Frederick the Great and His Family Part 7

"It has been spoken of."

"Well, Trenck now proposes to go to Dantzic, and he has boasted that he will enter Konigsberg at the same time with the King of Prussia, who will not dare to arrest him."

"We have made a bet with him of a hundred louis d'or on this boast,"

said Baron Waltz, "and for greater security we have put it in writing."

"Have you it with you?"

"Here it is."

The baron handed Weingarten a paper, which he seized hastily, unfolded, and read several times.

"This is indeed written in very ambiguous language, and calculated to ruin Trenck should it reach the hands of the king," said Baron Weingarten with a cruel smile.

Zetto returned this smile. "I wrote the doc.u.ment, and you will naturally understand that I measured the words very closely."

"Who copied the letter?" asked Weingarten. "Doubtlessly Baron Trenck was not magnanimous enough to do that."

"Baron Waltz is a great adept in imitating handwriting, and he happily possessed original letters of Trenck's," said Zetto, smilingly.

"You will find it most natural that I should try to win my bet," said Baron Waltz. "If Trenck is arrested before he goes to Konigsberg, I have won my bet, and will receive the hundred louis d'ors from the commissioners."

All three laughed.

"These commissioners will soon have to pay you ten thousand guilders,"

whispered Zetto. "Here is a bond. On the day that Trenck is a prisoner of the king of Prussia, this bond is due, and you will then find that the commissioners are not backward in paying." Zetto laid the doc.u.ment upon the table. "You will now have the kindness to receive our testimony, and, if you desire it, we will add our accusations, or you can mention that this can be done."

Weingarten did not answer; a repentant fear tormented his heart, and for a moment it appeared as if his good and evil genius were struggling for his soul.

"This involves probably the life of a man," he said, softly; "it is a terrible accusation that I must p.r.o.nounce: if not condemned to death, the king will imprison him for many long years, and I shall be responsible for this injustice."

Councillor Zetto's attentive ear heard every word; he stood near him like the evil one, and his piercing eyes rested upon the agitated countenance of Weingarten and read his thoughts.

"Have you not lived the life of a prisoner for many years?" asked Zetto, in a low, unnatural voice; "have you not always been a slave of poverty?

Will you now, from weak pity, lose the opportunity of freeing yourself from this bondage? Ten thousand guilders is no fortune, but it may be the beginning of one--it may be the thread of Ariadne to lead you from the labyrinth of poverty to freedom and light; and who will thank you if you do not seize this thread--who recompense you for your generosity and magnanimity? If you tell it to the wise and cunning, they will laugh at you, and if the foolish hear it, they will not understand you. Every one is the moulder of his own happiness, and woe unto him who neglects to forge the iron while it is hot!"

Baron Weingarten felt each of these words. He did not know if they were uttered by human lips, or if they came from the depths of his own base soul.

"It is true, it is true!" he cried, in a frightened voice, "He is a fool who does not seize the hand of Fortune when tendered by the laughing G.o.ddess--a fool who does not break his fetters when he has the power to rend them. Come, gentlemen! We take the testimony, and when that is done, I will conduct you to our amba.s.sador, Baron Puebla."

"Not so--when that is done, we shall depart with post-haste; you alone shall receive thanks and recompense. Now to work!"

CHAPTER VII. THE KING AND WEINGARTEN.

The king paced his room hastily; he was very pale, his lip trembled, and his eyes sparkled angrily.

He suddenly remained standing before the Austrian secretary of legation, and gazed long and earnestly into his face, but his glance, before which so many had trembled, was sustained by the secretary with so quiet and innocent a countenance that it deceived even the king.

"I see that you are convinced of the truth of what you tell me."

the king said at last. "You really believe that this madman has the intention of murdering me?"

"I am convinced of it, sire," replied Weingarten, humbly, "for I have the proof of his intention in my hand."

"The proof--what proof?"

"This paper which I allowed myself to hand to your majesty, and which you laid upon the table without reading."

"Ah, it is true! I forgot that in my excitement," said the king, mildly.

"I beg you to read me the contents of this paper."

Baron Weingarten received the paper from the king with a respectful bow; his voice did not tremble in the least as he read the important words which refined malice and cruel avarice had written there--words which, if literally interpreted, would fully condemn Trenck.

The words were:

"'In consequence of a bet, I pledge myself to be in Konigsberg the same day in which the King Frederick of Prussia, my cruel enemy and persecutor, shall arrive there. I shall go there to do, in the king's presence, that which no one has done before me, and which no one will do after me. If I do not succeed in accomplis.h.i.+ng my purpose, or if I should be arrested, I have lost my bet, and shall owe Baron Waltz one hundred louis d'or, which must be paid him by the commissioners of the Trenck estate.'"

"'BARON FREDERICK VON TRENCK.'"

"And Trenck wrote this note himself?" said the king.

"If your majesty is acquainted with Trenck's handwriting, you will perhaps have the goodness to examine it yourself."

"I know his handwriting; give me the paper."

He took the paper and glanced over it searchingly. "It is his handwriting," he murmured; "but I will examine it again."

Speaking thus, he stepped hastily to his escritoire, and took from a small box several closely written yellow papers, and compared them with the doc.u.ment which Weingarten had given him.

Ah, how little did Trenck dream, as he wrote those letters, that they would witness against him, and stamp him as a criminal! They were already a crime in the king's eyes, for they were tender letters that Trenck had dared to write from Vienna to the Princess Amelia. They had never reached her!

And not those tender epistles of a tearful and unhappy love must bear witness against the writer, and condemn him for the second time!

"It is his handwriting," said the king, as he laid the letters again in the box. "I thank you, Baron Weingarten, you have saved me from a disagreeable occurrence, for, if I will not even believe that Trenck intended murder, he was at all events willing to create a scene, if only to gratify his vanity. It appears that he has now played out his role at Vienna, as well as in St. Petersburg and Berlin, and the world would forget him if he did not attract its attention by some mad piece of folly. How he intended to accomplish this I do not know, but certainly not by a murder--no, I cannot believe that!"

"Your majesty is always n.o.ble and magnanimous, but it appears to me that these words can have but one meaning. 'I shall go to Konigsberg,' writes Baron Trenck, 'and there do in the presence of the king what no one has done before me, and what no one will do after me.' Does not this make his intention pretty clear?"

"Only for those who know his intentions or suspect them, for others they could have any other signification, some romantic threat, nothing more.

Baron Trenck is a known adventurer, a species of Don Quixote, always fighting against windmills, and believing that warriors and kings honor him so far as to be his enemies. I punished Trenck when he was in my service, for insubordination; now he is no longer in my service, and I have forgotten him, but woe be unto him if he forces me to remember him!"

"Your majesty will soon see if he is falsely accused. These reliable and irreproachable men came especially to warn your majesty, through me. You will discover if they have calumniated Trenck, by giving this testimony.

If he does not go to Dantzic, does not enter Prussia, they have sworn falsely, and Trenck is innocent."

"He will not dare to cross the borders of my state, for he knows he will be court-martialled as a deserter. But I am convinced that he is a bold adventurer, he has boasted that he will defy me, that is certainly what no one has done before him, and what no one will do after him, but it will rest there, you may believe me."