The Puppet Crown

by Harold MacGrath

  CHAPTER XXIV. THE PRISONER OF THE RED CHATEAU

  There the two stood, mottled in the moonshine and shadow, with wildeyes and nostrils distended, the one triumphant, the other raging andimpotent. Maurice was growing weary of fortune's discourtesies. He gazedalternately from his own revolver, lying at his feet, to the one inthe hand of this unexpected visitant. Only two miles between him andfreedom, yet he must turn back. The Colonel had reckoned without Madame,and therefore without reason. This man had probably got around in frontof him when he climbed the tree. He turned sullenly and started to walkaway, expecting to be followed.

  "Halt! Where the devil are you going?"

  "Why, back to your cursed chateau!" Maurice answered surlily.

  The strange trooper laughed discordantly. "Back to the chateau? I thinknot. Now, then, right about face--march! Aye, toward the frontier; andif I have to go on alone, so much the worse for you. I've knocked in oneman's head; if necessary, I'll blow off the top of yours. You know theway back to Bleiberg, I don't; that is why I want your company. Nowmarch."

  But Maurice did not march; he was filled with curiosity. "Are you atrooper in Madame the duchess's household?" he asked.

  "No, curse you!"

  "Who are you, then?"

  "Come, come; this will not pass. No tricks; you have been following methese twenty minutes."

  "The deuce I have!" exclaimed Maurice, bewildered. "To Bleiberg, is it?"

  "And without loss of time. When we cross the Thalians I shall beperfectly willing to parley with you."

  "To Bleiberg, then," said Maurice. "Since that is my destination, thedevil I care how I get there."

  "Do you mean to tell me that you are going to Bleiberg?" surprisemingling with his impatience.

  "No place else."

  "Are you a spy?" menacingly.

  "No more than you."

  "But that uniform!"

  "I fancy yours looks a good deal like it," Maurice replied testily.

  "I confess I never saw you before, and your tongue has a foreign twist,"with growing doubt.

  "I am sure I never saw you before, nor want to see you again."

  "What are you doing in that uniform?"

  "You have the advantage of me; suppose you begin the introduction?"

  "Indeed I have the advantage of you, and propose to maintain it. Who areyou and what are you doing here? Answer!"

  There was something in the young man's aspect which convinced Mauricethat it would be folly to trifle. Besides, he gave to his words anair which distinguishes the man who commands from the man who serves.Maurice briefly acquainted the young man with his name and position.

  "And you?" he asked.

  "I?" The young man laughed again. It was an unpleasant laugh. "Nevermind who I am. Let us go, we are losing time. What is the date?"suddenly.

  "The twentieth of September," answered Maurice.

  "My God, a day too late!" The young man had an attack of vertigo, andwas obliged to lean against a tree for support. "Are you telling me thetruth about yourself?"

  "I am. I myself was attempting to dispense with the questionablehospitality of the Red Chateau--good Lord!" striking his forehead.

  "What's the matter?"

  "Are you the mysterious prisoner of the chateau, the man they have beenkeeping at the end of the east corridor on the third floor?"

  "Yes. And woe to the woman who kept me there! How came you there?"

  Maurice, confident that something extraordinary was taking place,related in synopsis his adventures.

  "And this cursed Englishman?"

  "Will drain a bitter cup. Madame is playing with him."

  "And the king; is he dead?"

  "He is dying." Maurice's wonder grew. What part had this strange youngman in this comedy, which was rapidly developing into a tragedy?

  "And her Highness--her Royal Highness?" eagerly clutching Maurice by thearm; "and she?"

  "She does not murmur, though both her pride and her heart are sore.She has scarcely a dozen friends. Her paralytic father is the theme ofribald jest; and now they laugh at her because the one man who perhapscould have saved the throne has deserted her like a coward. Hang him, Isay!"

  "What do they say?" The tones were hollow.

  "They say he is enamoured of a peasant girl, and dallies with her,forgetting his sacred vows, his promised aid, and perhaps even this, hiswedding day."

