CHAPTER XXVII. THE LITTLE DOOR
Hedwig had given up. She went through her days with a set face, whiteand drawn, but she knew now that the thing she was to do must be done.The King, in that stormy scene when the Sister prayed in the next room,had been sufficiently explicit. They had come on bad times, and could nolonger trust to their own strength. Proud Livonia must ask for help, andthat from beyond her border.
"We are rotten at the core," he said bitterly. "An old rot that haseaten deep. God knows, we have tried to cut it away, but it has gone toofar. Times are, indeed, changed when we must ask a woman to save us!"
She had thrown her arms over the bed and buried her face in them. "And Iam to be sacrificed," she had said, in a flat voice. "I am to go throughmy life like mother, soured and unhappy. Without any love at all."
The King was stirred. His thin, old body had sunk in the bed until itseemed no body at all. "Why without love?" he asked, almost gently."Karl knows our condition--not all of it, but he is well aware thatthings are unstable here. Yet he is eager for the marriage. I aminclined to believe that he follows his inclinations, rather than apolitical policy."
The thought that Karl might love her had not entered her mind. That madethings worse, if anything--a situation unfair to him and horrible toherself. In the silence of her own room, afterward, she ponderedover that. If it were true, then a certain hope she had must berelinquished--none other than to throw herself on his mercy, and beg fora nominal marriage, one that would satisfy the political alliance, butleave both of them free. Horror filled her. She sat for long periods,dry-eyed and rigid.
The bronze statue of the late Queen, in the Place, fascinated her inthose days. She, too, had been only a pawn in the game of empires; buther face, as Hedwig remembered it, had been calm and without bitterness.The King had mourned her sincerely. What lay behind that placid, ratheraustere old face? Dead dreams? Or were the others right, that after atime it made no difference, that one marriage was the same as another?
She had not seen Nikky save once or twice, and that in the presence ofothers. On these occasions he had bowed low, and passed on. But once shehad caught his eyes on her, and had glowed for hours at what she saw inthem. It braced her somewhat for the impending ordeal of a visit fromKarl.
The days went on. Dressmakers came and went. In the mountainslace-makers were already working on the veil, and the brocade of whiteand gold for her wedding-gown was on the loom. She was the pale centerof a riot of finery. Dressmakers stood back and raised delighted handsas, one by one; their models were adjusted to her listless figure.
In the general excitement the Crown Prince was almost forgotten. OnlyNikky remained faithful; but his playing those days was mechanical,and one day he was even severe. This was when he found Prince FerdinandWilliam Otto hanging a cigarette out of a window overlooking thecourtyard, and the line of soldiers underneath in most surprisingconfusion. The officer of the day was not in sight.
Nikky, entering the stone-paved court, and feeling extremely glum, hadbeen amazed to see the line of guards, who usually sat on a bench, witha sentry or picket, or whatever they called him, parading up and downbefore them--Nikky was amazed to see them one by one leaping into theair, in the most undignified manner. Nikky watched the performance. Thenhe stalked over. They subsided sheepishly. In the air was the cause ofthe excitement, a cigarette dangling at the end of a silk thread, andbobbing up and down. No one was to be seen at the window above.
Nikky was very tall. He caught the offending atom on its next leap, andjerked it off. As he had suspected, it was one of his own, bearing an"N" and his coat of arms.
The Crown Prince received that day, with the cigarette as an excuse,a considerable amount of Nikky's general unhappiness and rage at theworld.
"Well," said Prince Ferdinand William Otto, when it was over, "I have todo something, don't I?"
It was Miss Braithwaite's conviction that this prank, and several otherthings, such as sauntering about with his hands in his pockets, andreferring to his hat as a "lid," were all the result of his meeting thatAmerican boy.
"He is really not the same child," she finished. "Oskar found him theother day with a rolled-up piece of paper lighted at the end, pretendinghe was smoking."
The Chancellor came now and then, but not often. And his visits were notcheering. The Niburg affair had left its mark on him. The incident ofthe beggar on the quay was another scar. The most extreme precautionswere being taken, but a bad time was coming, and must be got oversomehow.
That bad time was Karl's visit.
No public announcement of the marriage had yet been made. It was boundto be unpopular. Certainly the revolutionary party would make capital ofit. To put it through by force, if necessary, and, that accomplished,to hold the scourge of Karnia's anger over a refractory people, was hisplan. To soothe them with the news of the cession of the seaport stripwas his hope.
Sometimes, in the early morning, when the King lay awake, and wasclearer mentally than later in the day, he wondered. He would not liveto see the result of all this planning. But one contingency presenteditself constantly. Suppose the Crown Prince did not live? He was sturdyenough, but it was possible. Then Hedwig, Queen of Karnia, would beQueen of Livonia. A dual kingdom then, with Karl as Hedwig's consort, incontrol, undoubtedly. It would be the end of many dreams.
