It has sometimes struck me that some of you, when you have heard me tell
these little adventures of mine, may have gone away with the impression
that I was conceited. There could not be a greater mistake than this,
for I have always observed that really fine soldiers are free from this
failing. It is true that I have had to depict myself sometimes as brave,
sometimes as full of resource, always as interesting; but, then, it
really was so, and I had to take the facts as I found them. It would be
an unworthy affectation if I were to pretend that my career has been
anything but a fine one. The incident which I will tell you tonight,
however, is one which you will understand that only a modest man would
describe. After all, when one has attained such a position as mine, one
can afford to speak of what an ordinary man might be tempted to conceal.
You must know, then, that after the Russian campaign the remains of our
poor army were quartered along the western bank of the Elbe, where they
might thaw their frozen blood and try, with the help of the good German
beer, to put a little between their skin and their bones. There were
some things which we could not hope to regain, for I daresay that three
large commissariat fourgons would not have sufficed to carry the fingers
and the toes which the army had shed during that retreat. Still, lean
and crippled as we were, we had much to be thankful for when we thought
of our poor comrades whom we had left behind, and of the snowfields--the
horrible, horrible snowfields. To this day, my friends, I do not care to
see red and white together. Even my red cap thrown down upon my white
counterpane has given me dreams in which I have seen those monstrous
plains, the reeling, tortured army, and the crimson smears which glared
upon the snow behind them. You will coax no story out of me about that
business, for the thought of it is enough to turn my wine to vinegar and
my tobacco to straw.
Of the half-million who crossed the Elbe in the autumn of the year '12
about forty thousand infantry were left in the spring of '13. But they
were terrible men, these forty thousand: men of iron, eaters of horses,
and sleepers in the snow; filled, too, with rage and bitterness against
the Russians. They would hold the Elbe until the great army of
conscripts, which the Emperor was raising in France, should be ready to
help them to cross it once more.
But the cavalry was in a deplorable condition. My own hussars were at
Borna, and when I paraded them first, I burst into tears at the sight of
them. My fine men and my beautiful horses--it broke my heart to see the
state to which they were reduced. 'But, courage,' I thought, 'they have
lost much, but their Colonel is still left to them.' I set to work,
therefore, to repair their disasters, and had already constructed two
good squadrons, when an order came that all colonels of cavalry should
repair instantly to the depôts of the regiments in France to organize
the recruits and the remounts for the coming campaign.
You will think, doubtless, that I was over-joyed at this chance of
visiting home once more. I will not deny that it was a pleasure to me to
know that I should see my mother again, and there were a few girls who
would be very glad at the news; but there were others in the army who
had a stronger claim. I would have given my place to any who had wives
and children whom they might not see again. However, there is no arguing
when the blue paper with the little red seal arrives, so within an hour
I was off upon my great ride from the Elbe to the Vosges. At last I was
to have a period of quiet. War lay behind my mare's tail and peace in
front of her nostrils. So I thought, as the sound of the bugles died in
the distance, and the long, white road curled away in front of me
through plain and forest and mountain, with France somewhere beyond the
blue haze which lay upon the horizon.
It is interesting, but it is also fatiguing, to ride in the rear of an
army. In the harvest time our soldiers could do without supplies, for
they had been trained to pluck the grain in the fields as they passed,
and to grind it for themselves in their bivouacs. It was at that time of
year, therefore, that those swift marches were performed which were the
wonder and the despair of Europe. But now the starving men had to be
made robust once more, and I was forced to draw into the ditch
continually as the Coburg sheep and the Bavarian bullocks came streaming
past with waggon loads of Berlin beer and good French cognac. Sometimes,
too, I would hear the dry rattle of the drums and the shrill whistle of
the fifes, and long columns of our good little infantry men would swing
past me with the white dust lying thick upon their blue tunics. These
were old soldiers drawn from the garrisons of our German fortresses, for
it was not until May that the new conscripts began to arrive from
France.
Well, I was rather tired of this eternal stopping and dodging, so that I
was not sorry when I came to Altenburg to find that the road divided,
and that I could take the southern and quieter branch. There were few
wayfarers between there and Greiz, and the road wound through groves of
oaks and beeches, which shot their branches across the path. You will
think it strange that a Colonel of hussars should again and again pull
up his horse in order to admire the beauty of the feathery branches and
the little, green, new-budded leaves, but if you had spent six months
among the fir trees of Russia you would be able to understand me.
There was something, however, which pleased me very much less than the
beauty of the forests, and that was the words and looks of the folk who
lived in the woodland villages. We had always been excellent friends
with the Germans, and during the last six years they had never seemed to
bear us any malice for having made a little free with their country. We
had shown kindnesses to the men and received them from the women, so
that good, comfortable Germany was a second home to all of us. But now
there was something which I could not understand in the behaviour of the
people. The travellers made no answer to my salute; the foresters turned
their heads away to avoid seeing me; and in the villages the folk would
gather into knots in the roadway and would scowl at me as I passed. Even
women would do this, and it was something new for me in those days to
see anything but a smile in a woman's eyes when they were turned upon
me.
