Passengers for Kürschdorf by the Orient Express change cars at
Munich, which, if the train is on time, is reached at 12.24 on the
day following the departure from Paris. On this particular Monday the
express was nearly forty minutes late, and, as the connecting train
was timed to start at 1.02, the transfer was of necessity accomplished
with somewhat undignified expedition. That it was accomplished at
all, however, and that the quartet, of which Carey Grey was one, was
so fortunate as to secure a compartment to itself, were subjects for
mutual congratulation.
The journey from the French to the Bavarian capital had been rife with
explanations. To Hope Van Tuyl, Grey had made the entire situation most
clear, though he considerately refrained from revealing any feature
or incident that would tend to alarm her. In his interview with Minna
von Altdorf he had brought to bear all the tact of which he was
possessed. It was no easy matter for him, in view of his duplicity that
day at Versailles, to make her a completely veracious statement of the
facts; and it was especially difficult because of her veneration for
her great-uncle, the late Herr Schlippenbach, whom Grey could not but
regard as an egregious knave.
She had been startled, surprised, pained, and bewildered by turns as he
told her the story, but she never once questioned the truth nor doubted
the honesty of the narrator.
“I simply can’t understand it,” she said, with distress in her pathetic
eyes. “Why should Great-uncle Schlippenbach do such a thing? Why should
he? How could he?”
“And I am just as much in the dark as you are,” Grey answered,
soothingly. “I have thought it over continually, and I can’t arrive at
any satisfactory conclusion. I don’t remember ever having seen him, and
why he should have selected me for this great honour--for, after all,
it is an honour to be elevated to the throne, isn’t it?” he laughed--“I
can’t imagine.”
“We always knew he was eccentric,” the Fraülein went on. “He had
most marvellous ideas on certain subjects, but I won’t believe he was
criminal. He must have been just a little bit insane.”
And then Grey asked her how it came that she joined the little party in
London.
“You see, Great-uncle Schlippenbach wrote me that he was going to
Budavia and asked me if I would like to go with him and see my sister
in Kürschdorf,” she explained. “That was reasonable enough--there was
nothing insane about that, was there? My school term had just ended,
and it was a question whether I should make my home with my sister over
here or return to America with him.”
“And he told you I was your uncle?”
“Oh, yes. You know I have an uncle in New York. His name is Max Arndt.
That is true. And he told me that you were he.”
Grey shook his head in token of his perplexity.
“What became of your Great-uncle Schlippenbach’s luggage?” he asked,
suddenly, after a pause.
“I have it with me,” the girl answered, frankly. “I shall take it to my
sister’s.”
“Have you opened it?”
“No. I thought that she and I would open it together.”
“It is possible, you know, that it may contain something that will give
us a hint as to his motive in this matter,” Grey said, in explanation
of his interest.
“Oh, I do hope so,” the Fräulein returned. “I am so anxious about it.”
Grey was on the point of leaving the compartment, when he felt a hand
holding the hem of his coat.
“I have just one question to ask,” said the girl as he turned. She was
not looking at him, but she still retained her hold.
“Well?” he queried, laconically; and his voice was kindly inviting.
“Would you mind very much if I--that is to say, may I, still, although
you are not really, but--may I go on calling you Uncle Max?” The
hesitating embarrassment of the first part of her utterance was
followed by a nervous blurting of the question in conclusion.
“I shall feel very much hurt, Minna,” Grey answered, “if you call me
anything else.” And he took the little hand from his coat and pressed
it affectionately.
* * * * *
When the train for Kürschdorf arrived at Anslingen, on the Budavian
border, there was more than the ordinary delay. There was, moreover,
evidence of something unusual in the throng upon the platform and the
suppressed excitement of those composing it. Johann, who had sprung
out instantly from the third-class carriage in which he and Marcelle
were travelling--his object being to secure the passage of the party’s
luggage through the Custom House--was at once recognised and besieged
by a horde of questioners.
“The Prince!” they cried with one accord. “You are with him, are you
not? Where is he? In which carriage? What is he like?” And he had no
little difficulty in shaking them off and attending to the business in
hand.
By some mysterious means the report had spread, and what was at first
mere rumour had later found substantial confirmation in the discovered
presence at the station of two distinguished personages: General
Roederer, Commander of the Budavian army, and Prince von Eisenthal,
conservative leader of the Budavian Assembly; each accompanied by a
more or less gorgeously uniformed retinue.