It seemed to him in those early hours, that they were, indeed, paying aprice. Preparations were making for Karl's visit. Prince Hubert's roomswere opened at last, and redecorated as well as possible in the shorttime at command, under the supervision of the Archduchess. The resultwas a crowding that was neither dignified nor cheerful. Much as shetrimmed her own lean body, she decorated. But she was busy, at least,and she let Hedwig alone.
It was not unusual, those days, to find Annunciata, flushed withexertion, in the great suite on an upper floor, in the center of a chaosof furniture, shoving chairs about with her own royal arms, or standing,head on one side, to judge what she termed the composition of a corner.Indignant footmen pushed and carried, and got their wigs crooked andtheir dignified noses dirty, and held rancorous meetings in secludedplaces.
But Annunciata kept on. It gave her something to think of in place ofthe fear, that filled her, made her weary enough to sleep at night.
And there was something else that comforted her.
Beyond the windows of the suite was a flat roof, beneath which was theballroom of the Palace. When the apartment was in use, the roof was madeinto a garden, the ugly old walls hidden with plants in tubs and boxes,the parapet edged with flowers. It was still early, so spring tulipswere planted now on the parapet, early primroses and hyacinths. In thecenter an empty fountain was cleared, its upper basins filled with watervines, its borders a riot of color. When the water was turned on, itwould be quite lovely.
But it was not the garden on the roof which cheered Annunciata. It had,indeed, rather sad memories. Here had Hubert's young wife kept her cagesof birds, fed with her own hands, and here, before Otto was born, shehad taken the air in a long chintz-covered chair.
Annunciata, overseeing the roof as she had overseen the apartment,watched the gardeners bringing in their great loads of plants from thesummer palace, and saw that a small door, in a turret, was kept free ofaccess. To that door, everything else failing, the Archduchess pinnedher faith. She carried everywhere with her a key that would open it.
Long ago had the door been built, long ago, when attacking forces,battering in the doors below, might swarm through the lower floors, heldback on staircases by fighting men who retreated, step by step, until,driven at last to the very top, they were apparently lost. More thanonce; in bygone times the royal family had escaped by that upper door,and the guard after them. It was known to few.
The staircase in the wall had passed into legend, and the undergroundpassage with it. But they still existed, and had recently been put inorder. The Chancellor had given the command; and because there were fewto be trusted, two monks from the monastery attached to the
cathedralhad done the work.
So the gardeners set out their potted evergreens, and covered theprimroses on the balustrade against frost, and went away. And the roofhad become by magic a garden, the walls were miniature forests, but thedoor remained--a door.
On a desperate morning Hedwig threw caution to the winds and went to theriding-school. She wore her old habit, and was in the ring, but ridinglistlessly, when Nikky and Otto appeared.
"And eat." Nikky was saying. "He always eats. And when I take him fora walk in the park, he digs up bones that other dogs have buried, andcarries them home with him. We look very disreputable." The Crown Princelaughed with delight, but just then Nikky saw Hedwig, and his own smiledied.
"There's Hedwig!" said Prince Ferdinand William Otto. "I'm rather gladto see her. Aren't you?"
"Very glad, indeed."
"You don't look glad."
"I'm feeling very glad inside."
They rode together, around and around the long oval, with itswhitewashed railing, its attendant grooms, its watchful eyes overhead.Between Nikky and Hedwig Prince Ferdinand William Otto laughed andchattered, and Hedwig talked a great deal about nothing, with brightspots of red burning in her face.
Nikky was very silent. He rode with his eyes set ahead; and had to bespoken to twice before he heard.
"You are not having a very good time, are you?" Prince Ferdinand WilliamOtto inquired anxiously. To tell the truth, he had been worried aboutNikky for some days. Nikky had been his one gleam of cheerfulness in aPalace where all was bustle and excitement and every one seemed uneasy.But Nikky's cheerfulness had been forced lately. His smile never reachedhis eyes. "I haven't done anything, have I?" he persisted.
"Bless you, no!" said Nikky heartily. "I--well, I didn't sleep well lastnight. That's all."
He met Hedwig's glance squarely over the head of the Crown Prince.
"Nor did I," Hedwig said.
Later, when the boy was jumping, they had a moment together. The CrownPrince was very absorbed. He was just a little nervous about jumping.First he examined his stirrups and thrust his feet well into them. Thenhe jammed his cap down on his head and settled himself, in the saddle,his small knees gripping hard.