It was in the hamlet of Schmolin, just ten miles out of Altenburg, that
the thing became most marked. I had stopped at the little inn there just
to damp my moustache and to wash the dust out of poor Violette's throat.
It was my way to give some little compliment, or possibly a kiss, to the
maid who served me; but this one would have neither the one nor the
other, but darted a glance at me like a bayonet-thrust. Then when I
raised my glass to the folk who drank their beer by the door they turned
their backs on me, save only one fellow, who cried, 'Here's a toast for
you, boys! Here's to the letter T!' At that they all emptied their beer
mugs and laughed; but it was not a laugh that had good-fellowship in it.
I was turning this over in my head and wondering what their boorish
conduct could mean, when I saw, as I rode from the village, a great T
new carved upon a tree. I had already seen more than one in my morning's
ride, but I had given no thought to them until the words of the
beer-drinker gave them an importance. It chanced that a
respectable-looking person was riding past me at the moment, so I turned
to him for information.
'Can you tell me, sir,' said I, 'what this letter T is?'
He looked at it and then at me in the most singular fashion. 'Young
man,' said he, 'it is not the letter N.' Then before I could ask further
he clapped his spurs into his horses ribs and rode, stomach to earth,
upon his way.
At first his words had no particular significance in my mind, but as I
trotted onwards Violette chanced to half turn her dainty head, and my
eyes were caught by the gleam of the brazen N's at the end of the
bridle-chain. It was the Emperor's mark. And those T's meant something
which was opposite to it. Things had been happening in Germany, then,
during our absence, and the giant sleeper had begun to stir. I thought
of the mutinous faces that I had seen, and I felt that if I could only
have looked into the hearts of these people I might have had some
strange news to bring into France with me. It made me the more eager to
get my remounts, and to see ten strong squadrons behind my kettle-drums
once more.
While these thoughts were passing through my head I had been alternately
walking and trotting, as a man should who has a long journey before, and
a willing horse beneath, him. The woods were very open at this point,
and beside the road there lay a great heap of fagots. As I passed there
came a sharp sound from among them, and, glancing round, I saw a face
looking out at me--a hot, red face, like that of a man who is beside
himself with excitement and anxiety. A second glance told me that it was
the very person with whom I had talked an hour before in the village.
'Come nearer!' he hissed. 'Nearer still! Now dismount and pretend to be
mending the stirrup leather. Spies may be watching us, and it means
death to me if I am seen helping you.'
'Death!' I whispered. 'From whom?'
'From the Tugendbund. From Lutzow's night-riders. You Frenchmen are
living on a powder magazine, and the match has been struck that will
fire it.'
'But this is all strange to me,' said I, still fumbling at the leathers
of my horse. 'What is this Tugendbund?'
'It is the secret society which has planned the great rising which is to
drive you out of Germany, just as you have been driven out of Russia.'
'And these T's stand for it?'
'They are the signal. I should have told you all this in the village,
but I dared not be seen speaking with you. I galloped through the woods
to cut you off, and concealed both my horse and myself.'
'I am very much indebted to you,' said I, 'and the more so as you are
the only German that I have met today from whom I have had common
civility.'
'All that I possess I have gained through contracting for the French
armies,' said he. 'Your Emperor has been a good friend to me. But I beg
that you will ride on now, for we have talked long enough. Beware only
of Lutzow's night-riders!'
'Banditti?' I asked.
'All that is best in Germany,' said he. 'But for God's sake ride
forwards, for I have risked my life and exposed my good name in order to
carry you this warning.'
Well, if I had been heavy with thought before, you can think how I felt
after my strange talk with the man among the fagots. What came home to
me even more than his words was his shivering, broken voice, his
twitching face, and his eyes glancing swiftly to right and left, and
opening in horror whenever a branch cracked upon a tree. It was clear
that he was in the last extremity of terror, and it is possible that he
had cause, for shortly after I had left him I heard a distant gunshot
and a shouting from somewhere behind me. It may have been some sportsman
halloaing to his dogs, but I never again heard of or saw the man who had
given me my warning.
I kept a good look-out after this, riding swiftly where the country was
open, and slowly where there might be an ambuscade. It was serious for
me, since 500 good miles of German soil lay in front of me; but somehow
I did not take it very much to heart, for the Germans had always seemed
to me to be a kindly, gentle people, whose hands closed more readily
round a pipe-stem than a sword-hilt--not out of want of valour, you
understand, but because they are genial, open souls, who would rather be
on good terms with all men. I did not know then that beneath that homely
surface there lurks a devilry as fierce as, and far more persistent
than, that of the Castilian or the Italian.
