‘I am the King of Norway as well as of Sweden,’ his Majesty pursued,
‘and you must not think I favour one country more than the other. But
I might as well be King at the same time of France and Germany, for
any real harmony there is between the two countries. The Norwegians
are working for absolute separation; the Swedes will grant them
everything except the right to make war on Sweden; and yet they
cannot agree.’
‘You fear, sire, that the Norwegians will fight in order to secure
their independence.’
‘I fear it is rather the other way about,’ the King answered
sorrowfully. ‘They aim at independence in order to be able to fight.
You see me in the position of a father whose two children are ready
to rush at one another’s throats, and who cannot show kindness to
one without incurring the hatred of the other. This situation has
poisoned the peace of mind of every sovereign of Scandinavia for a
hundred years. It broke my grandfather’s heart.’
I listened to this sad confession with respectful sympathy. King
Oscar proceeded--
‘Let me tell you some more. Before the last Russo-Turkish war, the
geography of the Balkans had been made for a year the special study
of the Military School in Petersburg. Last month the geography of
Scandinavia was given a similar precedence. That is not all. A swarm
of Russian officers, disguised as woodcutters, have been coming over
the northern frontier, and making their way down through Sweden,
surveying the country as they go.’
‘Surely they can be arrested as spies!’
‘We dare not,’ was the response. ‘That would be forcing Russia’s
hand. We can only watch, and await developments.’
‘The Germans ought to know of this,’ I ventured to remark.
‘The Germans are more afraid of Russia than we are,’ the King
answered. ‘Germany is no longer a first-class Power. There are in
fact only four Powers of the first magnitude to-day, Great Britain,
Russia, the United States, and China. The two English Powers together
could dictate to the world, but they are divided by the childish
American jealousy. China is still asleep. Consequently all the other
Powers of Europe are little more than vassals of the Tsar. France
has openly placed herself under his protection. Austria has become
Russia’s junior partner in the Balkans. The independence of Germany
is only nominal; the Emperor takes his time from Petersburg. No other
country counts.’
It was the first time that I had heard the situation summed up with
such pitiless plainness.
‘You consider, then, that Russia is actually about to draw the
sword?’ I asked.
‘No, she will leave us to do that. Russia has discovered that her
conquests advance better under the cloak of peace. She means to
take Norway under cover of a declaration in favour of Norwegian
independence.’
‘But the Norwegians--are they mad enough to become parties to that?
Do they want to exchange King Log for King Stork?’
‘Go and see,’ was King Oscar’s reply.
I quitted his Majesty’s presence, and returned to my hotel, deeply
disturbed by what I had heard. I could not suppose that the most
sagacious sovereign in Europe was indulging in idle fears. Yet it
was hard to believe that the inhabitants of a free, self-governing
country would voluntarily exchange their condition for servitude to
the Asiatic despotism which had just laid Finland prostrate at their
door.
Three days afterwards I arrived in Christiania. I had made careful
preparations for the task before me. I assumed the character of
a Russian spy, as the least likely to provoke suspicion of the
quarter from which I really came. And I had disguised my person as
effectively as I knew how, lest I should meet a real agent of the
Tsar’s Government, who might detect A---- V---- beneath the outward
semblance of Alexander Volkuski.
The pains I had taken were well rewarded. In the hotel in which I put
up I found staying a man who passed as a Finnish officer, of Swedish
nationality, but whom I immediately recognised as Count Marloff, the
confidential right-hand man of M. de Witte himself. It is true the
Russian was disguised, and the disguise was a very good one, but
by an almost incredible oversight he had ventured to assume that a
disguise which had already done duty once might safely be used again.
It was seven years before, in Teheran, that I had seen that reddish
wig and noted that peculiar limp, but if Count Marloff had offered
me his card I could not have been more sure of his identity. Such
mistakes may be pardonable in a mere detective, but they are fatal in
our profession.
My tactics were soon decided on. I knew that the attention of
‘Colonel Sigersen’ would be quickly attracted to a Russian staying in
Christiania, and I have generally found the boldest game to be the
most successful.
I seized the first opportunity of the Count’s being seated alone in
the smoking-room of the hotel, to go up to him boldly.
‘How do you do, Count?’ I said in Russian. ‘Or perhaps you will wish
me to say “Colonel”?’
Marloff started, as well he might, and stared hard into my face.
‘My name is Colonel Sigersen,’ he said forbiddingly. ‘Have I had the
pleasure of meeting you before?’
This was the opening I wanted. I drew back disdainfully.
‘I must apologise,’ I said, with irony; ‘I have not had the honour of
meeting you, _Colonel Sigersen_. Pray do not think I wish to intrude
on you.’
Marloff saw his mistake. In the secret service of Russia nothing
is more common than for two different agents to be employed
independently of each other, and even as spies upon each other. When
that happens, if the two men are wise, they strike up a private
alliance, and compare notes at their employers’ expense. When they
keep each other at arm’s length, each has it in his power to cause
annoyance to the other.
Marloff was now in the position of having refused my overture towards
friendship, without knowing who I was. This left me free to watch
him, without rendering any explanations. He was consequently furious
with himself.
The fact is the man was a mere amateur, as one who drops into a
profession from above generally is. De Witte had taken him out of a
cavalry regiment, and made a diplomatist of him; but when it came to
secret service work he was a child in the hands of a man like myself.
I saw the pretended Colonel get up and limp out of the room, no doubt
to send a cipher despatch to the Minister, complaining of my arrival.
I went to the manager of the hotel, introduced myself as a Russian
police agent on the track of a great rouble forgery, and wormed out
of him a mass of particulars with regard to Sigersen’s movements.
I gathered that he had been in Christiania about a month, having
toured through Norway first as far north as Trondhjem. He had
made numerous friends in the Norwegian capital, including several
prominent members of the Storthing, as they call their parliament.
But his chosen intimate appeared to be a judge named ----, who was
regarded as a guiding spirit of the party most strongly hostile to
the Swedish connection.
It was Judge ---- who had prompted the erection of a fortress on the
Swedish-Norwegian frontier, guarding the approach to Christiania.
The same warlike functionary had decided on the judicial bench that
no native of Sweden could exercise the rights of a citizen in Norway
until he had taken out letters of naturalisation. In short, this
judge had carefully taught his countrymen to treat the Swedes as
Englishmen were treated by the Boers in the days of the Transvaal
Republic.
All this was nothing more than I had been prepared for by King Oscar.
The task now before me was to ascertain if possible what was the
nature of the understanding between Judge ---- and the agent of the
Russian Government.