The Lost Manuscript Part 70

"I have penetrated the mysteries of three Courts," replied Victor.

"First, at my cousin's, the innocent shepherd's Court,--a charming rural life! The Grand Marshal carries embroidery in his pocket, at which he works among the ladies. The lady-in-waiting comes with her spaniel to dinner, and has him fed in the kitchen. Twice every week people are invited from the city to tea and pastry. When the family are alone at their tea they play for hazel-nuts. I believe that they are gathered in the autumn by the whole Court. Then I went to the Court of my great-uncle, with the six-foot grenadiers. I was the smallest of the society. One day all were in the costume of generals, the day after all were Nimrods, in hunting-coats and gaiters. One day it was drilling, and the next hunting. Powder is the greatest article of consumption at Court there. Even the ballet-dancers, they say, wear uniforms under their gauze. Lastly, there was the great Court of Aunt Louisa. All with white heads and powder. Any one with the hair of youth endeavoured to rid of it as quickly as possible. In the evening virtuous family conversation, and if any talked scandal, they would on the following morning receive an order from the Princess to contribute to some benevolent inst.i.tution. The Princess Minna asked me whether I attended church regularly, and when I told her that at all events I played regularly at whist with our chaplain, I was held in great contempt. She danced the first country dance with her brother and only the second with me. The evening society was accurately arranged according to the respective dignities of the guests. There was the hall of the Privy Councillors, of the Chamberlains, and of the small folk of the Court; and, besides that, a lower place for an unavoidable cla.s.s of citizens, in which bankers and artists wait to be noticed by their Highnesses."

"These formalities make us ridiculous to the whole world," exclaimed the Hereditary Prince.

The Princess and Victor laughed at this sudden ebullition.

"Since when has Benno become a Red?" asked Victor.

"It is the first time I have heard him speak in this way," said the Princess.

"A prince should only invite gentlemen into his society; but whoever is there should be considered as the equal of the rest," continued the Hereditary Prince.

Again the others laughed.

"We thank you for the wise remark, Professor Bonbon," cried Siddy.

"It was in this room that we dressed you up as an owl, Bonbon; and you sat here groaning under Siddy's mantle when the Sovereign surprised us."

"And where you received punishment," replied Benno, "because you had so disfigured a poor fellow like me."

"Fix him up again!" cried Siddy.

"Victor took a colored silk handkerchief, formed two points by knots for ear-tufts, and covered the head of the Hereditary Prince, who quietly submitted. His serious face, with his dark eyebrows, looked strangely from under the covering.

"The feather-coat is wanting," exclaimed Siddy; "we must imagine it. I am the quail, and Victor the c.o.c.k. I know the melody that we used to improvise as children."

She flew to the pianoforte and ran over the notes. The Hereditary Prince twisted the theatre-bill, which he pulled out of his pocket, into a cornet, and cried into it, "Tu-whit, tu-whoo, Mrs. Quail, I eat you."

The quail sang: "Pik werwit old tu-wooh, that you will not do." And the c.o.c.k crows, "c.o.c.k-a-doodle-doo, dearest quail, I love you."

"That has never been true, Victor," said the Princess, in the midst of the game.

"Who knows?" rejoined he; "c.o.c.k-a-doodle-doo."

The concert was in full flow. Victor sprang about, clapped his hands and crowed; the Hereditary Prince on his chair screeched unweariedly like an owl; Siddy moved her head in time, sang her pik-wer-wit, calling out occasionally, "You are very funny little boys." A slight knocking was heard; they quickly left off their play; the sabre was restored to its belt; and the quail became in a moment the distinguished lady.

"His Grace your father begs to inform your Highness that he will wait upon you," announced the page.

"I knew that he would disturb us," cried Victor, in a rage.

"Away with you, children," cried Princess Sidonie. "I must repeat once more, cousin, that I rejoice to have you with us again. We three will hold together. Benno is brave, and my only comfort. Avoid conversing with me whenever the Sovereign is present. I will not take it amiss if you do not notice me at all. The spy who is placed about me is now my maid of honor, Lossau. Every word that you speak in her presence is reported; you know the gentlemen, they have not become more pleasant."

