CHAPTER III
"AS YOUR HIGHNESS WILL"
The perplexing difficulty of my position was extreme. The eyes of bothmen were fixed on me, noting every expression that crossed my face,waiting upon my lightest word, and eager to show their allegiance to meas the new head of the house.
A career of magnificent promise lay invitingly at my very feet, and Ihad but to utter a word to step into a position of power and influence.
Moreover, every chivalrous instinct of my nature was stirred with adesire to save the beautiful girl I had seen from the clutch of the manthreatening her with worse than ruin; while my red-hot desire forrevenge on the man himself was prompting me to stay where I was until atleast I could expose and punish him.
His sin against me had been the one absolutely unforgivable. He hadmarried my sister; and too late we had discovered that at the time hewas already married. The blow and the shame had killed her and broken mymother's heart; and over my sister's coffin I had sworn to have his lifefor hers. But he had fled, and no efforts of mine had been able to findhim up to the hour of my own supposed death. And now here he wasdelivered into my hands, and actually in the very act of repeating hisfoul offence. Fate had surely brought us together in this dramaticfashion. I could not disclose my identity to him; but I could be theagent to detect this new sin, and could thus myself punish him for theold.
With my pulses throbbing with this fire, was it likely that I could makean instant decision in accordance with the dictates of mere surfaceconventionality? I held back from the decision, and even then might havepersisted in avowing the truth, when the man himself came ruffling intothe room. His strong, dark, coarse features wore an expression ofbullying assertiveness; his manner was that of the lord of the placetoward an interloper; and he spoke to me in the hectoring tone of amaster toward an inferior servant. The personal contact with him, thesound of his voice, the insolent look of his heavy eyes, and my old hateof him were like so many knots on a whiplash goading me to fury.
"I heard you had come, but I suppose you know your errand is a fruitlessone."
Had I been the most contemptible lickspittle on the meanest andgreediest quest, his expression could not have been worse. I saw theother two men exchange a rapid glance.
"What do you deem my errand?" I asked quietly.
"Oh, that's plain enough," he answered, with a sneer. "You've come afterwhat you can get. The Prince probably sent you by these agents ofhis"--with a contemptuous sweep of the hand toward them--"some wonderfulaccount of the good things in store for you here, and very naturally youcame to gather them. But the Prince's death has knocked the bottom outof that barrel," and he laughed very coarsely. "There's nothing here foryou except an empty title, and a beggarly old castle mortgaged from thebottom of the old moat to the tip-top of the flagstaff. That and a messof very hazardous intrigue is all you can hope for here."
This speech, coarse and contemptible as it was under such circumstances,was not to be compared with the ineffable brutality of the manner whichmarked its delivery. I was astounded that any man could so behave; but Isaw his motive instinctively.
He had heard little of me except as a meek-spirited student, likely toshy at any danger, and his object was to frighten me away.
"And who are you, then?" I asked. "These gentlemen have told me nothingof the position of matters here."
"Then the sooner you know something the better. Have the goodness toleave us, Captain von Krugen."
The latter started, as I thought angrily, at the sharp imperious tone inwhich he was addressed, and glanced at me in some hesitation.
"Do you hear me, sir?" exclaimed von Nauheim, still more sharply; andthen, getting no sign from me, the two men left the room. "That fellowgets more presuming every day. The Prince made far too much of him; butI'll soon have a change. So you don't know the position of things here,eh, Mr. Student? Do you set much store on your life?" And he eyed mevery sharply, expecting to see me wince.
I did not disappoint him. I started and, in a tone of some alarm, asked:
"Why? There is no danger of that sort here, is there?"
"Do you know how your late cousin, Gustav, lost his?"
"What do you mean?"
"Ah, I thought the question would surprise you. I'm not going to tellyou everything, because these matters are for men of action, and notbookworms. He died in a duel, forced on him for the sole reason that hewas the Prince's next heir."
"Oh, but that cannot be possible," I cried, as if incredulous.
"Possible," he echoed, with a laugh. "Can you fight? I mean, do youthink you can stand before the finest swordsmen or the picked shots inall Bavaria?"
"I don't see the necessity."
"Perhaps not--just yet," he returned dryly. "Poor Gustav didn't--but thetime came none the less. The man who puts on the mantle of the deadPrince upstairs must look to find little in the pockets exceptchallenges."
"But what of you? Who are you? Why do you tell me this?"
"Because I dislike attending funerals," he replied, with a grim laugh."Besides, I am a soldier; and it's my business to fight. You haveprobably heard my name already. I'm the Count von Nauheim, and the latePrince's daughter is my betrothed wife."
"And you mean, I suppose, that all the Prince's wealth will pass to thedaughter?"
"That is the Prince's will. And you weren't in time to get him to alterit, you see," he sneered; but I let the sneer pass for the moment.
"Then you will be the head of the family in all but the name--thehusband of the daughter, the owner of the wealth, and the guardian ofits honor?"
"You can put a point with the clearness of a lawyer," he said.
"Have you, then, fought the man who killed the son Gustav?"
As I asked the question I kept my eyes fixed steadily on his, and allhis bluster could not hide his discomfiture.