  "God help him!" was the startling and despairing cry.... He was againseized with the vertigo, and swayed against the tree. For a moment heforgot Maurice, covered his face with his unengaged hand, and sobbed.

  Maurice was helpless; he could offer no consolation. This grief he couldnot understand. He stooped and picked up his revolver and waited.

  "I am weak," said the other man, dashing his hand from his eyes; "I amweak and half starved. It would be better for all concerned if I blewout my brains. The twentieth, the twentieth!" he repeated, dully. "Curseher!" he burst forth; "as there's a God above us, I'll have revenge.Aye, I'll return to the chateau, Madame, that I will, but at the head often thousand men!... The twentieth! She will never forgive me; she willthink I, too, deserted her!" He broke down again.

  "An army!" cried Maurice.

  "Aye, and ten thousand men! Come," taking Maurice by the arm; "come,they may be seeking us. To the frontier. Every hour is precious. Toa telegraph office! We shall see if I dally with peasant girls, if Iforsake the woman I love!"

  "You?" Maurice retreated a step. The silver moonshine became tinged withred.

  "I am Prince Frederick, and I love her Highness. I would sacrifice athousand kingdoms to spare her a moment's sorrow. I have always lovedher."

  "What a woman!" Maurice murmured, as the scheme of Madame's flashedthrough his mind. "What a woman! And she had the audacity to kidnap you,too!"

  "And by the most dishonorable device. I and my suite of gentlemen werecoming to Bleiberg to make the final arrangements. At Ehrenstein Ireceived a telegram which requested me to visit till the following traina baron who was formerly a comrade of my father. The telegram advised meof his sudden illness, and that he had something important to discloseto me. I bade my gentlemen, save one, proceed to Bleiberg. My aide andI entered the carriage which was to convey us to the castle. We neverreached it. On the road we fell into an ambush, a contrivance ofMadame's. I was brought to the chateau. Whatever happened to Hofer, myaide, I do not know. Doubtless he is dead. But Madame shall pay, both inpride and wealth. I will lay waste this duchy of hers, though in the endthe emperor crush me. Let us be off."

  They stumbled on through the forest. So confused was Maurice that heforgot his usual caution. The supreme confidence of this woman andthe flawlessness of her schemes dazed him. So far she had stopped atnothing; where would she end? A Napoleon in petticoats, she was about toappall the confederation. She had suppressed a prince who was heir toa kingdom triple in power and size to the kingdom which she coveted.Madame the duchess was relying on some greater power, else her planswere madness.

  As for the prince, he had but one thought: to reach Bleiberg. Theconfinement, together with mental suffering, anxiety and forcedinaction, began to tell on him. Twice he tripped and fell, and Mauricehad to return to assist him to his feet. However could they crossthe mountains, a feat which needed both courage and extreme physicalendurance?

  "I am so weak," said the prince, "so pitiably weak! I thought tofrighten the woman by starving myself, poor fool that I was!"

  And they went on again. Maurice was beginning to feel the effect of hiswine-bibbing; he had a splitting headache.

  "Silence!" he suddenly whispered, sinking and dragging the prince withhim.

  A hundred yards in advance of them stood a sentinel, his body bentforward and a hand to his ear. Presently he, too, lay down. Five minutespassed. The sentinel rose, and convinced that his ears had tricked him,resumed his lonely patrol. He disappeared toward the west, while thefugitives made off in an easterly direction. Maurice was a soldieragain. Every two or three hundred yard
s he knelt and pressed his ear tothe cold, damp earth and waited for a familiar jar. The prince watchedthese movements with interest.

  "You have been a soldier?" he asked.

  "Yes. Perhaps we had better strike out for the mountains. The sentryline can not extend as far as this."

