1
It was after the state banquet in the castle at Sigismundingen, where
the imperial families of Liparia and Austria were assembled to celebrate
the betrothal of the Duke of Xara and the Archduchess Valérie. It was in
September: the day had been sultry and in the evening the oppressive
heat still hung brooding in the air.
Dinner was just over and the imperial procession returned through a long
corridor to the reception-rooms. All the balcony-windows of the
brightly-lighted gallery stood open; beneath, as in an abyss of river
landscape, flowed the Danube, rolling against the rocks, while above it
towered the castle with its innumerable little pointed turrets. The
mountain-tops were defined in a sombre, violet amphitheatre against the
paler sky, which was incessantly lit with electric flashes, as of
noiseless lightning. The wood stood gloomy and black, shadowy, sloping
up with the peaked tops of its fir-trees against the mountains; in the
distance lay small houses, huddled in the dusk of the evening, like some
straggling hamlet, with here and there a yellow light.
The Emperor of Liparia gave his arm to the mother of the bride, the
Archduchess Eudoxie; then followed the Emperor of Austria with the
Empress of Liparia, the Archduke Albrecht with the Empress of Austria,
Othomar with Valérie....
Valérie, lightly pressing Othomar's arm, withdrew with him from the
procession:
"It was so warm in the dining-room; you will excuse me," she said to
Othomar's sister, the Archduchess of Carinthia, who was following with
one of her Austrian cousins.
Valérie's smile requested the archduchess to go on. The others followed:
the august guests, the equerries, the ladies-in-waiting; they smiled to
the betrothed imperial couple, who stood in one of the open
window-recesses to let them pass.
They remained alone in the gallery, before the open window:
"I need air," said Valérie, with a sigh.
He made no reply. They stood together in silence, gazing at the evening
landscape. He was wearing the uhlan uniform of the Austrian regiment
which he commanded; and a new order glittered amongst the others on his
breast: the Golden Fleece of Austria. She seemed to have grown older
than she was at Altseeborgen, in her pink-silk evening-dress, with wide,
puffed sleeves of very pale-green velvet, a tight-curled border of white
ostrich-feathers edging the low-cut bodice and the train.
"Shall I leave you alone for a little, Valérie?" he asked, gently.
She shook her head, smiling sadly. Her bosom seemed to heave with
uncontrollable emotion.
"Why, Othomar?" she asked. "I am lonely enough at nights, with my
thoughts. Leave me alone with them as little as you can...."
She suddenly held out her hand to him:
"Will you forgive your future empress her broken heart?" she asked,
suddenly, with a great sob.
And her pale, shrunken face turned full towards him, with two eyes like
those of a stricken doe. An irrepressible feeling of pity caused
something to well up unexpectedly in his soul; he squeezed her hand and
turned away, so as not to weep.
He looked out of the window. Some of the pointed towers, visible from
here, rose with an air of sombre romance against the sky, which was
luminous with electricity. Below them, romantically, murmured the
Danube. The mountains were like the landscape in a ballad. But no
ballad, no romance echoed between their two hearts. The prose of the
inevitable necessity was the only harmony that united them. But this
harmony also united them in reality, brought them together, made them
understand each other, feel and live at one with each other. They were
now for a minute alone and their eyes frankly sought the depths of each
other's souls. There was no need for pretence between these two: each
saw the other's sorrow lying shivering and naked in the other's heart.
It was not the riotous passion of despair that they beheld. They saw a
gentle, tremulous sadness; they looked at it with wide, staring eyes of
anguish, as children look who think they see a ghost. For them that
ghost issued from life itself: life itself became for them a ghostly
existence. They themselves were spectres, though they know that they
were tangible, with bodies. What were they?
Dream-beings, with crowns; they lived and bowed and acted and smiled as
in a dream, because of their crowns. They did not exist: a vagueness did
indeed suggest in their dream-brains that something might exist, in
other laws of nature than those of their sphere, but in their sphere
they did not exist....
His hand was toying mechanically with some papers that lay near him, on
the mirror-bracket between two of the window-recesses; they were
illustrated periodicals, doubtless left there by some chamberlain. He
took one up, to while their sad silence, and opened it. The first thing
that he saw was their own portraits:
"Look," he said.
He showed them to her. They now turned over the pages together, saw the
portraits also of their parents, a drawing of the castle, a corner of
Sigismundingen Park. Then together they read the announcement of their
engagement. They were first each described separately: he, an
accomplished prince, doing a great deal of good, very popular in his own
country and cordially loved by the Emperor of Austria; she, every inch a
princess, born to be the empress of a great empire, with likewise her
special accomplishments. The eyes of all Europe were fixed upon them at
the moment. For their marriage would not only be an imperial alliance of
great political importance, but would also tie a knot of real harmony:
their marriage was a love-match. There had been attempts to make it seem
otherwise, but this was not correct. In Gothland, in the home circle at
Altseeborgen, the young couple had learnt to know each other well; their
love had sprung like an idyll from the sea and the Duke of Xara had once
even saved the archduchess' life, when she had ventured out too far, in
stormy weather, in a rowing-boat. Their love was like a novel with a
happy ending. The Emperor Oscar would rather have seen the Grand-duchess
Xenia crown-princess of Liparia and attached great value to an alliance
with Russia, but he had yielded before his son's love.... And the
article ended by saying that the wedding would take place in October in
the old palace at Altara.
They read it together, with their mournful faces, their wide, fixed
eyes, which still smarted with staring into each other's souls. Not a
single remark came from their lips after reading the article; they only
just smiled their two heartrending smiles; then they laid the paper
down again. And she asked, with that strange calm with which this
betrothed pair were trying to get to know each other:
"Othomar ... do you care for nobody?"
A flush suffused his cheeks. Did she know of Alexa?
"I did once think that I ... that I was in love," he confessed; "but I
do not believe that it was really love. I now believe that I do not
possess the capacity to concentrate my whole soul upon a feeling for one
other soul alone; I should not know how to find it, that one soul, and I
should fear to make a mistake, or to deceive myself.... No, I do not
believe that I shall ever know that exclusive feeling. I rather feel
within me a great, wide, general love, an immense compassion, for our
people. It is strange of me perhaps...."
He said it almost shyly, as though it were something abnormal, that
general love, of which he ought to be ashamed before her.
"A great love," he explained once more, when she continued to look at
him in silence; and he made an embracing gesture with his arms, "for our
people...."
"Do you really feel that?" she asked, in surprise.
"Yes...."
A sort of vista opened out before her, as though an horizon of light
were dawning right at the end of her dark melancholy; but that horizon
was so far, so very far away....
"But, Othomar," she said, "that is very good. It is very beautiful to
feel like that!"
He shrugged his shoulders:
"Beautiful? How do you mean? I cannot but feel it when I see all the
misery that exists ... among our people, the lower orders, the very
lowest especially. If they were all happy and enjoying abundance, there
would be no need for me to feel it. So what is there beautiful about
it?"
She gave a little laugh:
"I can't argue against that, it's too deep for me. I can't say that I
have ever thought over those social questions; they have always existed
as they are and ... and I have not thought about them. But I can feel,
with my feminine instinct, that it is beautiful of you to feel like
that, Othomar."
She took his hand and pressed it; her face lit up with a smile. Then she
looked, pensively, into the dark landscape beneath them and she
shivered.
"It's turning chilly," he said. "We had better go in, Valérie; you'll
catch cold here."
She just felt at her bare neck:
"Presently," she said.
They glanced down, at the murmuring Danube. A mist began to rise from
the river and filled the valley as it were with light strips of muslin.
"Come," he urged.
"Look," she said. "How deep that is, is it not?"
He looked down:
"Yes," he replied.
"Don't you feel giddy?" she asked.
He looked at her anxiously:
"No, not giddy; at least, not at once...."
"Othomar," she said, in a whisper, "I once sat here for a whole evening.
I kept on looking down; it was darker than now and I saw nothing but
blackness and it kept on roaring through those black depths. It was the
evening after our engagement was decided. I felt such pain, I suffered
so! I thought that I had won a victory over myself, but they left me no
peace and the only use of my victory was to give me strength to do
battle again. The news that I was to be your wife came as unexpectedly
... as my great sorrow came! Then I felt so weak because it overwhelmed
me so, because they left me no peace. Oh, they were so cruel, they did
not leave me a moment to recover my breath! I had to go on again, on!
Then I felt weak. I thought that I should never overcome my weakness. I
sat here for hours, looking at the Danube. It made me giddy.... At last
I thought that I had made up my mind ... to throw myself down.... I
already saw myself floating away, there, there, down there, right round
the castle.... Why did I not do it? I believe because of ... of him,
Othomar. I loved him, I love him _now_, though I ought to have more
pride. I would not punish him by committing suicide. He is so weak. I
know him: it would have haunted him all his life long!... Then ... then,
Othomar, I ran away and I prayed! I no longer knew what to do!"
She hid her face full of anguish in her hands, with a great sob. His
eyes had filled with tears; he saw how she trembled. He threw a
terrified side-glance at the deep stream below, which roared as though
calling....
"Valérie," he stammered, in alarm; "for God's sake let us go in. It's
too cold here and ... and...."
She looked at him anxiously too, with haggard eyes:
"Yes, let us go, Othomar!" she whispered. "I am getting frightened here:
we have that in our family; there is still so much romance flowing in
our veins...."
She took his arm; they went indoors together. But, before entering the
suite of anterooms that led to the reception-rooms, she detained him for
yet a moment:
"I don't know whether we shall see each other alone again before you
return to Lipara. And I still wanted to thank you for something...."
"For what?" he asked.
"For ... something that Aunt Olga told me. For ... sparing me at
Altseeborgen. Thank you, Othomar, thank you...."
She put her arm around his neck and gave him a kiss. He kissed her in
return.
And they exchanged their first caress.
2
The next day the imperial family of Liparia travelled back from
Sigismundingen to Lipara. The reception at the central station was most
hearty; the town was covered with bunting; in the evening there were
popular rejoicings. The officers of the various army-corps gave the
crown-prince banquets in honour of his betrothal. The Archduchess
Valérie's portraits were exposed in the windows of all the
picture-shops; the papers contained long articles full of jubilation.
It was a few hours before the dinner given by the officers of the
throne-guards to their imperial colonel when Othomar was, as it were
suddenly, overcome by a strange sensation. He was in his writing-room,
felt rather giddy and had to sit down. The giddiness was slight, but
lasted a long time; for a long time the room seemed to be slowly trying
to turn round him and not to succeed; and this gave a painful impression
of resistance on the part of its lifeless furniture. One of Othomar's
hands rested on his thigh, the other on the ruff of the collie which had
laid its head upon his knee. He remained sitting, bending forward.
When the giddiness had passed, he retained a strange lightness in his
head, as though something had been taken out of it. He leant back
cautiously; the collie, half-asleep, dreamily opened its eyes and then
dozed off again, its head upon Othomar's knee, under his hand. An
irresistible fatigue crept up Othomar's limbs, as though they were
sinking in soft mud. It surprised him greatly, this feeling; and,
looking sideways at the clock, without moving his head, lest he should
bring on the giddiness again, he calculated that he had an hour and a
half before dinner. This prospective interval relieved him and he
remained sitting, as though calculating his fatigue: whether it would
pass, whether it would leave his body.
It lasted a long time, so long indeed that he doubted whether he would
be able to go. When three-quarters of an hour had passed, he pressed the
bell which stood near him on the table. Andro entered.
"Andro...." he began, without continuing.
"Does your highness wish to dress? Everything is put out...."
Othomar just patted the dog's head, as it still lay dozing motionless
against his knee.
"Is your highness unwell?"
"A little giddy, Andro; it is passing off already."
"But is your highness right in going? Had I not better send for Prince
Dutri?"
Othomar shook his head decidedly and rose:
"No, I'm late as it is, Andro. Come, help me with my things...."
And he entered his dressing-room.
He appeared at the dinner, but made excuses to the officers for his
evident languor. He just joined in the toasts by raising his glass, with
a smile. It struck them all that he looked very ill, emaciated,
hollow-eyed and white as chalk in his white-and-gold uniform.
Immediately after dinner he returned to the Imperial, without
accompanying them to the Imperial Jockey Club, the club of the _jeunesse
dorée_.
He slept heavily; a misty dream hovered through his night. The man who
had tried to murder him at Zanti's grinned at him with clenched fists;
then the scene changed to the Gothlandic sea and he rowed Valérie along,
but, however hard he rowed, the three towers of the castle always drew
farther away, unapproachable....