"There is Benno's Chamberlain," asked Victor; "the Sovereign was talking to him a long time to-day."

"He is good-humored, but weak," remarked the Hereditary Prince; "and devoted to his place. There is no dependence on him."

"Try to behave well, Victor," continued the Princess; "be a good Chinese, and wear your pigtail according to rule, and deport yourself exactly according to the privileges of the tuft that you wear on your cap. Now, away with you down the private staircase."

Princess Sidonie hastened to the door of the reception-room to meet the Sovereign. The Sovereign pa.s.sed through the rooms to her study. He cast a glance at the open book:

"Who has made these marks?"

"Mr. Werner noted the most important pa.s.sages for me," replied the Princess.

"I am glad that you make use of this opportunity to obtain instruction from so distinguished a man. Apart from the pedantic manner which attaches to his profession, he is a remarkable man. I wish, on account of his disinterested activity, to make his position as agreeable as possible, and I beg that you will do your best towards accomplis.h.i.+ng it."

The Princess bowed silently, closing her hand convulsively.

"As it is impossible to bring him and his wife into closer relations with the Court, I wish you would invite them to one of your little tea-parties."

"You must pardon me, my most worthy father, if I do not see how this can be. My evening parties have hitherto consisted only of my ladies and the princ.i.p.al members of the Court."

"Then you must alter that," said the Sovereign, coldly; "you are not prevented from introducing into it one or other of our officials, with their wives."

"Pardon me, my father; as this has never yet happened, every one would remark that the change has only been occasioned through the strangers.

It would occasion much ill-natured remark if an accidental visit were to upset what has been the acknowledged rule up to the present day."

"The consideration of foolish gossip shall not prevent you," replied the Sovereign, angrily.

"My gracious father must take a favorable view of the considerations which hinder my doing anything of the kind. It would not become me, a woman, to dispense with the habits and customs which my lord and father has considered binding upon himself. You have deigned to permit the attendance of Mr. Werner at your small dinners, and I could, without giving any uncommon offence, receive him at my tea-table. His wife, on the other hand, has never been brought into relations with the Court through your own sanction. It would ill become the daughter to venture what the father himself has not done."

"This reason is a poor disguise for ill-nature," replied the Sovereign.

"Nothing hinders you from leaving out the whole Court."

"I can have no evening society, however small, without inviting the ladies of the Court," replied the Princess, pertinaciously; "and I cannot ask them to take part in a mixed society."

"I will take care that Miss von Lossau shall appear," replied the Sovereign, in a bitter tone. "I insist upon your conforming to my wishes."

"Forgive me, gracious father," replied the Princess, in great excitement, "if I do not obey you in this case."

"Do you dare to defy me?" cried the Sovereign, with a sudden outbreak of anger, approaching the Princess.

The Princess turned pale, and stepped behind a chair as if for protection.

"I am the only lady of our house," she exclaimed; "and I have in this high position to pay regard to considerations from which, neither as the lord of this Court, nor as my own father, you can release me. If your Highness chooses to make new Court regulations, I will willingly conform to them; but what your Highness requires of me now is not a new regulation, but an irregularity which is humiliating for me and for us all."

"Impertinent, insolent fool!" cried the Sovereign, no longer master of himself. "Do you think you have outgrown my control because I once let you out of my hands? I have brought you here in order to hold you fast.

You are in my power; no slave is more so. Within these walls no power prevails but mine, and if you do not bend to it, I will break your stubborn spirit."

He approached her threateningly. The Princess drew back to the wall of her room.

"I know I am your prisoner," she cried out, with flas.h.i.+ng eyes. "I knew when I returned here that I was entering my prison. I knew that no cry of anguish could penetrate these walls, and that a slave would find more protection among men than the child of a prince from her father.

But in this room I have a supporter, to whom I often look imploringly; and if your Highness deprives me of the help of all the living, I call upon the dead for protection against you."

She pulled the cord of a curtain, and the life-sized picture of a lady became visible, in whose soft countenance there was a touching expression of sorrow. The Princess pointed to the picture and looked fixedly at the Sovereign.

"Will your Highness venture to insult your daughter before the eyes of her mother?"