"No," he broke in emphatically, "it is I who am your debtor. I have just

heard, Monsieur Vignerte, that you devote part of the little leisure

that the education of my son leaves you to a task which is perhaps even

more dear to me. This must, of course, be entirely between ourselves. I

know the difficulties you must have met with before winning the

confidence which I believe the Grand Duchess now extends to you. At

first I did not know you well enough to speak more openly of my desire

that you should be at her disposal, and try to interest her and save her

from the fits of depression and that kind of spiritual disorder which

are so fatal to her physical health. You understood, and have succeeded

better than I could have hoped. You will thus realize that I am indeed

in your debt."

There was so much sorrowful dignity in his voice that I was utterly

overcome.

"Sir," I murmured, "I promise you ..."

He held out his hand.

"I don't need promises, monsieur. I know you now, and am certain that

you will do everything you can to help the Grand Duchess. There is no

better way of justifying my confidence in you. The task will not be

always easy, I fear. A woman, especially when she has been stricken by

the death of a man she loves, does not preserve that balance of mind of

which we men are so proud. Do your best, monsieur." There was silence

for a moment; then he continued: "I should add another form of thanks if

it were not that any further mark of esteem is superfluous after the one

I have given you in speaking as I have done. You must, however, allow me

to offer you some recompense for the additional demands I am making upon

you. I have just given orders that your salary is to be raised to

fifteen thousand marks."

He met my protests with an exclamation.

"Nonsense!" he said, with his most charming smile. "Don't you play

bridge every night at five pfennigs a point?"

* * * * * *

I was rather late for lunch, and found Professor Cyrus Beck in the thick

of a dispute with Kessel. The latter obviously enjoyed teasing the old

savant, who had a poor sense of humour and was purple with indignation.

My mind was far too full to pay any attention to what they were saying.

I had a vague idea that the professor was explaining that chemistry in

the next war would play a more important part than any other arm, and

that he, Cyrus Beck, was on the high road to a discovery which would

enable an ordinary laboratory and a few retorts to annihilate a whole

army corps.

He was furious at Kessel's gibes.

He ended by appealing to me as witness against the Major, asking me to

quote the passage in which Renan expresses a wish that the destiny of

mankind should be entrusted to a committee of savants armed with a

supply of explosives sufficiently strong to blow the earth to

smithereens if its inhabitants tried to disobey them.

I admit I had not been listening very carefully. "Certainly," I said.

"Allow me, Herr Beck, to ask you something in return."

"By all means."

"Can you tell me what the _Kirchhaus_ is?"

The old man rose. To my intense amazement he glared savagely at me and

went out, slamming the door, before I had time to recover from my

surprise. I looked at Kessel, but he, usually a model of self-possession

and good manners, was literally shaking with laughter.

"What on earth's the matter?" I asked.

"You've fairly put your foot in it," he managed to get out at last.

"Poor old chap; did you notice how furious he was? And to think that he

had hoped you'd back him up!"

"But what's upset him?" I asked, and my astonishment was so genuine that

it was Kessel's turn to be surprised.

"You mean to say you didn't do it on purpose?"

"What?"

"Didn't you ask him what the _Kirchhaus_ was on purpose?"

"I asked him because I didn't know and wanted to," I said, rather

nettled.

He looked at me and began to laugh even more hilariously than before.

"Well, if that isn't the best thing I've ever heard! Don't you know what

the Lautenburg _Kirchhaus_ is, my friend?"

"Well?"

"Well, good God, it's the asylum!"

* * * * * *

The Grand Duchess loved sport in season and out of season. Every now and

then she would condescend to hunt foxes or deer by way of entertaining

the officers of the 7th Hussars. But her private and peculiar delight

was sport in solitude, preferably on a wet and windy day without grooms,

attendants or beaters. All she required was a dog and the off-chance.

Many an evening have I seen her in her little room making up her own

cartridges. The pretty little cylinders, blue, violet, green, yellow, or

red, white and blue, were spread out before her on a table, into which

the ramrod was screwed. Carefully packing the copper loaders, she gave

to each its dose of powder, wad, charge of shot and little piece of

white cardboard. When she had rammed all this home, she wrote the number

of the charge on each. Hagen was always present on those occasions, and

as it was part of his duties, it would have been very difficult to get

rid of him. Melusine von Graffenfried, indolent and a poor walker,

preferred to stay behind, lying on rugs and smoking her eternal

cigarettes. Count Marçais, on the other hand, always came with us.

These excursions gave him a chance of showing off his sensational

sporting clothes, on which Aurora never failed to compliment him. I must

admit he was excellent company, with his high spirits and charming

manner. We used to ride out of the castle about two o'clock in the

afternoon. The first stage was the _Herrenwald_. Squirrels swarmed in

the trees. Pheasants rose heavily from the ground as we passed. At the

bottom of some wooded ravine we could hear the fussy but invisible

flight of a woodcock.

Marçais would have preferred to stay there. He liked woodland sport,

pheasant shooting in the open with some one beside him to load his gun

and point out the game: "A cock on the left, Herr Count," "A hen on your

right!"

But this kind of thing was not to the liking of the Grand Duchess

Aurora, who detested everything official on such occasions and in any

case showed a marked preference for water-fowl.

Soon the stunted trees grew rarer, great wastes of marsh appeared, under

a sheen of grey and pale green. The sun above was already a glowing

ball, low down on the horizon.

Two servants were waiting for us at a little rustic hut. They took our

horses. Marçais had his dog, Dick, a big Auvergne pointer, hard of

mouth and apt to range rather far, though it came to heel well. The

Grand Duchess's ugly black and red spaniel seemed a kind of dog brother

to Taras-Bulba.

In sheer joy Aurora dropped the reins and sprang from her horse. I can

still see her opening her "Hammerless" and slipping in the two mauve

cartridges. I can still hear the sharp click of the brass rim against

the steel of the barrel....

At fifteen, armed with an old fowling-piece, I had already tasted the

extraordinary delights of shooting over marsh. When, later, I was in the

army, firing at disappearing targets had seemed to me mere child's play

compared to the fine right and left at diverging snipe I managed to pull

off more than once in those early days.

To the north of Dax there is an immense marsh bounded by the wretched

hamlets of Herm and Gourbera. You reach it through a gorge known as "La

Cible" because the Emperor's gamekeepers used to shoot there in bygone

days.

Here was the same misty waste. How well I remember the soft squish of

the wet ground, as if the earth itself were dissolving, and the tall

yellow grasses, which are sharp as a knife and cut your hands if you're

foolish enough to touch them.

I knew all the birds and beasts, all the varied life of those stretches

of mud, treacherous beds of green moss, reed-fringed ponds--the whole

great expanse that looks so flat and monotonous.

Like the fair sportswoman of the Volga marshes, I knew all the birds

that haunt these wan regions: the black, or water-rail, which hops about

in leafless trees; the red-rail, or corn-crake, which runs at lightning

speed through the high grass, throws the best dogs off the scent,

reduces the sportsman to breathlessness and makes you think you are

after a hare, until it suddenly decides to take wing, from which moment

it becomes an easy prey, poor, silly thing.

There were many species of duck, which sweep dizzily overhead in their

curious oblique and rigid flight; shovellers, pochards, sheldrake, with

their pretty red heads; shrill-voiced teal, which fly in couples and

have a trefoil of three black feathers on their ruddy breasts.

There were lapwings, black and white, like magpies, which rise up

swiftly with their croaking cry and then swoop wildly to earth to dodge

your shot.

There were plovers, handsomest of birds, in their golden spring raiment.

And, last and best, there was snipe, queen of the marshes, and the

finest and hardest of shots; the jack snipe, smaller than a lark, which

has blue and green stripes; the common snipe, which is about the size of

a quail, and amazingly timid, and the great snipe, rarest of all, which

is as big as a partridge.

With their plaintive, hoarse cry they fly in disconcerting zig-zags at

an incredible speed. You aim to the right and when the wind has blown

away the smoke you see the little grey bird vanishing in the dim

distance on the left.

In the midst of these Hanoverian marshes, so like our marshes of the

Landes, Aurora of Lautenburg was even more beautiful than in all her

finery at the palace. Wearing a feather toque and huge but shapely

top-boots, she jumped as lightly as a bird over the sodden turf. The

yellow mist of that water-laden atmosphere seemed to cast a pale mauve

halo about her. Marçais shot calmly and well. Little Hagen was fussy

and always fired too soon. I was a much better shot than either of these

two, but what a poor figure I cut beside the Grand Duchess!

Leaving us the rail and duck, she devoted her attention exclusively to

the snipe. Gradually night came down on the watery waste. The sky turned

to burnished copper in a last conflagration. The great pools were sheets

of green which grew darker and darker. A thin tongue of flame began to

leap from the barrel of our guns every time we fired, a tongue which

became redder as the darkness grew more intense.

It was the Grand Duchess's hour. Her diabolical spaniel was everywhere

at once. We could hear the snipe start up before her and her repeated

cries of "Heel!" Neither Marçais, Hagen nor I could see them at all.

But Aurora saw them all right; each of her shots brought down a little

grey bird.

We would wait for a second. Then out of the darkness came the sound of

rustling grass. The spaniel, dripping, black and shining, with his eyes

full of phosphorus, suddenly appeared, bearing the dead snipe to his

mistress.

It was now quite dark. In the low sky an invisible procession of cranes

passed over our heads, with remote, raucous cries. The Grand Duchess

took the bird from her dog. We went up. I saw her run her fingers over

the poor little body, still warm. No wound could be seen, nothing to

reveal the presence of that tiny ball of lead, or the imperceptible

black hole whence that little life had fled.

Then, with that inconsequence which is the hallmark of the sportsman,

Aurora raised the inert little head to her lips and kissed it.

VI

IT was on Saturday evening, May 16th, 1914, that the Grand Duchess of

Lautenburg did me the honour of telling me the story of her life. Let me

repeat that story to you, not only because certain of its incidents are

absolutely indispensable to a proper understanding of the drama which is

fast approaching its climax, but above all because it gives me an

exquisite pleasure to open this jewel-case and handle the beautiful,

barbaric stones it contains, gems which will always light me through my

blackest hour.

Hagen had had to go to a dinner, given by the 7th Hussars, and was not

there. It gave me no small pleasure to see that she was always more open

with me in his absence, however casually she treated that moody and

stubborn adorer.

Reclining on the white bearskin thrown over her _chaise-longue_, she was

dressed that evening in a very loose, light tunic of yellow Turkish

silk, embroidered in mauve and silver.