When he awoke, it was already past eight. He reflected that it was too
late for his usual morning ride and remained lying where he was. He rang
for Andro:
"Why didn't you wake me at seven o'clock?"
"Your highness was sleeping so soundly, I dared not; your highness was
not well yesterday...."
"And so you just let me sleep? Very well.... Send word to her majesty
... that I am not well."
The man looked at him anxiously:
"What is the matter with your highness?"
"I don't know, Andro ... I am a little tired. Where's Djalo?"
"Here, highness...."
The collie ran in noisily, put its great paws on the camp-bed, wriggled
its haunches wildly to and fro as it wagged its tail....
Then, suddenly, it lay down quietly beside the bed.
The empress sent back to say that she would come at once; she was not
yet dressed.... With calm, open eyes Othomar lay waiting for her.
She entered at last, a little agitated with anxiety. She questioned him,
but learnt nothing from his vague, smiling replies. She laid her hand on
his forehead, felt his pulse and could not make up her mind whether he
had any fever. There was typhoid about: she was afraid of it....
The physicians-in-ordinary were called and relieved her mind: there was
no fever. The prince seemed generally tired; he had doubtless
over-exerted himself lately. He must rest....
The emperor was astonished: the prince had just been resting and had
stayed on for weeks at Altseeborgen. What had been the use of it then!
The rumour ran through the palace, the town, the country, through
Europe, that the Duke of Xara was keeping his room because of a slight
indisposition. The physicians issued a simple and very reassuring
bulletin.
However, in the afternoon Othomar got up and even dressed himself, but
not in uniform. He had had some lunch in his bedroom and now went to
Princess Thera's apartments. She sat drawing; with her was a
lady-in-waiting, the young Marchioness of Ezzera.
The princess was surprised to see her brother:
"What! Is that you? I thought you were in bed!..."
"No, I'm a little better...."
He bowed to the marchioness, who had risen and curtseyed.
"Won't you go on with the portrait?" asked Othomar.
Thera looked at him:
"You're looking so pale, poor boy. Perhaps I'd better not. It tires you
so, that sitting, doesn't it?"
"Yes, sometimes, a little...."
They were now standing before the portrait; the marchioness had retired,
as she always did when the brother and sister were together. The
painting was half-covered with a silk cloth, which Thera pulled aside:
it was already a young head full of expression, in which life began to
gleam behind the black, melancholy eyes, and painted with broad, firm
brushwork, with much reflection of outside light, which fell upon one
side of the face and brought it into relief, throwing it forward out of
the shadow in the background.
"Is it almost finished?" asked Othomar.
"Yes, but you've kept me waiting awfully long for the final touches:
just think, you've been away for four months. I haven't been able to
work at it all that time. But, you know ... you've changed. If only I
shan't have to leave it like this. It's no longer like you...."
"It'll begin to be like me again, when I'm looking a little better!"
answered Othomar.
But the princess became rather nervous; she suddenly drew the silk cloth
over it again....
Othomar did not appear at dinner; he went to bed early. The next day the
doctors found him very listless. He was up but not dressed; he lay in
his dressing-gown on the sofa in his room, with the collie at his feet.
He complained to the empress that he had such a queer feeling in his
head, as though it were about to open and pour out all its contents.
For days this condition remained unchanged: a total listlessness, a
total loss of appetite, a visible exhaustion.... The empress sat by his
side as he lay on his sofa staring through the open windows into the
green depths of the park of plane-trees. The birds chirped outside;
sometimes Berengar's small, shrill voice sounded among them, as he
played with a couple of his little friends. The empress read aloud, but
it tired Othomar, it made his head ache....
After a long conversation between the three doctors and the emperor and
empress, Professor Barzia was summoned from Altara for a consultation:
the professor was a nerve-specialist of European fame.
In the emperor's room the emperor, the empress and Count Myxila sat
waiting for the result of the examination and the subsequent
consultation. It lasted long. They did not speak while they waited: the
empress sat staring before her with her quiet expression of
acquiescence; the emperor walked irritably to and fro. The old
chancellor, with his stern, proud face and bald head, stood pensively
near the window.
Then the doctors were announced. They appeared, Professor Barzia leading
the way, the others following. The empress fancied that she read the
worst on the professor's pale, rigid features; one of the physicians,
however, nodded his big, kind head compassionately from behind his
colleague, to reassure her.
"Well?" asked the emperor.
"We have carefully examined his imperial highness, sir," the professor
began. "The prince is quite free from organic disease, though his
constitution is generally delicate."
"What's wrong with him then?" asked Oscar.
"The prince's nervous system seems to us, sir, to have undergone an
alarming strain."
"His nerves? But he's never nervous, he's always calm," exclaimed the
emperor, stubbornly.
"All the more reason, sir, to appreciate the prince's self-restraint.
His highness has evidently kept himself going for a long time; and the
effort has been too much for him at last. He is calm now, as your
majesty says. But his calmness does not alter the fact that his nerves
are completely run down. His highness has clearly been overtaxing his
strength."
"And in what way?" asked the emperor, haughtily.
"That, sir, would no doubt be better known to those at court than to me,
who come fresh from my study and my hospitals. Your majesty will be able
to answer that question yourself. I can only give you a few indications.
His highness told me that he remembered sometimes feeling those fits of
giddiness and exhaustion even before the great floods in the north. That
was in March. It is now September. I imagine that his highness has been
leading a very active life in the meantime?"
The emperor made movements with his eyebrows as if he could not
understand: tremulous motions of his powerful head, with its fleece of
silvering hair.
"The journey to the north may in fact have affected his highness,
professor," the empress began.
She was sitting haughtily upright, in her plain dark dress. Her face was
expressionless, her eyes were cold. She spoke in a matter-of-fact tone,
as though she were not a mother.
"His highness is very sensitive to impressions," she continued, "and he
received a good many at Altara that were likely to shock him."
The professor made a slight movement of the head:
"I remember, ma'am, seeing his highness at the identification of the
corpses in the fields," he said. "His highness _was_ very much
affected...."
"But to what does all this tend?" asked the emperor, still recalcitrant.
"It tends to this, sir, that his highness has presumably allowed himself
no rest since that time...."
"His highness has allowed himself months of rest!" exclaimed the
emperor.
"Will your majesty permit us to cast our eyes backwards for a moment?
After the very fatiguing journey in the north, the prince returned
straight to conditions of political excitement--Lipara was then under
martial law--and afterwards came the bustle of a festival time, when the
King and Queen of Syria were here...."
The emperor shrugged his shoulders.
"After that, the prince, acting on the advice of my respected
colleagues, went on a sea-voyage to restore his health. No doubt his
highness then enjoyed some days of rest; but the great hunting-trips in
which he took part with Prince Herman were beyond a doubt too much for
his highness' strength. Now, quite recently, his highness has been
betrothed: this may have caused him some excitement. I am casually
mentioning a few of the main facts, sir. I know nothing of the prince's
inner life: if I knew something of that, it would certainly make many
things much easier for me. But this is certain: his highness has from
day to day led a too highly agitated existence, whatever the agitations
may have been, great or small. That his highness did not collapse
earlier is no doubt due to an uncommon power of self-control, of which I
believe the prince himself to be unconscious, and an uncommon sense of
duty, which is also quite spontaneous in his highness. These are high
qualities, sir, in a future ruler...."
A faint flush dyed the empress' cheeks; a milder expression suffused the
coldness of her features.
"And what is your advice, professor?" she asked.
"That his highness should take an indefinite rest, ma'am."
"His highness' marriage was fixed for next month," remarked the empress,
in an enquiring tone.
Professor Barzia's face became quite white and rigid.
"It would be simply inexcusable, if his highness' marriage were to take
place next month," he said, with his even, oracular voice.
"Postponed, then?" asked the emperor, with suppressed rage.
"Without doubt, sir," replied the professor, with cool determination.
"My dear professor," the emperor growled between his teeth, with a
pretence of geniality, "you speak of rest and of rest and of rest. Good
God, I tell you, the prince has _had_ rest, months and months of it!...
Do I ever rest so long? Life is movement; and government is movement. We
can't allow ourselves to rest. Why should a young man like the prince be
always resting? I never remember resting like that, when I was
crown-prince! He may not be as strong as I am, but yet he is of our
race! Excitement, you say! Good God, what excitement? Political
excitement? That fell to _my_ share, not the prince's! And I had no need
of rest after it. And has a prince to go and rest when he gets engaged
to be married? Really, professor, this is carrying hygiene beyond all
limits!"
"Sir, your majesty has done me the honour to ask my opinion of the
prince's condition. I have given that opinion to the best of my
knowledge."
"It's rest, then?"
"Undoubtedly, sir."
"But how long do you want him to rest?"
"I am not able to fix a date, sir."
"How long do you want his marriage postponed?"
"Indefinitely, sir."
The emperor paced the room; something unusual passed over his powerful
features, a look of anguish....
"That's impossible," he muttered, curtly.
All were silent.
"It's impossible," he, repeated, dully.
"Then his highness will marry, sir," said Barzia.
The emperor stood still:
"What do you mean?" he asked, gruffly.
"That nothing can prevail with your majesty in this most important
matter ... except your own sense of what is right and reasonable."
The emperor's breath came in short gasps between his full, sensual lips;
his veins swelled thick on his low, Roman forehead; his strong fists
were clenched. No one had ever seen Oscar like this before; nor had any
one ever dared so to address him....
"Explain yourself more clearly," he thundered into the professor's rigid
face.
Barzia did not move a muscle:
"If his highness is married next month ... it means his death."
The empress remained sitting stiff and upright, but she turned very
pale, shuddered and closed her eyes as though she felt giddy.
"His death?" echoed the emperor, in consternation.
"Or worse," rejoined Barzia.
"Worse?"
"The extinction of your majesty's posterity."
The emperor rapped out a furious oath and struck his fist on the huge
writing-table. The bronze ornaments on it rang. Myxila drew a step
nearer:
"Sir," he said, "there is nothing lost. If I understand Professor
Barzia, his highness' illness is only temporary and is curable."
"Certainly, excellency," replied Barzia. "So long as it is not forced to
become incurable and chronic."
Oscar bit his lips convulsively. His glittering eyes stood out small and
cruel. It struck Myxila how much, at this moment, he resembled a
portrait of Wenceslas the Cruel.
"Professor," he hissed, "we thank you. Stay at Lipara till to-morrow, so
as to observe his highness once more."
"I will obey your majesty's commands," said Barzia.
He bowed, the physicians bowed; they withdrew. Left alone with the
empress and the imperial chancellor, Oscar no longer restrained his
rage. Like a beast foaming at the mouth, he walked fiercely up and down
with heavy steps, gurgling as though the breath refused to come through
his constricted throat:
"Oh!" he gnashed between his teeth, bursting out at last. "That boy,
that boy!... He's not even fit to get married! His duchess: he was able
to get married to her! And that boy, oh, that boy is to succeed me,
_me!_..."
A furious laugh of contempt grated from between his large, white teeth,
with biting irony.
The empress rose:
"Count Myxila," she said, trembling, "may I beg your excellency to come
with me?"
She turned to leave the room. Myxila, hesitating, was already following
her to the door.
"What for?" roared the emperor. "What's the reason of that? I have
something more to say to Myxila."
The empress gave the emperor a look as cold as ice:
"It is my express wish, sir, that Count Myxila should go with me," she
said, in the same trembling voice. "I think your majesty needs solitude.
Your majesty is saying things which a father must not even think and
which a sovereign must certainly not say in the presence of a subject,
not even in that of one of his highest subjects...."
The emperor tried to interrupt her.
"Your majesty," continued the empress, with a haughty tremor, cutting
the words from him with her icy-cold, trembling voice as though with a
knife, "is saying these things of the future Emperor of Lipara ... and I
wish _no_ subject, not even Count Myxila, to hear such things; and,
moreover, your majesty is saying these things of _my son_: therefore I
do not wish to hear them myself, sir! Excellency, I request you once
more to come with me."
"Go then!" shouted the emperor, like a madman. "Go, both of you: yes,
leave me alone, leave me alone!"
He walked furiously up and down, flung the chairs one against the other,
roared like an angry caged lion. He took a bronze statue from a bracket
in front of a tall mirror that rose to the ceiling in gilt arabesques:
"There then!" he lashed out, while his passion seemed to seethe mistily
in his bewildered brain, to shoot red lightning-flashes from his
bloodshot eyes, to drive him mad because of his impotence against the
senseless fate and logic of circumstance.
