第20章 CHAPTER III THE PRINCE AND THE ENGLISH TRAVELLER(1

So far Otto read, with waxing indignation; and here his fury overflowed.

He tossed the roll upon the table and stood up. `This man,' he said, `is a devil. A filthy imagination, an ear greedy of evil, a ponderous malignity of thought and language: I grow like him by the reading! Chancellor, where is this fellow lodged?'

`He was committed to the Flag Tower,' replied Greisengesang, `in the Gamiani apartment.'

`Lead me to him,' said the Prince; and then, a thought striking him, `Was it for that,' he asked, `that I found so many sentries in the garden?'

`Your Highness, I am unaware,' answered Greisengesang, true to his policy. `The disposition of the guards is a matter distinct from my functions.'

Otto turned upon the old man fiercely, but ere he had time to speak, Gotthold touched him on the arm. He swallowed his wrath with a great effort. `It is well,' he said, taking the roll. `Follow me to the Flag Tower.'

The Chancellor gathered himself together, and the two set forward.

It was a long and complicated voyage; for the library was in the wing of the new buildings, and the tower which carried the flag was in the old schloss upon the garden. By a great variety of stairs and corridors, they came out at last upon a patch of gravelled court; the garden peeped through a high grating with a flash of green; tall, old gabled buildings mounted on every side; the Flag Tower climbed, stage after stage, into the blue; and high over all, among the building daws, the yellow flag wavered in the wind. A sentinel at the foot of the tower stairs presented arms; another paced the first landing; and a third was stationed before the door of the extemporised prison.

`We guard this mud-bag like a jewel,' Otto sneered.

The Gamiani apartment was so called from an Italian doctor who had imposed on the credulity of a former prince. The rooms were large, airy, pleasant, and looked upon the garden; but the walls were of great thickness (for the tower was old), and the windows were heavily barred.

The Prince, followed by the Chancellor, still trotting to keep up with him, brushed swiftly through the little library and the long saloon, and burst like a thunderbolt into the bedroom at the farther end. Sir John was finishing his toilet; a man of fifty, hard, uncompromising, able, with the eye and teeth of physical courage. He was unmoved by the irruption, and bowed with a sort of sneering ease.

`To what am I to attribute the honour of this visit?' he asked.

`You have eaten my bread,' replied Otto, `you have taken my hand, you have been received under my roof. When did I fail you in courtesy?

What have you asked that was not granted as to an honoured guest? And here, sir,' tapping fiercely on the manuscript, `here is your return.'

`Your Highness has read my papers?' said the Baronet. `I am honoured indeed. But the sketch is most imperfect. I shall now have much to add.

I can say that the Prince, whom I had accused of idleness, is zealous in the department of police, taking upon himself those duties that are most distasteful. I shall be able to relate the burlesque incident of my arrest, and the singular interview with which you honour me at present. For the rest, I have already communicated with my Ambassador at Vienna; and unless you propose to murder me, I shall be at liberty, whether you please or not, within the week. For I hardly fancy the future empire of Grünewald is yet ripe to go to war with England. I conceive I am a little more than quits. I owe you no explanation; yours has been the wrong. You, if you have studied my writing with intelligence, owe me a large debt of gratitude.

And to conclude, as I have not yet finished my toilet, I imagine the courtesy of a turnkey to a prisoner would induce you to withdraw.'

There was some paper on the table, and Otto, sitting down, wrote a passport in the name of Sir John Crabtree.

`Affix the seal, Herr Cancellarius,' he said, in his most princely manner, as he rose.

Greisengesang produced a red portfolio, and affixed the seal in the unpoetic guise of an adhesive stamp; nor did his perturbed and clumsy movements at all lessen the comedy of the performance. Sir John looked on with a malign enjoyment; and Otto chafed, regretting, when too late, the unnecessary royalty of his command and gesture. But at length the Chancellor had finished his piece of prestidigitation, and, without waiting for an order, had countersigned the passport. Thus regularised, he returned it to Otto with a bow.

`You will now,' said the Prince, `order one of my own carriages to be prepared; see it, with your own eyes, charged with Sir John's effects, and have it waiting within the hour behind the Pheasant House. Sir John departs this morning for Vienna.'

The Chancellor took his elaborate departure.

`Here, sir, is your passport,' said Otto, turning to the Baronet.

`I regret it from my heart that you have met inhospitable usage.'

`Well, there will be no English war,' returned Sir John.

`Nay, sir,' said Otto, `you surely owe me your civility. Matters are now changed, and we stand again upon the footing of two gentlemen.

It was not I who ordered your arrest; I returned late last night from hunting; and as you cannot blame me for your imprisonment, you may even thank me for your freedom.'

`And yet you read my papers,' said the traveller shrewdly.

`There, sir, I was wrong,' returned Otto; `and for that I ask your pardon. You can scarce refuse it, for your own dignity, to one who is a plexus of weaknesses. Nor was the fault entirely mine. Had the papers been innocent, it would have been at most an indiscretion. Your own guilt is the sting of my offence.'

Sir John regarded Otto with an approving twinkle; then he bowed, but still in silence.

`Well, sir, as you are now at your entire disposal, I have a favour to beg of your indulgence,' continued the Prince. `I have to request that you will walk with me alone into the garden so soon as your convenience permits.'