Every now and then she passed her fingers through a bowl of huge roses

standing on a low table close by, and we could hear the petals falling

softly on the blue carpet.

Melusine, her hair shaken loose, was sitting on the carpet, resting her

drooping head on the bare feet of her mistress, which she clasped in her

arms from time to time.

From the chair where I was sitting I could see the voluptuous curves of

the girl's smooth throat in the opening of her Valenciennes fichu. The

window was open behind the drawn curtains, and the night breeze, wafting

them apart from time to time, mingled the balmy scents of the

_Herrenwald_ with the heady odours of amber, roses and cigarettes.

With her utter indifference to effect or style, Aurora spoke, mixing up

three languages and interchanging the French "you," the German third

person, and the Russian "thou."

"I expect you know," she began, "that I did not exactly go up in the

world when I married. Once a princess, I am now no more than

grand-duchess, and though I am allied to the Hohenzollerns my husband's

family is not nearly as old as my own.

"I am a Tumene princess. I know, of course, that your western histories

say practically nothing about us. But if you went to Samarkand or

Kara-Koroum, or indeed no further than Tiflis, you would find in our

ancient Mongolian chronicles things that would amaze you as to the

antiquity of our origin, and you would realize that your Broglies and

Cumberlands are mere parvenus compared with us.

"One Tumene prince was beheaded for his hostility to Yaroslav the Great,

and I will go back no further, least I weary you with jaw-breaking

names. Another, much later, gave Ivan the Terrible so much trouble that

that sovereign preferred to treat with him and sent him magnificent

presents, notably an enormous clock with the signs of the zodiac in

sapphires. This was not enough, however, to prevent that Tumene's son

from assisting the Khan of the Crimea with forty thousand horsemen when

he started out to besiege Moscow, in 1571, if I remember rightly.

"You must not think that we were no better than savages because at first

we fought against the Czars. Boris Godounov was glad enough of our help

against the Tartars, Circassians and Cheremisses. I admit we always

preferred fighting against European enemies. It was Alexis Tumene,

son-in-law of Peter the Great, who led the great charge at Pultawa. As a

reward the Czar ordained that his reforming edicts should not run in

Tumene territories. We have at home a portrait in the style of your

Mignard representing Alexis in a feathered cap, a golden lambskin,

embroidered like a chasuble, and wearing his moustaches long, a fashion

which the Czar had forbidden every one else.

"The first Tumene to shave was my great-grand-father, Vladimir. He it

was who was nearly shot by the orders of Barclay de Tolly. I don't

remember the reason. He was in command of the Astrakhan Cossack Corps

who bivouacked in the Champs-Elysées and apparently played the devil

there. My great-grandfather did a good deal of looting, but converted

his booty into cash which he soon lost at the Palais-Royal. You see he

banked on red, and black came up fourteen times running.

"Vladimir's father was at first on excellent terms with Catherine II.

When she had had enough of him she made him marry a lady from Anhalt.

This was the first time my family had contracted an alliance in this

country. I hope I shall close the list. I don't say that to hurt your

feelings, Melusine, but really that particular German was stupid and

miserly. For instance, of the seven children she gave her husband not

one was in her own image. They were all little Cossacks.

"My grandmother came from Erivan. I am told I'm like her, but she was

better-looking than I. She was madly in love with my grandfather, and

abjured her faith in order to marry him. But before this she adored

shooting, which is a long way the finest faith on earth.

"Papa, who will come into my story again, is the second, member of the

family to marry a German, and once more a Hohenzollem. But you must hear

how it happened. Like his grandfather Vladimir, he was an inveterate

gambler. He took an oath to win back everything his grandfather had lost

in France. Indeed, he would have utterly ruined himself there, if you

ever could ruin yourself with lands as big as six of your departments,

Cossacks too numerous to count and flocks and herds which doubled every

year.

"He always spent ten months of the year in Paris--he was a member of the

Jockey Club--Aix, Nice and every other place to which men of his type

resort. It was at Aix that he met my mother. The year was 1882. One

evening he was at the Villa des Fleurs with King George of Greece and

the Grand Duke Vassily. They had been drinking a good deal and should

not have been alone. Then Papa began to pour out scandal about women,

swearing that they were all alike and that he, a Tumene prince and

obliged to marry to perpetuate his name, had decided to marry any one

Fate threw in his way.

"'All right,' said the Grand Duke, 'marry the first woman who comes in

here.'

"'Certainly, provided, of course, that she's not married already,' added

my father, who was religious.

"'I bet you won't.'

"'How much?'

"'A hundred thousand roubles.'

"'Done.'

"I believe King George of Greece had never had such an amusing time

before. Poor man, I was genuinely grieved when he was assassinated six

months ago. Just imagine, you two, what a scene it must have been, with

those three men waiting for the door to open on her who was to be a

Tumene princess, for they knew my father's obstinacy, and that he would

marry Queen Pomaré or Madame Dieulafoy rather than lose his bet.

"The first-comer was my mother, the Duchess Eleanor of Hesse-Darmstadt,

then aged sixteen, and behind her was her English governess. I still

shiver at the thought that, if the Englishwoman had preceded her, Papa

would certainly have married her and I should have been much less

pretty.

"As it happened Mamma was beauty itself, a blonde Melusine. Perhaps not

quite as lovely as you, dear Melusine. I never knew her well, as I was

only five when she died. She never managed to make herself at home in

our Tartary. I remember how she would shiver in the early autumn

evenings at the cry of the curlew in the Volga marshes. Papa was

terribly unfaithful to her. She could only weep, and I'm afraid that's

just the thing that annoys men most.

"I still cannot understand how any one could fail to be happy in our

palace. Please don't think it was a barbarian lair. In 1850 we were

visited by a Frenchwoman, and you can read the book she wrote, 'Voyages

dans les Steppes de la Caspienne.' It was published in Paris. Her name

was Madame Hommaire de Hell, and her husband was an engineer employed on

some geodetical mission. You can verify all this in your books. She was

received by my grandfather and has given a very full description of the

palace.

"This palace is built on an island in the Volga. My ancestors selected

the site on account of marauders. The marauders are no more, but the

place is as picturesque as ever.

"My earliest memory is the noise of the hooter of the paddle-steamer

which plied between us and Astrakhan three times a week. It was an

agreeable sound because it meant visitors--the governor, the French

Minister, a pleasant individual like Marçais, who brought me dolls and,

later on, books. Like a true aristocrat, Papa was never happier than

when entertaining company.

"The window of my room looked over the river. I used to watch the wild

duck, just like so many little mechanical toys, floating solemnly down

the brown waters--especially when my governess, Mlle. Jauffre, droned

out the rules about participles: when the complement precedes, it

agrees; when it follows.... I would get up quietly, take my long

fowling-piece and some 'Number four' and let fly, bang! bang! among the

ducks. The servants went out in boats to bring them in. Papa never

minded as long as I had killed at least half a dozen. Having told you

this, you mustn't be surprised if I make slips in my grammar.

"For the piano I had an Italian professor. He was a republican. He was

always trying to explain to us, with a meaning smile, that he was a

natural son of Garibaldi. I can only remember his Christian name,

Teobaldo. One day, when I was fifteen, he was behind me turning over the

pages of some music I was reading, and kissed the back of my neck. I

must confess I had encouraged him a little, just to see what he'd do. I

burst out laughing. He took that for a responsive thrill and kissed me

again. I laughed as if I should never stop. Suddenly Papa came in. I

thought I was in for trouble, but the room was dark. He picked up his

ramrod, which he had left on the table, and went out. For small game

Papa always made his own cartridges, to get a proper spread.

"Next day I was walking with Mlle. Jauffre in a very thick fir copse at

the western horn of the island. We almost ran into a long, flabby form,

hanging from a cedar. It was poor Teobaldo. Mlle. Jauffre screamed and

fled. I turned him round by the feet to have a good look. Then I fled

also, as fast as I could. His black, swollen tongue was hanging out over

his tie. His eyes were dead white and fat flies were already as busy on

him as on a rotten apple. Perhaps the most horrible thing was that he

had the same expression as when he was kissing me. Since then I have

always loathed men.

"It was about this time that I became melancholy through reading the

'Demon' of Lermontoff, who is a much greater poet than your Vigny, or

even Byron. I was very pale and there were scarlet flushes on my cheeks.

A doctor came from Astrakhan. Between ourselves I managed to bribe him,

and he ordered me to take the waters of Piatigorsk. That was exactly

what I wanted, for you no doubt remember that it was at Piatigorsk that

Lermontoff was killed in a duel.

"The 'waters' of Piatigorsk are a series of waterfalls where the stream

leaps over walls of black granite and glittering mica. That sounds very

impressive, but at the end of a week I was so thoroughly bored that my

cure was complete.

"I don't believe I should ever have lasted out the fortnight Papa had

decreed if I hadn't made the discovery of an extremely picturesque old

Frenchman who gained his living at Piatigorsk by acting as guide to

foreigners on their expeditions in the mountains. He was a political

criminal. I rather think he had been a friend of Vaillant. Anyhow, he

had been exiled from France in Carnot's time, and, like every one else,

had taken refuge in Russia.

"He was a learned old fellow, but he had some peculiar ideas. I took a

particular liking to him, mainly because Mlle. Jauffre used to throw up

her hands and wail: 'What _would_ His Highness say!' every time he spoke

to me of folk I'd never heard of before: Saint-Simon, Enfantin, Bazard,

Karl Marx, Lassalle and the Iron Law. Heaven knows what else!

"I had never read any Tolstoy. The old man lent me 'Resurrection.' I

never knew such a world existed. I had Tolstoy's social creed expounded

to me, to tease Mlle. Jauffre. The old man was jubilant. 'Oh,

mademoiselle! If only you _would_, what a chance!'

"The result was that when we left Piatigorsk I took old Barbessoul (for

that was his name) back with me. Papa was certainly somewhat astonished

to see the patriarch in our train, but, as I looked so well, said

nothing. To tell the truth, he was used to my caprices.

"He did more. Quite close to the island in the Volga on which the palace

stood was another small island, perhaps a square half-verst in area.

Papa gave it to me, and with it fifty moujiks, men, women and children.

There, under the old man's direction, I set up a socialist community,

half Saint-Simon, half Tolstoy: no private property, division of the

instruments of labour according to needs and capacities, etc., etc.

