. They are good for choleric dispositions. Now, I return the compliment: go to the devil yourself, only choose a route that will not cross mine. That's all!"
Gretchen and the vintner had vanished. Carmichael agreed that it was the best thing for them to do. The vintner was no coward, but he was discreet. Somebody might ask questions. So Carmichael returned to the consulate, equally indifferent what the colonel did or where he went. Of the vintner he thought: "The hot-headed young fool, to risk his life like that!" He would see later what he meant in regard to Gretchen. Poor little goose-girl! They would find that there was one man interested enough in her welfare to stand by her. His hands yet stung from the contact of wood against steel, and his hair was damp at the edges. This was a bit of old war-times.
"Are you hurt, Excellency?" asked the clerk solicitously.
"Hurt?"
"Yes. I heard a woman scream and ran to the window. It was a good fight. But that fellow-ach! To run away and leave you, an outsider, to fight his battle!"
"He would have been sliced in two if I hadn't come to the front. A hop-pole isn't half bad. I'll bet that lady's man has a bad arm for some time to come. As for the vintner, he had good reasons for taking to his heels."
"Good reasons?" But there was a sly look in the clerk's eyes.
"No questions, if you please. And tell no one, mind, what has taken place."
"Very well, Excellency." And quietly the clerk returned to his table of figures. But later he intended to write a letter, unsigned, to his serene highness.
Carmichael, scowling, undertook to answer his mail, but not with any remarkable brilliancy or coherency.
And in this condition of mind Grumbach found him; Grumbach, accompanied by the old clock-mender from across the way, and a Gipsy Carmichael had never seen before.
"What's up, Hans?"
"Tell your clerk to leave us," said Grumbach, his face as barren of expression as a rock.
"Something serious, eh?" Carmichael dismissed the clerk, telling him to return after the noon hour. "Now, then," he said, "what is the trouble?"
"I have already spoken to you about it," Grumbach returned. "The matter has gone badly. But I am here to ask a favor, a great favor, one that will need all your diplomacy to gain for me."
"For myself I ask nothing. A horrible blunder has been made. You will go to the grand duke and ask immunity for this Gipsy and this clock-mender, as witnesses to the disclosure which I shall make to his highness. Without this immunity my lips will be sealed for ever. As I said, I ask nothing for myself, nothing. There has been a great blunder and a great wrong, too; but God sent me here to right it. Will you do this?"
"But I must know—," began Carmichael.
"You will know everything, once you obtain this concession from the duke."
"But why don't you want immunity for yourself?"
"There must be some one for the duke to punish," heroically; "otherwise he will refuse."
"Still, suppose I bargain for you, too?"
"When you tell him my name is Breunner there will be no bargaining."
"What has this clock-mender to do with the case?"
"He is Count von Arnsberg."
"By George! And this Gipsy?"
"The man who bribed me. Arnsberg is an innocent man; but this has to be proved, and you are going to help us prove it."
All this was in English; the Gipsy and the former chancellor understood little or nothing.
"I will do what I can, Hans, and I will let you know the result after dinner to-night."
"That will be enough. But unless he concedes, do not tell him our names. That would be ruin and nothing gained."
"You have me a bit dazed," Carmichael admitted. "I ought to know what this blunder is, to have something to stand on."
Grumbach shook his head. "Later every question will be answered. And remember, at this interview Herbeck must not be present. It will have to be broken to him gently."
"Very well; I promise to see his highness this afternoon."
Grumbach translated the substance of this dialogue to his companions. They approved. The three of them solemnly trooped out, leaving Carmichael bewildered. Alone, his mind searched a thousand channels, but these were blind and led nowhere. Blunder, wrong? What did Grumbach mean by that? What kind of a blunder, and who was innocently wronged? No use! And while he was thus racking his mind he heard steps on the stairs. These steps were hurried. The door above shut noisily.
"By George! I'll attend to that this minute. We'll see what stuff this yellow-haired boy is made of."
He mounted the stairs without sound. He grasped the handle of the door, boldly pushed it open, and entered, closing the door and placing his back against it.
The instant he saw the intruder the vintner snatched a pistol from the drawer in the table and leveled it at Carmichael.
"Surely your majesty will not shoot an old friend?"
