For several days we had noticed that they treated us with
extraordinary respect at the Hôtel du Lac. If we rang, they ran to
answer our call before the bell had stopped vibrating, owing to the
fact that the servants always remained in the corridor, to take our
orders the more quickly. At table, because we had once complimented the
master of the hotel on a particularly delicious dish of spinach, they
now served us spinach more and more delicious at every meal. When we
left our rooms stealthy and curious eyes looked at us through half-open
doors along the passage. They saluted us with an obsequiousness most
unusual in free Switzerland. They almost appeared to form in line as
we passed, and already in the city it was evident that our presence
created a strange excitement. Was it because they knew us to be friends
of Richard Wagner, and because the jealously-guarded retreat in which
he lived was open for us? Certainly no glory appeared to us more
enviable, and our just pride equalled our joy. But why should we cause
such a commotion amid the placid population of Lucerne? Could it be
that we were surrounded by a luminous mist, visible to less fortunate
mortals?
When we set sail for the little cape of Tribschen, clouds of other
sails, with an appearance of unconcern, put out from the banks to
escort us from afar, and as long as we remained at the home of our
illustrious host, they increased all about the edges of the grounds,
drawing as near as possible.
We had told the Master and Madam Cosima about this, and they were as
puzzled as we were. Sometimes we went into the garden, to look through
the trees at all those boats, full of tourists, which waited there so
stubbornly with that incomprehensible air of expectation.
This mysterious thing finally explained itself. Madam Cosima, in going
to Lucerne one day to take Senta for her piano lesson, met the owner of
Tribschen, and he himself, without being asked, gave the keyword of the
enigma.
"Everyone in Lucerne knows," said he, "that the King, Ludwig II. of
Bavaria, is here incognito. The Chief of Police said to me, 'I have an
unerring scent, and I know that he is there.'"
Everyone knew that the King had had his hair dressed at the shop of M.
Frey, and that he had honoured the fortunate barber with a conversation
upon Wagner; that at the Zug rifle-match he had condescended to
compete, and victoriously, and that he had made with the Master an
excursion to the Axenstein....
The piano-teacher knew the story, but she also told Cosima something
more. Adelina Patti had been at Tribschen for the last fifteen days.
The King had brought her there, so that she might study a part, which
it would be her duty to create in the next work of Wagner. That was
why all the boatmen received orders to draw as near as possible to the
Master's house, in order that the tourists might perhaps catch, on
the wing, a few notes of the _diva_. It was Villiers de l'Isle-Adam
whom they had taken for the King of Bavaria, and it was in my person
that the Lucerne imagination had recognised Madam Patti. One of our
companions was, beyond any doubt, the blond Count de Taxis.
"You see," Wagner said to us, "that you have not only touched two
hearts which, through being armed so long against human malice, have
become almost callous, but you have also put in a flutter the usually
very apathetic brains of the inhabitants of Lucerne!"
All was very clear, now that we understood it; but now we must proceed
to undeceive these firmly convinced people. All our denials, like the
hammer that strikes upon the nail, only served to deepen the certainty
of their minds. It only remained to amuse ourselves with this short
royalty. We profited by it to the extent of being served like princes
at the Hôtel du Lac.