"At first all went well. I spent four hours a day in my socialist

paradise. Old Barbessoul was triumphant. His part in the organization

was something between priest and foreman. Papa thought I was mad.

"You won't be surprised to hear I had soon had enough of it, if only

because things began to go wrong. Feeling safe under my protection, the

members of the community used to go out in boats at night to rob the

hen-roosts of the riverside farmers. Papa had very kindly consented to

relieve them of taxation and compulsory labour. It was perfectly

alarming the amount of kwass they drank. Old Barbessoul was the only one

who couldn't perceive how strongly they smelt of drink, even the women.

Why, after two months, one of them found himself the possessor of all

the agricultural implements. All the others had pawned them to get

kwass. Then, as they could not work, they loafed about all day and spent

the night robbing the neighbouring peasants. One night there was a

regular battle. Two moujiks were killed. Papa was wild with rage, called

me a silly fool, and wanted to hang old Barbessoul. On my entreaties he

refrained, but the community was broken up.

"That was my last experiment with Socialism. It is certain that if it

had not been for Papa's Cossacks all those folk would have cut each

other's throats.

* * * * * *

"One day in February, 1909, when I was just on twenty, I was shooting

duck from a boat in a branch of the Volga when I saw on the bank Papa's

favourite Cossack signalling wildly with his cap on the end of his

sabre.

"He was shouting as well, though I couldn't hear him. I gathered that

something must have happened at home, but I wanted to appear indifferent

in spite of my burning curiosity to know what all the fuss was about. I

only put in to the bank an hour later, when the poor man was almost dead

with waving his arms and shouting so much. He told me the Prince wanted

me in his study. I took as long as I could getting there, anticipating a

good lecture.

"I got nothing of the kind. Papa seemed radiant about something. He

kissed me, then, showing me a large envelope with red seals on his

bureau, he told me what it was about.

"It was a letter to Papa from the Czar. It informed him that in May the

Emperor William was to visit St. Petersburg and that there would be

great celebrations, ending up with a review at Tsarskoïe-Selo; that he

therefore wished the Astrakhan and Aral Cossacks to be represented, and

begged the Tumene Prince to bring a brigade with him. 'The Czarina,' he

added, 'will be glad to make her little niece's acquaintance on this

occasion.' I had forgotten to tell you that I was her niece, owing to

Papa's marriage with a Grand-Duchess of Hesse-Darmstadt.

"I can assure you that I had never found the days long in our Volga

palace, yet, as I listened to my father, I must confess to a feeling of

joyous excitement, and from that moment I had only one idea--to astonish

the Czar, the Czarina, the German Emperor and, indeed, the whole world.

I spent days on end looking into my glass, and admit that I was not

altogether displeased with what I saw there.

"Hitherto I had had my clothes made at Astrakhan by Menjuzan Sœurs,

excellent French dressmakers who visited Paris once a year for their

models and did good business with fashionable Circassian society. Papa

gave me unlimited credit and two days later I left with Mlle. Jauffre.

But I must tell you I had a scheme of my own.

"I came back from Astrakhan and told him I could find nothing at all. I

wept all over him and vowed I would never appear at Court dressed like

a savage. You can imagine that I had no intention of missing such a

splendid opportunity of seeing Paris. Papa took a good deal of

persuading, but I soon realized he wouldn't be sorry to see his old

friends there again.

"We left early in March. My one fear when we arrived in Paris, of which

my head was full, was to betray any sort of astonishment, and that is no

doubt why my manner was somewhat affected.

"Papa lost no time in finding out that he had a whole mass of visits and

engagements. He only put in an appearance at the 'Ritz' for meals and

not always for them.

"He wanted me to go to Redfern, but I chose Doucet, out of perversity. I

have never seen anything more absurd than Mlle. Jauffre, in her

pince-nez and black satin gown, smothered in jet, standing among the

lovely girls who bowed to me and walked up and down to help me to

choose.

"I was asked: 'What does your Highness require?'

"'Everything,' I replied coldly.

"In a twinkling I had ordered six evening gowns, twelve tailor-mades,

two riding-habits, and everything else on the same scale.

"Nothing was _décolleté_ enough for my taste. Mlle. Jauffre was green

in the face. The head saleswoman took it upon herself to tell me it was

rather risqué for a young lady. I told her to get on with the fitting.

Besides, Papa appeared on one occasion and approved my choice. He gave

me a proud look that made me altogether happy, for I knew what a good

judge he was.

"That evening he must have had a twinge of conscience at leaving me so

much to myself, for he told me we were to dine together and instructed

Mlle. Jauffre to bring me to Laurent's in the Avenue Gabriel at eight

o'clock to the minute. I need hardly say that at eight o'clock no one

was there. I sat down on a form and waited. To while away the time I

drew out the little inlaid dagger I carried in my belt and cut my

initials on the bench. I expect they're still there.

"At ten minutes past eight, seeing an old gentleman hovering round us

and feeling the need of a little dissipation, I told Mlle. Jauffre to go

out to the tobacco kiosk in the Avenue Matignon and buy me a box of

_Mercédès_. She demurred at first, but ultimately went. The old man

then came up to me. He had check trousers and a grey felt hat. He began

a very entertaining conversation and mentioned a little flat in the Rue

d'Offémont and a lift hung with tapestry curtains. I turned my head to

hide my uncontrollable laughter and was all the more astonished to hear

a resounding smack. When I turned round I saw Papa. The old gentleman

beat a dignified retreat, murmuring something about having a little

joke. In the moonlight I noticed that his grey hat had been badly

battered.

"Mlle. Jauffre came back with the _Mercédès_. Papa told her frigidly

to return to the 'Ritz' for dinner, and go to bed.

"Laurent's is a place where you dine outside at little lamp-lit tables

under the beautiful trees. The place was crowded. Papa was far more at

home there than in our Volga palace. He introduced me to lots of

celebrities: Bunau-Varilla, Charles Derennes, Monsieur de Bonnefon,

Princess Lucien Murat, Maurice Rostand. I took a great fancy to Rostand,

with his choir-boy's face and manner. We still write to each other, and

he's coming to see me at Lautenburg.

"At eleven o'clock Papa took me back to the 'Ritz' and told me he had to

call at the Embassy in the Rue de Grenelle. You don't suppose I felt

like going to bed! Mlle. Jauffre was snoring like a Nüremberg top, and

I thought I should never wake her. You should have seen her look of

amazement when I told her that she must get up as Papa had arranged to

meet us at midnight.

"We took a taxi in the Rue de la Paix. _Grelot_ I told the driver. I had

heard the name at Laurent's.

"_Le Grelot_ is in the Place Blanche. I don't suppose, dear friend, that

a serious student like you has ever been there. When we went in I was a

little jealous of the chorus of approval that greeted Mlle. Jauffre's

spangled gown. A little roué, hopelessly drunk, called out that it was

Madame Fallières. Then the whole assembly rose as one man and sang the

chorus of a well-known song:

'La tante Julie,

La tante Octavie,

La tante Sophie,

Le cousin Léon,

L'oncle Théodule,

L'oncle Thrasybule,

Les cousins Tibulle,

Et Timoleon.'

"I laughed as if I should never stop, and my high spirits infected

everybody--they had looked bored to extinction when we first entered.

"We drank champagne--unlimited champagne. Then we danced. I just showed

those Frenchmen what a Russian princess could do. The only man who could

waltz properly with me was a member of the Hungarian band. We received a

tremendous ovation.

"A negro in the orchestra invited Mlle. Jauffre to dance. You may find

it hard to believe, but she accepted. After all that champagne she was a

different woman. Two dancing girls came and sat by me. One of them,

Zita, a dark girl, wore a dress of blue and silver; the other, 'The

Shrimp,' was all in pink and called me 'Princess,' not knowing that I

was one. They ate my food and drank my champagne. I was in the seventh

heaven and murmured, rather excitedly: 'Paris is lovely, lovely!'

"I suddenly noticed that many of these poor girls had darns in the heels

of their silk stockings just above their patent shoes, so I called out

and threw a handful of louis into the air. They scrambled for them and

found them all with the exception of five or six, on which some of the

most elegant of the gentlemen had neatly put their feet.

"I think I should have stayed there all night if I had not suddenly

heard loud shouts in the next room.

"'Lili, Lili, here's Lili! Vive Lili!'

"I looked up and saw Papa coming in. It was he whom they called 'Lili,'

obviously derived from his Christian name, Vassily.

"He, too, was in the highest spirits. On each arm was a girl, handsome

enough to make me feel thoroughly jealous.

"He was far too busy to see me. I lost no time in making preparations to

go, but it proved a terrible business getting Mlle. Jauffre away. She

was exceedingly loth to leave her negro. In the taxi she sang at the top

of her voice:

'Caroline, Caroline,

Put on your shiny black shoes.'

"Then, without warning, she leaned out of the window and began to weep

vigorously, complaining that I had not shown her sufficient respect.

"Papa had a bill from Doucet for thirty-eight thousand six hundred

francs. He did not demur, and I gathered that his daughter's

requirements had as a matter of fact been less formidable than those of

other ladies--a thought which disgusted me not a little.

* * * * * *

"When we got back to Russia, we found another letter from the Czar,

telling Papa that the Kaiser's arrival at St. Petersburg was fixed for

May 15th, so that we ought to make our arrangements at once.

"I could give you no idea of the gorgeous way in which he fitted out his

brigade. The Astrakhan Cossacks wear the Armenian high black cap,

something like a sugar-loaf, red coats edged with fur, and yellow

bandoliers. The Aral Cossacks have sky-blue coats, white bandoliers, and

wear the round Kalmuck busby, two feet in diameter, from which they

derive their nickname of 'Bigheads.' They carry the curved sabre, on

which the Aral Cossacks, who are Mohammedans, engrave verses of the

Khoran, a whip with lead balls, and a long lance.

"Papa had all the woollen facings replaced by others of gold and silver.

He reviewed his squadrons one day towards the end of April when the

early crocus was peeping shyly forth. There was only a pale yellow sun,

but it was quite enough to make those superb warriors look so

magnificent that we could easily imagine what they would be like in the

brilliant May sunshine at Tzarskoïe-Selo.

"There was nearly a catastrophe the day they left for Petersburg. You

must remember that these simple folk, who fear neither man nor

whirlwind, spirits of marsh nor spirits of flood, stand in mortal terror

of railways. Their horses share that emotion. Half of them had been

bundled in when they suddenly caught sight of the squat little engine,

puffing and blowing, in the middle of the steppe. Not one of them would

have moved if the priest had not turned up and blessed this strange

animal.

