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diff --git a/28167-h/28167-h.htm b/28167-h/28167-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..be95d28 --- /dev/null +++ b/28167-h/28167-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,9273 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Modern Mercenary, by Kate Prichard and Hesketh Vernon Hesketh-Prichard</title> + <style type="text/css"> + + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .TOC {list-style-type: upper-roman; + margin-left: 10em; + text-align: left; + line-height: 150%} + + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + + hr.full { width: 100%; + margin-top: 3em; + margin-bottom: 0em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + height: 4px; + border-width: 4px 0 0 0; /* remove all borders except the top one */ + border-style: solid; + border-color: #000000; + clear: both; } + pre {font-size: 85%;} + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Modern Mercenary, by Kate Prichard and +Hesketh Vernon Hesketh-Prichard</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: A Modern Mercenary</p> +<p>Author: Kate Prichard and Hesketh Vernon Hesketh-Prichard</p> +<p>Release Date: February 24, 2009 [eBook #28167]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MODERN MERCENARY***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3>E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Graeme Mackreth,<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> + +<p class="center"> +<img src="images/illus01.jpg" alt="cover" /> + +</p> + + +<h1>A MODERN MERCENARY</h1> + +<p class="center"> +<img src="images/illus02.jpg" alt="cover" /> + +</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>A MODERN MERCENARY</h2> + +<h4>BY</h4> + +<h2>K. AND HESKETH PRICHARD</h2> + +<h3>[E. AND H. HERON]</h3> + +<p class="center" style="margin-top: 5em;"> +<img src="images/illus04.jpg" alt="cover" /> + +</p> + + +<p class='center' style="margin-top: 5em;"><small>NEW YORK DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & CO. 1902<br /> + +<span class="smcap">Copyright, 1899, by</span><br /> + +DOUBLEDAY & McCLURE CO.</small></p> + + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>TABLE OF CONTENTS</h2> + + + + + + + + + +<ul class="TOC"> +<li> +<a href="#CHAPTER_I"> <span class="smcap">A Lieutenant of Frontier Cavalry</span></a> +</li> +<li> +<a href="#CHAPTER_II"> <span class="smcap">A Gentleman of the Guard</span></a> +</li> +<li> +<a href="#CHAPTER_III"> <span class="smcap">The Gentlemen of the Guard</span></a> +</li> + +<li> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV"> <span class="smcap">Danger Signals</span></a> +</li> +<li> +<a href="#CHAPTER_V"> <span class="smcap">Good Luck and a Firefly</span></a> +</li> + +<li> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VI"> <span class="smcap">The Cloister of St. Anthony</span></a> +</li> + +<li> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VII"> <span class="smcap">One Woman's Diplomacy</span></a> +</li> +<li> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"> <span class="smcap">A Question of the Guard</span></a> +</li> + +<li> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IX"> <span class="smcap">The Castle of Sagan</span></a> +</li> + +<li> +<a href="#CHAPTER_X"> <span class="smcap">Count Simon of Sagan</span></a> +</li> + +<li> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XI"> <span class="smcap">A Counsel of Expediency</span></a> +</li> + +<li> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XII"> <span class="smcap">Anthony Unziar</span></a> +</li> + +<li> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII"> <span class="smcap">Love in Two Shades</span></a> +</li> + +<li> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV"> <span class="smcap">Half a Promise</span></a> +</li> + +<li> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XV"> <span class="smcap">Colendorp</span></a> +</li> + +<li> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI"> '<span class="smcap">With Your Lips to the Hurt</span>'</a> +</li> + +<li> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII"> <span class="smcap">Iris</span></a> +</li> + +<li> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII"> <span class="smcap">The Sword of Unziar</span></a> +</li> + +<li> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX"> <span class="smcap">In Diplomatic Relations</span></a> +</li> + +<li> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XX"> <span class="smcap">Under the Pines</span></a> +</li> + +<li> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXI"> <span class="smcap">Love's Beggar</span></a> +</li> + +<li> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXII"> <span class="smcap">In Love with Honour</span></a> +</li> + +<li> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII"> <span class="smcap">How Rallywood had His Orders</span></a> +</li> + +<li> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV"> <span class="smcap">On the Frontier</span></a> +</li> + +<li> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXV"> <span class="smcap">A Question of Two Moralities</span></a> +</li> + +<li> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI"> <span class="smcap">Love's Handicap</span></a> +</li> + +<li> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII"> <span class="smcap">The Man of the Hour</span></a> +</li> + +<li> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII"> <span class="smcap">The Arrest</span> </a> +</li> +<li> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX"> <span class="smcap">The Court-Martial</span></a> +</li> +<li> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXX"> '<span class="smcap">Upon the Great World's Altar-Stairs</span>'</a> +</li> +<li> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI"> <span class="smcap">Duke Gustave</span></a> +</li> +<li> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII"> <span class="smcap">For a Season</span></a> +</li> +</ul> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>A MODERN MERCENARY</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<p class='center'>A LIEUTENANT OF FRONTIER CAVALRY.</p> + + +<p>During four months of the year the independent State of Maäsau,' we will +call it—which is not very noticeable even on the largest sized map of +Europe—is tormented by a dry and weary north-east wind. And nowhere is +its influence more unpleasantly felt than in the capital, Révonde, which +stands shoulder-on to the hustling gales, its stately frontages and +noble quays stretching out westwards along the shores of the Kofn almost +to where the yellow waters of the river spread fan-wise into a +grey-green sea.</p> + +<p>The <i>tsa</i> was blowing strongly on a certain November afternoon, eddying +and whistling about the wide spaces of the Grand Square as John +Rallywood, a tall figure in a military cloak, turned the corner of a +side street and met its full blast. He faced it for some yards along the +empty pavements, then ran up the steps of his club. A few minutes later +he passed through a lofty corridor and entered a door over which is set +a quaint invitation to smokers, which may not be written down here, for +it is the jealously guarded copyright of the club.</p> + +<p>It chanced that the room for the moment had but one occupant, who sat in +a roomy armchair by the white stove. This gentleman did not raise his +head, but continued to gaze thoughtfully at his well shaped though +square and comfortable boots.</p> + +<p>Rallywood paused almost imperceptibly in his stride.</p> + +<p>'Hullo, Major! Glad to see you,' he said, as he dropped into an armchair +opposite.</p> + +<p>Major Counsellor stood up with his back to the stove, thereby giving a +view of a red, challenging face, heavy eyebrows, and a huge white droop +of moustache. He looked down at Rallywood consideringly before he spoke. +'So you're here. I imagined they kept you pretty closely on the +frontier. The world been kicking you?'</p> + +<p>Rallywood laughed.</p> + +<p>'No, but it would do me good to kick the world,' he answered as he +helped himself from the Major's cigar case. 'Five years, almost six, +spent on the frontier, with nothing to show for it, isn't good enough. +I've come up to send in my papers.'</p> + +<p>'Then you'll be a fool,' returned the Major with decision.</p> + +<p>Rallywood was busy lighting his cigar; when that was arranged to his +satisfaction he said easily—</p> + +<p>'Just so. History repeats itself.'</p> + +<p>Counsellor stood squarely upright with his hands behind him.</p> + +<p>'Any other reasons?' he asked.</p> + +<p>'Plenty.'</p> + +<p>'Pity! Are they serious or—otherwise?'</p> + +<p>Rallywood pulled his moustache.</p> + +<p>'Why is it a pity?' he asked slowly.</p> + +<p>'Because there is going to be trouble here, and with trouble comes a +chance.'</p> + +<p>Rallywood smoked on in silence. He was a big, shallow-flanked man with +the marks of the world upon him, and that indescribable air which comes +to one who has passed a good portion of his time in laughing at the +arbitrary handicaps arranged by Fate in the race of life.</p> + +<p>'Where do you propose to go?' asked Counsellor after an interval.</p> + +<p>'Back to Africa, I think—Buluwayo, Johannesburg, anywhere. South +Africa's still in the bud, you see.'</p> + +<p>'Yes, but it is a biggish bud and will take time to blow. You can afford +to wait and—it may be worth your while.'</p> + +<p>Rallywood threw a swift glance at Counsellor's inscrutable face.</p> + +<p>'Seven years ago,' he said in a deliberate manner, 'you told me it was +worth while, but life has not grown more interesting since then.'</p> + +<p>'Ah!' Counsellor paused, then went on with a grim smile, 'At your age, +John, there are possibilities. Think over it. After hanging on here for +more than five years why lose your chance now? Look at those fellows.' +He pointed out into the square.</p> + +<p>Rallywood rose lazily and gazed out also. The prospect was not cheering. +A few troopers, their cloaks flapping in the wind, were galloping across +the square on the way to relieve guard at the Palace, and under the +statue of the late Grand Duke on horseback three men in tall hats stood +talking together; then they turned and walked towards the club.</p> + +<p>'Know them?' asked Counsellor.</p> + +<p>Rallywood shook his head.</p> + +<p>'The man with the beard is Stokes of the 'Times:' next him is Bradley; +he's on another big daily. Their being here speaks for itself. Maäsau is +going to take up people's attention shortly. The Grand Duke is in a +tight place, and there will be a flare-up sooner or later.'</p> + +<p>'And you advise me to stop and see it through?' said Rallywood +meditatively from the window; then he lounged back to his chair. 'How +will it end?'</p> + +<p>Counsellor shook the ash from his cigar.</p> + +<p>'Selpdorf is the man of the hour,' he said.</p> + +<p>On the autumn evening when these two men were talking at the club the +Duchy of Maäsau was, in the opinion of Maäsaun patriots, going as fast +as it could to the devil. With them, it may be added, the devil was +personified and bore the name of a neighbouring nation. The one person +who ignored this fact was the Grand Duke. With an inset, stubborn pride +he believed that his country must remain for ever, as the long centuries +had known her, Maäsau the Free. This being the case, he felt himself at +liberty to spend his time in cursing the fate that had refused blue seas +and skies to wintry Révonde, thus depriving it of these sources of +revenue which depend upon climate, and which are enjoyed by places far +less naturally beautiful than the capital of Maäsau.</p> + +<p>The Duke, prematurely aged, by the manner of his life, made it his chief +business to devise schemes for raising money whereby he might carry on +the staling pleasures of his youth. Beyond this the administration of +public affairs was left entirely in the supple hands of the Chancellor, +M. Selpdorf, while the Duke, with those who surrounded him, plunged into +the newest excitement of the hour, for who knew what a day might bring +forth? The Court was like a stage lit by lurid light, on which the +actors laughed and loved, danced and fought to the music of a wild +finale, that whirled and maddened before the crash of the coming end.</p> + +<p>Once upon a time Maäsau was accounted of no particular importance or +value amongst its bigger neighbours; but of late, for various reasons, +its fortunes had become the subject of attention and discussion in at +least three foreign chancelleries, where old maps were being looked up +and new ones bought and painted different colours, according as seemed +most desirable by the bearded men, who sat in council to apportion the +marsh, rock, dune, and forest of which the now absorbingly interesting +pigmy State was composed.</p> + +<p>In fact, Maäsau, with its twenty miles or so of seaboard, containing one +excellent port <i>in esse</i> and two others <i>in posse</i>, had become a +Naboth's vineyard to a country almost land-bound and yet dreaming of the +supremacy of the four seas. On this ambition and its possible +consequences the other Great Powers looked, to speak diplomatically, +with coldness.</p> + +<p>It was generally understood that the English Foreign Office desired the +maintenance of the <i>status quo</i>; France was supposed to be ready to clap +a young republic on the back and to accord it her protection, while +Russia played her own dumb and blinding game, of which none could +definitely pronounce the issue. The political world thus stood at gaze, +watching every change and prepared to take advantage of any chance that +offered. The honours of the game so far had lain with M. Selpdorf, who +scored each trick with the same bland smile. Whenever the Treasury of +Maäsau was at a low ebb Selpdorf usually had a thirteenth card to lay +upon the table, and as the nations cautiously proceeded to frustrate +each other's purposes royal remittances from Heaven knows where flowed +in abundantly to replenish the bankrupt exchequer of the State.</p> + +<p>When Major Counsellor expressed his emphatic disapproval of the +intended resignation of Rallywood a new development was in the air. +Hitherto the lead had mostly devolved upon Selpdorf; on this occasion he +was known to be hanging back, and the question of who would take the +initiative was the question of the day. The fact that Germany had lately +accredited a new representative, a certain Baron von Elmur, to the Court +of Maäsau,—an able man whose reputation rested mainly on the successful +performance of missions of a delicate nature,—added to the tension of +the moment.</p> + +<p>'So you say they are getting up steam in Maäsau?' said Rallywood again. +'I have been out in the wilds for the last six months, and don't know so +much about events as I might.'</p> + +<p>'Steam?' growled Counsellor. 'Steam enough to wreck Europe! I almost +wish I'd never godfathered you into this blessed little stoke-hole. Why +the deuce didn't you enlist at home instead of coming here?'</p> + +<p>'That was out of the question, of course.'</p> + +<p>'Why? Isn't our army good enough for you to fight in?'</p> + +<p>'If it was only that!—I could fight in the ranks, God knows, but I +couldn't parade in them! Besides, the life here suited me—then.'</p> + +<p>'What's gone wrong with it now? I should have thought you would have got +used to it by this time,' observed Counsellor with the air of the older +man. It was not the first occasion on which he had played the part of +elderly relative towards Rallywood during the course of their queer, +rough-grained friendship—a friendship of a type which exists only +between man and man, and even then is sufficiently rare.</p> + +<p>'Precisely, I'm too infernally used to it! It was not half bad as long +as the newness lasted, but I can't stand it any longer! I'm sick of the +monotony. Do you know old Fitzadams's criticism on the service here? +"Dust and drill, drill and dust, and fill in the chinks with homicidal +manœuvres."'</p> + +<p>'Maäsau only apes its betters. These Continental armies devote +themselves very assiduously to rehearsals, and there is no end of waste +about the process,' remarked Counsellor. 'They rehearse in summer and +get sunstroke; then they rehearse in winter with rheumatisms and lung +troubles growing on every bush. The bill for blank cartridges alone is +enormous! And all because they have no India and no Africa, as we have, +where we can give our fellows a taste of the real thing any day in the +week. We carry on a small war with a regiment, or despatch a youngster +with half a company to teach manners and honesty to twenty thousand +niggers. The peculiarity of our army is that it is always at war. In +this way we escape the dangers of theory, and get practice with +something for our money into the bargain.'</p> + +<p>'Our plan has its advantages,' agreed Rallywood lazily. 'I saw in South +Africa what a little active service does for a man. The first time he +is under fire he is persuaded that he is going to be killed, and that +every shot must hit him. But after a trial or two he begins to think the +odds are in his favour and he becomes a much more effective fighting +machine.'</p> + +<p>'Necessarily he does. We don't half realise the value of our colonies +yet—as a training ground for our soldiers. The British army is the +smallest in Europe, but it remains to be seen what account it will give +of itself if it is ever brought into contact with these huge, +peace-trained conscript monsters.'</p> + +<p>'When the Duke dies——' began Rallywood, harking back to the former +topic of conversation.</p> + +<p>The door was softly opened, and a waiter advanced into the room, bearing +a letter for Rallywood, who took it and laid it down on the table beside +him, then looked at Counsellor for an answer to his half spoken +question. Counsellor shrugged his shoulders.</p> + +<p>'Who can tell?' he replied. 'Meanwhile take the gifts the gods have sent +you to-day,' and he pointed to the long, heavily sealed envelope that +lay at Rallywood's elbow. 'Selpdorf, I see, already has his finger upon +you.'</p> + +<p>Rallywood broke the great seals, and, having read, he tossed the paper +into the other's hands.</p> + +<p>'He wishes to see me at 9.30. What can he want with me?' he asked.</p> + +<p>'Probably he has heard you intend to cut the service. It appears to me, +Rallywood, that your chance has come out to meet you.'</p> + +<p>'How could he have heard that I meant to go? And what can it matter to +any one if I do?' went on Rallywood incredulously.</p> + +<p>Counsellor shook his head, but made no other reply.</p> + +<p>'A lieutenant of the Frontier Cavalry,' resumed Rallywood, 'is merely a +superior make of excise officer!'</p> + +<p>'You will be something more or something else before 10, I expect. As +for what he wants with you, that is for you to find out—if you can.'</p> + +<p>'It is to be hoped he may feel moved to let me have my arrears of pay,' +said Rallywood, relapsing into his usual tone of indifference; 'that is +the chief consideration with us on the frontier just now.'</p> + +<p>'He probably will if it suits him—or rather perhaps if you suit him. +Come over and dine with me presently at the Continental. There's +generally a decent dinner to be had there.'</p> + +<p>John Rallywood, one of the old Lincolnshire Rallywoods, had been born to +a fortune, and moreover with an immense capacity for enjoying it after a +wholesome fashion. Queens Fain had fallen to him while still an infant +upon the death of a great-uncle, and with the old place were connected +all those hundred untranslatable ties and associations which go to make +up a boy's dreams. He was a man of suppressed, perhaps half unconscious, +but nevertheless deep-rooted enthusiasms; hence when the blow fell +which deprived him not only of his inheritance, but also cut short the +life of his mother, the unexpected, almost intolerable anguish he +silently endured had left a deep, defacing scar upon his personality.</p> + +<p>Up to twenty-two the record of his life, if not striking, had been clean +and manly. He had passed through Sandhurst, and joined a dragoon +regiment for something over a year, when an older branch of the family, +supposed for a quarter of a century to be extinct, suddenly presented +itself very much alive in the person of a middle-aged, middle-class +American. Within three months the man's claim was substantiated, and +estate, fortune, position, and home—as far as John Rallywood was +concerned—had melted into thin air.</p> + +<p>During this period of disruption and trouble Counsellor, who happened to +be distantly connected with him, came into his life. They did not meet +very often and spoke little when together, but mutual knowledge and +liking resulted. Friendship is a living thing: it cannot be made; it +grows.</p> + +<p>Rallywood, when he turned to seek the means of a livelihood, found +himself, as he said long afterwards, standing in the corridor of life +with all the doors shut and no key to open them.</p> + +<p>His tastes and training alike led in the direction of a military career, +and presently he went out to the Cape, where he spent a year or two in a +police force which was in time disbanded, and he returned to England +once more at a loose end.</p> + +<p>At this juncture Major Counsellor suggested to him the possibility of +obtaining a commission in the little army of the Duchy of Maäsau. This +hint set him on the right track. The regiments of Maäsau, though few in +number, carried splendid traditions. Their ranks were drawn from a +stolid, silent peasantry, and officered by a wire-strung, high tempered +aristocracy, born of a mixed race, it is true, but none the less +frantically devoted to the freedom and independence of their shred of a +fatherland.</p> + +<p>In compliance with a private request on the part of Major Counsellor the +British Minister at Révonde bestirred himself to procure a commission +for Rallywood, who thus became a lieutenant in the Frontier Cavalry, and +for more than five years had taken his share in riding and keeping the +marches of Maäsau gaining much experience in capturing smugglers and in +superintending the digging out of snowed up trains. But life on the +frontier, though crammed with physical activity and routine work, was in +every other respect monotonously empty, and breaks in the shape of +furlough were few and far between. Half liked, wholly respected, and a +little feared amongst his comrades, but always remaining a lieutenant to +whom now, the State owed eighteen months' arrears of pay, Rallywood, in +return, owed to Maäsau only the qualified service of an unpaid man, but +gave it the full devotion of a capable officer.</p> + +<p>As to Counsellor, no one could quite account for his presence at Révonde +at the present moment. He was supposed to be attached in some indefinite +way to the Legation, but he described himself as a bird of passage, +whose appearance in the European capital simply meant whim or pleasure, +for he was growing old and lazy and could not be brought to account for +his wanderings, which he assured those who ventured to enquire were +chiefly undertaken in search of health. Nevertheless wherever he went or +came something interesting in a political sense—and more often than +not, in favour of British interests—was almost sure to happen.</p> + +<p>In former days he had filled the position of military attaché to two or +three of the more important embassies, and was said to be the best known +man in Europe. He had, moreover, the right to carry upon his breast the +ribbon and decoration of more than one exclusive and distinguished +Order. Of the many rumours associated with him this saying was certainly +true: that one could never enter the smoking-room of any diplomatic club +in any city in Europe without standing a fair chance of encountering +Major Counsellor warming himself beside the stove.</p> + +<p>Therefore he had naturally an enormous circle of acquaintance, each +individual knowing very little about him, though he always formed an +interesting subject of conversation, and a political opinion backed by +his name became at once important.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<p class='center'>A GENTLEMAN OF THE GUARD.</p> + + +<p>Shortly before 9.30 Rallywood presented himself at the granite palace, +with its four cupolas, which M. Selpdorf occupied in his capacity of +First Minister of State. After some slight delay he was ushered into a +comfortable study, where he found Selpdorf with a reading-lamp at his +elbow, glancing rapidly through a mass of papers that he threw one after +another, with apparent carelessness, on the floor beside him.</p> + +<p>The chancellor of a small State might very well have been pardoned had +he introduced a certain amount of what an old official used to call +'desk dignity' into his dealings with those who approached him, but +Selpdorf habitually affected an easy manner and an easy chair. He was a +middle-sized man, possessed of a very round head, bald at the crown, but +having still a lock of dark hair on the summit of his round forehead; +very round eyes set far back in smooth holes, showing little lid; a nose +blunt and thick over lips that might have been coarse, but were +controlled, and betrayed a lurking humour at the corners, to which the +upstanding moustaches seemed to add point. For all his peculiarity of +aspect, he was a man who left an impression on the memory of something +pleasing and attractive, especially in the minds of women.</p> + +<p>He received Rallywood with that air of deep personal interest which told +with such happy effect on those whom he desired to influence.</p> + +<p>'Ah, my dear Lieutenant, I understood you were in Révonde, and took the +advantage of your presence to put into effect a little plan which has +been for some time in contemplation. I recollect having had the pleasure +of meeting you not so long ago when you arrived in Maäsau.'</p> + +<p>'Nearly six years ago, your Excellency,' replied Rallywood with a smile.</p> + +<p>'I can scarcely believe it to be so long. At any rate I remember +perfectly that I had the honour of presenting you to his Highness as the +latest addition to our Frontier Cavalry.'</p> + +<p>'Your Excellency might easily have forgotten. From the nature of the +case that could not be possible with me.'</p> + +<p>Selpdorf listened with a little astonishment. This Englishman was not +quite such a fool as one might have expected from the fact of his having +been content to remain without preferment and only a proportion of his +pay for over five years on the frontier. He had hoped to find the fellow +adaptable, but this long-limbed, slow-spoken gentleman was not +altogether so transparent an individuality as Selpdorf had led himself +to expect.</p> + +<p>'But why have you secluded yourself for so long among those barbarous +marshes and forests?' demanded the Chancellor in a rallying manner. The +young man made no reply, though the obvious one was in his mind.</p> + +<p>'By-the-by,' resumed the Chancellor, as if struck by a new thought, 'I +have heard that your countryman Major Counsellor has come to pay us a +little visit in Maäsau.'</p> + +<p>'He is here. I have just seen him,' replied Rallywood.</p> + +<p>Selpdorf's round eyes glanced once more at his companion. The simple +directness of the reply was admirable but baffling.</p> + +<p>'Ah, he is invaluable, the good Major, quite invaluable! England may +well be proud of him. He is one of the ablest men in Europe, +besides'—here he smiled, showing a row of strong, even teeth—'besides +being one of the most honest. For a diplomatist—what praise!'</p> + +<p>Rallywood met his glance imperturbably.</p> + +<p>'For a diplomatist, your Excellency?' he repeated.</p> + +<p>'But assuredly,' replied the Chancellor warmly: 'figure to yourself, my +friend, the condition of politics if all statesmen were like +him—honest! An invaluable man!'</p> + +<p>He paused for a reply, but Rallywood merely bowed. He felt that so much +at least was expected of him on the part of England.</p> + +<p>'But now, monsieur, with regard to your own affair. You have been five +years in the service of his Highness. And your command?'</p> + +<p>'At present fifty troopers at the block-houses above Kofn Ford and along +the river. In the winter, during the long dark nights, when there are +many attempts to run illicit goods across the frontier, I shall have, +perhaps, a score or so more.'</p> + +<p>'And you are not tired of it?' M. Selpdorf raised his hands.</p> + +<p>'So tired, your Excellency, that I am half inclined to let a better man +step into my shoes.'</p> + +<p>'But come, come, that is impossible!' returned his Excellency agreeably. +'Are you also tired of our capital, of Révonde?'</p> + +<p>'I have had very little opportunity of growing tired of Révonde. I know +nothing of it.'</p> + +<p>'But you would prefer Révonde, believe me.'</p> + +<p>At this moment an attendant appeared with a card upon a salver. Selpdorf +read the name with the faintest contraction of his brows.</p> + +<p>'You will excuse me, M. Rallywood,' he said; 'I must ask you to wait in +the ante-room for a few minutes.'</p> + +<p>The ante-room was a long pillared corridor, in which Rallywood found +himself quite alone. He fell at once into speculations as to the meaning +and aim of Selpdorf's late awakened interest in himself. Also the +allusions to Counsellor had probably been made with calculated +intention.</p> + +<p>Rallywood understood that each of these two men had the same end in +view; each desired to dissemble his own character. And each of them +succeeded with the many, but failed as between themselves. Selpdorf +posed as the suave, sympathetic, good-natured friend of those with whom +he came in contact; Counsellor, as a man of no account, a rugged +soldier, honest, strong, outspoken, a good agent to act under the +direction of more astute brains, but if left to his own resources +somewhat blunt and blundering.</p> + +<p>To do Rallywood justice, he was far more occupied with this last thought +than with the things which bore more directly on his own prospects and +future. At this period his life was comparatively tasteless and void of +interest; there was nothing to look forward to, and the recent past +meant extremes of heat and cold, long solitary rounds ridden by night, +and days rendered so far alike by iron-handed rule and method that one +was driven to mark the lapse of time by the seasons, not by the ordinary +divisions of weeks and months.</p> + +<p>As he lounged in a chair full of these thoughts a slight rustle, soft +and silken, like the rustle of a woman's dress, caught his ear. He +turned his head quickly. The corridor with its splendid pillars, which +stood at long intervals, was steeped in the clear electric light, and +from where he sat he could see that there was no person visible +throughout its entire length.</p> + +<p>Then as his gaze travelled back it rested on something which had +certainly not been lying where he now saw it at the time of his +entrance.</p> + +<p>Not six paces behind him, stretched across the dark carpeting, in the +very centre of the pillared vista, lay a woman's long glove.</p> + +<p>A woman's glove possesses a peculiar charm for all men. Perhaps it +suggests some of the sweet mystery of womanhood. The first action of +most young men in Rallywood's place would have been to raise it at once +and to examine it, as though in some impalpable manner it could tell +something of its unknown wearer, who might turn out to be the Hathor, +the one woman in the world.</p> + +<p>But the circumstances of Rallywood's life, and perhaps also some +exclusive element in his character, had heretofore set him rather apart +from the influence of women. He had grown to regard them without +curiosity, which is the last stage indifference can reach.</p> + +<p>It must be admitted that it was with a feeling akin to repugnance that +he at last lifted the long, soft, pale-hued, faintly-scented <i>suède</i> +from the floor and dangled it at an unnecessary distance from his eyes, +holding it as he did so daintily between finger and thumb. Its subtle +appeal to his senses as a man failed to reach him. It simply aroused an +old feeling of reserve toward the sex it represented. His face altered +slightly and he dropped it suddenly with an odd repulsion, as he might +have dropped a snake, on a couch near by.</p> + +<p>Then he resumed his chair and turned his back upon it, till the +reflection that the woman to whom it belonged must have come and gone +while he sat thinking with his back to the corridor sent him wheeling +round again.</p> + +<p>The glove still lay where he had placed it on the edge of the couch, +palm upwards and with a suggestion of helplessness and pleading. It +annoyed him unreasonably. He frowned and looked at his watch. Half an +hour had passed since Selpdorf dismissed him.</p> + +<p>At that moment a guttural voice broke the silence of the house, and the +heavy curtain over the door at the nearer end of the ante-room was +thrust back by a brusque hand, and a tall, high-shouldered, handsome +man, dressed as if he were about to attend some Court function, stood in +the opening. Behind him Rallywood caught sight of a flurried and +explanatory lackey.</p> + +<p>'Ah! so I have lost my way after all,' said this personage in a bland +voice. 'A mistake! But I hope you will accord me your forgiveness, +mademoiselle?'</p> + +<p>Rallywood sprang to his feet at this most unexpected ending and looked +round.</p> + +<p>Close beside him stood a tall girl wrapped in a long cloak of fur and +amber velvet. She was singularly beautiful, with a pale, clear-hued +beauty. Her black, long-lashed eyes were on him and they were full of +laughter.</p> + +<p>'Enter, then, Baron,' said the girl, glancing across at the courtier. +'Did you guess you would find me here, or were you seeking monsieur?' +and she waved her bare left hand towards Rallywood.</p> + +<p>'I lost my way, nothing more,' returned the Baron, coming forward; 'but +perhaps, as in my heart, all roads lead towards——' He bowed deeply +once more, this time stooping to kiss the girl's hand with a certain +show of restrained eagerness.</p> + +<p>She drew back with a little impatient gesture.</p> + +<p>'I should not have been here, but for an accident,' she replied coldly. +'In fact I was on the point of starting for his Highness's reception, +had not monsieur detained me.' And, to Rallywood's amazement, she +indicated himself.</p> + +<p>Before he could speak she pointed to his spurred boot.</p> + +<p>'Monsieur has set his heel on my poor glove,' she added.