"The day came. My only fear was that the country we hunted would be too flat, too easy. I was quickly reassured. It is true that there were a good many paths in the woods, quite suitable for ladies, but there were also patches of thick scrub, several streams, and here and there some tricky ditches.
"Before we started I gave Taras-Bulba half a pound of sugar soaked in whisky, and he was very lively though full of dignity.
"I won't pretend that there was not a chorus of exclamation when he appeared. The Crown Prince asked me why I didn't have him clipped.
"'Don't listen to them, old friend,' I murmured in my little steed's ear. He understood and knowingly tossed his head.
"The Grand Duke Rudolph rode up beside me. I made myself so agreeable that the poor man evidently felt encouraged and said in a low voice:
"'Then you don't regret having me for your companion, mademoiselle?'
"'How could you think so, sir?' I answered. 'This Court half suffocates me. We never have a moment to ourselves. There's room to breathe out here. We can talk.'
"'So you love Nature!' he murmured, radiant. 'How happy I am!'
"I was happy, too. I was certain that he wouldn't leave me for a second.
"The first fox was started. Nothing remarkable happened except, perhaps, when Taras-Bulba, fired by the sound of the horn, performed a polka and came down with his forelegs on the back of Adalbert's mare, almost unseating her rider. After that they all kept away from my little horse as if he'd been the plague.
"The Grand Duke of Lautenburg was riding one of those horses so beloved of the Germans, a great dark bay with hocks as big as a ham, and a back like a billiard-table. Moreover, it didn't take me long to notice that the ugly brute had a hard mouth and galloped with his head between his legs.
"My poor friend, I thought, you'll have some fun soon when you come to the ditches.
"A second and a third fox were killed easily enough. Suddenly a fourth started up between me and the Grand Duke. I caught sight of him, a long, lean animal with hardly any tail. I knew at once he was what I was after.
"'Ours!' I cried to Rudolph.
"He spurred his great brute into a gallop.
"The fox was a hundred yards ahead. Good little beast! He made straight for the thickest cover.
"Every now and then the Grand Duke turned round:
"'I'm not going too fast, am I? Can you keep up?' he asked, panting.
"'Go on! Go on!' I replied.
"And Taras-Bulba snorted as if to echo:
"'Go on! Go on!'
"Soon we were in the depths of the woods. Then I just touched my little nag's neck and gave him his head. In a moment the Grand Duke was left behind.
"I caught a glimpse of him, all red and breathless.... He was now a quarter of a verst behind me.
"I told Taras-Bulba to slow down and he did so.
"'You did give me a fright,' said the poor man as he came up. 'I thought your horse had bolted.'
"'Look out!' I cried.
"There was a stream at our feet. He got over it by the skin of his teeth. The fox, with three hounds at his heels, was running ahead in a flat meadow that sloped away from us.
"Then came more woods. I held my head down and thus escaped the scratches of the branches which were pushed aside for a moment by Taras-Bulba's head, only to close up immediately behind him. But my poor companion's face was already covered with blood. A twig carried away his eyeglass. I felt he was done. His big horse was blowing like a steam-engine.
"'Keep going,' I cried, 'the fox is tiring!' and I gave Taras-Bulba a touch of the spur.
"The little animal doesn't like liberties. He gave a tremendous bound. His rival followed painfully behind amidst a terrible noise of broken branches.
"'You're beginning to tire,' I said to myself. 'You'll come down next time.'
"'Next time' appeared in the form of a ditch fifteen feet wide and as many deep, with a half-concealed and extremely tricky edge. For a second even I asked myself whether Taras-Bulba, with the pace he had just been keeping, would manage to get over. But lo and behold! He picked himself up, the gallant little beast, and flew over like a swallow.
"Then I turned round, knowing full well what would happen.
"It did happen. Horse and rider came down in one terrific crash. The beast missed the edge with its hind legs and unceremoniously hurled its master to the ground.
"I jumped down and went up to the Grand Duke, feeling vaguely that I had gone a bit too far.
"'You haven't hurt yourself, I hope?'
"'I don't think so,' he murmured faintly. 'I was so frightened to see you go over this vile ditch.'
"Poor man! I wanted to beg his pardon.
"'Can I help you up?' I said, in some embarrassment.
"'I should be glad if you would.'
"But I tried in vain to get him on to his feet. It was then that I noticed how pale he was.
"'You've broken your right leg,' I cried.
"'Oh, I don't think so,' he said, in his gentle, disarming way. 'Nothing worse than a sprain.'
"'I tell you you've broken your leg; I know what I'm saying.'
"I pulled out my hunting-knife and slit up his boot. The leg appeared, all swollen.
"'We're in a nice fix,' I thought, 'at least six versts from the field.'
"Rudolph was silent, but looked at me out of his fine, gentle eyes. You'd have thought he was happy.