"We got them off at last in twelve trains, which took twelve days to

cross Great Russia. We ourselves were travelling by the express, so we

only had to leave the palace a week later. The Czar had a special

Pullman car put at our disposal. We invited the two colonels and the six

majors to join us. The priest was with Mlle. Jauffre and Kunin, Papa's

favourite Cossack. I had put them in charge of my wardrobe.

"Petersburg is a splendid city, with barracks, churches and fine

gardens. You can see that the man who laid it out had a definite scheme

in mind. We were housed royally at the Winter Palace and had a private

audience of the Czar the night we arrived. 'Hello! so this is the little

niece,' he said, and I could see he thought me pretty. The Czarina

kissed me and called the Grand Duchesses, my cousins, in order to

introduce us. I gave Olga and Tatiana each a necklace of Caucasian

rubies, which seemed to have a diamond tear inside, and for the little

girls there were necklaces of pink pearls. Papa had brought the

Czarevitch an aigrette buckle, made out of one huge diamond, for his

kolbach, and a little Cossack sword with the hilt set in sapphires and

brilliants.

"Two days later all the bells of the capital announced the arrival of

the Kaiser. The Czar, the Czarevitch and the Grand Dukes went to

Kronstadt to meet him.

"Since then I have seen so many royal entries into various cities that

the memory of this particular occasion has gradually faded entirely from

my mind. But that doesn't matter. It was a magnificent spectacle.

"I witnessed the arrival at the palace from my balcony. The White

Cuirassiers, with the Grand Dukes, rode up to the gates. The honours

were rendered by the Preobrajensky guards. All this time Papa's Cossacks

were installed in two barracks and forbidden to leave them. This annoyed

me at first until I learned, as I soon did, that it was because they

were the finest in all the Russias and the Czar was reserving them

jealously for the grand finale.

"Under the soft, fleecy sky of Bothnia the breastplates and sabres

sparkled with blue and gold.

"The Kaiser was with the Czar, the Czarevitch and the Crown Prince in

the first carriage. He was wearing the uniform of a colonel of the

Russian Cuirassiers, with the golden eagle on his silver helmet. He

saluted frequently and wore a happy smile. Frederick William was wearing

the uniform of the Black Hussars.

"The Empress and the Czarina came next, with a host of German princes

and generals.

"The introductions seemed as if they would never come to an end. I had

my little success. 'So this is the little niece,' said the Kaiser,

taking my hand and leading me to the Empress. The motherly old hen

kissed me from beneath her lace and ostrich plumes, and told me how much

she loved my poor Mamma. I was still the 'little niece' to them all.

Meanwhile Frederick William and Adalbert did stare, I can tell you!

Adalbert is a fine young man, but he looks pig-headed and sly. I prefer

the Crown Prince, who looks full of mischief. I can tell you Germany

won't be dull when he succeeds his father.

"I spent the whole afternoon getting ready for the banquet in the

evening. I was so afraid I shouldn't make an impression that I got quite

irritable and would have quarrelled with Mlle. Jauffre for two pins. It

was almost as if I had a presentiment of all the evils that were to come

upon me as a result of that cursed evening.

"You can have no idea what a gorgeous affair a fête at the Peterhof is.

The Kaiser had donned another uniform, even more striking than the

first. But you should have seen his face when he saw Papa's!

"His uniform was not to be compared to that of the Tumene Prince. The

Empress's diamonds looked like the tawdry gewgaws of a suburban housewife

by the side of the brilliants on the chain which secured his scarlet

cloak at the left shoulder.

"When I went in I saw the Czar repress his astonishment. For one moment

I thought I must be too _décolleté_. Then this fear vanished as I

realized the impression I was making. You must remember I had secured

Doucet's admitted _chef d'œuvre_, a gown of sapphire velvet, made very

simply, but closely moulded to the form, and my jewellery consisted of

nothing but sapphires. Child as I was, I was already anticipating my

next day's success. 'But what will they say,' I said to myself, 'when

they see my Number 2, the red gown with nothing but rubies!'

"We danced. I was amused to see the Germans, accustomed to their slow

waltz, miss the beat of our rapid Russian waltz and put in a couple of

hops--or stand like herons--to catch up again.

"I danced with the Crown Prince. He complimented me on my dress and said

that the German Emperor was not an absolute monarch, as he'd never been

able to make his Court ladies do with less than six colours in their

gowns. I wanted to irritate him, so I replied that it was not

surprising, and that mine came from Paris. But he said I was right and

there was no place like Paris. With those priceless grimaces which are

quite his own he told me a whole heap of _risqué_ stories about Paris,

and as he took me back to my place I heard the old hen murmur in his

ear: 'Now, Fritz, behave!'

"At the same moment she beckoned to me to go and sit beside her.

"That morning I had noticed among the officers of the Kaiser's entourage

a tall Hussar in a scarlet uniform with yellow facings. He had sandy

hair and fine eyes, his blue, insistent eyes of a short-sighted man. He

had had his eyeglass fixed on me the whole time, but of course I was

careful to pretend I noticed nothing. I should have been astounded then

if any one had told me that one day I should be wearing that scarlet

uniform myself.

"'Aurora,' the Empress said, 'this is my cousin Rudolph, Grand Duke of

Lautenburg-Detmold. He wants a dance with you.'

"The red Hussar danced atrociously, though he made the most superhuman

efforts. He thought he ought to apologize, but I gave him no reply and

not even a word of thanks when the dance ended. He resumed his place

behind the Empress and wiped his eyeglass from time to time, looking

miserable enough to melt a stone.

"The next day I was delighted to hear that there was to be some

fox-hunting two days later. How thankful I was to have brought

Taras-Bulba, my wicked little Barbary horse, with me! I went to see him

at the barracks where our Cossacks were. He had behaved so outrageously

that he had been shut up by himself in a stable--the door of which he'd

nearly smashed to pieces on his way in.

"When he saw me he whinnied rapturously and soon bolted the sugar I had

brought him.

"'You've just got to show what you can do,' I said, running my hand

through his long, thick mane. 'We'll leave them all behind, won't we?'

"He nodded amiably to show he'd understood, and I went out to try on my

riding-habit.

"When I reached my room I found Papa there, looking calm but radiant. I

always loathe surprises. They are sure to be unpleasant.

"I saw that Papa didn't know how to begin, and that in itself made me

suspicious.

"'You must hurry,' I said. 'I have to dress.'

"'My daughter,' he said, 'I have something important to say to you.'

"'That is no reason why you shouldn't hurry up.'

"'My daughter, how would you like to be a Queen?'

"'Queen of what?'

"'Würtemberg.'

"We may have been brought up among savages, but I know my _Gotha_. So I

asked Papa if he wanted me to marry the King of Würtemberg, who was

then sixty-two.

"'It is not His Majesty the King of Würtemberg who has done me the

honour to ask your hand. It is His Highness the Grand Duke of

Lautenburg-Detmold.'

"Papa is a prince himself, and to hear him mouthing 'Majesties' and

'Highnesses' drove me crazy.

"'What!' I cried. 'The boiled lobster? Never!'

"'Let's be serious,' said my father.

"'_Never_,' I repeated, stamping my foot. 'Besides, I don't see the

connection between this short-sighted red-beard and the crown of

Würtemberg.'

"'It's this,' said my father magisterially. 'King Albert of Würtemberg

has no children. He is sixty-two, as you correctly observed, and a

martyr to diabetes. The Grand Duke of Lautenburg is his heir.'

"'I don't care,' I replied. 'I'd rather marry Kunin, and, besides, I

don't want to marry at all.'

"Papa began to lose his temper. He came out with the whole story.

Rudolph of Lautenburg was madly in love with me. He had spoken to the

Empress, his godmother, who had spoken to the Kaiser, who had spoken to

the Czar, who had just spoken to _him_. Hints of this kind, flattering

though they are, are virtually orders, and...

"'You consented, without waiting to ask me?' I broke in.

"'Not exactly,' he replied in some confusion, 'but, after all, what

could I do but thank him and consent ...'

"'Consent to what!'

"'Consent to--oh, something which commits you to nothing. I agreed that

the Grand Duke should be your companion at the meet the day after

tomorrow.'

"'If that's all,' I said, 'you can rely on me to make this German sorry

he ever came to Russia for an heiress.'

"'Promise me to be nice,' begged my father in alarm. 'You make me regret

I have given you so much liberty. Remember it's a question of a royal

crown. Neither more nor less.'

"A crown! To see his daughter a queen! That was all the old Kalmuck

thought about.

"That evening as I was entering the car to go to the gala performance I

was made to realize that Papa had committed me much further than he had

dared admit.

"'Here's our little fiancée,' said the Kaiser, taking my hand.

"The Empress, more the brood hen than ever, kissed me on the forehead.

It appears that this is a family mania.

"And so it went on up to the Czar, who remarked to the Kaiser, with one

of his sad smiles:

"'So you're not satisfied with flooding me with your subjects, but must

needs come to take away mine!'

"I put on my frankest smile, but cast many a sidelong glance at my red

Hussar, who didn't know what to do. I said to myself:

"'You wait a bit, my fine fellow! You'll be paid out for this the day

after tomorrow!'

* * * * * *

"The day came. My only fear was that the country we hunted would be too

flat, too easy. I was quickly reassured. It is true that there were a

good many paths in the woods, quite suitable for ladies, but there were

also patches of thick scrub, several streams, and here and there some

tricky ditches.

"Before we started I gave Taras-Bulba half a pound of sugar soaked in

whisky, and he was very lively though full of dignity.

"I won't pretend that there was not a chorus of exclamation when he

appeared. The Crown Prince asked me why I didn't have him clipped.

"'Don't listen to them, old friend,' I murmured in my little steed's

ear. He understood and knowingly tossed his head.

"The Grand Duke Rudolph rode up beside me. I made myself so agreeable

that the poor man evidently felt encouraged and said in a low voice:

"'Then you don't regret having me for your companion, mademoiselle?'

"'How could you think so, sir?' I answered. 'This Court half suffocates

me. We never have a moment to ourselves. There's room to breathe out

here. We can talk.'

"'So you love Nature!' he murmured, radiant. 'How happy I am!'

"I was happy, too. I was certain that he wouldn't leave me for a second.

"The first fox was started. Nothing remarkable happened except, perhaps,

when Taras-Bulba, fired by the sound of the horn, performed a polka and

came down with his forelegs on the back of Adalbert's mare, almost

unseating her rider. After that they all kept away from my little horse

as if he'd been the plague.