"Surely your Majesty will not shoot an old friend?"
CHAPTER XX
THE KING
The vintner slowly lowered the pistol till it touched the table; then he released it.
"That is better, your Majesty."
"Why do you call me that?"
"Certainly I do not utter it as a compliment," retorted Carmichael dryly.
"You speak positively."
"With absolute authority on the subject, sire. Your face was familiar, but I failed at first to place it rightly. It was only after you had duped me into going after the veiled lady that I had any real suspicion. You are Frederick Leopold of Jugeudheit."
"I shall not deny it further," proudly. "And take care how you speak to me, since I admit my identity."
"Oho!" Carmichael gave rein to his laughter. "This is Ehrenstein; here I shall talk to you as I please."
The king reddened, and his hand closed again over the pistol.
"I have saved your majesty twice from death. You force me to recall it to your mind."
The king had the grace to lower his eyes.
"The first time was at Bonn. Don't you recollect the day when an American took you out of the Rhine, an American who did not trouble himself to come round and ask for your thanks, who, in truth, did not learn till days after what an important person you were, or were going to be?" There was a bite in every word, for Carmichael felt that he had been ill-treated.
"For that moment, Herr, I thank you."
"And for that in the garden below?"
"For that also. Now, why are you here? You have not come for the purpose of recalling these two disagreeable incidents to my mind."
"No." Carmichael went over to the table, his jaws set and no kindly spirit in his eyes. "No, I have another purpose." He bent over the table, and with his face close to that of the king, "I demand to know what your intentions are toward that friendless goose-girl."
"And what is that to you?" said the king, the smoke of anger in his eyes.
"It is this much: if you have acted toward her otherwise than honorably—Well!"
"Go on; you interest me!"
"Well, I promise to break every bone in your kingly body. In this room it is man to man; I recognize no king, only the physical being."
The king pushed aside the table, furious. No living being had ever spoken to him like that before. He swung the flat of his hand toward Carmichael's face. The latter caught the hand by the wrist and bore down upon it. The king was no weakling. There was a struggle, and Carmichael found himself well occupied for a time. But his age and build were in his favor, and presently he jammed the king to the wall and pinioned his arms.
"There! Will you be patient for a moment?"
"You shall die for this insult!" said the king, as quietly as his hard breathing would allow. He saw flashes of red between his face and the other's.
"I have heard that before. But how?" banteringly.
"I will waive my crown; man to man!"
"Sword-sticks, sabers or hop-poles? Come," savagely, "what do you mean by the goose-girl?"
So intent on the struggle were they that neither heard the door open and close.
"Yes, my dear nephew; what do you mean by Gretchen?"
Carmichael released the king, and with feline quickness stooped and secured the pistol which had fallen to the floor. Not sure of the new arrival's purpose, he backed to the wall. He knew the voice and he recognized its owner.
"Put it in your pocket, Mr. Carmichael. And let us finish this discussion in English, since there are many ears about the place."
"His royal highness?" murmured the king.
"Yes, sire! True to life!"
Carmichael dropped the pistol into a pocket, and the king smoothed down his crumpled sleeves.
"A fine comedy!" cried Herr Ludwig jovially, folding his arms over his deep chest. "A rollicking adventure! Where's the story-book to match it? A kingdom, working in the dark, headless; fine reading for these sneaking journalists! Thunder and blazes!" with an amiability which had behind it a good leaven of despair. "Well, nephew, you have not as yet answered either Mr. Carmichael's question or my own. What do you mean by Gretchen?"
"I love her," nobly. "And well for you, my uncle, that you come as you do. I would have married her! Wrong her? What was a crown to me who, till now, have never worn one save in speech? You have been the king."
"Bodies must have heads, kingdoms must have kings. I have tried an experiment, and this is the result. I wanted you to be a man, a human man; I wanted you to grow up unfettered by power; I wanted you to mingle with peoples, here and there, so, when you became their head physician, you could ably minister to their political diseases. And all this fine ambition tumbles down before the wooden shoes of a pretty goose-girl. Nothing makes so good a philosopher as a series of blunders and mistakes. I am beaten; I admit it. I did my best to save you from this tangle; but it was written that you should put your foot in it. But on top of this you have made a greater mistake than you dream of, nephew. The Princess Hildegarde is as fine a woman as ever your Gretchen. Mr. Carmichael will agree to that," maliciously.
