The Adventure of Princess Sylvia Part 19

"Pardon delay," the Rhaetian Amba.s.sador to Great Britain began his message. "Have been obliged to make inquiries. Lady de Courcy is the widow of Baron de Courcy, who died ten years ago, leaving one son and a daughter. The lady is not rich, and in her son's minority lets her town and country houses, living mostly abroad. She is at present in Calcutta, India, where her daughter, Miss Mary de Courcy, is engaged to marry a Judge Morley, a man of some distinction. Kindly let me hear if there are other particulars you desire to know, and I will endeavour to obtain them.--MIENIGEN."

"Well!" the Emperor threw aside the telegram, and laughed. Rather a forced laugh, perhaps, but still it was a laugh. "Is it possible that so wise a man of the world as yourself, Chancellor, dares to call two ladies adventuresses on such slight grounds as these; or have you more cards up your sleeve?"

Von Markstein breathed quickly. He had counted on the Emperor's former strict regard for Court etiquette, the well-known sternness of his principle; and he had not prepared himself for such an answer. But then, he had yet to make the acquaintance of Maximilian as a man in love.

He hesitated for a reply. In truth, he had founded his theory on this basis, and he still considered it amply sufficient to satisfy any one save a madman. But if Maximilian were mad, he must be treated accordingly; therefore the Chancellor condescended to "bluff."

"It is not yet time to play the trumps which I keep in my sleeve, Your Majesty," he said, as firmly as if he had not been conscious of his sleeve's emptiness. "But I am sure, when you have thought the matter over--perhaps deigned to talk it over with me--you will see that the cards I have laid before you are all-sufficing. The ladies styling themselves De Courcy have come to Rhaetia under false colours. They have either deceived Lady West, or they have forged the letters of introduction purporting to be from her."

"Why didn't you telegraph Lady West, while your hand was in, my friend?" asked Maximilian, feigning indifference to the answer.

"I did, Your Majesty, since you ask the question. At least, not knowing the address which would find her soonest, I wired a friend of hers, an acquaintance of my own, begging him to speak with Lady West, not mentioning my name in the matter. But as yet I have received no response to that telegram."

"Until you do, I should think that even an old cynic like yourself, Chancellor, might have given two defenseless, inoffensive ladies the benefit of the doubt."

"Inoffensive, you call them?" protested "Iron Heart" incredulously.

"Inoffensive, when they came to this country for the purpose of using the young woman's beauty to ensnare Your Majesty's affections, to entrap you into some sort of declaration? But, great heaven, it is true indeed that my brain feels the advance of years! I have forgotten to implore that Your Majesty will tell me whether you have mentioned the word _marriage_ to the lady? I pray that you have not so far compromised your self and Rhaetia."

"I will answer that question by another. Do you believe that Miss de Courcy came to Rhaetia for the express purpose of 'entrapping me', as you call it?"

"In truth, I scarcely credit even _her_ ambition with as high a flight as Your Majesty's avowed intentions. I believe that she would have been satisfied with far less--_far less_."

"In that case, you think she would have been overjoyed with an offer to become the morganatic wife of the Emperor?"

"Overjoyed is a mild word, Your Majesty. Overwhelmed might be nearer."

"Yet I tell you that she refused me last night, and is leaving Rhaetia to-day rather than listen to further entreaties."

Maximilian leaned forward to launch this thunderbolt, his brown hands on his knees, his eyes eager. The recollections, half-bitter, half-sweet, called up by his own words, caused Sylvia to appear in his imagination more beautiful, more completely desirable even than before.

He was delighted with the expression on Von Markstein's face, though it quickly faded. "Now, what arguments have you left?" he broke out in the brief silence.

"All that I had before--more, indeed. For what Your Majesty has said only shows that the lady is more ambitious, more self-confident, therefore more dangerous, than I had supposed. She staked much upon the power of her charms; and she might have won, had you not an old servant who wouldn't be fooled by the enchantments of Helen herself."

"She _has_ won," said Maximilian. Then, hastily: "G.o.d forgive me for chiming in with your humour, and speaking as if she had played a game.

That is far enough from my meaning. By simply being herself she has won me, such as I am; she has proved that, if she cares at all, it is for the man and not the Emperor, since she called an offer which most ambitious women would have welcomed, an insult. Yes, Chancellor, that was the word she used; and it was almost the last she said to me; which is the reason I am travelling to-day. And nothing that you have told me has any power to hold me back."

"By heaven, Your Majesty, I believe you look upon yourself from the point of view you credit to this English girl! You forget the Emperor in the man."

