The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries - LightNovelsOnl.com
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PRINCE.
Surely this castle is haunted!
[_He slips into the door at the right_.]
KING (_knocking again, still outside_).
Eversmann! Doesn't the fellow hear?
EVERSMANN (_coming in hurriedly_).
The door is open, Your Majesty. [_Goes to centre door, opens it_.]
PRINCE (_looking in at his door_).
Your Majesty? Is that the King?
KING (_in corridor but not yet visible_).
Eversmann, have you forgotten that this is the day for revising the books?
EVERSMANN.
No, indeed, Your Majesty. I was occupied in balancing the books of Her Majesty the Queen.
QUEEN (_comes out from her door, listens timidly_).
Was that the King's voice?
KING (_outside_).
Eversmann, tell the castellan that eleven o'clock is closing hour for my wife's apartment, and that, if I see a light again in her rooms until after midnight, I will come over myself at the stroke of twelve to search into every corner and to discover what political plot is brewing there. You'd better tell my wife yourself, sirrah--so that she may obey orders.
EVERSMANN.
So that she may obey orders.
QUEEN.
Miserable lackey! [_Goes out_.]
PRINCE (_aside_).
Will he go now?
KING (_outside_).
Eversmann!
EVERSMANN.
Your Majesty!
KING.
Now go to my daughter too, the Princess Wilhelmine--
[WILHELMINE _opens her door softly_.]
EVERSMANN.
To Her Royal Highness--
KING.
And tell her to have a care--this Laharpe--is a rascal.
WILHELMINE (_aside_).
Laharpe?
PRINCE (_aside_).
What's that?
KING.
Laharpe is a rascal, I say.
EVERSMANN.
A rascal.
KING.
And tell my daughter that I will teach a lesson to the Crown Prince for sending these French vagabonds here, who pretend to be teachers of the language and are merely ordinary, good-for-nothing wigmakers.
WILHELMINE.
How disgusting!
[_She goes out_.]
PRINCE (_aside_).
Wigmakers?
KING (_still outside_).