</p> + +<p>By his hasty movement in rising he had apparently dislodged the glove +from its position on the edge of the couch. He stooped with a hurried +word of apology and picked it up. On the delicate palm was stamped the +curved stain of his boot-heel.</p> + +<p>'Do you always treat a lady's glove so?' she asked gravely, and held out +her hand for it.</p> + +<p>Rallywood looked down at her very deliberately, and something that was +neither his will nor his reason decided the next action. He folded the +soft <i>suède</i> reverently together.</p> + +<p>'No, mademoiselle,' he answered, as he placed it inside his tunic, 'I +have never before treated a lady's glove—so. For the accident, I offer +my deepest apologies.'</p> + +<p>She watched him with raised eyebrows and a slight derisive smile. Then +she drew the companion glove from her right hand, and giving it to the +lackey, who still remained in the background, she said—</p> + +<p>'Throw it away, it is useless, and tell Nanzelle to bring me another +pair.'</p> + +<p>'Monsieur, with whom I have not yet the pleasure of being acquainted,' +interrupted the Baron rather suddenly, 'monsieur is after all the lucky +man. He retains what I dare not even ask for.'</p> + +<p>'Shall I call back the servant with its fellow for you?' mademoiselle +asked haughtily. 'It is nothing to me who picks up what I have thrown +away.' With this rebuff to Rallywood she placed her hand upon the +German's, as if to ask him to lead her from the room, and added—</p> + +<p>'You wish for an introduction? Then allow me to present you to each +other. His excellency the Baron von Elmur.' She paused, and her eyes +dwelt for a moment on Rallywood's. 'A gentleman of the Guard.' And +before Rallywood could explain the mistake the curtain had dropped +behind them and he was left standing alone.</p> + +<p>In Baron von Elmur he recognized the oblique carriage of the head and +the high-shouldered figure of the third man he had seen with the +newspaper correspondents in the Grand Square that afternoon. Moreover he +knew that the German had entered the ante-room through no mistake, but +with some object in view. As for the girl, who was she and where had she +come from? She was not of Maäsau, since she had introduced him as +belonging to the Guard, for not only was every officer of that favoured +corps individually known, but it was further impossible for a Maäsaun to +make the slightest mistake with regard to any uniform. It was one of the +boasts of the country that even a child could tell at a glance not only +the special regiment, but the rank of the wearer of any uniform +belonging to the Duchy.</p> + +<p>Rallywood had no time just then to pursue the subject further, as he was +almost immediately recalled to the Chancellor's presence.</p> + +<p>'Now, monsieur,' began Selpdorf, as though no break had occurred in the +conversation, 'you are in truth tired of keeping our dreary marches; is +it not so?'</p> + +<p>'There are better places—and worse, your Excellency.'</p> + +<p>'Our gay little capital will be one of the better places, I promise +you,' continued the Chancellor. 'A position in the Guard of his Highness +has just become vacant. Am I right in believing that a nomination to +that superb regiment would tempt you to remain with us?'</p> + +<p>Rallywood for once was a little taken aback.</p> + +<p>'A gentleman of the Guard.' He repeated the girl's words of introduction +mechanically; then, putting aside the thought of her, he took up the +practical view of the situation and answered, 'I am an Englishman, your +Excellency, and though I have taken the soldier's oath to the Maäsaun +standard I have not taken the oath of nationality. I could not consent +to become a naturalised citizen even of the Duchy of Maäsau.'</p> + +<p>'Ah, so?' Selpdorf stroked his chin, then despatching the objection with +a wave of his hand, he resumed, 'We must overlook that in your case. You +have already served the Duke for five years with as sincere zeal as the +truest Maäsaun amongst us. We must remember that and overlook a drawback +which is far less important than it seems.'</p> + +<p>He turned to a memorandum on the table and consulted it.</p> + +<p>'You were engaged in the affair at Xanthal, I see?'</p> + +<p>'Three years ago, your Excellency,' replied Rallywood in a tone that +implied his powers of usefulness had probably become impaired by lapse +of time.</p> + +<p>Selpdorf moved his shoulders. Here was a man throwing difficulties in +the way of his own advancement. Yet he could not possibly be so +indifferent to his own interests as he chose to assume.</p> + +<p>'To be plain with you,' Selpdorf said with an air of candour, 'the +younger officers of the Guard have little experience. The latest fashion +in neckties or the most charming dancer at the Folie absorbs their +attention, to the exclusion of more important matters. There is, as you +doubtless know, a certain admixture of French blood in the veins of our +most noble families,' he finished abstractedly.</p> + +<p>Rallywood had no remark to offer upon this. The officers of the Guard +bore a very distinct reputation. They were said to be a very pleasant +set of fellows socially, unless one ran foul of their prejudices, but +they were credited with a good many prejudices. As for his personal +acquaintance with them, it was limited to acting as second in a hastily +arranged duel fought out in the yard behind a little country railway +station.</p> + +<p>'I should like to see a somewhat different spirit introduced, and to be +assured that I could always rely on the presence of at least one +cool-headed officer at the Palace. Your experience on the frontier has +eminently fitted you for the position. To you, therefore, will be +allotted the quarters reserved in the Palace itself for the adjutant of +the Guard. May I have the pleasure of saluting you as such?'</p> + +<p>Rallywood hesitated. He foresaw certain difficulties, but they appeared +rather attractive than otherwise at the moment. He threw back his +shoulders, a light of laughter came into his eyes, he raised his head +and looked into Selpdorf's face.</p> + +<p>'I thank your Excellency.'</p> + +<p>The Chancellor understood more than met the ear. He approached the +subject delicately.</p> + +<p>'Then you will allow me to congratulate you, Captain Rallywood,' he +said, bending forward to shake hands with his visitor in the English +fashion. 'There may possibly be some trifling difficulties at the +outset. The first step in any undertaking usually costs something, but +you will not, I beg, permit yourself to be drawn into,—ahem, any +shallow quarrels. Our friends of the Guard, you will understand, are a +little prone to pick up even a careless word on the sword-point.'</p> + +<p>M. Selpdorf paused, and referred once more to the memorandum.</p> + +<p>'There has been some small hitch about the pay on the frontier of late?' +he asked innocently.</p> + +<p>'A serious hitch for the last eighteen months or so, your Excellency,' +replied Rallywood with a smile that did not reach his eyes.</p> + +<p>'Indeed? That must be remedied. The paymaster-General shall have a note +upon your affair immediately, Captain Rallywood. Good-night.'</p> + +<p>Rallywood stepped out into the windy, frozen night, and also out of his +old life into the new. Above him the stars, written in their vast, vague +characters upon the night-blue vault of sky, shone with a keen lustre. +Below his feet, with scarce a break in the great circle, it seemed as if +they drew together in denser clusters and set themselves in luminous +tiers. These latter were the lights of the city. For the Hôtel du +Chancelier stands high upon one of the twin ridges which form the ravine +of the river, and upon whose converging slopes Révonde is built. +Rallywood stood and looked down upon the dip and rise of the terraced +city with a new interest, for now it held a future for him individually, +a future which must be stirring and might be something more.</p> + +<p>The eyes of the girl whose glove he had trodden upon still challenged +him from the starlit darkness, eyes made of starlit darkness themselves. +He followed the broad black line of the river between its sweeping +curves of lamps, broadening out seawards into hazy dimness. Then as a +great bell across the water boomed out the hour he turned his gaze to +the east, in the direction of the sound, to where the broken brightness +of the crowding streets gave place to a majestic alignment of light and +shadow, showing the position of the Ducal Palace upon the river bank. +Behind and above it shone a blood-red gleam like an angry eye; this +Rallywood knew to be the great stained dome of the historic mess-room of +the Guard.</p> + +<p>Then the late lieutenant of the Frontier Cavalry laughed aloud in the +dark, his blood tingled in his veins, for the priceless element of a +vague, unknown danger and excitement had entered into his life.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<p class='center'>THE GENTLEMEN OF THE GUARD.</p> + + +<p>Members of great families frequently regard themselves as submerged +individualities. They wilfully sink all identity of their own in the +traditions handed down to them, and live as mere representatives of a +line which bears in common a noble name. This principle, which has +something to recommend it, was adopted long ago into the system of the +Guard of Maäsau, the officers of which were first gentlemen of the Guard +and afterwards men in the private and ordinary sense of the term. There +were eight of them—a colonel-in-chief, whose position became honorary +after his elevation to that rank; a colonel, upon whom devolved the +active command; a second in command, whose title of over-captain may be +translated major; three captains, and as many subalterns. And every +individual was drawn from the noblest blood of the country.</p> + +<p>Thus it will be seen that Rallywood was about to enter the best company +in Révonde.</p> + +<p>On a lofty cliff above the gorge from which the Kofn issues to curve +round the Palace gardens, and exposed to the four winds of heaven, +stands an imposing square block of grey buildings. These contain the +permanent quarters of the Guard. One whole side of the courtyard within +is taken up by the domed mess-room with its necessary adjuncts and +offices.</p> + +<p>Here on the day following Rallywood's interview with Selpdorf, three men +lounged over their lunch. Any one of them, had he cared to take the +regimental rolls from their brass-bound coffer in the ante-room, could +have read his own name repeating itself down the columns as generation +after generation lived through its identical life in the same +surroundings, and died, most of them going to the devil with a fine +inherited pride and even gracefully.</p> + +<p>Nearly every man who had crossed the page of the Maäsaun annals had +dined in that historic room, and each one of the men who now held the +right to dine there had a hereditary interest, and in many cases a +hereditary characteristic, to maintain. There was old walrus-faced +Wallenloup; thin, dark, reckless Colendorp; Adiron, whose great bulk +behind a cavalry sword was a sight for the gods, and so on; the three +lieutenants following closely in the footsteps of the three lieutenants +who had been before them; men who went to the rendezvous of a duel in +all comfort, affecting to be infinitely more afraid of catching cold +than of being killed; men who kissed the wife and dispatched the husband +with equal skill and as little noise as might be; men who were feared by +a rough, swaggering, raucous soldiery, whom they only knew through the +hard-faced sergeants; men, in fact, who lived out their debonair, +picturesquely evil lives to the satisfaction of themselves and of few +others.</p> + +<p>On this occasion Colonel Wallenloup, the commandant, was not present. Of +him it was told that while still a lieutenant he had been offered, as a +reward for services rendered to the Crown, the command of any Maäsaun +regiment he might choose to select, and he had replied that he would +rather be a lieutenant of the Guard than a field-marshal elsewhere. And +so he remained to favour the mess with his somewhat blood-and-iron +jokes. The mess-room was a spacious hall, and though only three men sat +at table the place seemed full of life and colour from the black +polished flooring to the carved and vaulted ceiling, from which hung in +tattered folds the old banners of the regiment. Red hangings partially +draped the dark walls, and over all the light from the stained dome fell +in rich colour; while through the talk of the men ran the one weird +sound that never ceased about those walls, the whimpering of the wind.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the door opened, and a young man, small and thin, with a faint +down upon his upper lip, entered quickly.</p> + +<p>'Unziar has won!' he cried.</p> + +<p>'Won what?' asked Adiron, the senior man present, as he poured out +another glass of wine.</p> + +<p>'Won his second match against Abenfeldt with seven to spare.'</p> + +<p>Adiron stretched his legs and leant back; his figure was well adapted +for leaning back.</p> + +<p>'My good Adolph, explain yourself.'</p> + +<p>'Hadn't you heard of it? Why, they arranged it last night at Countess +Sagan's.'</p> + +<p>'Abenfeldt fancies himself as a shot, but he forgot he had to do with +Unziar,' laughed Captain Adiron.</p> + +<p>'Abenfeldt bet that he could shoot more swallows in half an hour before +breakfast than any man in Révonde. That was in September, you know, and +Unziar took him up—with service revolvers—and shot fifteen, winning +easily. Abenfeldt can't get over it, and challenged him to a +shooting-match again last night. I say,' Adolph broke off, and his face +altered; he thrust out a little foot and surveyed the spurred boot that +covered it critically, 'I've just ridden back from Brale. That new +charger of mine bolted down the hill by the paling. I went to see +Insermann; they had not been able to move him, you know.'</p> + +<p>'Well,' urged all three voices at once.</p> + +<p>'Insermann's dead. He died last night at dinner time.'</p> + +<p>The men's eyes shot for a second at Insermann's empty place, which he +was never to occupy again.</p> + +<p>'Ah, I told him that scooping pass of his was a mistake,' commented +Adiron. 'And the worst of it is that his death breaks the line of the +Xanthal Insermanns. Poor old Insermann! he was the last of a good stock, +and I, for one, don't like new blood. What have you to say about that +pass now, Colendorp? If I am not mistaken, you defended it?'</p> + +<p>'Insermann was by three inches too tall,' replied the individual +addressed. 'For a short man one would be hard put to it to discover a +more useful——Hullo!'</p> + +<p>The folding doors had been flung open with a crash, and a man of fifty +or thereabouts, dressed in the gorgeous green and gold of the Guard, +strode in tempestuously. He was short and heavily built, with a +weather-red face and a coarse, overhanging moustache, which gave him +rather the expression of an angry walrus. So angry, indeed, was he that +his words came volleying out inarticulately. In his hand he held a +crumpled sheet of parchment.</p> + +<p>The men rose as he took his place at the head of the table.</p> + +<p>'Insermann's dead, and Selpdorf says——' The Colonel's choked +ejaculations broke, his voice failed him, and he sent the paper +fluttering from his hand across the silver and glass till little Adolf +picked it up. In another moment Colonel Wallenloup was more coherent.</p> + +<p>'I am afraid I must have walked up the hill rather too quickly,' he said +apologetically, after draining a great goblet of beer. 'However, it is +not to be denied that M. Selpdorf begins to take too much upon himself. +The entire administration of the State is in his hands, and yet he is +not satisfied with that position! No, he aims even higher; he desires +to nominate the officers of his Highness's Guard!'</p> + +<p>Every man present had his own peculiarity. The Colonel's reputation +would not have stood so high as it actually did but for his insensate +temper. Perhaps the anecdote told of him that, when discussing the point +of having been ruled out of action during certain army manœuvres he +became so enraged that he pursued the umpire in question with a wooden +tent hammer, had added more to his popularity than all his thirty odd +years of service and his immense genius for fortification.</p> + +<p>Some of the Continental armies are always marking time, and they do not +prize the most the man who marks time best, but the man who can bring +some humour or touch of romance into the dullness of routine, and they +prefer the humour to be led up to by the winding road of eccentricity. +It was never dull with the Guard. They possessed officers who kept their +world on the move.</p> + +<p>'Gentlemen,' said Wallenloup at length, when his last remark had been +received with approval, 'I have the honour to inform you that M. +Selpdorf has seen fit to appoint, <i>vice</i> Captain Insermann, deceased, +Lieutenant John Rallywood, of the Frontier Cavalry.'</p> + +<p>A silence followed this announcement.</p> + +<p>'Upon whose recommendation has M. Selpdorf taken this step?' inquired +Captain Colendorp gravely.</p> + +<p>'Reasons of State—mere reasons of State. He had the audacity to tell me +so.'</p> + +<p>'I understood, sir, that you had other views?' said Adiron.</p> + +<p>'Well, yes, we had virtually agreed upon our choice, I may say, +gentlemen.'</p> + +<p>'Certainly, sir. And you made that clear to the Chancellor?'</p> + +<p>'I did so—perfectly clear. I told him in the most reasonable manner +that we wanted no condemned rabble in the Maäsaun Guard! I told him that +we had practically decided on Abenfeldt in case of a vacancy occurring. +I even went so far as to remind him that there had been Abenfeldts among +us for four centuries.'</p> + +<p>'He couldn't meet that argument!' exclaimed Adiron.</p> + +<p>'No, he parried it, gracefully enough, I admit. He reminded me in turn +that there had been Selpdorfs also in the Guard, and swore that had he a +son of his own to nominate he must still at this moment have given the +preference to this Englishman. I left him to reconsider the matter, +however, and rode home, to find <i>that</i> already waiting for me in my +quarters,' and he pointed to the parchment in Adolf's hand.</p> + +<p>Adolf looked up with a smile.</p> + +<p>'He will not join immediately, sir, this Rallywood?' he said with his +gentle lisp.</p> + +<p>'Not for a week.'</p> + +<p>'Then it doesn't really matter, you know,' added the young man.</p> + +<p>Wallenloup's red-shot eyes gleamed upon him suddenly.</p> + +<p>'As your commanding officer, sir,' he said grimly, 'I don't understand +your meaning, but——' and an odd smile flickered about the savage lips.</p> + +<p>'As a private gentleman, Colonel——' put in Colendorp.</p> + +<p>'As a private individual I understand your meaning very well. But if I +were here as your colonel, Lieutenant Adolf, by Heaven, sir, not all the +officers of the Guard, past or present'—he rose to his feet as he +spoke, and grasping the hilt of his sword glared round upon +them—'should dare to hint at insult to a comrade!' and he drove the +blade home with a clatter into its scabbard and strode out of the room +as he had come, like a thunderstorm.</p> + +<p>The men waited in silence until the echo of his footsteps died away, and +in the mind of each rose a vivid memory. It happened, from causes which +might in the case of the Guard of Maäsau be called natural, that the +three present lieutenants, viz. Unziar, Varanheim, and Adolf, had joined +on the same day, and by way of supporting the traditions of their +immediate predecessors each instantly agreed to challenge each of the +others, the result of which would in all probability have been the +speedy occurrence of three fresh vacancies, in the list of officers.</p> + +<p>Wallenloup heard of this and sent for the lieutenants, whom he +considered too valuable to be thus easily lost.</p> + +<p>'Gentlemen,' he began, 'I am about to enforce an old order that +expressly forbids quarrels amongst the members of our corps. If you want +to fight, fight some one else. There are plenty of men who stand badly +in need of being killed. Turn your attention to them. But if any trouble +should arise between any two of you, come to me. There has been enough +of this kind of scandal about us lately, and therefore for the future we +will do the thing quietly with a pack of cards, or, if you prefer it, +with dice. The man who loses can—go. There is the river, or for choice, +his own pistol. You understand me?'</p> + +<p>Varanheim looked at Unziar and Unziar looked at Adolf, and they smiled.</p> + +<p>'I think,' said little Adolf, 'we <i>might</i> find others to brawl with.'</p> + +<p>'The river is abominably cold,' added Unziar.</p> + +<p>'And the same dish is served for us all,' concluded Varanheim.</p> + +<p>Wallenloup laughed.</p> + +<p>'I have laid the alternative before you, gentlemen,' he said, 'the cards +or the dice.'</p> + +<p>This was the story that rose in the minds of the men round the mess +table, and a minute later they joined in a simultaneous shout of +laughter. Adiron's big face was flushed as he called for a special brand +of champagne wherein to drink the Colonel's health.</p> + +<p>'He's magnificent—the old man!' he said when he could speak. 'Let him +alone. He's equal to any mortal occasion! He reminds me of the day when +his Imperial Majesty over the border complimented him on the appearance +of the Guard, saying he should feel proud to number us amongst the +regiments of the German army. "And I can assure your Majesty that the +feeling of admiration is entirely reciprocal," says the C.O. "We should +be happy to incorporate your army in ours!"'</p> + +<p>The men had heard the story often before, but it was greeted with all +the relish of novelty, a quality which lives eternally in any anecdote +that tells on one's own side.</p> + +<p>Before the laughter had subsided another man entered the room. He was, +perhaps, nearer thirty than twenty, and the face under his dull, +colourless hair was singularly pale, but there was promise of great +strength in the long angular body.</p> + +<p>'My congratulations, Unziar.' Colendorp turned to the new-comer.</p> + +<p>'Thanks. By the way, have you heard of Insermann? Gone out, they tell +me.'</p> + +<p>'Yes. And have you heard of the new appointment?'</p> + +<p>'No. But it's Abenfeldt, of course. The Colonel as good as promised him +last year.'</p> + +<p>'Ever heard of Lieutenant Rallywood of the frontier?' demanded Colendorp +in his slow way.</p> + +<p>'Yes, I do happen to know him.' Unziar looked round in some surprise. +'He was the frontier fellow who undertook to be my second at the station +when I fought De Balsas because he insisted that our trains were +inferior to those in Germany. Rallywood—you don't mean to say?' a slow +comprehension dawning upon him. 'But it's impossible! The fellow's an +Englishman. How could such a thing be possible? On the frontier, yes, +but not in the Guard!'</p> + +<p>Colendorp was a silent, reserved man, disliked by persons who met him +casually in society, but to those who inhabited with him the quarters at +the Palace he stood as the impersonation of the grim spirit of the +Guard. He drew away from the table and crossed his legs.</p> + +<p>'The idea has at length occurred to one man,' he with his glance on +Unziar's pale face, 'to M. Selpdorf, in fact.'</p> + +<p>Unziar looked back at his interlocutor, his eyes hardening.</p> + +<p>'Of course,' he said, bringing out each word distinctly, 'Rallywood must +be got rid of.'</p> + +<p>'It will offend M. Selpdorf if his nominee be interfered with,' went on +Colendorp.</p> + +<p>'I have already undertaken that little matter,' put in Adolf eagerly.</p> + +<p>There was an undercurrent of meaning in all this of which each man +present was fully aware. Unziar was presumed to have very strong private +reasons to propitiate rather than to offend the powerful Minister. But +this happened to be a typical instance in which the interests of the +corps over-rode those of the individual. Moreover the custom of the +Guard required the individual most concerned to prove his loyalty at +such times.</p> + +<p>Colendorp continued to gaze at Unziar.</p> + +<p>'We are much obliged to you, Adolf,' he said courteously; 'but in +compliment to his comrades I feel sure that Unziar will hardly wish to +allow any other to undertake this special matter.'</p> + +<p>Adolf would have spoken again, but Unziar stopped him.</p> + +<p>'As a personal favour, Adolf, leave it to me,' he said.</p> + +<p>Adiron, who had thus far taken no part in the discussion, now struck in.</p> + +<p>'But remember, Unziar, that you must act with caution. For obvious +reasons there must be no apparent design. The dispute, whatever it may +turn upon, must appear to come about naturally. Above all, it must not +take place here.'</p> + +<p>'Precautions from Adiron!' remarked Colendorp with a thin smile. 'The +affair becomes serious indeed!'</p> + +<p>'We cannot afford to offend England while Elmur is at work in this +country. She is at this moment our very good friend,' Adiron observed +apologetically. 'There will be many public occasions—at the Palace +ball, for example.'</p> + +<p>'You may trust me to keep up appearances,' said Unziar. 'Then it is +understood that I arrange the affair of Captain Rallywood at the Palace +ball if possible. The matter may safely be left in my hands.'</p> + +<p>Once more the folding doors were thrown back, and between the crimson +portieres appeared the face of Colonel Wallenloup, charged with a +strange expression. He advanced a step or two into the room, then turned +to introduce a man behind him.</p> + +<p>'Captain Rallywood, gentlemen,' he said.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<p class='center'>DANGER SIGNALS.</p> + + +<p>A week later Rallywood returned from the frontier to take up his +appointment in the Guard. Advised by a note from Wallenloup that his +quarters were not yet in readiness for him at the Palace, he drove +direct to the Continental on his arrival in Révonde.</p> + +<p>Here presently Counsellor dropped in upon him. Rallywood was in his +dressing-room, transforming himself as rapidly as possible into the +likeness of an English gamekeeper; for a magnificent festivity in the +shape of a masked ball was about to take place at the Palace. All the +world had been invited, and as many of the world as could go were going, +each with his or her own dream or purpose, as the case might be.</p> + +<p>Major Counsellor sat and surveyed his friend, occasionally offering +suggestions and remarks.</p> + +<p>'Are you aware that the Guard of Maäsau never condescends to show itself +in Révonde in any costume but its own blazing uniform? I see you have +your edition of it lying on the chair over there. Why are you not +conforming with their amiable peculiarities?'</p> + +<p>Rallywood had his back to Counsellor at the moment.</p> + +<p>'So I have heard, but I do not join until to-morrow,' he replied in an +expressionless voice.</p> + +<p>'And your quarters in the Palace? How about them?'</p> + +<p>'I shall also have the rooms to-morrow.' Then he wheeled round and his +eyes lit on his companion. 'Hullo! I didn't notice you before. Is that +your notion of the gentle art of masquerade? What are you meant to be—a +sort of Tommy Atkins?'</p> + +<p>'I believed myself to be disguised as an officer and a gentleman,' +returned Counsellor, rising to give Rallywood the full effect of his +sturdy figure, clad in the uncompromising scarlet so dear to his +country's heart. 'This is the uniform of the 30th Dragoons as worn in or +about the year of grace 1730.'</p> + +<p>'Your old regiment?'</p> + +<p>Counsellor nodded. 'And my grandfather's,' adding, 'What's the matter +with the dress?'</p> + +<p>'Nothing,' said Rallywood, laughing. 'Perhaps I imagined on an occasion +of this kind you might possibly stoop to something more misleading than +this blatantly British get-up.'</p> + +<p>'What were you expecting—a troubadour? I am satisfied to appear in my +own character. Only a proportion of the people wear masks at this ball; +it's an annual affair. Besides, life with a purpose is too wearing; one +must always be on the alert and have the purpose in view, like the actor +in a sixpenny theatre, who plays up to the gallery and keeps his eye +open for the rotten egg of his enemy. The egg may not be thrown, but he +must be ready to dodge it all the same. And—I have never excelled in +dodging.'</p> + +<p>'Ah—just what the Chancellor thinks. He says he has an immense +admiration for you as the most honest diplomatist in Europe.'</p> + +<p>'He put himself to the trouble of mentioning that fact to you, did he? +Then I shall take the precaution of insuring my life. Anything might +happen to a man of whom he has so villainous an opinion.'</p> + +<p>Rallywood was arranging his gaiters.</p> + +<p>'Why? You don't suppose Selpdorf is going to throw the egg? He spoke of +you with absolute affection.'</p> + +<p>'My good John, he has already thrown it! Now I must harass myself to +find out the reason,' said Counsellor. 'You have spoilt my evening out. +Before I had no purpose; now you have thrust one upon me. You should +have kept your news until to-morrow.'</p> + +<p>Rallywood was getting himself into his velveteen coat with a good deal +of unnecessary violence.</p> + +<p>'I don't believe the Chancellor is so dangerous,' he said carelessly. +'He is a consummate actor, but one knows it.'</p> + +<p>'Yes,' assented the Major thoughtfully; 'yet the moment to watch him is +the moment when he acts that he is acting. With the others of us acting +is troublesome; with him it is habitual and a pleasure. However, he has +given you your company; the rank is substantial, as far as it goes, and +at least the accompanying pay is not altogether visionary.'</p> + +<p>'Yes, he's done all that.' Rallywood was flinging some of his belongings +back into his portmanteau.</p> + +<p>'The next thing will be to find you a mission.'</p> + +<p>'He has done that also.' Rallywood raised an expressive face. 'I am to +reform the Guard!'</p> + +<p>Counsellor burst into a great laugh, but as suddenly grew grave.</p> + +<p>'They will take it kindly! Their welcome to you is likely to be ... +interesting!'</p> + +<p>'So I expected. But I went down to the mess last week and was introduced +by old Wallenloup. They were very civil.'</p> + +<p>'Ah! and since you left they have been very silent. They are overdoing +it—too civil and too silent. Looks bad, you know.'</p> + +<p>'Oh, that's all right; Selpdorf told me not to be drawn into any shallow +quarrels,' Rallywood answered with a smile.</p> + +<p>But the Major did not take up the smile. The two vertical lines above +his fleshy nose deepened.</p> + +<p>'It strikes me, my boy, that you've got the devil by the tail this +time,' he said gruffly, as his eyes rested for a moment on Rallywood; +'but you know how to take care of yourself. Ready? We can drive to the +Palace together. I have a carriage waiting.'</p> + +<p>The couple proceeded downstairs, bought cigarettes of the waiter, and +started. The wind was howling in its usual twanging cadences down the +broad streets, increasing in force as they gained the open, lighted +embankment of the river, along which they passed for some distance +before reaching the courtyard of the Palace.</p> + +<p>The great entrance hall was still full of arrivals, while up the wide +central staircase trooped masks and dominos in a changing kaleidoscope +of form and colour. Eager heads thrust this way and that, picturesque +figures grouping and greeting, cavaliers of all periods, maidens of all +nations, monks, barbarians, cardinals, queens, and clowns—sometimes the +wisest heads under the most foolish caps—while here and there a few +favoured paper-folk made desultory notes and sketches.</p> + +<p>The painted ceiling stretching overhead is one of the triumphs of +Renaissance art. The identity of the master hand who achieved that +marvellous work has been a mooted point in art circles for a couple of +centuries or thereabouts, and quite a library on the subject exists. The +Maäsauns are very proud of their ceiling, prouder still of the +controversy which has raged and still continues to rage around it.</p> + +<p>M. Selpdorf, as representing his master, stood at the head of the +staircase, and received the guests with a good deal more politeness and +discrimination than the Duke himself might have shown, for that +personage was said to have an awkward habit of turning his back upon +those whom he happened to dislike.</p> + +<p>Major Counsellor was greeted with effusion; Rallywood with raised +eyebrows and a slight reserve.</p> + +<p>'I had hoped to welcome the new captain of the Guard this evening,' +Selpdorf said in a low voice and with a significant glance at +Rallywood's velveteens.</p> + +<p>'I have not yet joined, your Excellency. To-morrow I hope to have that +honour,' returned Rallywood and passed on into the gallery beyond. This +gallery, opening from the head of the staircase, ran round the great +saloon, which served the purpose of a ballroom, and many of the guests +were amusing themselves by looking down over the silk-hung balustrade on +the dancers below.</p> + +<p>In the gallery Counsellor paused to say a word here and there to several +persons, who, like Rallywood and himself, were without masks, but he +seemed to have curiously little facility in penetrating disguises. +Presently a burly old man in the glittering green and gold of the Guard +disengaged himself from the curtains at the back of the gallery, and +nodding a supercilious acknowledgment of Rallywood's salute, brought his +hand down with a rough heartiness on Counsellor's shoulder.</p> + +<p>'Back again in Maäsau, Major Counsellor. I'm glad to see you!' he said +with the laugh in his small eyes marred by a wrinkle of suspicious +cunning, an expression which seemed startling on what was at first +sight a big, bluff, sensual face. 'What good wind has blown you back +among us?'</p> + +<p>'Thanks, my lord;' Counsellor turned with ready response. 'I am glad to +find that some of my old friends, especially Count Sagan, have not +forgotten me,' he said simply.</p> + +<p>'We believed you had forgotten Maäsau.'</p> + +<p>'Maäsau will not allow herself to be forgotten!' laughed Counsellor. +'She is a coquette, and demands consideration from all the world.'</p> + +<p>Sagan's face changed.</p> + +<p>'Yes, a coquette, who trifles with many admirers but who knows how to +hold her own against them,' he replied significantly. 