A QUESTION OF THE GUARD.
The really great strategist is not the man who loves an intricate plot.
His method is simple, he eliminates.
On a certain cold morning, when the sun shone pinkly through a sea-haze
over the glittering roofs of Révonde, a review of the Guard, and of a
few regiments that happened to be stationed within a short distance of
the capital, was to be held, in honour of the Duke's birthday, on the
spacious parade ground of the Guard, which occupied the whole of a small
plateau lying high between the beetling hills behind the barracks.
Baron von Elmur paid an early visit to the Chancellor on his way to the
review, and found M. Selpdorf, though brisk and urbane as ever, a little
difficult.
'We do not progress, Monsieur,' Elmur was saying.
'What would you, my dear Baron? we have so many obstacles in our path,'
answered the other, shrugging his shoulders good-humoredly.
Elmur leaned his elbow on the table.
'I know that delay can conduce to no good end,' he said. 'You have
agreed that a certain course is desirable no less for your country than
mine.'
'Have I agreed to that proposition? Not altogether! Remember, I cannot
be expected to see with German eyes.'
'Even to the most patriotic Maäsaun it must be evident that sooner or
later the State must fall to us; it is merely a question of time.'
'The time has already been long,' said the Chancellor softly.
'For an excellent reason: because we have not always been as now, a huge
bulk. The bulk of the new Empire must by force of gravitation attract
all the smaller bodies round to itself. It is by a miracle only that
Maäsau has stood alone so long.'
'And by another miracle she might go on standing alone a little longer.'
'This is not the age of miracles, my friend!'
'I remember also something which your Excellency forgets,' said
Selpdorf, with a touch of sadness in his voice, 'that there have been
Selpdorfs helping in this miracle of the independence of Maäsau for
generations.'
Elmur altered his attitude with an open impatience.
'You are a far-sighted patriot, Monsieur. It is needless to repeat that
if Maäsau joins the confederation of the Empire by her own act she will
do so on very different terms to any which could possibly be conceded to
a state that had forced upon us the unpleasant necessity of coercion.
Remember Frankfurt! She paid for her obstinacy. Whereas we are prepared
to deal generously towards those who cast in their lot with ours.
Besides,' he added significantly, 'I am urging you to consult not only
the interests of Maäsau, but your own also.'
'They are the same, and it is difficult to know where our true interest
lies,' said Selpdorf, thoughtfully. 'Do you go to the Castle of Sagan
next week?'
The abrupt change of subject seemed to have its effect upon Elmur. He
turned away from the table, crossed his legs, and lit a cigarette in a
leisurely manner before he answered.
'Yes; and you, Monsieur?'
'I have no inclination for these gaieties; but my daughter goes.' Von
Elmur shot a glance at his companion.
'To repeat my own words--we do not progress, my dear Selpdorf.'
'So? Women finesse in these affairs. Valerie follows the custom of her
sex, and perhaps she has become a little spoilt by overmuch admiration.
Were she aware of your wishes, it would solve many of the present
doubts.'
'It takes two to make that especial kind of bargain,' said Elmur, with a
curious smile, 'one to ask, the other to grant. I am prepared to ask
when I am assured that my request will be favourably received. An
ambassador is esteemed in just the same degree as the country he
represents. If his country triumph he triumphs also.'
'In this case I might point out that your personal success,' the
Chancellor said airily, 'would be the best, shall I say the only
possible, preliminary to the success of the mission with which his
Imperial Majesty has charged you.'
Elmur drew in his lips slightly. Valerie, as the Baroness von Elmur, was
to be her father's guarantee for the future! Although Elmur's desires
lay in the same direction, Selpdorf's insistence was most unpalatable to
the German minister.
'I am ready to lay myself at Mademoiselle's feet,' he said aloud, 'but
there is always the picturesque young captain of the Guard.'
'Unziar? I can positively reassure your Excellency on that point.'
'Unziar? No! The Englishman--Rallywood.'
'Rallywood?' said the Chancellor in very real surprise, 'what of him?'
'Nothing beyond the fact that he has an aptitude for challenging fate.
Such men dazzle the eyes, and are consequently apt to be dangerous. Why
has he been placed in the Guard?'
'I placed him there to serve our mutual convenience,' replied Selpdorf.