Carmichael gave no sign that he understood; but there was no mistaking the prince regent's inference, however. The recipient of this compliment stubbornly refused to give the prince the satisfaction of seeing how neatly the barb had gone home.
"But, Mr. Carmichael, what is your interest in Gretchen?"
Carmichael trembled with joy. Here was an opening for a double shot. "My interest in her is better than yours, for I have not asked her to become a king's mistress."
His royal highness bit his lip.
"Uncle!" cried the king, horrified at this revelation.
"Mr. Carmichael evidently has applied his ear to some keyhole."
"No, thank you! The window was open. My clerk heard you plainly."
"Uncle, is this damnable thing true?"
"Yes. What would you? You were determined to make a fool of yourself. But rest easy. She is ignorant where this offer came from, and, moreover, she spurned it, as Mr. Carmichael's clerk will affirm. Oh, Gretchen is a fine little woman, and I would to God she was of your station!" And the mask fell from the regent's face, leaving it bitter and careworn. "Our presence is known in Dreiberg; it has been known for three days at least. And in coming up here I had another errand. Oh, I haven't forgotten it. In the street there are at least ten soldiers under the sub-chief of the police; rather a curious conjunction."
The king turned white. So it had come at last!
Carmichael ran to the rear window. He shrugged. "There's half a dozen in the garden, too."
"Is there any way to the roofs?"
"None that would serve you."
"Mr. Carmichael," said the king, offering his hand, his handsome face kindly and without rancor, "I should be an ungrateful wretch if I did not ask your full pardon. I am indebted to you twice for my life, little as it amounts to. And in my kingdom you will always be welcome. Will you accept my hand, as one man to another?"
"With happiness, your Majesty. And I ask that you pardon my own hasty words."
"Thank you."
"He is only young," sighed Ludwig.
The king emptied the drawer, put the contents in his pack, tied the strings, and put it under his arm.
"What are you going to do?" asked the uncle, vaguely perturbed.
"I am going down to the soldiers. I am no longer a vintner, I am a king!" And he said this in a manner truly royal.
"Gott!" burst from the prince regent. "This boy has marrow in his bones, after all!"
"As you will find, dear uncle, the day after the coronation. You will, of course, go down to them with me?"
"As I am your uncle! But the incarceration will not be long," Ludwig grumbled. "There are ten thousand troops on the other side of the passes, and they have been there ever since I learned that you had gone a-wooing."
"Ten thousand? Well, they shall stay there," said the king determinedly. "I shall not begin my reign with war. I am in the wrong; I had no business to be here. Technically I have broken the treaty, though not in spirit."
"What will you do?"
"Tell the duke the truth. He will not dare go far."
"He will be a good politician, too," said Ludwig, with a smile of approval at Carmichael. "No, boy, there will be no war. And yet I was prepared for it; nor was I wrong in doing so. Already, but for Herbeck, there would be plenty of fighting in the passes. Ach! Could you but see the princess!"
"I have seen her," replied the king. "Heaven would have been kinder had I seen her months ago."
"Say to his serene highness, then, that you are willing to marry her."
"I'm afraid you do not understand, uncle," the king replied sadly. "I have the supreme happiness to love and to be loved. Of that nothing can rob me. And for some time to come, uncle mine, I shall treasure that happiness."
"And the little Gretchen?"
"Yes, yes! I have been a scoundrel." And the king's eyes grew moist. "You are happy, Mr. Carmichael; you have no crown to weigh against your love."
"Has he not?" mocked Ludwig.
"That, uncle, is neither kind nor gallant."
And from that moment Carmichael's heart warmed toward the young man, whose sorrow was greater than his own. For the king was giving up the woman who loved him, while Carmichael was only giving up the woman he loved, which is a distinction.
"I ask Mr. Carmichael's pardon," said Prince Ludwig frankly. "But my temper has been sadly tried. Will you grant me a favor?"
"If it is in my power," said Carmichael.
"Go at once to our embassy and notify them what has taken place."
"I will do that at once. If only I could find some way for you to escape!"