"'Thank you,' he just murmured.
"'What for?' I burst out. 'I have broken your leg and you thank me! You might at least wait until I've got you out of this mess.'
"He looked very contrite and ventured:
"'You'd better go back and send up some help.'
"'What!' I exclaimed in scorn. 'Go back without the fox, and, when I'm asked where the Grand Duke Rudolph is, tell them that I left him at the bottom of a ditch with his leg in little pieces! No, thank you, sir!'
"'As you please,' he replied faintly. 'But I don't know what you can do.'
"'You shall see.'
"His big horse was standing by, browsing placidly under Taras-Bulba's wicked little eye.
"'Come here, you brute!'
"When I got hold of him I realized I should never have the strength to get the Grand Duke into the saddle.
"'What's the good of horses like haystacks?' I cried in exasperation.
"The injured man looked at me, still wearing that perpetual air of apology which at last got on my nerves.
"'Taras-Bulba!' I called.
"The little beast came, though with a bad grace. He suspected what was going to happen.
"Rudolph of Lautenburg could not restrain a movement of apprehension.
"'You're not going to put me on that animal, are you?' he muttered. 'I'd rather stay here.'
"'Never,' I said, stamping. 'Taras-Bulba is as quiet as a lamb. Now just do what I tell you.'
"That German was a tremendous weight, but I managed to get him up and tie him firmly in the saddle with the reins.
"Then I mounted his great beast.
"You can imagine how I cursed myself for my folly as we went back. The man I wanted to hate had won my sympathy—and I'd done it myself! It only wanted Taras-Bulba's look of amazement to complete my discomfiture:
"'What on earth have I done?' he seemed to say, 'for you to give me a German to carry, while you desert me for that ugly, hairless, brown brute with hoofs the size of frying-pans?'
"You mustn't break a man's leg if you don't want to marry him. I need hardly tell you the sequel. Creatures like myself are bound by their actions only, and my wildness had committed me to something which the will of all the Kaisers in the world could not have brought about.
"There was a most sensational scene when I returned on the bay, followed by Taras-Bulba with his Grand Duke tied on to him. The hunt was stopped. They all came crowding round us. I had to tell the whole story and made a point of being as brief as possible, as one does with things of which one isn't too proud. But the injured man filled in the details. His fever made him eloquent and transformed me into a heroine. I had to put up with the congratulations of the whole Court.
"The Kaiser, who magnifies and distorts everything, cried out:
"'What a splendid girl she is—to save her fiancé's life the very first day!'
"The Empress kissed me. It's a family mania. My father was radiant.
"'My compliments to Your Majesty,' he whispered in my ear.
"I was angry, though amused, and vented my rage on Taras-Bulba, who had more whip as we went back to the palace than he's ever had since.
"I have one good quality. I like to know exactly where I stand. I realized that, largely by my own fault, I had put myself in a position from which there was no escape without one of those scandals which any princess, worthy of the name, hates more than the certainty of her own unhappiness. So I decided to acquaint my 'fiancé,' as the Court already styled him, with my conditions that very evening.
"I asked him to receive me, and he complied at once, after sending out the attendant who was arranging the cage over his leg.
"When we were alone, this is more or less what I said:
"'My action in coming here will possibly astonish you, sir. But I am, and always shall be, in the habit of doing what I think advisable without undue concern for mere decorum. Now I think it is of the highest importance than you should know this:
"'I came to Petersburg to be with my father, to witness some splendid celebrations and enjoy myself generally—not to find a husband. As regards husbands, you will do me the honour to believe that I have refused as many as there are provinces in Russia. The last was a Persian prince, who possesses a mountain in which emeralds are as plentiful as truffles in Périgord—and even larger.
"'Well, I came here, and I don't know what has come over everybody, but, apparently, I must be married. I don't put it that way to offend you. After all, sir, we hadn't set eyes on each other until three days ago.
"'However that may be, I'm practically bound to marry you. The circumstances are too strong for mere individuals like you and me. In our history there are four emperors and empresses, several crowns, and, no doubt, enormous fortunes. I am sure that Papa would fall ill if I didn't become a queen, now that he's seen there's a chance. But, above all, I have broken your leg.'
"He made an impatient movement: 'Don't speak of that.'
"'I must speak of it. I tell you frankly that it is this accident, for which I am responsible, that has constrained me to accept something which I would not allow even to be mentioned only yesterday. It is this mishap which enables me to think that my marriage will not be absolutely a political affair—a thought which is very pleasing to a girl like me.'
"'I'd rather have the other leg broken, and both arms, too,' he said in his gentle, melancholy way, 'than hear you use that terrible expression, "political affair."'
"'I'm sure you would,' I replied, unmoved. 'I agree to be your wife. But you will not misunderstand me if I make one or two trifling stipulations.'
