THE CHANCELLOR'S LUCK
"Desperate remedies
For diseases desperate grown."
TELL the truth--when convenient; spice with prevarication--when
necessary; and never part with the _whole_ truth at one time, since
"waste is sinful," might have been the wording of "Iron Heart's" maxim;
and he had made the most of that wise policy to-day.
He had told the Emperor no lies--even through the telephone, when
carelessness may be admissible; but he had arranged his truths as
skillfully as pawns upon a chess-board. It was said by some who
pretended to know, that Count Eberhard von Markstein had had a Jesuit
for a tutor; but be this as it would, it was certain that, when he had
a goal to reach, he did not pick his footsteps by the way. A flower
here and there might be trodden down in his progress, a small life
broken, a reputation stained; but what was that when the nation's
standard was to be set upon the mountain-top? Supposing he had said to
the Emperor, after his promise of plain speaking, "Your Majesty is on
a wild-goose chase. Those you seek have not left Salzbrück; they are
still at the Hohenburgerhof. Otto told me they had left Lynarberg, and
I called upon them at the hotel, meaning to frighten them away, as the
spider frightened Miss Muffitt, by telling them that I knew all, and
they had better flit, of their own accord, if they did not wish to be
assisted over the frontier. They refused to see me, alleging as an
excuse that some obscure person in their ménage, named Collinson, had
been seized with sudden illness, which would prevent their departure
from Rhaetia for the present. While I awaited their answer at the
hotel, Your Majesty telephoned from the Bahnhof; at least, I was
certain that it must be Your Majesty, and no other. Fortunately for my
plans, I overheard the person at the telephone communicating the
message received to the manager, and ventured to use my influence with
the landlord, not only toward obtaining permission to dictate the
reply, but a promise that the transaction should be confidential. By
the fact that the message came from the railway station, I judged that
Your Majesty contemplated following the Orient express, in which the
ladies would have gone, had it not been for their companion's illness.
I learned that no special had been ordered, and the time of the first
train in which it would be possible for you to travel, then I took my
place before Your Majesty got in. Had my eloquence convinced you of
Miss de Courcy's unworthiness I should have urged you to return with
me, thus sparing you the annoyance of a useless journey to Wandeck. As
matters stood, however, I was delighted to get you out of the way,
that I might hurry back and manufacture the trumps alleged to be kept
in my sleeve, before you could return and interfere with my
machinations." Supposing Count von Markstein had said all this, it is
not probable that Rhaetia would long have rejoiced in so wise, so
self-sacrificing a Chancellor.
"Iron Heart" had meekly declared his readiness to resign, but he had
counted (as people who risk much for great ends usually do count) on
not being taken at his word. He loved power, because he had always had
it, and without it life would not have been worth living; but it was
honestly for the country's sake--even for Maximilian's sake, rather
than his own--that he desired to retain his high position. Without his
strong hand to seize the reins, if Maximilian dropped them for a
careless instant he conscientiously believed that the chariot of state
was lost.
He had said what he could; he had done his best to disillusion a young
man in love with an adventuress; now, neither as Chancellor nor as
friend could he openly continue to protest, unless favoured by fate
with some striking new developments. Privately, however, he had but
taken the first step toward interference; and he meant, since worst
had come to worst, to go much further. He would not even have
considered it sinful to kill a woman of the type to which he assigned
Mary de Courcy, if nothing less than removal from an earthly sphere
could have kept her from the throne of Rhaetia.
Long before his destination was reached, he had decided upon his next
move. Unfortunately, its ultimate success depended upon an outside
influence. But as that influence was to be Otto's, and old Eberhard
held the power of making Otto a rich man or a beggar, he was not
without confidence as to the result.
During the early visit paid by the younger brother to the elder that
morning it had been arranged that he should be ready, on the receipt
of a telegram, instantly to place his services at Eberhard's disposal.
Thus, a message, despatched from the place at which the Emperor and
the Chancellor had parted, was supposed to assure Otto's meeting the
returning train in an hour's time at Salzbrück.