"The Grand Duke of Lautenburg was riding one of those horses so beloved

of the Germans, a great dark bay with hocks as big as a ham, and a back

like a billiard-table. Moreover, it didn't take me long to notice that

the ugly brute had a hard mouth and galloped with his head between his

legs.

"My poor friend, I thought, you'll have some fun soon when you come to

the ditches.

"A second and a third fox were killed easily enough. Suddenly a fourth

started up between me and the Grand Duke. I caught sight of him, a long,

lean animal with hardly any tail. I knew at once he was what I was

after.

"'Ours!' I cried to Rudolph.

"He spurred his great brute into a gallop.

"The fox was a hundred yards ahead. Good little beast! He made straight

for the thickest cover.

"Every now and then the Grand Duke turned round:

"'I'm not going too fast, am I? Can you keep up?' he asked, panting.

"'Go on! Go on!' I replied.

"And Taras-Bulba snorted as if to echo:

"'Go on! Go on!'

"Soon we were in the depths of the woods. Then I just touched my little

nag's neck and gave him his head. In a moment the Grand Duke was left

behind.

"I caught a glimpse of him, all red and breathless.... He was now a

quarter of a verst behind me.

"I told Taras-Bulba to slow down and he did so.

"'You did give me a fright,' said the poor man as he came up. 'I thought

your horse had bolted.'

"'Look out!' I cried.

"There was a stream at our feet. He got over it by the skin of his

teeth. The fox, with three hounds at his heels, was running ahead in a

flat meadow that sloped away from us.

"Then came more woods. I held my head down and thus escaped the

scratches of the branches which were pushed aside for a moment by

Taras-Bulba's head, only to close up immediately behind him. But my poor

companion's face was already covered with blood. A twig carried away his

eyeglass. I felt he was done. His big horse was blowing like a

steam-engine.

"'Keep going,' I cried, 'the fox is tiring!' and I gave Taras-Bulba a

touch of the spur.

"The little animal doesn't like liberties. He gave a tremendous bound.

His rival followed painfully behind amidst a terrible noise of broken

branches.

"'You're beginning to tire,' I said to myself. 'You'll come down next

time.'

"'Next time' appeared in the form of a ditch fifteen feet wide and as

many deep, with a half-concealed and extremely tricky edge. For a second

even I asked myself whether Taras-Bulba, with the pace he had just been

keeping, would manage to get over. But lo and behold! He picked himself

up, the gallant little beast, and flew over like a swallow.

"Then I turned round, knowing full well what would happen.

"It _did_ happen. Horse and rider came down in one terrific crash. The

beast missed the edge with its hind legs and unceremoniously hurled its

master to the ground.

"I jumped down and went up to the Grand Duke, feeling vaguely that I had

gone a bit too far.

"'You haven't hurt yourself, I hope?'

"'I don't think so,' he murmured faintly. 'I was so frightened to see

you go over this vile ditch.'

"Poor man! I wanted to beg his pardon.

"'Can I help you up?' I said, in some embarrassment.

"'I should be glad if you would.'

"But I tried in vain to get him on to his feet. It was then that I

noticed how pale he was.

"'You've broken your right leg,' I cried.

"'Oh, I don't think so,' he said, in his gentle, disarming way. 'Nothing

worse than a sprain.'

"'I tell you you've broken your leg; I know what I'm saying.'

"I pulled out my hunting-knife and slit up his boot. The leg appeared,

all swollen.

"'We're in a nice fix,' I thought, 'at least six versts from the field.'

"Rudolph was silent, but looked at me out of his fine, gentle eyes.

You'd have thought he was happy.

"'Thank you,' he just murmured.

"'What for?' I burst out. 'I have broken your leg and you thank me! You

might at least wait until I've got you out of this mess.'

"He looked very contrite and ventured:

"'You'd better go back and send up some help.'

"'What!' I exclaimed in scorn. 'Go back without the fox, and, when I'm

asked where the Grand Duke Rudolph is, tell them that I left him at the

bottom of a ditch with his leg in little pieces! No, thank you, sir!'

"'As you please,' he replied faintly. 'But I don't know what you can

do.'

"'You shall see.'

"His big horse was standing by, browsing placidly under Taras-Bulba's

wicked little eye.

"'Come here, you brute!'

"When I got hold of him I realized I should never have the strength to

get the Grand Duke into the saddle.

"'What's the good of horses like haystacks?' I cried in exasperation.

"The injured man looked at me, still wearing that perpetual air of

apology which at last got on my nerves.

"'Taras-Bulba!' I called.

"The little beast came, though with a bad grace. He suspected what was

going to happen.

"Rudolph of Lautenburg could not restrain a movement of apprehension.

"'You're not going to put me on that animal, are you?' he muttered. 'I'd

rather stay here.'

"'Never,' I said, stamping. 'Taras-Bulba is as quiet as a lamb. Now just

do what I tell you.'

"That German was a tremendous weight, but I managed to get him up and

tie him firmly in the saddle with the reins.

"Then I mounted his great beast.

"You can imagine how I cursed myself for my folly as we went back. The

man I wanted to hate had won my sympathy--and I'd done it myself! It

only wanted Taras-Bulba's look of amazement to complete my discomfiture:

"'What on earth have I done?' he seemed to say, 'for you to give me a

German to carry, while you desert me for that ugly, hairless, brown

brute with hoofs the size of frying-pans?'

* * * * * *

"You mustn't break a man's leg if you don't want to marry him. I need

hardly tell you the sequel. Creatures like myself are bound by their

actions only, and my wildness had committed me to something which the

will of all the Kaisers in the world could not have brought about.

"There was a most sensational scene when I returned on the bay, followed

by Taras-Bulba with his Grand Duke tied on to him. The hunt was stopped.

They all came crowding round us. I had to tell the whole story and made

a point of being as brief as possible, as one does with things of which

one isn't too proud. But the injured man filled in the details. His

fever made him eloquent and transformed me into a heroine. I had to put

up with the congratulations of the whole Court.

"The Kaiser, who magnifies and distorts everything, cried out:

"'What a splendid girl she is--to save her fiancé's life the very first

day!'

"The Empress kissed me. It's a family mania. My father was radiant.

"'My compliments to Your Majesty,' he whispered in my ear.

"I was angry, though amused, and vented my rage on Taras-Bulba, who had

more whip as we went back to the palace than he's ever had since.

"I have one good quality. I like to know exactly where I stand. I

realized that, largely by my own fault, I had put myself in a position

from which there was no escape without one of those scandals which any

princess, worthy of the name, hates more than the certainty of her own

unhappiness. So I decided to acquaint my 'fiancé,' as the Court already

styled him, with my conditions that very evening.

"I asked him to receive me, and he complied at once, after sending out

the attendant who was arranging the cage over his leg.

"When we were alone, this is more or less what I said:

"'My action in coming here will possibly astonish you, sir. But I am,

and always shall be, in the habit of doing what I think advisable

without undue concern for mere decorum. Now I think it is of the highest

importance than you should know _this_:

"'I came to Petersburg to be with my father, to witness some splendid

celebrations and enjoy myself generally--not to find a husband. As

regards husbands, you will do me the honour to believe that I have

refused as many as there are provinces in Russia. The last was a Persian

prince, who possesses a mountain in which emeralds are as plentiful as

truffles in Périgord--and even larger.

"'Well, I came here, and I don't know what has come over everybody, but,

apparently, I must be married. I don't put it that way to offend you.

After all, sir, we hadn't set eyes on each other until three days ago.

"'However that may be, I'm practically bound to marry you. The

circumstances are too strong for mere individuals like you and me. In

our history there are four emperors and empresses, several crowns, and,

no doubt, enormous fortunes. I am sure that Papa would fall ill if I

didn't become a queen, now that he's seen there's a chance. But, above

all, I have broken your leg.'

"He made an impatient movement: 'Don't speak of that.'

"'I _must_ speak of it. I tell you frankly that it is this accident, for

which I am responsible, that has constrained me to accept something

which I would not allow even to be mentioned only yesterday. It is this

mishap which enables me to think that my marriage will not be absolutely

a political affair--a thought which is very pleasing to a girl like me.'

"'I'd rather have the other leg broken, and both arms, too,' he said in

his gentle, melancholy way, 'than hear you use that terrible expression,

"political affair."'

"'I'm sure you would,' I replied, unmoved. 'I agree to be your wife. But

you will not misunderstand me if I make one or two trifling

stipulations.'

"'Tell me, tell me,' he said with some emphasis. 'You know that

everything you may ask is granted beforehand.'

"'Oh! Oh!' I laughed. 'You may find in a minute that you've been just a

little hasty. Well, dear friend' (I laid some stress on that word),

'from my childhood I have always enjoyed the most perfect liberty, and I

don't intend to be deprived of it when I marry. It must be clearly

understood that nothing is to be changed, nothing, you understand.'

"'How could you think it of me!'

"'Don't let us have any misunderstanding as to the meaning of words,' I

said. 'Please realize that it is not a child, nor yet a woman, who is

speaking, and understand that my stipulation, the expression of an

unshakable resolve, is that our union is to be a relation of friendship,

excluding everything else.'

"I don't know if I should ever have dared to continue my shocking little

speech if his masculine stupidity had not shown me how.

"'You're in love with some one else!' he said in a hoarse voice.

"'You forget yourself, and please don't be foolish,' I replied gently.

'I will condescend to tell you that I love no one, unless, perhaps--for

the word "love" is a jack-of all-trades--my native land, hunting,

flowers, to be left alone and two or three other things, which really

should not arouse a jealousy only to be regretted in a man of

intelligence. Are you satisfied?'

"He smiled wanly.

"'This,' I went on, 'is our little private compact. The chanceries will

no doubt attend to the public formalities--and everything else. I attach

no importance to them. Nor do you, I hope. I need not say that you will

always find in me a consort worthy of yourself, equal to any situation

that may arise, and capable, if God so wills it, of bearing worthily

that famous crown of Würtemberg. Here's my hand on it.'

"He took it and kissed it fervently. A great joy had banished the

trouble in his eyes. I had never expected him to accept his fate so

quietly. Then I suddenly grasped his reasoning: 'I shall be so good, so

tender and thoughtful to her that she must be won over in the end,

though I cannot now tell how far off that end may be.'

"There was so much unaffected pathos in the poor man's delusions that I

couldn't help being rather touched. We parted the best friends in the

world.