Like an athlete he brandished the heavy statue through the air; like a
child he hurled it at the great mirror, which fell clattering in a
flicker of shreds.
The empress and Myxila had left the room.
3
The ordinary court-life continued; the empress' first drawing-room took
place. The reception-rooms leading to the great presence-chamber were
lit up, though it was day-time; the ladies entered, handed their cards
to the grand chamberlain, signed their names and waited until their
titles were called out by the masters of ceremonies. They stood in
low-necked dresses; the long white veils fell in misty folds of gauze
from the feathers and jewelled tiaras. It was the first display of the
new costumes of the season, the fashion which had sprung into life and
now moved and had its being; but the crowded rooms seemed but the
antechambers of that display and the upgathered trains gave an
impression of preparation for the solemn second, the momentary
appearance before her majesty.
The Duchess of Yemena was waiting, her train also thrown over her arm,
with the two marchionesses her stepdaughters, whom she was about to
present to the empress, when she saw Dutri, bowing, apologizing,
twisting through the expectant ladies, to make way for himself through
the crowded room:
"Dutri," she beckoned, as he did not seem to perceive her.
He reached her after some difficulty, bowed, paid his compliments to the
little marchionesses. They stood with stiff little faces, frightened,
round eyes and tight-closed mouths; and the lines of their girlish
figures displayed the shyness of novices. With an awkward grace, they
kept arranging their heavy court-trains over their arms. They just
smiled at Dutri's words; then they looked stiff again, compared the
other ladies' dresses with their own.
"Dutri," whispered the duchess, "how is the prince?"
"Just the same," the equerry whispered in reply. "Terribly
melancholy...."
"Dutri," she murmured, sinking her voice still lower, "would there be no
chance for me to see him?"
Dutri started in dismay:
"How do you mean, Alexa? When?"
"Presently, after the drawing-room...."
"But that is impossible, Alexa! The prince sees no one but their
majesties and the princess; he talks to nobody, not even to his
chamberlains, not even to us...."
"Dutri," she insisted, with her hand on his arm, "do your best. Help me.
Ask for an interview for me. If you help me ... I will help you too...."
He looked at her expectantly.
"What do you think of Hélène?" she asked.
"I think Eleonore prettier," he smiled.
"Well, come to us oftener, to my special days; we never see anything of
you. I will prepare the duke...."
She dangled the rich match before his eyes: he blinked them, as he
continued to look at her and smile.
"But then you must help me!" she continued, with a gentle threat.
"I will do my best, Alexa, but I can promise nothing," he just had time
to reply. "Wait for me after the drawing-room, in one of the other
rooms," he whispered, accompanying her for a few steps.
All this time the titles were being cried, ceremoniously, slowly; the
ladies moved on, dropped their trains, blossomed out.
"Her excellency the Duchess of Yemena, Countess of Vaza; their
excellencies the Marchionesses of Yemena...."
The duchess moved on, the girls followed her, crimson, with beating
hearts. They passed through a long gallery, dropping their trains; at
the door of the presence-room, before they entered, stood flunkeys who
spread out the heavy court-mantles.
"Her excellency the Duchess of ..."
The titles rang out for the second time, this time through the
presence-chamber and with a sound of greater reverence, because they
echoed in the listening ears of welcoming majesty.
The duchess and the marchionesses entered. Between the wide hangings of
dark-blue velvet, on which glittered the cross of St. Ladislas, and
under the canopy supported by gilt pillars, sat the empress, like an
idol, glittering in the shadow in her watered-silver brocade, the ermine
imperial mantle falling in heavy folds to her feet, a small diadem
sparkling upon her head. To the right of the throne, on a low stool, sat
the Princess Thera, on the left stood the mistress of the robes, the
Countess of Threma; round about, on either side, a crowd of
ladies-in-waiting, court-officials, equerries, maids of honour, grooms
of the bed-chamber....
The duchess made her curtsey, approached the throne and with great
reverence, as though with diffident lips, touched the jewelled
finger-tips, which the empress held out like a live relic. Then the
duchess took two steps backwards; the marchionesses, one after the
other, followed her example, surprising everybody by the attractive
freshness of their first court-movements, in which the touch of
awkwardness became a charm. Then the bows, in a long ritual of
withdrawal, backwards. They disappeared through other doors, found
themselves in a long gallery, entered other reception-rooms, where
people stood waiting for their carriages. And the two girls looked at
each other, seeking each other's impressions, still crimson with the
excitement in their vain little hearts and strangely surprised at the
incomprehensible briefness of this first and all-important moment of
their lives as grown-up people, as ladies accompanying their mamma to
the Imperial, where they would thenceforth lead their existence. For how
many months beforehand they had thought and dreamed of this moment; now,
suddenly, with surprising quickness, it was over....
The duchess chucked Hélène under the chin, put Eleonore's veil straight,
said that they had curtseyed beautifully, that she had herself even
noticed how pleased the Countess of Threma had been with them. Then she
chatted busily with the other ladies, introduced the little
marchionesses, promised visits. Then she turned to a flunkey:
"Go and see where my carriage is and tell it to leave the rank and drive
up last. Here...."
She gave him a gold coin; the flunkey disappeared. A nervous impatience
seized the duchess; she looked out anxiously for Dutri. At last her eyes
caught sight of him; he came up with his fatuous fussiness:
"Alexa, it's impossible...."
"Have you asked the prince?"
"No, not yet; there's the question, to begin with, whether he'll see
_me_. But then ... how am I to take you to him? There are always
servants hanging about in the doorways, to say nothing of the guards and
halberdiers; in the anterooms you run up against a chamberlain at any
moment. Really, it is impossible."
She grew angry:
"Begin by asking him. We'll see later how we're to get to him."
Dutri made graceful gestures of despair:
"But, Alexa, can't you really understand ... that it is impossible?..."
She made no reply, not wishing to reflect, her head filled with her
stubborn fixed idea to see the prince, to insist on seeing him. And,
suddenly, turning to him:
"Very well, if you don't care to do anything for me, you needn't think I
shall help you in _any_ way."
Her nervous, angry voice sounded louder than her first whispered words:
the two girls heard her.
"Alexa," he besought her, gently.
"No, no," she resisted, curtly.
He thought of his debts and of Eleonore:
"I'll try," he whispered, in despair.
She promptly rewarded him with a smile; he went, hurried away again,
with his eternal air of fussy importance, because of his young imperial
master, who was so sadly ill. In the anteroom he found the chamberlain
on duty:
"Would the prince be willing to see me?"
The chamberlain shrugged his shoulders:
"I'll ask," he said.
He speedily returned: the prince had sent word that Dutri could come in.
Dutri entered. Othomar lay on a couch covered with tiger-skins, in front
of his writing-table. He had grown thinner; his eyes were hollow, his
complexion was wan; his neck protruded frail and wasted from the loose
turn-down collar of his silk shirt, over which he wore a velvet jacket.
In his hand he held an open book. Djalo, the collie, lay on the floor.
Dutri the voluble began to press his request in rapid sentences
following close upon one another's heels....
"The duchess?" repeated Othomar, faintly. "No, no...."
Dutri galloped on, simulated melancholy, employed words of gentle,
insinuating sadness. Othomar's face assumed an expression which was
strange to it and quite new: it was as though the melancholy of his
features were crystallizing into a stubborn obstinacy, a silent
doggedness.
"No," he said once more, while his voice, too, sounded dogged and
obstinate. "Make my apologies to the duchess, Dutri. And where ... where
would she wish to see me?"
"I did not fail to point out this difficulty to her excellency; but
perhaps, if your highness would be so gracious ... one might
nevertheless...."
Othomar closed his eyes and threw his head back; his hand fell loosely
upon the collie's head. He made no further reply and his lips were
tightly compressed.
Dutri still hesitated: what could he do, what should he tell Alexa?...
But the door opened and the empress entered. The drawing-room was over;
she had put off her robes and the crown, but she still wore her stiff,
heavy dress of silver brocade. She looked coldly at Dutri and bowed her
head slightly, as a sign for him to go: the equerry beat a confused
retreat, without his usual tact.
Othomar half-rose from his couch:
"Mamma!..."
She sat down beside him, stroked his forehead with her hand:
"How do you feel?"
He smiled and blinked with his eyes, without replying.
"What was Dutri doing here?"
"He wanted ... Oh, mamma, never mind, don't ask me!... How beautiful you
look! May I, too, kiss your hand?"
Winningly, jestingly he took her hand and kissed it. She took his book
from his fingers, read the treasonable title:
"Are you reading again, Othomar?... You know you mustn't read so much.
And why all these strange books?..."
On the table lay Lassalle, Marx, works by Russian nihilists, a pamphlet
by Bakounine, pamphlets by Zanti.... The little work which he was
reading was by a well-known Liparian anarchist and entitled, _Injustice
by the Grace of God;_ it overthrew everything: religion and the state;
it addressed itself directly to the crowned tyrants in power; it
addressed itself directly to Oscar.
"Is it to get back your health, Othomar, that you read this sort of
thing?" she asked, in a tone of pained reproach.
"But, mamma, I must see what it is that they want...."
"And what do they want?"
He looked pensively before him:
"I don't know what they want, I can't understand them. They employ very
long sentences, the same sentences over and over again, with the same
words over and over again. I can just make out that they disapprove of
everything that exists and want something different. But yet
sometimes...."
"Sometimes what?"
"Sometimes they say terrible things, terrible because they sound so
true, mamma. When they speak of God and prove that He does not exist,
when they describe our whole system of government as a monstrosity and
reject all authority, including our own.... They sometimes speak like
children who have suddenly learnt to talk and to judge; and then
sometimes they suddenly speak clearly; and then very primitive thoughts
arise in me: if God exists, why is there any injustice and misery; and
our authority: on what right is that founded? O God, mamma, what right
have we to reign over others, over millions? Tell me--but argue from the
beginning: don't argue backwards; don't begin with us: begin with our
first rulers, our usurpers--what right had they? And does ours merely
spring from theirs? Oh, these problems, these simple problems: who can
solve them, my God, who can solve them?..."
Elizabeth suddenly turned pale. She stared at him as though he had gone
mad:
"Who gives you these books?" she asked, harshly, hoarsely, anxiously.
"Dutri, Leoni; Andro has also fetched me some."
"They're mad!" exclaimed the empress, rising. "Why do you ask for them?"
"I want to know, mamma...."
"Othomar," she cried, "will you do what I ask?"
"Yes, mamma," he replied, gently, "but sit down again and ... and don't
be angry. And ... and don't say 'Othomar.' And ... and go and change
your dress: oh, I can't see you in that dress; you are so far from me;
your voice doesn't reach me and I daren't kiss you: you are not my
mother, you are the empress! Mamma, O mamma!..."
His voice appealed to her. A powerful emotion awoke in her.
"O my boy!" she cried, with a half-sob breaking in her throat.
"Yes, yes, call me that.... Mamma, let's be quick and find each other
again, let us not lose each other. What is your request?"
"Give me all those books."
"I will give them to you; they make me no happier, when all is said!"
"But then why are you unhappy, my boy, my boy?"
"Mamma, look at the world, look at our people, see how they suffer, see
how they are oppressed! What shall I ever be able to do for them! I
shall always be powerless, in spite of all our power! Oh, it grows so
dark in front of me, I can see nothing more, I have no hope; only
Utopians have any hope left, but I ... I no longer hope, for I can do
nothing, nothing!... O my God, mamma, the whole country is falling upon
me and crushing me and I can do nothing, nothing!... I shall have to
reign and I shall not be able to, mamma. What am I? A poor sickly boy:
how can I become emperor? I don't know why it is, mamma, nor what it
comes from, but I don't feel like a future emperor, I feel like a feeble
child! I feel like your child, your boy, and nothing more...."
He seemed about to throw himself into her arms, but on the contrary he
flung himself backwards, as though he were frightened by her brilliant
attire; his head dropped nervelessly on his chest, his arms fell loosely
down. She saw his movement: her first feeling was one of regret that she
had come to him in court-dress, longing as she did to see him, not
allowing herself the time to change. But this regret passed through her
as a transient emotion, for it was followed by an intense dizziness, as
though a yawning abyss opened at her feet, as though the earth retreated
and black nothingness gaped before her. A despair as of utter impotence
enveloped her soul. Vaguely she stretched out her arms and threw them
round his neck, as though she were groping in the dark, with wandering
eyes:
"My boy, don't talk like that any more, because ... when you talk like
that, you take away my strength too!" she whispered, in alarm. "For how
can it be helped? You must, we all must...."