And it was not long before I had shown to me that there was something
more serious abroad than rough words and hard looks. I had come to a
spot where the road runs upwards through a wild tract of heath-land and
vanishes into an oak wood. I may have been half-way up the hill when,
looking forward, I saw something gleaming under the shadow of the
tree-trunks, and a man came out with a coat which was so slashed and
spangled with gold that he blazed like a fire in the sunlight. He
appeared to be very drunk, for he reeled and staggered as he came
towards me. One of his hands was held up to his ear and clutched a great
red handkerchief, which was fixed to his neck.
I had reined up the mare and was looking at him with some disgust, for
it seemed strange to me that one who wore so gorgeous a uniform should
show himself in such a state in broad daylight. For his part, he looked
hard in my direction and came slowly onwards, stopping from time to time
and swaying about as he gazed at me. Suddenly, as I again advanced, he
screamed out his thanks to Christ, and, lurching forwards, he fell with
a crash upon the dusty road. His hands flew forward with the fall, and I
saw that what I had taken for a red cloth was a monstrous wound, which
had left a great gap in his neck, from which a dark blood-clot hung,
like an epaulette upon his shoulder.
'My God!' I cried, as I sprang to his aid. 'And I thought that you were
drunk!'
'Not drunk, but dying,' said he. 'But thank Heaven that I have seen a
French officer while I have still strength to speak.'
I laid him among the heather and poured some brandy down his throat. All
round us was the vast countryside, green and peaceful, with nothing
living in sight save only the mutilated man beside me.
'Who has done this?' I asked, 'and what are you? You are French, and yet
the uniform is strange to me.'
'It is that of the Emperor's new guard of honour. I am the Marquis of
Château St Arnaud, and I am the ninth of my blood who has died in the
service of France. I have been pursued and wounded by the night-riders
of Lutzow, but I hid among the brushwood yonder, and waited in the hope
that a Frenchman might pass. I could not be sure at first if you were
friend or foe, but I felt that death was very near, and that I must take
the chance.'
'Keep your heart up, comrade,' said I; 'I have seen a man with a worse
wound who has lived to boast of it.'
'No, no,' he whispered; 'I am going fast.' He laid his hand upon mine as
he spoke, and I saw that his finger-nails were already blue. 'But I have
papers here in my tunic which you must carry at once to the Prince of
Saxe-Felstein, at his Castle of Hof. He is still true to us, but the
Princess is our deadly enemy. She is striving to make him declare
against us. If he does so, it will determine all those who are wavering,
for the King of Prussia is his uncle and the King of Bavaria his cousin.
These papers will hold him to us if they can only reach him before he
takes the last step. Place them in his hands tonight, and, perhaps, you
will have saved all Germany for the Emperor. Had my horse not been shot,
I might, wounded as I am----' He choked, and the cold hand tightened
into a grip, which left mine as bloodless as itself. Then, with a groan,
his head jerked back, and it was all over with him.
Here was a fine start for my journey home. I was left with a commission
of which I knew little, which would lead me to delay the pressing needs
of my hussars, and which at the same time was of such importance that it
was impossible for me to avoid it. I opened the Marquis's tunic, the
brilliance of which had been devised by the Emperor in order to attract
those young aristocrats from whom he hoped to raise these new regiments
of his Guard. It was a small packet of papers which I drew out, tied up
with silk, and addressed to the Prince of Saxe-Felstein. In the corner,
in a sprawling, untidy hand, which I knew to be the Emperor's own, was
written: 'Pressing and most important.' It was an order to me, those
four words--an order as clear as if it had come straight from the firm
lips with the cold grey eyes looking into mine. My troopers might wait
for their horses, the dead Marquis might lie where I had laid him
amongst the heather, but if the mare and her rider had a breath left in
them the papers should reach the Prince that night.
I should not have feared to ride by the road through the wood, for I
have learned in Spain that the safest time to pass through a guerilla
country is after an outrage, and that the moment of danger is when all
is peaceful. When I came to look upon my map, however, I saw that Hof
lay further to the south of me, and that I might reach it more directly
by keeping to the moors. Off I set, therefore, and had not gone fifty
yards before two carbine shots rang out of the brushwood and a bullet
hummed past me like a bee. It was clear that the night-riders were
bolder in their ways than the brigands of Spain, and that my mission
would have ended where it had begun if I had kept to the road.
It was a mad ride, that--a ride with a loose rein, girth-deep in heather
and in gorse, plunging through bushes, flying down hill-sides, with my
neck at the mercy of my dear little Violette. But she--she never
slipped, she never faltered, as swift and as surefooted as if she knew
that her rider carried the fate of all Germany beneath the buttons of
his pelisse. And I--I had long borne the name of being the best
horseman in the six brigades of light cavalry, but I never rode as I
rode then. My friend the Bart had told me of how they hunt the fox in
England, but the swiftest fox would have been captured by me that day.