"'Tell me, tell me,' he said with some emphasis. 'You know that everything you may ask is granted beforehand.'
"'Oh! Oh!' I laughed. 'You may find in a minute that you've been just a little hasty. Well, dear friend' (I laid some stress on that word), 'from my childhood I have always enjoyed the most perfect liberty, and I don't intend to be deprived of it when I marry. It must be clearly understood that nothing is to be changed, nothing, you understand.'
"'How could you think it of me!'
"'Don't let us have any misunderstanding as to the meaning of words,' I said. 'Please realize that it is not a child, nor yet a woman, who is speaking, and understand that my stipulation, the expression of an unshakable resolve, is that our union is to be a relation of friendship, excluding everything else.'
"I don't know if I should ever have dared to continue my shocking little speech if his masculine stupidity had not shown me how.
"'You're in love with some one else!' he said in a hoarse voice.
"'You forget yourself, and please don't be foolish,' I replied gently. 'I will condescend to tell you that I love no one, unless, perhaps—for the word "love" is a jack-of all-trades—my native land, hunting, flowers, to be left alone and two or three other things, which really should not arouse a jealousy only to be regretted in a man of intelligence. Are you satisfied?'
"He smiled wanly.
"'This,' I went on, 'is our little private compact. The chanceries will no doubt attend to the public formalities—and everything else. I attach no importance to them. Nor do you, I hope. I need not say that you will always find in me a consort worthy of yourself, equal to any situation that may arise, and capable, if God so wills it, of bearing worthily that famous crown of Würtemberg. Here's my hand on it.'
"He took it and kissed it fervently. A great joy had banished the trouble in his eyes. I had never expected him to accept his fate so quietly. Then I suddenly grasped his reasoning: 'I shall be so good, so tender and thoughtful to her that she must be won over in the end, though I cannot now tell how far off that end may be.'
"There was so much unaffected pathos in the poor man's delusions that I couldn't help being rather touched. We parted the best friends in the world.
"As I went back to my room I heard a terrible uproar in the Great Court. It was Taras-Bulba, who had got bored with his stall, kicked open the stable-door, knocked down an ostler and two sentries, and was neighing fiercely to me from below. It was a much more difficult matter to get him quiet than to deal with the Grand Duke Rudolph.
"After I became the Grand Duchess of Lautenburg-Detmold in the autumn of 1909, my first concern was to set about the improvements required to make this place reasonably comfortable. The gardens had been allowed to run riot, and as for the palace, it was crammed with horrors that even a negro chief would not have tolerated.
"I soon revolutionized all that. Melusine, who came in the summer of 1910, would tell you that I spent my time then very much as I do now, except that when I felt particularly low-spirited I used to escape to Russia to relieve my feelings.
"The person who did change was the Grand Duke Rudolph. Not that he ever ceased to treat me with the most unwearying attention, poor man! But after a year, when he had quite realized that his innocent little scheme was not working, and never would work, and that I should never be anything more to him than I had said, he became melancholy and spent most of his time indoors, Henceforth he was known at Lautenburg as 'Rudolph the Silent.'
"Worse than that, he was out of favour with the Kaiser. William II. likes to think himself a kind of Louis XIV. He does not like German princes who don't haunt Berlin and accuses them of separatism. Now Rudolph has ceased to go to Court altogether.
"He disliked seeing anybody, even at Lautenburg. The 7th Hussars had to get on as best they could without their colonel. He spent half his day, and nights in the library, studying works on mineralogy, his favourite science. It was, in fact, occupying his whole time when Baron von Boose came upon the scene.
"Melusine knew this Boose, the mention of whose name made you start. There never was a worse bridge-player—was there, Melusine? He only knew ordinary bridge. I had asked the Grand Duke to lend him to us to make a fourth, but he was so stupid and disagreeable that I was soon only too glad to send him back to his beloved books.
"He was very learned. That much at least must be said for him. For at thirty-two, though only a lieutenant in the Engineers, he was professor of topography at the Kriegs Academie. His book the 'Geotectonics of the Hanoverian Plain,' is a standard European work. At Berlin one day he assaulted a major who had asserted that there were rocks of quaternary origin in the Harz. Rudolph admired his work and went before the court-martial to give evidence on his behalf. Thanks largely to his intervention, Boose got off with sixty days' solitary confinement in a fortress. When his time was up my husband secured his appointment to the 3rd Battalion of Engineers at Lautenburg.
"In the spring of 1911 I went to Russia, to spend Easter with Papa. It was while I was there that I received a letter, which I ought to have shown you, from the Grand Duke. He told me that the Kaiser had summoned him to Berlin, and asked him whether he was prepared to use his scientific knowledge in the service of the Empire. Exploration had just proved the existence of immense mineral wealth in the Cameroons. It was necessary to confirm this discovery, and also ascertain as discreetly as possible the mineral resources of the neighbouring territories, so that the question of Germany's interest in annexing them might be considered. I'm sorry to say, my friend, that the territories in question form that part of the Congo which France ceded to Germany by the treaty of 1912.
