Complete Works of Robert Louis Stevenson (Illustrated) (80 page)

‘Sir John!’ she said, at last.

‘At your Highness’s disposal,’ he replied.

She sprang to her feet.  ‘O!’ she cried, ‘have you come from Mittwalden?’

‘This morning,’ he returned, ‘I left it; and if there is any one less likely to return to it than yourself, behold him!’

‘The Baron — ’ she began, and paused.

‘Madam,’ he answered, ‘it was well meant, and you are quite a Judith; but after the hours that have elapsed, you will probably be relieved to hear that he is fairly well.  I took his news this morning ere I left.  Doing fairly well, they said, but suffering acutely.  Hey? — acutely.  They could hear his groans in the next room.’

‘And the Prince,’ she asked, ‘is anything known of him?’

‘It is reported,’ replied Sir John, with the same pleasurable deliberation, ‘that upon that point your Highness is the best authority.’

‘Sir John,’ she said eagerly, ‘you were generous enough to speak about your carriage.  Will you, I beseech you, will you take me to the Felsenburg?  I have business there of an extreme importance.’

‘I can refuse you nothing,’ replied the old gentleman, gravely and seriously enough.  ‘Whatever, madam, it is in my power to do for you, that shall be done with pleasure.  As soon as my chaise shall overtake us, it is yours to carry you where you will.  But,’ added he, reverting to his former manner, ‘I observe you ask me nothing of the Palace.’

‘I do not care,’ she said.  ‘I thought I saw it burning.’

‘Prodigious!’ said the Baronet.  ‘You thought?  And can the loss of forty toilettes leave you cold?  Well, madam, I admire your fortitude.  And the state, too?  As I left, the government was sitting, — the new government, of which at least two members must be known to you by name: Sabra, who had, I believe, the benefit of being formed in your employment — a footman, am I right? — and our old friend the Chancellor, in something of a subaltern position.  But in these convulsions the last shall be first, and the first last.’

‘Sir John,’ she said, with an air of perfect honesty, ‘I am sure you mean most kindly, but these matters have no interest for me.’

The Baronet was so utterly discountenanced that he hailed the appearance of his chaise with welcome, and, by way of saying something, proposed that they should walk back to meet it.  So it was done; and he helped her in with courtesy, mounted to her side, and from various receptacles (for the chaise was most completely fitted out) produced fruits and truffled liver, beautiful white bread, and a bottle of delicate wine.  With these he served her like a father, coaxing and praising her to fresh exertions; and during all that time, as though silenced by the laws of hospitality, he was not guilty of the shadow of a sneer.  Indeed his kindness seemed so genuine that Seraphina was moved to gratitude.

‘Sir John,’ she said, ‘you hate me in your heart; why are you so kind to me?’

‘Ah, my good lady,’ said he, with no disclaimer of the accusation, ‘I have the honour to be much your husband’s friend, and somewhat his admirer.’

‘You!’ she cried.  ‘They told me you wrote cruelly of both of us.’

‘Such was the strange path by which we grew acquainted,’ said Sir John.  ‘I had written, madam, with particular cruelty (since that shall be the phrase) of your fair self.  Your husband set me at liberty, gave me a passport, ordered a carriage, and then, with the most boyish spirit, challenged me to fight.  Knowing the nature of his married life, I thought the dash and loyalty he showed delightful.  “Do not be afraid,” says he; “if I am killed, there is nobody to miss me.”  It appears you subsequently thought of that yourself.  But I digress.  I explained to him it was impossible that I could fight!  “Not if I strike you?” says he.  Very droll; I wish I could have put it in my book.  However, I was conquered, took the young gentleman to my high favour, and tore up my bits of scandal on the spot.  That is one of the little favours, madam, that you owe your husband.’

Seraphina sat for some while in silence.  She could bear to be misjudged without a pang by those whom she contemned; she had none of Otto’s eagerness to be approved, but went her own way straight and head in air.  To Sir John, however, after what he had said, and as her husband’s friend, she was prepared to stoop.

‘What do you think of me?’ she asked abruptly.

‘I have told you already,’ said Sir John: ‘I think you want another glass of my good wine.’

‘Come,’ she said, ‘this is unlike you.  You are not wont to be afraid.  You say that you admire my husband: in his name, be honest.’

‘I admire your courage,’ said the Baronet.  ‘Beyond that, as you have guessed, and indeed said, our natures are not sympathetic.’