"Forgive me, mamma, but I ... I shall not be able to. Oh, I see it
clearly now! I am not excited, I am calm. I see it, I prophesy it, it
can never be...."
"But papa is still so young and so strong, my boy; and, when you grow
older...."
"The older I grow, the more impossible it will be, mamma. I was always
frightened of it as a child, but I never realized it so desperately as
now. No, mamma, it cannot be. Now that I am ill, I have plenty of time
to reflect; and I now see before me what the end of all our trouble is
bound to be...."
His eyes gazed at the floor in despair; she still half-clung to him,
helplessly; a menacing shiver seemed to float through the room.
"Mamma...."
She made no response.
"I must tell you of my resolve...."
"What resolve?..."
"Will you tell it to papa?"
"What, what, Othomar ... my boy?"
"That I can't marry ... Valérie, because...."
"Later, later: you needn't marry yet...."
"No, mamma, I never can, because I...."
She looked at him beseechingly, enquiringly.
"Because I want to abdicate ... my rights ... in favour of ...
Berengar...."
She made no reply; feebly she drooped against him, not knowing how to
console and cheer him, and softly and plaintively began to sob. It was
as though her soul was being flooded with anguish, slowly but
persistently, until it brimmed over. She reproached herself with it all.
He was her child: the future Emperor of Liparia had derived this
weakness from her. And the manifestation of this agonizing mystery of
heredity before her despairing eyes deprived her of all her strength, of
all her courage, of all her power of acquiescence and resignation.
"Mamma," he repeated.
She sobbed on.
"Don't be so disconsolate.... Berengar will be better than I.... You'll
tell papa, won't you?... Or no, never mind, if it costs you too great an
effort: I'll tell him myself...."
She started up nervously from her despair:
"O my God, no! Othomar, no! Don't talk to him about it: he is so
passionate, he would ... he would murder you! Promise me that you will
not talk to him about it! _I_ will tell him--O my God!--_I_ will tell
him...."
But a tremor of hope revived within her.
"But, Othomar, I ask you, why do you do this? You are ill now, but you
will get better and then ... then you will think differently!"
He gazed out before him: his presentiment quivered through him; he saw
his dream again: the streets of Lipara filled with crape, right up to
the sky, where it veiled the sunlight. And over his features there
passed again that new air of hardness, of dogged obstinacy which made
him unrecognizable; he shook his head slowly from side to side, from
side to side:
"No, mamma, I shall never think differently. Believe me, it will be
better so."
When she saw him like that, her new hope collapsed again and she sobbed
once more. Sobbing, she rose; amid her sorrow yawned a void; she was
losing something: her son.
"Are you going?" he asked.
She nodded yes, sobbing.
"Do you forgive me?"
She nodded yes again. Then she gave him a smile, a smile full of
despair; lacking the strength to kiss him, she went out, still sobbing.
He remained alone and rose from his couch. He stood in the middle of the
room; his eyes stared at the collie:
"Why need I give her pain!" he thought.
Everything in his soul hurt him.
"Why did I go on that voyage with Herman?" he asked himself again. "It
was in those first days of rest that I began to think so much. And yet
Professor Barzia says, 'Rest!' ... What does he know about me? What does
one person know about another?... Djalo!" he cried.
The collie ran up, wriggling, joyfully.
"Djalo, what is right? How ought the world to be? Must there be kings
and emperors, Djalo, or had we better all disappear?"
The dog looked at him, wagging its tail violently; suddenly it jumped up
and licked his face.
"And why, Djalo, need one man always make the other unhappy? Why need
princes make their people unhappy? Will life always remain the same, for
ages and ages?..."
Othomar sank into a heap on the couch; his hand fell on the dog, which
licked it passionately.
"Oh!" he sobbed. "My people, my people!..."
* * * * *
At this moment the last carriages were driving away in the fore-court of
the Imperial; the staring crowd, behind the grenadiers, peeped curiously
at the pretty ladies glistening through the glass of the state-coaches.
The Duchess of Yemena's carriage came last of all.
4
A spirit of gloom seemed to haunt the ringing marble halls of the
Imperial, a dim melancholy to stifle the cadences of the voices and
their echoes and to hang from the tall ceilings as it had been a heavy
web of atmosphere. It was autumn; the first parties were to take place;
the first court-ball was given. But it seemed to be given because there
was no help for it: it was a slow, official, tedious function. The more
intimate circles of the Imperial, those of the Duchess of Yemena and the
diplomatic body, regretted the more select assemblies in the smaller
rooms of the empress. They looked upon those great balls as necessary
inflictions. The empress' smaller dances, however, were always favoured
as most charming entertainments. But the empress had decided that they
should not take place, because of the illness of the crown-prince. At
this first great ball their majesties appeared only for a brief moment,
to take part in the imperial quadrille....
Grey ashes fell over the glittering mood of imperial festivity which so
short a time ago had been the usual atmosphere of the palace. The
dinners, once the glories of day after day, were shortened; only the
most necessary invitations were given. The emperor himself maintained a
constant mood of sullenness: the army bill for the augmentation of the
active forces was still attacked in principle in the house of deputies;
and the emperor was resolved at all costs to uphold his minister of war.
Moreover, thanks to the dash of childishness that showed through all his
energy, he had not recovered from his disappointment at the postponement
of the Duke of Xara's marriage. He seemed in a continual state of
irritation because his Liparian world would not go as he wanted it to
go.
Neither the empress nor the prince himself thought it a favourable
moment to communicate the mournful resolution to the emperor. But for
this very reason the empress began silently to cherish fresh hope.
Nothing had been said yet: the humiliating secret existed only between
her son and herself. Humiliating, because what public reason could he
allege for resigning the succession? What pretext would sound plausible
enough to conceal the true motive of weakness and impotence? And yet he
was her child and Oscar's! It seemed to the empress unfeasible to
communicate Othomar's wish to his father and to tell the emperor that
his own son had no capacity for government. Oh, what sacrifice would she
not be prepared to make, if only she could spare her child this
humiliation! But was he really so powerless to master himself and to
draw himself up, proudly, under the weight of what was as yet no more
than a prince's coronet? Had she but known how to counteract his
discouragement; but she had merely sobbed, merely given way before his
despair; in vain had she sought in his soul the secret spring that
should cause him to rise from the impotence into which the languor of
his reflections had made him sink.... And yet she felt that there must
be a secret spring, because she instinctively divined its presence in
the souls of all her equals: it was the mystery of their sovereignty,
the reason why they were sovereigns, the reason of their prerogative.
She possessed the adorable, child-like faith that in them, the crowned
heads, there exists a common essence of distinction which raises them
above the crowd: that single drop of sacred blood in their veins, that
single atom of inherited divinity, which sheds lustre through their
souls. She believed in their high exclusive right of majesty. Because
she believed in that even as she believed in her sinfulness as a human
being and in the absolution of her confessor, the Archbishop of Lipara,
she could never for one instant doubt their right divine as rulers.
Whatever people might think, or write, or want different, theirs was the
right: of this she was certain, as certain as of the Trinity. That
Othomar had doubted the existence of God had struck her as impious, but
it had not shattered her so much as his disbelief in their right. Was he
alone then lacking in that essence of distinction, that sacred golden
drop of blood, that divine atom? And, if he lacked it, if he, the
crown-prince, lacked majesty, was this monstrous lack her fault, the
fault of the mother who bore him?
The suspicion of this guilt crushed her; and before she even dared to
speak to Othomar she humbled herself before the archbishop. The prelate,
alarmed at these portents in the mysterious melancholy of the Imperial,
had scarcely known how to comfort her. After that, she remained
prostrate for hours before her crucifix. She prayed with all her soul,
prayed for light for herself and for her son, prayed for strength and
that the spark might descend upon Othomar. When she had prayed thus, so
long and with such conviction, there came over her, like an afflatus of
the Holy Ghost, a sense of peace. She became herself again, she awaited
events, regained her credulous fatalism, her conviction that nothing
happens but what must happen and is right. What was wrong did not
happen. If it were fated that Othomar must receive that spark, that
would be right; if it were fated that he must abdicate, that would be
right too, O God, right with a strange, inscrutable rightness!...
Because the days had passed without her having yet spoken to the
emperor, she hoped anew; she hoped that Othomar would be his old self
again and no longer seek his own degradation. But it was as though she
hoped in spite of everything; for, each time that she now saw Othomar,
she found him duller and more exhausted, more helpless beneath the
certainty of his weakness. Professor Barzia, who treated the prince
personally and twice a day gave him his cold-water douche in the palace,
seemed to be least uneasy about Othomar's physical weakness. The prince
was not robust, but the professor divined in his delicate constitution
the presence of the element that had sprung from the first rough,
sensual strength of the Czyrkiski race: the Slavonic element, which had
become enervated through its Latin admixtures, but had lingered on; a
secret toughness, an indestructible factor of unsuspected firmness,
which lay deep down, like a foundation, and upon which much seemed to be
built that was very slender and fragile. What had once been rude
strength the professor believed he had discovered in a certain
toughness; what had been cruelty and lust, in a certain enervation,
which had hitherto been held in check by self-restraint and a
spontaneous sense of duty, but which now suddenly revealed itself in
this excessive lassitude. Barzia distinctly perceived in Othomar the
scion of his ancestors; and he considered that, though the rich physical
vigour of the original sovereign blood had become refined, as if it were
now flowing more thinly through feebler veins, yet that blood was not so
impoverished that the delicacy of this future emperor need be ascribed
to racial exhaustion. Possibly Barzia's sudden affection for the prince
tinged this physiological diagnosis with excessive optimism; at any
rate, the professor had not the least fear of this fragility, or even of
this nervous weakness. What he did fear was lest those mental qualities
which had so suddenly endeared the prince to him should not be able to
maintain themselves during this period of fatigue and exhaustion.
Spontaneous, unreflected, uncalculated he knew those virtues to be in
the prince, as it were a treasure unknown to himself: would they be
lost, now, in these mournful days, or would they remain, perhaps
develop, become more and more refined, make up to Othomar in moral
strength for what he lacked in physical strength and in this way cure
him? For the professor knew it: these qualities alone could effect a
cure....
Othomar himself thought neither of his virtues nor of his blood: he
thought of his future and thought of it with an hourly-increasing dread.
When the empress asked Barzia whether this rest would be good for the
prince and whether distraction would not be better, the professor
declared that the prince had had plenty of distraction lately. He must
first get over his fatigue, get over it entirely; it mattered less with
what the prince kept his brain occupied for the moment....
But Barzia did not mean this altogether and would doubtless have been
very far from meaning it at all, had he known of what the prince was
thinking, or been fully able to judge his utter lack of mental
elasticity.
And the days passed by. Othomar did not mention his resolution to the
empress again, desiring to give her as little pain as possible; neither
did the empress allude to it: she hoped on.
But in Othomar's meditations it revolved incessantly, like a wheel: he
was able to do nothing for his people and yet he loved them; he did not
know how to govern them, he would abdicate his rights and his title of
crown-prince: Berengar should become Duke of Xara....
The small prince came and paid his brother a short visit every morning;
he always wore his little uniform, looking like a sturdy little general
in miniature, and Othomar watched him with a smile.
Was there no wish to rule in the boy's medieval little brain, was there
no jealousy in his passionate little heart? Othomar remembered the
history of Liparia, in the cruel times of their early middle-ages, that
terrible drama--they still showed at St. Ladislas the chamber where it
had been enacted--that second son stabbing his elder brother in his lust
for the crown and hurling the corpse from an oriel window into the
Zanthos, which flowed beneath the fortress. What had the boy inherited
of this rivalry? And, though this rivalry had been wholly refined into
less salient feelings, would not an immense happiness enter Berengar's
small princely soul if he were to learn that he might be crown-prince
now and that one day he would be ... emperor? But what would the boy
think of him, Othomar, for giving away all this magnificence of his own
free will? Would he despise him, while yet feeling grateful to him, or
would he cherish mistrust, suspecting a lurking mystery behind all this
greatness, which Othomar cast from him?...
At such times Othomar would draw the little fellow to him with silent
compassion, but would take pleasure in feeling the firm muscles of his
sturdy little arms and listening to his short, crisp little speeches.