  But now they could see the drab peaks of the mountains which loomedbetween the partly dismantled trees. Beyond lay the kingdom. Would theyever reach it? There was only one pass; this they dared not make. Yetif they attempted to cross the mountains in a deserted place, theymight very easily get lost; for in some locations it was fully six milesacross the range, and this, with the ups and downs and windings inand out, might lengthen into twenty miles. They struck out toward themountains, and after half an hour they came upon an unforeseen obstacle.They sat down in despair. This obstacle was the river, not very, wide,but deep, turbulent and impassable.

  "We shall have to risk the pass," said Maurice, gloomily; "though heavenknows how we are to get through it. We have ten shots between us."

  They followed the river. The roar of it deadened all other sounds. Fora mile they plodded on, silent, watchful and meditative. The princethought of his love; Maurice tried to forget his. For him the romancehad come to an end, its logical end; and it was now only a question ofgetting back to the world to which he belonged and remaining there. Herecalled a line he had read somewhere: a deep love, gashes into thesoul as a scar is hewn upon the body and remains there during the wholelife...

  "Look!" cried the prince. He pointed toward the west.

  Maurice came out of his dream and looked. Some distance west of thepass, perhaps half a mile from where they stood, Maurice saw the twinkleof a hundred campfires. It was Madame's army in bivouac.

  "What does this mean?" asked the prince.

  "It means that the duchess is on the eve of striking a blow for hercrown," answered Maurice. "And how are we to make the pass, which isprobably filled with soldiers? If only we could find a boat! Ah! whatwould your Highness call this?" He pointed to a thread-like line of bareearth which wended riverward.

  "A sheep or cattle path," said the prince, after a close inspection.

  "Then the river is perhaps fordable here!" exclaimed Maurice jubilantly."At any rate, we'll try it; if it gets too deep, we'll come back."

  He walked to the water's edge, studied the black whirling mass,shrugged and stepped in. The prince came after him, unhesitatingly. Bothshivered. The water was intensely cold. But the bed was shallow, andthe river never mounted above the waist. However, in midstream it rushedstrongly and wildly along, and all but carried them off their feet. Theyarrived in safety at the opposite shore, weak and cold in body, but warmin spirit. They lay on the grass for several moments, breathing heavily.They might now gain the pass by clambering up the mountain and pickingtheir way down from the other side. It was not possible that Madame'stroopers had entered into the kingdom.

  "I am giving out," the prince confessed reluctantly. "Let us make asmuch headway as we can while I last."

  They stood up. Now the moon fell upon them both; and they viewed eachother with no little curiosity. What the prince saw pleased him, for hepossessed a good eye. What Maurice saw was a frank, manly countenance,youthful, almost boyish. The prince did not look to be more than threeand twenty, if that; but there was a man's determination in his jaw.This jaw pleased Maurice, for it confided to him that Madame had nowsomething that would cause her worry.

  "I put myself in your care," said the prince, offering his hand. "I amnot equal to much. A man can not see his wedding day come and go withouthim, helpless to prevent it, and not have the desire to sit down andweep and curse. You will see nothing but the unfavorable side of me forthe next dozen hours."

  "I'm not altogether amiable myself," replied Maurice with a shortlaugh. "Let us get out of the moonlight," he added; "we are somewhatconspicuous, and besides, we should keep moving; this cold isparalyzing. Is your Highness equal to the climbing?"

  "Equal or not, lead the way. If I fall I'll call you."

  And the weary march began again; over boulders, through tangles of toughshrubbery, up steep inclines, around precipices, sometimes enveloped inmists, yet still they kept on. Often the prince fell over ragged stones,but he picked himself up without assistance; though he swore some,Maurice thought none the less of him for that bit of human weakness. Thecold was numbing, and neither felt the cuts and bruises.

  After two hours of this fatiguing labor they arrived upon a smallplateau, about two thousand feet above the valley. The scene was solemnand imposing. The world seemed lying at their feet. The chateau, halfhidden in the mist, sparkled like an opal. Maurice scowled at it. To theprince the vision was as reviving as a glass of wine. He threatenedit with his fist, and plunged on with renewed vigor. There are fewsensations so stimulating as the thought of a complete revenge. Theangle of vision presently changed, and the historic pile vanished.Maurice never saw the Red Chateau again.