‘You spoke of scandal,’ pursued Seraphina.  ‘Was the scandal great?’

‘It was considerable,’ said Sir John.

‘And you believed it?’ she demanded.

‘O, madam,’ said Sir John, ‘the question!’

‘Thank you for that answer!’ cried Seraphina.  ‘And now here, I will tell you, upon my honour, upon my soul, in spite of all the scandal in this world, I am as true a wife as ever stood.’

‘We should probably not agree upon a definition,’ observed Sir John.

‘O!’ she cried, ‘I have abominably used him — I know that; it is not that I mean.  But if you admire my husband, I insist that you shall understand me: I can look him in the face without a blush.’

‘It may be, madam,’ said Sir John; ‘nor have I presumed to think the contrary.’

‘You will not believe me?’ she cried.  ‘You think I am a guilty wife?  You think he was my lover?’

‘Madam,’ returned the Baronet, ‘when I tore up my papers, I promised your good husband to concern myself no more with your affairs; and I assure you for the last time that I have no desire to judge you.’

‘But you will not acquit me!  Ah!’ she cried, ‘
he
will — he knows me better!’

Sir John smiled.

‘You smile at my distress?’ asked Seraphina.

‘At your woman’s coolness,’ said Sir John.  ‘A man would scarce have had the courage of that cry, which was, for all that, very natural, and I make no doubt quite true.  But remark, madam — since you do me the honour to consult me gravely — I have no pity for what you call your distresses.  You have been completely selfish, and now reap the consequence.  Had you once thought of your husband, instead of singly thinking of yourself, you would not now have been alone, a fugitive, with blood upon your hands, and hearing from a morose old Englishman truth more bitter than scandal.’

‘I thank you,’ she said, quivering.  ‘This is very true.  Will you stop the carriage?’

‘No, child,’ said Sir John, ‘not until I see you mistress of yourself.’

There was a long pause, during which the carriage rolled by rock and woodland.

‘And now,’ she resumed, with perfect steadiness, ‘will you consider me composed?  I request you, as a gentleman, to let me out.’

‘I think you do unwisely,’ he replied.  ‘Continue, if you please, to use my carriage.’

‘Sir John,’ she said, ‘if death were sitting on that pile of stones, I would alight!  I do not blame, I thank you; I now know how I appear to others; but sooner than draw breath beside a man who can so think of me, I would — O!’ she cried, and was silent.

Sir John pulled the string, alighted, and offered her his hand; but she refused the help.

The road had now issued from the valleys in which it had been winding, and come to that part of its course where it runs, like a cornice, along the brow of the steep northward face of Grünewald.  The place where they had alighted was at a salient angle; a bold rock and some wind-tortured pine-trees overhung it from above; far below the blue plains lay forth and melted into heaven; and before them the road, by a succession of bold zigzags, was seen mounting to where a tower upon a tall cliff closed the view.

‘There,’ said the Baronet, pointing to the tower, ‘you see the Felsenburg, your goal.  I wish you a good journey, and regret I cannot be of more assistance.’

He mounted to his place and gave a signal, and the carriage rolled away.

Seraphina stood by the wayside, gazing before her with blind eyes.  Sir John she had dismissed already from her mind: she hated him, that was enough; for whatever Seraphina hated or contemned fell instantly to Lilliputian smallness, and was thenceforward steadily ignored in thought.  And now she had matter for concern indeed.  Her interview with Otto, which she had never yet forgiven him, began to appear before her in a very different light.  He had come to her, still thrilling under recent insult, and not yet breathed from fighting her own cause; and how that knowledge changed the value of his words!  Yes, he must have loved her! this was a brave feeling — it was no mere weakness of the will.  And she, was she incapable of love?  It would appear so; and she swallowed her tears, and yearned to see Otto, to explain all, to ask pity upon her knees for her transgressions, and, if all else were now beyond the reach of reparation, to restore at least the liberty of which she had deprived him.

Swiftly she sped along the highway, and, as the road wound out and in about the bluffs and gullies of the mountain, saw and lost by glimpses the tall tower that stood before and above her, purpled by the mountain air.

CHAPTER II — TREATS OF A CHRISTIAN VIRTUE

When Otto mounted to his rolling prison he found another occupant in a corner of the front seat; but as this person hung his head and the brightness of the carriage lamps shone outward, the Prince could only see it was a man.  The Colonel followed his prisoner and clapped-to the door; and at that the four horses broke immediately into a swinging trot.