"So Rudolph was going off to Africa with Boose. With a sorry pretence of indifference he made his excuses for leaving Europe without waiting for my return, pleading the urgency of the imperial orders. He added that if he allowed himself to take such a course, it was only because he was certain that his absence would make no difference to the normal course of my existence. In that my poor friend was woefully wrong.
"Letters from him reached me from Paris, Bordeaux, and Saint-Louis in Senegal. From the Congo itself came the two or three which I have shown you. Then came an interval, rather a long interval, and one day my brother-in-law, Frederick-Augustus, arrived at Lautenburg, bringing the sad news that the Grand Duke had had sunstroke, and died at Sangha, almost at the end of his journey. My name had been the last on his lips.
"Melusine will tell you how I mourned for Rudolph, and not indeed as I should mourn for Taras-Bulba, were he to die tomorrow, for I have never done that horse a wrong. But though I was always frank and loyal to Rudolph, I could not get rid of the feeling that in some way I was to blame for his death.
"As a funeral was impossible, a magnificent service was held in memory of him who rests under the sun-baked clay of Africa. The Emperor and Empress and all the German princes were present. The red Hussars of Lautenburg, with crêpe on their swords, rendered the last honours, and their uniforms during the service made me think sadly of the poor red Hussar of the Peterhof who danced so badly but was so kind.
"Every sentence of my story, my friend, has been a mark of my confidence in you. You shall now have clear proof in every word that follows.
"You know my little orderly officer, Hagen, and have no particular liking for him. I can't say whether devotion or love is his ruling passion. Devotion enables one to repose absolute trust in another, but love makes one alive to another's interests in a way that is impossible for oneself.
"Six months after Rudolph died neither I nor Melusine had the slightest suspicion of what was to follow. I was occupied exclusively with my duties as sovereign and surprised myself with my punctiliousness in carrying them out. I presided at the Diet and council meetings. I signed decrees, summoned the tribunals, appointed officials—to the satisfaction of all concerned, I think. The town of Lautenburg was never more prosperous than under my rule.
"Hagen, on the other hand, was uneasy. I watched him grow more morose every day. After some time, hating the company of a face as long as a fiddle, I called him up and told him to explain himself or go on leave. He fell at my feet.
"'How could I be anything else,' he sobbed, 'when you are going to be another's?'
"He was very much surprised when I told him I didn't know what he meant.
"'How can that be,' he muttered, 'for at Berlin, and even here, they talk of nothing but your approaching marriage to Duke Frederick-Augustus?'
"It was too much this time! The woman I pride myself on being can be married once, by surprise. But twice!
"When Hagen, who was in the habit of going to Berlin several times a month, had told me the story, I realized that something serious was afoot. I had a clearer understanding of affairs next morning, when I received a letter from my father. It was all too plain that he had been carefully coached, taken on his weak side—his desire to see his daughter a queen.
"I hate worrying you with dynastic details, but I must prepare you for what follows. I'll make them as short as possible. Why had I become Grand Duchess of Lautenburg? In order that I might realize Papa's ambition and become Queen of Würtemberg on the death of King Albert. The Lautenburg succession is not subject to the Salic Law, so that I still remained Grand Duchess on Rudolph's death. On the other hand, the succession to the throne of Würtemberg is governed by that law. So we have this situation: only a Grand Duke of Lautenburg can mount the throne of Würtemberg. Therefore, before I could be Queen of Würtemberg I must first marry Duke Frederick-Augustus and thereby make him the Grand Duke of Lautenburg-Detmold.
"The sole object of Papa's letter was to reconcile me to that marriage.
"I'm afraid that in my reply, which was exceedingly prompt, I rather forgot the respect a daughter owes her father, whatever he does.
"But you can realize how exasperated I was. Was I to be forced to marry every German prince in turn? What a prospect for one who had never wanted to marry at all!
"About a week passed, and then I received a letter from the Empress. I've no doubt she called me her 'dear child,' and overwhelmed me with friendly flattery, but there was no mistake about the firm invitation to go to Berlin with which that letter concluded....
"You can imagine that if I submitted it was less from a sense of obedience than from the desire to fathom any plot that was being hatched at Court for my benefit.
"I took Melusine and Hagen with me. The Empress received me with considerable confusion as I had anticipated, and her explanation was characteristic. Need I say what it was?
To obey is the glory and end of her state.
"Love! Obey! What was the good of my protesting that her reasoning was false; that I had never loved any one, and that in any case I hadn't married to obey the first time. Poor Rudolph wasn't there to produce our little compact which absolved me from those very obligations. And, anyhow, what was the good of arguing with a worthy dame who was merely repeating her lesson?