  Little more in the way of mishap befell them; and when the moon hadwheeled half way down from the zenith, the kingdom lay below them.A descent of an hour's duration brought them into the pass. Mauricecalculated that nearly five hours had passed since he left the chateau;for the blue was fading in the east. The phantom vitality of the princenow forsook him; his legs refused their offices, and he sank upon aboulder, his head in his hands. Maurice was not much better; but theprince had given him the burden of responsibility, and he was determinedto hold up under it.

  "If your Highness will remain here," he said, "I will fetch assistance,for the barrack can not be far off."

  The prince nodded and Maurice tramped away. But the miniature barrackand the quaint stone customs house both were wrapt in gloom anddarkness. Maurice investigated. Both buildings were deserted; therewas no sign of life about. He broke a window, and entered the customsoffice. Remembering that Colonel Mollendorf smoked, he searched theinner pocket of his coat. He drew forth a box of wax matches, struck oneand looked about. A struggle had taken place. Evidences were strewn onthe floor. The telegraph operator's table had been smashed into bits,the instrument twisted out of shape, the jars broken and the wires cut.Like indications of a disturbance were also found in the barrack.

  Maurice began to comprehend. Madame's troopers had crossed the frontier,but they had returned again, taking with them the handful of troopersbelonging to the king. It was plain that the object of this skirmish hadbeen to destroy communications between Bleiberg and the frontier. Madamedesired to effect a complete surprise, to swoop down on the capitalbefore it could bring a large force into the field.

  There is an unwritten law that when one country intends to wage waragainst its neighbor a formal declaration shall be made. But againMadame had forsaken the beaten paths. More than three weeks had passedsince the duchy's representative in Bleiberg had been discredited andgiven his passports. At once the duchess had retaliated by discreditingthe king's representative in Brunnstadt. Ordinarily this would have beenunderstood as a mutual declaration of war. Instead, both governmentsignored each other, one suspiciously, the other intentionally. All ofwhich is to say, the gage of war had been flung, but neither had stoopedto pick it up.

  Perhaps Madame expected by this sudden aggressiveness to win her fightwith as little loss of blood as possible, which in justice to her was toher credit. Again, a declaration of war openly made might have moved theconfederation to veto it by coercion. To win without loss of life wouldleave the confederation powerless to act. Therefore it will be seen thatMadame was not only a daring woman, but a general of no mean ability.

  This post was an isolated one; between it and Bleiberg there was noteven a village. The main pass from the kingdom into the duchy was aboutthirty miles east. Here was a small but lively city named Coberg, arailway center, garrisoned by one thousand troops. At this pass Madame'scontemplated stroke of war would have been impossible. The railway randirectly from Coberg to Brunnstadt, fifty miles south of the frontier.A branch of the railway ran from Brunnstadt to a small tow
n sevenmiles south of the Red Chateau, which accounts for the ease with whichMadame's troops had reached the isolated pass. It was now likely thatMadame would arrive before Bleiberg ere her enemies dreamed of thestroke. Maurice could see how well the traitorous administration hadplayed into Madame's hands. Here was the one weak spot, and they hadallowed it to remain thus weak.

  "The kingdom is lost," thought Maurice. "His Highness and I may as wellreturn to the chateau, for all the good our escape will do us. Hang themall!"

  He began to forage, and discovered a bottle full of peach brandy. Hedrank half the contents, reserving the remainder for the prince. As helowered the bottle there came a sound which caused him almost to losehold of the vigorous tonic. The sound he heard was the shrill whinneyof a horse. He pocketed the bottle and dashed out to the stables. To hisjoy several horses stamped restlessly in the stalls. The attacking partyhad without doubt come on foot. He led out two, saddled and bridled themand returned to the prince, who had fallen asleep. Maurice roused him.

  "To Bleiberg, your Highness," he cried, at the same time offering thebottle, which the prince did not hesitate to empty.