Still, accidents do happen sometimes, to upset the best-laid schemes,
therefore it was a relief to the mind of Count von Markstein to thrust
his head from the carriage window on entering the station, and to
behold his brother's handsome face looking up from the crowd on the
arrival platform.
"Well?" said Otto, as they walked away to the carriage which awaited
them outside.
"Well!" echoed the Chancellor. "That is exactly what it is not. But it
shall be--it shall be well; and you shall help to make it so."
Otto flushed. "In the manner we talked of the other day?" he asked
dubiously.
"No; I do not now intend that you shall marry the girl. Knowing her to
be an impostor, I know that the most degenerate Von Markstein is too
good to mate with her," said the old man, the lash of his tongue
cutting in two ways at once. "But Maximilian has lost his head, and
there's only one hope left, it seems, that he will find it in time to
save the country a great disaster. It must be proved to him that the
woman he honours is worthless; that while she angles to catch a big
fish, she does not disdain to play with a small one."
"Meaning, we'll show the Emperor that Miss de Courcy has been flirting
with me," finished Otto. "With all my heart, dear brother, if that
were possible--for I owe her a grudge. But I confess I did not tell
you all there was to tell, this morning, when I rode over from Schloss
Lynarberg. I spared myself the embarrassment of mentioning that, after
the garden scene which I described to you, Miss de Courcy and I had a
little private scene of our own. I was stupid enough to choose the
wrong moment for declaring my sentiments and expressing my sympathy.
Not only did the young lady refuse to forgive me, at the time, but I
know very well that she never will forgive me, in future. She will
have nothing to do with me after this; she has forbidden me to speak
to her again. Therefore, with the best intentions in the world, I
am----"
"You are a fool!" exclaimed the Chancellor.
"Not quite, I trust. Only wait till I have finished, and even my
brother may admit that, though there's no hope for me in an affair of
the heart with Miss de Courcy, there is a little still left for me as
the aide-de camp of a diplomatist. Who do you think has just arrived
in Salzbrück?"
"The devil, I should say, by the way things are going," returned the
Chancellor.
"I've heard him called so more than once. That's why I thought he
might be useful now. And as it happens, he's in a mood for mischief. I
met him on my way to the station, in his dog-cart, in which he had
driven to town from Bünden."
"From Bünden! Then it is the Prince----"
"Of Darkness; you've just named him."
The Chancellor heard neither the flippant interruption nor the still
more flippant laugh accompanying it. His hard features brightened with
a grim joy. "Providence fights for us!" he murmured.
"With the devil for a weapon, you would put it, brother? Or should we
rather be polite, and say that the Prince is like the ram caught by
its horns in the bushes, ready for sacrifice?"
"I pray that he be caught, and not already out of reach for there's no
single moment to be lost, if this marvellous chance is not to slip
past me," said the Chancellor, too deeply preoccupied to resent his
brother's levity.
"What reward shall I deserve if I take you to him inside the half-hour?"
"You do not forget your own interests, no matter what issues are at
stake! But you have served me in this instance. At the beginning of
the quarter you shall have the sum I mentioned the other day; while,
if the Prince works with me, and the cause is won, you shall be my
heir; I promise it. Where is the Prince?"
"By a queer deal of the cards, by this time he's at the place you'd
choose to have him, of all others; the Hohenburgerhof. He had been to
call on you at your town house, he told me, and not finding you at
home, meant to dine early at the hotel and look you up again later. He
left a note, it seems, which you will find if you go home."
"It can wait; I go to the Prince direct," pronounced the Chancellor.
And the coachman was bidden to drive his fastest to the
Hohenburgerhof, in the Maximilian Platz.
The Prince who, according to "Iron Heart's" belief, had been sent to
him by Providence, was engaged, when the Chancellor arrived, in
selecting the wines for his dinner. He was in the private apartments
which he had taken for the afternoon, and expressed himself through an
obsequious servant as being delighted to receive Count von Markstein.
Otto's mission having been fulfilled and finished, it was only the
broad figure in the gray overcoat which was ushered ceremoniously into
the room known at the hotel as the "Purple Salon of the Royal Suite."
