"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 passed 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 passages 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 accomplishing 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 principal 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 flashing 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?"
The Sovereign drew back, and gave vent to a hoarse murmur, turned away, and motioned with his hand.
"Cover the picture," he said, in a feeble voice. "Do not excite yourself and me unnecessarily," he began, in a changed tone. "If you do not choose to fulfill my wishes, I will not insist upon it." He took his hat from the table, and continued, in a softer tone: "You are beloved by the citizens; the weather is as warm as summer, and promises to last. I will, on your birthday, arrange to have a morning concert for the officials and the citizens in the park. I will send you a list of invitations through the Lord High Steward. In the evening we shall have a gala-supper and visit the opera."
The Sovereign left the room without looking at his daughter. The Princess followed him to the anteroom, where the attendants were standing. At the door she made a low curtsy. The Sovereign gave a friendly sign with his hand. The Princess then flew back into her room, threw herself down before the picture, and wrung her hands.
The Princes were walking in the park, and the promenaders bowed and looked after them. The Hereditary Prince took off his hat with the dignity of a man; Victor touched his hussar cap lightly, and nodded sometimes familiarly to a pretty face.
"All old acquaintances," he began; "it is a pleasure, indeed, to be home again."
"You always were a favorite of the people," said the Hereditary Prince.
"I have amused and provoked them," replied Victor laughing. "I feel like Hercules with his mother earth, and am ready for any mischief. Benno, do not look so dejected; I cannot stand it."
"If you had, like me, to walk always at the same hour you would look so too," replied Benno, stopping before an empty water-tank, in which four little bears were sitting, looking at the public, who were throwing bread to them. The Hereditary Prince took a piece of bread from the keeper, who approached him hat in hand, and threw it mechanically to the bears. "And if you had by high command to show yourself every day as the friend of the people, and feed these stupid bears, you would also weary of them."
"Pooh!" exclaimed Victor, "it only depends upon yourself to make these louts amusing."
He sprang with one jump into the walled place among the animals, laid hold of the first bear as a sheep is carried to be shorn, threw it upon the second, and the third upon the fourth; a horrible growling and clawing began among the bears; they fought violently together, and the bystanders shouted with pleasure.
"Your hand, comrade," called out the Prince, to one of the spectators, who were watching him and giving vent to loud expressions of approbation. "Help me out."
The person called upon was our friend Gabriel, who held out both hands.
"Here, your Excellence, quick, that they don't catch your uniform."
Victor sprang lightly up, giving his supporter a slap on the shoulder.
"Thanks, comrade; if you ever get into a fix, I will lend you a hand too."
The people cried "Bravo!" with much laughter.
"You must force life into the place," said Victor. "If your father does not drive me away, I shall in a week make it as lively at your Court as I have done here in the bear-pit."
"I, meanwhile, have suffered for it," replied Benno, with vexation; "one man said to another, 'What a pity that that fellow has not as much courage!' of course meaning me."
"Never mind: you are the wise one. In the eyes of thoughtful people, your virtues shine bright when placed in contrast with mine. Now let me into your confidence. What lady of the theatre do you favor with your attentions, that I may not be in the way? I do not wish to interfere with you."
"Nothing of this kind is permitted me," replied Benno.
"Not permitted?" asked Victor, astonished; "what kind of tyranny is this? Has it become the fashion here to be virtuous? Then impart to me, at least, what other lady, from political reasons, may only be admired by me in the distance?"
"I believe that you have free choice," replied Prince Benno, depressed.
"What a blessing for me that I am not Hereditary Prince! But what has occasioned the Sovereign to invite me here so graciously?"
"We do not know; Siddy also was surprised."
"And I, fool, thought she had a hand in the game."
"If she had attempted anything of the kind, you would assuredly have had no invitation."
"That he does not like me is evident. I had a cool reception."
"Perhaps he wishes to have you married."
"To whom?" asked Victor, quickly.
"He has caused you to visit amongst our relations," replied the Hereditary Prince, cautiously.
"He? By no means. I was passed on from one to another, and everywhere treated like a nice boy. The whole was clearly concerted."
"Perhaps one of our great matchmakers was at the bottom of it," said the Hereditary Prince.
"Not in my case, depend upon it. I am ill looked upon by the conclave of mothers of our country, who have in charge the feelings of our princely families. They would not stir a finger for me."
"If my father has not done it, or none of our relations, the Lord High Steward must have done it."