"As I went back to my room I heard a terrible uproar in the Great Court.

It was Taras-Bulba, who had got bored with his stall, kicked open the

stable-door, knocked down an ostler and two sentries, and was neighing

fiercely to me from below. It was a much more difficult matter to get

him quiet than to deal with the Grand Duke Rudolph.

* * * * * *

"After I became the Grand Duchess of Lautenburg-Detmold in the autumn of

1909, my first concern was to set about the improvements required to

make this place reasonably comfortable. The gardens had been allowed to

run riot, and as for the palace, it was crammed with horrors that even a

negro chief would not have tolerated.

"I soon revolutionized all that. Melusine, who came in the summer of

1910, would tell you that I spent my time then very much as I do now,

except that when I felt particularly low-spirited I used to escape to

Russia to relieve my feelings.

"The person who did change was the Grand Duke Rudolph. Not that he ever

ceased to treat me with the most unwearying attention, poor man! But

after a year, when he had quite realized that his innocent little scheme

was not working, and never would work, and that I should never be

anything more to him than I had said, he became melancholy and spent

most of his time indoors, Henceforth he was known at Lautenburg as

'Rudolph the Silent.'

"Worse than that, he was out of favour with the Kaiser. William II.

likes to think himself a kind of Louis XIV. He does not like German

princes who don't haunt Berlin and accuses them of separatism. Now

Rudolph has ceased to go to Court altogether.

"He disliked seeing anybody, even at Lautenburg. The 7th Hussars had to

get on as best they could without their colonel. He spent half his day,

and nights in the library, studying works on mineralogy, his favourite

science. It was, in fact, occupying his whole time when Baron von Boose

came upon the scene.

"Melusine knew this Boose, the mention of whose name made you start.

There never was a worse bridge-player--was there, Melusine? He only knew

ordinary bridge. I had asked the Grand Duke to lend him to us to make a

fourth, but he was so stupid and disagreeable that I was soon only too

glad to send him back to his beloved books.

"He was very learned. That much at least must be said for him. For at

thirty-two, though only a lieutenant in the Engineers, he was professor

of topography at the _Kriegs Academie_. His book the 'Geotectonics of

the Hanoverian Plain,' is a standard European work. At Berlin one day he

assaulted a major who had asserted that there were rocks of quaternary

origin in the Harz. Rudolph admired his work and went before the

court-martial to give evidence on his behalf. Thanks largely to his

intervention, Boose got off with sixty days' solitary confinement in a

fortress. When his time was up my husband secured his appointment to the

3rd Battalion of Engineers at Lautenburg.

"In the spring of 1911 I went to Russia, to spend Easter with Papa. It

was while I was there that I received a letter, which I ought to have

shown you, from the Grand Duke. He told me that the Kaiser had summoned

him to Berlin, and asked him whether he was prepared to use his

scientific knowledge in the service of the Empire. Exploration had just

proved the existence of immense mineral wealth in the Cameroons. It was

necessary to confirm this discovery, and also ascertain as discreetly as

possible the mineral resources of the neighbouring territories, so that

the question of Germany's interest in annexing them might be considered.

I'm sorry to say, my friend, that the territories in question form that

part of the Congo which France ceded to Germany by the treaty of 1912.

"So Rudolph was going off to Africa with Boose. With a sorry pretence of

indifference he made his excuses for leaving Europe without waiting for

my return, pleading the urgency of the imperial orders. He added that if

he allowed himself to take such a course, it was only because he was

certain that his absence would make no difference to the normal course

of my existence. In that my poor friend was woefully wrong.

"Letters from him reached me from Paris, Bordeaux, and Saint-Louis in

Senegal. From the Congo itself came the two or three which I have shown

you. Then came an interval, rather a long interval, and one day my

brother-in-law, Frederick-Augustus, arrived at Lautenburg, bringing the

sad news that the Grand Duke had had sunstroke, and died at Sangha,

almost at the end of his journey. My name had been the last on his lips.

"Melusine will tell you how I mourned for Rudolph, and not indeed as I

should mourn for Taras-Bulba, were he to die tomorrow, for I have never

done that horse a wrong. But though I was always frank and loyal to

Rudolph, I could not get rid of the feeling that in some way I was to

blame for his death.

"As a funeral was impossible, a magnificent service was held in memory

of him who rests under the sun-baked clay of Africa. The Emperor and

Empress and all the German princes were present. The red Hussars of

Lautenburg, with crêpe on their swords, rendered the last honours, and

their uniforms during the service made me think sadly of the poor red

Hussar of the Peterhof who danced so badly but was so kind.

"Every sentence of my story, my friend, has been a mark of my confidence

in you. You shall now have clear proof in every word that follows.

"You know my little orderly officer, Hagen, and have no particular

liking for him. I can't say whether devotion or love is his ruling

passion. Devotion enables one to repose absolute trust in another, but

love makes one alive to another's interests in a way that is impossible

for oneself.

"Six months after Rudolph died neither I nor Melusine had the slightest

suspicion of what was to follow. I was occupied exclusively with my

duties as sovereign and surprised myself with my punctiliousness in

carrying them out. I presided at the Diet and council meetings. I signed

decrees, summoned the tribunals, appointed officials--to the

satisfaction of all concerned, I think. The town of Lautenburg was never

more prosperous than under my rule.

"Hagen, on the other hand, was uneasy. I watched him grow more morose

every day. After some time, hating the company of a face as long as a

fiddle, I called him up and told him to explain himself or go on leave.

He fell at my feet.

"'How could I be anything else,' he sobbed, 'when you are going to be

another's?'

"He was very much surprised when I told him I didn't know what he meant.

"'How can that be,' he muttered, 'for at Berlin, and even here,

they talk of nothing but your approaching marriage to Duke

Frederick-Augustus?'

"It was too much this time! The woman I pride myself on being can be

married once, by surprise. But twice!

"When Hagen, who was in the habit of going to Berlin several times a

month, had told me the story, I realized that something serious was

afoot. I had a clearer understanding of affairs next morning, when I

received a letter from my father. It was all too plain that he had been

carefully coached, taken on his weak side--his desire to see his

daughter a queen.

"I hate worrying you with dynastic details, but I must prepare you for

what follows. I'll make them as short as possible. Why had I become

Grand Duchess of Lautenburg? In order that I might realize Papa's

ambition and become Queen of Würtemberg on the death of King Albert.

The Lautenburg succession is not subject to the Salic Law, so that I

still remained Grand Duchess on Rudolph's death. On the other hand, the

succession to the throne of Würtemberg is governed by that law. So we

have this situation: only a Grand Duke of Lautenburg can mount the

throne of Würtemberg. Therefore, before I could be Queen of Würtemberg

I must first marry Duke Frederick-Augustus and thereby make him the

Grand Duke of Lautenburg-Detmold.

"The sole object of Papa's letter was to reconcile me to that marriage.

"I'm afraid that in my reply, which was exceedingly prompt, I rather

forgot the respect a daughter owes her father, whatever he does.

"But you can realize how exasperated I was. Was I to be forced to marry

every German prince in turn? What a prospect for one who had never

wanted to marry at all!

"About a week passed, and then I received a letter from the Empress.

I've no doubt she called me her 'dear child,' and overwhelmed me with

friendly flattery, but there was no mistake about the firm invitation to

go to Berlin with which that letter concluded....

"You can imagine that if I submitted it was less from a sense of

obedience than from the desire to fathom any plot that was being hatched

at Court for my benefit.

"I took Melusine and Hagen with me. The Empress received me with

considerable confusion as I had anticipated, and her explanation was

characteristic. Need I say what it was?

"'Tis not love that must rule a princess and her fate,

To obey is the glory and end of her state.

"Love! Obey! What was the good of my protesting that her reasoning was

false; that I had never loved any one, and that in any case I hadn't

married to obey the first time. Poor Rudolph wasn't there to produce our

little compact which absolved me from those very obligations. And,

anyhow, what was the good of arguing with a worthy dame who was merely

repeating her lesson?

"I listened, my lips pressed together, and said nothing. She got

thoroughly muddled, and when she had finished I asked:

"'May I ask your Majesty what date has been fixed for my marriage with

the Grand Duke Frederick-Augustus?'

"She protested that the Kaiser had never had any idea of precipitating

matters, and that no date had been settled.

"'Only the principle!' I said.

"She didn't answer.

"I went back to my room, calm and collected.

"'I leave tonight for Astrakhan,' I said to Melusine and Hagen, who were

anxiously awaiting my return. 'Have my things packed. Those who love me

can follow me.'

"Hagen gave me my letters, which had been sent on from Lautenburg. There

were five or six, and one had a Russian stamp. I recognized Papa's

writing.

"What excellent use they had made of the fact that I had been

unsuspecting! I found out later that the letter I had written to him a

fortnight earlier had been forestalled by a special envoy from the

Kaiser. It hadn't taken much diplomacy to win over my father. The famous

crown of Würtemberg had once more played its part. Gently but firmly he

told me his wishes. 'Marry Frederick-Augustus, or ...'

"I didn't read on but tore up the letter into little pieces. Then and

there I wrote out a telegram--some thirty words of passionate pleading

and threats--to the Tumene Prince.

"You remember, Melusine, how we suspected postal censorship at Berlin,

and how you took the train and sent off the telegram from Köpenick.

"When you had gone my feelings overcame me, and I burst into

tears--tears of rage and hatred. I can still see myself in that awful

Berlin room. Hagen was sobbing at my feet. He had taken my hands, and

even my arms--this is absolutely true--and was covering them with tears

and kisses. 'I will go with you, I shall follow you, where and when you

will,' he murmured. When all's said and done I am proud to think that it

only wanted a word from me to make a Prussian officer throw up his

profession and abjure his native land.

"But the touch of that moustache on my arm quickly brought me back to a

sense of reality. I remembered Louisa of Saxony and all the low lackeys

who have made money out of their notoriety as the lovers of queens. I

pushed the innocent Hagen away and recovered my self-possession.

"I didn't go out at all during the two days while I was waiting for the

reply to my telegram. Then it came, the little blue slip. You were

looking hard at me, Melusine, so I smiled as I opened it. It contained

these simple words:

"'I will never see my daughter until she has done her duty.'

"What a heart of flint the old Kalmuck had!

"I read it and fell to the floor like a stone.