"I listened, my lips pressed together, and said nothing. She got thoroughly muddled, and when she had finished I asked:
"'May I ask your Majesty what date has been fixed for my marriage with the Grand Duke Frederick-Augustus?'
"She protested that the Kaiser had never had any idea of precipitating matters, and that no date had been settled.
"'Only the principle!' I said.
"She didn't answer.
"I went back to my room, calm and collected.
"'I leave tonight for Astrakhan,' I said to Melusine and Hagen, who were anxiously awaiting my return. 'Have my things packed. Those who love me can follow me.'
"Hagen gave me my letters, which had been sent on from Lautenburg. There were five or six, and one had a Russian stamp. I recognized Papa's writing.
"What excellent use they had made of the fact that I had been unsuspecting! I found out later that the letter I had written to him a fortnight earlier had been forestalled by a special envoy from the Kaiser. It hadn't taken much diplomacy to win over my father. The famous crown of Würtemberg had once more played its part. Gently but firmly he told me his wishes. 'Marry Frederick-Augustus, or ...'
"I didn't read on but tore up the letter into little pieces. Then and there I wrote out a telegram—some thirty words of passionate pleading and threats—to the Tumene Prince.
"You remember, Melusine, how we suspected postal censorship at Berlin, and how you took the train and sent off the telegram from Köpenick.
"When you had gone my feelings overcame me, and I burst into tears—tears of rage and hatred. I can still see myself in that awful Berlin room. Hagen was sobbing at my feet. He had taken my hands, and even my arms—this is absolutely true—and was covering them with tears and kisses. 'I will go with you, I shall follow you, where and when you will,' he murmured. When all's said and done I am proud to think that it only wanted a word from me to make a Prussian officer throw up his profession and abjure his native land.
"But the touch of that moustache on my arm quickly brought me back to a sense of reality. I remembered Louisa of Saxony and all the low lackeys who have made money out of their notoriety as the lovers of queens. I pushed the innocent Hagen away and recovered my self-possession.
"I didn't go out at all during the two days while I was waiting for the reply to my telegram. Then it came, the little blue slip. You were looking hard at me, Melusine, so I smiled as I opened it. It contained these simple words:
"'I will never see my daughter until she has done her duty.'
"What a heart of flint the old Kalmuck had!
"I read it and fell to the floor like a stone.
"I'm afraid I most stop to explain matters at this point, ami, or you may find the rest incomprehensible. No doubt you are asking yourself: 'How it could ever have come about that a will like Aurora's could have yielded? What could this invisible and powerful Frederick-Augustus have done to get the Empress, Rudolph's godmother, and the Kaiser on his side?'
"I expect you read your foreign news carefully enough in 1909 to know that about that time the Eulenburg affair and a Moltke-Harden case were causing a considerable stir in German Court circles. Personally, the way these folk took their pleasures was a matter of indifference to me. What strikes me as monstrous is the fact that these scandals had a considerable effect on my fortunes.
"Frederick-Augustus seldom stayed at Lautenburg in his brother's lifetime. I only saw him three or four times, the first occasion being my wedding, and the second, six months later, the funeral of his wife, a worthy but stupid woman with wrists like a scullery-maid's. His Serene Highness your pupil is hardly more intelligent than she.
"The rest of his time was spent in Berlin. The man you have seen so reserved and formal led a very gay life there. Never believe those who tell you that profligacy is harmful ami. The rise of Frederick-Augustus is proof to the contrary.
"The one thing in which the present Grand Duke is past-master is the art of compromising others without compromising himself. He made ample use of it at Berlin in 1909. Intimate with the Bülows, and a bosom friend of Eitel and Joachim, he alone could tell you the scenes in which he figured at that time. But he will never tell you, ami, just as he has never told me, as neither you nor I will ever be able to pay the price of his confidences. Why, it was his silence alone that gained him the grand-ducal crown, and may one day bring him the throne of Würtemberg. When the Empress, with quivering voice, was preaching the virtue of submission to my destiny, the honest dame was only defending the honour of two of her sons.
"The brain fever that followed the receipt of my father's telegram lasted a month, during which I hung between life and death, while Melusine and Hagen, with a devotion I shall never forget, took turns in nursing me night and day.
"At length I was convalescent. My hair had been cut off. I was thin but still pretty. One day, while I was studying in my mirror the pathetic figure I looked with the little fair curls clustering on my head, Hagen, who was on orderly duty, came in and announced Duke Frederick-Augustus.
"I was still really too ill to receive him, but I was longing for the encounter. I must confess, to my shame, that I didn't come out on top that day.
"He came in and bowed ceremoniously. His blue eyes, in his pale, smooth face, were bright and dim by turns.