'Who is that?' he +added, staring after Rallywood. 'I think I recognise him as an English +lieutenant in the Frontier Cavalry.'</p> + +<p>'He is the same to-day,' said Counsellor.</p> + +<p>'What?' exclaimed Sagan. 'Why to-day? Has he, then, come in for one of +your colossal fortunes?'</p> + +<p>'Who can say?' returned Counsellor. 'A fortune or—a colossal +misfortune. Ah! there is Madame Aspard. Au revoir, Count.</p> + +<p>Counsellor passed on, perfectly well aware of the heavy meaning attached +to the wilful ignoring of Rallywood's appointment to the Guard by its +colonel-in-chief. There was certainly danger ahead.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<p class='center'>GOOD LUCK AND A FIREFLY.</p> + + +<p>Meanwhile Rallywood had come to an anchor beside one of the high +embossed doors of gold and white which led from the gallery into various +luxurious withdrawing rooms. As he leant against the lintel a voice +suddenly said in his ear, as it seemed—</p> + +<p>'My dear lady, why have such scruples? They are the most detestable +things in life and the least profitable. They poison pleasure even when +they do not altogether deprive us of it. And what does one gain by them? +Absolutely nothing, not so much as the good opinion of our friends, who +can never be brought to believe we possess them,' said a man in a +mocking tone.</p> + +<p>A distinctly uncomfortable sensation pervaded Rallywood's mind for the +second which preceded the reply. The voice was Baron von Elmur's, and +there was a note of admiration in it that he had reason to be acquainted +with.</p> + +<p>A woman laughed, a light, provoking laugh, Rallywood, who was still held +by the crush against the door, knew it well, but he breathed freely, for +it was not the laugh he had feared to hear.</p> + +<p>'Nevertheless, Baron, I like scruples; they are always respectable, and +therefore of use—sometimes,' the lady answered in a high, sweet tone.</p> + +<p>'Your husband, my Lord Sagan, has not found them indispensable in his +career.'</p> + +<p>'But he is not a woman!' with a sigh.</p> + +<p>'A beautiful woman can dispense with everything except—her beauty! That +makes fools of us all! Besides——'</p> + +<p>The rest of the sentence was lost, as Rallywood managed at length to +force his way through the crowd, which was thickening rapidly.</p> + +<p>Then he came upon a group of men he knew, men from the frontier, from +the marshes about Kofn Ford and the crags of Pulesco, men with tanned +skins like his own, and the mark of the collar rim of their high +military tunics round their throats. They were masked, and represented +various original characters, and were enjoying themselves hugely. More +than all were they astonished at being recognised so readily by +Rallywood. Rallywood drew his finger round his throat by way of +explanation. There was a general laugh, and the men scattered each to +seek his own particular pleasure. Rallywood remained looking down on the +dancers. There was in the back of his mind some desire to identify the +lady whose glove was still in his possession. He fixed now on one tall +domino, now on another, but without satisfaction. He was discontentedly +coming to the point of knowing that he had made a fresh mistake, when +he turned his head abruptly, with a vague sense of being looked at, and +saw a black domino standing for an instant alone at the further end of +the gallery. Even under the muffling silken folds he fancied he +recognised the attitude of the girl he had met at the Chancellor's.</p> + +<p>He at once began to make his way through the crowd in her direction, but +when next he looked she was gone. He descended to the salon, where he +danced with more than one masked lady. His six feet of stature marked +him out from the shorter Maäsauns, and the tall athletic figure of the +gamekeeper, who moved with so much of unexpected ease and grace, excited +some attention.</p> + +<p>After an interval, as he stood back against the wall to allow a couple +who had been following him to pass, they drew up in front of him.</p> + +<p>'I obey you, Mademoiselle,' said the man.</p> + +<p>His companion, who wore a black domino, made a gesture of dismissal; +then she turned to Rallywood. 'You have been looking for me?' she said, +as her late partner moved away.</p> + +<p>'But naturally, Mademoiselle,' replied Rallywood.</p> + +<p>'You know who I am?'</p> + +<p>'Not in the least. I cannot even make a guess, though I have been +waiting to know since this day last week.'</p> + +<p>'It would have been easy to ask the question—of anyone,' she said with +an odd intonation.</p> + +<p>'By no means. There are questions which cannot be asked—of anyone, +because the answer touches too closely.' Rallywood pulled himself up +with a sudden sense of being ridiculously in earnest.</p> + +<p>And then they were dancing.</p> + +<p>'Yet you are not a stranger in Révonde. Madame de Sagan could have +answered your question—had you cared to ask it,' the girl said.</p> + +<p>'It did not strike me to ask her. I trusted to the fact that, belonging +to the Guard, I must some day have the good fortune to find you again.'</p> + +<p>'You are patient!'</p> + +<p>'No,' returned Rallywood, 'I am not patient. But I know that all things +come to him who waits. I wait.'</p> + +<p>'So I see, excellently!'</p> + +<p>'Have I not waited long enough to hear your name first from your own +lips?'</p> + +<p>'Stop for a moment;' then standing beside him, she continued, 'Ask me +to-morrow.'</p> + +<p>'If I am alive I will!' he laughed.</p> + +<p>He felt her hand move with a quick tremor on his arm.</p> + +<p>'I knew it! Which of them has challenged you? Unziar?' The swift +question, echoing his own thought, took him completely by surprise.</p> + +<p>He passed his arm round her, for the waltz was nearing its end.</p> + +<p>'Shall we go on? No; no one has done me the honour of sending me a +challenge.'</p> + +<p>'Let us have an end of this absurd mystery!' said the girl impatiently. +'I am Valerie Selpdorf, and you are——'</p> + +<p>'John Rallywood of the Guard of Maäsau!' he interposed. 'I had my +commission from you in the ante-room of the Hôtel du Chancelier. But for +that I should have been more than half inclined to refuse it.'</p> + +<p>'I wish you had refused it! It may cost you—more than a man cares to +pay. I thought my father held the power to give any commission he +pleased, but one can never reckon with the Guard. They mean to kill you, +Captain Rallywood! I wanted to warn you, but I think you know more, +perhaps, than I can tell you or than you will tell me. What is going to +happen? I want to help you—you must let me help you!'</p> + +<p>Rallywood laughed, but perhaps his arm drew her a little closer as they +moved more slowly during the concluding bars of the waltz.</p> + +<p>'My dear Mademoiselle, I assure you that your fears are quite +groundless. I am proud to belong to the Guard of Maäsau, and they have +so far shown no intention of rejecting me. As for duels, if there +happened to be one—are not affairs common in Maäsau? And afterwards, +fewer funerals take place than one would suppose likely! Besides, M. +Selpdorf's wishes cannot be lightly disregarded in Révonde.'</p> + +<p>'You will be drawn into a quarrel before the night is over.' +Mademoiselle Selpdorf stated her conviction very plainly, without +noticing his disclaimers.</p> + +<p>The music ceased. Rallywood spoke once more. 'To prove to you how little +I anticipate anything of the sort, will you allow me to have the last +dance on the programme?'</p> + +<p>'That is nothing! What can I do for you?' she exclaimed.</p> + +<p>'Expect me! If you would promise to expect me, I don't yet know the man +who could stop my coming to you.'</p> + +<p>The words were lightly spoken, but Valerie Selpdorf, looking up into +Rallywood's eyes, understood that he was likely to be able to make any +words of his good. They were handsome eyes, rather long in shape, frank +and steady, the iris of a dense grey bordering on hazel as became the +sunburnt yellow of his hair and moustache, and at that moment they +contained an expression which remained in Valerie's memory as the +distinctive expression of his face. Whenever in the future she recalled +Rallywood, she thought of him as he looked then.</p> + +<p>'I will expect you,' promised Valerie.</p> + +<p>They both knew that for the moment they stood together at one of those +cross-roads where life and death meet, where moreover a look and a word +convey a mutual revelation of character such as years of ordinary +intercourse often fail to supply.</p> + +<p>Rallywood did not dance again; he contented himself with following the +movements of the black domino. After a time she joined a little group +of people with whom she stood talking. One of the group presently +detached himself and glanced round as if searching for some one. It was +Unziar of the Guard. He quickly perceived Rallywood and at once came +towards him.</p> + +<p>'Allow me to recall myself to your memory, Captain Rallywood; I am +Unziar of the Guard,' he said bowing, both voice and bow touching that +extreme of punctiliousness which in itself constitutes an insolence.</p> + +<p>'The Guard are said to have long memories. I hope in that particular, at +least, if in no other, to support their traditions,' replied Rallywood, +with an air of cool and serene indifference said to be impossible to any +but men of his race.</p> + +<p>'That is—something,' rejoined Unziar with a smile that belied its name. +'We are somewhat exigeant in the Guard. We ask for more than a long +memory—a long pedigree, for example, and a long sword.'</p> + +<p>'I have heard that also.'</p> + +<p>Unziar glanced sharply at him out of his pale keen eyes. The fellow was +too non-committal to please his taste. To hound a coward out of the +corps promised infinitely less difficulty and enjoyment than he had +hoped for when he pledged himself to rid the Guard of the Englishman. +For perhaps the only time in his life he wished he wore any uniform but +the tell-tale green and gold, for he knew of the Guard that it was often +their 'great name that conquered.'</p> + +<p>Spurred by this thought he looked Rallywood very straightly in the face, +and the gleam of his eyes reminded the Englishman of glacier ice.</p> + +<p>'Knowing so many of our peculiarities, perhaps Captain Rallywood may no +longer care to join us?' said the Guardsman.</p> + +<p>Rallywood laughed with absolute good-humour.</p> + +<p>'I both care and—dare!' he said pleasantly.</p> + +<p>Unziar's face cleared.</p> + +<p>'I am forgetting my errand,' he said with a slight change of tone. 'I +have been sent by a lady to bring you to her. Will you follow me?'</p> + +<p>As they approached the group, the shorter of the two black dominoes +spoke.</p> + +<p>'You need not trouble to introduce Captain Rallywood, Anthony. We are +already friends; are we not, Monsieur?'</p> + +<p>The sweet high voice and the inconsequent childish laugh came upon +Rallywood with a slight shock.</p> + +<p>'I could hardly have dared to claim so much,' he said; 'but I cannot +forget that Madame de Sagan—'</p> + +<p>She laid her hand with a suspicion of caressing familiarity on his arm.</p> + +<p>'Hush, then! Do you not know that it is inadmissible to mention the name +of a masked lady until the clock strikes midnight? Captain Rallywood has +been stationed near the Castle at Kofn Ford; we have therefore +met—occasionally,' continued the lady, addressing herself to +Mademoiselle Selpdorf.</p> + +<p>'Captain Rallywood is luckier than most of us,' interposed another +voice. 'He seems to have an enviable facility for appearing where we +others in vain wish to be. Only last week——'</p> + +<p>A tall Mephistopheles in scarlet silk, whose high shoulders lent him +added height, had joined them. His peaked cap and feather sparkled with +lurid points of fire. Countess Sagan turned upon him.</p> + +<p>'But, Baron, where is then your domino? It is not yet midnight,' she +exclaimed, her hand still remaining on Rallywood's arm.</p> + +<p>'Listen!' von Elmur raised his hand. 'The happy moment arrives when the +beautiful faces we long to see——' He gave the rest of the sentence to +the ear of Mademoiselle Selpdorf, who stood silently looking on at the +little scene.</p> + +<p>At this instant the music broke off with a sudden clang; the dancers +paused where they stood, as the great bell of the palace tower sent its +strong, mellow boom of midnight out over the frost-bound city.</p> + +<p>Rallywood, on looking round an instant later, saw that masks and +dominoes had disappeared. Opposite to him stood Valerie Selpdorf in a +dress of some deep velvety shade, which bore, wrought upon its texture +here and there, tiny horseshoes embossed in iridescent jewels. A diadem +of the same shape crowned her dark hair. Yet all the richness and +delicacy of the blended colourings struck Rallywood with only one odd +remembrance—his own boot-heel outlined in Révonde mud upon a long +<i>suède</i> glove. The same association apparently occurred to Baron von +Elmur. His glance fled from Valerie to Rallywood, and he smiled with +some malice.</p> + +<p>'What have we here, Mademoiselle? The stamp of some idealised cavalry +charger?' he asked. 'I should be eternally grateful if only I were—of +the cavalry!'</p> + +<p>A sudden intense expression, like a spasm of hope or happiness, crossed +Unziar's pale face in a flash. A word sprang almost involuntarily from +his lips.</p> + +<p>'The Guard——' But the girl cut him remorselessly short.</p> + +<p>'I do not idealise either the Guard'—she paused, then went on without +taking her eyes from Elmur's face—'or the cavalry. One has illusions, +doubtless, but none so entirely absurd! I have idealised my own desire +merely. I want good luck. I am "Good Luck!"' She spoke the last two +words in English, smiling back at Elmur.</p> + +<p>The Baron bowed. He was not beaten yet.</p> + +<p>'That is well,' he exclaimed; 'since the cavalry and Guard are disowned, +it means that the good luck is for the poor diplomat!'</p> + +<p>'Provisionally, yes,' said the girl.</p> + +<p>'Mademoiselle Selpdorf has already given this waltz to me,' said Unziar, +stepping forward.</p> + +<p>But Mademoiselle Selpdorf placed her hand within the Baron's ready arm.</p> + +<p>'Later, Anthony,' she answered. 'His Excellency deserves a consolation +prize, since my reading of "Good Luck" is not in the German language.'</p> + +<p>She turned away, and with her the group parted and scattered.</p> + +<p>'You are very much interested; is it not so?'</p> + +<p>Rallywood started. The Countess spoke petulantly.</p> + +<p>'Do you not know,' she added, 'that the custom in Révonde holds you to +the partner with whom you find yourself when midnight rings? Valerie +Selpdorf is embarrassed with partners—my cousin Anthony Unziar, who +desires perhaps herself, but most certainly her fortune, and our +delightful German Minister, who uses all means that come to hand to win +Maäsau for his master! But I should not say these foolish things to you, +who are of the other party.'</p> + +<p>They were dancing by this time, her head near his shoulder, her voice +soft in his bending ear.</p> + +<p>'Of the other party?' he repeated. 'I flattered myself that you said +something else just now.'</p> + +<p>'Yes, a friend; but I made a mistake—I have none—no, not one true +friend!' the voice said passionately in his ear, 'and my husband——'</p> + +<p>Rallywood almost lifted her clear of some crowding couples, and then +gently released her. In a vague way he felt the force of her appealing +beauty as he had felt it intermittently for some months past. It touched +him for the moment, but he was apt to forget both it and the very +existence of the woman herself directly he parted from her.</p> + +<p>'Count Sagan is colonel-in-chief of the Guard?' he asked, and the +question seemed to fit in with her train of thought.</p> + +<p>She made no immediate response, but with a light touch on his arm led +him to a flower-banked apartment, about which a few couples were +scattered in various convenient nooks. She sank upon a sequestered +settee, and made room for him beside her.</p> + +<p>'Yes, he is colonel-in-chief of the Guard because they think him too old +to act any longer as its real commandant. He was the first soldier in +Maäsau and the most unequalled sportsman. He was all these things, and I +am proud of them! But look at me!'</p> + +<p>She rose languidly and stood before him. Rallywood saw a slight woman, +tall and exquisitely fair, who carried her small head with its gleaming +coronet royally. Her skin and her soft flushed cheeks had the pure, +evanescent quality of a child's complexion. Moreover, her chief charm +was perhaps her air of child-like innocence. Isolde of Sagan had seldom +looked more lovely; she was honestly touched by self-pity, and was +posing as the proud yet disillusioned wife of a man hopelessly older +than herself, and for the time being she believed earnestly in that view +of her lot.</p> + +<p>'All these things have been,' she added softly, her eyes filling with +tears, 'but <i>I am</i>! Can I ever be satisfied with what only was?' +Rallywood's face altered. Like any other man in such a position he felt +immensely sorry for her. She saw the advantage she had gained, and at +once the coquette awoke in her.</p> + +<p>'Captain Rallywood,' she sank down beside him again, 'I need a friend in +whom I can trust, who will ask nothing of me, but who will give me all +the things I most want.'</p> + +<p>The interpretation of this enigmatical speech was left to the ear, for +the young Countess was gazing at her big black fan, where luminous +fireflies hung tangled amongst the dusky feathers. Quickly with some +dissatisfaction she became aware that Rallywood was not looking at +her—as he should have been doing—but staring in front of him with a +grave expression. Well, she knew she could make him look at her as she +desired—yet. It was but a matter of time.</p> + +<p>'I think you may count upon me,' said Rallywood at last. He believed in +her, which was good; moreover, he meant what he said; yet the speech was +wholly lacking in the flavour which to the Countess Sagan was the +flavour of life.</p> + +<p>'After all, it is little to promise, and I may not need your friendship +for very long,' she replied, plucking a glittering firefly from her fan +and laying it on his sleeve with her sweet light laugh. 'Like a firefly +I shall dance out my short night, and die quickly before life grows +stale!'</p> + +<p>Rallywood took out his cigarette case of Alfaun leather-work, and +dropped the firefly with its sparkle of diamond-dust into it.</p> + +<p>'I don't like to hear you say that,' he said in his quiet way, which the +listener decided might mean so much or so little. 'We must all go out +some time, I suppose, but one always wants the beautiful things to live +for ever.... Meanwhile, can you spare me another dance?'</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<p class='center'>THE CLOISTER OF ST. ANTHONY.</p> + + +<p>The night was drawing to a close. The long supper room was almost +deserted. Amongst the lingerers were a few officers in the uniform of +the Guard, who stood talking together in one corner.</p> + +<p>'The fellow has given you no chance,' Adolf was saying gloomily.</p> + +<p>'Have him in here! Kick him in here, if necessary!' said Colendorp.</p> + +<p>'I don't think you will find him reluctant, drawled Unziar. 'I have +spoken with him already this evening, and I—ah—rather liked what he +said.'</p> + +<p>'Then why haven't you arranged it? To-morrow he joins—and he must never +be permitted to join the Guard! We might have asked Abenfeldt to remove +him, but the Guard has up to the present day been able to set its own +house in order,' added Colendorp with a sour glance at Unziar. 'Has his +Excellency the Chancellor thrown out too powerful a hint about the +fellow?—I saw Mademoiselle dancing with him this evening—I mean a hint +too powerful to be disregarded by those who wish to retain the good +opinion of M. Selpdorf!'</p> + +<p>Unziar scowled.</p> + +<p>'I permit no one—not one of my own regiment—to insult me,' he rejoined +with a white blaze of anger on his pale face, and the wine in his hand +trembled.</p> + +<p>Adolf suddenly stretched across to take up a decanter, and catching the +glass with the edge of his heavy epaulet, knocked it from Unziar's +fingers.</p> + +<p>'We are losing sight of the main question,' he said. 'May I suggest, +sir,' to Colendorp, who happened to be the captain of his own squadron, +'that it is unusual to be obliged to act so carefully as we have been +advised to do in this case?'</p> + +<p>Colendorp's dark face grew darker, but the honour of the Guard over-rode +all personal considerations.</p> + +<p>'I have been hasty, Unziar,' he said in a stifled voice after a slight +pause.</p> + +<p>Unziar bowed and continued as if the interlude with its covert allusions +had not taken place.</p> + +<p>'It has been difficult to get at Rallywood this evening. Yet let us see +how he shoots before we conclude that he has any rooted objection to +handling a pistol. I agree with Captain Colendorp, that the affair +should be brought off to-night. I will go and find the Englishman.'</p> + +<p>He had already walked towards the broad arched doorway, when among the +palms and the hangings which shrouded it two men appeared. One was +Counsellor, in his blazing red uniform, beside him Rallywood's tall +figure, clad in soft brown tones of velveteen, looked almost black.</p> + +<p>Behind them again appeared other faces.</p> + +<p>Rallywood took in the meaning of the situation at a glance. Without any +perceptible pause he held out his hand to Counsellor.</p> + +<p>'Well, good-bye, Major, since you are going. I will turn up to-morrow as +early as I can,' he said.</p> + +<p>Counsellor understood also. In his position it was impossible to do +anything for Rallywood. As an agent secretly accredited by the Court of +St. James's, he must hold aloof and neutral in all personal quarrels. He +appreciated the tact with which Rallywood dismissed him from a scene +which promised to be distinctly awkward, but his hand itched to shoot +down the flower of the Guard of Maäsau for the insolence that dared to +doubt the worthiness of an Englishman of birth to hold a place among +them.</p> + +<p>'Good-bye, Rallywood,' he said gruffly, and turned on his heel to find +himself face to face with Baron von Elmur and one or two officers of the +Frontier Cavalry.</p> + +<p>'There is about to be a storm, Major, observed Elmur, passing Counsellor +with a cool nod.</p> + +<p>'So it seems. A storm in a teacup!' retorted the Major derisively.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Rallywood, with the men of the Cavalry, his old +brother-officers, behind him, advanced to meet Unziar.</p> + +<p>'We of the Guard are hoping to break glasses with you gentlemen of the +Cavalry before the night is over,' began Unziar, alluding to a fashion +amongst the military contingent in Maäsau of taking wine together and +breaking the glasses afterwards as a sign of unalterable good feeling +and mutual loyalty. Unziar included Rallywood with the two officers +beside him in this invitation, by a slight inclination of the head.</p> + +<p>The three men accepted, but there was a little stiffening in the +attitude of each, for Rallywood had friends here who were resolved, if +only for the honour of the Frontier Corps, to see their late comrade +through the coming trouble.</p> + +<p>Before the wine filled the glasses, Adolf was already deep in the story +of Unziar's shooting-match with Abenfeldt.</p> + +<p>'Allow me the honour of drinking with you, Monsieur,' said Colendorp to +Rallywood. 'It was in truth a notable performance; we have never had +even in the Guard a surer shot than Unziar,' he added, alluding to the +anecdote.</p> + +<p>Rallywood had just time to make up his mind and determine upon his +course of action.</p> + +<p>The glasses clinked together, and then clashed upon the floor, where the +men set their heels upon them. Then Rallywood turned to Unziar:</p> + +<p>'I compliment you, Lieutenant Unziar,' he said. 'I already knew that you +were a swordsman not easily to be matched; since, in fact, the little +affair at Alfau, when I had the pleasure of acting as your second. But +the pistol is, I venture to say, another matter.'</p> + +<p>Unziar set his shoulders back with an indescribable suggestion of +scornful defiance.</p> + +<p>'May I ask you to state precisely what you mean, Monsieur?' he answered.</p> + +<p>'I mean that although a man may shoot any number of swallows of a +morning before breakfast, it does not follow that he can hit a man at, +say, twenty paces.' Rallywood spoke deliberately.</p> + +<p>The whole group of men listened in silence. Then Unziar leant towards +Rallywood with a smile.</p> + +<p>'We can but try, Captain Rallywood,' he said gently.</p> + +<p>Although everyone in their immediate neighbourhood was listening, from +the other side of the hall they looked, no doubt, like a group of tall +men engaged in the ordinary conversation and common amenities of +society, the only noticeable difference being that Unziar was a little +more deprecating and low-voiced than usual. Elmur, standing near by, +filled his glass and drank, with a silent nod at Unziar.</p> + +<p>'I shall be delighted to assist you in settling the question,' returned +Rallywood; then, consulting his card, he added, I find I have an +engagement for the last dance, some twenty minutes hence. May I +recommend the interval to your consideration?'</p> + +<p>The two frontier men stepped forward simultaneously to offer their +services to Rallywood. He thanked them, and was about to accept, when +Captain Adiron interposed.</p> + +<p>'If either of these gentlemen will resign in my favour I shall feel it +an obligation, as I can then offer myself to Captain Rallywood as one of +his seconds.'</p> + +<p>Courtesy demanded that Rallywood and his friends should fall in with +this proposal, and Rallywood, replying to Adiron, added:</p> + +<p>'You have heard exactly what passed between Lieutenant Unziar and +myself, and I am sure I cannot do better than leave the matter in your +hands in conjunction with my friend, Colonel Jenard.'</p> + +<p>Colendorp and Adolf, as representing Unziar, accompanied Rallywood's +seconds to make the necessary arrangements. Meanwhile, Rallywood +strolled back to the gallery above the ballroom, and looked down at the +dancers. He could not see Valerie, but he remembered Selpdorf and his +injunctions to avoid a quarrel, and smiled as he thought over the words, +since the Chancellor must have been perfectly aware that he had pushed +an unwelcome foreigner into a position that could only be held by force +of arms, even in the case of a Maäsaun candidate of noble blood. At that +moment he saw his own position clearly. He knew himself to be an +unconsidered unit in the big game of diplomacy that was being played +over his head, and he remembered that the day of human sacrifices is not +yet, as many suppose, quite a thing of the past. The gods are changed, +or called by other names, and the high priest no longer dips his hands +in the actual blood of the victim; but the whole deadly drama goes on +repeating itself as it always must while the generations of men have +their being under various modifications of the primeval system of the +strong hand. That his life might be deliberately requisitioned by +Selpdorf to forward some secret policy of his own was by no means an +impossible supposition. Rallywood glanced at the clock. In another +quarter of an hour he must either be dancing with Valerie Selpdorf or +lying dead in the famous Cloister of St. Anthony, which overlooked the +river, and where many another man had died under much the same +circumstances.</p> + +<p>Rallywood laughed again and turned on his heel. At that period it did +not seem to matter greatly which way it ended, but he was going to carry +the undertaking through with what credit his wits afforded him.</p> + +<p>In the meantime the Cloister of St. Anthony had been lit up from end to +end with a brilliant light, and while the other two seconds went to +fetch their respective principals to the spot, Adiron and Adolf +exchanged a word or two as they waited.</p> + +<p>'The Englishman took it very well,' remarked Adiron.</p> + +<p>'Devilish well,' lisped little Adolf; 'he made rather a favour, of it +just to satisfy Unziar, you know! He's too sure of himself, this +Rallywood. If he kills Unziar, which is unlikely, I shall have to finish +the affair myself!' with a frowning importance that sent Adiron into one +of his ready roars of laughter.</p> + +<p>The Cloister was still echoing with the sound when Rallywood, +accompanied by Jenard, arrived from the other side of the palace, where +the state rooms were situated. On the way Jenard explained to Rallywood +that the procedure decided upon as being best suited to the requirements +of the case was simply alternate shots at twenty paces.</p> + +<p>Rallywood and Unziar being placed, one of the men sent a coin spinning +up into the air. Then followed a long minute of silence.</p> + +<p>St. Anthony's Cloister looks inward towards a quadrangle; the outer side +bordering the river has been glazed in, but in the interval of waiting +Rallywood could hear the water plashing and sobbing against the +foundations of the old walls, and the wild sound of the <i>tsa</i>, sweeping +down from the snowy frontier above Kofn Ford, as it wailed and howled +drearily along the dark waters. He almost started when Adiron, +approaching him, said:</p> + +<p>'You have won the first shot, Captain Rallywood.'</p> + +<p>'Then I am afraid I must beg of you to do me the great favour of +rearranging the affair,' replied Rallywood; 'for if I should be +unfortunate enough to kill Lieutenant Unziar, or even to disable him, +the question at issue between us must remain undecided for at the best +an indefinite time, and possibly for ever. If you recollect, the matter +over which he was pleased to differ with me was my expressed opinion +that though a good shot may bring down swallows to perfection, he might +miss a man at a moderate distance.'</p> + +<p>'You have won the toss,' remonstrated Adiron.</p> + +<p>'Yes, unluckily. But I feel sure that Lieutenant Unziar will be kind +enough not to hold me to that, since it is evident that the first shot +should be his.'</p> + +<p>Adiron grinned. It was his way of showing many mixed emotions.</p> + +<p>'I like your way of conducting a dispute, Captain Rallywood,' he said; +'but as your second I must warn you that it is the worst luck in the +world to refuse luck. You have won the toss. In declining to profit by +it you are paying court to death.'</p> + +<p>Rallywood shrugged his shoulders.</p> + +<p>'I may prove my point,' he retorted, smiling.</p> + +<p>'As for that, it might be decided on a different basis later on,' urged +Adiron.</p> + +<p>For the second time that night Rallywood looked at his watch.</p> + +<p>'I have an engagement in seven minutes,' he said. 'I shall be glad if +you will convey my meaning to Lieutenant Unziar.'</p> + +<p>'As you like,' said Adiron; 'but in case of accident I should like to +take the opportunity of saying to you now, that in the whole range of my +experience I have never derived more pleasure from the attitude of a +principal than I have on this occasion from yours.'</p> + +<p>Adiron concluded with a bow and recrossed to the other second. Since the +Englishman was determined to go to his grave in so excellent and gallant +a fashion, by heaven, it was Victor St. Just Adiron who would escort him +to its brink with all the honours of a fine and hereditary courtesy! He +was a man quite capable of losing himself in a cause; therefore, as he +approached the other seconds, he came as a partisan of Rallywood's, +resolved that his man should have his will in spite of all or any +opposition.</p> + +<p>'My principal,' he began, 'has just pointed out that this meeting is +rather in the nature of the justification of an opinion than a quarrel +in the ordinary sense;' then, repeating Rallywood's contention, he +added, 'You will see that it remains for Lieutenant Unziar to prove +himself in the right.'</p> + +<p>Colendorp threw out a bitter oath, Adolf objected softly, and Jenard +stood silent and in dismay. What could Rallywood mean by throwing away +his life? But Adiron backed up Rallywood; he was going to bring this +thing to pass! Rallywood should have a last satisfaction in this life, +because he was worthy of it.</p> + +<p>'If Lieutenant Unziar chooses to withdraw his opinion,' he said, 'of +course Captain Rallywood will not go any further into the matter. For +the rest, he has an appointment in less than seven minutes. On his +behalf I can but insist that his suggestion affords the only possible +way out of the difficulty.'</p> + +<p>Reluctantly the other men yielded. Rallywood had gained a moral +advantage. If he were destined to die, he would die in a manner that +would go down into the history of the Guard. Hastily and in accordance +with the request of Rallywood, the change of procedure was explained to +Unziar.</p> + +<p>The two opponents stood absolutely still, Rallywood's face wearing the +expression of one who is politely interested in something that is +happening to somebody else.</p> + +<p>At the signal Unziar raised his pistol and fired.</p> + +<p>Rallywood stood in his place for some thirty seconds, while there was a +sound of splintering glass as the bullet rushed out into the darkness +above the river; then he advanced smiling.</p> + +<p>'It seems,' he said,'that I was right.'</p> + +<p>Unziar stared at him.</p> + +<p>Rallywood handed his pistol to Jenard, and bowing to the assembled men +ceremoniously, he went on:</p> + +<p>'I hope we may consider the affair concluded, and as I am engaged for +the dance that is about to begin, I trust you will excuse me.'</p> + +<p>And with another bow he was gone. No one spoke for a little while, then +Unziar walked towards the others with no very pleasant face. That +Rallywood had done a thing above reproach, and in a manner above +reproach, made it none the easier for his pride to accept the result. +But he was above all considerations and before all considerations true +to himself—to Anthony Unziar.</p> + +<p>'Captain Rallywood has made his point and a reputation,' he said at +last. 'I think, Colendorp, you will agree with me that as men of honour +we must consider the matter ended.'</p> + +<p>'And in Captain Rallywood's favour?' asked Colendorp suddenly.</p> + +<p>'Certainly. What do you say, gentlemen?' Adiron spoke with warmth.</p> + +<p>'I suppose we must concede that it was neatly done, and that Captain +Rallywood deserves his success,' agreed Adolf with some constraint.