The wild pigeons which flew overhead did not take a straighter course
than Violette and I below. As an officer, I have always been ready to
sacrifice myself for my men, though the Emperor would not have thanked
me for it, for he had many men, but only one--well, cavalry leaders of
the first class are rare.
But here I had an object which was indeed worth a sacrifice, and I
thought no more of my life than of the clods of earth that flew from my
darling's heels.
We struck the road once more as the light was failing, and galloped into
the little village of Lobenstein. But we had hardly got upon the
cobblestones when off came one of the mare's shoes, and I had to lead
her to the village smithy. His fire was low, and his day's work done, so
that it would be an hour at the least before I could hope to push on to
Hof. Cursing at the delay, I strode into the village inn and ordered a
cold chicken and some wine to be served for my dinner. It was but a few
miles to Hof, and I had every hope that I might deliver my papers to the
Prince on that very night, and be on my way for France next morning with
despatches for the Emperor in my bosom. I will tell you now what befell
me in the inn of Lobenstein.
The chicken had been served and the wine drawn, and I had turned upon
both as a man may who has ridden such a ride, when I was aware of a
murmur and a scuffling in the hall outside my door. At first I thought
that it was some brawl between peasants in their cups, and I left them
to settle their own affairs. But of a sudden there broke from among the
low, sullen growl of the voices such a sound as would send Etienne
Gerard leaping from his death-bed. It was the whimpering cry of a woman
in pain. Down clattered my knife and my fork, and in an instant I was
in the thick of the crowd which had gathered outside my door.
The heavy-cheeked landlord was there and his flaxen-haired wife, the two
men from the stables, a chambermaid, and two or three villagers. All of
them, women and men, were flushed and angry, while there in the centre
of them, with pale cheeks and terror in her eyes, stood the loveliest
woman that ever a soldier would wish to look upon. With her queenly head
thrown back, and a touch of defiance mingled with her fear, she looked
as she gazed round her like a creature of a different race from the
vile, coarse-featured crew who surrounded her. I had not taken two steps
from my door before she sprang to meet me, her hand resting upon my arm
and her blue eyes sparkling with joy and triumph.
'A French soldier and gentleman!' she cried. 'Now at last I am safe.'
'Yes, madam, you are safe,' said I, and I could not resist taking her
hand in mine in order that I might reassure her. 'You have only to
command me,' I added, kissing the hand as a sign that I meant what I was
saying.
'I am Polish,' she cried; 'the Countess Palotta is my name. They abuse
me because I love the French. I do not know what they might have done to
me had Heaven not sent you to my help.'
I kissed her hand again lest she should doubt my intentions. Then I
turned upon the crew with such an expression as I know how to assume. In
an instant the hall was empty.
'Countess,' said I, 'you are now under my protection. You are faint, and
a glass of wine is necessary to restore you.' I offered her my arm and
escorted her into my room, where she sat by my side at the table and
took the refreshment which I offered her.
How she blossomed out in my presence, this woman, like a flower before
the sun! She lit up the room with her beauty. She must have read my
admiration in my eyes, and it seemed to me that I also could see
something of the sort in her own. Ah! my friends, I was no
ordinary-looking man when I was in my thirtieth year. In the whole light
cavalry it would have been hard to find a finer pair of whiskers.
Murat's may have been a shade longer, but the best judges are agreed
that Murat's were a shade too long. And then I had a manner. Some women
are to be approached in one way and some in another, just as a siege is
an affair of fascines and gabions in hard weather and of trenches in
soft. But the man who can mix daring with timidity, who can be
outrageous with an air of humility, and presumptuous with a tone of
deference, that is the man whom mothers have to fear. For myself, I felt
that I was the guardian of this lonely lady, and knowing what a
dangerous man I had to deal with, I kept strict watch upon myself.
Still, even a guardian has his privileges, and I did not neglect them.
But her talk was as charming as her face. In a few words she explained
that she was travelling to Poland, and that her brother who had been her
escort had fallen ill upon the way. She had more than once met with
ill-treatment from the country folk because she could not conceal her
good-will towards the French. Then turning from her own affairs she
questioned me about the army, and so came round to myself and my own
exploits. They were familiar to her, she said, for she knew several of
Poniatowski's officers, and they had spoken of my doings. Yet she would
be glad to hear them from my own lips. Never have I had so delightful a
conversation. Most women make the mistake of talking rather too much
about their own affairs, but this one listened to my tales just as you
are listening now, ever asking for more and more and more. The hours
slipped rapidly by, and it was with horror that I heard the village
clock strike eleven, and so learned that for four hours I had forgotten
the Emperor's business.