"'My dear sister, what a pleasure to find you up at last, and looking so well.'
"His perfect ease of manner froze me. He went on:
"'There is no point in not telling you at once the pleasant object of my visit. Tomorrow it will be nine months since the death of my regretted brother, the Grand Duke Rudolph. As the legal period of your widowhood then expires their Majesties the Emperor and Empress would be glad if you could see your way to fix a convenient date for the celebration of our marriage. They have expressed their intention of being present.'
"'Tell their Majesties, my dear brother,' I replied, 'that I will fix any date that suits their pleasure, and kindly add that I hope it will be the last time I shall give them this trouble.'
"He bowed gravely.
"'That is also my heart-felt desire, dear sister,' he said.
"And he went out.
"We were married one day in March, 1912, a dull, threatening day. The Emperor and Empress, true to their promise, were present at the religious ceremony and left for Berlin in the evening. About five o'clock, first at the Rathaus and then at the castle, the State authorities and magistrates took the oath of fealty to the new Grand Duke. At eight the superior officers and higher dignitaries of the Grand Duchy, some thirty guests, were present at a dinner, informal on account of our recent mourning, in the banqueting-hall on the ground floor.
"The second course had hardly begun when the sound of tapping, now loud, now soft, was heard coming from the first floor, immediately above our heads.
"At first no notice was taken. But the noise continued, tap, tap, tap, with exasperating regularity.
"The Grand Duke, frowning slightly, beckoned to the lackey standing behind him.
"'What's that noise?' he asked in a low tone. 'Go and stop it.'
"The man had not returned in a quarter of an hour, but the noise did not cease.
"'Here, Kessel,' cried the Grand Duke, half annoyed, half amused, 'try and find out what's going on above our heads. Excuse me, gentlemen,' he said, turning to our guests.
"Kessel went. Five minutes later he came back, very red. The noise had stopped.
"'Well!' said the Grand Duke, what was it?'
"Kessel was still silent.
"'Look here, Major,' Frederick went on, beginning to lose patience. 'You can't have discovered a plot up there, I presume. I must ask you to reassure my guests. What was the matter?'
"'Builders, your Highness,' murmured Kessel.
"'Builders! at this hour! Today of all days! That's too much of a good thing. What on earth are they doing? Come, Herr von Kessel, tell me, please!'
"'They are walling up the yellow corridor,' the officer managed to get out.
"There was a frigid silence. The yellow corridor was that which connected the apartments of the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Lautenburg.
"Frederick-Augustus is a man of resource, ami. I realized it that evening and genuinely admired him when, tapping his forehead significantly, as much as to say, 'Of course! I'd forgotten,' he turned to a steward and said:
"'Just see that those good fellows are well looked after. They'll have to work all night.'
"I didn't mind. You see I was pleased with myself, for I felt there was something of admiration in the sly look he gave me, a look that seemed to say:
"'And now, you and I must have it out.'"
Aurora had stopped. For a few minutes silence reigned. Then Melusine went to the window and swiftly drew back the curtains. We saw it was already light.
I looked at the Grand Duchess, lost in reverie, elbow on knee and chin in hand. Her beautiful features and clear skin betrayed not the slightest sign of her night-long vigil.
The chilly dawn found Aurora even more beautiful than the glowing dusk had left her.
VII
OCCASIONALLY, perhaps once or twice a week, the Grand Duchess preferred to be alone, and on these evenings I used to resign myself to work.
My study of the Königsmark had been virtually abandoned. I no longer found much pleasure in disturbing that ancient dust now that fate had summoned me to witness another drama, the actors in which lived and moved around me, and spoke to me every day.
There had been a great storm on a certain July evening which Aurora's pleasure doomed me to spend alone. Through the window, open to the lowering night sky, I heard the trees dripping. I was working in an extremely half-hearted manner, my mind straying from the tragedy of the Herrenhausen to the lands whither the Tumene princess's story had wafted me. Indeed, it was a piece of pure luck that thrust before my eyes the supremely important document of which I must now speak.
I told you some time back, with details which must have seemed tedious, of the dossier compiled by the Queen of Prussia with a view to the rehabilitation of her mother Sophie-Dorothea. That evening, after analysing two or three documents of secondary importance, I came to another, marked S.2—No. 87.
It consisted of two large pages covered with writing in German characters, crowded closely together. My listlessness vanished after the first few lines. My mind sprang to attention, for I realized that I had at last got hold of something decisive.
This document contained the confession of a certain Bauer, who had died a game-keeper in the service of the Grand Duke of Rudolstadt, and who, twenty years earlier, had been employed at the Herrenhausen. In his last moments this man, a Catholic, had asked a priest to confess him. The latter, who had heard of the Queen of Prussia's investigation, made his absolution subject to a formal statement of the events in which Bauer had taken part. It was that very confession, bearing the signatures of the dying man, the confessor and two witnesses, that I was engaged in examining.