"These are things you don't understand," he said bruskly. "There is muchbehind--too much to explain to you."
"But if you say that my cousin Gustav was murdered, that you know thisto be so, that fighting is your business, and that you are the guardianof the family's honor, why have you not called the murderer to account?"
"I tell you you don't understand these things. We don't manage matterslike a parcel of swaggering student duels."
"Apparently not," I answered in a studiously quiet tone. "Students wouldsay in such a case that you did not fight because--you dared not."
"You speak with a strange license, and if you are not careful you willget yourself into trouble!" he cried furiously, trying to frighten mewith a bullying stare. "You won't find every one ready to make suchallowances for your _gaucherie_ as I am. You will have the goodness towithdraw that suggestion."
"I will do so with pleasure the moment I know you have challenged theman you call a murderer, or have repeated in his presence what you havesaid about him to me."
His surprise at this unexpected tone of quiet insistence on my part wasalmost laughable; but he tried to carry it off and bear me down with hisboisterous, bullying manner.
"You had better take heed how you presume on my forbearance toward onein your position, or even the fact that you are nominally a member ofthe family will not prevent me from giving you a pretty severe lesson."
"You mean, I suppose, that, although you dared not challenge the man whokilled Gustav, you think you might tackle me with impunity. That is nota very high standard of courage," and I shrugged my shoulders, andcurled my lips in contempt, as I added, "If that is all the protectionthe Gramberg honor can rely upon, God save the family reputation."
The sneer drove him mad, and the blood rushed to his face, until everyone of his coarse features glowed with his passion.
"With the Prince lying dead in the castle, this is not the time for sucha matter to be settled; but I will not suffer such an insult even fromyou to pass unpunished. Why should you seek to force a quarrel on me atsuch a time?"
"You forget the quarrel is of your making," I answered coolly. "Themoment
you entered this room you insulted me by saying I had come herefor what I could get, and sneered that I was too late to induce thePrince to alter the will leaving his property to his daughter. In myview that will is perfectly just and right. Then for some object, I knownot what as yet, you tried to frighten me into running away from theplace altogether. You have mistaken your man, sir. I have no hankeringfor the late Prince's wealth; but what you have said of yourself is morethan enough to prove that the honor of my family is not in safe keepingwhen left in your hands. As there is nothing but that honor, I willaccept that part of the inheritance."
Rage, hate, threats, and baffled malice were in the look he turned on meat this.
"You wish to make me your enemy?"
"At least I have no wish to make you my friend," I retorted.
"You will live to repent this bitterly!" he cried, with an oath. "Wewill have no meddlers here in the path of our purpose," and, still moreenraged by the smile which the threat evoked from me, he went hurriedlyout of the room.
Truly my years of self-repression had wrought a great change in me. Fiveyears before his hot insolence would have so fired me that I would havemade him answer for it on the spot; but now I could hold my anger incheck and wait for my revenge. But this little conflict was my firstlive experience for five years, and the sense of it pleased me.
When the man had left me I had no longer any scruples about goingforward with my new character. There was no one to be robbed of afortune, no one to be supplanted in a coveted position--nothing but anoverpawned castle to be gained. There was apparently a dangerousintrigue to be faced, and a sweet girl's honor to be saved, and atreacherous villain to be exposed and punished--not the kind ofinheritance which many men would covet. But then few men were everplaced in my situation.
I was thinking hard over all this when my two captors came back into theroom hurriedly, both very angry. Von Nauheim had seen them after leavingme, and had vented his anger on them. They asked me now excitedly if itwas my wish that they should leave the castle immediately after thePrince's funeral. I listened to them very quietly. I had already hadpretty strong evidence of the lengths to which their zeal for thefamily's affairs would induce them to go; and von Nauheim's hostilityto them was a powerful recommendation in my eyes.
"I beg you to be calm, gentlemen," I said, "and to bear in mind that Iknow very little of the position of affairs here. I have understood fromyou that you were both largely in the late Prince's confidence--indeed,you have given me pretty good proof of that since yesterday. But beyondthat I do not know what your relations here have been in the past."
"We have been for years in the Prince's confidential service; I myselfenjoyed his closest confidence," answered Captain von Krugen. "But myallegiance is to the head of the house. I recognize no one else."
"And you desire to remain in that service?"
"I have no other wish in life, sir," he replied earnestly.
"Nor I," assented the other.
"If you were in his confidence, you will know that the late Prince hasleft to his successor no means of maintaining a large retinue."
"What I am and all that I have I owe to your late uncle," said thecaptain in the same earnest tone. "I ask nothing else than to place mysword and my fortune alike at your disposal. And I can speak forSteinitz here. Our liberty and lives are indeed at issue in the presentcrisis; and if all is not to fail ignominiously now, we must have astrong hand and a clear head in command."
There was no mistaking the man's sincerity, and, usurper though I was,the offer touched me.
"I believe you absolutely, Captain von Krugen, and you, Herr Steinitz,"and I gave them my hand. "But, all the same, I do not know what crisisyou mean. Tell me freely."
"I tried to tell you on the journey here, but you prevented me. Do youknow the history of your family--the lineage on the side of the latePrince's wife?"