Grey, looking from the carriage window, noted the crowd with some
little apprehension. He glanced at O’Hara and saw that he too suspected
the cause. To the two ladies of the party nothing had been said of the
telegram addressed to the name appended to the Lindenwald despatch, and
they consequently saw less of significance in the demonstration, though
they noted the gathering as extraordinary.
As Grey peered at the constantly increasing throng he wondered whether
his message had been ill-considered. He had, in a way, sent it blindly,
not knowing whether Ritter was an ally or a dupe of the conspirators,
and he had sent it knowing that, in either event, Lindenwald was on
the spot to take whatever ground he chose and to use whatever argument
he deemed most fitting. If the Captain so fancied he could have him
arrested on the charge of being a pretender to the throne, and would,
armed with that strong-box left by old Schlippenbach, have small
difficulty in proving his allegation. For exoneration he himself might
appeal to his Government, but as an absconding defaulter he could look
for meagre assistance from that quarter. O’Hara had told him it was
dangerous business, but he had spurned advice, and now he was face to
face with the consequences, whatever they might be. He was a trifle
nervous, his heart was beating faster than its wont, and there was a
red spot in each cheek; but even while looking on the darkest side of
the picture he regretted nothing. This crisis had to be faced in one
form or another, and he was glad the moment for facing it had arrived.
There was a movement in the crowd a few yards down the platform. The
police were ordering the people back and clearing a lane beside the
railway carriages. Grey thrust his head from the window and saw coming
down this lane, in company with the train conductor, an army officer
in olive green uniform and black helmet. Upon his breast was pinned a
rosette of crepe, the insignia of mourning for the dead monarch.
At the door of each first-class compartment the two men halted for
a second, asked a question and came on. But before they reached the
carriage in which Grey was waiting, Johann, who had discerned their
object, overtook them and led the way. Meanwhile, though Grey had not
spoken, his companions had, intuitively, or by some other occult means,
become aware of what was impending, and sat in breathless expectation.
And then, suddenly, before anticipation had been quite dethroned
by realization, the officer was saluting, was being joined by his
superiors and the rest of their retinues, and Grey was standing erect
and dignified, listening to a little formal speech of welcome from the
bearded lips of Prince von Eisenthal.
The crowd cheered lustily, of course, and cried: “God save Prince Max!”
And a band played the Budavian national anthem. After which, or rather
in the midst of which, the Prince and General Roederer entered the
compartment with Grey and his friends, their suites finding places as
best they could elsewhere, and the train, with much ringing of bells
and blowing of whistles, moved off into the valley of the Weisswasser,
its locomotive now gay with many Budavian flags and streamers of red
and white bunting--colours of the royal house of Kronfeld.
Grey’s relief from the tension of uncertainty found expression in
an interested animation that impressed Prince von Eisenthal most
favourably. He asked many questions concerning the affairs of the
little kingdom, both political and commercial, and exhibited a concern
over the conservative policy of the late King that was especially
pleasing to the leader of the conservative forces. General Roederer,
meanwhile, addressed himself to the ladies and Lieutenant O’Hara. He
was a bluff but gallant old fellow, with ruddy complexion and iron-grey
hair, and he possessed a quaint humour that kept the little company in
gay spirits throughout the hour of the trip from the frontier to the
capital.
“I am deeply regretful, your Royal Highness,” he said to Grey, as the
towers and spires of Kürschdorf came into view, “that we are not at
liberty to offer you such a demonstration on your arrival as I should
have liked. But His Majesty, the late King, you understand, is still
above sod, the Court is in mourning, and the Prince Regent deemed it
unfitting to give you more than the most informal of welcomes.”
Grey bowed his acknowledgment.
“I am glad,” he said, tactfully, “though I do not fail to appreciate
the expression of good will in your desire. The Prince Regent’s views
and mine, in this matter, are in perfect accord.”
But, however well the ideas of the supposed heir and the Prince Regent
may have coincided, the populace was by no means of the same mind. It
is not every day that a Prince of Kronfeld arrives in Kürschdorf--not
every day that a new King comes from across the sea to take his place
as ruler of his people--and the loyal townsfolk, despite the brevity of
time between announcement and arrival, and the expressed opposition of
their temporary ruler to anything in the nature of an ovation, hung gay
banners amid the mourning drapery of their house fronts, closed their
offices and shops and turned out in gala dress and mood to crowd the
streets, the squares and the cafés.
As the train drew slowly into the railway station Grey leaned over and
took Hope’s hand.
“I’ll probably have to leave you for a little,” he said, regretfully,
“but O’Hara will see that you get to the hotel, and I’ll try to look in
this evening.”