As the Chancellor was shown in, a young man jumped up from an
easy-chair, flung aside the wine list, and came toward the guest
with extended hands. It would have been useless to scour the world
in search of a handsomer young man than he. Even Otto von Markstein,
justly remarkable for his good looks, was insignificant compared with
this youth. He and the Chancellor were not new acquaintances, by any
means, and the vital organ which had given "Iron Heart" his nickname
was not to be softened by beauty in male or female; but at this moment
he rejoiced in the physical perfection of the Prince who would be a
dangerous rival even for an emperor.
Count von Markstein had pronounced his brother a fool for throwing
away his chances of success in a flirtation with Miss de Courcy,
but he was almost ready now to see a gift from Fortune in Otto's
cause for spite against the girl. Had she not offended the young man's
_amour-propre_ in revenge for his tactless declaration, Otto's natural
instinct would have been to protect her from rather than deliver her
up to the enemy. And had Otto let him--Eberhard--go home, without
knowledge of the Prince's presence in Salzbrück, hours must have been
ignorantly squandered--precious hours, big with the fate of Rhaetia.
"My dear Prince!" exclaimed Count von Markstein, taking into his
gnarled old hands the two young, strong, white ones held out to him.
"My dear Chancellor!" echoed the bland Apollo, smiling, and wasting in
that act dimples that would have transformed a plain woman into a
beauty.
"You have been to my house?"
"I had. No doubt my friend Otto has seen and told you."
"He would be honoured by the appellation. It was the news he gave me
which brought me here in haste from the station."
"Good. You will dine with me, then. I insist! It was to be an early
dinner, that I might call afterward on you at the first moment when
your servants thought you likely to return."
"I thank you, and in other circumstances nothing could give me greater
pleasure. But I have business of the sort which makes even a weary man
forget the delights of good companionship and a good dinner."
"Is the business _my_ business, Chancellor?"
"I hope that you will think it so. A least it is business that must be
done now or never, and means life or death to those whom it concerns.
How it is to be done, or whether done at all, depends upon you; and it
could be placed in no more skilful hands. If I had been given my
choice of an instrument out of the whole world, had I dared I would
have chosen you."
"This sounds like an adventure."
"It may indeed be an adventure, and an act of justice too."
"I expected nothing so good when I came over the frontier this
morning. You can guess what brought me to my little den in the
Niederwald at this particular time. It was not for hunting. But,
though my mind is full of certain grave affairs, I trust I have still
the instinct of a sportsman."
"I am sure of that. Especially when your birds and mine can be killed
with one shot."
"Chancellor, you interest me more and more."
The old man smiled gratitude, but under the bristling brows glowed a
light like the last embers in a dying fire. "Upstairs," said he
abruptly, "is a pretty woman. She says her name is Mary de Courcy,
though there are some of us who know better. Her love affairs threaten
a public scandal."
"Ah, the lady of whom all Rhaetia talks is under the same roof with
me!" exclaimed the young man, with slightly heightened colour.
"To you, more than to any other, I can speak freely of our danger,"
said the Chancellor. "This girl has driven the Emperor into a fit of
moon-madness. Heaven grant it may soon pass; and blessed would be the
man who brought my poor master to his senses. If you would, Prince,
_you might be that man_. The sword of justice is ready for your hand."
"That sentence has a solemn ring. I know what I came here to do. But
you seem to be preparing a different programme. Tell me, what sort of
woman is this who has bewitched your grave Maximilian?"
"She is beautiful and clever, as women are clever; but not clever
enough to fight her battle out against you and me."
"Me? I do not fight with women; I make love to them."
"Ah, you have said it, my dear Prince. That is what I want."
Apollo laughed. "Describe the girl," he said. "Is she fair or dark,
tall or short, a slim Diana or a sumptuous Venus?"
