"Would you believe an old man like me could lay such a train?
All this was my idea.It was difficult to get Madame to agree with my views.War? I am not afraid of it; I am suspicious of it.
One day your friend returned a personal letter of Madame's having written across it, `I laugh at you.' It was very foolish.
No man laughs at Madame more than once.She will, one day, return this letter to him.A crown, a fine revenge, in one fell swoop.""She will ruin him utterly?"
"Utterly."
"Have you any idea what sort of man my friend is?""He lacks the polish of a man of affairs, and he surrenders too easily.""He will never surrender--Madame."
"How?"
"You remember his father; he will prove his father's son, every inch of him.O, my Colonel, the curtain has only risen.One fine morning your duchy will wake up without a duchess.""What do you imply--an abduction?" The Colonel laughed.
"That is my secret."
"And the pretty countess?" banteringly.
"It was rather bad taste in Madame.It was putting love and patriotism to questionable purposes.I am a gentleman.""It was out of consideration for you; Madame was not quite sure about you.But you are right; all of it has rather a dark shade.
You may rob a man of his valuables and give them back; a broken word is not to be mended.Why did you keep the hiding place so secret? I could have got those consols, and all this would have been avoided.""How should I know where they were? It was none of my affair.""We are trusting you; I might have gone myself.You will return with the treasure.Why have I not asked your word? Curiosity will bring you back; curiosity.Besides this, you have an idea that with your presence about, a flaw in the glass may be found.
Yes, you will be back.History is to be made; when you are old you will glance at the page and say: `Look there; rather a pretty bit, eh? Well, I helped to make it; indeed, had it not been for me and my curiosity it would not have been made at all.'
Above all things, do not stop to talk to veiled women."There was a chuckling sound."I say, your Englishman is clever now and then.In the gun barrels! Who would have looked for them there? But why did he come himself? Why did he not trust to his bankers? Why did he not turn over the affair to his representative, the British minister? There were a hundred ways of averting the catastrophe.Why did he not use a little fore-thought when he knew how anxious we were for his distinguished person?""Why does the moon rise at night and the sun at dawn? I am no Cumaean Sybil.Perhaps it is the impulse which moves the woman behind the power behind the throne; they call it fate.Had Ibeen in his place I dare say I should have followed his footsteps."Not long after they arrived at the frontier where they were to separate, to meet again under conditions disagreeable to both.
The Colonel gave him additional instructions.
"Go; return as quickly as possible."
"Never fear; I should not like to miss the finale to this opera bouffe.""Rail on, my son; call it by any name you please, only do not interrupt the prompter;" and with this the Colonel waved him an adieu.
Maurice began the journey through the mountain pass, thinking and planning and scheming.However he looked at the situation, the end was the same: the Osians were doomed.If he himself played false and retained the certificates until too late to be of benefit to the duchess, war would follow; and the kingdom would be soundly beaten....Would Prince Frederick still hold to his agreement and marry her Royal Highness, however ill the fortunes of war fared? There was a swift current of blood to his heart.The Voiture-verse of a countess faded away....
Supposing Prince Frederick withdrew his claims? Some day her Highness would be free; free, without title or money or shelter.
It was a wild dream.Was there not, when all was said, a faint hope for his own affairs in the fall of Fitzgerald?
She was lonely, friendless, personally known to few.Still, she would be an Osian princess for all her misfortunes.But an Osian princess was not so great that love might not possess her.
Without royalty she would be only a woman.What would Austria do;what would Austria say? If Austria had placed Leopold on the throne, certainly it was to shut out the house of Auersperg.