</p> + +<p>Unziar's generosity rose to the occasion.</p> + +<p>'Our gain in the Guard is your loss in the Cavalry, Colonel Jenard,' he +said handsomely.</p> + +<p>Jenard acknowledged the implied compliment, and went off leaving the +three Guardsmen together.</p> + +<p>'We shall have to swallow the Englishman after all,' said Colendorp +blackly. 'How came you to miss him, Unziar?'</p> + +<p>Unziar raised his eyebrows.</p> + +<p>'Who can tell? Luck, I suppose,' replied he. 'But I, for one, am not +sorry. The man's worth keeping.'</p> + +<p>'He shapes well,' commented Adolf. 'But how will the chief take it?'</p> + +<p>'I am going to find the Colonel and tell him what has happened,' said +Unziar. 'I don't know how you fellows feel about it, but I say for +myself that the Guard might have done a good deal worse.'</p> + +<p>Colonel Wallenloup was at that moment engaged in promenading the +ballroom with Valerie Selpdorf on his arm. She belonged to that +sufficiently rare type of girl whose society is sought and enjoyed by +those older men who, as a rule, are content to stand by and watch the +current of younger life sweep by them, men who are in no sense gallants, +but who find a strong attraction in talking to a young and clever woman +on all kinds of subjects that too often lie outside the domain of the +thoughts of youth. Youth, engrossed in the problem of self, persistently +ignores those far more varied and profound problems to be found hidden +in more experienced hearts and lives.</p> + +<p>Wallenloup, who distrusted all women and was accordingly disliked by not +a few, always claimed a waltz with Valerie whenever he had the good +fortune to meet her. To him she was a woman worth talking to first, and +a pretty girl afterwards.</p> + +<p>Their dance having concluded, Wallenloup walked down the room with his +partner, continuing his monologue. Valerie had been very silent, but the +Colonel had more to say than usual, and his subject happened to be a +very scathing condemnation of outside interference with the affairs of +the Guard. Valerie listened without words. Perhaps her heart beat more +quickly, and there may have been more anxiety in her mind as to the +final upshot of the case in point than her companion could have guessed. +But she showed a flattering amount of interest in his opinion, although +she was well aware that the question was probably being settled once for +all, as far as Rallywood was concerned, in St. Anthony's Cloister, +without the help of Colonel Wallenloup.</p> + +<p>Suddenly she leant a little more heavily on his arm.</p> + +<p>'My dear Mademoiselle, what is the matter?' exclaimed the Colonel. 'You +are pale. What is it?'</p> + +<p>'I am tired, and the saloon has become so hot, but—thanks, I see my +next partner coming,' she answered as Rallywood came towards them.</p> + +<p>Wallenloup looked down at her with some reproach.</p> + +<p>'This fellow?' he said.</p> + +<p>'But why not?' she replied with a little smile. 'Is he not one of the +Guard? Can I aspire to anything higher?'</p> + +<p>'Captain Rallywood is not yet of the Guard!' said the old soldier; then +he bowed coldly and turned on his heel, without giving any symptom of +having recognized Rallywood beyond his scornful words.</p> + +<p>'I have come, Mademoiselle,' said Rallywood.</p> + +<p>The girl's pale cheeks were now touched with a delicate carmine, such as +shines between the fingers of a hand held up against a light. The flush +seemed to heighten and enhance her beauty, or rather it lent her a novel +kindling charm that struck home upon Rallywood's mood.</p> + +<p>'What have you been doing?' she asked with interest.</p> + +<p>'Breaking glasses with the Guard,' he replied.</p> + +<p>'That ceremony occasionally includes the use of a sword or a pistol.'</p> + +<p>'I have used neither,' he replied.</p> + +<p>'Are you then also a diplomatist?' she asked with quick scorn.</p> + +<p>Rallywood pulled his moustache. He did not pretend to understand women, +but that Mademoiselle Selpdorf should now despise him for escaping a +danger she had half an hour ago trembled over and prayed to avert, +seemed at best rather inconsistent.</p> + +<p>'I have attempted to be diplomatic now and then, perhaps,' he said, 'but +not always with conspicuous success.'</p> + +<p>'Diplomacy was never meant,' she said, looking frowningly at him through +her black lashes, 'never meant to be a private virtue. Its only excuse +lies in a national necessity.'</p> + +<p>'M. Selpdorf instructed me to avoid a quarrel,' rejoined Rallywood.</p> + +<p>'What do you suppose he meant,' she asked bitterly, 'knowing you had to +deal with the Guard?'</p> + +<p>'Ah!' and a slow smile dawned in his eyes; 'now I wonder what he meant +knowing I had to deal with the Guard?'</p> + +<p>Valerie frowned again; her words were not particularly expedient under +the circumstances, but she disliked having them flung back at her.</p> + +<p>'I beg your pardon. Of course I know nothing of—of these things. The +matter concerns you only. But I thought, and I am sorry for the mistake, +that you looked like a man!'</p> + +<p>There was a jingle of spurs behind her as she was about to turn away, +and Colonel Wallenloup strode up hurriedly.</p> + +<p>'Captain Rallywood, why are you not wearing the uniform of your +regiment—of the Guard?' he asked in a loud tone.</p> + +<p>There was a stir amongst the people about them; many stopped and drew +nearer to hear the end of this unprecedented conversation.</p> + +<p>'Because I intend to resign my commission to-morrow, sir,' replied +Rallywood haughtily.</p> + +<p>'On the part of the Guard, I beg of you to reconsider that decision,' +urged Wallenloup.</p> + +<p>He shook hands gravely with the young man, then detaching a star of +gun-metal from his breast, he awkwardly attempted to fasten it to the +lapel of Rallywood's coat. 'I see you have not the star of the Guard. +May I give you mine? Unziar, see to this; I cannot attach it.'</p> + +<p>'No, Colonel Wallenloup; that should rather be my duty,' said the +Countess Sagan, who happened to be standing by.</p> + +<p>Wallenloup grunted.</p> + +<p>'As the wife of our colonel-in-chief, madame, I feel sure your kindness +will be appreciated,' he said grimly.</p> + +<p>Madame de Sagan's blue eyes glanced up into Rallywood's face as her +fingers touched his breast.</p> + +<p>'No, as your friend,' she said softly.</p> + +<p>Then all at once Rallywood discovered how numerous were his friends and +well-wishers in Maäsau. He was overwhelmed with congratulations and +introductions, but the memory of that night which lingered longest with +him was the tall figure of Valerie Selpdorf standing aside and looking +coldly on. She expressed no pleasure at the turn events had taken, she +offered no congratulations, but she met Unziar with what was only too +plainly a mocking comment on the little scene, and the next moment was +floating down the long room in the young Maäsaun's arms to the music of +the last waltz.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<p class='center'>ONE WOMAN'S DIPLOMACY.</p> + + +<p>There are men who though conspicuously in the world are never of it. +Counsellor was one of these. He gave the impression of being a +spectator; one who looked on at the play of common ambitions and +intrigues with an amused and impersonal interest. He was drawn into no +quarrels. Those who hated him most continued to shake hands with him, +and none could accuse him of being a partisan. Yet he was rather +truculent than meek, entirely ready to give his opinion, often with a +surprising frankness, but maintaining throughout the complex relations +of his life a superb reserve that formed a defence behind which neither +favour nor enmity could penetrate.</p> + +<p>He stayed on at Révonde, though the <i>tsa</i> continued to blow +relentlessly. Affairs were yet in a chaotic condition and he lingered +grumblingly at the club, declaring it was too cold to travel, and +apparently finding his chief relaxation in privately deriding Rallywood +for the favours which Révonde society was thrusting so lavishly upon +him.</p> + +<p>In the untiring whirl and tangle of court life and gaiety Rallywood +lived and moved with a growing enjoyment that half surprised himself, +and for which he accounted on the score of change from the dull +drudgery of the frontier. His acceptance by the Guard had been thorough; +even the colonel-in-chief, Count Sagan, whose strongest point was not +courtesy, had given him a pronounced recognition. The pretty Countess +demanded a good deal of his attention and attendance, and this fact +brought down upon him some of Counsellor's most scathing jeers.</p> + +<p>'Gallantries are in vogue, my boy, and you are qualifying for a high +place amongst the Maäsauns,' he said. 'She is a deuced pretty woman. I +offer you my compliments.'</p> + +<p>'She is pretty,' replied Rallywood, 'but there are a good many people in +Maäsau who think her handsomer than I do.'</p> + +<p>'Yet you tell me that you are again on your way to her house this +evening. Can't you get through the day without a glimpse of her?'</p> + +<p>'Does it seem so bad as all that?' asked Rallywood reflectively. 'Yes, I +suppose I like going there; yet as I have said before, there are a good +many people who appreciate her more than I do.'</p> + +<p>'Then what in the world takes you there?'</p> + +<p>An odd expression grew slowly into the young man's face.</p> + +<p>'Because of the other people, I suppose,' he repeated dreamily.</p> + +<p>'As for instance?'</p> + +<p>Rallywood woke up from his thoughts and shook himself.</p> + +<p>'Unziar,' he returned with a grin.</p> + +<p>Counsellor opened the stove and threw in the remnant of his cigar.</p> + +<p>'Ah!' he commented significantly; 'and I presume Unziar goes there to +meet you. I begin to see.'</p> + +<p>Rallywood laughed.</p> + +<p>'I'm hanged if I do! By the way, the Countess wants of all things to +make a friend of you. She says the English are so reliable. But you are +such an old bear the women can't get at you.'</p> + +<p>'So much the better for me,' was the grim reply. 'Also I am sorry that I +can't reciprocate the Countess's opinion of me. There are very few +reliable women. If I had ever found one I might have married her.'</p> + +<p>'That is a hard saying, Major. You've been unlucky. That's where it +hurts with you!'</p> + +<p>'No, I've no personal feeling in the matter. I share the opinion in +common with many wise men. Let me refer you to Solomon, the census of +whose harem warrants us in believing that what he didn't know about +women wasn't worth knowing. Yet he records as his experience, "One man +among a thousand have I found; but a woman among all these have I not +found."'</p> + +<p>'I bet he didn't! You can't sample a delicate quality in the bulk,' +retorted Rallywood, and was already at the door when an idea stopped +him. 'Look here, Major; come with me and revise your verdict.'</p> + +<p>To his surprise Counsellor stood up and asked one more question.</p> + +<p>'Countess Isolde invited me?'</p> + +<p>'Any number of times, as you know.'</p> + +<p>'The more fool she,' growled Counsellor; 'I'll go.'</p> + +<p>The cotillon, danced with its hundred absurdities, was as fashionable at +Révonde as elsewhere. Counsellor, like a courtly bear, was induced to +join in its whimsical vagaries.</p> + +<p>The details of the cotillon obtaining at that period do not concern us +here. It is sufficient to say that, as a result of some evolution, by +chance or by choice Counsellor found himself with the Countess on a +raised daïs at one end of the room, while Mademoiselle Selpdorf and +Rallywood formed the corresponding couple at the other end. Between them +the dance proceeded, thus leaving the respective couples virtually +isolated for a few minutes.</p> + +<p>'It was delightful of you to come to our little party to-night,' the +Countess was saying to her companion. 'Now that you have come to see me +here, can I not induce you to come also to Sagan next week? We are going +out there for a few days. Do think of it.'</p> + +<p>'You are too kind, my dear madame, but an old man like myself may be out +of place.'</p> + +<p>The Countess sighed a little.</p> + +<p>'Of course you are not at all old,' she said, shaking her head at him, +'though you are fond of playing the part. But if you want to be old you +can be old in good company at the Castle, for the Duke will be +there—you know he is a cousin of ours.'</p> + +<p>Counsellor looked back into the smiling blue eyes. Most men would have +succumbed to their innocent flattery. To the Major they only suggested +an infinite capacity for foolishness.</p> + +<p>'Don't you think we could exchange our Duke for another, a more +interesting one?' she added, misled perhaps by his look. 'Duke Gustave +is so wrapped up in his stupid gambling, and altogether there are many +things——' her speech tailed off inconsequently into a confused +silence.</p> + +<p>'Wanting? Certainly! For example, we have no Duchess,' said Counsellor +gallantly. 'We need a pretty Duchess. But is it not possible that Maäsau +may yet boast the most adorable Duchess in Europe?'</p> + +<p>Countess Isolde started and flushed like a pleased child, and her eyes +lit up as she laid her fan on Counsellor's stout knee with a +confidential impulsive gesture.</p> + +<p>'But England does not like the idea of pretty Duchesses?' she ventured +reproachfully. 'And you are only a flatterer after all!'</p> + +<p>The Major raised his bushy white eyebrows.</p> + +<p>'Have I that reputation?'</p> + +<p>'No, they say you are terribly frank;' then a design to sound this +difficult and usually unapproachable diplomat came into her irrational +head. Older men than he had been vanquished by her beauty ere now. +'England has not yet recognized my husband's claim as next heir,' she +whispered. 'Major Counsellor, do you think your nation could ever be +brought to recognize me as Duchess?'</p> + +<p>'If the occasion arose,' answered the wily old soldier softly, 'I do not +see—speaking as a man—how any request of yours could be refused. But I +cannot answer for my nation. Still, if the occasion arose——' he +hesitated as if searching for words, but in reality, waiting for his +companion to take up the unfinished sentence.</p> + +<p>The Countess trembled with excitement. This was indeed a triumph. She, +'silly Isolde,' as old Sagan was ever ready to call her, had gained a +little bit of information they would give their ears to possess, but she +would keep it and use it at her leisure. Meanwhile she must strike while +the iron of old Counsellor's nature was yet hot.</p> + +<p>'But the occasion will arise, believe me! Perhaps soon, at Sagan!' As +she spoke she started violently, and her face turned white as Count +Sagan stood before them.</p> + +<p>'Do you feel inclined for a hand of whist, Counsellor?' he said +abruptly, with a wrathful, questioning glance at his wife. 'Has my wife +been boring you with her chatter?'</p> + +<p>'On the contrary, Major Counsellor has promised to join us at the Castle +next week,' exclaimed his wife.</p> + +<p>Sagan's bloodshot eyes darkened. He had the guile of a plotter, but +lacked something of the self-control. Counsellor, who appeared to be +watching the dancers, turned upon this and added:</p> + +<p>'And I have been thanking Madame de Sagan for the invitation.'</p> + +<p>'Ah, I knew you wouldn't come! Well, you will lose nothing. We shall +have a houseful of fools,' interrupted the Count roughly.</p> + +<p>'I have already accepted, and will with your permission, Count, be one +of the fools,' replied Counsellor genially.</p> + +<p>The Countess understood she had in some way put her foot in it, but as +the two men walked away together she nodded complacently to herself, +with the words, 'I know what I know!'</p> + +<p>The tide of dancers still swept backwards and forwards as Madame de +Sagan idly observed them, until her glance chanced to fall upon the +opposite couple at the further end of the saloon. Something in Valerie's +air fixed her wandering attention at once with a little shock. What was +Rallywood saying to her? And where was Anthony Unziar? The Countess +Isolde had to the full the all-devouring vanity of her type, but now, +for once in her life, she felt desirous of forwarding a love affair that +was not her own.</p> + +<p>'You are going to Sagan, of course?' Valerie had said to her partner as +they stood together.</p> + +<p>'I think not,' Rallywood replied.</p> + +<p>'I thought you would be sure to be in attendance'—she glanced +carelessly towards the daïs where the Countess was at the moment laying +her fan on Counsellor's knee—'as usual.'</p> + +<p>'No, Unziar is the lucky man,' Rallywood answered without significance +in his tone.</p> + +<p>'Nonsense! Anthony is her cousin!' said the girl impatiently.</p> + +<p>Rallywood's grey eyes were on her face.</p> + +<p>'Whose cousin? What do you mean?' he asked innocently.</p> + +<p>Valerie bit her lip. She hated this Englishman. Of all her acquaintances +he alone, in his blundering way, was able to put her somehow at a +disadvantage.</p> + +<p>'When the Duke goes to Sagan,' she said, without noticing his question, +'the Count has the privilege as colonel-in-chief of the Guard, of +inviting any two officers he pleases to act with the escort. So we shall +see.'</p> + +<p>'I wonder,' said Rallywood after a pause, 'where you get your +impressions from, Mademoiselle?'</p> + +<p>'I see—like other people. We all form our judgments on what we see +and—know!'</p> + +<p>'What do you know, for instance?'</p> + +<p>'I heard of you when you were at Kofn Ford, near the Castle of Sagan,' +she answered.</p> + +<p>Rallywood was only human, and however moderately he may have returned +Madame de Sagan's preference, he was fully aware of its existence. In +those days on the frontier he had, rather from fastidiousness than +principle perhaps, avoided her and her invitations whenever possible. +But that was one thing; it was another to hear the matter coolly +alluded to by the girl beside him. Involuntarily he drew a little away +from her. His notions were founded less on actual knowledge and +experience of women—for of that he had little—than gathered from that +idealized version of the sex with which the right-minded male animal is +usually furnished by his own mental and emotional processes. So far his +intercourse with Isolde of Sagan had been limited to certain sentimental +passages; the initiative lay with the lady, but Rallywood had once or +twice been distinctly wrought upon by the appeals to his sympathy and +pity. Now, however, looked at from a fresh standpoint, the one in fact +from which Valerie viewed it, the subject became suddenly repellent, and +he slid away from the discussion with another question.</p> + +<p>'What has Unziar been saying of me? You have treated me differently +since—that night.'</p> + +<p>There appeared to be no need to particularize the night.</p> + +<p>Mademoiselle Selpdorf understood both the first involuntary movement and +the change of subject, and resented them equally.</p> + +<p>'Anthony is generous, so generous!' she said with some warmth. 'I +suppose it is an English trait to take everything and to give nothing in +return. Anthony told me of all that took place in the Cloister of St. +Anthony. Your action seemed to him so fine, poor fellow!—but not to me. +You believed in your luck, of course, and took the hazard and won, +leaving him hopelessly at a disadvantage. I should not have accepted the +position as he did—I should have forced you to fight it out sooner or +later! I had rather a hundred times have died by your bullet than lived +to endure your triumph!'</p> + +<p>Rallywood pondered this view of the matter before he spoke.</p> + +<p>'I dare say you are right,' he said at last; 'at least, no woman could +have been so generous to another woman as he was to me.'</p> + +<p>'You are complimentary, Captain Rallywood!'</p> + +<p>'I beg your pardon. I only meant that women are not generous as between +themselves. Looked at from your point of view, I see that I was wrong +about that affair with Unziar. But more than all, it proves he is a +splendid fellow.'</p> + +<p>Now Unziar's praise from Rallywood's lips displeased Mademoiselle +Selpdorf almost more than all which had gone before.</p> + +<p>'It is easy to say these things, but'—she rose eagerly—'at last that +figure is ended. What a stupid interval it has been!' she added with a +little smile.</p> + +<p>'I am sorry. I always have the misfortune to bore you,' Rallywood said, +accepting his snub meekly.</p> + +<p>'Never mind! You can't help it!' she responded with a pleasant nod as +she left him.</p> + +<p>Rallywood remained standing where he was.</p> + +<p>'A very nasty one indeed for me. I shouldn't wonder, though, if she +forgave me for the sake of that last back-handed blow!' he reflected +with some amusement.</p> + +<p>Which proves that Révonde was teaching Rallywood something that has its +own value at one period or another of a man's life. He was too poor to +dream of marrying anyone, much less the daughter of the Chancellor of +Maäsau, a woman whose training and tastes had not been guided on the +lines of simplicity or economy. That Valerie Selpdorf attracted him was +a truth to which his eyes began to be opened at the moment when +Counsellor asked him why he haunted Madame de Sagan's entertainments. +Then it had struck him that the almost certain chance of meeting Valerie +was his chief motive, yet he believed it was safe to divulge to himself, +since the girl bitterly disliked him, and he, in the strength of the +insular and Puritan side of his nature, disapproved of her. It was the +pleasure of the hour, no one looked beyond that in Révonde, and +Rallywood had fallen into the universal habit of drifting.</p> + +<p>'You are thoughtful. What can you have been talking about?' asked the +Countess, coming up.</p> + +<p>'Mademoiselle Selpdorf has been giving her opinion of me. It is not +flattering, and I am depressed,' returned Rallywood, hoping the Countess +meant to talk of Valerie.</p> + +<p>'Has she? She is often absurd in her ideas. But we need not talk of her. +To turn to something pleasanter, do you know that I have just persuaded +Major Counsellor to come to us at Sagan?'</p> + +<p>Rallywood instantly perceived that the three or four days at the old +frontier castle might prove to be a singularly interesting period, and +regretted that he was not to be a guest also.</p> + +<p>'And you are coming too, are you not?' went on Madame de Sagan, with a +note in her voice that Rallywood was learning to dread.</p> + +<p>'I fancy not. Unziar and Adiron have been mentioned.'</p> + +<p>'Yes, Anthony Unziar, because he is my cousin, and for the sake of +Valerie. Also Captain Colendorp. I do not like him, he is always black +and sneering, but the Count chose him yesterday, and then I suggested +yourself. They were rather doubtful about you, but Baron von Elmur +consented. And I was so glad—Jack!'</p> + +<p>The friendship had been progressing, it will be perceived, during the +last three weeks. But Rallywood made no immediate response, being +absorbed in digesting the information she had given him. That the German +minister should be permitted to dictate the guests for the three days' +festivities at the Castle was in itself a pregnant fact. But further, +the Germans had never before possessed old Sagan's confidence; his +dislike of the encroaching mammoth, whom the whole little nation feared, +was notorious. This new departure was therefore ominous.</p> + +<p>'I had no notion that Baron von Elmur liked me any better than my +countrymen,' said Rallywood aloud.</p> + +<p>'Ah, no, perhaps not; but now, you will understand, he wishes to please +me!' Countess Isolde answered with an air of mysterious importance.</p> + +<p>'He is not alone in wishing to do that,' returned Rallywood, ashamed +even as he uttered it, of the meaningless compliment.</p> + +<p>'Jack,' she said, with a proud raising of her blonde head, 'you are my +friend, and of course you wish to please me. But everyone will want to +stand well with me some day—when I have power—and then you shall see +what I will do for those whom I wish to please!'</p> + +<p>Every word she spoke added to the certainty that some new plot was +afoot, and Rallywood glanced round for Counsellor's stout figure.</p> + +<p>'You are glad to come to Sagan?' persisted his companion; 'say you are +glad.'</p> + +<p>'I've never been more glad of anything in my life!' Rallywood replied +with truth, and then, his good angel rather than his mother's wit coming +to his rescue, he got away from the dancing-salon, and found Counsellor +at the entrance preparing to leave.</p> + +<p>'I'll walk round with you, Major,' he proposed.</p> + +<p>'I'm not going your way,' replied Counsellor. 'Besides, I wish to drive. +Hullo, you have got hold of my gloves!' and snatching at the +gloves—which happened to be Rallywood's—he thrust his own into the +young man's hand, saying in a low voice as he did so, 'Be on the +Cloister Bridge in half an hour. Good-night!'</p> + +<p>At the appointed time, Rallywood, having replaced his military greatcoat +by one less remarkable, was waiting on the bridge, when he was accosted +by a hunchbacked fellow in a shabby Maäsaun sheepskin, who dropped a +rough English 'Good-night,' as he passed. Presently Rallywood followed +him until they came out into an open country road where the biting <i>tsa</i> +met them full face.</p> + +<p>'This <i>tsa</i> is deadly! Quick! what is it you have to tell me?' said +Counsellor's voice.</p> + +<p>Rallywood answered in a few rapid sentences.</p> + +<p>'Yes, I fancied something of the kind was due. What an inestimable +blessing it is that such women as the Countess Sagan exist—to satisfy +diplomatic curiosity! We must find out the precise limits of the German +game at the Castle of Sagan. It is lucky for you, John, my son, that +your duty as a Maäsaun soldier to the Maäsaun nation and as an +Englishman to your own, run in this instance on the same lines.'</p> + +<p>'They always will.'</p> + +<p>'Don't be too sure of that! There may come a day when your public and +your private honour will stand face to face, hopelessly irreconcilable. +What then?'</p> + +<p>'When anything so extremely awkward comes to pass, I suppose I shall +have to make up my mind on the subject,' replied Rallywood with a lazy +yawn, 'in the meantime it is to much trouble. Just at present my part is +simple, and I look for the game to turn in our favor.'</p> + +<p>Counsellor stood still, as if in consideration, for a minute.</p> + +<p>'The stake may seem to be a small one—just this useless scrap of +country,' he said at length, 'but the issues are far-reaching, and +therefore all Europe is taking a hand in the game. How will it end? I +don't know! The Fates shuffle and men handle the cards, but God cuts! +Thirty years' experience has taught me that. I didn't believe it once—I +do now.'</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<p class='center'>A QUESTION OF THE GUARD.</p> + + +<p>The really great strategist is not the man who loves an intricate plot. +His method is simple, he eliminates.</p> + +<p>On a certain cold morning, when the sun shone pinkly through a sea-haze +over the glittering roofs of Révonde, a review of the Guard, and of a +few regiments that happened to be stationed within a short distance of +the capital, was to be held, in honour of the Duke's birthday, on the +spacious parade ground of the Guard, which occupied the whole of a small +plateau lying high between the beetling hills behind the barracks.</p> + +<p>Baron von Elmur paid an early visit to the Chancellor on his way to the +review, and found M. Selpdorf, though brisk and urbane as ever, a little +difficult.</p> + +<p>'We do not progress, Monsieur,' Elmur was saying.</p> + +<p>'What would you, my dear Baron? we have so many obstacles in our path,' +answered the other, shrugging his shoulders good-humoredly.</p> + +<p>Elmur leaned his elbow on the table.</p> + +<p>'I know that delay can conduce to no good end,' he said. 'You have +agreed that a certain course is desirable no less for your country than +mine.'</p> + +<p>'Have I agreed to that proposition? Not altogether! Remember, I cannot +be expected to see with German eyes.'</p> + +<p>'Even to the most patriotic Maäsaun it must be evident that sooner or +later the State must fall to us; it is merely a question of time.'</p> + +<p>'The time has already been long,' said the Chancellor softly.</p> + +<p>'For an excellent reason: because we have not always been as now, a huge +bulk. The bulk of the new Empire must by force of gravitation attract +all the smaller bodies round to itself. It is by a miracle only that +Maäsau has stood alone so long.'</p> + +<p>'And by another miracle she might go on standing alone a little longer.'</p> + +<p>'This is not the age of miracles, my friend!'</p> + +<p>'I remember also something which your Excellency forgets,' said +Selpdorf, with a touch of sadness in his voice, 'that there have been +Selpdorfs helping in this miracle of the independence of Maäsau for +generations.'</p> + +<p>Elmur altered his attitude with an open impatience.</p> + +<p>'You are a far-sighted patriot, Monsieur. It is needless to repeat that +if Maäsau joins the confederation of the Empire by her own act she will +do so on very different terms to any which could possibly be conceded to +a state that had forced upon us the unpleasant necessity of coercion. +Remember Frankfurt! She paid for her obstinacy. Whereas we are prepared +to deal generously towards those who cast in their lot with ours. +Besides,' he added significantly, 'I am urging you to consult not only +the interests of Maäsau, but your own also.'</p> + +<p>'They are the same, and it is difficult to know where our true interest +lies,' said Selpdorf, thoughtfully. 'Do you go to the Castle of Sagan +next week?'</p> + +<p>The abrupt change of subject seemed to have its effect upon Elmur. He +turned away from the table, crossed his legs, and lit a cigarette in a +leisurely manner before he answered.</p> + +<p>'Yes; and you, Monsieur?'</p> + +<p>'I have no inclination for these gaieties; but my daughter goes.' Von +Elmur shot a glance at his companion.</p> + +<p>'To repeat my own words—we do not progress, my dear Selpdorf.'</p> + +<p>'So? Women finesse in these affairs. Valerie follows the custom of her +sex, and perhaps she has become a little spoilt by overmuch admiration. +Were she aware of your wishes, it would solve many of the present +doubts.'</p> + +<p>'It takes two to make that especial kind of bargain,' said Elmur, with a +curious smile, 'one to ask, the other to grant. I am prepared to ask +when I am assured that my request will be favourably received. An +ambassador is esteemed in just the same degree as the country he +represents. If his country triumph he triumphs also.'</p> + +<p>'In this case I might point out that your personal success,' the +Chancellor said airily, 'would be the best, shall I say the only +possible, preliminary to the success of the mission with which his +Imperial Majesty has charged you.'</p> + +<p>Elmur drew in his lips slightly. Valerie, as the Baroness von Elmur, was +to be her father's guarantee for the future! Although Elmur's desires +lay in the same direction, Selpdorf's insistence was most unpalatable to +the German minister.</p> + +<p>'I am ready to lay myself at Mademoiselle's feet,' he said aloud, 'but +there is always the picturesque young captain of the Guard.'</p> + +<p>'Unziar? I can positively reassure your Excellency on that point.'</p> + +<p>'Unziar? No! The Englishman—Rallywood.'</p> + +<p>'Rallywood?' said the Chancellor in very real surprise, 'what of him?'</p> + +<p>'Nothing beyond the fact that he has an aptitude for challenging fate. +Such men dazzle the eyes, and are consequently apt to be dangerous. Why +has he been placed in the Guard?'</p> + +<p>'I placed him there to serve our mutual convenience,' replied Selpdorf. +'He is an Englishman, with his full share of English intolerance and +courage. On the other hand, the Guard resent the intrusion of +foreigners, neither are they—mild-mannered.'</p> + +<p>Elmur considered.</p> + +<p>'The chances were in favour of trouble certainly. Had there been trouble +Rallywood might have disposed of some of our chief difficulties for us,' +he remarked, with a cynical smile.</p> + +<p>'He might also have been disposed of himself,' said Selpdorf, 'and he is +the one human being for whom the good Counsellor has the slightest +regard. In politics it is necessary to consider the personal equation. +To touch Counsellor in his weakest point would have been to alienate +England at the convenient moment.'</p> + +<p>'All that might have been true'—Elmur shrugged his shoulders; +'unluckily we must face things as they actually are.'</p> + +<p>'Even now Rallywood has his uses. The Guard is composed of the flower of +our nobility—they are not to be tempted. At least that is my opinion, +although I believe Count Sagan holds differently. But this Rallywood is +a soldier of fortune, a mercenary. You perceive?'</p> + +<p>Elmur stroked his chin dubiously.</p> + +<p>'I am very much afraid he belongs to the wrong breed. However, I would +wish to point out that it will be essential to carry through this matter +quickly. If the Duke could be persuaded to accept the scheme of +reversion, the whole arrangement would be completed before the world was +the wiser.'</p> + +<p>'It is the simplest plan, and therefore the best. But what will England +say? Counsellor is here, that in itself speaks.'</p> + +<p>'Neither England nor the good Counsellor can touch an accomplished fact. +As they say in their own idiom, "Possession is nine parts of the law." +It remains with us to make the fact.'</p> + +<p>Selpdorf arose.</p> + +<p>'Your Excellency will excuse me. It is time to start for the palace. +To-day his Highness the Duke holds a review of the Guard. I will if +possible sound him on the subject which interests us both. Should that +fail, we must consider the alternative scheme.'</p> + +<p>Half-an-hour later the two men met again as they dismounted in the +courtyard of the palace. They approached each other courteously.</p> + +<p>'There stands the real obstacle to our success,' said Elmur in a low +tone.</p> + +<p>Selpdorf followed the German Minister's glance. Standing there, in the +fire-light of the guard-room, was the tall figure of Anthony Unziar, +waiting with haughty stiffness for the appearance of the Duke.</p> + +<p>'His Highness's gentlemen, the Maäsaun Guard,' went on Elmur with a +bitter sneer, 'the impersonation of an arrogant militarism!'