"She is tall and slender, with the pink and white skin of a child; and
she is dark-browed and yellow-haired, like the beauties of Austria,"
replied the Chancellor, doing justice to the enemy's charms, not so
much through conscientious motives as because he desired to paint a
pleasing picture. "Her eyes are brown or violet; having nearly reached
my threescore years and ten, I cannot tell you which. Her nose is of
the Greek type, yet a trifle more piquant, it may be. Doubtless a poet
would rave of her lips, red as geraniums on snow; and even I can
affirm that when the lady looks down, and then looks up smiling with
great play of dark curled lashes, the effect is somewhat striking. I
can imagine that smile might quicken the pulses of a younger man than
I."
"It would quicken mine only to hear you tell of it, if you had not put
a maggot in my head that tickles me to laughter instead of raptures,"
said the Prince, who was fully mindful of his own supremacy over
women. "Has this girl who calls herself De Courcy a little black mole
on her forehead just above the left eye brow, and in that notable
smile of hers, does the mouth point upward at the right, like a fairy
sign-post showing the way to a small scar that masquerades as a
dimple?"
The Chancellor gravely reflected for a moment, and then replied that
to the best of his belief both these marks were distinctly visible on
the lady's countenance. He did not add that he had met her but once,
and had no eye for delicate details; for whatever the Prince's theory
might be, it seemed advisable to establish it. "Is it possible that
you have met this dangerous young person?" he inquired, hiding
eagerness.
"Well, I begin to believe that I have reason for thinking so; exactly
why, I will tell you at another time--it means a confession. But a
lady answering the description you have given might easily be in this
neighbourhood--I'd heard she was in Rhaetia; in fact, when I suddenly
made up my mind to come, I thought it not impossible that I might meet
her. We'd quarrelled, after my having been weak enough one day to take
her imprudently into my confidence concerning family affairs. This
_coup_ she has so nearly made may be by way of revenge on me. She's
capable of the clever conception too; but where did she develop the
mother? I fancy I have heard that there _is_ a mother?"
"There is a marionette which answers to the name," drily announced the
Chancellor. "But mothers are articles of easy manufacture."
The Prince was immensely amused. "No, she wouldn't stick at a mother,
if she wanted one," he chuckled, "and, while she was about it, she
appears to have annexed a whole family tree as well. That mole and the
scar-dimple--you're sure of them, Chancellor? And the drawing up of
the lips to the right when she smiles?"
"Sure," calmly asseverated "Iron Heart."
"Then the more pieces in this little puzzle that I fit together, the
more likely does it seem that your Miss de Courcy, who has been
turning Rhaetia upside down--to say nothing of Rhaetia's Emperor--is
neither more nor less than Miss Minnie Brand, one of the cleverest,
and certainly one of the prettiest actresses England has owned for a
century."
"You met her in England?"
"No-o, not in England"; the Prince suddenly became noncommital. "But
we were great friends. After our quarrel she disappeared, disbanding
her company, letting them go on while she stopped at a Rhaetian
watering-place. Ha, ha! now I think of it, I should not be surprised
if she had hoped to make of me a more egregious fool than she appears
to have made of Maximilian. It is possible she fancied at one time
that I might be ass enough to offer her marriage."
"The Emperor has offered her marriage."
"_What_? With the left hand, of course--though even that would be
unheard of."
"I swear to you that if something can't be done to stop him, he will
make her Empress of Rhaetia. He has told me so to-day with his own
lips."
"Gad! Little Minnie Brand! I didn't half appreciate her brilliant
qualities."
"Yet I wager, Prince, that she appreciated yours."
Apollo shrugged his shoulders. "I believe she liked me. Yes, I believe
_that_ wasn't acting."
"Is it long since you parted if I may ask as much?"
"Oh, yes, you may ask and be answered, Chancellor. It is only long
enough for her to have said good-bye to the old love and taken
comfortably up with the new."
"But what if she still cared for the old--if the past could be
revived? Prince, I tell you frankly, I now pin all my hopes on you.
Even when I thought only that if a meeting between you two could be
arranged, your fascinations might produce a speedy effect--even then I
hoped something. Now, I hope _everything_--if you will consent to see
her. I beg you will do that--without delay. I beg that you will send
up your card, and request the lady to receive you. That alone would be
much to go upon with the Emperor, who is of a jealous disposition;
but, if there could be more if you could persuade her to----"
"Persuade her to--what?" asked the Prince, when the old man paused for
breath and inspiration.