Then Berengar rode away and Djalo was allowed to run with him through
the park: in an hour he would bring the dog back to Othomar and talk
with great importance of his lessons, which were just beginning.
And, when Berengar had gone, Othomar lay thinking about him in his long
hours of reverie, already looked upon his brother as actually
crown-prince, erased his own name from the list of future sovereigns,
thought of what he would do when he was cured and had shaken off the
last remnant of his purple, remembered his uncle Xaverius, who was the
abbot of a monastery, and pictured himself studying, compiling works on
history and sociology....
5
These were autumn days. The sunny blue of the sky was often clouded with
grey; in the morning the winds blew from the north, blew over the sea
till it became the colour of steel; then the sun broke through and shone
very warmly for a couple of hours, with an occasional cold blast,
suddenly and treacherously rushing round the corners of the streets;
then, at four or half-past four o'clock, the sun was extinguished and
the pale sky was left exhaling its icy chillness on the open harbour,
between the white palaces, in the streets and squares.
It was a treacherous time of year: the empress and Berengar had caught
cold driving in an open carriage; they both kept their rooms and Othomar
in his turn went to visit them; the empress was coughing, the little
prince had a temperature; there was never so much illness about as now,
the doctors declared. And a melancholy continued to brood through the
halls of the Imperial, through the whole town, where the imperial family
were no longer seen at the opera and at parties. Never had the daily
dinners at the Imperial been so short, with so few guests; and it made
an insurmountably sad impression not to see the empress seated next to
the emperor, delicate, distinguished, august, but in her stead the
Princess Thera, who seemed quite incapable of bringing a smile to
Oscar's grim and peevish features.
Othomar did not even know that those about the empress were anxious on
her behalf: she always received him with all the cheerfulness that she
could muster, in spite of the pain on her chest; the doctors told him
nothing, no one gave him the bulletins, every one tried to spare him;
and besides there was really less anxiety in the Imperial than in the
town and throughout the country. But the little prince received Othomar
with less meekness than did the empress; and every day there were silent
rages, sulking displays against the doctors for keeping him in bed.
Once, when the crown-prince came to see Berengar, the doctors were with
him; the fever had increased, but the little prince wanted to get out of
bed; he was naughty, used ugly names, had even struck the good-natured,
big-headed doctor and pummelled him with his little clenched fist.
"As soon as you're better, Berengar," said Othomar, after first
reproving him, "I shall make you a present."
"What of?" asked the boy, eagerly. "But I am better now!"
"No, no, you must do what the doctors tell you and not vex them."
"And what will you give me then?"
Othomar looked at him long and firmly.
"What shall I have then?" repeated the child.
"I mustn't tell you yet, Berengar; it's really rather big for you
still."
"What is it then? A horse?"
"No, it's not as big as a horse, but heavier. Don't ask any more about
it and also don't try and guess what it is, but be obedient: then you'll
get better and then you shall have it."
"Heavier than a horse and not so big!..." Berengar pondered, with
glowing cheeks.
With his head bowed on his breast, dragging his footsteps, Othomar
returned to his room. He stayed there for hours, sitting silently,
gloomily, in the same attitude; as usual, he did not appear at dinner
and hardly ate what Andro brought him. Then he went to lie down on his
couch, took up a book to read, but put it down again and raised himself
up, as though with a sudden impulse:
"Why not now?" he thought. "Why keep on postponing it?..."
Night fell, but the upper corridors of the palace were not yet lighted;
dragging his fatigue through this dusky shadow, Othomar went to the
emperor's anterooms. The chamberlain announced him.
Oscar sat at his writing-table, pen in hand.
"Am I disturbing you, papa? Or can I speak to you?"
"No, you're not disturbing me.... Have you been to see mamma?"
"Yes, this afternoon; she was pretty well, but Berengar's temperature
was higher."
The emperor glanced up at him:
"Worse than this morning?"
"I don't know: he was rather feverish."
The emperor rose:
"Do you want to talk to me?"
"Yes, papa."
"Wait a moment, then. I've not been to Berengar yet to-day."
He went out, leaving the door ajar.
Othomar remained alone. He sat down. He looked round the great
work-room, which he knew so well from their morning consultations with
the chancellor. Lately, however, he had not attended these. He thought
over what he should say; meanwhile his eyes wandered around; they fell
upon the great mirror with its gilt arabesques; something seemed strange
to him. Then he rose and walked up to the glass:
"I was under the impression there was a flaw near the top of it," he
thought. "I can't well be mistaken. Has it been renewed?"
He was still standing by the looking-glass, when Oscar returned:
"Berengar is not at all well; the fever is increasing," he said; and the
tone of his voice hesitated. "Mamma is with him...."
Absorbed as he was in his own meditations, it did not strike Othomar
that the little prince must have become worse for the empress, who was
herself ill, to go to him.
"And about what did you want to speak to me?" asked the emperor, as the
prince remained silent.
"About Berengar, papa."
"About Berengar?"
"About Berengar and myself. I have been contrasting myself with him,
papa. We are brothers, we are both your sons. Which of us, do you think,
takes most after you ... and ... our ancestors?"
"What are you driving at, Othomar?"
"At what is right, papa: right and just. Nature is sometimes unjust and
blind; she ought to have let Berengar be born first and me next ... or
even left me out altogether."
"Once more, what are you driving at, Othomar?"
"Can't you see, papa? I will tell you. Is Berengar not more of a monarch
than I am? Is that not why he's your favourite? And ought I to deprive
him of his natural rights for the sake of my traditional rights? I want
to abdicate in his favour, papa. I want to abdicate everything, all my
rights."
"The boy's mad," muttered Oscar.
"All my rights," repeated Othomar, dreamily, as though he foresaw the
future: his little brother crowned.
"Othomar, are you raving?" asked the emperor.
"Papa, I am not raving. What I am now telling you I have thought over
for days, perhaps weeks; I don't know: time passes so quickly.... What I
am telling you I have discussed with mamma: it made her cry, but she did
not oppose me. She looks at it as I do.... And what I tell you holds
good; I have made up my mind and nothing can make me change it.... I am
fond of Berengar; I am glad to give up everything to him; and I shall
pray that he may become happy through my gift. I am convinced--and so
are you--that Berengar will make a better emperor than I. What talent do
I possess for ruling?..."
He shrugged his shoulders in helplessness, with a nervous shudder that
jolted them:
"None," he answered himself. "I have no talent, I can do nothing. I do
not know how to decide--as now--nor how to act; I shall always be a
dreamer. Why then should I be emperor and he nothing more than the
commander-in-chief of my army or my fleet? Surely that can't be right;
that can't have been what nature intended.... Papa, I give it him, my
birthright, and I ... I shall know how to live, if I must...."
The emperor had listened to him with his elbows on the table and his
hands under his chin and now sat staring at him with his small, pinched
eyes:
"Do you mean all this?" he asked.
"Yes, papa."
"You're not delirious?"
"No, papa, I'm not delirious."
"Then you're mad."
The emperor rose:
"Then you're mad, I tell you. Othomar, realize that you're mad and
return to your senses; don't become quite insane."
"Why do you call me insane, papa? _Can't_ you agree with me that
Berengar would be better than I?"
His father's cruel glances stabbed Othomar through and through:
"No, you're not insane in that; you're right there...."
"And why, then, am I insane because I wish, for that reason, to abdicate
in his favour?"
"Because it's impossible, Othomar."
"What law prevents me?"
"My will, Othomar."
The prince drew himself up proudly:
"Your will?" he cried. "Your will? You acknowledge that I am nothing of
a prince except by birth? You acknowledge that Berengar does possess
your capacity for ruling and you will not, you _will_ not have me
abdicate? And you think that I shall fall in with that will?..."
He uttered a hoarse laugh:
"No, papa, I shall pay no heed to that will. You can carry through your
will in everything, but not in this. Though you called out your whole
army, you could not prevail against me here. There is a limit to the
power of human will, papa, and nothing, nothing, nothing can prevent me
from considering myself unfit to reign and from _refusing_ to wear a
crown!"
The emperor seized Othomar's wrists; his hot breath hissed in Othomar's
face:
"You damned cub!" he snarled between his large, white teeth. "You
wretched nincompoop! You're right: there's nothing of the emperor in
you; there never will be. If I didn't know better, I'd say you were the
son of a footman. You're right, you're incompetent. You're nothing: our
crown doesn't fit you. And yet, though I had to lock you up in a prison,
so that no one might hear of your baseness, you shall _not_ abdicate
your rights. My will extends farther than you can see. Do you hear? You
shan't do it, you shan't resign, though from this moment onwards I have
to hide you, as a disgrace, from the world. Your slack brain can't
understand that, can it? You can't understand that I'm fonder of
Berengar than of a poltroon like you and that nevertheless I won't have
him as my successor in your stead? Then I shall have to tell you. I
won't have it, so as not to let the world see the degeneration of our
race. I will not have the world know how pitiably we have deteriorated
in you; and I would rather ... I would rather murder you than allow you
to abdicate!"
Fiercely Oscar took the prince by his shoulders, pushed him backwards on
a couch, on which Othomar sank in a huddled attitude, while his father
continued to hold him like a prey in the grip of his strong hands:
"But I tell you," continued the emperor, "I tell you, you are _not_ the
son of a footman, you are my son; and I shall not murder you, because I
am your father. I will only say this to you, Othomar: you might have
spared me this. I believe you have a high opinion of your own delicacy
of feeling, but you have not the very least feeling. You do not even
feel that you have been contemplating a villainy, the villainy of a
proletarian, a slave, a pariah, a wretch. You have not felt even for an
instant the pain you would cause me by such an infamy. You saw that I
was fonder of your brother; you thought that I should approve of your
cowardly proposal. Not for a moment did the thought occur to you that,
with that cowardice of yours, you would give _me_ the greatest pain that
I could ever experience!..."
Othomar, utterly crushed, had fallen back upon the couch. He was no
longer able to distinguish what was just and what was true; he no longer
knew himself at that minute; his father's words lashed his soul like
whips. And he felt no strength within him to resist them: the insulting
reproaches kept him down, as though he had been thrashed. Infamy and
disgrace, insanity and degeneration: he collapsed beneath them; he
gulped down the mud of them, till he felt like suffocating. And that he
did not suffocate and continued to breathe, continued to live, that the
light was bright around him, that things remained unchanged, that the
outside world knew nothing: all this was despair to him. For a moment he
thought of his mother. But he wished for darkness, for death, to hide
himself, himself and his shame, his degeneration, the leprosy of his
pariah-temperament.... It flashed through him in the second after that
last lash of reproach, flashed across his despondent soul. He knew that
Oscar always kept a loaded revolver in an open pigeon-hole of his
writing-table. His brain grew tense in the effort of thinking how to
reach it. He rose, approached the pigeon-hole; suddenly he sprang
towards it, stretched out his hand and seized the pistol....
Did Oscar believe that his son had been driven mad by his last words and
now wanted his father's life? Did he perceive this ecstasy of suicide in
his offspring, was his quivering brain penetrated by the horrible
thought that self-destruction would be the pariah's last refuge? Be this
as it might, he rushed at Othomar. But the prince lightly leapt out of
his reach, pointed the revolver, with wild eyes, with distorted
features, in senseless despair, upon himself, upon his own forehead, on
which the veins swelled blue....
"Othomar!" roared the emperor.
At this moment hurried footsteps were heard outside, confused words
sounded in the anteroom and the Marquis of Xardi, the emperor's
aide-de-camp, alarmed and flurried, threw the door wide open....
"Sir!" he exclaimed. "The empress asks if your majesty will come to
Prince Berengar this instant...."
The shot had gone off, into the wall. Blood dripped from Othomar's ear.
The emperor had caught hold of the crown-prince and torn the revolver,
still loaded in five chambers, from him; a second shot went off in that
brief moment of struggle, into the ceiling, Othomar remained standing
vacantly.
"Marquis!" the emperor hissed out at Xardi. "I don't know what you
think, but I tell you this: you've seen nothing, you think nothing. What
happened here before you came in ... did not happen."
He pointed his finger, threateningly at Xardi:
"Should you ever forget, marquis, that it did not happen, then I shall
forget who you are, though your pedigree dates back farther than ours!"
Xardi stood deathly pale before his emperor:
"My God, sir!..."
"What do you mean by entering your sovereign's room in this unmannerly
fashion? Even the Duke of Xara has himself announced, marquis!"
"Sir...."