"I know very little. Speak as freely as if I knew nothing. You will nottry my patience."
"Steinitz, see that there is no one about; and keep guard outside thedoor that no one enters."
He paused while the younger man withdrew, and then, leading me to a deepwindow-seat at the end of the room, began to speak in a low tone:
"There is a traitor somewhere among us, and thus the greatest need forcaution. For a long time previous to his death your uncle was engaged ina task that involved the highest issues of State. The extreme discontentat the antics of the madman who is now King of Bavaria induced a numberof the more prominent and bolder men in the country to plot hisoverthrow. There is a slip in his ancestry, and the disappearance of acertain Prince Otto, who was the heir to the throne, let in the youngerbranch of the family, through whom the title has descended to thepresent King. Otto was supposed to have died; but he was only eccentric.He lived in secret retirement, married, and left a son. From that son,who was unquestionably the rightful heir, the late wife of your unclecame in direct descent. She was the only child of the eldest line, andby right she should have reigned as Queen. As you know, she died, andleft the two children--Gustav, who was killed in a duel, and thedaughter, who is in the castle at this moment."
"Do you mean----?" I began when he paused.
"I mean that the Countess Minna von Gramberg should at this moment bethe Queen of Bavaria; and that by God's help we shall all live to seeher crowned."
His dark face flushed and his eyes glowed with the enthusiasm of thisspeech.
My own feeling was more wonderment than enthusiasm, however. If thismost hazardous and ambitious scheme were afoot, what could be themeaning of von Nauheim's share in it as the betrothed husband of afuture queen?
"The Prince's first intention was of course to put his son on thethrone, and matters were indeed well ripe for this, when unfortunatelyhe became embroiled in a duel and was killed. That duel we believe tohave been forced on him--murder in all but the actual form."
"And the man who killed him?" I asked.
"A noted Italian swordsman, Praga, hired and paid, as we believe, forhis work."
"Hired? By whom?"
"By the family who stand next in succession to the throne. The King, asyou know, has no children, and the succession passes to the Ostenburgbranch of the family. That was my master's main hope. Our claims arestronger than theirs; and we had on this account secured the support ofmost of the prominent men in the country."
"Well?" I asked, for he paused with a gesture of disappointment.
"Count Gustav's death threw everything back. Where they had been readyto stand by a man, some of them drew back, frightened, from supporting ayoung girl--and, unless a bold stroke be made now, everything may belost."
"What bold stroke do you mean?"
"Like that planned before. Everything was ready. We thought theOstenburg agents had not a suspicion of our plans. We had resolved totake advantage of the mad King's fancies to lure him out on one of thosewild midnight drives of his, and then to seize his person and put one ofourselves into his place, made up, of course, to resemble him; and tolet the dummy play the part of King long enough to enable us to get themadman where he ought to have been long since--into restraint. Then thedummy was to throw aside his disguise and declare that he had beenacting by the King's orders; that the latter had abdicated and hadproclaimed the Count Gustav his successor, as being the rightful linealheir. We should have done the rest. It was a brave scheme."
"It was as mad as the King himself," said I. "But what then?"
"It was just before things were ripe that the other side got windthrough some treachery somewhere; and the count was killed in the duel."
"Well?"
"Half the cowards drew away. But they will all come back the moment theysee us strike a blow; and it was to have you close at hand, helping inthe good work, that the Prince sent for you."
"And the Count von Nauheim?"
"The Prince had supreme confidence in him. He was not with us at first;but his coming secured us the help of a very large and influentialsection of the people--enough t
o turn the balance, indeed, and make thescheme certain of success. The Prince welcomed him heartily enough, andcheerfully complied with the condition fixed by those for whom heacted--that the Countess Minna should be given to him in marriage."
This made me thoughtful, knowing as I did the man's character.
"And the daughter herself?"
My companion frowned, drawing his dark brows close together, and pursedup his lips, as he replied ambiguously:
"Neither man nor woman at such a time can think of any but reasons ofState."
"You mean that she consented to give her hand, but could not give herheart with it."
"I mean more than that, sir, and I must speak frankly to you. TheCountess Minna has never favored the scheme, but has strongly opposedit--and opposes it still. Women have no ambition. She has no longing fora throne; and now that her father is dead I fear--well, I do not knowwhat she may do. If you will urge her, she is her father's daughter, andwill, I believe, go through with it. But much will depend upon you."
"And if she does not go on with it--what then?"
"We are all pledged too deeply to draw back now, your Highness," heanswered, very earnestly. "We must either succeed or fail--there is nomiddle course; and failure means a prison or a convent for the Prince'sdaughter, and worse than ruin for the rest of us. As for yourself, you,I warn you, will be the certain object of attack, for there is no safeobscurity here. The enemies of your Highness's house will never restsatisfied while a possible heiress to the throne remains at large, orwhile those who have helped to put her there are alive and at liberty.As I told you at Hamnel, we are playing for desperate stakes, and mustplay boldly and like men."
Before I had time to reply we heard Steinitz in conversation with someone outside the door, and a moment later he opened it, and said that theCountess Minna was anxious to see me, and was coming to the library forthat purpose.