  "Ha!" staggering to his feet. "Where are the men?"

  Maurice explained the cause of their absence. The prince swore, andclimbed with difficulty into the saddle.

  "Thank God," he said, as they galloped away, "we shall be there first."

  "Adieu, Madame!" Maurice cried, airily. He was free.

  "To our next meeting, duchess!" The prince, too, was free, but hethirsted for a full revenge.

  They had been on the way but a short time when Maurice lifted his arm.

  "Look!"

  The prince raised his head. It was dawn, yellow and cold and pure.

  They fell into silence; sometimes Maurice caught himself counting thebeat of the hoofs and the variation of sounds, as when they strucksand or slate, or crossed small wooden bridges. Here and there he sawpeasants going into the fields to begin the long, long day of toil. Thesaddle on which he sat had been the property of a short man, for thestirrups were too high, and the prince's were too low. But neitherdesired to waste time to adjust them. And so they rode with danglinglegs and bodies sunken in the saddles; mute, as if by agreement.

  They had gone perhaps ten miles when they perceived a horse flyingtoward them, half a mile away. The rider was not yet visible. They feltno alarm, but instinctively they drew together. Nearer and nearer camethe lonely horseman, and as the distance lessened into some hundredyards they discerned the flutter of a gown.

  "A woman!" exclaimed Maurice. "And alone this time of morning!"

  "Eh?" cried the prince; "and heading for the duchy? Let us wait."

  They drew up to the side of the highway. The woman came fearlessly on,her animal's head down and his tail flaring out behind. On, on; abreastof them; as she flew past there was a vision of a pale, determined face,a blond head bared to the chill wind. She heeded not their challenge;it was a question whether or not she heard it. They stood watching heruntil she and her horse dwindled into a mere moving speck, finally tobecome lost altogether in a crook of the road.

  "I should like to know what that means," said Maurice.

  "It is very strange," the prince said, musingly. "I have seen that womanbefore. She is one of the dancers at the opera."

  "Mayhap she has a lover on the other side."

  "Mayhap. Let us be on. There's the sun, and we are a good thirteenmiles away!" and the prince slapped the neck of his horse, which boundedforward.

  This tiring pace they maintained until they mounted the hill from whichthey could see the glittering spires of the city, and the Werter See asit flashed back the sunlight.

  "Bleiberg!" Maurice waved his hand.

  "Thanks to you, that I look on it."

  It was ten o'clock when they passed under the city gates.

  "Monsieur, will you go with me to the palace?" asked the prince.

  "If your Highness will excuse me," said Maurice; "no, I should be in theway; and besides I am dead for want of sleep."

  "I shall never sleep," grumbled the prince, "till I have humbled thatwoman. And you? Have you no rankle in your heart? Have you no desire towitness that woman's humiliation?"

  "Your Highness, I belong to a foreign country."

  "No matter; be my aide. Come; I offer you a complete revenge for thetreatment you have received at Madame's hands. Your government shallnever know."

  Maurice studied the mane of his horse. Suddenly he made a gesture. Thisgesture consigned to the four winds his diplomatic career. "I accept,"he said. "You will find me at the Continental. I confess that I have nolove for this woman. She has robbed me of no little conceit."

  "To the palace, then; to the palace! And this hour to-morrow we, you andI, will drink to her Royal Highness at the Red Chateau. To the palace!"

  Up the Strasse they raced, through the lower town to the upper, and downthe broad asphalt to the palace gates. The prince rushed his horse tothe very bars and shook them in his wild impatience.

  "Ho! open, open!" he called.

  Several cuirassiers lounged about. At the sight of these two hatless,bedraggled men storming the gates, they ran forward with drawn swordsand angry cries. Lieutenant Scharfenstein was among them. At secondglance he recognized Maurice, who hailed him.

  "Open, Lieutenant," he cried; "it is his Highness, Prince Frederick!"

  The bars came down, the gates swung in.

  "Go and sleep," said the prince to Maurice; "I will send an orderly foryou when the time comes." And with this he dashed up the driveway to themain entrance of the palace, leaped from his horse and disappeared.