'He is an Englishman, with his full share of English intolerance and
courage. On the other hand, the Guard resent the intrusion of
foreigners, neither are they--mild-mannered.'
Elmur considered.
'The chances were in favour of trouble certainly. Had there been trouble
Rallywood might have disposed of some of our chief difficulties for us,'
he remarked, with a cynical smile.
'He might also have been disposed of himself,' said Selpdorf, 'and he is
the one human being for whom the good Counsellor has the slightest
regard. In politics it is necessary to consider the personal equation.
To touch Counsellor in his weakest point would have been to alienate
England at the convenient moment.'
'All that might have been true'--Elmur shrugged his shoulders;
'unluckily we must face things as they actually are.'
'Even now Rallywood has his uses. The Guard is composed of the flower of
our nobility--they are not to be tempted. At least that is my opinion,
although I believe Count Sagan holds differently. But this Rallywood is
a soldier of fortune, a mercenary. You perceive?'
Elmur stroked his chin dubiously.
'I am very much afraid he belongs to the wrong breed. However, I would
wish to point out that it will be essential to carry through this matter
quickly. If the Duke could be persuaded to accept the scheme of
reversion, the whole arrangement would be completed before the world was
the wiser.'
'It is the simplest plan, and therefore the best. But what will England
say? Counsellor is here, that in itself speaks.'
'Neither England nor the good Counsellor can touch an accomplished fact.
As they say in their own idiom, "Possession is nine parts of the law."
It remains with us to make the fact.'
Selpdorf arose.
'Your Excellency will excuse me. It is time to start for the palace.
To-day his Highness the Duke holds a review of the Guard. I will if
possible sound him on the subject which interests us both. Should that
fail, we must consider the alternative scheme.'
Half-an-hour later the two men met again as they dismounted in the
courtyard of the palace. They approached each other courteously.
'There stands the real obstacle to our success,' said Elmur in a low
tone.
Selpdorf followed the German Minister's glance. Standing there, in the
fire-light of the guard-room, was the tall figure of Anthony Unziar,
waiting with haughty stiffness for the appearance of the Duke.
'His Highness's gentlemen, the Maäsaun Guard,' went on Elmur with a
bitter sneer, 'the impersonation of an arrogant militarism!'
'Seven--to be counted with,' corrected Selpdorf gently. 'The other, the
eighth----'
'Has the initial fault of nationality. However, he goes to Sagan.'
The mist cleared as the sun rose higher until, by noon, the sky was of
a pale radiant blue laced with a delicate broidery of white
wind-scattered clouds. Looking westward the dark river wound away to the
sea, ringed here and there by the highly decorated bridges of
light-toned granite peculiar to Maäsau. Révonde, in the sunshine, shone
in the colours of a moss-grown stone, gray and green, the twin ridges on
which it stood fretted and embossed to their summits with the palaces
and pinnacles, the spires and towers, and gardens of the spreading city.
The Grand Duke, as they rounded the mounting road to the parade ground,
looked back upon Révonde with a lingering glance. Selpdorf who was
seated opposite to him, had been replying to his grumbling questions as
to the condition of the royal exchequer with a depressing account of the
hopelessness of the situation.
'Révonde is a jewel after all!' said the Duke suddenly; 'a jewel can
always be mortgaged, Selpdorf.'
Selpdorf admitted that this was true, and also hinted that the jewel had
been used in one way or another pretty freely to raise the revenues for
a good many years, without giving much in the way of a _quid pro quo_,
beyond the vague hopes and airy promises which pledged the Maäsaun
government to little or nothing. But now, he explained, the Powers were
growing weary of so unprofitable a speculation, and were inclined to
expect some definite return for their assistance.
The Duke listened moodily, lying back on his cushions, a thin-legged,
paunchy figure, whose features had lost their shapely mould under the
touch of dissipation. The nose hung long and fleshy between the pouched
skin of his cheekbones, the eyes showed a tell-tale slackness in the
under eyelid, where it merged into the loose wrinkles below. The lower
part of the face was covered by a long but sparse moustache, through
which at times could be discerned that terrible protrusion of the upper
lip that seems the herald of senility. Yet Gustave, Grand Duke of
Maäsau, was only that day celebrating the completion of his
fifty-seventh year.