"There is none," said the king. "Come, uncle; let us see what is going on down-stairs."
Carmichael followed them down.
"There they are, men!" cried the sub-chief. "You are under arrest!"
I am the king of Jugendheit," calmly announced Frederick Leopold. "Will you subject me to public arrest?"
"And I," said the uncle, "am Ludwig, prince regent. Let us go to prison as quickly as possible, blockheads!"
The sub-chief laughed uproariously, and even the disciplined soldiers smiled. The king of Jugendheit and the prince regent! This was a good joke, indeed!
"Your majesty and your royal highness," said the sub-chief, his eyes twinkling, "will do me, a poor sub-chief of the police, the honor of accompanying me to the Stein-schloss."
"Lead on, lead on!" cried Ludwig. "But wait! I forgot. There can be no harm in asking why we are arrested."
"You are accused of being military spies from Jugendheit. That is sufficient for the present."
"Frederick, they do not believe us. So much the better!" Ludwig pursed his lips into a whistle.
"May I retain this bundle?" inquired the king.
"Yes. I know what is in it. Forward, march!"
The soldiers formed into a square, and in the center the prisoners were placed. Carmichael made as though to protest, but Prince Ludwig signed for him to be silent.
"Remember!" he said.
The king looked in vain for Gretchen. Then he beckoned to Carmichael, and whispered brokenly: "If you see her, do not tell her what has happened. Better to let her think that I have gone. And she will see nothing in the arrest of the king of Jugendheit."
"I promise."
The troop marched along the street, followed by many curious ones, and many heads popped in and out of the gabled windows. Carmichael watched them till they veered round a corner, and then he returned to the consulate. There he left a note for the clerk, telling him that he would not be in the office again that day. Directly after, he hurried off to the Jugendheit embassy.
An hour later Gretchen appeared before Fräu Bauer. Gretchen had gone home immediately after the termination of the fight in the garden. It had been the will of her lord and master for her to remain at home throughout the day; but this she could not do. She was worried.
"He was not hurt, Fräu?" she asked timidly.
"Oh, no! The two of them gave themselves up readily. They are snug in the Stein-schloss by this time."
"The Stein-schloss!" Gretchen blanched. "Holy Mother, what has happened?"
"Why, your vintner and Herr Ludwig were arrested an hour ago, accused of being spies from Jugendheit."
"It is a lie!" cried Gretchen hollowly. She groped blindly for the door.
"Where are you going, Gretchen?" Fräu Bauer inquired anxiously.
"To her highness! She will save him!"
Her highness was dreaming. She had fallen into this habit of late. A flame in the fireplace, a cloud in the sky, a dash of rain on the window, all these drew her fancy. What the heart wishes the mind will dream. Sunshine was without, clear, brilliant; shadow was within, mellow, nebulous. But to-day her dream was short. A maid of honor announced that the young woman Gretchen sought her presence.
"Admit her. She will be a tonic," said Hildegarde.
Gretchen appeared, red-eyed and disheveled. Instantly she flung herself at the feet of the princess.
"Why, Gretchen!"
"They will not let me see him, Highness!" Gretchen choked.
"What has happened, child?"
"They have arrested him as a spy from Jugendheit, and he is innocent. Save him, Highness!"
"How can I save him?"
"He is not a spy."
"That must be proved, Gretchen. I can not go to the Stein-schloss and order them to liberate him." She lifted Gretchen to her feet.
"I have been there, and they will not let me see him. I love him so!"
"I can arrange that for you. I will go with you myself to the prison."
"Thanks, Highness, thanks!" Gretchen was hysterical.
The Stein-schloss had been the feudal keep; now it served as the city prison. Its grim gray stones were battle-scarred and time-worn; a place of deep dungeons, huge bolts and bars, and narrow slits in the stone for windows. The prison was both civil and military, but was patrolled and sentineled by soldiers. The king and his uncle had been given adjoining cells on the ground floor. These cells were dry, and light entered from the modern windows in the wall of the corridor. The princess and her protégée were admitted without objection. The sergeant in charge of that floor even permitted them to go into the corridor unattended.
Voices.
"Hush!" whispered her highness, pressing Gretchen's arm.
