The greatest flutter of excitement was caused throughout Germany--and
throughout the whole of Europe, for the matter of that--when it became
known through the press that the Queen of Marburg had returned.
Reuter's correspondent at Treysa was the first to give the astounding
news to the world, and the world at first shrugged its shoulders and
grinned.
When, however, a few days later, it became known that the Minister
Heinrich Hinckeldeym had been summarily dismissed from office, his
decorations withdrawn, and he was under arrest for serious peculation
from the Royal Treasury, people began to wonder. Their doubts were,
however, quickly set at rest when the Ministers Stuhlmann and Hoepfner
were also dismissed and disgraced, and a semi-official statement was
published in the Government _Gazette_ to the effect that the King had
discovered that the charges against his wife were, from beginning to
end, a tissue of false calumnies "invented by certain persons who sought
to profit by her Majesty's absence from Court."
And so, by degrees, the reconciliation between the King and Queen
gradually leaked out to the English public through the columns of their
newspapers.
But little did they guess that the extradition case pressed so very hard
at Bow Street last August against the two jewel thieves, Redmayne,
_alias_ Ward, and Guy Bourne, had any connection with the great scandal
at the Court of Marburg.
The men were extradited, Redmayne to be tried in Berlin and Bourne at
Treysa; but of their sentences history, as recorded in the daily
newspapers, is silent. The truth is that neither of them was sentenced,
but by the private request of his Majesty, a legal technicality was
discovered, which placed them at liberty.
Both men afterwards had private audience of the King, and personally
received the royal thanks for the kindness they had shown towards the
Queen and to little Ignatia. In order to mark his appreciation, his
Majesty caused a lucrative appointment in the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, where a knowledge of English was necessary, to be given to
Roddy Redmayne, while Guy Bourne, through the King's recommendation, was
appointed to the staff of an important German bank in New York; and it
has been arranged that next month Leucha--who leaves her Majesty and
Ignatia with much regret--goes to America to marry him. To her place,
as Ignatia's nurse, the faithful Allen has now returned, while the false
de Trauttenberg, who, instantly upon Hinckeldeym's downfall, went to
live in Paris, has been succeeded by the Countess de Langendorf, one of
Claire's intimate friends of her days at the Vienna Court, prior to her
marriage.
What actually transpired between Hinckeldeym and his Sovereign on that
fateful night will probably never be known. The people of Treysa are
aware, however, that a few hours after "their Claire's" return the
President of the Council was commanded to the royal presence, and left
it ruined and disgraced. On the following day he was arrested in his
own mansion by three gendarmes and taken to the common police office,
where he afterwards attempted suicide, but was prevented.
The serious charges of peculation against him were, in due course,
proved up to the hilt, and at the present moment he is undergoing a
well-merited sentence of five years' imprisonment in the common gaol at
Eugendorf.
Count Carl Leitolf was recalled from Rome to Treysa a few days later,
and had audience in the King's private cabinet. The outcome was,
however, entirely different, for the King, upon the diplomat's return to
Rome, signed a decree bestowing upon him _di moto proprio_ the Order of
Saint Stephen, one of the highest of the Marburg Orders, as a signal
mark of esteem.
Thus was the public opinion of Europe turned in favour of the poor,
misjudged woman who, although a reigning sovereign, had, by force of
adverse circumstances, actually resigned her crown, and, accepting
favours of the criminal class as her friends, had found them faithful
and devoted.
Of the Ministers of the Kingdom of Marburg only Meyer retains his
portfolio at the present moment, while Steinbach has been promoted to a
very responsible and lucrative appointment. The others are all in
obscurity. Ministers, chamberlains, _dames du palais_ and _dames de la
cour_, all have been swept away by a single stroke of the pen, and
others, less prone to intrigue, appointed.
Henriette--the faithful Henriette--part of whose wardrobe Claire had
appropriated on escaping from Treysa, is back again as her Majesty's
head maid; and though the popular idea is that little real, genuine love
exists between royalties, yet the King and Queen are probably the very
happiest pair among the millions over whom they rule to-day.
Her Majesty, the womanly woman whose sweet, even temperament and
constant solicitude for the poor and distressed is so well known
throughout the Continent, is loudly acclaimed by all classes each time
she leaves the palace and smiles upon them from her carriage.
The people, who have universally denounced Hinckeldeym and his
unscrupulous methods, still worship her and call her "their Claire."
But, by mutual consent, mention is no longer made of that dark,
dastardly conspiracy which came so very near wrecking the lives of both
King and Queen--that dastardly affair which the journalists termed "The
Great Court Scandal."
The End.