"What? Speak up!..."
"Her majesty...."
"Well, her majesty?"
"Prince Berengar ... the fever has increased ... he is delirious, sir,
and the doctors ..."
The emperor turned pale:
"Is he dead?" he asked, fiercely. "Tell me at once."
"Not dead, sir, but...."
"But what?"
"But the doctors ... have no hope...."
With an oath of anguish the emperor pushed the aide aside and darted out
of the room.
The prince remained standing. Life returned to him: a reality full of
anguish, born of nightmare. His eyes swam with tears:
"Xardi," he implored, "Xardi ... your house has always been loyal to our
house; swear to me that you will be silent."
The marquis looked at the crown-prince in consternation:
"Highness...."
"Swear to me, Xardi."
"I swear to you, highness," said the aide, subdued; and he stretched out
his fingers to the crucifix hanging on the wall.
Othomar pressed his hand:
"Did Prince Berengar...." He could scarcely speak. "Did Prince Berengar
become so ill suddenly?..."
"The fever is increasing every moment, highness, and he is
delirious...."
"I will go to him," said Othomar.
He wiped the blood from his ear with his handkerchief and held the
cambric, which was at once soaked through, against it.
In the last anteroom he passed the chamberlain and looked at him
askance.
Xardi stopped for a moment:
"The Duke of Xara has hurt himself slightly," he said. "He was examining
the emperor's revolver when I went in and he started: two shots went
off."
"I heard them," whispered the chamberlain, pale as death.
"There might have been an accident...."
They were silent for a moment; their glances were full of understanding;
a shudder crept down their backs. The chill night seemed to be
descending over the palace as with clouds of evil omen.
"And ... the little prince?..." asked the chamberlain, shivering.
Xardi shrugged his shoulders; his eyes grew moist, through innate,
immemorial love for his sovereigns:
"Dying," he answered, faintly.
6
The crown-prince passed through the anteroom: one of the doctors stood
dipping poultices into a basin of ice; a valet was bringing in a pail of
fresh ice. The door of the bedroom was open and Othomar remained
standing at the door. The little prince lay on his camp-bed, talking in
a low, sing-song tone; the empress, pale, suffering, bearing up in spite
of everything, sat beside him with Princess Thera.
The emperor exchanged brief words with the two other doctors, whose
features were overcast with a stark hopelessness; a mordant anguish
distorted Oscar's face, which became furrowed with deep wrinkles:
"My God, he doesn't know me, he doesn't know me!" Othomar heard the
emperor complain.
"Nor me," murmured the empress.
"What can it be? What, what, what can it be?" sang the little prince;
and his usually shrill little voice sounded soft as a bird's melody: it
was as though he were playing by himself. "I'm to have a present from my
brother, from my brother, something nice!" he sang on.
The empress could distinguish his words, but she did not understand; and
when he went on to sing the name of the crown-prince, with his title:
"Othomar, O Othomar of Xara, of Xara!..." she turned to the door and
gently implored:
"Othomar, he's calling your name; come, perhaps he will know you!"
Othomar approached; he went past the emperor and knelt down by the bed;
a smile lit up Berengar's little face.
"He is becoming calmer," said the kind doctor, whose tears were running
down his cheeks, to Oscar. "Does your majesty see? The prince recognizes
his highness the duke...."
A note of gladness sounded in his voice.
But a violent jealousy distorted the emperor's features:
"No, no," he said.
"Certainly, sir, only look," the doctor insisted, his hope reviving.
"O Othomar, O Othomar of Xara!" sang the little prince: he had
recognized his brother, but did not see him in the flesh, saw him only
in his waking dream, through the mist of his fever.
"What do you bring me that's nice? Smaller than a horse, but heavier?
Heavier? Oh, how heavy it is, how heavy, heavy, heavy!..."
His little voice came as though with an effort, as though he were
lifting something; his convulsive, small, broad hands made a gesture of
laborious lifting.
"Berengar," said the crown-prince; and his voice broke, his heart sank
within him....
"Othomar," replied the child.
A cry of anguish escaped the emperor.
"Yes, you're always so good to me," continued the little prince in his
sing-song. "You always give me such nice things. You know, those lovely
guns on my last birthday? And that pistol? But mamma's afraid of
that!... Are you dying, Othomar? Look, there's blood on your ear.... But
when people bleed they die! Are you dying, Othomar? Look, blood on your
coat...."
The empress remained sitting straight upright; she glared from Berengar
at the bleeding wound of her eldest son....
"Blood, blood, blood!" sang Berengar. "Othomar is dying! Yes, he always
gives me so many nice things, does Othomar. I have so many already, many
more than all the other children of Liparia put together! And what am I
to have now?... Still more?... That nice thing: what is it? I can feel
it: it's so heavy; but I can't see it...."
The doctor had come from the anteroom and approached with the poultices.
"I can't see it!... I can't see it!..." the boy sang out, painfully and
faintly.
When the doctor applied the poultices, Berengar struggled, began to cry,
as though a great sorrow was springing up in his little heart:
"I can't see it!" he sobbed. "I shall never see it!..."
A violent paroxysm succeeded the sobbing: he struck out wildly with his
arms, pulled off the poultices, threw the ice off his head, stood up
mad-eyed in his bed, flung away the sheets.... Othomar rose, the empress
also. The emperor sat in a chair, his face covered with his hands, and
sobbed by Princess Thera's side. The doctors approached the bed,
endeavoured to calm Berengar, but he struck them: the fever mounted into
his little brain in madness.
At this moment Professor Barzia entered: he was not staying in the
palace; he had been sent for at his hotel.
"What is your highness doing here?" he said, point-blank, to Othomar.
The crown-prince made no reply.
"Your highness will retire to your own rooms at once," the professor
commanded.
"Save my boy!" exclaimed the emperor, broken, sobbing.
"I am saving the crown-prince first, sir: he is killing himself here!"
"Very well, but next save _him!_" shouted Oscar, fiercely.
The other doctors had given orders: a tub was brought in, filled with
lukewarm water, regulated by a thermometer.... But Othomar saw no more:
he rushed away, driven out by Barzia's stern glances. He rushed along
the corridors, through a group of officers and chamberlains, who stood
anxiously whispering and made way for him. He plunged into his own room,
which was not lighted. In the dark, he thought he was flinging himself
upon a couch, but bumped upon the ground. There he remained lying. Then,
as though crushed by the darkness, he began to croon, to moan, to sob
aloud, with sharp, hysterical cries.
Andro entered; his foot struck against the prince. He lit the gas, tried
to lift his master. But Othomar lay heavy as lead; fierce and prolonged,
his nervous cries came jolting from his throat. Andro rang, once, twice,
three times; he went on ringing for a long time; at last a footman and a
chamberlain appeared together, at different doors.
"Call Professor Barzia!" cried Andro to the footman. "Excellency, will
you help me lift his highness?" he begged the chamberlain.
But, when the footman turned round, he ran against the professor, who
could do nothing for the little prince and had followed the
crown-prince. He saw Othomar lying on the floor, moaning, screaming....
"Leave me alone with his highness," he ordered, with a glance around
him.
The chamberlain, Andro, the footman obeyed his order.
The professor was a tall old man, heavily-built and strong; he
approached the prince and lifted him in his arms, notwithstanding the
leaden heaviness of hysteria. Thus he held him, merely with his arms
around him, upon the couch and looked deep into his eyes, with hypnotic
glances. Suddenly Othomar ceased his cries; his voice was hushed. His
head fell feebly upon Barzia's shoulder. The professor continued to hold
him in his arms. The prince became calm, like a quieted child, without
Barzia's having uttered a word.
"May I request your highness to go to bed?" said the professor, with a
gentle voice of command.
He assisted Othomar to get up and himself lit the light in the bedroom
and helped the prince off with his coat.
"What has made your highness' ear bleed?" asked Barzia, whose fingers
were soiled with clotted blood.
"A revolver-shot," Othomar began, faintly; his closed and averted eyes
told the rest.
The professor said nothing more. As though Othomar were a child, he went
on helping him, washed his ear, his neck, his hands, with a mother's
gentleness. Then he made him lie down in bed, covered him over, tidying
the room like a servant. Then he went and sat by the bed, where Othomar
lay staring with strange, wide-open eyes: he took the prince's hand and
sat thus for a long time, looking softly down upon him. The light
behind, turned down low, threw Barzia's large head into the shadow and
just glanced upon his bald cranium, from which a few grey locks hung
down his neck. At last he said, gently:
"Your highness wishes to get well, do you not?"
"Yes," said Othomar, in spite of himself.
"How does your highness propose to do so?" asked the professor.
The prince did not answer.
"Doesn't your highness know? Then you must think it over. But you must
keep very calm, will you not, very calm...."
And he stroked Othomar's hand with a gentle, regular motion, as though
anointing it with balsam.
"For your highness must never again give way to nervous attacks. Your
highness must study how to prevent them. I am giving your highness much
to think about," continued Barzia, with a smile. "I am doing this
because I want to let your highness think of other things than of what
you are thinking. I want to clear your brain for you. Are you tired and
do you want to go to sleep, or shall I go on talking?"
"Yes, go on," whispered the prince.
"There are days of great grief in store for the Imperial," the doctor
resumed, gently. "Your highness must think of those days without
permitting yourself to be overcome by the grief of them.... The little
prince will probably not recover, highness. Will you think of that ...
and think of your parents, their poor majesties? There are days like
these for a nation, or for a single family, in which grief seems to pile
itself up. For does not this day, this night seem to mark the end of
your race, my prince?... Lie still, lie still, don't move: let me talk
on, like a garrulous old man.... Does your highness know that the
emperor to-day, for the first time in his whole life, cried, sobbed? His
younger son is dying. Between this boy and the father is a first-born
son, who is very, very ill.... Is not all this the end?"
"Yet, if God wills it so," whispered Othomar.
"It is our duty to be resigned," said Barzia. "But does God will it so?"
"Who can tell?..."
"Ask yourself, but not now, highness: to-morrow, to-morrow.... After the
saddest nights ... the mornings come again...."
The professor rose and mixed a powder in a glass of water:
"Drink this, highness...."
Othomar drank.
"And now lie quiet and close those wide eyes."
"I shall not be able to sleep though...."
"That is not necessary, only close those eyes...."
Barzia stroked them with his hand; the prince kept them closed. His hand
again lay in the hand of the professor.
A hush descended upon the room. Outside, in the corridors and galleries,
perplexed steps approached at times, from the distance, in futile haste;
then they sounded away, far away, in despair. A world of sorrow seemed
to fill the palace, there, outside that room, until it held every hall
of it with its dark, tenebrous woe. But in this one room nothing
stirred. The professor sat still and stared before him, absorbed in
thought; the crown-prince had fallen asleep like a child.
7
Next morning the day rose upon an empire in mourning. Prince Berengar
had passed away in the night.
Othomar had slept long and woke late, as in a strange calm. When
Professor Barzia told him of the young prince's end--the apathy of the
last moments, after a raging fever--it seemed to him as if he already
knew it. The great sorrow which he felt was singularly peaceful, without
rebellion in his heart, and surprised himself. He remained lying calmly
when the professor forbade him to get up. He pictured to himself without
emotion the little prince, motionless, with his eyes closed, on his
camp-bed. Mechanically he folded his hands and prayed for his brother's
little soul.
He was not allowed to leave his room that day and saw only the empress,
who came to him for an instant. He was not at all surprised that she too
was calm, dry-eyed: she had not yet shed tears. Even when he raised
himself from his pillows and embraced her, she did not cry. Nor did he
cry, but only his own calmness astonished him: not hers. She stayed for
but a moment; then she went away, as though with mechanical steps, and
he was left alone. He saw nobody else that day except Barzia: not even
Andro entered his room.
Outside the chamber, the prince, judging from certain steps in the
corridors, certain sounds of voices--the little that penetrated to
him--could divine the sorrow of the palace; he pictured sad tidings
spreading through the land, through Europe and causing people to stand
in consternation in the presence of death, which had taken them by
surprise. Life was not secure: who could tell that he would be alive
to-morrow! Vain were the plans of men: who could tell what the hour
would bring forth! And he lay thinking of this calmly, in the singular
peacefulness of his soul, in which he saw the futility of struggling
against life or against death.