'Pardon me, my dear lady,' I cried, springing to my feet, 'but I must
go on instantly to Hof.'
She rose also, and looked at me with a pale, reproachful face. 'And me?'
she said. 'What is to become of me?'
'It is the Emperor's affair. I have already stayed far too long. My duty
calls me, and I must go.'
'You must go? And I must be abandoned alone to these savages? Oh, why
did I ever meet you? Why did you ever teach me to rely upon your
strength?' Her eyes glazed over, and in an instant she was sobbing upon
my bosom.
Here was a trying moment for a guardian! Here was a time when he had to
keep a watch upon a forward young officer. But I was equal to it. I
smoothed her rich brown hair and whispered such consolations as I could
think of in her ear, with one arm round her, it is true, but that was to
hold her lest she should faint. She turned her tear-stained face to
mine. 'Water,' she whispered. 'For God's sake, water!'
I saw that in another moment she would be senseless. I laid the drooping
head upon the sofa, and then rushed furiously from the room, hunting
from chamber to chamber for a carafe. It was some minutes before I could
get one and hurry back with it. You can imagine my feelings to find the
room empty and the lady gone.
Not only was she gone, but her cap and silver-mounted riding switch
which had lain upon the table were gone also. I rushed out and roared
for the landlord. He knew nothing of the matter, had never seen the
woman before, and did not care if he never saw her again. Had the
peasants at the door seen anyone ride away? No, they had seen nobody. I
searched here and searched there, until at last I chanced to find myself
in front of a mirror, where I stood with my eyes staring and my jaw as
far dropped as the chin-strap of my shako would allow.
Four buttons of my pelisse were open, and it did not need me to put my
hand up to know that my precious papers were gone. Oh! the depth of
cunning that lurks in a woman's heart. She had robbed me, this creature,
robbed me as she clung to my breast. Even while I smoothed her hair, and
whispered kind words into her ear, her hands had been at work beneath my
dolman. And here I was, at the very last step of my journey, without the
power of carrying out this mission which had already deprived one good
man of his life, and was likely to rob another one of his credit. What
would the Emperor say when he heard that I had lost his despatches?
Would the army believe it of Etienne Gerard? And when they heard that a
woman's hand had coaxed them from me, what laughter there would be at
mess-table and at camp-fire! I could have rolled upon the ground in my
despair.
But one thing was certain--all this affair of the fracas in the hall and
the persecution of the so-called Countess was a piece of acting from the
beginning. This villainous innkeeper must be in the plot. From him I
might learn who she was and where my papers had gone. I snatched my
sabre from the table and rushed out in search of him. But the scoundrel
had guessed what I would do, and had made his preparations for me. It
was in the corner of the yard that I found him, a blunderbuss in his
hands and a mastiff held upon a leash by his son. The two stable-hands,
with pitchforks, stood upon either side, and the wife held a great
lantern behind him, so as to guide his aim.
'Ride away, sir, ride away!' he cried, with a crackling voice. 'Your
horse is at the door, and no one will meddle with you if you go your
way; but if you come against us, you are alone against three brave men.'
I had only the dog to fear, for the two forks and the blunderbuss were
shaking about like branches in a wind. Still, I considered that, though
I might force an answer with my sword-point at the throat of this fat
rascal, still I should have no means of knowing whether that answer was
the truth. It would be a struggle, then, with much to lose and nothing
certain to gain. I looked them up and down, therefore, in a way that
set their foolish weapons shaking worse than ever, and then, throwing
myself upon my mare, I galloped away with the shrill laughter of the
landlady jarring upon my ears.
I had already formed my resolution. Although I had lost my papers, I
could make a very good guess as to what their contents would be, and
this I would say from my own lips to the Prince of Saxe-Felstein, as
though the Emperor had commissioned me to convey it in that way. It was
a bold stroke and a dangerous one, but if I went too far I could
afterwards be disavowed. It was that or nothing, and when all Germany
hung on the balance the game should not be lost if the nerve of one man
could save it.
It was midnight when I rode into Hof, but every window was blazing,
which was enough it itself, in that sleepy country, to tell the ferment
of excitement in which the people were. There was hooting and jeering as
I rode through the crowded streets, and once a stone sang past my head,
but I kept upon my way, neither slowing nor quickening my pace, until I
came to the palace. It was lit from base to battlement, and the dark
shadows, coming and going against the yellow glare, spoke of the turmoil
within. For my part, I handed my mare to a groom at the gate, and
striding in I demanded, in such a voice as an ambassador should have, to
see the Prince instantly, upon business which would brook no delay.