You will understand that, with that proof of authenticity before me, it chained my attention.
Bauer had been one of the ten men who assisted Countess von Platen to assassinate Count Königsmark on the tragic night of July 1st, 1694.
His confession related how Countess von Platen prepared punch for her men while they were waiting for the Count to come out of the Princess's apartments.
He denies being among those who actually attacked him with their swords and daggers, but admits that he held him down while Countess von Platen, with her foot on his head, tried to extort a confession from him that he had been Sophie-Dorothea's lover.
I was familiar with most of these details. They can also be found in Blaze de Bury's book. But the statements following definitely settled the famous controversy as to what happened to the Count's corpse.
When Count Königsmark was quite dead, said Bauer, Countess von Platen ordered us to carry him to the great fireplace at the back of which is a bronze plaque six feet wide. Countess von Platen touched a spring. The plaque divided in two, revealing a little chamber. I just caught a glimpse, for I was very much perturbed in mind, of a whitish heap which looked like lime. We laid the corpse down there. Countess von Platen then sent us away, after telling us to wash off the blood which had stained the clothes of some of the men. She remained in the Baron's Hall with her attendant, a certain Festmann....
You see now that I had my reasons when I told you, casually, that Königsmark's corpse is concealed behind the fire-back in the Knight's Hall of the Herrenhausen. Moreover, Bauer's document had, in my eyes, a further importance beyond settling the spot once and for all. To me it was also a proof of the complicity either of Ernest-Augustus or his son. Remember that Countess von Platen had worked a secret spring, and also bear in mind that German princes in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were exceedingly jealous of their secret lock-systems. If that secret was communicated to Madame von Platen it was only for some vital purpose.
Before starting work I had made some coffee and had three cups, one after the other. This coffee began to have its effect, by which I mean that, excited by my first discovery, my mind was absolutely clear at that moment. Please note this detail as it has its importance.
To discover something is nothing. To establish the truth of your discovery is everything. Now how was I to go to Hanover, obtain permission to visit the Herrenhausen and be alone in the Knight's Hall for the necessary time. You can imagine I had no intention of putting some palace curator on the track I had just found.
It was then that an idea occurred to me which I will disclose to you as a proof of the value of coffee in deductive reasoning. You will remember that when I was studying the question of the employment of French artists by German princes in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries I discovered that the locksmith's work had been given by the Elector Ernest-Augustus of Hanover to a Catalan named Giroud who had also worked for the Grand Duke of Lautenburg. This Giroud had even had difficulties with Ernest-Augustus over his accounts. At that time I had only cast a cursory glance at the file dealing with the case. It was necessary for me to examine it more carefully. Perhaps I should be able to find something about the system of secret springs installed by Giroud at the Herrenhausen. I decided to clear the matter up then and there.
It was just after midnight I put an electric torch in my pocket and quietly left my room. At that moment I thought I heard a faint noise in the deserted corridor.
"Come," I thought, "I can't let myself be scared like this by old papers!"
When I got to the library I was disagreeably surprised to find the lights on. Professor Cyrus Beck was hard at work covering a black board with his formulæ and only stopping to consult five or six treatises open in front of him.
There was, of course, nothing unusual about my appearance there. I had often gone down late at night to the library to clear up some point in my next day's lesson. All the same he looked at me with that suspicious air of the savant who always thinks you're going to rob him of something.
Two or three pleasant words quickly reassured him. He condescended to confide to me that he was at a decisive moment in his experiments and that the next day, without doubt, perhaps that very night.... Through the open door came the noise of his furnaces, roaring like chimneys on fire.
I thought it unwise to tell him that I, too, had reached the same stage as himself in another affair. Besides, almost at once he put away his books, folded up his notes, rubbed out his formulæ, wished me good-night and went.
I was eager for his departure as I had already found what I wanted.
With a sureness of method which astonished me I had put my hand straight off on the vital document, a bill of Giroud's, dated 1682, and addressed to Ernest-Augustus.
It was a long bill, but I found the following item at once:
For the chimney-place of the Baron's Hall, six springs, in my name, at one hundred and fifty livres the spring.—Total 900 livres.
I did not need to have a very profound knowledge of secret springs and locks to know what it meant. The system is still used in safes, Fichet's and others. It meant that on the fire-back of the chimney-place in the Baron's Hall of the Herrenhausen there were six lettered locks. You made the spring act by taking for each lock in turn one of the six letters forming the name of the inventor, Giroud.
When you remember that this Giroud was the master-locksmith of the Grand Duke of Lautenburg you won't have much difficulty in realizing that my first thought was to use the fire-back in the armoury of the castle of Lautenburg as a test of the accuracy of my reasoning with regard to the fireplace of the Baron's Hall in the Castle of Hanover. So you may imagine how impatiently I watched Cyrus Beck's departure.