Not till next day did Barzia give him leave to get up, late in the
afternoon. After his shower-bath, he dressed calmly, in his lancer's
uniform, with crape round the sleeve. When he saw himself in the glass,
he was surprised at his resemblance to his mother, at seeing how he now
walked with the same mechanical step. Barzia allowed him to go to the
empress' sitting-room. He there found her, the emperor, Thera and the
Archduke and Archduchess of Carinthia, who had arrived at Lipara the
evening before. They sat close together, now and then softly exchanging
a word.
Othomar went up to the emperor and would have embraced him; Oscar,
however, only pressed his hand. After that Othomar embraced his sisters
and his brother-in-law. Then he sank down by the empress, took her hand
in his and sat still. She looked attenuated and white as chalk in her
black gown. She did not weep: only the two princesses sobbed,
persistently, again and again.
The family dined alone in the small dining-room, unattended by any of
the suite. A depression had descended upon the palace, which seemed
wholly silent at this hour, with but now and then the soft footsteps
through the galleries of an aide-de-camp carrying a funeral-wreath, or a
flunkey bringing a tray full of telegrams. After the short dinner, the
family retired once more to the empress' drawing-room. The hours dragged
on. Night had fallen. Then the Archbishop of Lipara was announced.
The imperial family rose; they went through the galleries, unattended,
to the great knights' hall. Halberdiers stood at the door, in mourning.
They entered. The emperor gave his hand to the empress and led her to
the throne, whose crown and draperies were covered with crape. On either
side were seats for Othomar, the princesses, the archduke.
In the middle of the hall, in front of the throne, rose the catafalque,
under a canopy of black and ermine. On it lay the little prince in
uniform. Over his feet hung a small blue knight's mantle with a great
white cross; a boy's sword lay on his breast; and his little hands were
folded over the jewelled hilt. By his little head, somewhat higher up,
shone, on a cushion, a small marquis' coronet. Six gilt candelabra with
many tall candles shone peacefully down upon the lad's corpse and left
the great hall still deeper in shadow: only, outside, the moon rose in
the distant blue, nocturnal sky; here and there it tinged with a white
glamour the trophies and suits of armour that hung or stood like iron
spectres in niches and against the walls. At the foot of the catafalque,
on a table like an altar, with a white velvet cloth, a great gilt
crucifix spread out its two arms, between two candelabra, in
commiseration.
With drawn swords, motionless as the armour on the walls, stood four
blue-mantled knights of St. Ladislas, two at either side of the
catafalque.
A soft scent of flowers was wafted through the hall. All round the
catafalque wreaths of every kind of white blossom were stacked in great
heaps; the fragrance of violets outscented all the others.
They sat down: the emperor, the empress and their four children. Slowly
the archbishop entered with his priests and choir-boys. Then the
imperial party knelt on cushions placed before their seats. The prelate
read the prayers for the dead; and the chanted _Kyrie Eleison_ and
_Agnus Dei_ besought mercy for Berengar's little soul amongst the souls
in purgatory, quivered softly through the vast hall, were wafted with
the scent of the flowers over the motionless, sleeping face of the
imperial child....
The rite came to an end; the prelate sprinkled the holy water, went
sprinkling around the catafalque. The princes left the hall, but Othomar
stayed on:
"I want to lay my wreath," he whispered to the empress.
The priests also departed, slowly; the crown-prince expressed to the
four knights, who were waiting to be relieved by others, his wish to be
left alone for a moment. They too withdrew. Then he saw Thesbia appear
at the door, with a large white wreath in his hand. He went to the
aide-de-camp and took the wreath from him.
Othomar remained alone. The hall stretched long and broad, with darkness
at either end. The moon had risen higher, seemed whiter, cast a ghostly
glamour over the suits of armour. In the centre, as though in sanctity,
between the pious light of the tall candles, rose the catafalque, lay
the prince.
The crown-prince mounted two steps of the catafalque and placed his
wreath. Then he looked at Berengar's face: no fever distorted it now; it
lay peaceful-pale, as though sleeping. All sounds had died away in the
hall; a deadly silence reigned. Here the world of sorrow which had
filled the palace and the country seemed to have become sanctified in an
ecstasy of calm. And Othomar saw himself alone with his soul. The
uncertainty of life, the vanity of human intentions were again revealed
to him, but more clearly; they were no longer black mystery, they became
harmony. It was as though he saw the whole harmony of the past: in all
Liparia's historic past, in the whole past of the world there sounded
not one false note. All sorrow was sacred and harmonious, tending more
closely to the lofty end, which would be in its turn a beginning and
never anything but harmony. Resignation descended upon his mood like a
spirit of holiness; his strange calmness became resignation. It was as
though his nerves were relaxed in one great assuagement.
And his resignation contained only the sadness that never again would he
hear the high-pitched little commanding voice of the boy whom he had
loved, that this little life had run its course, so soon and for ever.
His resignation contained only the surprise that all this was ordered
thus and not as he had imagined it. He himself would have to wear the
crown which he had wished to relinquish to Berengar. And it now seemed
to him as though he himself were receiving it back from the dead boy's
hands. This no doubt was why he felt no touch of rebellion in his soul,
why he felt this peace, this sense of harmony. His gift was returning to
him as a legacy.
Long he stood thus, thinking, staring at his motionless little brother;
and his thoughts became simplified within him: he saw lying straight
before him the road which he should follow....
Then he heard his name:
"Othomar..."
He looked up and saw the empress at the door. She approached:
"Barzia was asking where you were," she whispered. "He was uneasy about
you...."
He smiled to her and shook his head to say no, that he was calm.
She came close, climbed the steps of the catafalque and leant against
his arm:
"How peaceful his little face is!" she murmured. "Oh, Othomar, I have
not yet given him my last kiss! And to-morrow he will no longer belong
to me: all those people will then be filing past."
"But now, mamma, he still belongs to us ... to you...."
"Othomar ..."
"Mamma ..."
"Shall I not have ... to lose you also?"
"No, mamma, not me.... I shall go on living ... for you...."
He embraced her; she looked up at him, surprised at his voice. Then she
looked again at her dead child. She released herself from her son's
arms, raised herself still higher, bent over the little white face and
kissed the forehead. But, when the stony coldness of the dead flesh met
her lips, she drew back and stared stupidly at the corpse, as though she
understood for the first time. Her arms grew stiff with cramp; she wrung
her fingers; she fell straight back upon Othomar.
And her eyes became moist with the first tears that she had shed for
Berengar's death and she hid her head in Othomar's arms and sobbed and
sobbed....
Then he led her carefully, slowly, down the steps of the catafalque, led
her out of the hall. In the corridor they came across Barzia; the
prince's calm and quiet face, as he supported his mother, eased the
professor's mind....
So soon as the empress and crown-prince had left the knights' hall, four
knights of St. Ladislas entered in their blue robes. They took up their
positions on either side of the catafalque and stood motionless in the
candle-light, staring before them, watching in the night of mourning
over the little imperial corpse, on which the blue light of the moon now
descended.... The priests too entered and prayed....
The palace was silent. When Othomar had consigned his mother, at the
door of her apartments, to the care of Hélène of Thesbia, he went
through the galleries to his own rooms. But, on turning a corridor, he
started. The great state-staircase yawned, faintly lighted, at his feet,
with beneath it the hollow space of the colossal entrance-hall.
Upholsterers were occupied in draping the banisters of the staircase
with crape gauze, for the time when the coffin should be carried
downstairs. With wide arms they measured out the mists of black, threw
black cloud upon cloud; the clouds of crape heaped themselves up with a
dreary flimsiness, up and up and up, seeming to fill the whole staircase
and to rise stair upon stair as though about to conquer the whole palace
with their gloom....
The upholsterers did not see the crown-prince and worked on, silently,
in the faint light. But a cold thrill passed through Othomar. In deathly
pallor he stared at the men there, at his feet, measuring out the crape
and sending clouds of it up to him. He recalled his dream: the streets
of Lipara overflowing with crape till the very sun reeled.... His blood
seemed to freeze in his veins....
Then he made the sign of the Cross:
"O God, give me strength!" he prayed in consternation....
8
Next day, through the guard of honour of the grenadiers, the people
filed past the little prince's body. The following morning, it was
removed to Altara and interred in the imperial vault in St. Ladislas'
Cathedral. Princes Gunther and Herman of Gothland had come over for the
ceremony, but the Duke of Xara was forbidden by Professor Barzia to take
part in it: he remained at Lipara.
The Gothlandic princes and their suite returned with the Emperor Oscar
to the capital, where, at her sister's pressing request, Queen Olga had
also come, with Princess Wanda. And, in the mourning stillness of the
Imperial, the family drew together in a narrow circle of intimacy. After
her first tears, the Empress Elizabeth had lost her unnatural calm and
constantly gave way to violent fits of sorrow, which Queen Olga or
Othomar had difficulty in allaying. The emperor was inconsolable,
indulging his grief with childish vehemence. Nobody had ever seen him
like that before, nobody recognized him. The fact that he had lost his
favourite child aroused his soul to rebellion against God. In addition
to this, he had very much taken to heart his last conversation with
Othomar, in which the prince had spoken to him of abdicating. The
emperor had not returned to the subject, but it was never out of his
thoughts. He feared that he would have to discuss it with Othomar again.
He was furious when he felt how powerless he was to prevent the
crown-prince from taking this desperate resolution. And he pictured the
legal results if the prince maintained his purpose: the Archduchess of
Carinthia empress, the archduke prince-consort and the house of
Czyrkiski no longer reigning in the male line on the throne of Liparia.
The possibility of this contingency, taken in conjunction with his
sorrow at Berengar's death, made the Emperor Oscar suffer with that very
special suffering of a monarch in whose veins still flows all the
hereditary attachment to the greatness of his ancestors and who hopes to
see this endure for all time. And he was also inconsolable for the loss
of the child whom he loved best, more profoundly but also more silently,
in greater secrecy, since he did not speak of it; and this probably made
him feel more bitterly the thought of the future which he saw imaged
before him. He had not even mentioned it to the empress, because of a
certain superstitious dread.
And with this mental sorrow--that his robust soul, which had always
retained a touch of childishness, was allowing itself to feel weak, as
though it were the soul of any other mortal instead of his, a
monarch's--there was mingled his substantial annoyance about the army
bill. There would be three hundred millions needed: one hundred millions
had already been voted for the increase of the infantry; the other two
hundred, for the artillery, Count Marcella, the minister for war, had
not yet succeeded in obtaining. The majority of the army committee was
against this colossal arming of the frontier-forts; the minister already
expected a violent opposition in the house of deputies and was fully
prepared for his fall. None of the three--Oscar, Myxila or Marcella--was
willing to make the least compromise. And Oscar moreover was prepared to
support his minister to the point of impossibility.
It was at this time that Othomar made General Ducardi teach him the
question, thoroughly, that he studied the staff-charts and military
statistics and reports of the committee, that he followed the
parliamentary discussions from out of his solitude. He held long
deliberations with the general. He had, however, not for months attended
the morning conferences in his father's room. But one morning he dressed
himself--as was now no longer his regular habit--in uniform and sent a
chamberlain to ask Oscar whether the emperor would permit him to be
present at Count Marcella's audience. The emperor shrugged his shoulders
in surprise, but combated his antipathy and sent word to his son that he
might come. So soon as the minister and the imperial chancellor were
with the emperor, Othomar joined them. He had grown still more slender
and the silver frogs of his lancer's uniform barely sufficed to lend a
slight breadth to his slimness; he was pale and a little sunken in the
cheeks; but the glance of his eyes had lost its former feverish
restlessness and recovered its melancholy calm, together with a certain
stiffness and haughtiness. He refrained at first from taking part in the
discussion, let the emperor curse, the chancellor shrug his shoulders
and rely on the impossible, the minister declared that he would never
give in. Then, however, he asked Oscar for leave to interpose a word. He
took a pencil; with a few short, decided lines of demonstration on the
maps, with a few simple, accurate indications on the registers, with a
few figures which he quoted, correctly, by heart, he showed that he was
quite conversant with the subject. He expressed the opinion that, in so
far as he could gather from the reports of the committee, from the mood
of the house of deputies, it remained an undoubted fact that the two
hundred millions would be refused ... and that the minister would fall.
He repeated these last words with emphasis and then looked firmly first
at his father and then at Count Marcella. Then, in his soft voice, which
rose and fell in logical tones, with serene words of conviction, he
asked why they should not submit to circumstances and make the best of
them. Why not accept the one hundred millions for the infantry as so
much gained and--for this after all would be possible without immediate
danger--endeavour to distribute the other two hundred over a period of
four or five years. He felt certain that an increase of twenty millions
or so a year would not meet with such violent opposition. By this
arrangement Count Marcella would be able to maintain himself in office
and to be supported by the emperor....