‘Gentlemen,’ said the Colonel, after some little while had passed, ‘if we are to travel in silence, we might as well be at home.  I appear, of course, in an invidious character; but I am a man of taste, fond of books and solidly informing talk, and unfortunately condemned for life to the guard-room.  Gentlemen, this is my chance: don’t spoil it for me.  I have here the pick of the whole court, barring lovely woman; I have a great author in the person of the Doctor — ’

‘Gotthold!’ cried Otto.

‘It appears,’ said the Doctor bitterly, ‘that we must go together.  Your Highness had not calculated upon that.’

‘What do you infer?’ cried Otto; ‘that I had you arrested?’

‘The inference is simple,’ said the Doctor.

‘Colonel Gordon,’ said the Prince, ‘oblige me so far, and set me right with Herr von Hohenstockwitz.’

‘Gentlemen,’ said the Colonel, ‘you are both arrested on the same warrant in the name of the Princess Seraphina, acting regent, countersigned by Prime Minister Freiherr von Gondremark, and dated the day before yesterday, the twelfth.  I reveal to you the secrets of the prison-house,’ he added.

‘Otto,’ said Gotthold, ‘I ask you to pardon my suspicions.’

‘Gotthold,’ said the Prince, ‘I am not certain I can grant you that.’

‘Your Highness is, I am sure, far too magnanimous to hesitate,’ said the Colonel.  ‘But allow me: we speak at home in my religion of the means of grace: and I now propose to offer them.’  So saying, the Colonel lighted a bright lamp which he attached to one side of the carriage, and from below the front seat produced a goodly basket adorned with the long necks of bottles.  ‘
Tu spem reducis
— how does it go, Doctor?’ he asked gaily.  ‘I am, in a sense, your host; and I am sure you are both far too considerate of my embarrassing position to refuse to do me honour.  Gentlemen, I drink to the Prince!’

‘Colonel,’ said Otto, ‘we have a jovial entertainer.  I drink to Colonel Gordon.’

Thereupon all three took their wine very pleasantly; and even as they did so, the carriage with a lurch turned into the high-road and began to make better speed.

All was bright within; the wine had coloured Gotthold’s cheek; dim forms of forest trees, dwindling and spiring, scarves of the starry sky, now wide and now narrow, raced past the windows, through one that was left open the air of the woods came in with a nocturnal raciness; and the roll of wheels and the tune of the trotting horses sounded merrily on the ear.  Toast followed toast; glass after glass was bowed across and emptied by the trio; and presently there began to fall upon them a luxurious spell, under the influence of which little but the sound of quiet and confidential laughter interrupted the long intervals of meditative silence.

‘Otto,’ said Gotthold, after one of these seasons of quiet, ‘I do not ask you to forgive me.  Were the parts reversed, I could not forgive you.’

‘Well,’ said Otto, ‘it is a phrase we use.  I do forgive you, but your words and your suspicions rankle; and not yours alone.  It is idle, Colonel Gordon, in view of the order you are carrying out, to conceal from you the dissensions of my family; they have gone so far that they are now public property.  Well, gentlemen, can I forgive my wife?  I can, of course, and do; but in what sense?  I would certainly not stoop to any revenge; as certainly I could not think of her but as one changed beyond my recognition.’

‘Allow me,’ returned the Colonel.  ‘You will permit me to hope that I am addressing Christians?  We are all conscious, I trust, that we are miserable sinners.’

‘I disown the consciousness,’ said Gotthold.  ‘Warmed with this good fluid, I deny your thesis.’

‘How, sir?  You never did anything wrong? and I heard you asking pardon but this moment, not of your God, sir, but of a common fellow-worm!’ the Colonel cried.

‘I own you have me; you are expert in argument, Herr Oberst,’ said the Doctor.

‘Begad, sir, I am proud to hear you say so,’ said the Colonel.  ‘I was well grounded indeed at Aberdeen.  And as for this matter of forgiveness, it comes, sir, of loose views and (what is if anything more dangerous) a regular life.  A sound creed and a bad morality, that’s the root of wisdom.  You two gentlemen are too good to be forgiving.’

‘The paradox is somewhat forced,’ said Gotthold.

‘Pardon me, Colonel,’ said the Prince; ‘I readily acquit you of any design of offence, but your words bite like satire.  Is this a time, do you think, when I can wish to hear myself called good, now that I am paying the penalty (and am willing like yourself to think it just) of my prolonged misconduct?’