The hall was dark, but I was conscious as I entered of a buzz of
innumerable voices, which hushed into silence as I loudly proclaimed my
mission. Some great meeting was being held then--a meeting which, as my
instincts told me, was to decide this very question of war and peace. It
was possible that I might still be in time to turn the scale for the
Emperor and for France. As to the major-domo, he looked blackly at me,
and showing me into a small ante-chamber he left me. A minute later he
returned to say that the Prince could not be disturbed at present, but
that the Princess would take my message.
The Princess! What use was there in giving it to her? Had I not been
warned that she was German in heart and soul, and that it was she who
was turning her husband and her State against us?
'It is the Prince that I must see,' said I.
'Nay, it is the Princess,' said a voice at the door, and a woman swept
into the chamber. 'Von Rosen, you had best stay with us. Now, sir, what
is it that you have to say to either Prince or Princess of
Saxe-Felstein?'
At the first sound of the voice I had sprung to my feet. At the first
glance I had thrilled with anger. Not twice in a lifetime does one meet
that noble figure, that queenly head, and those eyes as blue as the
Garonne, and as chilling as her winter waters.
'Time presses, sir!' she cried, with an impatient tap of her foot. 'What
have you to say to me?'
'What have I to say to you?' I cried. 'What can I say, save that you
have taught me never to trust a woman more? You have ruined and
dishonoured me for ever.'
She looked with arched brows at her attendant.
'Is this the raving of fever, or does it come from some less innocent
cause?' said she. 'Perhaps a little blood-letting--'
'Ah, you can act!' I cried. 'You have shown me that already.'
'Do you mean that we have met before?'
'I mean that you have robbed me within the last two hours.'
'This is past all bearing,' she cried, with an admirable affectation of
anger. 'You claim, as I understand, to be an ambassador, but there are
limits to the privileges which such an office brings with it.'
'You brazen it admirably,' said I. 'Your Highness will not make a fool
of me twice in one night.' I sprang forward and, stooping down, caught
up the hem of her dress. 'You would have done well to change it after
you had ridden so far and so fast,' said I.
It was like the dawn upon a snow-peak to see her ivory cheeks flush
suddenly to crimson.
'Insolent!' she cried. 'Call the foresters and have him thrust from the
palace'
'I will see the Prince first.'
'You will never see the Prince. Ah! Hold him, Von Rosen, hold him.'
She had forgotten the man with whom she had to deal--was it likely that
I would wait until they could bring their rascals? She had shown me her
cards too soon. Her game was to stand between me and her husband. Mine
was to speak face to face with him at any cost. One spring took me out
of the chamber. In another I had crossed the hall. An instant later I
had burst into the great room from which the murmur of the meeting had
come. At the far end I saw a figure upon a high chair under a daïs.
Beneath him was a line of high dignitaries, and then on every side I saw
vaguely the heads of a vast assembly. Into the centre of the room I
strode, my sabre clanking, my shako under my arm.
'I am the messenger of the Emperor,' I shouted. 'I bear his message to
His Highness the Prince of Saxe-Felstein.'
The man beneath the daïs raised his head, and I saw that his face was
thin and wan, and that his back was bowed as though some huge burden was
balanced between his shoulders.
'Your name, sir?' he asked.
'Colonel Etienne Gerard, of the Third Hussars.'
Every face in the gathering was turned upon me, and I heard the rustle
of the innumerable necks and saw countless eyes without meeting one
friendly one amongst them. The woman had swept past me, and was
whispering, with many shakes of her head and dartings of her hands, into
the Prince's ear. For my own part I threw out my chest and curled my
moustache, glancing round in my own debonair fashion at the assembly.
They were men, all of them, professors from the college, a sprinkling of
their students, soldiers, gentlemen, artisans, all very silent and
serious. In one corner there sat a group of men in black, with
riding-coats drawn over their shoulders. They leaned their heads to each
other, whispering under their breath, and with every movement I caught
the clank of their sabres or the clink of their spurs.
'The Emperor's private letter to me informs me that it is the Marquis
Château St Arnaud who is bearing his despatches,' said the Prince.
'The Marquis has been foully murdered,' I answered, and a buzz rose up
from the people as I spoke. Many heads were turned, I noticed, towards
the dark men in the cloaks.
'Where are your papers?' asked the Prince.
'I have none.'
A fierce clamour rose instantly around me. 'He is a spy! He plays a
part!' they cried. 'Hang him!' roared a deep voice from the corner, and
a dozen others took up the shout. For my part, I drew out my
handkerchief and nicked the dust from the fur of my pelisse. The Prince
held out his thin hands, and the tumult died away.
'Where, then, are your credentials, and what is your message?'
'My uniform is my credential, and my message is for your private ear.'
He passed his hand over his forehead with the gesture of a weak man who
is at his wits' end what to do. The Princess stood beside him with her
hand upon his throne, and again whispered in his ear.