Outside the station a landau, its panels decorated with the royal arms
and drawn by six cream-white Arabian horses in glittering, gold-mounted
harness, stood in waiting, with coachman, footman and postillions in
the purple and scarlet livery of the Court; while thirty yards away, in
line along the opposite side of the Bahnhof Platz, was a troop of the
King’s Cuirassiers, their breastplates and helmets of silver and gold
glinting fiery red in the glow of the sunset.
Cheer after cheer rang out as Grey, with the Prince on his right and
the General on his left, passed through the station, followed by the
welcoming company that had escorted him from Anslingen, and took his
place in the waiting carriage. And, as the little procession of which
he was the dominating feature wound through the boulevards and streets
of the new town and across the beautiful Charlemagne bridge over the
turbulent Weisswasser into the more ancient and picturesque quarter
of the city, the cheering, it seemed to him, grew louder and more
continuous. At one point a group of young girls in white frocks and red
ribbons ran out into the roadway to spread flowers in the path of his
equipage, and at another a chorus of a hundred students, crowded on the
balconies of a _Brauerei_, greeted his coming with a patriotic glee,
sung as only male voices of Teutonic breeding and training can sing
choruses.
Grey’s emotions during this drive were novel and complex. There were
moments when he almost felt that he was indeed the Prince--not that any
marvellous transubstantiation had taken place, but that he had always
been so--and that all this homage, this enthusiastic applause and
adulation were his by right; and there were moments when his heart grew
sick at the fraud, the imposition, the error, and he knit his brows and
reproached himself for letting the deception go so far.
The magnitude the affair had suddenly assumed appalled him. Heretofore
he had regarded it as a mere personal matter. He had been outraged,
his honour sullied, his life threatened, and he was justified, he
had told himself, in using every means within his power to bring
his enemies to book. But he had not perceived the possibilities of
permitting this line of investigation to run on unchecked. In a
single moment the adventure had become a matter of national import.
He was guilty now of masquerading as heir to the throne of a European
monarchy. Hitherto the crime lay at the doors of a few conspirators,
who, to serve certain nefarious ends of which he knew nothing, had
striven to secure for him the crown. In that plot he had personally
had no part. Everything had been done without his cognisance or
consent; but now it was not they alone who were forcing the scheme
to a consummation. He had, practically, for the time being at least,
joined hands with them and was passively allowing their plans to be
carried out, though fully aware of the impious character of the whole
proceeding.
And the enormity of his thoughtless offence was at each foot of the way
made more and more apparent by these cheering masses of people. When
they should learn that they had been tricked, what explanation would
serve to assuage their resentment? Love and homage would be turned to
hatred and vengeance, and no excuse that he could offer would have any
weight against their sense of outraged loyalty.
Then his thoughts took a new trend, and he asked himself how it was
possible that old Schlippenbach and his fellow-plotters had been able
thus to fool the conservative leaders of a great nation regarding
a matter so vital to the very existence of their most cherished
institutions as the legitimate succession to the regal sceptre. What
incontrovertible proofs had it been possible to offer in order to bring
about this ready acceptance of a man whom the Budavian people had never
seen to rule over their nation’s destinies? After all, there was where
the blame must lie. The preposterousness of the proposition, it seemed
to him, should have been apparent to the most simple-minded.
And, as he thought, the landau, with the flashing cuirassiers galloping
ahead and behind and on either side, began the tortuous ascent of the
Wartburg by the wide, wooded avenues that wind from the palace gates
through the sumptuous royal gardens up to the imposing Residenz
Schloss on the mountain’s apex. Now and then, through rifts in the
foliage, Grey got glimpses of the vast, formidable, castle-like pile
of sombre stone perched far above him, the outline of its battlemented
towers showing sharp and clear against the pink of the sunset-tinted
sky; and it seemed to frown forbiddingly, resembling more a great
fortress at this distance than the magnificent palace it is.
Twenty minutes later, to a musical fanfare of bugles, a clinking of bit
chains and a rattle of steel-shod hoofs on stone paving, the carriage
swept in under the great grey _porte-cochère_; the massive oaken doors
of the Schloss swung impressively inward, and Chancellor von Ritter,
in his robes of office, with a dozen attendants at his back, stood in
token of formal welcome on the threshold.
To Grey’s immense relief, however, the ensuing formalities were of
the briefest description, and almost immediately he found himself
proceeding under the Chancellor’s guidance and direction toward a suite
of rooms in the Flag Tower that had been prepared against his coming.