"Sometimes, my friends," said the king, "I can see beyond the human glance.I hear the crumbling of walls.But for that lonely child I could die in peace.The crown I wear is of lead; God hasten the day that lifts it from my brow." When the king spoke again, he said: "And that insolent Von Rumpf is gone at last? Iam easier.He should have been sent about his business ten years ago.What does Madame the duchess say?""So little," answered the chancellor, "that I begin to distrust her silence.But she is a wise woman, though her years are but five and twenty, and she will not make any foolish declaration of war which would only redound to her chagrin.""What is the fascination in these crowns of straw?" said the king to the prelate."Ah, my father, you strive for the crown to come; and yet your earnest but misguided efforts placed this earthly one on my head.You were ambitious for me.""Nay," and the prelate bent his head."It was self that spoke, worldly aggrandizement.I wished --God forgive me!--to administer not to the prince but to the king.I am punished.The crown has broken your life.It was the passing glory of the world; and I fell.""And were not my eyes as dazzled by the crown as yours were by the robes? Why did we leave the green hills of Osia? What destiny writes, fate must unfold.And oh, the dreams I had of being great! I am fifty-eight and you are seventy.And look; Iam a broken twig, and you tower above me like an ancient oak, and as strong." To the chancellor he said: "And what is the budget?""Sire, it is fairly quiet in the lower town.The native troops have been paid, and all signs of discontent abated.The duchess can do nothing but replace von Rumpf.The Marshal is a straw in the wind; von Wallenstein and Mollendorf, I hold a sword above their necks.Nearly half the Diet is with us.There has been some strange meddling in the customs.Englishmen have brought me complaints, through the British legation, regarding such inspections as were never before heard of in a country at peace.
I consulted the chief inspector and he affirmed the matter.He was under orders of the minister of police.It appears to me that a certain Englishman is to be kept out of the country for reasons well known to us.I have suspended police power over the customs.Ah, Sire, if you would but agree with Monseigneur to dismiss the cabinet.""It is too late," said the king.
"There is only one flaw," continued the chancellor."This flaw is Colonel Beauvais, chief in command of the cuirassiers, who in authority stands between the Marshal and General Kronau.I fear him.Why? Instinct.He is too well informed of my projects for one thing; he laughs when I suggest in military affairs.Who is he? A Frenchman, if one may trust to a name; an Austrian, if one may trust from whence he came, recommended by the premier himself.He entered the cuirassiers as a Captain.You yourself, Sire, made him what he is--the real military adviser of the kingdom.But what of his past? No one knows, unless it be von Wallenstein, his intimate.I, for one, while I may be wrong, trust only those whose past I know, and even then only at intervals.""Colonel Beauvais?" murmured the king."I am sure that you are unjustly suspicious.How many times have I leaned on his stout arm! He taught Alexia a thousand tricks of horse, so that to-day she rides as no other woman in the kingdom rides.Would that Istood half so straight and looked at the world half so fearlessly.He is the first soldier in the kingdom.""All men are honest in your Majesty's eyes," said the archbishop.
"All save the man within me," replied the king.
At this juncture the king's old valet came in with the evening meal; and soon after the prelate and the chancellor withdrew from the chamber.
"How long will he live?" asked the latter.
"A year; perhaps only till to-morrow.Ah, had he but listened to me several years ago, all this would not have come to pass.He would see nothing; he persisted in dreams.With the death of Josef he was convinced that his enemies had ceased to be.Had he listened, I should have dismissed the cabinet, and found enough young blood to answer my purposes; I should have surrounded him with a mercenary army two thousand strong; by now he should have stood strongly entrenched.
"They have robbed him, but you and I were permitted to do nothing.Where is the prosperity of which we formerly boasted? I, too, hear crumbling walls.Yet, the son of this Englishman, whose strange freak is still unaccountable, will come at the appointed time; I know the race.He will renew the loan for another ten years.What a fancy! Lord Fitzgerald was an eccentric man.Given a purpose, he pursued it to the end, neither love nor friendship, nor fear swerved him.Do you know that he made a vow that Duke Josef should never sit on this throne, nor his descendants? What were five millions to him, if in giving them he realized the end? The king would never explain the true cause of this Englishman's folly, but I know that it was based on revenge, the cause of which also is a mystery.If only the prince were here!""He will come; youth will be youth."
"Perhaps."
"You have never been young."
"Not in that particular sense to which you refer," dryly.
* * * * * *
In the chamber of finance Colonel Beauvais leaned over the desk and perused the writing on a slip of paper which the minister had given him.Enough daylight remained to permit the letters to stand out legibly.When he had done the Colonel tossed back the missive, and the minister tore it into shreds and dropped them into the waste basket.
"So much for your pains," said Beauvais."The spy, who has eaten up ten thousand crowns, is not worth his salt.He has watched this man Hamilton for two days, been his guide in the hills, and yet learns nothing.And the rigor of the customs is a farce.""This day," replied the minister, "the police lost its jurisdiction over the customs.Complaints have been entered at the British legation, which forwarded them to the chancellor.""O ho!" The Colonel pulled his mustache.
