"The King would never
forgive it," I stammered.
"Are we women? Who cares for his
forgiveness?"
The clock ticked fifty times, and sixty and seventy times,
as I stood in thought. Then I suppose a look came over my face,
for old Sapt caught me by the hand, crying:
"You'll go?"
"Yes, I'll go," said I, and I turned my eyes on the
prostrate figure
of the King on the floor.
"Tonight," Sapt went on in a hasty
whisper, "we are to lodge
in the Palace. The moment they leave us you and I will mount
our horses--Fritz must stay there and guard the King's room--
and ride here at a
gallop. The King will be ready--Josef will
tell him--and he must ride back with me to Strelsau,
and you ride as if the devil were behind you to the frontier."
I took it all in in a second, and nodded my head.
"There's a chance," said Fritz, with his first sign of hopefulness.
"If I escape detection," said I.
"If we're detected," said Sapt. "I'll send Black Michael down below
before I go myself, so help me heaven! Sit in that chair, man."
I obeyed him.
He darted from the room,
calling "Josef! Josef!" In three
minutes he was back, and Josef with him. The latter carried a
jug of hot water, soap and razors. He was trembling as Sapt
told him how the land lay, and bade him shave me.
Suddenly Fritz smote on his thigh:
"But the guard! They'll know! they'll know!"
"Pooh! We shan't wait for the guard. We'll ride to Hofbau
and catch a train there. When they come, the bird'll be flown."
"But the King?"
"The King will be in the wine-cellar. I'm going to carry him
there now."
"If they find him?"
"They won't. How should they? Josef will put them off."
"But--"
Sapt stamped his foot.
"We're not playing," he roared. "My God! don't I know the risk?
If they do find him, he's no worse off than if he isn't crowned today
in Strelsau."
So
speaking, he flung the door open and, stooping, put forth
a strength I did not dream he had, and lifted the King in his hands.
And as he did so, the old woman, Johann the keeper's mother,
stood in the
doorway. For a moment she stood, then she turned on her heel,
without a sign of surprise, and clattered down the passage.
"Has she heard?" cried Fritz.
"I'll shut her mouth!" said Sapt
grimly, and he bore off
the King in his arms.
For me, I sat down in an
armchair, and as I sat there, half-dazed,
Josef clipped and scraped me till my moustache and imperial
were things of the past and my face was as bare as the King's.
And when Fritz saw me thus he drew a long
breath and exclaimed:--
"By Jove, we shall do it!"
It was six o'clock now, and we had no time to lose.
Sapt
hurried me into the King's room, and I dressed myself
in the uniform of a
colonel of the Guard,
finding time
as I slipped on the King's boots to ask Sapt what he had done
with the old woman.
"She swore she'd heard nothing," said he; "but to make sure
I tied her legs together and put a
handkerchief in her mouth
and bound her hands, and locked her up in the coal-cellar, next door
to the King. Josef will look after them both later on."
Then I burst out laughing, and even old Sapt
grimly smiled.
"I fancy," said he, "that when Josef tells them the King is gone
they'll think it is because we smelt a rat. For you may swear
Black Michael doesn't expect to see him in Strelsau today."
I put the King's
helmet on my head. Old Sapt handed me
the King's sword, looking at me long and carefully.
"Thank God, he shaved his beard!" he exclaimed.
"Why did he?" I asked.
"Because Princess Flavia said he grazed her cheek when
he was
graciously pleased to give her a cousinly kiss.
Come though, we must ride."
"Is all safe here?"
"Nothing's safe anywhere," said Sapt, "but we can make it no safer."
Fritz now rejoined us in the uniform of a captain in the same
regiment as that to which my dress belonged. In four minutes
Sapt had arrayed himself in his uniform. Josef called that
the horses were ready. We jumped on their backs and started
at a rapid trot. The game had begun. What would the issue
of it be?
The cool morning air cleared my head, and I was able to take
in all Sapt said to me. He was wonderful. Fritz hardly spoke,
riding like a man asleep, but Sapt, without another word for
the King, began at once to
instruct me most minutely in the history
of my past life, of my family, of my tastes, pursuits, weaknesses,
friends, companions, and servants. He told me the etiquette
of the Ruritanian Court,
promising to be
constantly at my elbow
to point out everybody whom I ought to know, and give me hints
with what degree of favour to greet them.
"By the way," he said, "you're a Catholic, I suppose?"
"Not I," I answered.
"Lord, he's a heretic!" groaned Sapt, and
forthwith he fell
to a rudimentary lesson in the practices and observances
of the Romish faith.
"Luckily," said he, "you won't be expected to know much,
for the King's notoriously lax and
careless about such matters.
But you must be as civil as butter to the Cardinal. We hope
to win him over, because he and Michael have a standing
quarrel about their precedence."
We were by now at the station. Fritz had recovered nerve
enough to explain to the astonished station master that the King
had changed his plans. The train steamed up. We got into a
first-class
carriage, and Sapt, leaning back on the cushions,
went on with his lesson. I looked at my watch--the King's
watch it was, of course. It was just eight.
"I wonder if they've gone to look for us," I said.
