THE KING IS ALIVE AND PUNISHMENT NEAR
My queenship postponed--King George publicly acclaimed--Cuts me dead
in church--Frederick Augustus's disappointment--Terrible power of a
king over his family, and no appeal--I am like the nude witch of
old.
DRESDEN, _November 10, 1902_.
The King has taken nourishment. The King will not die--he will live and
punish me. Still, I must not complain. I had a respite and Richard says,
"when one rises from the dead, one is less inclined to be severe with
the living." But he grew rather despondent immediately.
"_La liberte est une garce, qui ne se laisse monter que sur des matelas
des cadavres humains!_" he quoted _Comte_ Mirabeau. Our corpse was
alive, our liberty is dead for the time being.
* * * * *
DRESDEN, _November 15, 1902_.
The King went driving this morning and I am told that he came home well
pleased, for there was lusty cheering along the line. Frederick Augustus
hasn't mentioned my affair at all. Disappointment made him rather gloomy
and he begins to treat me again in the right royal Saxon fashion: I am
air for His Highness.
* * * * *
_After Supper._
The family will wait upon His Majesty in a body tomorrow, to
congratulate him on his recovery. After that, _Te Deum_ in the
cathedral, which the court and authorities must attend by command.
"Your Imperial Highness's pew will be in readiness, but my sublime
master has not deigned to graciously announce that he wishes to receive
Your Imperial Highness,"--this from the toad Baumann, who but yesterday
licked my boots.
* * * * *
DRESDEN, _November 16, 1902_.
Another straw indicating the direction of the wind--the ill-wind.
King George commanded Bernhardt to be madman no longer and come and live
in Dresden. Since his arrival he has paid assiduous court to all members
of the royal family, but me. He called on the royal ministers, the
courtiers, the high civil authorities, but my apartments have seen him
not. I don't blame the boy for making the best of the situation, but was
it really necessary to offer gratuitous insult to the only relative that
stood by him when in trouble?
Doubtless, he took his cue from the King, who cut me dead while, with
the rest, I thanked God for his recovery.
* * * * *
_November 20, 1902._
The Tisch is openly talking Sonnenstein. "The royal apartments are ready
for her reception," she let fall yesterday.
Old Andrew, my confidential servant, told me.
She shows me the face of a bull-dog about to spring at a victim, a
sea-green devil filled with vinegar and gall, but affects icy courtesy.
Frederick Augustus is down in the mouth. If he knows of any evil
intention against me, he evidently made up his mind to hold his tongue
and avoid scenes.
Richard keeps on saying: "Don't worry. After all, what can they do to
you?" He doesn't know, or doesn't want to understand that, while the law
holds out protection for all, from pedlars and vagabonds to and
including prime ministers, royalty itself is only technically above the
law; in _praxis_ we are beyond the benefits of all law, human and
otherwise.
To be sure, a Cit is sometimes unjustly treated, but with tenacity and a
small amount of courage, he finds his remedy in the courts and in the
press.
To royal princes and princesses the King is both judge and executioner,
as the cases of the Duke of Saxony and Bernhardt show. Maybe it pleases
His Majesty to cloak his tyranny by convoking a commission, but what of
it, since the commission is invariably made up of his creatures,
trained, if not commanded, to do the all-highest will and nothing but
the all-highest will?
As in days gone by, the poor "witch"--if she be young and comely--must
face her accusers naked, the sworn torturer at her elbow, so I have no
standing in law or decency before the Powers over social life or death
in our sphere of society.
If there be blemishes in my character, the King sees them magnified by
the sharp tongues of evil creatures, his spies. There is no privacy. I
must submit to be stared at, to have my flesh lacerated by curious eyes,
and, as in the case of the old-time "witches," the handsomest were
condemned the quicker because "the devil was more liable to choose them
for an abode than ugly ones," so my very beauty will hasten my
destruction.