* * * * * *

"I'm afraid I most stop to explain matters at this point, _ami_, or you

may find the rest incomprehensible. No doubt you are asking yourself:

'How it could ever have come about that a will like Aurora's could have

yielded? What could this invisible and powerful Frederick-Augustus have

done to get the Empress, Rudolph's godmother, and the Kaiser on his

side?'

"I expect you read your foreign news carefully enough in 1909 to know

that about that time the Eulenburg affair and a Moltke-Harden case were

causing a considerable stir in German Court circles. Personally, the way

these folk took their pleasures was a matter of indifference to me. What

strikes me as monstrous is the fact that these scandals had a

considerable effect on my fortunes.

"Frederick-Augustus seldom stayed at Lautenburg in his brother's

lifetime. I only saw him three or four times, the first occasion being

my wedding, and the second, six months later, the funeral of his wife, a

worthy but stupid woman with wrists like a scullery-maid's. His Serene

Highness your pupil is hardly more intelligent than she.

"The rest of his time was spent in Berlin. The man you have

seen so reserved and formal led a very gay life there. Never

believe those who tell you that profligacy is harmful _ami_. The

rise of Frederick-Augustus is proof to the contrary.

"The one thing in which the present Grand Duke is past-master is the art

of compromising others without compromising himself. He made ample use

of it at Berlin in 1909. Intimate with the Bülows, and a bosom friend

of Eitel and Joachim, he alone could tell you the scenes in which he

figured at that time. But he will never tell you, _ami_, just as he has

never told me, as neither you nor I will ever be able to pay the price

of his confidences. Why, it was his silence alone that gained him the

grand-ducal crown, and may one day bring him the throne of Würtemberg.

When the Empress, with quivering voice, was preaching the virtue of

submission to my destiny, the honest dame was only defending the honour

of two of her sons.

"The brain fever that followed the receipt of my father's telegram

lasted a month, during which I hung between life and death, while

Melusine and Hagen, with a devotion I shall never forget, took turns in

nursing me night and day.

"At length I was convalescent. My hair had been cut off. I was thin but

still pretty. One day, while I was studying in my mirror the pathetic

figure I looked with the little fair curls clustering on my head, Hagen,

who was on orderly duty, came in and announced Duke Frederick-Augustus.

"I was still really too ill to receive him, but I was longing for the

encounter. I must confess, to my shame, that I didn't come out on top

that day.

"He came in and bowed ceremoniously. His blue eyes, in his pale, smooth

face, were bright and dim by turns.

"'My dear sister, what a pleasure to find you up at last, and looking so

well.'

"His perfect ease of manner froze me. He went on:

"'There is no point in not telling you at once the pleasant object of my

visit. Tomorrow it will be nine months since the death of my regretted

brother, the Grand Duke Rudolph. As the legal period of your widowhood

then expires their Majesties the Emperor and Empress would be glad if

you could see your way to fix a convenient date for the celebration of

our marriage. They have expressed their intention of being present.'

"'Tell their Majesties, my dear brother,' I replied, 'that I will fix

any date that suits their pleasure, and kindly add that I hope it will

be the last time I shall give them this trouble.'

"He bowed gravely.

"'That is also my heart-felt desire, dear sister,' he said.

"And he went out.

"We were married one day in March, 1912, a dull, threatening day. The

Emperor and Empress, true to their promise, were present at the

religious ceremony and left for Berlin in the evening. About five

o'clock, first at the Rathaus and then at the castle, the State

authorities and magistrates took the oath of fealty to the new Grand

Duke. At eight the superior officers and higher dignitaries of the Grand

Duchy, some thirty guests, were present at a dinner, informal on account

of our recent mourning, in the banqueting-hall on the ground floor.

"The second course had hardly begun when the sound of tapping, now loud,

now soft, was heard coming from the first floor, immediately above our

heads.

"At first no notice was taken. But the noise continued, tap, tap, tap,

with exasperating regularity.

"The Grand Duke, frowning slightly, beckoned to the lackey standing

behind him.

"'What's that noise?' he asked in a low tone. 'Go and stop it.'

"The man had not returned in a quarter of an hour, but the noise did not

cease.

"'Here, Kessel,' cried the Grand Duke, half annoyed, half amused, 'try

and find out what's going on above our heads. Excuse me, gentlemen,' he

said, turning to our guests.

"Kessel went. Five minutes later he came back, very red. The noise had

stopped.

"'Well!' said the Grand Duke, what was it?'

"Kessel was still silent.

"'Look here, Major,' Frederick went on, beginning to lose patience. 'You

can't have discovered a plot up there, I presume. I must ask you to

reassure my guests. What was the matter?'

"'Builders, your Highness,' murmured Kessel.

"'Builders! at this hour! Today of all days! That's too much of a good

thing. What on earth are they doing? Come, Herr von Kessel, tell me,

please!'

"'They are walling up the yellow corridor,' the officer managed to get

out.

"There was a frigid silence. The yellow corridor was that which

connected the apartments of the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of

Lautenburg.

"Frederick-Augustus is a man of resource, _ami_. I realized it that

evening and genuinely admired him when, tapping his forehead

significantly, as much as to say, 'Of course! I'd forgotten,' he turned

to a steward and said:

"'Just see that those good fellows are well looked after. They'll have

to work all night.'

"I didn't mind. You see I was pleased with myself, for I felt there was

something of admiration in the sly look he gave me, a look that seemed

to say:

"'And now, you and I must have it out.'"

Aurora had stopped. For a few minutes silence reigned. Then Melusine

went to the window and swiftly drew back the curtains. We saw it was

already light.

I looked at the Grand Duchess, lost in reverie, elbow on knee and chin

in hand. Her beautiful features and clear skin betrayed not the

slightest sign of her night-long vigil.

The chilly dawn found Aurora even more beautiful than the glowing dusk

had left her.

VII

OCCASIONALLY, perhaps once or twice a week, the Grand Duchess preferred

to be alone, and on these evenings I used to resign myself to work.

My study of the Königsmark had been virtually abandoned. I no longer

found much pleasure in disturbing that ancient dust now that fate had

summoned me to witness another drama, the actors in which lived and

moved around me, and spoke to me every day.

There had been a great storm on a certain July evening which Aurora's

pleasure doomed me to spend alone. Through the window, open to the

lowering night sky, I heard the trees dripping. I was working in an

extremely half-hearted manner, my mind straying from the tragedy of the

_Herrenhausen_ to the lands whither the Tumene princess's story had

wafted me. Indeed, it was a piece of pure luck that thrust before my

eyes the supremely important document of which I must now speak.

I told you some time back, with details which must have seemed tedious,

of the dossier compiled by the Queen of Prussia with a view to the

rehabilitation of her mother Sophie-Dorothea. That evening, after

analysing two or three documents of secondary importance, I came to

another, marked S.2--No. 87.

It consisted of two large pages covered with writing in German

characters, crowded closely together. My listlessness vanished after the

first few lines. My mind sprang to attention, for I realized that I had

at last got hold of something decisive.

This document contained the confession of a certain Bauer, who had died

a game-keeper in the service of the Grand Duke of Rudolstadt, and who,

twenty years earlier, had been employed at the _Herrenhausen_. In his

last moments this man, a Catholic, had asked a priest to confess him.

The latter, who had heard of the Queen of Prussia's investigation, made

his absolution subject to a formal statement of the events in which

Bauer had taken part. It was that very confession, bearing the

signatures of the dying man, the confessor and two witnesses, that I was

engaged in examining.

You will understand that, with that proof of authenticity before me, it

chained my attention.

Bauer had been one of the ten men who assisted Countess von Platen to

assassinate Count Königsmark on the tragic night of July 1st, 1694.

His confession related how Countess von Platen prepared punch for her

men while they were waiting for the Count to come out of the Princess's

apartments.

He denies being among those who actually attacked him with their swords

and daggers, but admits that he held him down while Countess von Platen,

with her foot on his head, tried to extort a confession from him that he

had been Sophie-Dorothea's lover.

I was familiar with most of these details. They can also be found in

Blaze de Bury's book. But the statements following definitely settled

the famous controversy as to what happened to the Count's corpse.

When Count Königsmark was quite dead, said Bauer, Countess von Platen

ordered us to carry him to the great fireplace at the back of which is a

bronze plaque six feet wide. Countess von Platen touched a spring. The

plaque divided in two, revealing a little chamber. I just caught a

glimpse, for I was very much perturbed in mind, of a whitish heap which

looked like lime. We laid the corpse down there. Countess von Platen

then sent us away, after telling us to wash off the blood which had

stained the clothes of some of the men. She remained in the Baron's Hall

with her attendant, a certain Festmann....

You see now that I had my reasons when I told you, casually, that

Königsmark's corpse is concealed behind the fire-back in the Knight's

Hall of the _Herrenhausen_. Moreover, Bauer's document had, in my eyes,

a further importance beyond settling the spot once and for all. To me it

was also a proof of the complicity either of Ernest-Augustus or his son.

Remember that Countess von Platen had worked a secret spring, and also

bear in mind that German princes in the seventeenth and eighteenth

centuries were exceedingly jealous of their secret lock-systems. If that

secret was communicated to Madame von Platen it was only for some vital

purpose.

Before starting work I had made some coffee and had three cups, one

after the other. This coffee began to have its effect, by which I mean

that, excited by my first discovery, my mind was absolutely clear at

that moment. Please note this detail as it has its importance.

To discover something is nothing. To establish the truth of your

discovery is everything. Now how was I to go to Hanover, obtain

permission to visit the _Herrenhausen_ and be alone in the Knight's Hall

for the necessary time. You can imagine I had no intention of putting

some palace curator on the track I had just found.

It was then that an idea occurred to me which I will disclose to you as

a proof of the value of coffee in deductive reasoning. You will remember

that when I was studying the question of the employment of French

artists by German princes in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries I

discovered that the locksmith's work had been given by the Elector

Ernest-Augustus of Hanover to a Catalan named Giroud who had also worked

for the Grand Duke of Lautenburg. This Giroud had even had difficulties

with Ernest-Augustus over his accounts. At that time I had only cast a

cursory glance at the file dealing with the case. It was necessary for

me to examine it more carefully. Perhaps I should be able to find

something about the system of secret springs installed by Giroud at the

_Herrenhausen_. I decided to clear the matter up then and there.

It was just after midnight I put an electric torch in my pocket and

quietly left my room. At that moment I thought I heard a faint noise in

the deserted corridor.

"Come," I thought, "I can't let myself be scared like this by old

papers!"