  Maurice wheeled and drove leisurely to the Continental, leaving theamazed cuirassiers gaping after him. He experienced that exuberance ofspirits which always comes with a delightful day dream. He forgot hisweariness, his bruises. To mingle directly in the affairs of kings andprinces, to be a factor among factors who surround and uphold thrones,seemed so at variance with his republican learning that he was not surethat all this was not one long dream--Fitzgerald and his consols, themeeting with the princess, the adventures at Madame's chateau, theduel with Beauvais, the last night's flight with the prince across themountains! Yes; he had fallen asleep somewhere and had been whisked awayinto a kind of fairyland. Every one was in trouble just now, as theyalways are in certain chapters of fairy tales, but all would endhappily, and then--he would wake.

  Meanwhile the prince entered the palace and was proceeding up the grandcorridor, when a bared sword stayed his progress.

  "Monsieur," said von Mitter, "you have lost your way. You can not enterhere."

  "I?" a haughty, threatening expression on his pale face. "Are you sure?"

  Von Mitter fell back against the wall and all but lost hold of hissaber. "Your Highness?" he gasped, overcome.

  "Even so!" said the prince. "The archbishop! the Marshal! Lead me tothem at once!"

  Von Mitter was too much the soldier not to master his surprise at once.He saluted, clicked his heels and limped toward the throne room.He stopped at the threshold, saluted again, and, in a voice full ofquavers, announced:

  "His Highness Prince Frederick of Carnavia."

  He stepped aside, and the prince pushed past him into the throne room.At this dramatic entrance there rose from the archbishop, the Marshal,the princess, the Carnavian ambassador, from all the court dignitaries,a cry of wonder and astonishment.

  "His Highness!"

  "Aye!" cried the prince, brokenly, for his joy at seeing the princessnigh overcame him. "I have been a prisoner of Madame's, who at thismoment is marching on Bleiberg with an army four thousand strong!" Andstumblingly he related his misadventures.

  The Marshal did not wait until he had done, nor did the new Colonelof the cuirassiers; both rushed from the room. The archbishop frowned;while the princess and the court stared at the prince with varyingemotions. Before the final word had passed his lips, he approached herHighness, fell on his knee and raised her hand to his lips. H
e noticednot how cold it was.

  "Thank God, Mademoiselle," he said, "that once more I look into youreyes. And if one wedding day is gone--well, there is yet time foranother!" He, rose, and proudly before them all he drew her toward himand kissed her cheek. It was his right; she was, the light of allhis dreams, at once his bride-to-be and lady-love. But in his joy andeagerness he did not see how pale she grew at the touch of his lips, norhow the lids of her eyes trembled and fell.

  Next the prince recounted Maurice's adventures, how he became connectedwith those at the chateau, even Fitzgerald's fall from grace. Theindignation and surprise which was accorded this recital was unbounded.

  The brown eyes of the princess filled. In a moment she had traversed thespace of ten years to a rare September noon, when a gray-haired old manhad kissed her hand and praised her speech. A young dog stood besideher, ready for a romp in the park. Across the path sat her father, whowas smiling, and who would never smile again. How many times had hergirlish fancy pictured the son of that old man! How many times had shedreamed of him--aye, prayed for him! The room grew dark, and she pressedher hand over her heart. To her the future was empty indeed. There wasnothing left but the vague perfume of the past, the faint incense offutile, childish dreams. To stand on the very threshold of life, andyet to see no joy beyond! She struggled against the sob which rose, andconquered it.

  "To arms, Messieurs, to arms!" cried the prince, feverishly. "To arms!"

  The archbishop stepped forward and took the prince's hand in his own.

  "God wills all things," he said, sadly, "and perhaps he has willed thatyour Highness should come too late!" And that strange, habitual smilewas gone--forever. No one could fathom the true significance of thispeculiar speech.

  "But 'aux armes' was taken up, and spread throughout the city.