'We are here in council together, some of my trusty subjects and
myself,' said he. 'I have no secrets from them, and whatever message the
Emperor may send to me at such a time concerns their interests no less
than mine.'
There was a hum of applause at this, and every eye was turned once more
upon me. My faith, it was an awkward position in which I found myself,
for it is one thing to address eight hundred hussars, and another to
speak to such an audience on such a subject. But I fixed my eyes upon
the Prince, and tried to say just what I should have said if we had been
alone, shouting it out, too, as though I had my regiment on parade.
'You have often expressed friendship for the Emperor,' I cried. 'It is
now at last that this friendship is about to be tried. If you will stand
firm, he will reward you as only he can reward. It is an easy thing for
him to turn a Prince into a King and a province into a power. His eyes
are fixed upon you, and though you can do little to harm him, you can
ruin yourself. At this moment he is crossing the Rhine with two hundred
thousand men. Every fortress in the country is in his hands. He will be
upon you in a week, and if you have played him false, God help both you
and your people. You think that he is weakened because a few of us got
the chilblains last winter. Look there!' I cried, pointing to a great
star which blazed through the window above the Prince's head. 'That is
the Emperor's star. When it wanes, he will wane--but not before.'
You would have been proud of me, my friends, if you could have seen and
heard me, for I clashed my sabre as I spoke, and swung my dolman as
though my regiment was picketed outside in the courtyard. They listened
to me in silence, but the back of the Prince bowed more and more as
though the burden which weighed upon it was greater than his strength.
He looked round with haggard eyes.
'We have heard a Frenchman speak for France,' said he. 'Let us have a
German speak for Germany.'
The folk glanced at each other, and whispered to their neighbours. My
speech, as I think, had its effect, and no man wished to be the first to
commit himself in the eyes of the Emperor. The Princess looked round
her with blazing eyes, and her clear voice broke the silence.
'Is a woman to give this Frenchman his answer?' she cried. 'Is it
possible, then, that among the night-riders of Lutzow there is none who
can use his tongue as well as his sabre?'
Over went a table with a crash, and a young man had bounded upon one of
the chairs. He had the face of one inspired--pale, eager, with wild hawk
eyes, and tangled hair. His sword hung straight from his side, and his
riding-boots were brown with mire.
'It is Korner!' the people cried. 'It is young Korner, the poet! Ah, he
will sing, he will sing.'
And he sang! It was soft, at first, and dreamy, telling of old Germany,
the mother of nations, of the rich, warm plains, and the grey cities,
and the fame of dead heroes. But then verse after verse rang like a
trumpet-call. It was of the Germany of now, the Germany which had been
taken unawares and overthrown, but which was up again, and snapping the
bonds upon her giant limbs. What was life that one should covet it? What
was glorious death that one should shun it? The mother, the great
mother, was calling. Her sigh was in the night wind. She was crying to
her own children for help. Would they come? Would they come? Would they
come?
Ah, that terrible song, the spirit face and the ringing voice! Where
were I, and France, and the Emperor? They did not shout, these
people--they howled. They were up on the chairs and the tables. They
were raving, sobbing, the tears running down their faces. Korner had
sprung from the chair, and his comrades were round him with their sabres
in the air. A flush had come into the pale face of the Prince, and he
rose from his throne.
'Colonel Gerard,' said he, 'you have heard the answer which you are to
carry to your Emperor. The die is cast, my children. Your Prince and you
must stand or fall together.'
He bowed to show that all was over, and the people with a shout made
for the door to carry the tidings into the town. For my own part, I had
done all that a brave man might, and so I was not sorry to be carried
out amid the stream. Why should I linger in the palace? I had had my
answer and must carry it, such as it was. I wished neither to see Hof
nor its people again until I entered it at the head of a vanguard. I
turned from the throng, then, and walked silently and sadly in the
direction in which they had led the mare.
It was dark down there by the stables, and I was peering round for the
hostler, when suddenly my two arms were seized from behind. There were
hands at my wrists and at my throat, and I felt the cold muzzle of a
pistol under my ear.
'Keep your lips closed, you French dog,' whispered a fierce voice. 'We
have him, captain.'
'Have you the bridle?'
'Here it is.'
'Sling it over his head.'
I felt the cold coil of leather tighten round my neck. An hostler with a
stable lantern had come out and was gazing upon the scene. In its dim
light I saw stern faces breaking everywhere through the gloom, with the
black caps and dark cloaks of the night-riders.
'What would you do with him, captain?' cried a voice.
'Hang him at the palace gate.'
'An ambassador?'
'An ambassador without papers.'
'But the Prince?'
'Tut, man, do you not see that the Prince will then be committed to our
side? He will be beyond all hope of forgiveness. At present he may swing
round tomorrow as he has done before. He may eat his words, but a dead
hussar is more than he can explain.'