</p> + +<p>'Seven—to be counted with,' corrected Selpdorf gently. 'The other, the +eighth——'</p> + +<p>'Has the initial fault of nationality. However, he goes to Sagan.'</p> + +<p>The mist cleared as the sun rose higher until, by noon, the sky was of +a pale radiant blue laced with a delicate broidery of white +wind-scattered clouds. Looking westward the dark river wound away to the +sea, ringed here and there by the highly decorated bridges of +light-toned granite peculiar to Maäsau. Révonde, in the sunshine, shone +in the colours of a moss-grown stone, gray and green, the twin ridges on +which it stood fretted and embossed to their summits with the palaces +and pinnacles, the spires and towers, and gardens of the spreading city. +The Grand Duke, as they rounded the mounting road to the parade ground, +looked back upon Révonde with a lingering glance. Selpdorf who was +seated opposite to him, had been replying to his grumbling questions as +to the condition of the royal exchequer with a depressing account of the +hopelessness of the situation.</p> + +<p>'Révonde is a jewel after all!' said the Duke suddenly; 'a jewel can +always be mortgaged, Selpdorf.'</p> + +<p>Selpdorf admitted that this was true, and also hinted that the jewel had +been used in one way or another pretty freely to raise the revenues for +a good many years, without giving much in the way of a <i>quid pro quo</i>, +beyond the vague hopes and airy promises which pledged the Maäsaun +government to little or nothing. But now, he explained, the Powers were +growing weary of so unprofitable a speculation, and were inclined to +expect some definite return for their assistance.</p> + +<p>The Duke listened moodily, lying back on his cushions, a thin-legged, +paunchy figure, whose features had lost their shapely mould under the +touch of dissipation. The nose hung long and fleshy between the pouched +skin of his cheekbones, the eyes showed a tell-tale slackness in the +under eyelid, where it merged into the loose wrinkles below. The lower +part of the face was covered by a long but sparse moustache, through +which at times could be discerned that terrible protrusion of the upper +lip that seems the herald of senility. Yet Gustave, Grand Duke of +Maäsau, was only that day celebrating the completion of his +fifty-seventh year.</p> + +<p>Where the carriage attained the level of the plateau, the main road +curved away inland to the right, while upon the left hand, under the +wall of encircling brown cliffs, a small brigade of all arms was +assembled to do honour to their ruler. Through a cut in the hills far +away, but seemingly nearer on that windy morning, could be seen a blue +open bay, blown into the 'innumerable laughter of the sea.' The air, the +whole scene, was inspiriting, but the Duke looked heavily on as the +troops deployed and turned, their arms glittering in the sunlight.</p> + +<p>First in order came a couple of squadrons of the Frontier Cavalry, with +their black sheepskins hanging behind them; then infantry, followed by +two batteries of artillery divided by some more cavalry, and, after a +distinct interval, the Guard.</p> + +<p>The little army was perfect in equipment and finish, and their uniforms +were brilliant and picturesque; but the Duke stared out of the +amphitheatre of the parade ground with dissatisfaction and <i>ennui</i>. +Money, he wanted money, and the less the Chancellor could encourage him +to hope for it the more he desired to have it by hook or by crook.</p> + +<p>The Grand Marshal of Maäsau having been dismissed from the side of the +royal carriage with a few curt words, the Duke spoke again, in a low +tone to Selpdorf.</p> + +<p>'Then you wish me to understand that there is no more to be got out of +anybody. I know better than that. England, Germany, and Russia, are +waiting to outbid each other.'</p> + +<p>'That is true, sire; but they will not deal on the old terms.'</p> + +<p>The Guard, with scattered pennons flying, were drawn up at the lower end +of the parade ground. The chief effect of the day was about to take +place—the charge of the Guard.</p> + +<p>'I am now of an age,' remarked the Duke peevishly, 'when my birthdays +have ceased to be a cause for congratulation. This review is an +anachronism. In my father's time I rode at the head of the Guard, and +led a charge on the day I was eighteen. Pish! I have grown wiser, and +know how to enjoy life after a more rational fashion. To return to our +other subject—What do they want?'</p> + +<p>Selpdorf smiled, and passed his fingers upwards over the erect corners +of his moustache.</p> + +<p>'For example, there is a power that might pay a heavy annual sum if +your Highness would consent to disband your Guard!' he said, with a +tentative smile.</p> + +<p>The slack fallen lines of the Duke's visage grew suddenly tense. His +eyes brightened as the tossing mass in green and gold swept down towards +them in a thunder of hoofs, and the long-drawn shout of 'Maäsau,' with +which the Guard have charged home on so many a battlefield.</p> + +<p>As the splendid ranks of horsemen crashed past under a flashing play of +saluting swords, the Duke pulled himself erect in his carriage and +raised his gloved hand in acknowledgment with a strong fling of +enthusiasm that recalled to men present other and better days.</p> + +<p>Selpdorf's brow lost its round smoothness for a short moment, but +cleared again before the Duke dropped back with a groan into his seat.</p> + +<p>'Disband the Guard? What traitor suggested that? May the Guard shoot me +first! I'd rather rot of starvation than consent to it! For with the +Guard is bound up the freedom of Maäsau!'</p> + +<p>Presently he turned upon the Chancellor with a glooming and suspicious +gaze.</p> + +<p>'Has Sagan been tampering with you?' he asked, with a sneer, 'if he +tempted you now it would only be to betray you later! He hankers after +Maäsau, but remember my cousin in England. He has claims which cannot be +over-ridden.'</p> + +<p>Selpdorf remained respectfully silent for a short time, revolving the +extremely important admission with regard to the second claimant to the +heritage of the Duchy, which the Duke in his excitement had made.</p> + +<p>The first and simpler plan of persuading the Duke to enter into an +understanding with Germany, to the effect that she should enjoy the +reversion of Maäsau in exchange for the payment of a secured annuity, +was plainly hopeless. It now remained to put in motion the second +scheme, which contained elements of infinitely greater danger.</p> + +<p>Human nature is a complex thing, yet each man's attitude of mind towards +himself, is often only an extension of his attitude of mind towards his +neighbour.</p> + +<p>What the Chancellor said to himself to whitewash his conduct in his own +eyes, who can tell? The Duke, old vice-sodden reprobate as he was, had +that one remnant of manhood left, a determination to face the last and +most absolute contingency of life rather than sell his country.</p> + +<p>Perhaps Selpdorf used that most guilty of all excuses—If I do not put +my hand to this thing someone else will. Maäsau must fall sooner or +later to some larger power. May not I profit by it as well as another? +Did he set his house of excuse upon the sand of a certain bitter +writing? 'I will persuade them,' said Satan—'I will make them two +idols, which they shall call Honour and Fidelity, and a law which shall +be called passive obedience. And they shall worship these idols!' If +Honour, Fidelity, and Obedience be idols, where then, are the true +gods?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<p class='center'>THE CASTLE OF SAGAN.</p> + + +<p>The broadly flowing Kofn forms part of the north-eastern boundary of the +State of Maäsau. Its dark waters rush tumultuously from the gorge below +the Castle of Sagan, and fling a vast enclosing arm about the bleak +plains and marshes of which the wastes of the frontier consist.</p> + +<p>It is a land where even summer dwells coldly.</p> + +<p>To the north a chain of hills rises black against the sky, and there, +set upon a boldly jutting spur, the Castle of Sagan dominates the +inhospitable landscape like a frown upon a sinister face.</p> + +<p>The whole spur and the hill behind it are rough with ragged pine-woods, +and, below, the banks shelve to the river with a broken scattering of +deciduous trees, that leave on the eye the chill impression of leafless +branches tangled against a background of grey and stony slopes.</p> + +<p>Some two or three miles south of the Castle the river breaks across a +step-like outcrop of rock, and thus forms that famous ford, across which +the Counts of Sagan used in the old days to lead their foraging +expeditions over the border.</p> + +<p>Simon of Sagan, the present Count, inherited in an unmodified degree +the more predatory and uncivilized instincts of his forefathers. +Illiterate, brutal, and cunning, the thin veneer laid by the nineteenth +century upon his coarse-grained nature was apt to rub off on the very +slightest friction, bringing the original savage to the surface.</p> + +<p>He was at once the terror and the pride of the stolid, silent peasantry +that lived under his rule. A fierce and fearless sportsman, his +dependents delighted in boasting of the prowess of a master whose +capricious cruelties they never dreamed of resenting. With Sagan, +throughout life, to desire was to have, and in his pursuit of the +wished-for object, he was hampered by no new-fangled sentiments of +honour, truth, or loyalty. Like other savages he quickly tired of his +fancies when once gratified. Not four years ago he had been possessed by +a frantic passion for the beautiful young wife whom he had now come to +regard with something dangerously near hate.</p> + +<p>In dealing with such a temperament as this both Elmur and Selpdorf were +well aware that they were handling an explosive that might at any moment +wreck their most carefully laid plans. They would very much have +preferred to have made a tool of the reigning Duke, but Selpdorf, who +had been plying him for more than a month with a ceaseless and +exhaustive course of innuendo, discouragement, and veiled temptation, +was at length convinced, by the Duke's reply on the day of the review, +that nothing further was to be hoped for in that direction.</p> + +<p>For this reason the German party was obliged to fall back on Count +Sagan. That he was untrammelled by principle, and was, moreover, +prepared to meet them half-way, rendered their schemes no whit safer. +The only hope of security lay in clinching the matter as quickly as it +was possible to do so. Once the German grasp had been fairly laid upon +the State, the nominal sovereign might struggle as he liked, he could +hurt no one but himself.</p> + +<p>M. Selpdorf's chief contribution towards the new plot—which was to be +carried out at the Count's own fortress, the Castle of Sagan—consisted +in sending an urgent letter after his daughter, begging her to fall in +with von Elmur's wishes.</p> + +<p>Valerie received the letter in Madame de Sagan's apartments. The +Countess lay on a couch, reading a French novel and yawning.</p> + +<p>'What a devoted papa!' she exclaimed, glancing up.</p> + +<p>Valerie did not immediately reply. She was standing at the deep embayed +window that looked out towards the river and the apparently endless +desolation beyond. She only moved very slightly, thereby turning her +back even more completely upon her companion. The girl had not lived so +long in an atmosphere of diplomacy without learning the wisdom of +keeping her own counsel.</p> + +<p>She had for some time been aware of Baron von Elmur's admiration, but +only of late had he seemed anxious to make his aspirations manifest to +the public—a much more significant fact. For the German was in one way +a universal admirer, he made qualified love to most of the good-looking +ladies about the Court, and also, perhaps, more pointedly, to some who +were not so good-looking, thus gaining much profit and some pleasure. +His high-shouldered, portly, personable figure, his handsome face with +its close-set narrow eyes, rose before Valerie's mental eye. Her future +husband? How absurd, how impossible! And she suddenly laughed a soft, +throaty ripple of laughter.</p> + +<p>Isolde moved noiselessly, and coming behind Valerie, caught her by the +shoulders and swung her half round.</p> + +<p>'What are you laughing at?' she asked over the girl's shoulder.</p> + +<p>Valerie moved away gently from under the slender hands.</p> + +<p>'Can you imagine yourself in love with Baron von Elmur?' she asked.</p> + +<p>'Were you laughing at that?' inquired the other incredulously.</p> + +<p>'Yes,' with another little laugh.</p> + +<p>'Ah! the devoted papa has been writing of Baron von Elmur?' said the +Countess, with an arch smile.</p> + +<p>'But, I can understand being in love with von Elmur! He is—difficult. +Men no longer in their first youth are much the more interesting. The +love of a young man is simple, he says what he means; but when he grows +older it is not so. By that time he has gathered memories, +enlightenment, experiences; and he begins by thinking he knows one +through and through. And why?—because he knows other women—and them +how imperfectly! As if we were not as various as the colours in the old +Sagan diadem! Each woman is made differently, and each reflects her own +colour. To teach a man—old enough to appreciate it—this little fact +about ourselves is, I assure you, never a dull amusement.'</p> + +<p>Valerie paused before she spoke.</p> + +<p>'Now I know why you are married, Isolde!'</p> + +<p>'Ah, yes; but I was too young to realize that Sagan is a bear who cannot +be taught to dance. I had just left school. I could not choose. But you, +Valerie, you have a future before you! Poor Anthony, like all other +young men, is desperately in earnest, he gives one the blues. I know he +already bores you; but von Elmur——Ah, that is altogether another +affair!'</p> + +<p>Madame de Sagan sank down beside a little buhl-table, and tapped on it +impatiently with her slight fingers. Against the light of the afternoon +glow she watched the outline of Valerie's cheek. For Mdlle. Selpdorf had +returned to her contemplation of the landscape. A curl of blue smoke +from among the trees on the nearer bank of the Kofn held her gaze and +suggested thoughts, which she was taking up one by one, as it were, and +examining soberly enough.</p> + +<p>Rallywood had been stationed at Kofn Ford when first Isolde made his +acquaintance. The girl recalled a description she had heard of the tall +young Englishman galloping along the flat road to the rescue of the +pretty, terrified Countess, whose Arab had been merely cantering along, +capering now and again from sheer light-heartedness and without +malicious intent, until its timid rider chose to scream, when it reared +and started with flying hoofs towards the marshes. Valerie went on to +picture Rallywood holding the trembling woman on her saddle till her +escort and grooms overtook them, and at the picture the girl's lip +curled and quivered with angry scorn—of a sudden she hated and despised +them both, but especially she despised Rallywood for having succumbed to +Isolde's shallow beauty! Thus it will be seen that Mdlle. Selpdorf was +inclined to under-rate Madame de Sagan's points. Isolde was not only +wonderfully pretty, but she was endowed with a superficial cleverness, +and kindliness and tact, all of which rendered her irresistible to nine +men out of ten. A moral chameleon, Isolde almost always believed in +herself and her own moods, therefore it was little wonder that the men +whose phases of humour she reflected believed in her also, and moreover +thought her as adorable and as full of delicious changes as Cleopatra.</p> + +<p>Isolde had told the story of her adventure to Valerie, dwelling on the +facts that the hero detested—absolutely detested—all other women, also +that in physique he followed the most approved English pattern, and was +an exceptionally good specimen at that. Altogether Valerie had found the +description sufficiently attractive to induce her to pay Rallywood that +coquettish little visit in the ante-room of the Hôtel du Chancelier.</p> + +<p>While these things passed through her thoughts her eyes were still fixed +upon the blue plume of smoke that rose and melted over Kofn Ford, for +its position indicated the whereabouts of the block-house used by the +Frontier Patrol, and there Rallywood had lived during the early part of +his acquaintance with Isolde.</p> + +<p>'What are you thinking of?' inquired Madame de Sagan suddenly; then, as +Valerie made no immediate answer, she added, 'Shall I tell you, +Valerie?'</p> + +<p>The other turned, with the pink of sunset lighting up her pale face.</p> + +<p>'I don't imagine you can guess,' she said, with a faint smile.</p> + +<p>Madame de Sagan's little trill of laughter was not quite so childish and +irresponsible as usual.</p> + +<p>'But I can. You were thinking of Rallywood. You think rather often of +Rallywood, my dear girl.'</p> + +<p>The guess, so near the truth, startled Valerie, although she gave no +sign. What could have suggested such an idea to Isolde? Instantly +Valerie was on the defensive. Her delicate nostrils quivered slightly, +and her hand—a larger and more capable hand than Isolde's—closed more +firmly upon her father's letter, as she replied, with that firm +directness which was so surprising a trait in her father's daughter:—</p> + +<p>'Yes, I was thinking of him—and you. The block-house where he lived is +down there, I can see the smoke. That reminded me of it all. By the way, +Isolde, it seems that some young men have a shade of interest about +them.'</p> + +<p>'This one is rather unlike all the others,' returned Madame de Sagan, +with gravity. 'He saved my life, and, well, he is different to anybody +else. He assumes nothing.'</p> + +<p>It is a fact worthy of consideration that while a man rarely establishes +a claim on a woman by rendering her a service, a woman always +establishes a claim on a man by being rendered a service. Perhaps this +is as it should be.</p> + +<p>'No,' repeated Valerie, thoughtfully, 'he certainly assumes—nothing.'</p> + +<p>'What do you mean by that, Valerie?' exclaimed Isolde irritably. 'You +are in one of your incomprehensible moods to-day. What do you think of +Rallywood?'</p> + +<p>'I hardly know what to think yet. Very likely I shall never come to any +conclusion about him. He is not my affair, and what can be more +uninteresting than a man who has saved some other woman's life?' She +laughed. 'You have recommended von Elmur to my notice—I shall certainly +spend my time to more profit in studying him.'</p> + +<p>A servant entered.</p> + +<p>'His Excellency Baron von Elmur wishes to wait upon your ladyship.'</p> + +<p>Elmur advanced bowing. After greeting his hostess, he turned to Valerie +with a manner that was new in their intercourse. He dropped from the +courtier to the man pure and simple.</p> + +<p>Kissing the girl's hand he said earnestly:</p> + +<p>'I feared you were not to arrive until to-morrow.'</p> + +<p>Madame de Sagan, who had raised her eyebrows and made a little grimace +at Valerie behind the Minister's back, here interposed:</p> + +<p>'I persuaded her to travel here with me. I hope, Baron, you feel how +greatly I have befriended you!'</p> + +<p>'You will find me grateful, Madame. In the meantime, I have been sent to +warn you that his Highness has already arrived at the foot of the hill, +and to beg you to descend to the great hall, where the Count is waiting +to receive him.'</p> + +<p>'Come, Valerie,' said the Countess, with a little catch in her breath, +and an added fleck of colour in her soft cheeks.</p> + +<p>The great hall was half-filled with servants and retainers, ranged +according to the fashion, which has obtained at Sagan during the memory +of man, for the ceremonious reception of the reigning Duke. Half a dozen +huntsmen held in leash as many couples of huge boarhounds at one side of +the hall; on the other, servants, carrying gold trays of refreshments, +stood in line. Above these, again, clustered the numerous guests who had +already arrived.</p> + +<p>As the Countess, looking very young and fair and slender, walked down +the centre, Sagan, who had been draining a goblet of wine, thrust the +cup back upon the tray, and catching his wife's hand roughly, said, with +an audible oath:</p> + +<p>'You're late.'</p> + +<p>She shrank back, suppressing a cry, from his angry grasp; but few had +time to notice the incident, for the outer door clanged back upon its +hinges to admit the Duke, who, shivering in his furs, entered upon the +arm of Colendorp.</p> + +<p>Sagan advanced to meet him, but the Duke, glancing round the hall with a +shudder, cut his formal greetings short.</p> + +<p>'Sagan wears a more gloomy and cut-throat air than ever, Cousin,' he +said, irritably.</p> + +<p>Sagan's response was covered by the entrance of the suite, the whole +party being brought up by Rallywood and a couple of troopers of the +Guard. Then Sagan, with a scowling face, offered the Duke the customary +cup of wine, and, comparative silence being restored, the ducal answer +came peevishly to all ears:</p> + +<p>'No, my good Simon, your wine is like yourself, rather too strong and a +trifle rough for my taste. Let Briot be called. I have brought my own +drinking.'</p> + +<p>So saying, he waved the attendants aside, and, approaching Isolde, he +raised her as she curtsied deeply.</p> + +<p>'There is one point, Madame, in which I can never hope to rival my +cousin of Sagan. My wine may be more palatable; but I could never find a +wife more beautiful or—more wise than his!' he said, with malicious +gallantry.</p> + +<p>Then bending forward he kissed the Countess with empressment on both +cheeks. She trembled under the caress, though she was hardly aware of +it, for her eyes were on her husband, whose daily increasing dislike of +herself she could not understand, and was only newly beginning to dread. +Valerie, standing immediately behind the Countess, overheard and +resented the details of the scene. It was unbearable to see Isolde +helplessly baited by Sagan and the Duke—each man gratifying the spleen +of the moment at the expense of a woman, who was obliged to submit to +their discourtesy. Of all the guests Mdlle. Selpdorf alone stood erect, +forgetting, in her indignation, to join in the general obeisance. The +Grand Duke, looking up, found her flushed and flashing, and +superlatively handsome. His flabby cheeks twitched, and his bleared eyes +brightened.</p> + +<p>'Mademoiselle Selpdorf, since you will not salute me, I can at least +claim the right as your Duke to salute you,' he said, stepping towards +her.</p> + +<p>Instantly Valerie sank into an exaggerated curtsy, thus adroitly +avoiding the Duke's outstretched hand and ready lips. His feeble legs +failed, he stumbled forward and pitched into the arms of Elmur, who set +him upright with a gentle skilfulness that almost cheated the eyes of +the spectators.</p> + +<p>The Duke, slightly shaken, and exceedingly annoyed, turned upon the +girl:</p> + +<p>'Mademoiselle grows proud!'</p> + +<p>'Forgive me, sire; I did not dream that you would stoop so low!' +rejoined the girl, with apparent humility.</p> + +<p>'If you will not accept the salute of your Duke, Mademoiselle, may I ask +to what you aspire?' he added contemptuously.</p> + +<p>Valerie was not of a meek spirit, and she saw a way in which she might +revenge Isolde, little comprehending the far-reaching consequences of +her thoughtless words.</p> + +<p>'I aspire to be maid of honour to the Grand Duchess of Maäsau!' she +answered, with a glance towards the Countess.</p> + +<p>The Duke glared around him into the circle of half-curious, +half-terrified faces, for this was a piercing home-thrust, his eye dwelt +for a moment on Sagan, towering tall and rugged and strong as one of his +own native rocks, and he recognised that his cousin, although ten years +his senior as age is counted, was infinitely younger in his unimpaired +energies and rude health. Also, Duke Gustave of Maäsau was +superstitious, and it struck him as an ill omen that the representative +of Selpdorf should have failed him at the critical moment, and thus +flung him headlong into the arms of Germany!</p> + +<p>Out of all these crowding thoughts arose not only vivid fear, but a +resolution, of which none at that time believed him to be capable. He +grew white about the mouth, his protruding lip twitched ominously.</p> + +<p>'It is not always lucky for even so young and beautiful a woman as you +are to count on dead men's shoes,' he said, in a low, penetrating voice.</p> + +<p>A happy inspiration came to Madame de Sagan. She took Valerie's hand in +hers, and addressed the Duke with a quivering smile that somehow vouched +for her earnestness at the moment.</p> + +<p>'You mistake Valerie, sire; she and I both desire the same honour—to +attend your Highness's Consort, if it would please you to take one.'</p> + +<p>'It might please me, Madame; but I doubt it would please your husband +little,' retorted the Duke.</p> + +<p>'I hoped your Highness knew me better!' protested Sagan sulkily.</p> + +<p>'I do, my good Simon, I know you much better!' said the Duke laughing. +'Now, pray lead me to my apartments. The journey to Sagan fatigues in +this weather—and, after all, it would look better if I died at home—in +the palace at Révonde.'</p> + +<p>At a glance from Elmur, Sagan motioned his wife forward.</p> + +<p>'I will lead you to your apartments, sire,' she said, offering the Duke +her slender hand. 'I am sure that the air of Sagan is as loyal as +ourselves, and will do for you all that we should wish it to do.'</p> + +<p>For answer the Duke shook his head feebly; and, calling Colendorp to his +side, passed up the long hall through a rustling silence.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<p class='center'>COUNT SIMON OF SAGAN.</p> + + +<p>Although secretly dismayed at the effect produced by her rash +championship of Madame de Sagan, Valerie kept up a semblance of +self-possession. Her clear colouring faded to extreme pallor, but her +proud eyes showed no sign of shrinking from the curious glances cast +upon her. She caught a trenchant aside from Sagan to Elmur:</p> + +<p>'These cursed women will ruin us!'</p> + +<p>And in answer to this even Elmur's flattery was mute. But Valerie stood +haughty and erect, watching the Duke's suite file up the hall, +Rallywood, as before, bringing up in the rear.</p> + +<p>As he came in line with her he turned his head, and their glances met.</p> + +<p>That look, which she always recalled as distinctively his, was wiped +from the young man's gray eyes; they fell upon her stern, alienated, +almost inimical. The change struck her like a blow. But before she could +fling back her silent defiance at him, he was gone, without a second +glance, or seeking in any manner to soften the insolent rebuke he had +dared to convey.</p> + +<p>She resolved to go to her own rooms and make instant arrangements for a +return to Révonde. Her heart was hot in her, as, looking round, she +found herself standing alone. Elmur, apparently forgetful of the deep +personal devotion he had so lately manifested, was conversing with a +group of Maäsaun nobles, his back turned conveniently towards her. Sagan +had disappeared, and not one of those whom she knew so well, and who, +ten minutes ago, would have felt honoured by seeking her, but now seemed +too deeply engaged to notice that she stood alone.</p> + +<p>A moment later Counsellor approached her. She had known him slightly for +a long time, but she now for the first time fully met the shrewd, kindly +eyes under their shaggy brows. Instantly she liked him, and to her own +surprise found herself talking of the indiscretion of which she had been +guilty, and of her wish to return to Révonde in consequence.</p> + +<p>'Mademoiselle, are you a loyal Maäsaun?' asked Counsellor gravely.</p> + +<p>Valerie's soft dark eyes gazed steadily back into his.</p> + +<p>'I am loyal,' she replied, in an earnest under-breath.</p> + +<p>'Then stay in Sagan. If your words carried so long a tag of meaning to +others, you can see that Maäsau may have need of all her loyal children +soon.'</p> + +<p>'Whom can we trust?' she asked suddenly, almost in a whisper, for Elmur, +seeing her in conversation with Counsellor, now approached with a +ceremonious air.</p> + +<p>Counsellor smiled as he stood squarely beside her.</p> + +<p>'Choose!' he said, briefly.</p> + +<p>'Choose what?' asked Elmur in his most deferential manner. +'Madamoiselle's choice in the most trivial matters is of importance.'</p> + +<p>Valerie smiled. Not a trace of disturbance was perceptible in her +manner, and Elmur, noting it, came to the final conclusion that this +girl was not only extraordinarily handsome, but also exceptionally +capable. Having made so grievous a mistake, and taken the punishment of +it, she was still mistress of herself. It was a gallant spirit, and well +worth capturing.</p> + +<p>'Major Counsellor has asked me to choose flowers for the ball to-night. +I choose roses. I think it is very nice of me, Major Counsellor, for is +not the rose the emblem of England?' said the girl, with a coquettish +smile at the older man.</p> + +<p>Elmur's face clouded. This interfering old fellow had the power of +making friends, which means the power of being a dangerous enemy.</p> + +<p>'I had hoped,' he said aloud, 'to have the pleasure of begging +Mademoiselle to accept my flowers.'</p> + +<p>'You are too late, Baron; but perhaps you will escort me to the west +tower, where I daresay Madame de Sagan is already waiting for me.'</p> + +<p>Counsellor looked after the tall graceful figure of the girl as she +ascended the staircase with Elmur at her side. He could see she was +still laughing and talking to her companion, but her ready parry of the +German's question, including a clear reply to his own, showed him that +the Chancellor's daughter was much more than a mere wilful girl.</p> + +<p>'John Rallywood,' he grunted, as he turned away, 'is after all not so +great an ass as he thinks himself.'</p> + +<p>An attendant intercepted the German before he regained the hall, after +leaving Valerie with Madame de Sagan.</p> + +<p>'My lord desires to speak with your Excellency,' he said.</p> + +<p>Elmur frowned. He wished to allow Count Simon time to cool before +meeting him, but this summons was imperative, and, besides, he knew the +danger of failing to provide a safety-valve in the shape of a listener, +before the Count could blow off the first ebullitions of rage over +Mdlle. Selpdorf's untoward speech. If pent up within his own breast, +there was no knowing in how disastrous a manner Sagan's ill-humour might +explode. Defeat meant much to Elmur, his reputation was at stake. Other +men had undertaken this same mission—to bring about the annexation to +the Fatherland of this troublesome little state; they had failed, +therefore Elmur had pledged himself to succeed.</p> + +<p>Elmur stood with his back against a massive carved bookshelf, and looked +at Sagan, who, with a cigar-butt buried in his ragged beard, was +walking, with long, uncertain steps, up and down the floor. The tiger +in the old man was awake.</p> + +<p>'Act I., Scene I.,' said Elmur at last, and with a smile.</p> + +<p>Sagan stopped short and turned a bloodshot sidelong glare upon him, his +dark old fingers working convulsively.</p> + +<p>'By heaven! It is going to be a tragedy!' he shouted, and burst into a +whirlwind of hideous curses, coupled with the names of Valerie and his +wife.</p> + +<p>The German picked out a comfortable chair and seated himself, crossing +his legs with a manifest intention of patience. There was a horrible +energy in the old man's attitudes. His long smouldering ambition, nursed +and fed of late, had now flamed into a regnant passion, and the cooler, +more wary, unscrupulousness of the younger man looked with repugnance +upon the blind fury of the Duke that was to be.</p> + +<p>In no great space of time the sight of that impassive, high-shouldered +figure, sitting calmly by, imposed a growing sense of restraint upon the +Count.</p> + +<p>'What do you think of our chances now that Gustave's suspicions have +been set on the alert?' he asked at last, coming to a stop in front of +Elmur. 'That fool of a wife of mine has blabbed to Selpdorf's daughter, +and she in her turn blabs before all the world.'</p> + +<p>Elmur sat still and dumb. His face enraged Sagan once more.</p> + +<p>'But I am master in Sagan. The girl must be got rid of! There are a +hundred dangers in our mountains and marshes. Do you not understand?'</p> + +<p>Baron von Elmur stood up. He bore his most dignified air, and there was +something in his whole aspect that made the Count pause.</p> + +<p>'In the first place, her death under the circumstances would look +strange. In the second, we have nothing to gain from it,' he said.</p> + +<p>Sagan's red eyes twinkled cunningly.</p> + +<p>'Hear my plan. I am not so squeamish as you thin-blooded moderns, or at +least as you pretend to be!' He placed his finger on the Minister's +breast, and drew back a little, the better to enjoy the approbation he +expected to read in the other's face. 'We will say that the girl fell +ill, and I, in my anxiety, sent Madame Sagan—my own wife, mark you—to +accompany her to Révonde. If both should happen to be killed by an +accident we should be well rid of them—and what could the world say?'</p> + +<p>Elmur drew away from the insistive finger with an unmistakable movement. +He bowed stiffly and moved towards the door.</p> + +<p>'I do not know what the world might do or say but I can answer for +Ludwig von Elmur. My master does not deal in murder, my lord, and so I +beg your leave to withdraw.'</p> + +<p>'What?' sneered the other, 'he does not deal in murder? Rather, you +would say, he prefers to deal in murder wholesale! What of your wars and +annexations? What of the Germans in West Africa? Take care, Elmur, that +you are not acting over hastily. For my part I don't believe that a life +or so would weigh too heavy in the balance as against a province, even +in your master's judgment. I take my world as I find it, my good Baron!'</p> + +<p>'Pardon me, my lord, you take the world as your ancestors found it! You +may be all your fathers were, but however time goes at Sagan, the rest +of the world has not stood still since the middle ages. And the world is +on my side to-day. Besides,' he added more suavely, 'we should gain +nothing. We should alienate Selpdorf, who is useful, and who knows too +much. As for the Duke, after such an affair he could never be eased of +his suspicions.'