"It's higher than usual, isn't it?" he inquired, squinting at thehurdle.
The riding-master examined it. "It is an inch lower than yesterday, YourRoyal Highness."
"Perhaps we'd better have it the same as yesterday," said the boy, whowas terribly afraid of being afraid.
Then, all being adjusted, and his mouth set very tight, indeed,Prince Ferdinand William Otto took the first jump, and sailed over itcomfortably.
"I don't mind at all, after the first," he confided to theriding-master.
"Are you angry that I came?" asked Hedwig.
"Angry? You know better."
"You don't say anything."
"Hedwig," said Nikky desperately, "do you remember what I said to youthe other day? That is in my heart now. I shall never change. That, andmuch more. But I cannot say it to you. I have given my word."
"Of course they would make you promise. They tried with me, but Irefused." She held her chin very high. "Why did you promise? They couldnot have forced you. They can do many things, but they cannot controlwhat you may say."
"There are reasons. Even those I cannot tell you. It would be easier,Hedwig, for me to die than to live on and see what I must see. ButI cannot even die." He smiled faintly. "You see, I am not keeping mypromise."
"I think you will not die," said Hedwig cruelly. "You are too cautious."
"Yes, I am too cautious," he agreed heavily.
"You do not know the meaning of love."
"Then God grant I may never know, if it is worse than this:"
"If I were a man, and loved a woman, I would think less of myself andmore of her. When I saw her unhappy and being forced to a terriblething, I would move heaven and earth to save her."
"How would you do it?" said Nikky in a low tone.
Hedwig shrugged her shoulders. "I would find a way. The world is large.Surely, if one really cared, it could be managed. I should consider myfirst duty to her."
"I am a soldier, Highness. My first duty is to my country."
"You?" said Hedwig, now very white. "I was not speaking of you. I wasspeaking of a man who truly loved a woman."
She rode away, and left him there. And because she was hurt andreckless, and not quite sane, she gave him a very bad half-hour.She jumped again, higher each time, silencing the protests of theriding-master with an imperious gesture. Her horse tired. His sidesheaved, his delicate nostrils dilated. She beat him with her crop, andflung him again at the hurdle.
Prince Ferdinand William Otto was delighted, a trifle envious. "Shejumps better than I do," he observed to Nikky, "but she is in a very badhumor."
At last, his patience exhausted and fear in his heart, Nikky went toher. "Hedwig," he said sternly. "I want you to stop this childishness.You will kill yourself."
"I am trying very hard to."
"You will kill your horse. Look at him."
For answer she raised her crop, but Nikky bent forward and caught thereins.
"How dare you!" she said furiously.
For answer Nikky turned and, riding beside her, led her weary horse outof the ring. And long training asserted itself. Hedwig dared not make ascene before the waiting grooms. She rode in speechless rage, as whiteas Nikky, and trembling with fury. She gave him no time to assist her todismount, but slipped off herself and left him, her slim, black-habitedfigure held very straight.
"I'm afraid she's very angry with you," said the Crown Prince, as theywalked back to the Palace. "She looked more furious than she did aboutthe fruitcake."
That afternoon Nikky went for a walk. He took Toto with him, and theymade the circuit of the Park, which formed an irregular circle aboutthe narrow streets of the old citadel where the wall had once stood. Hewalked, as he had done before, because he was in trouble, but withthis difference, that then, he had walked in order to think, and now hewalked to forget.
In that remote part where the Gate of the Moon stood, and where,outside, in mediaeval times had been the jousting-ground, the Parkwidened. Here was now the city playground, the lake where in winter thepeople held ice carnivals, and where, now that spring was on the way,they rode in the little cars of the Scenic Railway.
An old soldier with a wooden leg, and a child, were walking togetherby the lake, and conversing seriously. A dog was burying a bone undera near-by tree. Toto, true to his instincts, waited until the bone wascovered, and then, with calm proprietorship, dug it up and carriedit off. Having learned that Nikky now and then carried bones in hispockets, he sat up and presented it to him. Nikky paying no attention atfirst, Toto flung it up in the air, caught it on his nose, balanced it asecond, and dropped it. Then followed a sudden explosion of dog-rage anda mix-up of two dogs, an old soldier, a young one, a boy, and a woodenleg. In the end the wooden leg emerged triumphant, Toto clinging to itunder the impression that he had something quite different. The bone wasflung into the lake, and a snarling truce established.
But there had been a casualty. Bobby had suffered a severe nip on theforearm, and was surveying it with rather dazed eyes.
"Gee, it's bleeding!" he said.
Nikky looked worried, but old Adelbert, who had seen many wounds,recommended tying it up with garlic, and then forgetting it. "It is thefirst quarter of the moon," he said. "No dog's bite is injurious at thattime."
