by Anthony Hope
CHAPTER 4
The King Keeps His Appointment
Whether I had slept a minute or a year I knew not. I awoke with a startand a shiver; my face, hair and clothes dripped water, and opposite mestood old Sapt, a sneering smile on his face and an empty bucket in hishand. On the table by him sat Fritz von Tarlenheim, pale as a ghost andblack as a crow under the eyes.
I leapt to my feet in anger.
"Your joke goes too far, sir!" I cried.
"Tut, man, we've no time for quarrelling. Nothing else would rouse you.It's five o'clock."
"I'll thank you, Colonel Sapt--" I began again, hot in spirit, though Iwas uncommonly cold in body.
"Rassendyll," interrupted Fritz, getting down from the table and takingmy arm, "look here."
The King lay full length on the floor. His face was red as his hair,and he breathed heavily. Sapt, the disrespectful old dog, kicked himsharply. He did not stir, nor was there any break in his breathing. Isaw that his face and head were wet with water, as were mine.
"We've spent half an hour on him," said Fritz.
"He drank three times what either of you did," growled Sapt.
I knelt down and felt his pulse. It was alarmingly languid and slow. Wethree looked at one another.
"Was it drugged--that last bottle?" I asked in a whisper.
"I don't know," said Sapt.
"We must get a doctor."
"There's none within ten miles, and a thousand doctors wouldn't takehim to Strelsau today. I know the look of it. He'll not move for six orseven hours yet."
"But the coronation!" I cried in horror.
Fritz shrugged his shoulders, as I began to see was his habit on mostoccasions.
"We must send word that he's ill," he said.
"I suppose so," said I.
Old Sapt, who seemed as fresh as a daisy, had lit his pipe and waspuffing hard at it.
"If he's not crowned today," said he, "I'll lay a crown he's nevercrowned."
"But heavens, why?"
"The whole nation's there to meet him; half the army--ay, and BlackMichael at the head. Shall we send word that the King's drunk?"
"That he's ill," said I, in correction.
"Ill!" echoed Sapt, with a scornful laugh. "They know his illnesses toowell. He's been 'ill' before!"
"Well, we must chance what they think," said Fritz helplessly. "I'llcarry the news and make the best of it."
Sapt raised his hand.
"Tell me," said he. "Do you think the King was drugged?"
"I do," said I.
"And who drugged him?"
"That damned hound, Black Michael," said Fritz between his teeth.
"Ay," said Sapt, "that he might not come to be crowned. Rassendyll heredoesn't know our pretty Michael. What think you, Fritz, has Michael noking ready? Has half Strelsau no other candidate? As God's alive, manthe throne's lost if the King show himself not in Strelsau today. I knowBlack Michael."
"We could carry him there," said I.
"And a very pretty picture he makes," sneered Sapt.
Fritz von Tarlenheim buried his face in his hands. The King breathedloudly and heavily. Sapt stirred him again with his foot.
"The drunken dog!" he said; "but he's an Elphberg and the son of hisfather, and may I rot in hell before Black Michael sits in his place!"
For a moment or two we were all silent; then Sapt, knitting his bushygrey brows, took his pipe from his mouth and said to me:
"As a man grows old he believes in Fate. Fate sent you here. Fate sendsyou now to Strelsau."
I staggered back, murmuring "Good God!"
Fritz looked up with an eager, bewildered gaze.
"Impossible!" I muttered. "I should be known."
"It's a risk--against a certainty," said Sapt. "If you shave, I'll wageryou'll not be known. Are you afraid?"
"Sir!"
"Come, lad, there, there; but it's your life, you know, if you'reknown--and mine--and Fritz's here. But, if you don't go, I swear to youBlack Michael will sit tonight on the throne, and the King lie in prisonor his grave."
"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 inthought. Then I suppose a look came over my face, for old Sapt caught meby the hand, crying:
"You'll go?"
"Yes, I'll go," said I, and I turned my eyes on the prostrate figure ofthe King on the floor.
"Tonight," Sapt went on in a hasty whisper, "we are to lodge in thePalace. The moment they leave us you and I will mount our horses--Fritzmust 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 withme to Strelsau, and you ride as if the devil were behind you to thefrontier."
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 belowbefore 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 wasback, and Josef with him. The latter carried a jug of hot water, soapand razors. He was trembling as Sapt told him how the land lay, and badehim 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 atrain 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? Ifthey do find him, he's no worse off than if he isn't crowned today inStrelsau."
So speaking, he flung the door open and, stooping, put forth a strengthI did not dream he had, and lifted the King in his hands. And as he didso, 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 ofsurprise, 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 hisarms.
For me, I sat down in an armchair, and as I sat there, half-dazed, Josefclipped and scraped me till my moustache and imperial were things of thepast and my face was as bare as the King's. And when Fritz saw me thushe 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 intothe King's room, and I dressed myself in the uniform of a colonel of theGuard, finding time as I slipped on the King's boots to ask Sapt what hehad done with the old woman.
"She swore she'd heard nothing," said he; "but to make sure I tied herlegs 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 willlook 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'llthink it is because we smelt a rat. For you may swear Black Michaeldoesn'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 graciouslypleased 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 regimentas that to which my dress belonged. In four minutes Sapt had arrayedhimself in his uniform. Josef called that the horses were ready. Wejumped 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 allSapt said to me. He was wonderful. Fritz hardly spoke, riding like a manasleep, but Sapt, without another word for the King, began at once toinstruct 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 beconstantly at my elbow to point out everybody whom I ought to know, andgive 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 arudimentary lesson in the practices and observances of the Romish faith.
"Luckily," said he, "you won't be expected to know much, for the King'snotoriously lax and careless about such matters. But you must be ascivil as butter to the Cardinal. We hope to win him over, because he andMichael have a standing quarrel about their precedence."
We were by now at the station. Fritz had recovered nerve enough toexplain to the astonished station master that the King had changed hisplans. The train steamed up. We got into a first-class carriage, andSapt, leaning back on the cushions, went on with his lesson. I looked atmy 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 timeit was Sapt who shrugged his shoulders.
The train travelled well, and at half-past nine, looking out of thewindow, 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 tooquick," 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 theague. 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 yourMajesty's arrival, for there'll be no one here to meet us yet. Andmeanwhile--"
"Meanwhile," said I, "the King'll be hanged if he doesn't have somebreakfast."
Old Sapt chuckled, and held out his hand.
"You're an Elphberg, every inch of you," said he. Then he paused, andlooking 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 thedoor for me. I choked down a lump that rose in my throat, settled myhelmet firmly on my head, and (I'm not ashamed to say it) breathed ashort prayer to God. Then I stepped on the platform of the station atStrelsau.
A moment later, all was bustle and confusion: men hurrying up, hatsin hand, and hurrying off again; men conducting me to the buffet; menmounting and riding in hot haste to the quarters of the troops, to theCathedral, to the residence of Duke Michael. Even as I swallowed thelast drop of my cup of coffee, the bells throughout all the city brokeout into a joyful peal, and the sound of a military band and of mencheering smote upon my ear.
King Rudolf the Fifth was in his good city of Strelsau! And they shoutedoutside--
"God save the King!"
Old Sapt's mouth wrinkled into a smile.
"God save 'em both!" he whispered. "Courage, lad!" and I felt his handpress my knee.