"Bless you for this supposition," exclaimed Victor. "If he wishes to have me here then all is right."
"Have you spoken to him?"
"I have been with him; he talked to me about the campaign, and spoke in his usual friendly way, but nothing more."
"Then it was he, you may depend upon it."
"But why?" asked Victor. "What can I do here?"
"That you must not ask me; he favors me with little of his confidence."
"Why do you turn away from the pavilion at every bend in the path?" asked Victor. "Have you placed steel traps there? By Jove, what a glorious face! Look, you dissembler! So, you are become virtuous?"
The Hereditary Prince colored with indignation.
"The lady up there deserves the most considerate treatment," he said, moodily.
"Then that is the beautiful stranger," cried Victor; "she is reading. If she would only turn a look this way, that one might see more than her profile. We will go there: you shall introduce me."
"Under no circumstances," replied the Hereditary Prince; "least of all now."
Victor looked at him in astonishment.
"You refuse to present me to this lady? I do not need it," and he let go his arm.
"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 scrape 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 nobleman, 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 assault 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 ennobled?"
"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."
"I performed the duties of that position as well as I could."
The Marshal bowed. "There was much discussion as to how the breakfast should be arranged without affronting the ladies of the house, and it was very welcome when your father entirely refrained from requiring the participation of his ladies. Allow me also to add, that a rise in your father's position would be desirable for yourself. For your husband, as a learned man of distinguished merit, is in the position of obtaining, on expressing a wish, a rank and position which would establish him as a member of the Court. And if this proposal should be carried into effect, it would give you, under certain limitations, an entrance there also. It would give the Sovereign and Princess an opportunity of receiving you at the castle, and invitations to great Court balls and concerts would be possible."
Ilse rose. "Enough, my lord, I understand you. I know what my father will do when you offer him that of which you speak; he will laugh and reject the offer, and will say, if our citizen's home is not good enough for our Sovereign to enter, we must resign the honor. But I cannot reject it with the composure which I expect of my father; and I must tell you, my lord, that if I had had any idea that I, as a lady, was not entitled to enter this society, I would never have set foot here."
Ilse, with difficulty, controlled the indignation which worked within her. The Marshal was confounded, and endeavoured to pass it off equivocally; but Ilse could not be dealt with; she continued standing, and so compelled him to depart.
The Professor found his wife in a dark room brooding over what had passed. "Will you have a patent of nobility?" she exclaimed, springing up; "it will be prepared for you at once, and for my father also, in order that we may all have the advantages of becoming fit society for the castle without their feeling it a humiliation. It is unsatisfactory to them only to see us occasionally. I know now why I dine alone, and why the Sovereign would not enter our sitting-room at Bielstein. We must have a new name, that we may obtain the education and the manners which will make us worthy of going to Court. And not only us, but perhaps our children. Can you hear this without coloring with shame at our being here? They feed us like strange beasts, which they have procured out of curiosity and will again cast us out of the pen."
"Why, Ilse!" cried Felix, in astonishment, "you are expending more pathos than is necessary. What do the prejudices of these men signify to us? Has not the Sovereign done everything to make our residence here agreeable, according to what we are accustomed? If the people here are obliged by the customs in which they have been brought up, and by the regulations of their circle, to limit their intercourse with us to certain definite forms, what does that signify? Do we wish to become their confidants, and to live with them as we do with our friends at home? They have not deserved such an unfolding of our souls. When we came here we entered into a simple business relation, and we undertook also the obligation of adapting ourselves to their rules of life."
"And we are free to leave here as soon as these rules no longer please us?"
"Just so," answered the Professor; "as soon as we have sufficient grounds for considering them unbearable. I think that is not the case. They require nothing of us that is degrading: they show us the most assiduous attention: what does it signify if we do not take part in their daily intercourse, which we have no right or reason to desire?"
"Do not let us deceive ourselves," exclaimed Ilse. "If in our city any one was to say to you, you may only look at my shoes, but not raise your eyes to my face; you may only go out with me into the open air, but not come into my house; I can eat with you standing, but not sit down at your table, as my dignity forbids me to do so, – what would you, who live so proudly in your circle, reply to such a fool?"
"I would endeavour to learn the reason of his narrow-mindedness, – perhaps pity him-perhaps turn away from him."
"Then do so here," cried Ilse. "For we are invited guests to whom the people of the house close their doors."