Nikky, who had had a sniff of the bone of contention, was not so easy inhis mind. First quarter of the moon it might be, but the bone was not inits first quarter. "I could walk home with the boy," he suggested, "andget something at a chemist's on the way."
"Will it hurt?" demanded Bobby.
"We will ask for something that will not hurt."
So it happened that Bobby and Tucker, the two pirates, returned that dayto their home under the escort of a tall young man who carried a bottlewrapped in pink paper in his
hand, and looked serious. Old Pepy wasat home. She ran about getting basins, and because Nikky had had hisfirst-aid training, in a very short time everything was shipshape, andno one the worse.
"Do you suppose it will leave a scar?" Bobby demanded.
"Well, a little one, probably."
"I've got two pretty good ones already," Bobby boasted, "not counting myvaccination. Gee! I bet mother'll be surprised."
"The Americans," said Pepy, with admiring eyes fixed on their visitor,"are very peculiar about injuries. They speak always of small animalsthat crawl about in wounds and bring poison."
"Germs!" Bobby explained. "But they know about germs here, too. I,played with a boy one, afternoon at the Scenic Railway--my father is themanager, you know. If you like, I can give you some tickets. And the boysaid a fig lady he had was covered with germs. We ate it anyhow."
Nikky looked down smilingly. So this was the American lad! Of course. Hecould understand Otto's warm feeling now. They were not unlike, the twochildren. This boy was more sturdy, not so fine, perhaps, but eminentlylikable. He was courageous, too. The iodine had not been pleasant, buthe had only whistled.
"And nothing happened to the other boy, because of the germs?"
"I don't know. He never came back. He was a funny boy. He had a hat likefather's. Gee!"
Nikky took his departure, followed by Pepy's eyes. As long as he was insight she watched him from the window. "He is some great person," shesaid to Bobby. "Of the aristocracy. I know the manner."
"A prince, maybe?"
"Perhaps. You in America, you have no such men, I think, such finesoldiers, aristocrats, and yet gentle. The uniform is considered thehandsomest in Europe."
"Humph!" said Bobby aggressively. "You ought to see my uncle dressed fora Knight Templar parade. You'd see something."
Nikky went down the stairs, with Toto at his heels, a valiant andtriumphant Toto, as becomes a dog who has recently vanquished a woodenleg.
At the foot of the staircase a man was working replacing a loosened tilein the passage; a huge man, clad in a smock and with a bushy black beardtucked in his neck out of the way. Nikky nodded to him, and went out.Like a cat Black Humbert was on his feet, and peering after him from thestreet door. It was he, then, the blond devil who, had fallen on themthat night, and had fought as one who fights for the love of it! Theconcierge went back to the door of his room.
Herman Spier sat inside. He had fortified his position by that trip tothe mountains, and now spent his days in Black Humbert's dirty kitchen,or in errand-running. He was broiling a sausage on the end of a fork.
"Quick!" cried Black Humbert. "Along the street, with a black dog at hisheels, goes one you will recognize. Follow him, and find out what youcan."
Herman Spier put the sausage in his pocket--he had paid for it himself,and meant to have it--and started out. It was late when he returned.
He gave Nikky's name and position, where his lodgings were, or hadbeen until now. He was about to remove to the Palace, having been madeaide-de-camp to the Crown Prince.
"So!" said Black Humbert.
"It is also," observed Herman Spier, eating his sausage, "this same onewho led the police to Niburg's room. I have the word of the woman whokeeps the house."
The concierge rose, and struck the table with his fist. "And now hecomes here!" he said. "The boy upstairs was a blind. He has followedus." He struck the sausage furiously out of Herman's hand. "Tonight thepolice will come. And what then?"
"If you had taken my advice," said the clerk, "you would have got rid ofthat fellow upstairs long ago." He picked up the sausage and dusted itwith his hand. "But I do not believe the police will come. The child wasbitten. I saw them enter."
Nevertheless, that night, while Herman Spier kept watch at the streetdoor, the concierge labored in the little yard behind the house. Hemoved a rabbit hutch and, wedging his huge body behind it, loosened aboard or two in the high wooden fence.
More than the Palace prepared for flight.
Still later, old Adelbert roused from sleep. There were footsteps in thepassage outside, the opening of a door. He reflected that the conciergewas an owl and, the sounds persisting, called out an irritable order forquiet.
Then he slept again, and while he slept the sounds recommenced. Had heglanced out into the passage, then, he would have seen two men, halfsupporting a third, who tottered between them. Thus was the studentHaeckel, patriot and Royalist, led forth to die.
And he did not die.