"Ach! Wail, dear nephew, beat your hands upon the bars, curse, waste your breath on stone. Did I not warn you against this very thing when you proposed this mad junket? Well, there are two of us. A fine scandal! They will laugh at us for months to come."
"Woe to the duke for this affront!"
Gretchen started to speak, but the princess quickly put her hand over the goose-girl's mouth.
"Ha! So war is gathering in your veins?"
"I will have revenge for this!"
"Good! Bang—bang! Slash and cut! War is a great invention—on paper. Come, my boy; you were sensible enough when they brought us here. Control yourself. Be a king in all the word implies. For my part, I begin to see."
"And what do you see?"
"I see that the duke knows who we are, even if his police do not. He will keep us here a day or two, and then magnanimously liberate us with profuse apologies. We shall be escorted to the frontier with honors. His highness loves a jest too well to let this chance escape. Besides, I see in the glass the fine Italian hand of Herbeck. I have always heard that he was a great statesman. Swallow your wrath, even if your tongue goes down with it."
"Gretchen, Gretchen!" said the king.
Gretchen could stand it no longer. She wrenched herself free from the grasp of the princess, who, with pitying heart, understood all now. Poor unhappy Gretchen!
"Here I am, Leopold!" the goose-girl cried, pressing her body against the bars and thrusting her hands through them.
"The devil!" murmured the man in the other cell.
"You here, Gretchen?" The king covered her hands with passionate kisses.
"Yes, yes! They have made a dreadful mistake. You are no spy from Jugendheit."
"No, Gretchen," said the voice from the next cell. "He is far worse than that. He is the king, Gretchen, the king."
"Uncle!" in anguish.
"Let us have it over with," replied Prince Ludwig sadly.
"The king?" Gretchen laughed shrilly. "What jest is this, Leopold?"
The king, still holding her hands, looked down.
"Leopold?" plaintively.
Still he did not speak, still he averted his head. But God knew that his heart was on the rack.
The princess, remaining in the background, not daring to interfere, felt the smart of tears in her eyes. Ah, the poor tender little goose-girl! The pity of it! This king was a scoundrel.
"Leo, look at me! You are laughing! Why, did we not work together in the vineyards, and did we not plan for the future? Ah, yes! You are a king only to me. I see. But it is a cruel jest, Leopold. Smile at me! Say something!" Gretchen was hanging to the bars now; her body, held in the vise of growing terror, was almost a dead weight.
"Gretchen, forgive me!" despairingly.
"He asks me to forgive him!" dully. "For what?"
"For being a villain! Yes," his voice keen with agony. "I am the king of Jugendheit. But am I less a man for that? Ah, God help me, I have a right to love like other men! Do not doubt me, Gretchen; do not think that I played with you. I love you better than my crown, better than my honor!"
"Take care, nephew!" came Prince Ludwig's warning. "Some one else is near."
"I care not! Before all the world I would gladly proclaim it. I love her. I swear that I shall never marry, that my heart is breaking! Gretchen, Gretchen! My God, she is falling! Help her!" wildly; and he shook the bars with supernatural strength till his hands were bleeding.
But Gretchen did not answer.
CHAPTER XXI
TWIN LOCKETS
Carmichael tramped about his room, restless, uneasy, starting at sounds. Half a dozen times his cigar had gone out, and burned matches lay scattered on the floor. He was waiting for Grumbach and his confrères. Now he looked out of a window, now he spun the leaves of a book, now he sat down, got up, and tramped again. Anything but this suspense. A full day! The duel in the Biergarten; the king of Jugendheit and the prince regent in the Stein-schloss; the flight of the ambassador to the palace, more like a madman than one noted for his calm and circumspection; Gretchen carried into the palace in a dead faint, and her highness weeping; the duke in a rage and brought over only after the hardest struggle Carmichael had ever experienced. And deeper, firmer, became his belief and conviction that Grumbach's affair vitally concerned her highness. What blunder had been made? He would soon know. He welcomed the knock on his door. Grumbach came in, carrying under his arm a small bundle. He was pale but serene, like a man who had put his worldly affairs in order.
"Well, Captain, what did his Highness say?"
"Where are your companions?"
"They are waiting outside."