Where the carriage attained the level of the plateau, the main road
curved away inland to the right, while upon the left hand, under the
wall of encircling brown cliffs, a small brigade of all arms was
assembled to do honour to their ruler. Through a cut in the hills far
away, but seemingly nearer on that windy morning, could be seen a blue
open bay, blown into the 'innumerable laughter of the sea.' The air, the
whole scene, was inspiriting, but the Duke looked heavily on as the
troops deployed and turned, their arms glittering in the sunlight.
First in order came a couple of squadrons of the Frontier Cavalry, with
their black sheepskins hanging behind them; then infantry, followed by
two batteries of artillery divided by some more cavalry, and, after a
distinct interval, the Guard.
The little army was perfect in equipment and finish, and their uniforms
were brilliant and picturesque; but the Duke stared out of the
amphitheatre of the parade ground with dissatisfaction and _ennui_.
Money, he wanted money, and the less the Chancellor could encourage him
to hope for it the more he desired to have it by hook or by crook.
The Grand Marshal of Maäsau having been dismissed from the side of the
royal carriage with a few curt words, the Duke spoke again, in a low
tone to Selpdorf.
'Then you wish me to understand that there is no more to be got out of
anybody. I know better than that. England, Germany, and Russia, are
waiting to outbid each other.'
'That is true, sire; but they will not deal on the old terms.'
The Guard, with scattered pennons flying, were drawn up at the lower end
of the parade ground. The chief effect of the day was about to take
place--the charge of the Guard.
'I am now of an age,' remarked the Duke peevishly, 'when my birthdays
have ceased to be a cause for congratulation. This review is an
anachronism. In my father's time I rode at the head of the Guard, and
led a charge on the day I was eighteen. Pish! I have grown wiser, and
know how to enjoy life after a more rational fashion. To return to our
other subject--What do they want?'
Selpdorf smiled, and passed his fingers upwards over the erect corners
of his moustache.
'For example, there is a power that might pay a heavy annual sum if
your Highness would consent to disband your Guard!' he said, with a
tentative smile.
The slack fallen lines of the Duke's visage grew suddenly tense. His
eyes brightened as the tossing mass in green and gold swept down towards
them in a thunder of hoofs, and the long-drawn shout of 'Maäsau,' with
which the Guard have charged home on so many a battlefield.
As the splendid ranks of horsemen crashed past under a flashing play of
saluting swords, the Duke pulled himself erect in his carriage and
raised his gloved hand in acknowledgment with a strong fling of
enthusiasm that recalled to men present other and better days.
Selpdorf's brow lost its round smoothness for a short moment, but
cleared again before the Duke dropped back with a groan into his seat.
'Disband the Guard? What traitor suggested that? May the Guard shoot me
first! I'd rather rot of starvation than consent to it! For with the
Guard is bound up the freedom of Maäsau!'
Presently he turned upon the Chancellor with a glooming and suspicious
gaze.
'Has Sagan been tampering with you?' he asked, with a sneer, 'if he
tempted you now it would only be to betray you later! He hankers after
Maäsau, but remember my cousin in England. He has claims which cannot be
over-ridden.'
Selpdorf remained respectfully silent for a short time, revolving the
extremely important admission with regard to the second claimant to the
heritage of the Duchy, which the Duke in his excitement had made.
The first and simpler plan of persuading the Duke to enter into an
understanding with Germany, to the effect that she should enjoy the
reversion of Maäsau in exchange for the payment of a secured annuity,
was plainly hopeless. It now remained to put in motion the second
scheme, which contained elements of infinitely greater danger.
Human nature is a complex thing, yet each man's attitude of mind towards
himself, is often only an extension of his attitude of mind towards his
neighbour.
What the Chancellor said to himself to whitewash his conduct in his own
eyes, who can tell? The Duke, old vice-sodden reprobate as he was, had
that one remnant of manhood left, a determination to face the last and
most absolute contingency of life rather than sell his country.
Perhaps Selpdorf used that most guilty of all excuses--If I do not put
my hand to this thing someone else will. Maäsau must fall sooner or
later to some larger power. May not I profit by it as well as another?
Did he set his house of excuse upon the sand of a certain bitter
writing? 'I will persuade them,' said Satan--'I will make them two
idols, which they shall call Honour and Fidelity, and a law which shall
be called passive obedience. And they shall worship these idols!' If
Honour, Fidelity, and Obedience be idols, where then, are the true
gods?