When he had ceased, his words were succeeded by a pause. His advice, if
not distinguished by genius, was at least practical and made the most of
this critical situation. Count Myxila slowly nodded his head in
approval. The emperor and Count Marcella could not at once adhere to
Othomar's idea and were obstinate, as though they still hoped to force
the army bill through, unchanged as conceived at first. But the
chancellor took the same view as the crown-prince, proved still more
clearly that an arrangement of this sort would be the only one by which
his majesty would be able to retain Count Marcella's services. And the
end of the matter was that the Duke of Xara's proposal should be taken
into consideration.
When Myxila and Marcella had gone, the emperor asked the prince to wait
a moment longer:
"Othomar," he said, "it gives me great pleasure to see you once more
occupying yourself with the affairs of our country...."
He hesitated an instant, almost anxiously:
"What conclusion may I draw from this ... for the future?" he continued
at last, slowly.
The crown-prince understood him:
"Papa," he said, gently, "I have had my moments of discouragement. I
shall perhaps have them again. But forget ... what we were discussing
just before Berengar's death. I have given up all thought of
abdicating...."
The emperor drew a deep breath.
"I am religious, papa, and I have faith," continued the prince. "Perhaps
an almost superstitious faith. I plainly see, in what has happened, the
hand of God...."
He passed his hand over his forehead, with a meditative gaze:
"The hand of God," he repeated. "I had a presentiment that one of us
would die within this year. I thought that I myself should be the one to
die. That is perhaps why, papa, I did not see how monstrous it was of me
to take the resolution which I did. I was not thinking of myself, who
was bound to die in any event; I thought only of Berengar. But now he is
dead and I am alive; and I shall now think of myself. For I feel that I
do not belong to myself. And I feel that it is this that should support
us through life: this feeling that we do belong not to ourselves but to
others. I have always loved our people and I have wished to help them
vaguely, in the abstract; I threw out my hands, without knowing why, and
when I did not make good, it drove me to despair...."
He suddenly stopped and looked timidly at his father, as though he had
gone too far in delivering his thoughts. But Oscar sat calmly listening
to him; and he continued:
"And I now know that this despair is not right, because with this
despair we keep ourselves for ourselves and cannot give ourselves to
others. You see--" he rose and smiled--"I cannot manage to cure myself
of my philosophy, but I hope now that it will tend to strengthen me
instead of enervating me, as it now flows from quite a different
principle."
The emperor gave a little shrug of the shoulders:
"Every one must work out his own theory of life, Othomar. I can only
give you this advice: do not be carried away by enthusiasm and keep your
point of view high. Do not analyse yourself out of all existence, for
such abnegation does not last and inevitably harks back to the old
rights. I do not reflect so much as you do; I am more spontaneous and
impulsive. But I will not condemn you for being different: you can't
help it. Perhaps you belong to this age more than I do. I only wish to
look at the result of your reflections; and this result is that you're
giving yourself back to ordinary life and to the interests of your
country. And this rejoices me, Othomar. Nor do I wish to look too far
into the future; I dare say that later too you will not have my ideas, I
dare say that later you will reign with a brand-new constitution, with
an elected upper house. I expect you will encounter much opposition from
the authoritative party among the nobles.... But, as I say, I do not
wish to go into that too far and I am content to rejoice at your moral
convalescence. And I am very grateful to you for the advice you gave us
just now. It was quite simple, but we should never have thought of it by
ourselves. We are too conservative for that. I think now that what you
propose will be the best thing to be done and that it can't be done
otherwise...."
He held out his hand; Othomar grasped it.
"And," he continued with the great magnanimity which, for all his
despotic haughtiness, lay at the very root of his soul, "do not bear any
malice because of ... of the words I used to you, Othomar. I am violent
and passionate, as you know. I was fonder of Berengar than of you. But
you yourself loved the boy. Bear me no malice, for his sake.... You are
my son too and I love you, if only because of the fact that you are my
son and the last of my race.... Forgive my candour."
Then he pressed Othomar in his arms. It struck him painfully to feel the
frailty of the prince in his firm embrace, so immediately upon his
words: "the last of my race...." A strange, bitter despair shot through
his soul; yet he clearly divined the mystery of this frailty: an unknown
moral spring, which he himself lacked, in the direct simplicity of his
nature, but which, to his great surprise, he felt in his son. When the
prince was gone and Oscar, left alone, thought of this and sought that
spring in what he knew of his son, he did not find it, yet felt that,
whatever it might be, it was something to be envied, a strength tougher
than muscular strength. He looked about him; his eyes fell upon a
portrait of the empress on his writing-table. How often had he not
stared at it in irritation because of their successor, who was so wholly
her son! But, as though a gleam of light passed before his eyes, he now
looked at the delicate features without the old annoyance; and a
grateful warmth began to glow within him. Whatever it were, Othomar had
derived this mysterious strength from his mother. It saved him and
spared him for his country, for his race. And--who knew?--perhaps this
mystery was just the element which their race needed, a necessary
constituent of its new lease of life.... He did not seek to penetrate
any farther; the future--even though it was now emerging more clearly
out of its first dimness--had no attraction for him. He loved the past,
those iron centuries with their heroes of emperors. But he felt that
everything was not lost. In his pious belief in the Almighty, he
thought, as did his son, of the hand of God. If it must be so, it was
right. God's will was inscrutable.
And grateful to the empress, grateful for the light that shone before
him, he bent his knees to the crucifix on the wall and prayed for his
two sons. He prayed long for the son who was to bear his crown, but
longer for the soul of the child of his own blood, whose loss would be
the grief that would always be as wormwood in the depths of his soul,
which was now outpoured in gratitude....
9
_From the Diary of Alexa Duchess of Yemena, Countess of Vaza._
"--_November_, 18--.
"The crown-prince has not come with the emperor. Professor Barzia
forbade it, because he considered that the big hunting-parties with
which the emperor wishes to divert his thoughts from his grief for our
little prince would be too fatiguing for my sweet invalid. Still, I hear
from Dutri that he is making distinct progress and has already resumed
his daily morning rides.
"It is all over with me. Poor sinful heart within me, die! For, after
this last flower of passion that blossomed in you, I wish you to die to
the world. For the sake of the purity of my imperial flower, I wish you
now to die. Nothing after this, nothing but the new life which I see
lifting before me....
"And yet I am still young; I look no older in my glass than I did a year
ago. I have no need to abdicate my feminine powers unless I wish to. And
that is how every one looks at it, for I know that they whisper of the
Duke of Mena-Doni, as though he would be happy to replace my adored
crown-prince in my affections. But it's not true, it's not true. And I'm
so glad of it, that they do not realize me and do not know anything,
that they do not understand that I want to let my imperial love fade
away in purity and wish to cherish no earthly love after it.
"Dear love of my heart, you have raised me to my new life! You were
still a sin, but yet you purified me, because you yourself were purified
by the contact of that sacred something which is in majesty. Oh, you
were the last sin, but already you were purer than the one before! For I
have been a great sinner: I have immolated up all my sinful woman's life
to consuming passion; and it has left nothing but ashes in my heart!
Great scorching love of my life for him who is now dead--may his soul
rest in peace!--I will not deny you, because you have been my most
intense earthly pleasure, because through you I first learnt to know
that I possessed a soul and because you thus brought me nearer to what I
now see before me; but yet, what were you but earthliness? And my
chaster imperial love, what were you too but earthliness? Gentle
sovereign of my soul, what will God have you be but earthly? An empire
awaits you, a crown, a sceptre, an empress. God wills it and therefore
it is good, that you are earthly, while your earthliness is at the same
time consecrated by your pious faith. But I, I have been less than
merely earthly: I was sinful. And now I wish that my heart should wholly
die within me, because it is nothing than sin. Then shall my heart be
born again, in new life....
"I have prayed. For hours I lay on the cold marble in the chapel, till
my knees pained me and my limbs were stiff. I have confessed my sinful
life to my sainted confessor, his lordship of Vaza. Oh, the sweetness of
absolution and the ecstasy of prayer! Why do we not earlier feel the
blessed consolation that lies in the performance of our religious
duties! Oh, if I could lose myself utterly in that sweet mystery, in
God; if I could go into a convent! But I have my two stepdaughters. I
must bring them into society; it is my duty. And the bishop thinks that
that is my penance and my punishment: never to be able to withdraw into
a hallowed seclusion, but to continue breathing the sinful atmosphere of
the world.
"I will give my castle in Lycilia, where we never go--my own castle and
estate--to our Holy Church for a convent for Ursulines of gentle birth.
I went there with the bishop the other day. Oh, the great gloomy rooms,
the shadowy frescoes, the sombre park! And the chapel, when the new
windows are added, through which the light will fall in a mystic medley
of colour! My dearest wish is to be allowed to grow old there, and to
die far away from the world: but shall I ever be permitted? Holy Mother
of God, shall I ever be permitted?
* * * * *
"Am I sincere? Who knows? What do I myself know? Do I truly feel this
purification of my soul, or do I remain the woman I am? A dreadful doubt
rises in me; it is Satan entering into me! I will pray: Blessed Virgin,
pray for me!
* * * * *
"I have become calmer; prayer has strengthened me. Oh, full of anguish
are the doubts which tear me from my conviction! Then Satan says that I
am deluding myself into this conviction, to console myself in my
destitution, and that I have become religious for want of occupation. At
such times I see myself in the glass, young, a young woman. But, when I
pray, the doubts retire from my sinful mood and I look back shuddering
upon my wicked past. And then the new life of my future once more shines
up before me....
"Beloved prince, sovereign of my soul, here in these pages which none
shall ever read I take leave of you, because it was not vouchsafed me to
bid you farewell at a moment of tangible reality. Oh, I shall often,
perhaps from day to day, still see you in the crush of the world, in the
ceremonial of palaces; but you will never again belong to me and so I
take leave of you! Whatever I may be--a twofold sinner perhaps, longing
only for Heaven because the earth has lost its charm for me--I have been
true to you, as I always have been, in love. I have seen you bowed down,
you so frail, beneath your heavy yoke of empire; and I have felt my
heart brimming over with pity for you. I have tried to give you my poor
sinful consolation as best I could. May Heaven forgive me! I met you at
a moment when the tears were flowing from your dear eyes with bitterness
because people hated you and had dared with sacrilegious hands to strike
at your imperial body; and I tried to give you what I could of
sweetness, so as to make you forget that bitterness. Ah, perhaps I was
even then not quite sincere; perhaps I am even not so now! But that
would be too terrible; that would make me despise myself as I cannot do!
And I will at least retain this illusion, that I was sincere, that I did
wish to comfort you, that, sinful though it was, I did comfort you, that
I did, in very truth, love you, that I still love you now, that I shall
no longer love you--because I must not--as your mistress, but that I
shall do so as your subject. The blood in my veins loves yours, your
golden blood! And, when I myself have found peace and no longer doubt
and hesitate, my last days shall be spent only in prayer for you, that
you also may receive peace and strength for your coming task of
government. I feel no jealousy of her who will be my future empress. I
know that she is beautiful and that she is younger than I. But I do not
compare myself with her. I shall be her subject as I am yours. For I
love you for yourself and I love everything that will be yours. You are
my emperor; you are already my emperor, more than Oscar! Farewell, my
prince, my crown-prince, my emperor! When I see you again, you will be
nothing more to me than my emperor and my emperor alone!
* * * * *
"To HIS IMPERIAL HIGHNESS THE DUKE OF XARA,
"LIPARA.
"CASTEL VAZA,
"--_November_, 18--.
"MY BELOVED PRINCE,
"Pardon me if I venture to send you the accompanying pages. I meant at
first to send you a long letter, a letter of farewell. And I did write
you many, but did not send them to you and destroyed them. Then I wrote
to you only for myself, took leave of you for myself. But can I trace
what goes on within me, what I think from one moment to the other? I did
miss it so: my sweet farewell, which would still bind me in some
intimate way to you! And so I could not refrain--at last, after much
vacillation of mind--from sending you these pages, which I had written
only for myself. At your feet I implore you graciously to accept them,
graciously to read them. Then destroy them. Through them you will learn
the last thoughts that I have dared to consecrate to the mystery that
was our love....
"I press my lips to your adored hands.
"ALEXA."