"The duke agrees. He will give us an audience at eight-thirty. I had a time of it!"
"Did you mention my name
"No. I went roundabout. I also obtained his promise to say nothing to Herbeck till the interview was over. Again he demurred, but his curiosity saved the day. Now, Hans, the full story."
Grumbach spread out on the bed the contents of the bundle.
"Look at these and tell me what you see, Captain."
Carmichael inspected the little yellow shoes. He turned them over and over in his hand. He shook out the folds of the little cloak, and the locket fell on the bed.
"When did you get this?" he cried excitedly. "It is her highness'!"
"So it is, Captain; but I have carried it about me all these years."
"What?"
"Yes, Captain. Count von Herbeck is a great statesman, but he made a terrible mistake this time. Listen. As sure as we are in this room together, I believe that she whom we call the princess is not the daughter of the grand duke."
Carmichael sat down on the edge of the bed, numb and without any clear idea where he was. From the stony look on his face, Grumbach might have carried the head of Medusa in his hand. The blood beat into his head with many strange noises. But by and by the world became clearer and brighter till all things took on the rosal tint of dawn. Free! If she was not a princess, she was free, free!
The duke allowed the quartet to remain standing for some time. He strode up and down before them, his eyes straining at the floor, his hands behind his back. He was in fatigue-dress, and only the star of Ehrenstein glittered on his breast. He was never without this order. All at once he whirled round, and as a sailor plunges the lead into the sea, so he plumbed the very deeps of their eyes as if he would see beforehand what strange things were at work in their souls. "I do not recognize any of these persons," he said to Carmichael.
"Your highness does not recognize me, then?" asked the clock-mender.
"Come closer," commanded the duke. The clock-mender obeyed. "Take off those spectacles." The duke scanned the features, and over his own came the dawn of recollection. "Your eyes, your nose—Arnsberg, here and alive? Oh, this is too good to be true!" The duke reached out toward the bell, but Carmichael interposed.
"Your highness will remember," he warned.
"Ha! So you have trapped me blindly? I begin to understand. Who is this fellow Grumbach? Did I offer immunity to him?"
"I am Hans Breunner, Highness, and I ask for nothing."
"Breunner? Breunner? Hans Breunner, brother of Hermann, and you put yourself into my hands?" The tone developed into a suppressed roar. The duke took hold of Hans by the shoulders and drew him close. "You dog! So you ask for nothing? It shall be given to you. To-morrow morning I shall have you shot! Hans Breunner! God is good to me this night! Thanks, Herr Carmichael, a thousand thanks! And I need not ask who that damnable scoundrel is who has the black face and heart of a Gipsy. When I recollect what I have suffered at your hands! If only the late king were here, my joy would be complete!"
"Your Highness," said Von Arnsberg quietly, "all I have left in the world are these two withered hands, and may God cut them off if they ever wronged you in any act. I am innocent. Those letters purported to have been written by me were forgeries. I could not prove this, so I have been outlawed, with the sentence of death over my head. But to-night I shall leave this palace a free man, and you shall ask pardon for the wrong you have done me."
There was no fear in the voice; there was nothing but confidence. The duke glared at the speaker somberly, recalling what Herbeck had often said.
"What you say still remains to be proved. Now, what is at the bottom of all this?" was the demand. "You men have not obtained this interview for the sake of affirming your innocence. Herr Carmichael, here, declared to me on honor that you were in possession of a great secret. Out with it, without any more useless recrimination."
Hans replied not in words but in actions. He crossed the room to the duke's desk and spread out his treasures under the flickering candlelight. The duke, with a cry of terror, sprang toward the secret drawer. His first thought was that the shoes and cloak, upon which only his eyes ever rested now, had been stolen. He straightened. Nothing was missing. He glanced from face to face, from the articles on the desk to those in the drawer. He was overwhelmed. But he steadied himself; it was no moment for physical weakness. Slowly, ignoring every one, he came back to the desk and fingered the locket. Just then it was exceedingly quiet in the room, save that each man heard the quick breathing of his neighbor. The duke opened the locket, looked long and steadfastly at the portrait, and shut it. Then he went to the drawer again and returned with the counterparts. He laid them side by side. The likeness was perfect in all details.