When I got to the library I was disagreeably surprised to find the

lights on. Professor Cyrus Beck was hard at work covering a black board

with his formulæ and only stopping to consult five or six treatises

open in front of him.

There was, of course, nothing unusual about my appearance there. I had

often gone down late at night to the library to clear up some point in

my next day's lesson. All the same he looked at me with that suspicious

air of the savant who always thinks you're going to rob him of

something.

Two or three pleasant words quickly reassured him. He condescended to

confide to me that he was at a decisive moment in his experiments and

that the next day, without doubt, perhaps that very night.... Through

the open door came the noise of his furnaces, roaring like chimneys on

fire.

I thought it unwise to tell him that I, too, had reached the same stage

as himself in another affair. Besides, almost at once he put away his

books, folded up his notes, rubbed out his formulæ, wished me good-night

and went.

I was eager for his departure as I had already found what I wanted.

With a sureness of method which astonished me I had put my hand straight

off on the vital document, a bill of Giroud's, dated 1682, and addressed

to Ernest-Augustus.

It was a long bill, but I found the following item at once:

For the chimney-place of the Baron's Hall, six springs, in

my name, at one hundred and fifty livres the spring.--Total

900 livres.

I did not need to have a very profound knowledge of secret springs and

locks to know what it meant. The system is still used in safes, Fichet's

and others. It meant that on the fire-back of the chimney-place in the

Baron's Hall of the _Herrenhausen_ there were six lettered locks. You

made the spring act by taking for each lock in turn one of the six

letters forming the name of the inventor, Giroud.

When you remember that this Giroud was the master-locksmith of the Grand

Duke of Lautenburg you won't have much difficulty in realizing that my

first thought was to use the fire-back in the armoury of the castle of

Lautenburg as a test of the accuracy of my reasoning with regard to the

fireplace of the Baron's Hall in the Castle of Hanover. So you may

imagine how impatiently I watched Cyrus Beck's departure.

When at last he had gone I waited a quarter of an hour. Then I turned

out the lights, opened the right-hand door of the library and banged it

to as if I had gone back to my room. Then, taking great care not to fall

over anything and picking my way among the desks and show-cases I

returned and cautiously opened the door on the left hand side which led

into the armoury.

Great pools of moonlight, shaped like the tall lancet windows, flecked

the dark floor. I went straight to the chimney-place. I started at

touching the heavy iron fire-back. It was only when my fingers found a

kind of knob high up on the left that I switched on my electric torch.

I had no difficulty in dealing with the knob. It pivoted on a hinge,

revealing a kind of dial. The whole thing was not unlike one of our

gas-metres.

I started back in dismay. I was expecting letters, but this dial had

numbers. It was divided into twenty-five sections.

Turning off the lamp I sat down on a heavy oak stool close by.

I didn't have to think long. 25! What a fool I was!

I pulled out a pencil and a piece of paper, turned on the lamp again

and, kneeling at the stool, I had soon written out the twenty-five

letters of the alphabet and underneath a row of figures to correspond.

Then I wrote Giroud's name and obtained the following combination: 7, 9,

18, 15, 21, 4.

791815214. It will be a long time before I forget that number.

I examined the whole face of the metal rectangle with my lamp. A

terrible disappointment was in store for me. Instead of the six knobs

that I had _expected_ I could only find two.

When a single factor throws out the kind of calculations I had just made

it can only mean that one's theory is radically false. I might have

known. That would have been much too simple....

Solely to prove myself wrong, I tried the first knob and turning the

pointer on the dial I set it on the figure 7--g.

I crossed to the other side and repeated the operation on the other

knob, putting the pointer on the figure 9--i.

All at once I could hear my heart beat. A black vertical line appeared

in the centre of the plaque. That line got wider and wider. The two

panels thus formed slid back to each side, leaving a gap some two feet

six inches wide.

I was on the right track. The mystery of the _Herrenhausen_ was to be

solved at last!

I had recovered control of myself, perfect control. I remember saying:

"What a delightful way of studying history! I wonder what Monsieur

Seignobos would think of it?"

I passed through the opening, taking with me the stool which had been my

table. On the inside the fire-back had two handles, one on each side.

Very gently, but quite easily, I drew the panels together again, not

absolutely touching, however, for fear of releasing some fatal spring.

Do you remember the 24th August, my friend, in the village of Beaumont,

in Belgium, when you and I went down into a cellar where the inhabitants

said five Uhlans were hiding? You called me a rash fool and came behind,

but I couldn't help smiling at the thought that those five fugitives

were nothing compared with the darkness in which I was wrapped that

night.

When I had pulled the two panels to behind me I found myself in a little

chamber, six feet wide, and six feet high. On each side of me were blank

walls, but at the back was another bronze plaque with, as I expected,

two more knobs to right and left.

I put the hand of the first dial on the figure 18. The pointer of the

second had just reached 15 when the noise of tearing wood, absolutely

terrifying in that dead silence, froze me from head to foot. The lower

half of the immense plaque, opening horizontally about three feet from

the ground, had swung forward and smashed to matchwood the heavy stool

I had placed against it as I came in.

If I hadn't jumped back so smartly my feet would infallibly have been

crushed.

"Excellent!" I murmured. "So their secrets are man-traps, too!"

I bent down and got into the second chamber, which was of exactly the

same dimensions as the first. You can imagine that this time I took all

precautions, standing carefully to the left as I put the pointer of the

fifth dial on 21 and to the right as I turned that of the sixth to 4. I

might have saved myself the trouble. The plaque parted in two

vertically, like the first one, and the panels rolled aside on invisible

hinges.

Then I passed into the third and last chamber.

It was of the same height, but twice as long and wide. The small arc of

my electric torch gave a good light, but covered but a small area.

At first I could only see what looked like white splashes on the floor.

But suddenly, my friend, my very marrow froze within me. I was

frightened, horribly frightened, for in the corner to my left a curious

little white heap had just come into view. Drawn by some over-mastering

instinct I approached it, and even as I approached I wanted to bolt, and

between my chattering teeth I muttered: "It's a hallucination. I'm

dreaming. I _know_ I'm dreaming. I'm not at Hanover. This is Lautenburg.

The palace. There's Doctor Cyrus Beck just round the corner working.

There's the night-watchman. There's Ludwig, my servant. There's Major

von Kessel, honest, kind Kessel ..."

The heap of quicklime was now at my feet. I fell, rather than knelt,

before it.

Fantastic fragments were sticking out of it, shapeless, gruesome white

fragments. Dithering as I was, how did I ever have the courage to pick

one up, run my fingers over it, examine it....

Yet that is exactly what I did. I had that bone, a right tibia, in my

hands, feeling it, examining it.

And then I uttered a loud cry, for in the middle of that bone my finger

came into contact with the mark of an old fracture.

* * * * * *

How I managed to give Duke Joachim his history lesson next morning is a

thing I've never ceased to wonder at. I kept my eyes off the mirror,

terrified lest I should see a ghastly face reflected in it.

At eleven o'clock I was in the Archduchess's small boudoir.

The old Russian waiting-woman went off to tell Melusine, who came at

once. I could see from the half-humorous surprise in her manner that my

call, at that hour, was considered extremely strange.

"You want to see the Grand Duchess, my friend! You are very bold.

Well, as it's you... I'm sure you wouldn't have come without some

very good ..."

As she spoke she drew aside the curtains. The sun shone full on my face.

She started at my appearance, and with difficulty suppressed an

exclamation.

"I'll go and fetch her," she said simply.

I seemed to have been walking in my sleep, pushed on by the force of the

night's events. Left to myself my decision seemed utterly crazy. Why, in

a minute's time I should certainly be taken for the madman I had brought

myself to believe I was. How would Aurora take the story of my

extraordinary adventure? "Save her from the fits of depression and that

kind of spiritual disorder which are so fatal to her physical health."

The words came back to me. It was the request made to me by the Grand

Duke Frederick-Augustus. _This_ was an odd way of carrying out his

wishes. I wanted to bolt.

But the Grand Duchess was already there. She was in such high spirits

that morning that I thought I should never have the strength of mind to

break my news to her.

"Well, my friend," she said. "To what do I owe the pleasure of this

visit? Have you changed your time-table? Have you decided to give me

your mornings in future?"

My tell-tale face produced the same effect on her as on Melusine.

She took my arm and made me sit down on a sofa beside her.

"You nearly fell as you sat down," she said gravely. "Melusine, bring me

the blue casket."

It was a diminutive box in blue enamel. What heathen stimulant could it

contain? As soon as I had inhaled it at Aurora's bidding, I started as

if I'd had an electric shock.

"There!" she said, "you're better already." And added:

"Begin as soon as you feel you can. We're listening."

I told her everything you already know, from my first researches into

the Königsmark drama to the final climax, my visit to the secret

chamber in the armoury and my sinister discovery.

From beginning to end she listened, calm and self-possessed, only

occasionally exchanging with Melusine a glance which revealed

astonishment rather than emotion.

When I had finished she did not speak for a moment, and then said

quietly:

"You have told us an extraordinary exciting story, but you mustn't be

surprised to hear that it does not arouse any other emotion in me.

There's one thing I admit, which comes as rather a shock: the fact that

at Lautenburg you have found a skeleton in the very same place where

there must be one in the palace of Hanover. But what does it prove,

granting that natural death is out of the question, but that the old

Dukes of Lautenburg had no greater respect for human life than their

Hanoverian neighbours? I have always thought so, and it's no great

surprise."

"But it isn't the presence of the skeleton which has been such a shock,

madame," I answered.

"What is it, then?" she said, in that slightly scornful tone she

immediately assumed when she thought you were trying to mystify her.

"It is," I said simply, but picking my words carefully, "that I had in

my hands the right tibia of the corpse which was concealed there, and

that in the middle of that tibia, on its outer surface, was the join of

an old fracture."

Aurora was standing now. She was pressing her hands to her temples. She

had turned deadly pale. Her staring eyes grew bigger and bigger.

"You're mad! You're mad!" she screamed. "Melusine, tell him he's mad!"

Fräulein von Graffenfried rushed to the Grand Duchess, who had fallen

back, rigid, on the sofa. Her eyelids were half closed. I read

inexpressible terror in the look she gave me.

"Mad! Mad!" she screamed again. "He's at Sangha. I have his letters.

Sangha!"

"At Sangha! At Sangha!" the heartrending voice rang out again.

"I've only done what I thought was my duty," I murmured to Melusine,

helping her to get her mistress to inhale the little blue casket.