"If she would go to your hunting-lodge--if the Emperor could know that
she was there he would be cured, once for all. Rhaetia would be saved--
by you. And regarding the business that I think has brought you--what
could be better--for every one concerned?"
"What, indeed?" echoed the Prince. "For _every one_ concerned, except
for Minnie Brand."
"After what she has done, need she be considered--before the interests
of Rhaetia, and another most innocent Royal lady, whom she is doing
her best to humiliate and put to shame?"
"I am not sure that she need be so considered," said the Prince. "At
all events--I will send up my card--to Miss de Courcy. As for the
rest--it must arrange itself."
He took from his pocket a little gold card-case, sparkling with
jewels--a trifle which advertised itself as the gift of a woman. "This
shall go upstairs," he said, selecting a bit of engraved pasteboard.
"And then--we shall see."
For five minutes, for ten minutes, after the departure of the small,
silent messenger, the two men waited, talking of a subject near to
both their hearts. But at the end of that time word came that Lady and
Miss de Courcy would see the Prince.
"The value of a well-regulated mother!" laughed the young man, who had
not requested the pleasure of meeting Lady de Courcy. "Well, whatever
comes of this interview, I shall presently have something to tell you,
Chancellor."
"The suspense will be hard to bear," said the old man. "I am not as
young as I was, and these past four days have sorely tried me.
Remember, I pray you, all that is at stake, and do not hesitate. Have
no scruple with such a woman as this. The Emperor will shortly be
returning. He will lose no time in seeing the girl, and--once they
have had another meeting, all our precautions will be too late."
The Prince did not smile as he went out.
He had bidden the Chancellor to await his return in the salon of the
"Royal suite," which was usually put at his disposal when he was in
Rhaetia, and drove in from the Niederwald to Salzbrück. Other
Royalties from foreign countries, or from the provinces, occasionally
occupied it also--hence its name; and Apollo was not the first Prince
whom old Eberhard von Markstein had visited in the "Royal suite" of
the Hohenburgerhof. The Chancellor knew by heart the rich purple
hangings in the salon, with the gold double wolf-head of Rhaetia
embroidered on their folds; and he sickened of them now, as the
moments dragged on and on, and he was left alone.
When half an hour had passed, he could no longer sit still on the
purple velvet sofa, but walked up and down, his hands behind him,
scowling at the full-length portraits of Rhaetia's former Emperors,
glaring a question at his own reflection in the many huge gold-framed
mirrors, a question he would have given his life to hear answered in
the way he wished.
Three-quarters of an hour had gone at last, and still the Chancellor
paced the room from end to end, and still the Prince did not come back
to tell the news. Had the young man failed him? Had that Vivian
upstairs twisted the boy round her finger, as she had twisted one who
was stronger and greater than he? Was it possible that she had wormed
the whole secret from the Prince and then ordered him away from the
hotel, leaving her enemy fuming in the house?
But no, there were footsteps outside the door; the handle was turned.
At least the Prince was true to his promise.
As the Chancellor had said, he was no longer as young as he had been.
His lips parted; yet he could not speak, when he would have asked for
the result. But the Prince caught the appeal in the glittering eyes,
and did not wait to be interrogated.
"Well, I have seen the lady," he said, in a voice that was indefinably
changed in the interval since he and the Chancellor had separated.
"And she is the one you had known?"
"Yes. She is the one I had known. What is more, Chancellor, it--it's
all right about that plan of yours. She is going with me to Bünden."
"She is? Heaven be praised! When?
"At once. That is, as soon as she can get ready."
"Nothing could be better. I trust she goes with you alone? The
presence of the mother as chaperon would be unfortunate."
"Oh, no chaperon is needed for us. The--mother stops behind with a
companion they have, who is ill. It--er--it was a little difficult to
arrange this matter, but--I don't think the plot will fail, provided
you carry through your part as well as I have mine."
"The lady goes with you quite of her own free will?"