"Carmichael," he said, "will you please help me? My eyes are growing old. Do I see these things, or do I not? And if I do, which is mine, and what does this signify?" The tremor in his voice was audible.
Grumbach answered. "This, Highness. I took these from the little princess with my own hands. They have never been out of my keeping. Those you have I know nothing about."
The duke rubbed his eyes. "My daughter?"
"The Princess Hildegarde is not your daughter, Highness," said Hans solemnly.
"Gott!" The duke smote the desk in despair, a despair which wrung the hearts of those who witnessed it. "Herbeck! I must send for Herbeck!"
"Not yet, Highness; later," Grumbach said.
"But if not Hildegarde—I believe I must be growing mad!"
"Patience, your Highness!" said Carmichael.
"Patience!" wearily. "You say patience when my heart is dying inside my breast? Patience? Who, then, is this woman I have called my child?"
"God knows, Highness!" Hans stood bowed before this parental agony.
"But what proof have you that she is not? What proof, I say?"
"Would there be two lockets, Highness?"
"More proof than this will be needed. Produce it. Prolong this agony of doubt not another instant."
"Speak," said Hans to the Gipsy, who was viewing the drama with the nonchalance of a spectator rather than a participant.
"Highness," said the Gipsy, bowing, "he speaks truly. He came with us. For fear that the little highness might be recognized as we traveled, we changed her clothes. He took them, together with the locket. One day the soldiers appeared in the distance. We all fled. We lost the little highness, and none of us ever knew what became of her. She wore the costume of my own children."
"We shall produce that in time," said Von Arnsberg.
"Damnable wretch!" said the duke, addressing the Gipsy.
The other shrugged. He had been promised immunity; that was all he cared about, unless it was the bag of silver and gold this old clock-mender had given him a few hours gone.
"I am summoning her highness," said the duke, as he struck the bell.
"And, Highness," added Grumbach, "despatch some one for Gretchen, who lives at number forty the Krumerweg."
"The goose-girl? What does she know? Ah, I remember. She is even now with her highness. I shall send for them both."
Gretchen? Carmichael's bewilderment increased. What place had the goose-girl in this tragedy?
"Now, while we are waiting," resumed the duke, his agitation somewhat under control, "the proof, the definite proof!"
"Her highness stumbled one night," said Hans, "and fell upon the fire. I snatched her back, but not before her left arm was badly burned."
The Gipsy nodded. "I saw it, Highness."
And that was why Grumbach went to the military ball with opera-glasses! Carmichael was round-eyed. But Gretchen?
"The Princess Hildegarde has no scar upon either arm," continued Grumbach. "I have seen them. They are without a single flaw."
"More than that," reiterated the duke. "That is not enough."
They became silent. Now and then one or the other stirred. The duke never took his eyes off the door through which her highness would enter.
She came in presently, tender with mercy, an arm supporting Gretchen, who was red-eyed and white.
"You sent for us, father?"
How the word pierced the duke's heart! "Yes, my child," he answered; for it mattered not who she was or whither she had come, he had grown to love her.
"I am sorry you sent for Gretchen," said Hildegarde. "She is ill."
Gretchen sighed. To her the faces of the men were indistinct. And, besides, she was without interest, listless, drooped.
"My child, will you roll up your left sleeve?" said the duke.
"My sleeve?" Hildegarde thoughtfully looked round. Roll up her sleeve? What possessed her father?
"Do so at once."
"I can not roll up this sleeve, father," blushing and a trifle angry at so strange a request.
Hans opened his knife and laid bare her left arm. She uttered a little angry cry. "How dare you?" She tried to cover the arm.
"Let me look at it, Hildegarde," requested the duke.
To him she presented her arm, for she now understood that a serious affair was in progress. But there was neither mole nor scar upon the round and lovely arm.
"Why do you do this, father? What is the meaning?"
No one answered; no one had the heart to answer. Without waiting for the duke to bid him continue, Hans unceremoniously ripped open Gretchen's left sleeve. The ragged scar was visible to them all. And while they grouped round the astonished goose-girl they heard her highness cry out with surprise.
"What is this?" she said, pointing to the two pairs of shoes and the two cloaks. She held up the locket, the twin of which hung round her neck. "Where did these come from?"