"I hope they won't find the King," said Fritz nervously,
and this time it was Sapt who shrugged his shoulders.
The train travelled well, and at half-past nine, looking out
of the window, I saw the towers and spires of a great city.
"Your capital, my liege," grinned old Sapt, with a wave of his hand,
and, leaning forward, he laid his finger on my pulse. "A little
too quick," said he, in his grumbling tone.
"I'm not made of stone!" I exclaimed.
"You'll do," said he, with a nod. "We must say Fritz here has
caught the ague. Drain your flask, Fritz, for heaven's sake, boy!"
Fritz did as he was bid.
"We're an hour early," said Sapt. "We'll send word forward for
your Majesty's
arrival, for there'll be no one here to meet us yet.
And meanwhile--"
"Meanwhile," said I, "the King'll be hanged if he doesn't
have some breakfast."
Old Sapt chuckled, and held out his hand.
"You're an Elphberg, every inch of you," said he. Then he paused,
and looking at us, said quietly, "God send we may be alive tonight!"
"Amen!" said Fritz von Tarlenheim.
The train stopped. Fritz and Sapt leapt out, uncovered,
and held the door for me. I choked down a lump that rose
in my
throat, settled my
helmetfirmly on my head, and
(I'm not
ashamed to say it)
breathed a short prayer to God.
Then I stepped on the
platform of the station at Strelsau.
A moment later, all was
bustle and
confusion: men hurrying up,
hats in hand, and hurrying off again; men conducting me to the
buffet;
men mounting and riding in hot haste to the quarters of the troops,
to the Cathedral, to the
residence of Duke Michael. Even as I swallowed
the last drop of my cup of coffee, the bells throughout all the city broke out
into a
joyful peal, and the sound of a military band and of men cheering
smote upon my ear.
King Rudolf the Fifth was in his good city of Strelsau!
And they shouted outside--
"God save the King!"
Old Sapt's mouth wrinkled into a smile.
"God save 'em both!" he
whispered. "Courage, lad!" and I felt
his hand press my knee.
CHAPTER 5
The Adventures of an Understudy
With Fritz von Tarlenheim and Colonel Sapt close behind me,
I stepped out of the
buffet on to the
platform. The last thing
I did was to feel if my
revolver were handy and my sword loose
in the scabbard. A gay group of officers and high dignitaries
stood awaiting me, at their head a tall old man, covered with medals,
and of military
bearing. He wore the yellow and red
ribbon of the
Red Rose of Ruritania--which, by the way, decorated my unworthy
breast also.
"Marshal Strakencz,"
whispered Sapt, and I knew that I was
in the presence of the most famous
veteran of the Ruritanian army.
Just behind the Marshal stood a short spare man,
in flowing robes of black and crimson.
"The Chancellor of the Kingdom,"
whispered Sapt.
The Marshal greeted me in a few loyal words, and proceeded
to deliver an
apology from the Duke of Strelsau. The duke,
it seemed, had been afflicted with a sudden indisposition which
made it impossible for him to come to the station, but he craved
leave to await his Majesty at the Cathedral. I expressed my
concern, accepted the Marshal's excuses very suavely, and
received the compliments of a large number of distinguished
personages. No one betrayed the least
suspicion, and I felt
my nerve returning and the agitated
beating of my heart subsiding.
But Fritz was still pale, and his hand shook like a leaf as he
extended it to the Marshal.
Presently we formed
procession and took our way to the door
of the station. Here I mounted my horse, the Marshal holding
my
stirrup. The civil dignitaries went off to their
carriages, and
I started to ride through the streets with the Marshal on my right
and Sapt (who, as my chief aide-de-camp, was entitled to the place)
on my left. The city of Strelsau is
partly old and
partly new.
Spacious modern boulevards and residential quarters surround
and
embrace the narrow, tortuous, and
picturesque streets
of the original town. In the outer circles the upper classes live;
in the inner the shops are
situated; and, behind their
prosperous fronts,
lie
hiddenpopulous but
wretched lanes and alleys, filled with
a poverty-stricken,
turbulent, and (in large measure)
criminal class.
These social and local divisions corresponded, as I knew from
Sapt's information, to another division more important to me.
The New Town was for the King; but to the Old Town Michael
of Strelsau was a hope, a hero, and a darling.
The scene was very
brilliant as we passed along the Grand Boulevard
and on to the great square where the Royal Palace stood.
Here I was in the midst of my
devoted adherents. Every house
was hung with red and bedecked with flags and mottoes.
The streets were lined with raised seats on each side,
and I passed along, bowing this way and that,
under a
shower of cheers, blessings, and waving
handkerchiefs.
The balconies were full of gaily dressed ladies,
who clapped their hands and curtsied and threw their brightest glances at me.
A
torrent of red roses fell on me; one bloom lodged in my horse's mane,
and I took it and stuck it in my coat. The Marshal smiled
grimly.
I had
stolen some glances at his face, but he was too impassive
to show me whether his sympathies were with me or not.
"The red rose for the Elphbergs, Marshal," said I gaily, and he nodded.
I have written "gaily," and a strange word it must seem. But the truth is,
that I was drunk with
excitement. At that moment I believed--I almost