</p> + +<p>'I don't ask to ease him, I mean to cure him,' retorted Sagan, +meaningly.</p> + +<p>'I am certain Madame de Sagan has been silent. The speech of Mdlle. +Selpdorf was the indignant outburst of a girl who thought her friend +discourteously treated.'</p> + +<p>'Discourteously treated? Isolde rudely treated? By whom?'</p> + +<p>'Forgive me once more, my lord; but, in the first place, by yourself.'</p> + +<p>Sagan laughed aloud; his ill-temper vanishing before the humour of the +notion that anyone could take exception to a man's rudeness towards his +own wife.</p> + +<p>'Pooh! the girl is a bigger idiot than I thought her. Let us hope she'll +never meet with worse at the hands of her own husband.'</p> + +<p>'I join in the hope, my lord, since I am to be that most fortunate man!' +It was not the most felicitous moment, but Elmur was aware that in no +other way could he assure Valerie's safety against the treachery of his +colleague.</p> + +<p>Sagan fell back a step.</p> + +<p>'So—the wind blows from that quarter? Take heed, Baron, Selpdorf is a +slippery fish.'</p> + +<p>'But by this arrangement we land him finally.'</p> + +<p>'It may be so.' Sagan tugged broodingly at his beard, after a pause +adding, 'Well, well, the girl is safe enough for me, if you can answer +for her. Come back and sit down. We must act while Gustave is here. Once +we secure the Guard, we can force him to do—as we please. First a +compromise, then abdication, then—' he brought his hand down heavily +upon the table and sat staring before him at a vision of a dream +fulfilled—a vision of Duke Simon of Maäsau.</p> + +<p>Elmur's lip curled as he watched the man, who, for the time being, was +oblivious of all but the realisation of his own ambition. Duke Simon! a +name, but never a living power—only a German puppet, pulled hither and +thither at will by the controlling hand.</p> + +<p>'What are your plans, my lord?' he asked aloud.</p> + +<p>The Count started, and raised his head.</p> + +<p>'We have three of the Guard here—Unziar, Rallywood, Colendorp. You know +that as soon as we have made sure of their officers the men will follow +of themselves. Now Unziar is no saint.'</p> + +<p>'But he fights the better because he is a sinner.'</p> + +<p>'He is not to be tempted, then. But he is in love with Mdlle. +Selpdorf—with your future wife, and she must blind him. A man in love +is easily blinded.'</p> + +<p>'And Rallywood?' asked Elmur.</p> + +<p>'We don't—want Rallywood,' rejoined Sagan, with an odd glance at Elmur. +'I can manage him, if you will leave him to me.'</p> + +<p>Elmur smiled.</p> + +<p>'I conclude Rallywood is capable of taking care of himself.'</p> + +<p>The Count grinned.</p> + +<p>'Exactly what I believed you would think. There remains only Colendorp. +But Colendorp is the man we must have—all will depend on Colendorp.'</p> + +<p>'Do you suppose he will bend?'</p> + +<p>'If not he must break! But, no; I know him well! I have chosen him +because he touches no woman! Men who don't love women, love money, and +men who do——'</p> + +<p>'Love both,' said Elmur quietly.</p> + +<p>'To-morrow night Colendorp shall be here with me. You also will be +present. Colendorp is a poor man—as men go in the Guard—and we must +approach him softly and by degrees,' said Sagan.</p> + +<p>Elmur concealed a smile. A course of softness and caution seemed +impossible in connection with the headstrong old man who counselled it.</p> + +<p>Sagan, left alone, stood engrossed in thought. The wild beast instinct +in him gave him intuition of danger. Elmur was playing Germany's game, +but since his aim was the Count's own, it was impossible at this stage +to disentangle the precise cause of suspicion.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<p class='center'>A COUNSEL OF EXPEDIENCY.</p> + + +<p>The foundation of the family and Castle of Sagan was said to belong to +the period of the Frankish incursions. Some one had once remarked that +Count Simon himself was the most perfect relic of the barbaric period to +be found in Europe, which, coming round in due time to Count Simon, the +joker paid with his life for his poor attempt at wit.</p> + +<p>However true this tradition of Sagan might be, the Castle itself was +mediæval, and, though it had been added to and restored, dark and +tortuous passages still existed in the older portion of its huge bulk, +and could by no means be improved away. Treacherous steps waylaid and +betrayed the unwary foot; undreamed-of doors gave upon their dimmest +corners, and not all the efforts of the nervous châtelaine ever +accomplished the adequate lighting of their recesses.</p> + +<p>The spirit of fear seemed to be abroad in the Castle that night, and the +guests moved with a causeless but irresistible hurry when coming or +going from the upper apartments or through the winding corridors.</p> + +<p>Valerie was conscious of it, as, wrapped in a long cloak, she opened +her door and started back on finding a tall high-shouldered figure +standing outside.</p> + +<p>'Take my arm, Mademoiselle, I beg of you,' von Elmur bent his head, +speaking urgently: 'I am aware that his August Impertinence well +deserved your rebuke! But many heard it, and by some a sinister +construction has been put upon it. For your father's sake, will you +condescend to listen to me?'</p> + +<p>Valerie withdrew her hand from his arm with a swift movement, but he +caught and replaced it almost roughly.</p> + +<p>'Forgive me, Mademoiselle, you must listen to me! I am not urging my +suit upon you—I will not urge it until you consult your father; but, in +the meantime, the exigencies of the case, difficulties which have arisen +as the result of your own words, make it essential for you to follow my +advice. You are aware, you must be aware, of my feelings towards you, +and may I remind you that your father's wishes coincide with mine? Will +you allow me to announce our betrothal to the Count? I will never +presume upon this favour in the future—you may rely upon me. Valerie, +you see I am using no lover's persuasiveness, I do not tell you that I +adore you—though you are well aware of that! I only declare that your +falling in with my request may mean the difference between life and +death to some of us!'</p> + +<p>'Is my father in danger through my fault?'</p> + +<p>His hand held hers close, and she could see that he was moved out of the +common by some emotion, the cool stillness of his manner was replaced by +a passion of which she had not believed him capable. Her beauty and the +thought of losing her had a good deal to do with this disturbance, but +the chief cause was the fear, that, after all, his mission might fail, +and fail badly.</p> + +<p>'I cannot explain; but I implore you to act on my advice.'</p> + +<p>Valerie hesitated. Elmur was very much in earnest, yet it might be an +attempt to trick her into a position from which she would find it almost +impossible to withdraw.</p> + +<p>'Do you wish to make this public?' she asked.</p> + +<p>'No, no. That—pardon me once more—would be equally fatal after the +impression you unluckily conveyed to the Duke. No; I only ask you to +allow Count Sagan to believe that you have consented to become my wife. +I beg you to do this—for M. Selpdorf's sake, and, indeed, Mademoiselle, +for your own!'</p> + +<p>As they entered the circle of brilliant light falling from the great +lamp above Madame de Sagan's door Baron von Elmur resumed something of +his usual manner.</p> + +<p>'Then I may conduct you no further?' he said, turning in front of her to +screen her agitated face from two persons who were coming along the +gallery.</p> + +<p>'Thank you for your protection, Baron,' the girl replied in an audible +tone, 'the Castle is haunted on nights like these, when the <i>tsa</i> cries +around it.'</p> + +<p>The door swung open noiselessly beside them, and Count Sagan stood on +the threshold. By some instinct, without looking at him, she seemed to +see his angry, questioning gaze.</p> + +<p>'Au revoir,' she added to Elmur, with a coquettish ring in her voice.</p> + +<p>'Ah, Mademoiselle, I live for that only—to see you again,' began Elmur.</p> + +<p>Sagan cut him short.</p> + +<p>'Tut, tut, Baron, too many eyes are looking on to permit of such +endearments as these! Ardour in a betrothed lover is natural, yet——'</p> + +<p>Valerie looked up and smiled miserably.</p> + +<p>'Au revoir,' she repeated faintly.</p> + +<p>With that the door closed behind her as Sagan led her away to his wife, +and Elmur, affecting not to see the two men who were passing, strolled +on singing a love-song under his breath. Unziar paused, then drew +Rallywood with him into the centre of the wide lighted passage, where +they could speak with more freedom. 'That settles more questions than +one!' he said mockingly. 'For example, it settles a question which most +concerns you and me, Rallywood.'</p> + +<p>'Concerns me?' Rallywood flung back the words.</p> + +<p>'Would you deny it? You are as deep in that as I,' nodding towards the +door behind them.</p> + +<p>Rallywood's answer came slowly.</p> + +<p>'I do not deny it. Why should I wish to? Though regard for her has led +me to attempt to hide my—folly. I see I have not been altogether as +successful as I hoped. But, had I anything to offer her beside my sword, +I'm hanged if I would let that infernal German have her!'</p> + +<p>'In these affairs, my friend, the ladies equally make choice,' Unziar +replied with a sneer. 'Besides, it is only a part of the—plot,' the +last word was scarcely audible.</p> + +<p>Rallywood turned on him a long, keen look.</p> + +<p>'And you think that she, Mademoiselle, is in it?' he asked at last.</p> + +<p>'I wish to God I could say not! But in the teeth of this conspiracy, for +the sake of Maäsau, we of the Guard cannot lie to each other.'</p> + +<p>Rallywood, being on duty during the evening, stood, according to usage, +at some little distance behind the Duke's chair. From among the coming +and going, from chance words and prepared speeches he gathered a thread +of suspicion which had its use in the perplexing future that was rapidly +advancing upon them.</p> + +<p>Valerie, with a flush upon her face, was looking unusually brilliant as +she talked for a while with Unziar, who, judging from the sourness of +his smile, may have been offering her his congratulations.</p> + +<p>Counsellor came up to Rallywood, and as they stood well away from the +crowd, spoke openly.</p> + +<p>'You have heard the news I see, John, and you are not nearly such a fool +as you think yourself. She is a girl in ten thousand, and may, not +improbably, make the exceptional woman I once before spoke to you about. +I knew this connection was under consideration by Elmur, but the +engagement did not exist a few hours ago, and the present moment is +precisely the most inopportune which could be chosen for its +announcement, hence it follows that someone has forced Elmur's hand, or +that he is forcing the hand of someone, it may be Mdlle. Selpdorf's.'</p> + +<p>'Will it be announced—publicly? The Duke, for example.'</p> + +<p>'It is known already to half-a-dozen; what can they do? I had it from +Blivinski, the little Russian <i>attaché</i>, as a secret. Russia is, like +nature herself, the vast reservoir of all secrets; and not one is +allowed to escape, except for a purpose. Yet I wonder how it will end. +Look at her! How brilliant she is. But rouge on the cheek of a woman who +habitually uses none means, in all cases—trouble,' said Counsellor, as +he moved off.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<p class='center'>ANTHONY UNZIAR.</p> + + +<p>No one could have gathered, from the quiet aspect of Rallywood's tall, +soldierly figure, that a whirl of emotion was passing through his brain. +Yet above all rose one dominant sensation—a vast relief. Counsellor +shared his own opinion with regard to Valerie. Her daring words to the +Duke had no serious meaning; they were only the natural echo of a girl's +preference for a young and beautiful woman to preside over the Court, +rather than the bloated rake who now lolled uneasily in the chair before +him. He recalled the forlorn little smile with which she had accepted +von Elmur's lover-like protestations at Madame de Sagan's doorway. Its +forlornness had been lost upon Unziar, who had drawn but one merciless +conclusion from the little scene. Close on the heels of these +reflections a vivid recollection rose before Rallywood's mind of the +first night he had met her. The lights and music of the grand salon of +Sagan died away, and he was standing again on the ridge below the Hôtel +du Chancelier, looking out over the glimmering lamps of Révonde, +dominated, as always, by the regnant red eye of the Guards' Dome, and he +felt once more that strange new warmth and thrill in his veins which, +at the time, he had believed to be born of an opening career beset with +danger and difficulty. To-night, however, he judged more clearly; he +knew that his dull life had been rekindled, and his ambitions had taken +fresh fire from the dark starlit eyes Valerie Selpdorf had raised to his +in the Counsellor's ante-room two months ago.</p> + +<p>'Captain Rallywood!'</p> + +<p>Rallywood started. The Duke made him a sign to approach. Then, rising +from his chair, he took the young man's arm, and leaning heavily upon +it, moved towards the card-room, meeting Unziar with Mdlle. Selpdorf on +the way.</p> + +<p>'Hey, Mademoiselle Valerie,' he stopped abruptly, 'would you teach my +Guards treason?'</p> + +<p>'To teach your Highness's Guards treason is impossible!' replied +Valerie, with a slight lifting of her proud head.</p> + +<p>'The influence of a beautiful woman has no limit,' retorted the Duke.</p> + +<p>Valerie's red lips trembled.</p> + +<p>'Generations have already proved the fidelity of the Selpdorfs has also +no limit. But I beg you to accept an apology for my foolish words.'</p> + +<p>'But such words from a Selpdorf!'</p> + +<p>'We have always been loyal, sire.'</p> + +<p>The Duke shook his head sadly.</p> + +<p>'But the world changes—what has been is not. And the first reason +now-a-days why a thing should no longer be, is the fact that once it +was!'</p> + +<p>Valerie was almost as tall as the Duke himself, and she looked level +into his weary eyes.</p> + +<p>'Have we changed with the world, sire?'</p> + +<p>'Not—yet,' replied the Duke bitterly; then, struck, as it seemed, by +the intrinsic spirit of the young imperial face gazing into his own, he +added, 'Though you tempt a man to believe in you, Mademoiselle!'</p> + +<p>'I say this before your Highness and these gentlemen of your Guard,' +Valerie said, her eyes flashing. 'May the Selpdorf, who ceases to be +true to your Highness and to Maäsau, die!'</p> + +<p>In after time events brought back the vehement words to the minds of the +three who heard them.</p> + +<p>'And I say, "Amen!"' The Duke took her hand and added, 'Which proves, +Valerie, that you have conquered your old friend, Gustave of Maäsau. +Come, Captain Rallywood, half-an-hour's play, and then to bed.'</p> + +<p>Valerie looked up at Unziar as she walked beside him.</p> + +<p>'And yet you would not believe me?'</p> + +<p>'Come!' was Unziar's reply.</p> + +<p>She laid her hand within his arm and passed silently through the +reception rooms beside him.</p> + +<p>She felt that the time had come when Unziar could no more be put off by +the little wiles and evasions a woman employs who has nothing to give to +the man who loves her but a definite answer. Two luxurious chairs stood +ready for occupants in the nook to which he led her, but he had no +thought to give to conventionalities. He stood before her keen and +white, and desperate with doubt.</p> + +<p>'Valerie, what does all this mean?'</p> + +<p>Though only a girl in years, Valerie was a woman in experience. +Experience, not gained altogether at first hand, be it understood, but +such as a clever woman easily gathers from the lives of those about her. +As the motherless daughter of M. Selpdorf, she had had exceptional +opportunities. Thrown into the midst of a brilliant but vicious society, +her eyes had seen more of the bare under-texture of life than was +perhaps desirable; she had looked upon the shift and drift of things +political with an ever-present knowledge that there danger lurked and +waited; she had learned the uses of reserve, and something of the art of +resource; and, above all, her womanly perceptions had taken on a strange +edge of sensitive power, due to her father's quaint methods of pointing +out to her the difference between the seeming and the true. By reason of +this premature insight into the motives and stress of human existence +she gained in safety and strength as her father desired; but on the +other hand, she had lost the sense of happy irresponsibility that goes +so far towards making up one of the sweetest essentials of youth. +Luckily there is one thing which can never be quite destroyed at +secondhand—the romance and illusions that beguile boyhood and girlhood, +and the liability to be so beguiled still lived in Valerie's strong and +vivid nature.</p> + +<p>'Shall I swear that every word I spoke to the Duke just now is true?' +she asked coldly. 'Although, of course, even that would not convince +you!'</p> + +<p>'No, I suppose not,' he said drearily. 'You spoke openly of your hope to +be maid of honour to Madame de Sagan when she became Duchess of +Maäsau—which can only mean one thing. Rallywood heard and told me +exactly.'</p> + +<p>'You discussed me with Captain Rallywood?' she flashed out.</p> + +<p>Unziar's glance darkened again with a new suspicion.</p> + +<p>'Should you object?' he asked.</p> + +<p>'As it happens, I should, particularly.'</p> + +<p>He bit savagely at his moustache.</p> + +<p>'What is wrong with Rallywood?'</p> + +<p>'He is an Englishman. Besides, I do not care to be discussed amongst the +men of the Guard!'</p> + +<p>'How like a woman you put me off! I did not discuss you with Rallywood, +of course, as you very well know. I asked him the single question as to +what had actually been said. I knew he would not lie to me.'</p> + +<p>'The Guard keep their falsehoods for outsiders, I suppose?'</p> + +<p>Unziar liked this harping upon Rallywood less and less. He moved +irritably.</p> + +<p>'But that is not all. You have admitted that you are going to marry +Elmur. That also signifies—something.'</p> + +<p>'Whatever it signifies, it does not signify that I am disloyal to +Maäsau.'</p> + +<p>'You have seen for yourself that there is a change here at Sagan,' +argued Unziar. 'No German has ever been welcome here before. We can but +guess at treason.'</p> + +<p>'Hush! it cannot be that, since my father has knowledge of it.'</p> + +<p>This was an entirely unexpected development of the difficulty. Unziar +felt the check, and even in his turbulence he changed his venue.</p> + +<p>'It may be so—let that rest; but nothing can alter me in the belief +that Elmur is the natural enemy of the State. Valerie, he can give you +many things that I cannot offer you. But my love—No, hear me for once. +You must hear me, Valerie! You know that I have loved you always, I +don't remember when it began—I was a boy. But Elmur at the best must +have loved others before you. Whereas I—I have thought of no one else +all my life!'</p> + +<p>'Why, I have heard differently, Anthony,' she interposed, with a smile +that was a vain effort to temper the intensity of his mood.</p> + +<p>He stamped with his spurred heel upon a fallen flower.</p> + +<p>'I don't pretend to be a saint; I am what other men are. You see I do +not deceive you even now. But give me the chance and I will prove to you +that the Unziars can be faithful. Valerie, give me your love! For God's +sake don't say you cannot! Give me your love!'</p> + +<p>'Anthony!'</p> + +<p>It almost shocked her to see Unziar—cold and cynical Unziar—pleading +as a man pleads for escape from death, with a terrible self-abandonment.</p> + +<p>'Wait! Tell me this. Did you choose von Elmur?'</p> + +<p>'My—we—it has nothing to do with that kind of thing.'</p> + +<p>'I thought not! Then you will sacrifice yourself for an idea? You shall +not!'</p> + +<p>'Anthony, you are very good to me—you have always been. I know that if +I felt for you as you wish me to feel, then you could help me. But I +don't! As long as I can remember you have been my playfellow, my +brother; but not more—never this! Anthony, I love you, but not—but +not—You have been so honest with me that whatever it costs I must be +honest with you. I can never do as you wish!'</p> + +<p>Unziar listened rather to some far-off tide of thought, as it seemed, +than to her words—thoughts that flowed in upon him and quenched hope.</p> + +<p>'You do not love me; Elmur is beside the mark—beside the question of +love—altogether. Then, Valerie, whom do you love?'</p> + +<p>She gave him a frightened glance, and drew in her breath as one who +parries a blow.</p> + +<p>'There is no one'; then, added more firmly, 'You are mistaken—there is +no one.'</p> + +<p>'If that be so,' responded the young man sullenly, 'then my chance is as +good as another's. I shall not give up hope! Remember that. But I have +thought that Rallywood——'</p> + +<p>Valerie recalled the coldness of the averted grey eyes, and the memory +stung her.</p> + +<p>'He hates me,' she replied with a haughty smile, 'as I hate him!'</p> + +<p>'Rallywood hates you?' he repeated in angry astonishment.</p> + +<p>'Yes; but whatever he may feel for me I return in full!'</p> + +<p>'Valerie, then you love no one? Say it again.'</p> + +<p>The jingle of spur and scabbard came through the flower-hung spaces, and +Rallywood passed within a few feet of them. He was whistling softly as +he walked along with an easy swing of his strong shoulders.</p> + +<p>'I love——' Valerie began, and stopped short, for Rallywood turned in +his stride as if he felt their eyes upon him.</p> + +<p>'His Highness has sent for you, Unziar,' he said.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + +<p class='center'>LOVE IN TWO SHADES.</p> + + +<p>All the next morning the snow fell persistently, and Sagan might have +been, as far as appearances went, a castle built in the air. Above, +below, around, the snow eddied like a fairy torrent, beating against the +solid walls and curling in curious ringed swirls about its buttresses as +water beats about a rock in midstream.</p> + +<p>But the dominant grey of the outside world cast no appreciable +reflection on the spirits of Madame de Sagan's guests, with whom gaiety +and wild devices for killing time were necessary and familiar things.</p> + +<p>But to Valerie the same suggestion of fear and unrest that had oppressed +her on the previous evening still held its silent sway over the place. +She stood at the broad window of the main staircase watching the swift +atoms of snow drift past, each one by itself a mere melting point, but, +in their millions, mighty. She shivered and looked round with an odd +sense of apprehension, as if the vague blind storm outside had its +counterpart in a vague blind danger within.</p> + +<p>A tall man came leaping up the staircase. He stopped beside her. She +looked up at him, her deep eyes were full of some disturbing thought.</p> + +<p>'Captain Rallywood, will you tell Major Counsellor from me,' she began +at once, in a low, hurried voice, 'that, in spite of what he has heard +of me, he must still believe Maäsau is the dearest thing on earth to me. +Tell him that, if needful, I am ready to prove it with my life! He may +make quite sure I meant all I said to him yesterday.'</p> + +<p>Rallywood stood silent. The passion of her voice and speech echoed in +her own ears and suddenly seemed all excessive and uncalled for; a +blush—half anger, half shame—rushed over her face, bringing tears to +her eyes. Why was it decreed that she should always, in some small +foolish way, appear to disadvantage before this wretched Englishman.</p> + +<p>'I will tell him,' said Rallywood at last, 'though I cannot understand.'</p> + +<p>'No, you cannot understand! You are so cold, so self-centred that the +feelings and tumults which trouble most of us appear as weaknesses to +you. Since you cannot understand us, you should not judge us, we others, +who, in our own spasmodic way, love our country as you serve +yours—steadily and with a whole heart.'</p> + +<p>Now, John Rallywood was perplexed. He longed to set himself right with +her. Her very accusations, her readiness to find fault, which might have +made matters clear to some men, only disheartened him with a renewed +sense of her dislike.</p> + +<p>'You hate my nation,' he said, after a pause of consideration, +'therefore you condemn me, not because of anything I have done, but on +general grounds, putting the worst construction on—on everything. I +wonder why you judge me so hardly?'</p> + +<p>Valerie laughed, her red lip finely edged with scorn.</p> + +<p>'On the contrary, you judge us! Who made you a judge over us? You regard +us—you English—with that straight steady look. I suppose you feel what +futile creatures we others are, with our shifting moods and passions, +our little furies and desperations! Do you remember the night you joined +the Guard—the night in the Cloister of St. Anthony? How I trembled and +feared for you, I'—she laughed again—'I even wanted to help you! How +absurd it all seemed to you, didn't it? I remember you were very cool +and quiet, and I suppose you thought it very foolish—one of those +unnecessary, extravagant emotions in which we inferior races are apt to +indulge!'</p> + +<p>'Stop!' Rallywood cut her short with a peremptory word, 'I will not +allow you to say such things of yourself nor—of me!'</p> + +<p>Valerie threw back her head with the slight haughty lift he knew so +well.</p> + +<p>'You are rather too certain of your own power,' she said.</p> + +<p>'You say you remember that night?—not so well as I do? You think I am +very sure of myself. And yet I have been mistaken on points that touch +me close. I thought that night when I knew I might never see the +morning—I dared to fancy that we—you and I—understood each other—a +little.' He waited, but Valerie had turned away; her profile looked +exquisite, but cold, against the dark shutter as she watched the driving +snow. 'So I was the fool after all, you see!' he ended lamely.</p> + +<p>According to the immemorial fashion of love, they understood and +misunderstood each other alternately playing high and low at every other +moment upon the wide gamut of feeling, touching faint sweet notes that +would echo for ever.</p> + +<p>Rallywood's self-control was giving way a little, and she instinctively +felt her power and used it.</p> + +<p>'I wonder what you really think of us behind that quiet alertness of +yours,' she said lightly, 'I believe I did imagine I—understood you a +little that night; but I imagine it no longer! Perhaps I misjudge you +now, but it cannot matter; you told me once you knew how to wait, and of +course you are certain that all unfair opinions of you must come right +in the end.'</p> + +<p>But Rallywood passed over her many sentences to seize the central idea +that appealed to him.</p> + +<p>'Yes, I have learned to wait. I told you that everything comes to him +who waits. Unfortunately a proverb is true often, not always. One thing +can never come to me however long I wait. For me there is no hope.'</p> + +<p>'I don't know what you hope for,' replied the girl, slowly, as if she +were choosing her words; but she hardly knew what she said, she was lost +in a multitude of dreams, and her words but filled in the rare crevices +between them. 'I thought that every man carried his own fate in his own +hand.'</p> + +<p>'A man can fight the tangible, but no man can struggle against the +ordinary laws of social life. We may laugh at conventional methods, but +even in Révonde there are some which must be yielded to.'</p> + +<p>'I don't think,' said Valerie, 'we yield to many in Révonde.'</p> + +<p>Rallywood saw a group of people advancing towards them. Valerie, with +her changes of mood and manner, distracted him, and drove him on to say +what he had resolved never to be tempted into saying.</p> + +<p>'I am a soldier—only a soldier; I gain a livelihood, but no more. I +have no luck and no genius. To make a fortune or a name is beyond me. +And without fortune many desirable things are impossible.'</p> + +<p>Valerie turned upon him a bewildering smile.</p> + +<p>'I shall know for the future, Captain Rallywood, what you are thinking +of. You will be thinking, for all those grave eyes of yours, of the +fortune you cannot make!'</p> + +<p>'Not quite that, Mademoiselle,' he answered, 'I shall be thinking of the +girl I cannot win.'</p> + +<p>Valerie found herself drawn away from him by the passing group. She was +aware of a warm throb at her heart, she was trembling a little, and the +fear of the morning had temporarily vanished. For no definite reason +which she could afterwards discover, she felt suddenly happy.</p> + +<p>By evening the <i>tsa</i> had blown away the snow-clouds for the time, and a +thin moon gleamed fitfully over the wide expanses of white. Remote, +muffled in leagues of snow, and alive with hungry passions and +unscrupulous strength, the Castle of Sagan did not, on that wild January +night, offer desirable housing to the Grand Duke of Maäsau. He had yet +some thirty hours to spend as his cousin's guest before he could return +to his capital without showing suspicion or giving offence. A hundred +times he wished himself back in his great palace by the river bank where +the squadrons of the Guard lay within call. But he bore himself well +notwithstanding, and although, on the plea of chill and fatigue, he kept +to his rooms more than usual, his short appearances in public left in +one sense nothing to be desired. He did not carry himself as a man in +mortal anxiety, but was as dissatisfied, as discourteous, and as +disagreeable as it was his custom to be.</p> + +<p>Late in the afternoon Madame de Sagan retired to take some rest before +dinner. Wrapped in lace and silk, she was standing in front of her +mirror with her women about her, when the Count entered. At his first +imperious word the attendants vanished.</p> + +<p>Isolde continued to stare into the glass like one fascinated, for in it +she not only saw the reflection of her own slender white-clad figure, +but over her shoulder the fierce face she dreaded.</p> + +<p>For a long minute husband and wife remained reading each other's faces +in the looking-glass.</p> + +<p>She had seen aversion and menace in the Count's lowering face many a +time before, and was at length beginning to believe the almost +impossible fact to be true, that a man lived who hated her, over whom +her beauty had no power.</p> + +<p>The young Countess shivered in mortal terror.</p> + +<p>'Simon,' she wailed suddenly, 'you are changed,—you do not love me any +more!'</p> + +<p>A broad smile flitted across the savage old face.</p> + +<p>'You are a fool, but a very pretty fool, Isolde, and for that a man +might forgive you many things. Now listen to me. After you retire to +your rooms for the night, keep close to them, no matter what you hear. +There may be a disturbance, and you had better have Selpdorf's daughter +to keep you company.' His expression changed as he spoke of Valerie.</p> + +<p>'There is danger,' she gasped, 'danger. What is it, oh, tell me what it +is!' Her first fear leaping towards Rallywood.</p> + +<p>He stared into her shrinking eyes.</p> + +<p>'If you ever hope to be Duchess of Maäsau,' he answered significantly, +'leave Valerie's lovers, Unziar and the Englishman, to take care of +themselves. Keep your tongue silent! Remember!' He caught her slender +wrist roughly as he spoke and pressed it to enforce the command.</p> + +<p>The Countess made no reply, but her fingers closed in upon her palms.</p> + +<p>'Come, give me a kiss, and promise me to do so much towards making +yourself a Grand Duchess.' He brushed her lips carelessly with his +moustache.</p> + +<p>The caress brought no response; but as he bent over her she whispered, +'Have mercy on me Simon!' (it was a prayer born rather of some vague +instinct of danger than any defined fear); 'don't kill me!'</p> + +<p>He put his thick arm round her and shook her impatiently.</p> + +<p>'Kill you, Isolde? Are you mad? You are far more useful to me living +than dead. Get rid of your silly fears, and remember—silence!'</p> + +<p>Then putting her back on the couch with more gentleness than might have +been expected of him, he walked out of the room. For a little while she +sat listening, then opened her eyes and glanced about her. Yes, he was +gone. But it was characteristic of her that at such a time her chief and +overpowering thought was Valerie as a rival! 'Valerie's lovers, Unziar +and the Englishman!' A score of trifles rushed back upon her memory; but +no it could not be. It was one of the Count's amiable ways to suggest +causes of jealousy to his wife. He meant nothing, for what could he +know? The soothing conviction grew upon her that the taunt was thrown at +her for what it was worth. Oh, how she hated Sagan—hated his +bloodshot, beast's eyes, his mocking laugh, his cruel hands, his +crueller gibes!</p> + +<p>She pushed back the lace from her wrist and saw the thin parallels of +bruised flesh his fingers had left—entirely unaware, it must be +owned—upon her whiteness. Ah, she would show these to Rallywood—as a +proof that she was in danger, that she actually needed his protection, +and so win him from his post, which to-night would become the post of +death.</p> + +<p>All her little vain soul thrilled within her at the possibility of +triumph—of defeating the honour of such a man—of winning him from his +watch for love's sake—of overcoming the scruples that had for so long a +time stood out against her wiles.</p> + +<p>And yet in her poor way she loved him—loved him as she would probably +never love another. Some women are made in that way, they take pride in +the loftiness of the height from which they drag men down. Then he must +be saved, she told herself, at all costs saved! He would live to thank +her yet. A thought of him lying dead in his blood by the dark embrasure +that masked the entrance to the royal apartments flashed across her +mind. She stretched out her arms with a soft call like a bird's.</p> + +<p>'Oh, love, love, I will save you!'</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + +<p class='center'>HALF A PROMISE.</p> + + +<p>Ten minutes later a big emblazoned footman brought Rallywood a summons +from the Countess, as he stood talking to Counsellor and the Russian +<i>attaché</i>.</p> + +<p>As he moved away Blivinski placed a bony impressive finger on +Counsellor's sleeve.