'No, no, Von Strelitz, we cannot do it,' said another voice.
'Can we not? I shall show you that!' and there came a jerk on the
bridle which nearly pulled me to the ground. At the same instant a sword
flashed and the leather was cut through within two inches of my neck.
'By Heaven, Korner, this is rank mutiny,' cried the captain. 'You may
hang yourself before you are through with it.'
'I have drawn my sword as a soldier and not as a brigand,' said the
young poet. 'Blood may dim its blade, but never dishonour. Comrades,
will you stand by and see this gentleman mishandled?'
A dozen sabres flew from their sheaths, and it was evident that my
friends and my foes were about equally balanced. But the angry voices
and the gleam of steel had brought the folk running from all parts.
'The Princess!' they cried. 'The Princess is coming!'
And even as they spoke I saw her in front of us, her sweet face framed
in the darkness. I had cause to hate her, for she had cheated and
befooled me, and yet it thrilled me then and thrills me now to think
that my arms have embraced her, and that I have felt the scent of her
hair in my nostrils. I know not whether she lies under her German earth,
or whether she still lingers, a grey-haired woman in her Castle of Hof,
but she lives ever, young and lovely, in the heart and memory of Etienne
Gerard.
'For shame!' she cried, sweeping up to me, and tearing with her own
hands the noose from my neck. 'You are fighting in God's own quarrel,
and yet you would begin with such a devil's deed as this. This man is
mine, and he who touches a hair of his head will answer for it to me.'
They were glad enough to slink off into the darkness before those
scornful eyes. Then she turned once more to me.
'You can follow me, Colonel Gerard,' she said. 'I have a word that I
would speak to you.'
I walked behind her to the chamber into which I had originally been
shown. She closed the door, and then looked at me with the archest
twinkle in her eyes.
'Is it not confiding of me to trust myself with you?' said she. 'You
will remember that it is the Princess of Saxe-Felstein and not the poor
Countess Palotta of Poland.'
'Be the name what it might,' I answered, 'I helped a lady whom I
believed to be in distress, and I have been robbed of my papers and
almost of my honour as a reward.'
'Colonel Gerard,' said she, 'we have been playing a game, you and I, and
the stake was a heavy one. You have shown by delivering a message which
was never given to you that you would stand at nothing in the cause of
your country. My heart is German and yours is French, and I also would
go all lengths, even to deceit and to theft, if at this crisis I could
help my suffering fatherland. You see how frank I am.'
'You tell me nothing that I have not seen.'
'But now that the game is played and won, why should we bear malice? I
will say this, that if ever I were in such a plight as that which I
pretended in the inn of Lobenstein, I should never wish to meet a more
gallant protector or a truer-hearted gentleman than Colonel Etienne
Gerard. I had never thought that I could feel for a Frenchman as I felt
for you when I slipped the papers from your breast.'
'But you took them, none the less.'
'They were necessary to me and to Germany. I knew the arguments which
they contained and the effect which they would have upon the Prince. If
they had reached him all would have been lost.'
'Why should your Highness descend to such expedients when a score of
these brigands, who wished to hang me at your castle gate, would have
done the work as well?'
'They are not brigands, but the best blood of Germany,' she cried,
hotly. 'If you have been roughly used, you will remember the indignities
to which every German has been subjected, from the Queen of Prussia
downwards. As to why I did not have you waylaid upon the road, I may say
that I had parties out on all sides, and that I was waiting at
Lobenstein to hear of their success. When instead of their news you
yourself arrived I was in despair, for there was only the one weak woman
betwixt you and my husband. You see the straits to which I was driven
before I used the weapon of my sex.'
'I confess that you have conquered me, your Highness, and it only
remains for me to leave you in possession of the field.'
'But you will take your papers with you.' She held them out to me as she
spoke. 'The Prince has crossed the Rubicon now, and nothing can bring
him back. You can return these to the Emperor, and tell him that we
refused to receive them. No one can accuse you then of having lost your
despatches. Good-bye, Colonel Gerard, and the best I can wish you is
that when you reach France you may remain there. In a year's time there
will be no place for a Frenchman upon this side of the Rhine.'
And thus it was that I played the Princess of Saxe-Felstein with all
Germany for a stake, and lost my game to her. I had much to think of as
I walked my poor, tired Violette along the highway which leads westward
from Hof. But amid all the thoughts there came back to me always the
proud, beautiful face of the German woman, and the voice of the
soldier-poet as he sang from the chair. And I understood then that there
was something terrible in this strong, patient Germany--this mother root
of nations--and I saw that such a land, so old and so beloved, never
could be conquered. And as I rode I saw that the dawn was breaking, and
that the great star at which I had pointed through the palace window was
dim and pale in the western sky.