When at last he had gone I waited a quarter of an hour. Then I turned out the lights, opened the right-hand door of the library and banged it to as if I had gone back to my room. Then, taking great care not to fall over anything and picking my way among the desks and show-cases I returned and cautiously opened the door on the left hand side which led into the armoury.
Great pools of moonlight, shaped like the tall lancet windows, flecked the dark floor. I went straight to the chimney-place. I started at touching the heavy iron fire-back. It was only when my fingers found a kind of knob high up on the left that I switched on my electric torch.
I had no difficulty in dealing with the knob. It pivoted on a hinge, revealing a kind of dial. The whole thing was not unlike one of our gas-metres.
I started back in dismay. I was expecting letters, but this dial had numbers. It was divided into twenty-five sections.
Turning off the lamp I sat down on a heavy oak stool close by.
I didn't have to think long. 25! What a fool I was!
I pulled out a pencil and a piece of paper, turned on the lamp again and, kneeling at the stool, I had soon written out the twenty-five letters of the alphabet and underneath a row of figures to correspond. Then I wrote Giroud's name and obtained the following combination: 7, 9, 18, 15, 21, 4.
791815214. It will be a long time before I forget that number.
I examined the whole face of the metal rectangle with my lamp. A terrible disappointment was in store for me. Instead of the six knobs that I had expected I could only find two.
When a single factor throws out the kind of calculations I had just made it can only mean that one's theory is radically false. I might have known. That would have been much too simple....
Solely to prove myself wrong, I tried the first knob and turning the pointer on the dial I set it on the figure 7—g.
I crossed to the other side and repeated the operation on the other knob, putting the pointer on the figure 9—i.
All at once I could hear my heart beat. A black vertical line appeared in the centre of the plaque. That line got wider and wider. The two panels thus formed slid back to each side, leaving a gap some two feet six inches wide.
I was on the right track. The mystery of the Herrenhausen was to be solved at last!
I had recovered control of myself, perfect control. I remember saying: "What a delightful way of studying history! I wonder what Monsieur Seignobos would think of it?"
I passed through the opening, taking with me the stool which had been my table. On the inside the fire-back had two handles, one on each side. Very gently, but quite easily, I drew the panels together again, not absolutely touching, however, for fear of releasing some fatal spring.
Do you remember the 24th August, my friend, in the village of Beaumont, in Belgium, when you and I went down into a cellar where the inhabitants said five Uhlans were hiding? You called me a rash fool and came behind, but I couldn't help smiling at the thought that those five fugitives were nothing compared with the darkness in which I was wrapped that night.
When I had pulled the two panels to behind me I found myself in a little chamber, six feet wide, and six feet high. On each side of me were blank walls, but at the back was another bronze plaque with, as I expected, two more knobs to right and left.
I put the hand of the first dial on the figure 18. The pointer of the second had just reached 15 when the noise of tearing wood, absolutely terrifying in that dead silence, froze me from head to foot. The lower half of the immense plaque, opening horizontally about three feet from the ground, had swung forward and smashed to matchwood the heavy stool I had placed against it as I came in.
If I hadn't jumped back so smartly my feet would infallibly have been crushed.
"Excellent!" I murmured. "So their secrets are man-traps, too!"
I bent down and got into the second chamber, which was of exactly the same dimensions as the first. You can imagine that this time I took all precautions, standing carefully to the left as I put the pointer of the fifth dial on 21 and to the right as I turned that of the sixth to 4. I might have saved myself the trouble. The plaque parted in two vertically, like the first one, and the panels rolled aside on invisible hinges.
Then I passed into the third and last chamber.
It was of the same height, but twice as long and wide. The small arc of my electric torch gave a good light, but covered but a small area.
At first I could only see what looked like white splashes on the floor.
But suddenly, my friend, my very marrow froze within me. I was frightened, horribly frightened, for in the corner to my left a curious little white heap had just come into view. Drawn by some over-mastering instinct I approached it, and even as I approached I wanted to bolt, and between my chattering teeth I muttered: "It's a hallucination. I'm dreaming. I know I'm dreaming. I'm not at Hanover. This is Lautenburg. The palace. There's Doctor Cyrus Beck just round the corner working. There's the night-watchman. There's Ludwig, my servant. There's Major von Kessel, honest, kind Kessel ..."
The heap of quicklime was now at my feet. I fell, rather than knelt, before it.
Fantastic fragments were sticking out of it, shapeless, gruesome white fragments. Dithering as I was, how did I ever have the courage to pick one up, run my fingers over it, examine it....
Yet that is exactly what I did. I had that bone, a right tibia, in my hands, feeling it, examining it.
And then I uttered a loud cry, for in the middle of that bone my finger came into contact with the mark of an old fracture.