The Lost Manuscript Part 72

"You are mad!" cried the Hereditary Prince, holding him back.

"I was never more in my senses," rejoined Victor.

He hastened up to a tree, the low branches of which nearly reached to the window, and with the agility of a cat he climbed up to the top.

Ilse looked up and perceived the Hereditary Prince, and an officer climbing up a tree. She withdrew from the window. Victor broke off a switch, and touched one of the panes. A bell rang, a window was opened, and Gabriel looked out.

"Always in the air, your Excellence?" he cried out; "what are your Excellence's commands?"

"Tender my respectful compliments to your mistress, and request her to favor me with a moment's interview upon urgent business."

Ilse appeared, with her usual serious countenance, at the window, the servant behind her. The young gentleman held on fast by one hand, and raised the other to his cap.

"I beg your pardon. Madam, for choosing this unnatural way of presenting myself to you, but my cousin down there has sent me up here against my will."

"If you fall, Sir, you may take with you the full conviction that it was unnecessary to climb the tree: the door of the house is always open."

Ilse retreated, and Victor bowed again.

"The lady is quite of my opinion," he cried out, reprovingly, to the Hereditary Prince, "that you have done very wrong in keeping me from the door."

"There is no way of getting out of this sc.r.a.pe but by going in at once, and apologizing," replied the Hereditary Prince.

"That is exactly what I wish," cried Victor. "One must always let people know what they want."

The Princes entered the house together, and Ilse received them with a silent curtsy.

"This is the gentleman," began the Hereditary Prince, "of whom, Mrs.

Werner, I have often spoken to you. As a boy he was always called, by those who knew his character, Master Madcap."

"Your Highness should not have acted so," returned Ilse, sorrowfully; "I am a stranger here, and more exposed to misrepresentation than others." She then turned to the Hereditary Prince. "It is the first time that I have seen your Highness since your recovery."

"I am in danger of being again banished from your presence," replied the Hereditary Prince, "and it has been your wish."

Ilse looked at him surprised.

"You have imparted to my father the purport of a conversation that I once had with you," continued the Hereditary Prince, in a tone of vexation. "You have thus caused my father to determine that I shall be removed from here into the country."

"I would not on any account that your Highness should believe me capable of betraying a confidence. If the harmless words I spoke to your father were contrary to your wishes, I can only say, in excuse, that they proceeded from the warmest interest in your Highness."

The Hereditary Prince bowed silently.

"This terzetto is composed of only dissonances," exclaimed Victor. "We are all three vexed at each other,--I most of all, for my disobliging cousin has exposed me to the danger of entirely losing your favor, without having first had the opportunity of winning it. Yet I beg permission at some future time to introduce myself in a better light than amongst the foliage of the tree."

The Princes took leave. When they were clear of the house, Victor said:

"I would like to get a little straight in this matter of the Professor's wife. I perceive now that it is in no case advisable for me to lay my homage openly at her feet. Do not be angry with me, Benno,--I will spoil no man's game; if you can make use of me, I am at your service."

The Hereditary Prince remained standing, and looked so sorrowfully at his cousin that even he became serious.

"If you would do me a service for which I should thank you as long as I live, help me to procure the departure of those that dwell in that house, from this country as quickly as possible. It will bring them no good fortune to remain near us."

"Say it right out: they will believe you sooner than me."

"What reason shall I give?" asked the Hereditary Prince. "There is only one, and I am the last who should venture to express it."

"The lady looks as if she could take care of herself," said Victor, consolingly. "I am more anxious about you. I see you are in danger of being for once of the same mind as your father. Will you not at least venture to raise objections to his sending you away?"

"By what right?" asked the Hereditary Prince; "he is my father, Victor, and my sovereign. I am the first of his subjects, and it becomes me to be the most obedient. So long as he does not command me to do anything which is against my conscience, I am in duty bound to obey him at once.

That is the rule of conduct that I have laid down for myself from my own convictions."

"But let us suppose," rejoined Victor, "that a father wishes to remove his son in order to devise mischief against another, in whom his son takes an interest?"

"I still think that the son must go," replied the Hereditary Prince, "however hard it may be for him; for it does not become him to foster suspicions of his father in his soul."

"More son than Prince!" cried Victor; "and there is an end of it, virtuous Benno. Ah, Bergau, where are you going?"

The Marshall, whom he accosted, replied, hastily, "To the Pavilion, my Prince."

"Have you heard any details," asked Victor, mysteriously, "concerning the scare they have had at the castle of my great-uncle? It was about a woman, or rather an apparition, which, in reality, was a spirit that entered as a spectre, with a great row; it began as a thundering noise and ended like a funeral march; it made the doors shake, and the chandeliers jingle like a peal of bells. Have you heard nothing of it?"

"Nothing. What apparition? When--and how?"

"I do not quite know," replied Victor; "but if you hear anything of it, I beg you to let me know."

This the Marshal promised to do, and hastened away.

The Marshal was blameless in his service; he inspected all the accounts conscientiously, took care to have good wine in the cellar, and discharged the ceremonial details of his office well. Besides this, he was a worthy n.o.bleman, but without any great abilities. He was, therefore, a valuable champion of Court; for he contended, with all the energy of a fanatic, for the venerated customs of his household against the irregular pretensions of foreign guests, and was sometimes made use of by the Sovereign as a battering-ram to a.s.sault a wall which another would have gone cautiously round. He now came to Ilse, ill-pleased at heart with the commission which he had been commanded to carry out dexterously. He found the Professor's wife in an unfavorable mood. The boldness of Victor, and the secret reproach conveyed in the words of the Hereditary Prince, had made her discontented with herself, and suspicious of the uncertain position in which she was placed. The Marshal long stirred the bowl from which he had to pour; he turned the conversation to Ilse's home and her father, whom he had once met at a cattle-show.

"It is a fine estate, I hear, and has a very high reputation."

Ilse, taking pleasure in this praise of what was dear to her, entered unsuspiciously into the conversation, and told him of the neighboring farms and their owners.

At last the Marshal began:

"Your father is worthy of every distinction; pardon me, therefore, if I put one question: Has your father ever had the wish to be enn.o.bled?"

"No," replied Ilse, staring at the Marshal with astonishment; "why should he have such a wish?"

"I refrain from all observations upon the favorable effect which such an elevation would have upon the career of your brothers and sisters; that is obvious. One can easily conceive that modesty and pride may hinder a man from seeking these advantages. But I am convinced that his Highness the Sovereign, even for his own interest, would be glad to confer such a favor; for the position of your father, with respect to my gracious master, would thereby become much more satisfactory."

"It is very satisfactory as it is," said Ilse.

"Considering the personal relations into which you have entered with our Court, I may venture to speak openly to you," continued the Marshal, with more confidence. "It would be very desirable for his princely Highness, and for us all, if, on the occasions of his Highness's accidental presence in your country, he could find a house in which he might receive hospitality."

Ilse interrupted him in great astonishment. "I beg of you, Mr. Von Bergau, to explain yourself more clearly, for I do not understand this matter at all. The Sovereign has already honored our house several times with his presence."

The Marshal shrugged his shoulders. "In cases of necessity, the friendly offer of your father has been accepted, but it has always been for a short time, and that incidentally; for even if your father, in his official position, was not at all unfitted for this honor, yet there was no lady who could do the honors of the house."