"I have thought well, and at last I see nothing in one which need interfere with the other."

"Love indeed makes men blind, and I see it spares not the eyes of emperors."

"I have given my word to bear with you and your tongue, Von Markstein."

"And I know that you will keep it. I must speak; I speak for Rhaetia, and for your better self! Your Majesty, I understand that you are now following this lady with the purpose of informing her that she has triumphed that she is to be the Empress."

"If she will have the Emperor for her husband."

"A lady whose name is of so little value to her that she steals another! The nation will not bear it, Your Majesty."

"I think you speak for yourself, not for Rhaetia, Chancellor," said Maximilian. "I am not so old as you by four-and-thirty years, yet I believe I can judge of what my people will bear at least as well as you can. The law which obliges an Emperor of Rhaetia to marry Royalty is an unwritten law, a law solely of custom, handed down through many generations. I will not spoil my life by submitting to its yoke, since by breaking it the nation gains, rather than loses. You have seen Miss de Courcy. Where could I find another such woman for my wife--for Rhaetia's Empress?"

"You have not seen Princess Sylvia of Eltzburg-Neuwald, who is famed for her beauty."

"I have no wish to see her; her beauty is for him who has not looked on perfection. There is but one woman in the world for me; and I swear to you, Von Markstein, if I cannot have her, I will go to my grave unmarried. Let the crown fall to my uncle's son. I'll not perjure myself--no, not even for Rhaetia."

The Chancellor bowed his head and held up his hands, for with gesture alone was he able to express his feelings.

"As I said," Maximilian went sharply on, "it shall be the Countess of Salzbruck who becomes the Empress. If my people love me, they will love her, and rejoice in my happiness. If they complain, why, we shall see who is master; whether to be Emperor of Rhaetia means being a mere figure-head or not. In some countries Royalty is but an ornamental survival of a picturesque past, a King or Queen is no more than a puppet which the nation loads with magnificence to do itself honour.

But that is not yet so in Rhaetia, as I am ready to prove, if prove it I must. For my part, I think I shall be spared the trouble, for we Rhaetians love romance in high or low; you only are the exception, Chancellor. And as for the story you have told me, and proved to your satisfaction, though not to mine, I would give _that_ for it!" And the Emperor snapped his fingers.

"You still believe, despite what Friedrich and Von Mienigen say, that mother and daughter are Lady and Miss de Courcy?"

"I believe that, whoever they may be, they are of stainless reputation, and that any apparent mystery is capable of satisfactory explanation. Knowing Miss de Courcy, it would be impossible to believe less well of her. She is herself; that is enough for me. Perhaps, Chancellor, the mistake is all your own, and there are two Lady de Courcys."

"Only one is mentioned in Burke, Your Majesty."

"Burke isn't gospel, whatever English people think."

"Pardon me, it is the gospel of the British peerage. It can no more be guilty of an error than Euclid."

"Nor can Miss de Courcy be guilty of a theft. I'll stake my life on that; and I tell you again, Chancellor, that your lame conclusions have proved nothing."

The old man accepted his rebuke in momentary silence. But after a pause, equal to three or four whole notes in music, he spoke slowly and respectfully:

"Your Majesty referred, a short time ago, to certain other cards, which you suggested--in a playful way--I might be concealing for future use. I did not deny the accusation, and if I have not yet laid down these cards, Your Majesty, do not take it as a sign that they are not in my possession."

"It is often good policy to lead trumps," said Maximilian, not without a sneer.

"In whist, but not in all games, Your Majesty. I hold mine for the present. But--is your indulgence for the old man quite exhausted?"

"Not quite, though slightly strained, I will confess," Maximilian said, tempering the words with half a smile.

"Then I have one, and only one, more important question to ask, venturing to remind you first that, to the best of my belief, I have acted solely in your interest. If I feel that such a step as you contemplate would be my death blow, it is simply because I love you and love Rhaetia before all else. Tell me, Your Majesty, this one thing. If it were proved to you that the lady you know as Miss de Courcy was, not only not the person she pretended to be, but in other respects unworthy of your love--unworthy in a way that no man can forgive--what would you do then?"

"You speak of impossibilities."

"But if they were _not_ impossibilities?"

"In such a case I would do as other men do--spend the rest of my life in trying to forget a lost ideal."

"I thank Your Majesty; that is all I now ask. I suppose--you will continue your journey?"

"Yes, I continue my journey as far as Wandeck, where I hope to find Lady and Miss de Courcy."

"Then, Your Majesty, when I have expressed my deep grat.i.tude for your forbearance--even though I failed to be convincing--I will trouble you no longer."