"I--er--I flatter myself that she is rather pleased with the
invitation. In half an hour or so, if all is well, I and the lady fair
will be on our way to my hunting-lodge, to spend an agreeable evening
in each other's society and talk over old times. Fortunately I went
straight out there this morning before coming to Salzbrück to see you;
and though I was not expected back to dinner, there will be something
eatable in the house, I dare say--something I need not be ashamed to
offer a lady."
The Prince pulled a hunting-watch from the pocket of an elaborate
waistcoat (he merited the reputation of being the best-dressed young
man in Europe) and consulted it reflectively. "It is now nearly
four-thirty. By six, the hour at which I should have sat down to my
early dinner here (alas, for a good dinner sacrificed on the altar of
duty!), we shall be approaching the outskirts of the Niederwald, my
pretty friend and I. Bünden is three miles farther on, my place two
miles beyond Bünden. But before seven o'clock I shall be showing the
lady the beauties of my Rhaetian hunting-lodge, which I have more than
once described to her. Dinner can, on one excuse or another, be
delayed until nearly nine, if it would suit your book to find us in
the midst of our repast. My dining-room is not a grand salon, but it
has light and colour, and would not make a bad background for the last
act of this little comedy. What do you say, Chancellor? I have always
thought that your success as stage-manager in the Theatre of all
Nations was partially due to your regard for dramatic effects."
"They are not to be despised." assented the Chancellor.
"Well, I promise you that the footlights shall be lighted, the stage
set, and two of your leading puppets dressed and painted for the show,
precisely at the hour of nine. When can you count on the appearance of
the third?"
The bristling brows met. Von Markstein was working without scruple
against Maximilian, for Maximilian's good; yet he could tolerate no
light speaking of the master he would betray.
"When His Majesty telephones to me from Wandeck as he has promised to
do, on his arrival there," said the old man stiffly, "I shall inform
him of what has taken place in his absence. If I know him in his
present ardent mood, he will order a special train to return to
Salzbrück. In that case, he will arrive before eight; and all else
falling as I now confidently expect, we shall be able to reach the
hunting-lodge by half-past nine."
"You will find us at the third course," prophesied the Prince.
"Naturally, the Emperor's sudden appearance will come as a blow to the
lady," returned the Chancellor, watching with veiled keenness the
other's placid, perfect face. "She would not dare take the risk if she
dreamed that he would discover her escapade and follow, great as is
the temptation to enjoy your society; indeed, Prince, you must have
found subtle weapons to break so soon through the armour of her
prudence. I expected much from your courage and resource, once
enlisted in the cause, yet I hardly ventured to expect such speedy,
such unqualified success as this that seems assured."
"My weapons were sharpened on my past acquaintance with the lady,"
explained the Prince. "Without that, the desired result might have
waited as many days as it has taken moments, though, at last, the end
would perhaps have been the same."
"Not for Rhaetia. Every moment counts with us, as I have said.
Thanks to you, we shall win; for actress as this woman is, she will
find the justification of an evening _tête-à-tête_ with you, at your
hunting-lodge in the country, a task beyond her powers."
"If she makes the effort, we can afford to be audience and amuse
ourselves with her acting, as the comedy plays itself out," said the
Prince.
"There is no doubt in my mind--whatever may be her conception of the
part--as to the final tableau. And, after all, it is that alone with
which you concern yourself--eh, Chancellor?"
"It is that alone," echoed the old man. "And now, lest by a hitch in
the stage mechanism--since you choose that figure of speech--something
should yet go wrong, I must make haste home, that I may be in time to
receive the Emperor's communication from Wandeck."
"If he should forget to send--_there_ would be rather a serious hitch,
would it not?"
"The Emperor has never, in my knowledge of him, forgotten to keep a
promise, and I am certain he is not enough changed to do so even now.
_Au revoir_, Prince; till half-past nine."
"Till half-past nine, when a warm welcome awaits you, from _one of the
dramatis personae_. For the other--I cannot answer."
Laughing, the two grasped hands on their understanding. The Chancellor
went out to his carriage, which had been kept at the door and a few
minutes later he was conversing with Maximilian through the telephone.