</p> + +<p>'If he were not English, you could not trust him,' he said +enigmatically.</p> + +<p>Counsellor raised his bushy eyebrows, with a humorous glance. 'We have +had our day.'</p> + +<p>'Ah, my friend, you know most things. Also I know a very few,' Blivinski +said significantly, 'but with your nation patriotism is not a virtue, it +is a part of your physical system. You sacrifice all for your country, +not because it is right to do so, but simply because you cannot help it; +the good God made you so. Therefore this young man, in face of the +supreme temptation of youth, may be trusted. I speak of these things now +because you will remember, in good time, that those who are against you +will not dare to injure'—he removed the finger to his own breast—'us +also!'</p> + +<p>And the little silent swarthy man slipped away almost before Counsellor +realised that Russia, the mighty, had given him a pledge which might +prove of immense value in the uncertain future.</p> + +<p>Rallywood found the young Countess crouching and shivering near a wood +fire. She was magnificently dressed in rich tones of royal purple, that +accentuated her delicate fairness and beauty, and a small diadem of +amethysts shone in the pale gold of her hair.</p> + +<p>She took no notice of his entrance, though she was acutely conscious +that his eyes were on her. She was hungry of his gaze, and she believed +in the power of her own loveliness.</p> + +<p>'Jack,' she said at last, 'come here. I wonder now why I sent for you, +but I am miserable.'</p> + +<p>She looked up at him heavy-lidded.</p> + +<p>There was concern in his voice as he answered her.</p> + +<p>'If I told you all,' she went on, 'you would not believe me. I am +now—to-night—in great danger.'</p> + +<p>'In danger? Here? where you are surrounded by friends,' replied +Rallywood, beginning to wish himself well out of it. Had there been no +Valerie Selpdorf, or even had he not uttered those impulsive words +which, to his mind, changed his position from the indefinite to the +definite, the history of his life might have been turned into another +channel that evening. As it was, though Valerie remained free as the +wind, he felt himself to be in some vague manner bound to her.</p> + +<p>'Nonsense! You know how useless all these friends would be if things +went wrong with me. They flatter the Countess of Sagan, but not one of +them would make the smallest sacrifice for Isolde, the woman. I do not +know if you, even you, are my friend. We talked about it—long ago. But +I have not put you to the test, and I—I often wonder if our friendship +still remains alive.'</p> + +<p>'I am as I always was,' he parried.</p> + +<p>'I wonder if that is true?' She raised her drooping face again. 'I don't +know how to believe you. Why will you keep up this pretence of—of +reserve between us? You never tell me your troubles, and I suppose you +have them, like the rest of us. We should be quite old friends now, and +yet you are always so'—she hesitated for a word—'courteous. Are you +ever angry, for example?'</p> + +<p>'Very often.'</p> + +<p>'But not with me, and I have given you cause many a time. If you would +be angry with me even once, Jack, causelessly angry, then I should know +I had a friend to whom I could go if I were in trouble—in such trouble +as I am to-night!'</p> + +<p>'If there is anything I can do for you——'</p> + +<p>The quiet tone annoyed her. She rose quickly.</p> + +<p>'If—if—if! Any man could help me who—cared.'</p> + +<p>'I do care.'</p> + +<p>'I wonder,' she said wistfully, 'how much you mean of what you say. I +have no standard to judge you by, because you are not quite like other +men. But I owe you my life, and I sometimes think it gives me a claim on +you.'</p> + +<p>'I can never pretend you owe me anything: you were quite safe; no +accident could have happened. You are far too good a horsewoman, though +you were nervous for the moment.' He spoke with a careless +affectionateness, for the young Countess in her helpless beauty appealed +to him.</p> + +<p>'Look at me!' she said tragically. 'Do I seem hateful?'</p> + +<p>'You are a young queen,' he paused, and added, 'a young queen—seen in a +dream! You are too ethereal to be of common earth.'</p> + +<p>'I am of common earth like any other woman,' she answered with a forlorn +little smile; 'I can be afraid and—I can love!'</p> + +<p>'Afraid? In your own Castle, among your own people?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, Jack. Don't think I am silly! It is quite true. You say you have +not changed, that you are still my friend. You are my only one then! I +must look to you for protection; I have no one else in the whole world.' +She was very near him, her little cold hand had caught his in her +vehemence; she looked apprehensively behind her, and then spoke low in +his ear. 'I am afraid of my husband. He wishes to be rid of me—I have +seen it in his eyes. Sagan will kill me! Do you remember the night of +the ball, when I gave you the firefly? Have you kept it, I wonder? I +said mine would be a short life. It is true. Sagan is tired of me, and +I—Jack, I—loathe him!'</p> + +<p>'But——' Rallywood began.</p> + +<p>'You don't believe me? See this!' she pushed back a band of black velvet +from her arm, and held it out to him. This touched him more than all; +the slender blue-veined wrist with the marks of those cruel fingers +clasped about it moved him far more than the temptations of her delicate +beauty. With an almost involuntary desire to comfort her as one might +comfort and please a child, he bent above her hand and kissed the +bruises.</p> + +<p>Isolde clung to him with a quick sob of relief.</p> + +<p>'Promise me, Jack, that you will save me! When danger threatens me I +will send for you. You will come? You promise?'</p> + +<p>But Rallywood was not in the least in love with Madame de Sagan for all +his pity. He was again master of himself, and an odd suspicion flashed +across him.</p> + +<p>'I feel certain you are mistaken,' he repeated; 'but you have another +friend who can be of more service than I just now, Mademoiselle +Selpdorf.'</p> + +<p>The Countess sank back into her chair.</p> + +<p>'What do you know of Valerie?' she asked coldly.</p> + +<p>'Very little, but——'</p> + +<p>'Thanks! I know her better than you do. I don't choose that she should +amuse herself at my expense.</p> + +<p>As it is, she has brought most of this trouble upon me.'</p> + +<p>Rallywood may have been sagacious enough on some points, but on this +particular one he was a fool. He was not at all aware that Madame de +Sagan with her innocent eyes and small brain was sifting him.</p> + +<p>'But she meant to defend you!' he exclaimed.</p> + +<p>She laughed softly, and if a woman could have compassed the ruin of a +man by means of love and temptation, Rallywood was lost from that hour, +for the rivalry of Valerie Selpdorf added the one incentive of bitter +resolve that drives such slight-brained jealous souls to the last limit +of reckless endeavour.</p> + +<p>'When I find myself in danger I will remind you of the firefly, and you +will come then, Jack!' she said, 'you promise?'</p> + +<p>'When you want me, I will come—as soon as I may.'</p> + +<p>'But that is only half a promise.'</p> + +<p>'Yes,' he replied, 'but you know the other half is pledged already.'</p> + +<p>She sprang up with clenched hands.</p> + +<p>'What? To Valerie? Already?'</p> + +<p>'No, Madame, to the Duke.'</p> + +<p>'Ah, the Duke is well served!' she said sadly as he bowed at the door, +but she laughed to herself when it closed behind him, 'Yet you will come +when I send for you, Jack!'</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2> + +<p class='center'>COLENDORP.</p> + + +<p>As the night deepened the wind again rose, its many voices howled about +the Castle and compelled the ear to listen. It volleyed yelling through +the ravines, it roared among the lean pine-trees like the surf on an +open coast, it swept round the Castle walls in long-drawn infuriated +screaming that seemed charged with echoes of wild pain and remoteness +and fear. The narrow moon had long since sunk behind the rack of +storm-driven clouds, and left the mountains steeped in a tumultuous +milk-coloured darkness of snow and wind.</p> + +<p>Within the massive walls the reception rooms were closed and empty at +last; the guests had separated and night had taken possession, but not +rest.</p> + +<p>Valerie, alone in her room and oppressed by the vague infection of +wakefulness and fear, moved from window to window listening to the wild +noises that were abroad, and trying to reason herself out of the +conviction of coming danger, which held her from sleep.</p> + +<p>She had thrown back the curtains from the windows. Her room occupied an +exposed corner of the Castle tower, which stood on the edge of the +gorge through which the Kofn chafed its way to the plains below the +Ford. A narrow strip of ground scarcely six feet in width alone +separated the wall of the tower from the precipice that fell sheer away +to the foaming water far below.</p> + +<p>She tried to read but could not fix her attention. Her heart seemed in +her ears and answered to every sound.</p> + +<p>And all the while in the scattered rooms and shadowy passages the drama +which involved her life was being slowly played out. Below on the ground +floor of the tower Elmur and Sagan sat together.</p> + +<p>'By the way, my dear Count, have you ever thought of the possibility of +Captain Colendorp's refusal to see things in our light?' Elmur was +asking, after an interval filled in by the noises of wind and water +which could not be shut out of the Castle on such a night.</p> + +<p>The Count looked up and scowled.</p> + +<p>'Leave the management of the affair to me,' he said. 'Unless I were sure +of my man, I should not be such a fool as to bring him here to listen to +what I shall say to him to-night;' then he added as an afterthought, +'When once we have begun, Baron von Elmur, there can be no going back. +Remember that! The game must now be played to the end, whatever that end +is.'</p> + +<p>Elmur pondered. Sagan was a bad tool, at once stubborn and secretive, +cunning enough to recognise and to resent handling, thickheaded and vain +enough to blunder ruinously. And Elmur found at the last and most +important moment that for some unexplained reason he had lost the +whip-hand of Count Simon.</p> + +<p>Up to this interview, by alternate effrontery and flattery, he had kept +his place in the Count's confidence, and exerted a guiding and +restraining influence over him. Now Sagan held him at arm's length, and +was plainly determined to act according to his own judgment without +consulting the German. The mischief had, of course, been done by the +news of Elmur's engagement to Selpdorf's daughter, for Sagan, like +others of his limited mental development, was sensitively suspicious. +Hence the bond between the two men was weak, inasmuch as neither liked +nor trusted the other, but it was strong, since both were tenacious and +both had staked all the future on the chance of forcing a new <i>régime</i> +upon Maäsau the Free. At this crisis, however, Elmur would gladly have +hedged or masked his position, for he knew himself to be overmuch at the +mercy of the equivocal tact and discretion of his ungovernable +coadjutor.</p> + +<p>'I cannot help thinking that my presence at the outset will make Captain +Colendorp shy at any proposition whatever,' said Elmur again.</p> + +<p>'Do you want to draw back? You don't wish to appear in the matter—is +that it? By St. Anthony, von Elmur, you showed me the road that has +brought me to this pass and you will have to stand by me now! Also you +are wrong about Colendorp. When he sees for himself that I have Germany +behind me, it will decide his doubts—if he has any, which I don't +expect. I have read the man. He is soured and ill-conditioned, the +readiest stuff to make a rebel and a traitor of!'</p> + +<p>What more Elmur might have urged was cut short by the entrance of +Colendorp. He had left his sword outside.</p> + +<p>He saluted Sagan in his stiff punctilious way, his dark and sallow face +impenetrable.</p> + +<p>'I am glad to see you, Captain Colendorp,' said Sagan with some +constraint. Even he felt the check of the man's iron impassiveness.</p> + +<p>'You sent for me, my lord,' returned Colendorp, as one who hints that +time is short and he would be through with business.</p> + +<p>'Take a cigar,' said the Count, pushing a box across the table, and also +pouring out a generous glass of the liqueur, for the manufacture of +which Maäsau is famous—the golden glittering poison known as <i>bizutte</i>.</p> + +<p>Colendorp accepted both in silence, but took a seat with a certain slow +unwillingness that was suggestive. Colendorp was at the best unpliable. +His manner put an edge on Sagan's temper. He plunged into his subject.</p> + +<p>'Yes, I sent for you, Captain Colendorp, because I believe you to be a +faithful Maäsaun. You are not one of those blind optimists who say +because Maäsau has been swinging so long between ruin and extravagance +that she must swing on so for ever. It is not possible!'</p> + +<p>'I am sorry to hear that, my lord.'</p> + +<p>'No, I say it is not possible. Changes must be made. In these days of +big armaments and growing kingdoms, Maäsau can no longer stand alone. +She must secure an ally, a friend powerful enough to back her up against +all comers—a great nation who will make the cause of Maäsau's freedom +her own, and help us to preserve the traditions of our country.'</p> + +<p>Elmur half expected the soldier to point this speech for himself by a +glance towards the representative of Germany, but Colendorp sat +unresponsive and black-browed, and gave no sign.</p> + +<p>'There is a party among us who advise us to wait until we are forced +into a corner, and then to make choice of such an ally. But reasonable +men know that a bargain one is driven to make must inevitably be a bad +bargain. The only hope for Maäsau is to move at once and to move boldly +before it is too late, and while we are still in a position to choose +for ourselves under the conditions which suit us best and will best +conduce to the preservation of our freedom.'</p> + +<p>Colendorp listened without any change of expression.</p> + +<p>'What is your opinion, Captain Colendorp?' asked Sagan at last.</p> + +<p>'The only difficulty would be to find a nation sufficiently +disinterested for our purpose, my lord,' replied Colendorp deliberately.</p> + +<p>'I have found one.' Sagan indicated Elmur, but the Guardsman still kept +his gaze on the Count. 'Only one small obstacle stands in the way of +carrying out our plans—the plans, recollect, of the wisest and most +patriotic of our countrymen. I need not name it.'</p> + +<p>Colendorp apparently thought for a moment.</p> + +<p>'M. Selpdorf?' he said.</p> + +<p>'But not at all! Selpdorf is one of the foremost of my advisers.'</p> + +<p>Colendorp shook his head as if no other name occurred to him; Sagan bent +across the table, the knotted hand on which he leaned twitching +slightly.</p> + +<p>'You do not speak, but you know the truth. And you know the—the Duke.'</p> + +<p>Colendorp's silence was telling on Sagan's self-control.</p> + +<p>'Yes, the Duke!' he reiterated. 'He has never given a thought to the +welfare of Maäsau. Its revenues are his necessity, that is all! If the +ruler will not take the interests of the country into consideration, his +people must supply his place. Do not misunderstand my words!' for at +length a blacker frown passed over the iron face of the listener. 'My +meaning is not to hurt the Duke at all; our one wish is to urge upon him +the only course left for the safety of the country. To that end we must +all combine. So long as his Highness believes he can depend on his +Guard to back him, he will hold out against even the most reasonable +demands. Therefore the Guard must be with us.'</p> + +<p>'I am not the colonel of the Guard,' said Colendorp quietly. Sagan took +this in some form as an agreement with his views, some surrender on the +part of the Guardsman, and he broke out into a flood of speech.</p> + +<p>'No, but Wallenloup! A pig-headed old fool, who would never be brought +to see an inch either side of his oath of allegiance, but would rush +blindly on before the Duke to his death, and to the destruction of +Maäsau—to anywhere! Colendorp, Ulm being away, you are the senior +officer, failing Wallenloup. It is not outside the possibilities of the +game that you would find yourself in command of the Guard when all was +said and done. The highest ambition of a Maäsaun is yours if you will +promise us your help in this struggle! A struggle, mind you, not of +selfish motives nor for self-aggrandisement, but for Maäsau the Free!' +He stuttered in his eagerness and then stood waiting for the reply.</p> + +<p>'And if the Duke does not consent to—any—changes?' asked Colendorp +coldly.</p> + +<p>At this juncture Elmur interposed.</p> + +<p>'The Count will ex——'</p> + +<p>But Sagan was rushing his fences now like a vicious horse. Having once +given voice to his ambitions he had no longer the power to rein in his +speech.</p> + +<p>'By your leave, Baron von Elmur, I will speak! Colendorp, you are a man +to whom the world may yet give much. Your one chance is being offered to +you—here—to-night. The men will follow you if you give the word, and +Wallenloup, well, Wallenloup must upon that occasion absent himself. Use +your influence with the other officers. They are not to be bribed, of +course, but in the cause of the country each man would find his services +well rewarded. Think before you answer me, man! Duke Gustave is sunk in +pleasure and has sold the country over and over again to the highest +bidder, and only got out of his share of the bargain by Selpdorf's +infernal cleverness. This time we will play an open game. With Germany +to stand by us, we have nothing to fear!'</p> + +<p>'And if His Highness will not consent to these changes?' again demanded +Colendorp.</p> + +<p>'Then'—Elmur laid a hand on the old man's shoulder, but Sagan shook it +off—'then, Captain Colendorp, he must go—to make room for another who +can better fill his place! Just as Wallenloup must go to give room to +another and less obstructive chief.'</p> + +<p>Colendorp's dark eyes glared straight in front of him. Had it been +Adiron—Adiron, as true a man, would have feigned agreement and blown +the plot afterwards. But never Colendorp! He was narrow-minded, poor, +embittered, scenting insult in every careless word, proud, loyal, +desperate. Mentally his vision was limited; he could see but one thing +at a time, but he saw it very large.</p> + +<p>Sagan's treachery passed by him in that moment of mad feeling. He felt +and felt only the deadly affront offered to him of all the officers of +the Guard—the coarse bribe of the colonelcy dangled before his starving +nose, for he alone of all the Guard had been deemed corruptible! The +thought held more than the bitterness of death.</p> + +<p>He looked from wall to wall, and knew himself an unarmed man, so he made +ready to die as a soldier and a gentleman. But first he must clear his +tarnished honour—tarnished with the foul proposal made to him by Count +Simon of Sagan. He had passed through life a cold and, in his own sense +of the word, an honourable man, disliked, feared and avoided outside his +own most intimate circle. He had been driven by the irresistible destiny +of character to live a lonely man, and now the strength of a lonely man +was his—the strength that can make an unknown death a glory for the +sake of honour, not honours. So he spoke.</p> + +<p>'You were very good, Count Sagan, to make choice of me before all the +Guard for—this!' he said in his cold voice; 'may I ask why you so +favoured me?'</p> + +<p>'Because I can read a man.'</p> + +<p>'And you read me so? Then hear me. I take the place you have given me. I +take my place as the least staunch of all the Guard. You have told me +so much, unmasked so clearly what you intend to do, that, unless I fall +in with your wishes, I can never hope to leave this room except feet +foremost. I say this. Now see me act as the least staunch of the Guard!'</p> + +<p>Without warning he leaped upon Sagan, hurling him backwards with the +force of the sudden impact, and buried his fingers in the grey bristling +beard. He had but his bare hands with which to slay the enemy of the +Duke, and used them with the strength of envenomed pride. Sagan, under +the iron throttling fingers snatched at his hunting-knife and stabbed +fiercely upwards between the bent arms at the Guardsman's throat.</p> + +<p>Inside the room the heavy breathing and struggling of the men on the +floor seemed to Elmur loud enough to alarm the whole Castle, in spite of +the furious screaming of the gale. He sprang to the writhing heap and +tried to pinion Colendorp, but as he touched him the wounded man fell +back. In a moment Sagan was on his feet calling on Elmur to bring the +lamp. He seized Colendorp under the arm and shoved him roughly towards +the wall, where throwing back a curtain he opened a door and thrust the +tottering figure before him down a short flight of steps. Then another +door was opened and the <i>tsa</i> swept in with a wild yell, for a moment +holding upright the failing man who staggered out on to the snowy +terrace, making a tragic centre to the flickering path of light cast by +the lamp in Elmur's hand.</p> + +<p>For an instant Colendorp stood swaying on the yielding snow by the edge +of the precipice, and as he swayed his voice climbed through his broken +throat—</p> + +<p>'Maäsau the Free! Long live the Duke! The Duke's man ... I ... Colendorp +of ...'</p> + +<p>The wind had lulled for a second. Again the mad blast caught and +wrenched Colendorp's figure, the snow gave between his feet, and he +plunged forward heavily into the gorge of the Kofn river. The broken +snow, whirled up in a great cloud by the eddying gusts, shone in the +lamplight for a second like a wild toss of spray, then settled again +upon the narrow terrace, obliterating all marks there. A window overhead +was pushed open, but already the band of light upon the snow was gone, +and nothing remained for Valerie's eyes but a chaos of gloom. Yet she +had seen something. Dimly through the double glass she had discerned the +green and gold of the Guard on the swaying figure before it dropped away +for ever into the night.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> + +<p class='center'>'WITH YOUR LIPS TO THE HURT.'</p> + + +<p>A few minutes later a knocking came to Madame de Sagan's door. It was +low and urgent. She ran to open it, her heart in her throat. A hand +pushed her aside with the rough careless force of full control. She +recoiled with an exclamation, for a glance showed her that the Count was +in one of his most deadly moods.</p> + +<p>'What have you done—where is Selpdorf's daughter?' he snarled.</p> + +<p>As Madame de Sagan shrank from the menacing hand the door opened a +second time, and Valerie herself stumbled in with a bloodless face.</p> + +<p>At the sight of the Count, she drew herself together like one who faces +an unexpected peril.</p> + +<p>'I apologise for coming, but I am frightened. The storm is dreadful. So +I came to you, Isolde.'</p> + +<p>Isolde put out her arms with a sobbing cry.</p> + +<p>'I am frightened, too,' she said with a swift resentful glance at her +husband; 'I was coming for you. Stay with me, Valerie; I will not be +left alone!'</p> + +<p>Sagan looked from one to the other of the two beautiful faces, and a +sensation of surprised dismay, to which he was a stranger, arose in his +mind. Hitherto women had been to him possessions, not problems. Now a +very ancient truth burst in upon him with all the force of a revelation. +To own a woman is not always to understand her. The unexpected defiance +on his wife's face confounded him.</p> + +<p>'Isolde!' he began, stepping towards her.</p> + +<p>But the young Countess clung to Valerie.</p> + +<p>'Stay with me, Valerie!' she implored. 'I am far more frightened than +you, for I know what there is to fear.'</p> + +<p>With a loud curse of bewilderment he strode out, banging the door behind +him. Isolde sprang to it, slipping the bolts with trembling fingers. +Then she threw herself upon a couch and broke into pitiful sobbing.</p> + +<p>Valerie stood looking down at her in an agony of suspense, yet +remembering that self-control is the chief rule of every game. Presently +she put her hand on Isolde's shoulder. The young Countess started up +with a suppressed scream. 'I had forgotten you were there. Valerie, he +will murder me! He hates me! Oh, I have no one to save me!'</p> + +<p>Valerie looked round. After the scene she had just witnessed, this +suggestion did not sound so wild as it would have done at another time.</p> + +<p>'You are nervous, Isolde; one could fancy anything on such a night,' she +said soothingly.</p> + +<p>'Have you lived so long in Maäsau without knowing that here at Sagan +everything is possible? He threatens me, and oh, my God, what shall I +do?'</p> + +<p>Valerie sat down beside her and put a steady hand upon her arm. She had +her own object in this visit, but it must be approached with caution.</p> + +<p>'I am here. I will help you!' she said reassuringly.</p> + +<p>Isolde sat up and put her arm round her companion's shoulders.</p> + +<p>'I must trust you—though——Valerie, there is one person who might be +able to help me to-night,' she whispered close to the girl's ear. 'He +might save me. But he must come to me—here—now! I dare not leave this +room. Simon——' she shivered.</p> + +<p>'Who is it?' A new coldness crept into Valerie's voice as she listened.</p> + +<p>'Can you not guess? It is Captain Rallywood.'</p> + +<p>Valerie had braced herself to meet this, and it only added proof to her +own fears for his safety. Come what might, she would undertake any +message from Isolde to get the opportunity of warning the Duke's guard +of the coming danger, and to tell the fate of that gallant figure +tossing to and fro in the battering rush of the Kofn. She drew herself +away from Isolde's embrace with a shudder.</p> + +<p>'What is the matter with you?' Isolde peered up at her with a quick +scrutiny. 'You are shaking all over. Valerie, is it because of him?'</p> + +<p>'I am very cold,' returned the girl with a smile. 'I am quite willing to +bring—Captain Rallywood. But where is he?'</p> + +<p>'He is on guard in the Duke's ante-room.' She turned her head away.</p> + +<p>'Then, Isolde, you know it is impossible! He cannot come!'</p> + +<p>'Even if it costs my life?' said the Countess bitterly. 'Oh, how cheap +you hold other people's lives, Valerie! You are a true Maäsaun!'</p> + +<p>Valerie thought a moment. The request of Madame de Sagan fell in with +her own plan. It would enable her to solve the doubt that was agonising +her; yet if she found him safe, how could she lend herself to tempt him +to his own dishonour? A cruel question rose within her. Should she put +him to the supreme test of life and love—would she not rather know him +dead in the cold river, than living and false to her dim ideal of him?</p> + +<p>'There is no time to spare.' Isolde's voice broke in upon her. 'If you +could make him know the danger I stand in, he must come! Remind him of +his promise to me.'</p> + +<p>'But if he will not come?' Valerie forced the words.</p> + +<p>'Then ask him to give you the cigarette case of Maäsaun leather-work. +That will remind him of many things. But he will come,' she ended more +confidently.</p> + +<p>Valerie rose.</p> + +<p>'I am ready. I know the passages are watched. I saw no one, yet I felt +the shadows were full of eyes. Lend me your sable cloak, Isolde; +everyone will recognize that, and with this lace about my head, I shall +be free to go where I please as the Countess Sagan.'</p> + +<p>'Valerie'—Madame de Sagan held the girl back—'listen to me, you must +make him come! I must tell you all. Rallywood is in danger, nothing can +save him unless you separate him from the Duke——' she stopped, +panting, then bared her arm. 'Remind him how he promised me—with his +lips upon the hurt! Now go!'</p> + +<p>The next second Valerie Selpdorf found herself alone in the dim +corridor, in which the lights burned low. She stood quite still, the +shock of the last sentence 'with his lips upon the hurt' still ringing +in her ears. Rallywood! Rallywood with the clear grey eyes and that look +in them which remained persistently in her memory. Her father had taught +her to suspect the whole world. But she had chosen to think differently +of this man, even when she told herself she hated him. Different from +others—exempt from the universal stain of hypocrisy—one to be trusted, +if it were possible to trust any. Then she turned upon herself. After +all had he deceived her, had she not rather deceived herself? He had +spoken openly to her of his despairing secret, of the woman he could +never hope to win. And she had concluded what? Nothing definite, but +there had been a dim thought. Oh, it was unbearable! But why did she +linger to think of this, while Maäsau itself was in danger?</p> + +<p>She hurried along the passages, moving with a soft swiftness of silken +garments, and as she passed the hidden eyes of the watchers looked out +after the muffled figure. Madame de Sagan was free to come and go.</p> + +<p>From the head of the great staircase a narrow corridor branched away to +the Duke's quarters. A very dim light shone from the embrasure at the +end as she hurried along and, before she could stop herself, she ran +right into the arms of a tall man who was coming out towards her.</p> + +<p>He put her gently back against the wall and looked at her, but the lace +was drawn close about her face.</p> + +<p>'I must pass,' she said.</p> + +<p>The man's back was to the light, but she knew the shape of the head and +shoulders.</p> + +<p>'No one can pass, Madame.'</p> + +<p>The relief of knowing Rallywood was safe jarred in her mind with the +hideous suspicion that Isolde's allurements had after all conquered his +allegiance to the Duke. He clearly recognised the cloak and believed her +to be the Countess. She would have been more than woman not to take +advantage of the mistake. She bent forward a little.</p> + +<p>'Come with me,' she whispered.</p> + +<p>'I cannot.'</p> + +<p>'Do you forget your promise?'</p> + +<p>'Under the circumstances'—he glanced back at the Duke's door—'you know +I could make none.'</p> + +<p>'But I am in danger—and you promised, surely you promised, with your +lips there!'</p> + +<p>Rallywood stared at the shapely hand and firm white wrist thrust out +from the dark sables, with a great leap at his heart. The sight took him +unawares.</p> + +<p>'Valerie!' he exclaimed.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> + +<p class='center'>IRIS.</p> + + +<p>From its beetling crags the Castle of Sagan looked out that night with +many luminous eyes over the crowding black pine woods and away across +the frost-bound, melancholy marshes of the frontier. The renewed +violence of the storm had not abated, and the wind moaned about the old +walls.</p> + +<p>There was one in Sagan that night to whom the wind had an old yet new +story to tell. The Duke had heard it in his cradle even in the summer +palace where he was born; during later years his dulled senses paid +little heed to that wild singing, and, in truth, passing most of his +life as he now preferred to do in the low-lying sheltered palace at +Révonde, where the state apartments were well within the towering mass +of masonry, and protected on the river side by the Cloister of St. +Anthony, he seldom heard its voice. So that to-night, while the <i>tsa</i> +whimpered and clamoured about the exposed buttresses and towers of +Sagan, it sounded to his ears like the calling of some long-dead friend, +a wraith belonging to his lost youth. Sleeping memories awoke and +troubled him; he fancied he had read a vague menace in Count Simon's +bloodshot eyes, and every little incident that had taken place since +his arrival now assumed strange and malign meanings.</p> + +<p>He looked around the great vaulted chamber oppressed by a presentiment +of danger, and tried to still his jangled nerves. For with the instinct +of failing mastership he resolved to think out some scheme of defence +and a spontaneous policy, by which he might not only defeat his enemies, +but outwit and overwhelm his rebellious servants.</p> + +<p>Selpdorf—was he also false and self-seeking? For more years than he +cared to remember the Duke had forced this man to enact the part of +virtual ruler of the State, always believing in his loyalty—if not to +Gustave of Maäsau, at least to Maäsau the Free. Any dimmest doubt of +Selpdorf's patriotism had never during all that period entered into the +soddened brain of his master. But to-night, as the Duke recalled the +half-jesting proposal to disband the Guard, made by the Chancellor on +the day of the review, and added to that hint the pregnant significance +of Valerie's speech, he realised that evil days were overtaking him, +that his most trusted minister had been bid for and bought by his foes, +and that it now behoved him to strike out a personal policy, whereby he +should secure strong friends and supporters to aid him in the coming +struggle against these traitors.</p> + +<p>He had retired to his room at an early hour under the plea of weariness. +He was, as a matter of fact, worn out by the flood of fears and +anxieties that Valerie's one reckless sentence had let loose upon him. +So long was it since he had placed these weightier matters of diplomacy +and government in other hands, that the renewed sense of responsibility +and the imminent need for action seemed to be crushing in his brain. But +the instinct of self-preservation, backed by the one kingly attribute +left him—love of his country—strengthened him to attempt a final +effort to combat the overpowering odds which he felt rather than knew to +be against him.</p> + +<p>Tossed and harried by a hundred terrifying thoughts, the self-enfeebled +creature broke at length into that dreadful crying, the scanty painful +tears, the aching sobs, which is the weeping of age or of an exhausted +constitution.</p> + +<p>When the paroxysm was over he lay back in his bed, absolutely drained of +strength and of all power to think longer. Whether he dozed or not he +scarcely knew, but after an interval he seemed to awake as if from sleep +with his thoughts once more under control.