"I repeat to you that we are not guests who are invited to associate with the people here. I have been called upon for work, and I have accepted this call, because I look for such great advantage in it to my branch of learning that I would bear far worse things than the disagreeable customs of the Court. I dare not set at stake these important interests by an opposition to social pretensions which do not please me. It is just because I have no particular respect for these rules that they do not disturb me."
"But it grieves and makes one angry that people, in whose life one takes an interest, cling to such miserable antiquated triflings," said Ilse still bitterly.
"So that is it?" asked Felix. "We are anxious about the souls of the grandees? There is something to be said on that point. There is an old curse on every privilege which falls to the lot of most who share in it. This may be the case with court privileges. The life of our princes lies confined within the boundaries of a small circle; the views and prejudices of those around them, whom they are not free to choose, hedge them in from the first day of their life until the last. That they are not stronger and freer arises for the most part from the confined atmosphere in which they are kept by etiquette. It is a misfortune, not only for themselves, but for us, that our princes look upon the society that is not noble with the eyes of a deputy chamberlain or a courtier. This evil one feels painfully when one comes into contact with them. I think, undoubtedly, that the struggle which is going on in different parts of our fatherland will not come to a good conclusion, until the dangers are removed which arise from the effect of the old Court regulations on the training of our princes. But it appears to me they are already broken through in many places, and the time may come when all this nonsense will be the subject of good-humored satire. For this etiquette of Court is, after all, only the remains of a past age, like the constitutions of our guilds, and other ancient customs. So far you are right. But those who indulge in personal irritation, as you do now, expose themselves to the suspicion that they are only angry because they themselves desire entrance into the prohibited circles."
Ilse looked silently down.
"When you and I," continued the Professor, "come accidentally into personal contact with such modes of thinking, there is only one thing that befits us-cool contempt and indifference. We wish, for the sake of our princes, to remove the impediments which limit their intercourse with their people; but we have no wish or impulse to put ourselves in the place of those who apparently direct the rulers of our country. For, between ourselves, we, who pass our lives in strenuous mental labor, would in general be bad companions for princes. We are deficient in the graceful forms and tact, and the easy complaisance of society. The stronger minds would hurt, by their independence, and the weaker would become contemptible by abject subservience. Freedom of choice is all that we wish for our rulers. One feeling we may preserve without arrogance-all who separate themselves from our circle lose more than we do."
Ilse approached him, and laid her hand in his.
"Therefore, Lady Ilse," continued her husband, cheerfully, "be contented for these few weeks. If it should happen to you in reality to be an invited guest of the Court, then you may enter into negotiations concerning your pretensions; and if in such a case you have to take exceptions, do it with a smile."
"Do you speak so from the calm confidence of your soul," asked Ilse, looking searchingly at her husband, "or because you have it much at heart to remain here?"
"I have my manuscript much at heart," replied the Professor; "for the rest, the loss of peace is a greater deprivation to me than to you. You have from your youth, and especially this last year, taken a warm interest in the inmates of this princely castle. You have at times felt yourself much interested in them, and it is on that account that you are more wounded than needful."
Ilse nodded her head assentingly.
"Bear with it. Ilse," continued her husband, encouragingly; "remember that you are free, and may any day leave it. But it would be more agreeable to me if you did not leave me alone."
"Would that be more agreeable to you?" asked Ilse, softly.
"You little fool!" exclaimed the Professor. "Today we will give up the theatre, and have our evening reading. I have brought with me what will drive away all vexations."
He brought the lamp to the table, opened a little book, and began:
"It happened, one Whitsuntide, that Nobel, the King of all the Beasts, held a Court," and so on.
Ilse sat with her work in her hand by her husband; the light of the lamp fell on his countenance, which she examined searchingly, in order to read therein whether he still felt towards her as before; till at last the iniquities of the fox brought a smile to her lips, and she took the book from him, and read on quietly and comfortably, as at home.
"How is the Lady Bergau?" asked the Princess, of her attendant, the little Gotlinde Thurn.
"Very ill, your Highness. She has been much disturbed by the sudden departure of her husband, and her confinement is expected every hour."
"Bergau gone away?" asked the Princess, in astonishment.
"The Sovereign has commissioned him to purchase some porcelain curiosities in a distant city."
The Princess looked significantly at her confidant.
"Forgive me, your Highness, if I venture to say," continued the lady-in-waiting, "that we are all indignant. Bergau, it is said, had a scene yesterday with the strange lady at the Pavilion; and this morning early the Sovereign expressed himself, in giving his orders, in a way that made any objection out of the question."