"My child," the duke answered, unashamed of his tears, "only God knows as yet what it means; but the outward sign testifies to a strange and horrible blunder. The locket you hold in your hand was taken from you when you were an infant. The one you wear round your neck is, according to the statement of one of these men, not genuine."
"And the significance?" She grew tall, and the torn sleeve fell away from her arm.
"That what is done must be all undone. I know you to be brave. Strengthen your heart, then. I stand before you the most wretched man in all this duchy. These men affirm that I am not your father. They say that you are not my daughter."
"And that Gretchen is!" spoke Hans. His conscience was costing every one something dear.
"I?" Gretchen drew closer to Hildegarde.
The duke studied the portrait of the mother and then the faces of these two girls. Both possessed a resemblance, only it seemed now that Gretchen was nearest to the portrait and Hildegarde nearest to the doubt.
"You say she wore the costume of a Gipsy child when you lost her?" said the duke.
"Yes." Von Arnsberg took from under his coat a small bundle which he opened with shaking fingers. He had been in the Krumerweg that afternoon.
"Why, those are mine!" exclaimed Gretchen excitedly.
"You see?" said Von Arnsberg. "Would you not like to be a princess, Gretchen?"
A princess? Gretchen's heart fluttered. A princess? She saw the king shaking the bars of his cell; she heard his voice calling out his love for her. A princess? She laid her head on Hildegarde's shoulder. She was weak, and this was some dream.
"But who, then, am I?" asked Hildegarde. There was no sign of weakness here.
Again there was no answer.
"Tell what you know," said Hans to the Gipsy. "Highness, he alone knows the man who brought about all this."
"The archplotter of this damnable conspiracy?" The duke's eyes became alive, his face, his whole body. Every beat of his heart cried out for vengeance. "Who is he? Tell me! Give him to me, man, and all of you shall go free. Give him into these hands. His name!" The duke's hands worked convulsively as if they were already round the throat of this unseen, implacable enemy. He was terrible in this moment.
The Gipsy produced a letter. It had to be held carefully, as it was old and tattered. The duke read it. Beyond that it made the original offer it was worthless. The handwriting was palpably disguised. The duke flung the missive to the floor.
"Fool! Is that all you have? Tell me what you know, man, or I shall have you shot in the morning, immunity or no immunity! Quick!"
"Highness," said the Gipsy, thoroughly alarmed, "this is how it happened. My band was staying at the time in Dreiberg. We told fortunes and exhibited an Italian puppet-show. The letter came first. I was poor and sometimes desperate. I was to take her away and leave her with strange people."
"Ah!" interrupted the duke, with despairing gesture toward Grumbach, "why did you not leave us all in peace?"
"Highness, a great wrong has been done, and God brought me here to right it."
"You are a brave man," darkly.
"I am in your hands, Highness," sturdily. "In a mad moment I committed a crime. I shall abide by whatever punishment you may inflict."
"Continue," said the duke to the Gipsy.
"Well, Highness, I would not accept till I had talked personally with him. He came at last. His face was hidden and his voice muffled. But this I saw; when he gave me the first half of the money I was certain I should know him again."
"How?"
"By his little finger, Highness."
"His little finger?" Von Arnsberg repeated. The two women, large-eyed and bewildered, clung to each other's hand tensely. These were heart-breaking times. Gretchen's mind, however, absorbed nothing, neither the words nor the picture. Her thoughts revolved round one thing; if she were a princess she could be happy. But the other, from under whose feet all tangible substances seemed to be giving way, she was possessed by two thoughts which surged in her brain like combatants. If not a princess, what was she? If not a princess, she was free. She stole a swift glance at Carmichael, who seemed far removed from the heart of this black business; and had he been looking at her he would have seen the gates opening into Eden.
"What was this little finger like?" asked the duke, shuddering.
"One time it had been cut or mangled."
"The man was tall?"
"Yes, Highness."
The duke silently toyed with the little yellow shoes. Suddenly he laughed; but it was the terrible laughter of a madman. There were death and desolation in it.
"Come, all of you; you, Gretchen, and you, Hildegarde; come, Carmichael, and you, Arnsberg; all of you! Let us go and pay a visit to our good friend, Herbeck!"