DUKE GUSTAVE.
Whatever may be said to the contrary, the fact remains that a little
independent success acts on a morally weak man as a glass of wine upon a
physically weak one. For a time it exalts and quickens him.
Duke Gustave of Maäsau was in a condition of mental exhilaration, and
experiencing to the full the false sensation of strength thus created
when Sagan was announced. Selpdorf, who had been listening for some
minutes to his master's self-gratulations on the newly ratified British
contract rose as if to take his departure.
'Wait, Selpdorf!' the Duke said.
'My lord has asked for a private interview, your Highness,' Selpdorf
reminded him.
'Yes, but I have no private affairs to discuss with my cousin. Anything
that need be said between us is better said before a witness,' replied
the Duke. 'How do you suppose he will take the news of our agreement
with England?'
Selpdorf's answer was slow in coming, and before he spoke Count Sagan
strode into the room. He carried a sheaf of papers; his imperious temper
was wont to rush every business through to which he put his hand.
'I begged for a few moments in private with your Highness,' he said,
with a glance at the Minister.
'Our good Selpdorf is too discreet to be considered a third,' answered
the Duke blandly. 'He knows our secrets without being told them. Pray
proceed, my lord; is there anything I can do for you?'
'Yes, sire; I wish to lay before you the matter I was forced to postpone
at the Castle. I also made use of the opportunity to bring one or two
papers relating to the Guard for signature.'
The Duke took the papers. He was seated at a writing-table, and he
glanced carelessly over them as Sagan went on.
'Under your approval those papers include Lieutenant Unziar's
appointment as captain, vice Colendorp----'
'Deceased,' put in the Duke with a sharp significance.
Sagan frowned. Gustave had a curious alertness about him to-night.
'Yes, poor fellow! We can ill spare him,' he said. 'Also we have agreed
to propose Abenfeldt as junior subaltern.'
'I have no objection,' the Duke said.
'As for the other subject upon which I have for some time wished to
speak to you, sire, I am authorised to lay before your Highness certain
proposals--'
'Stop, my lord,' again interrupted the Duke, 'if those proposals have
any reference to von Elmur and his projects for the good of the State, I
absolutely decline to hear them. What's this?' he had laid aside the
upper papers after signature, and was scanning the one below with an
expression of countenance which showed that he liked what he read very
little.
Sagan watched him with a deepening frown, the more subtle Selpdorf with
curiosity. At other times it had been the Duke's custom to add his
signature to papers without a glance at their contents. The destiny of
one man is thus often decided by the passing mood of another.
'What's this about Rallywood?'
'A bad business, but your Highness's signature makes many a wrong
right,' said Sagan, with a clumsy attempt at pleasantry; 'it needs only
that. You have the pen and ink, sire.'
'But, by Heaven, not the will!' cried the Duke. 'I will not sign it! And
if I will not, hey?'
'M. Selpdorf will assure you that it is necessary in the case of
discipline,' urged Sagan with a lowering look.
'And I will assure M. Selpdorf that I am accustomed to make up my own
mind! You know it already, Selpdorf!'
'I have always known it, sire,' said the supple Chancellor.
'You will hear my reasons?' asked Sagan angrily.
The Duke nodded.
'Captain Rallywood was guilty of gross disobedience of orders. His case
has been laid before a court-martial of his brother officers, and he has
been condemned to be shot. The trial has been conducted with justice.'
'What were Captain Rallywood's orders, then?'
'He was ordered to carry certain dispatches to the Chancellor, but he
carried them elsewhere for his own purposes.'
The Duke nodded slowly and half closed his eyes. He remembered a certain
damp morning by the river, when Rallywood had ridden to take orders from
Selpdorf.
'So you are in this also, Selpdorf?' he said. 'What despatches were
these? Pray tell me frankly. I believe I know something already.'
'Despatches sent to me from the Frontier, sire.'
'Which he failed to bring to you. Where then did he take them?'
The delay and the persistent unexpected questioning of the Duke
irritated Sagan almost beyond endurance. He struck in.
'Sire, does it matter what he did with them, as we have proof that he
disobeyed orders? That is the point--what need to ask further?' Then, as
the Duke still shook his head, he burst out, 'Well, then, he carried
them to the British Legation--to his own countrymen, mind you. He was
false to his oath as a soldier! He must be shot!'
Gustave of Maäsau was a man who lied much and often, as those of poor
moral calibre will. He lied now with zest.
'So? Although Captain Rallywood acted under my personal instructions,
Simon?' he said quietly.
Sagan sprang to his feet.
'Yes,' resumed the Duke, warming to his _rôle_. 'Yes, he acted under my
orders, for the despatches were connected with the agreement I have
within the last hour signed with England, and about which the first
proposals were laid before me at midnight by the British Envoy during my
visit to your Castle!'
'What?' shouted Sagan, as his house of cards fell about him. 'You lie,
Gustave! And Germany? Selpdorf, we hold your promises! It is impossible
to think this to be true?'
'It is true,' said the Chancellor. 'I beg you will recollect that his
Highness is present, my lord. This excitement----'
Sagan stood gasping and staring. His passion seemed to choke him as he
stood, but the Duke, still exalted by the sense of triumph and power,
mistook the silence for speechless humiliation. His temper rose as the
other's seemed to sink.
'You can deceive me no more, my lord Sagan!' he cried in a high excited
voice. 'You took Colendorp from me, you would now take Rallywood, one
by one all my faithful Guard! But I am sovereign still! You shall not
tamper any longer with my loyal State; you shall never bring your
traitorous German schemes to an issue!'
But there were things impossible for Count Simon of Sagan to endure.
Never before had he been twitted with impotence and failure. He could
not survive so utter a defeat. A man to bear these things must be less
thorough than the Count. He was too fierce, too imperious, to bear so
great a reverse. If he must be put to shame before the world, if even a
paltry captain of the Guard were to be permitted to negative his will,
why then life had best be over!
He seemed to struggle for speech; at last, without warning, his passion
leaped into flame. Like a wild beast he sprang across the table at the
Duke--the poor snivelling coward who had dared to flay him with his
tongue! The old hate fired the new fury as he clutched Gustave.
The Duke gave a shrill feeble cry, not such a cry as one would have
expected from a man of his age, and then Selpdorf was between them
shouting for the Guard.
'You false hound!' Sagan gnashed his teeth in Selpdorf's face as the
Chancellor threw himself upon him.
Shouts and shots, and the wild turmoil of a deadly struggle. Then the
Guard had secured Sagan. The Duke stood trembling and incoherent,
leaning upon the table, and between them, face downwards on the floor,
the Chancellor with a bullet in his groin and for once playing a _rôle_
he had not prepared.
Sagacious, supple, self-seeking, yet not utterly seared, in the last
resort he offered up his life for the master he had almost betrayed.