CHAPTER VI. THE CHANCELLOR PAYS A VISIT
The Archduchess was having tea. Her boudoir was a crowded little room.Nikky had once observed confidentially to Miss Braithwaite that itwas exactly like her, all hung and furnished with things that were notneeded. The Archduchess liked it because it was warm. The palace roomswere mostly large and chilly. She lad a fire there on the warmest daysin spring, and liked to put the coals on, herself. She wrapped them inpieces of paper so she would not soil her hands.
This afternoon she was not alone. Lounging at a window was the ladywho was in waiting at the time, the Countess Loschek. Just now she wasgetting rather a wigging, but she was remarkably calm.
"The last three times," the Archduchess said, stirring her tea, "youhave had a sore throat."
"It is such a dull book," explained the Countess.
"Not at all. It is an improving book. If you would put your mind onit when you are reading, Olga, you would enjoy it. And you would learnsomething, besides. In my opinion," went on the Archduchess, tasting hertea, "you smoke too many cigarettes."
The Countess yawned, but silently, at her window.
Then she consulted a thermometer. "Eighty!" she said briefly, and,coming over, sat down by the tea-table.
The Countess Loschek was thirty, and very handsome, in an insolent way.She was supposed to be the best-dressed woman at the Court, and to ruleAnnunciata with an iron hand, although it was known that they quarreleda great deal over small things, especially over the coal fire.
Some said that the real thing that held them together was resentmentthat the little Crown Prince stood between the Princess Hedwig and thethrone. Annunciata was not young, but she was younger than her deadbrother, Hubert. And others said it was because the Countess gatheredup and brought in the news of the Court--the small intrigues and thescandals that constitute life in the restricted walls of a palace.There is a great deal of gossip in a palace where the king is old andeverything rather stupid and dull.
The Countess yawned again.
"Where is Hedwig?" demanded the Archduchess.
"Her Royal Highness is in the nursery, probably."
"Why probably?"
"She goes there a great deal."
The Archduchess eyed her. "Well, out with it," she said. "There issomething seething in that wicked brain of yours."
The Countess shrugged her shoulders. Not that she resented having awicked brain. She rather fancied the idea. "She and young LieutenantLarisch have tea quite frequently with His Royal Highness."
"How frequently?"
"Three times this last week, madame."
"Little fool!" said Annunciata. But she frowned, and sat tapping herteacup with her spoon. She was just a trifle afraid of Hedwig, and shewas more anxious than she would have cared to acknowledge. "It is beingtalked about, of course?"
The Countess shrugged her shoulders.
"Don't do that!" commanded the Archduchess sharply. "How far do youthink the thing has gone?"
"He is quite mad about her."
"And Hedwig--but she is silly enough for anything. Do they meet anywhereelse?"
"At the riding-school, I believe. At least, I--"
Here a maid entered and stood waiting at the end of the screen. TheArchduchess Annunciata would have none of the palace flunkies about herwhen she could help it. She had had enough of men, she maintained, inthe person of her late husband, whom she had detested. So except atdinner she was attended by tidy little maids, in gray Quaker costumes,who could carry tea-trays into her crowded boudoir without breakingthings.
"His Excellency, General Mettlich," said the maid.
The Archduchess nodded her august head, and the maid retired. "Go away,Olga," said the Archduchess. "And you might," she suggested grimly,"gargle your throat."
The Chancellor had passed a troubled night. Being old, like the King, herequired little sleep. And for most of the time between one o'clock andhis rising hour of five he had lain in his narrow camp-bed and thought.He had not confided all his worries to the King.
Evidences of renewed activity on the part of the Terrorists were many.In the past month two of his best secret agents had disappeared. One hadbeen found the day before, stabbed in the back. The Chancellor hadseen the body--an unpleasant sight. But it was not of the dead man thatGeneral Mettlich thought. It was of the other. The dead tell nothing.But the living, under torture, tell many things. And this man Haeckel,young as he was, knew much that was vital. Knew the working of theSecret Service, the names of the outer circle of twelve, knew the codesand passwords, knew, too the ways of the palace, the hidden roomalways ready for emergency, even the passage that led by devious ways,underground, to a distant part of the great park.
At five General Mettlich had risen, exercised before an open window withan old pair of iron dumbbells, had followed this with a cold bath andhot coffee, and had gone to early Mass at the Cathedral.
And there, on his knees, he had prayed for a little help. He was, hesaid, getting old and infirm, and he had been too apt all his life torely on his own right arm. But things were getting rather difficult. Heprayed to Our Lady for intercession for the little Prince. He felt, inhis old heart, that the Mother would understand the situation, andhow he felt about it. And he asked in a general supplication, and veryhumbly, for a few years more of life. Not that life meant anything tohim personally. He had outlived most of those he loved. But that hemight serve the King, and after him the boy who would be Otto IX. Headded, for fear they might not understand, having a great deal tolook after, that he had earned all this by many years of loyalty, andbesides, that he knew the situation better than any one else.
He felt much better after that. Especially as, at the moment he rosefrom his knees, the cathedral clock had chimed and then struck seven.He had found seven a very lucky number, So now he entered the boudoir ofthe Archduchess Annunciata, and the Countess went out another door, andclosed it behind her, immediately opening it about an inch.
The Chancellor strode around the screen, scratching two tables with hissword as he advanced, and kissed the hand of the Princess Annunciata.They were old enemies and therefore always very polite to each other.The Archduchess offered him a cup of tea, which he took, although shealways made very bad tea. And for a few moments they discussed things.Thus: the King's condition; the replanting of the Place with trees;and the date of bringing out the Princess Hilda, who was still in theschoolroom.
But the Archduchess suddenly came to business. She was an abrupt person."And now, General," she said, "what is it?"
"I am in trouble, Highness," replied the Chancellor simply.
"We are most of us in that condition at all times. I suppose you meanthis absurd affair of yesterday. Why such a turmoil about it? The boyran away. When he was ready he returned. It was absurd, and I dare sayyou and I both are being held for our sins. But he is here now, andsafe."
"I am afraid he is not as safe as you think, madame."
"Why?"
He sat forward on the edge of his chair, and told her of the studentsat the University, who were being fired by some powerful voice; of thedisappearance of the two spies; of the evidence that the Committee ofTen was meeting again, and the failure to discover their meeting-place;of disaffection among the people, according to the reports of hisagents. And then to the real purpose of his visit. Karl of Karnia had,unofficially, proposed for the Princess Hedwig. He had himself broachedthe matter to the King, who had at least taken it under advisement. TheArchduchess listened, rather pale. There was no mistaking the urgency inthe Chancellor's voice.
"Madame after centuries of independence we now face a crisis which wecannot meet alone. Believe me, I know of what I speak. United, wecould stand against the world. But a divided kingdom, a disloyal anddiscontented people, spells the end."
And at last he convinced her. But, because she was built of a contrarymould, she voiced an objection, not to the scheme, but to Karl himself."I dislike him. He is arrogant and stupid."
"But powerful,
madame. And--what else is there to do?"
There was nothing else, and she knew it. But she refused to broach thematter to Hedwig.
She stated, and perhaps not without reason, that such a move was to damnthe whole thing at once. She did not use exactly these words, buttheir royal equivalent. And it ended with the Chancellor, looking mostferocious but inwardly uneasy, undertaking to put, as one may say, aflea into the Princess Hedwig's small ear.
As he strode out, the door into the next room closed quietly.