</p> + +<p>Oh, that he had his Guard about him! The Guard, always reliable and full +of the old grim dash and power which had been the firm foundation of the +ducal throne from the beginning. Amongst their ranks was no slackening +of discipline, of devotion, or of that splendid recklessness which had +made them what they were—the premier Garde du Corps of Europe! In +spirit he yearned once more to see their plumes and gleaming equipment +come dancing down the sunny wind, and to hear the grand thunder of +their charge, which but the other day he had been half-inclined to call +stale and unprofitable. In this solitary hour, when the night-lamps +flickered on the massive walls and the sense of loneliness grew upon him +till he sickened at the unceasing cry of the pitiless wind, he realised +that the Guard was the sole bulwark now as always of Maäsau. He shivered +down among the soft coverings and listened apprehensively.</p> + +<p>Unziar and Rallywood with two troopers watched in the guard-room, +through which lay the only approach to his sleeping chamber. Unziar, +could Unziar be trusted? He had heard something of Unziar and that +handsome vixen of Selpdorf's. Then Colendorp—ah, there was no doubt +there! Dark and resentful, his poverty and his pride were the bye-words +of the barracks; he, whatever the temptation, would never fall from +honour.</p> + +<p>There remained Rallywood. He, too, was to be depended upon, the Duke +decided quickly, though for no special reason but that he had taken some +vague fancy to the Englishman's bronzed face and swinging stride. Yet +Simon was powerful and unscrupulous; how could this handful of men +oppose him?</p> + +<p>He sprang up in his bed as the door opened and a man stood on the +threshold.</p> + +<p>'Sire, there is treason! Colendorp has been murdered.'</p> + +<p>'Is it you, Unziar?' The Duke's voice came strangely from his pillows. +'Send for the whole escort of the Guard from their quarters.'</p> + +<p>'Impossible, sire! The corridors are held by Count Sagan's men. +Mademoiselle Selpdorf has brought the news.'</p> + +<p>'What! You told me not two hours ago she was engaged to von Elmur. She +is the price of Selpdorf's treason.'</p> + +<p>Unziar stepped nearer.</p> + +<p>'Mademoiselle Selpdorf has already risked her life to warn us that we +are in danger. I'd stake my soul she is loyal.'</p> + +<p>'Good indeed, Anthony! I'd sooner have your honour than your soul. But +go, in the name of the Virgin, and since the corridors are closed to the +men of my Guard, send the girl for Major Counsellor. She can but die!'</p> + +<p>Unziar saluted and hurried back to the ante-room where Valerie and +Rallywood were waiting. In spite of his personal horror at the thought +of her danger, he was well aware that only by Valerie's aid could they +hope to reach Counsellor.</p> + +<p>Valerie listened to the Duke's order, then wrapping the lace as before +about her head turned to Rallywood. He accompanied her through the +guard-room and some little way along the passage. It seemed as if he +could not let her go forth on this perilous enterprise.</p> + +<p>'For God's sake, take care of yourself!' he said. 'If anything were to +happen to you.'</p> + +<p>The prolonged excitement of events, the sense of responsibility and +danger, the exaltation of such a moment must have reacted on Valerie. +Whether prompted by some instinct of coquetry, or betrayed into a touch +of real feeling, or perhaps moved by the knowledge that death stood +close beside them both, she drew her hand from his arm and raising her +face asked in her soft voice:</p> + +<p>'Do you remember what you said to me once—on the night of the palace +ball?'</p> + +<p>He saw the deep eyes upraised to his, though their meaning in that dim +place he could not be sure of, but a rush of quick memories came over +him.</p> + +<p>'Yes.'</p> + +<p>She gave a little excited laugh.</p> + +<p>'Then expect me!' she said. And she was gone.</p> + +<p>When Valerie returned to Madame de Sagan half an hour later she was +still white and breathless. Isolde, in a fever of impatient terror, +caught her by the arm.</p> + +<p>'Where is he? When is he coming! Valerie—'</p> + +<p>Valerie made a supreme effort to control herself.</p> + +<p>'He is on guard.'</p> + +<p>'Yes, I know. I know! But he is coming!'</p> + +<p>'It was impossible! He could not leave His Highness. Isolde, you would +not wish it!'</p> + +<p>'What does anything matter unless it's found out?' cried Isolde, giving +in her adherence to a common creed. 'Did you give him all my message? +Did you make him understand? Then, when all else failed, you asked him +for the cigarette case? That would remind him——' Madame de Sagan spoke +in growing agitation.</p> + +<p>Valerie looked into her wild eyes.</p> + +<p>'I forgot that,' she admitted.</p> + +<p>Isolde shook the arm she held.</p> + +<p>'You have killed him! Valerie, you have been jealous of me, and by your +jealousy you have killed him! Had you spoken as I told you he would be +here now—and safe! As it is he is lost!' she flung herself down among +the cushions.</p> + +<p>Her slender hands were clenched, her turquoise eyes stared wide and +blind from her white face. She seemed to hold her breath as if waiting +for the inevitable blow to fall. Valerie, greatly moved, knelt down +beside her.</p> + +<p>'What does it matter if we die to-night or a month hence?' Isolde spoke +in a low voice; her heart had unconsciously been gathering up bitterness +against Valerie, and she had no longer the strength to conceal it under +this unbearable strain. 'Valerie, you have stooped to meanness—you who +have so scorned meanness in others. You knew long ago what—Rallywood's +love was to me. You have known my life, and much that I have to bear. +Amongst all who pretend to love me there is not one like him, not one! +He would be always kind and true. I think these are English qualities, +for in another way there is Major Counsellor——' the weary voice broke +off as if too tired for more.</p> + +<p>It was well Counsellor never heard that little expression of opinion +concerning himself; it might have proved the thorn in a somewhat callous +diplomatic memory.</p> + +<p>'You have betrayed me! You!' she repeated with a bitter laugh; then, +springing up, she ran towards the spot where her sables lay heaped upon +the floor just as Valerie had dropped them from her shoulders.</p> + +<p>'It may be too late, but I will go myself. I will save him if I can!'</p> + +<p>Valerie wrapped the cloak around her.</p> + +<p>'Isolde, I will go with you.'</p> + +<p>'You!' Isolde turned with a startling look of dislike and suspicion. +'No, I hate you, and I choose to go alone!'</p> + +<p>Valerie drew back and Madame de Sagan passed her by and flung wide the +door. As she did so a confused noise could be heard, and the two women +stood listening while a distant hubbub of voices rose louder, then a +pistol shot followed by others echoed down the passages.</p> + +<p>'He is dead! By your fault!'</p> + +<p>Isolde turned upon Valerie with a wild gesture, as if she would have +struck her.</p> + +<p>Valerie drew back.</p> + +<p>'If you really loved him, Isolde, you would rather he was—there—with +his honour—than—here—without it,' she said.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2> + +<p class='center'>THE SWORD OF UNZIAR.</p> + + +<p>The Castle of Sagan may be roughly divided into three irregular parts. +The massive old keep dominates all, standing high and black against the +skyline; then the varied cluster of buildings immediately around its +foot contain the principal reception and living rooms, and lowest of all +the courtyards, kitchens, stables and offices. To the right of the keep +a wing, curved like the fluke of an anchor, slopes down to a lower +level. This portion is fairly modern and arranged for the housing of +guests. The Countess's own apartments were situated at the junction of +this wing with the main building, while the quarters assigned by ancient +custom to the use of the reigning Duke during his visits to Sagan +occupies the whole upper floor of an old and bulky annex that juts out +from the base of the keep.</p> + +<p>The passage leading to this annex branched from the head of the grand +staircase. Upon the landing rows of heavily armed men were gathering +noiselessly.</p> + +<p>As Elmur and Sagan stood together waiting at the mouth of the Duke's +corridor, the Count turned to his companion.</p> + +<p>'Have you proposals ready to lay before his Highness?' he demanded.</p> + +<p>'In form,' returned Elmur, touching his pocket.</p> + +<p>'That is well, for you are about to present them. The Duke lies +practically in my power at this moment,' Count Simon continued grimly. +'Gustave is a coward. The way to his presence lies open, and I think you +will agree with me that his Highness of Maäsau will consent to most +things rather than look the fear of death in the eyes!'</p> + +<p>'There must be no violence,' Elmur began.</p> + +<p>'That shall be exactly as I choose,' Sagan swore with an oath. 'By the +good God we can't afford scruples to-night!'</p> + +<p>After a short interval he went on.</p> + +<p>'Once we have Gustave's word, we are safe. He is too proud to own that +he gave it unwillingly. Besides, so long as we win what matter the means +we use? Is your conscience so ticklish, Baron?'</p> + +<p>'Politics have their exigencies and are inevitably rigorous, my lord,' +answered Elmur slowly. 'To be successful means absolution. In the +political courts where our actions will be judged they make no provision +for failure. Success is recognised and mercifully considered, while +failure, my lord, not being in any sense public, falls to the level of +ordinary crime, and is judged by the standard applied to ordinary crime. +Thus you will see that I risk as much in my place as you risk in yours.' +Perhaps this was as near an approach to a threat as had ever been +uttered in the ears of the fierce old Count. With a violent movement, +he stepped forward.</p> + +<p>'There is no hindrance in our path that cannot be cut through with a +sword, and, by my soul, if we find one I will cut it!' Then, looking +round, he gave the word to advance, and entered the darkness of the +corridor.</p> + +<p>A turn brought them in sight of Unziar's tall figure, standing sword in +hand on the lowest step of the flight that led up to the embrasure +covering the door leading to the royal apartments.</p> + +<p>Count Simon pushed Elmur ahead of him while he fell back to whisper a +few words to the man immediately behind; then he took precedence once +more.</p> + +<p>'I request an audience of His Highness, Lieutenant Unziar,' he said.</p> + +<p>'Certainly, my lord, if you will give me the password of the night,' +replied Unziar.</p> + +<p>Sagan's answer was the countersign he had given to his own following in +the Castle.</p> + +<p>Unziar shook his head.</p> + +<p>'You cannot pass, my lord.'</p> + +<p>'What—not see my guest and cousin in my own house?'</p> + +<p>'His Highness gave orders that none should be allowed to enter without +giving the countersign chosen by himself.'</p> + +<p>Sagan considered a second or two.</p> + +<p>'True, I had forgotten. Come here, Unziar; your trooper there has long +ears; I must speak with you. Stand back, men!' he said roughly. 'Baron +von Elmur, pray remain, and you, Hern,' addressing the man behind. +Unziar still stood upon the step.</p> + +<p>'Come here! I tell you, man, I must see the Duke to-night—at once,' +continued Sagan approaching Unziar. 'What the devil are you afraid of?' +Unziar stepped down as the Count pulled him confidentially nearer to +himself and towards the narrow entry. But while the Count whispered, a +hand suddenly darted over his shoulder and seized Unziar by the throat, +at the same moment when a well-directed kick from Sagan, delivered +cunningly behind the knees, brought the young man to the ground. He +lunged at Sagan as he fell with his sword, then it was knocked from his +hand as his assailants swarmed over him, but not before he had fired his +revolver into Hern's body. The man fell across him, but Unziar again +swinging clear rose on his elbow and sent a second shot into the face +nearest him. Meantime the trooper at the door was making a gallant +fight, but the odds were too great. The struggle was soon over, the +trooper's dead body flung aside, and Unziar, frantic and helpless, was +tied hand and foot and left upon the bloody flooring of the outer +passage while the Count's people forced the door.</p> + +<p>This was a matter of some difficulty, but it was presently accomplished. +The besieging party pushed through into the guard-room, which seemed +brilliantly lit in comparison with the gloom outside.</p> + +<p>Most of the furniture and the screen had been utilised by Rallywood to +make a barricade in front of the Duke's ante-room. A single trooper with +his musket levelled knelt behind it.</p> + +<p>Sagan, who held a handkerchief to his cheek, spoke loudly.</p> + +<p>'Do you see who I am? Clear the way!'</p> + +<p>At this Rallywood stepped into view from behind the screen.</p> + +<p>'The man acts under orders from his Highness, my lord,' he said.</p> + +<p>Sagan stared at Rallywood with haughty scorn.</p> + +<p>'It is of the utmost importance that I should see his Highness at once. +Inform his Highness that I urgently beg to be granted an interview.'</p> + +<p>'With pleasure, my lord,' returned Rallywood formally, 'if you will be +good enough to give me the password, without which it is quite +impossible for anyone to have an audience to-night. Our orders were very +distinct on that point.'</p> + +<p>'His Highness could not foresee that I'—the Count dwelt upon the +pronoun imperiously—'should desire one. Stand back, Captain Rallywood! +I must pass and am willing to take the responsibility.'</p> + +<p>'It is quite impossible, my lord,' repeated Rallywood without moving.</p> + +<p>'You force me to extreme measures,' cried Sagan. 'Remove this man,' he +ordered, 'as quietly as may be. We must not alarm his Highness.'</p> + +<p>There was a clatter of arms as Sagan's followers advanced. The foremost +of them ran in upon Rallywood, the swords met, Rallywood's sleeve was +ripped from wrist to elbow, but his sword blade passed through his +opponent's shoulder. The man sank down in a sitting posture, coughing +oddly; his head dropped forward.</p> + +<p>'Shoot them down!' shouted Sagan, but the words were still on his lips +when the door behind John Rallywood slowly opened and a figure stood +beside him.</p> + +<p>Its appearance checked the rising struggle, for the figure was the +figure of the Grand Duke of Maäsau. He was wrapped in his hooded robe of +green velvet, and the five points of the golden star of Maäsau blazed +upon his breast.</p> + +<p>'Cousin, I would speak with you, but these fools stopped me,' exclaimed +Sagan.</p> + +<p>The Duke turned his shadowed face and spoke to Rallywood in a low voice.</p> + +<p>'His Highness begs you, my lord, to withdraw your men,' said Rallywood +aloud.</p> + +<p>Sagan, scowling, ordered his men to the further end of the long room. +Meantime Rallywood, with evident unwillingness, pulled away a portion of +the barricade. Through this the Duke advanced with a stately +deliberation, and walked slowly up to the Count.</p> + +<p>With a sudden hoarse shout of triumph Sagan flung his great arms about +the Duke's body.</p> + +<p>'By St. Anthony, Gustave, no one shall stop our conversation now!'</p> + +<p>The Duke made no attempt to release himself from the rough hug that held +him prisoner. He merely raised his hood with one hand, so that Sagan, +his coarse mouth still wide in laughter, could stare into the +countenance not four inches from his own.</p> + +<p>Consternation and fury swept over the Count's features. From under the +hood a red challenging face, a big white moustache, and shaggy-browed +humorous eyes met his gaze. The sight held him gaping. But only for a +second. Then he whipped out his pistol.</p> + +<p>'An English plot, by Heaven!'</p> + +<p>But Rallywood was quicker still. A sharp knock on the Count's wrist sent +the bullet into the ceiling.</p> + +<p>'Have a care, my lord,' Counsellor said authoritatively. 'You cannot do +as you will even in this lonely and remote room in your lonely Castle of +Sagan, since England and—' with a bow towards Elmur—'Germany are +looking on.'</p> + +<p>Sagan still threatened Counsellor with the revolver.</p> + +<p>'Can you see any reason why I should not kill you as a traitor to my +country at this moment, Major Counsellor?' he shouted.</p> + +<p>'Only one, my lord. Russia also, in the person of M. Blivinski, knows +where I am, and is awaiting my return to arrange for our journey to +Révonde—which we propose to make in each other's company,' replied +Counsellor pointedly.</p> + +<p>Sagan burst into his habitual storm of curses.</p> + +<p>'Your nation have well been called perfidious, Major Counsellor. A stab +in the back——'</p> + +<p>'Why no, my lord,' said Counsellor; 'our greatest vice is admittedly +that we are always well in front!'</p> + +<p>'Come, Baron, have you nothing to say to this?' Sagan asked, ready to +spring at his friends in his torment of baffled rage.</p> + +<p>'Nothing, my lord. You will remember I am here to-night entirely at your +request.'</p> + +<p>Sagan's laugh was not altogether a pleasant one.</p> + +<p>'Put it how you like, Monsieur, I should not have been here either but +for you!'</p> + +<p>Elmur stood with folded arms. To stoop to recriminations before the +common enemy! The cause was lost for the moment, but there was the +future, and in that future the fool who figured as his ally should +become his slave! Germany had, after all, gained something in gaining +the knowledge of British designs afoot.</p> + +<p>'Then his Highness refuses to see me, although he can give audience +to—you?' the Count at length broke the silence.</p> + +<p>'On the contrary, my lord, he looks forward to the pleasure of meeting +you to-morrow. That is the message with which I am charged. Captain +Rallywood, his Highness wishes Lieutenant Unziar to attend him.'</p> + +<p>Count Simon made a sign to his men, and a moment later Unziar stalked +into the room, maddened by the outrage put upon him.</p> + +<p>'My sword, Count Sagan,' he said huskily.</p> + +<p>'Your sword! Is it lost?' returned the Count with an angry sneer. 'In my +day it was not the custom of the guard to lose their swords!'</p> + +<p>'When I saw it last it was sticking in your cheek, my lord,' said the +young man with a studied insolence, pointing to a bleeding cut on the +Count's face.</p> + +<p>One of the men, coming forward, laid the sword upon the top of the +barricade. Unziar grasped it and thrust it back into the scabbard.</p> + +<p>'It was lost by treachery!' he flung out. 'And I leave it to these +gentlemen to say where the shame lies!'</p> + +<p>With that he leaped the barricade and passed into the Duke's room.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2> + +<p class='center'>IN DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS.</p> + + +<p>It was late on the following morning before the Castle was awake. It +almost seemed as if the guests had waited for the appearance of the +reassuring daylight before they ventured from their rooms. Four huge +fires roared in the four great chimneys round the vast hall where the +breakfast was in progress.</p> + +<p>Sagan, in his weather-stained hunting suit and leggings, stood at the +upper window overlooking the courtyard where the huntsmen and gaunt +dogs, the famous Sagan boarhounds, were already collected, in +anticipation of the boar-hunt arranged to take place on that day. The +sky had cleared, but the tsa raged and howled after its perennial custom +about the Castle.</p> + +<p>Madame de Sagan, entering later, cast a nervous glance at the grim red +face and bull-neck, and then fell into a laughing conversation with the +people round her, although her heart felt cold. She was far from being a +brave woman, although she joined so gaily in the merry talk passing from +side to side; but her marvellous self-control was no more than the +self-control common to women of her social standing. It is secondary +strength, not innate but acquired, of which the finest instance is a +matter of history, and was witnessed within the walls of the +Conciergerie during the Reign of Terror, where men and women +unflinchingly carried on a hollow semblance of the joyous comedy of life +till they mounted laughing into the tumbrils.</p> + +<p>Although nothing was known about the events of the previous night except +by those who took part in them, a sense of excitement pervaded the +party. The strained relations existing between the Duke and his possible +successor gave rise to an amount of vague expectation and conjecture. +Anything might happen with such dangerous elements present in the +atmosphere.</p> + +<p>Therefore when Rallywood, booted and spurred, passed up the hall, his +entrance attracted every eye. He walked straight up to the Count at his +distant window and saluting, spoke for perhaps a minute in a low voice.</p> + +<p>At the first sentence Sagan swung round, his lowering face growing +darker as he listened. Then, advancing to the head of the table prepared +for the entertainment of the Duke, he called the attention of all +present by striking it loudly with the riding-whip he carried.</p> + +<p>An instant hush settled upon the room. Sagan glared round with waiting +eyes, and in the pause the tsa broke in a crash upon the Castle front +with the pebble-shifting sound of a breaker.</p> + +<p>'I have to beg the favour of your attention for a moment,' the Count's +words rang out. 'Captain Rallywood reports that an officer of his +Highness's Guard is missing—Captain Colendorp. Inquiries have been made +but he cannot be found. It seems that he was last seen leaving the +billiard-room. If anyone in the hall can give us further information, +will they be good enough to do so?'</p> + +<p>Valerie raised her eyes to Rallywood, who stood behind the Count. As he +met them the young man's stern face softened suddenly.</p> + +<p>M. Blivinski, who happened to be sitting beside her, caught the exchange +of looks, and for a moment was puzzled. Selpdorf's daughter? Well, well, +the English are a wonderful people, he said to himself. Neither subtle +nor gifted, but lucky. Lucky enough to give the devil odds and beat him! +Here was Selpdorf laying his plans deeply and with consummate skill, +while this pretty clever daughter of his was ready to give him away +because a heavy dragoon of the favoured race smiled at her across a +breakfast table. Pah! The ways of Providence are inscrutable; it remains +for mortal men to do what they may to turn them into more convenient +channels.</p> + +<p>Then there was Counsellor, whose political importance could not be +denied. Yet he did the bluff thing bluffly and said the obvious thing +obviously, and blundered on from one great city to another, but +blundered triumphantly! Still there were compensations. The good God +had given the Russian craft and a silent tongue, and a facility for +telling a lie seasonably.</p> + +<p>Elmur was by a fraction of a second too late to see what the Russian had +seen. Valerie was very white, but she was talking indifferently to M. +Blivinski with her eyes fixed upon her plate. It was some time before +she seemed to grow conscious of Elmur's gaze; a slight fleck of colour +showed and paled in her cheeks, and then at length her long lashes +fluttered up and the German perceived in the darkness of her eyes a +trace of unshed tears.</p> + +<p>'Mademoiselle, you are tired,' he said with solicitude.</p> + +<p>'Yes,' she answered smiling. 'But we are going back to Révonde in a day +or two, and then I will wipe out the remembrance of everything that has +happened at Sagan from my mind forever!'</p> + +<p>Elmur was about to reply when Sagan spoke again.</p> + +<p>'No one appears to have heard or seen anything of Captain Colendorp. We +will have the dogs out, Captain Rallywood. Pray tell his Highness that +in the course of an hour or two we hope to be able to tell him where our +man has got to. His absence is doubtless due to some trifling cause.'</p> + +<p>As Rallywood retired Sagan cast a comprehensive glance around the +tables, and noted Counsellor's absence with a sinister satisfaction.</p> + +<p>All the morning he had been speculating upon the course Counsellor +would pursue after the rencontre of the previous night. Most likely +disappear from the Castle. He would not dare to brazen it out. Sagan +argued that the British envoy could not be very sure of his position +yet. What had he proposed to the Duke? And how had the Duke answered +him? What was to be the result of the visit, or would there be any? +Selpdorf held the Duke's confidence. He must checkmate England and +openly throw his influence into the German scale. No half courses could +any longer avail in Maäsau.</p> + +<p>Here his reflections were interrupted, for Counsellor's big burly figure +was bending over Madame de Sagan's chair, before he accepted the seat at +her side with the assured manner of a favored guest.</p> + +<p>Even the Russian attaché blinked. Ah, these islanders! What next?</p> + +<p>As an immediate result Count Sagan was forced to accept the situation +thrust upon him.</p> + +<p>'Have you slept well, Major?' he inquired sardonically. 'No bad dreams, +eh?'</p> + +<p>'I dream seldom—and I make it a point in the morning to forget bad +dreams if I have had any,' replied Counsellor, with a good-humored +raising of his big eyebrows.</p> + +<p>'That is wise,' said Sagan, 'for dreams and schemes of the night rarely +have solid foundations.'</p> + +<p>'So they say, my lord, but I do not trouble myself about these things. +A man of my age is forced to consecrate his best energies to his +digestion.'</p> + +<p>The Duke had decided upon returning to Révonde during the forenoon, but +most of the guests were to remain for the projected boar-hunt. The +hunting-party had already started when Blivinski and Counsellor drove +out of the Castle courtyard on their way to the nearest railway station, +which lay under the mountains some miles away.</p> + +<p>The <i>tsa</i> had blown the snow into heavy drifts, leaving the roads and +other exposed places bare and almost clean-swept. Near the station they +passed a squadron of the Guard sent by Wallenloup to escort the Duke +back to the capital.</p> + +<p>The pair in the carriage talked little, but when the jingling of +accoutrements had died away Blivinski said in an emotionless tone:</p> + +<p>'You met with Count Sagan last night then—in your dreams?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, or Duke Gustave would have been over the border by this morning.'</p> + +<p>'Ah!'</p> + +<p>'And history goes to prove that reigning sovereigns are fragile +ware—they cannot be borrowed without danger.'</p> + +<p>'You allude to Bulgaria?' Blivinski asked promptly, with an air of +genial interest.</p> + +<p>'Why, for the sake of argument, Alexander can stand as a case in +point.'</p> + +<p>'If—I say if—we borrowed him, we also returned him.'</p> + +<p>Counsellor's reply was characteristic, and justified his companion's +opinion of his race.</p> + +<p>'Damaged—so they say.'</p> + +<p>Blivinski considered the dreary landscape.</p> + +<p>'We must not believe all we hear. In diplomatic relations, my friend, +ethics cease to exist. Diplomacy is after all a simple game—even +elementary—a magnificent beggar-my-neighbour which we continue to play +into eternity.'</p> + +<p>'But there are rules ... even in beggar-my-neighbour,' said the +Counsellor.</p> + +<p>Blivinski kicked the rug softly from his feet as the carriage drew up.</p> + +<p>'One rule, only one,' he remarked; 'Britain loves to feign the Pharisee. +We smile—we others—because we understand that her rule and ours is +after all the same—self-interest.'</p> + +<p>'If that be the case we come back to the law of the Beast,' said the +Counsellor.</p> + +<p>The Russian put his gloved hand upon the open door and looked back over +his shoulder at Counsellor.</p> + +<p>'Always, my dear friend, by very many turnings—but always.'</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2> + +<p class='center'>UNDER THE PINES.</p> + + +<p>It was a day that would be dark an hour before its time. Rallywood rode +out under the gate of the Castle of Sagan as the last trooper clattered +down the rocky roadway in the rear of the Duke's carriage, for upon the +arrival of the squadron from Révonde he had received orders to remain +behind, the search for Colendorp having so far proved unsuccessful.</p> + +<p>Rallywood rode slowly down the shoulder of the mountain spur. Under the +gray light of the afternoon the limitless swamps stretching to the +skyline looked cold and naked under their drifted snow. From the sky big +with storm overhead, to the scanty grass that showed by the wayside +blackened by the rigours of the winter, the whole aspect of the frontier +was ominous and forbidding. Before he plunged into the lower ravines +Rallywood turned to look back at the angry towers of Sagan. He was +thinking of Colendorp. Under their shadow that lonely and reckless life +had come to its close. Why or by whose hand might never be made clear, +but Rallywood's mind had worked down to the conviction that the Count +might be able to tell the story.</p> + +<p>Well, it was good to know that Colendorp had not died in vain; +indirectly but none the less surely his death had brought about the +defeat of Sagan's plot.</p> + +<p>Then he rode away into the heart of the winter woods, where the branches +groaned and thrashed under the driving wind. Through gloomy and +pine-choked gorges he wound his way to the riverside, for he had decided +that if Colendorp had met his death in the river, his body would in time +be beached near Kofn Ford.</p> + +<p>The sodden dreary paths beside the river, familiar as they were to +Rallywood, now looked strange to him. He seemed to be revisiting them +after a long absence. Had they worn the same menace in the past? How had +he endured to ride for those six heavy years under the hills and up and +down through the marshes by the black river, one day like the last, +without a purpose or an interest beyond the action of the hour? He +lifted his head to the gathering storm, thanking Heaven that phase of +life, or rather that long stagnation, could never come again!</p> + +<p>The horrible emptiness of the place appalled him. Only a few +block-houses dotted the miles of waste. In summer, when the pools +yellowed over with flowering plants, rare wood-pigeons eked out a scanty +subsistence in the thickets, and there was little else the seasons +round. Only the patrols, and the trains and the smugglers, with a boar +or two in the forests beside the Kofn, and the ragged wolf-packs that go +howling by the guard-houses at the first powdering of snow. From the +past his mind naturally ran on to thoughts of Valerie—thoughts that +were hopeless and happy at the same time. He could never win her, yet +those few dim moments in the corridor were his own, and whatever the +future brought to her, would she ever quite forget them?</p> + +<p>Presently as he rode along he came in sight of the block-house by the +Ford from which he had gone out to Révonde to meet her—gone +unknowingly! It lay in the dip about a mile ahead. If he were to return +to-morrow to the narrow quarters he had occupied for so many months, the +very memory of her would glorify the wooden walls, and even the old +barren monotony of life with the frontier patrol be chequered and +cheered by the knowledge that somewhere under the same skies Valerie +Selpdorf lived and smiled.</p> + +<p>The beggars of love—such as Rallywood—are apt to believe that in the +mere fact of owning remembrance, they own wealth which can never be +expended. But the day comes soon when we know ourselves poor +indeed—when we find the comfort of memory wearing thin, when the soul +aches for a presence beyond reach of the hands, for a voice grown too +dear to forget, that must for ever escape our ears. Eheu! the bitter +lesson of vain desire.</p> + +<p>Between Rallywood and the Ford the Kofn widened out into a big bay-like +reach, upon the further shore of which the trees gathered thickly, their +bare branches overhanging the water. On the nearer side ragged-headed +pines stood in sparse groups, and amongst their lofty upright stems +Rallywood presently became aware that a strange scene was in progress.</p> + +<p>A small party of people were moving about the low-lying ground where the +snow still rested. On that bleak site at the foot of an outstanding pine +two or three men with picks and shovels were hurriedly digging in the +frost-bound earth. Close beside them what looked like a long military +cloak flung at full length lay upon the ground.</p> + +<p>The meaning of the incident was manifest. The clouding sky, the river, +the broken pine trees were looking on at a lonely funeral, darkened by a +suggestive furtiveness and haste.</p> + +<p>Rallywood put spurs to his horse and galloped down towards the burial +party. Another rider coming at speed across the open sheered off to +intercept him. It was easy to recognise Sagan by his bulk and the +imperious gesture of the hand with which he signed to the younger man to +stop. But Rallywood rode the harder. There was a shout from Sagan, and +the men ran towards the black object on the snow, and by the time +Rallywood reached them the dead body was already laid in its grave.</p> + +<p>At the same moment Sagan on the other side of the grave pulled up his +big horse on its haunches. The foresters stood rigid, waiting on the +Count's wishes. He looked over their heads at Rallywood.</p> + +<p>'Colendorp has been found,' he said with his most surly bearing.</p> + +<p>Rallywood glanced down into the shallow grave; a lump of frosty earth +slipped from the rugged heap above and settled into a crevice of the +cloak that covered Colendorp.</p> + +<p>'My men are burying him.'</p> + +<p>'By your orders, my lord?'</p> + +<p>'By my orders. Can you suggest a better use to make of a dead man?'</p> + +<p>'No, my lord, but a better manner of burial.'</p> + +<p>'Dismount and see for yourself.'</p> + +<p>Rallywood swung off the saddle, and giving his horse to one of the +foresters stooped and threw back the covering from the dead man's face +and breast. His dead fierce eyes stared upward, his wet hair was already +frozen to his brow, and a black wound gaped open at his throat. +Rallywood gazed at the harsh features, which, but for their livid +colour, were little altered by death. The <i>tsa</i> moaned across the river +and a few large flakes of snow came floating down.</p> + +<p>'Are you satisfied now?'</p> + +<p>Rallywood stood up and faced the Count.</p> + +<p>'How did he die?'</p> + +<p>'You can see that. Suicide as plain as a knife can write it.'</p> + +<p>'I do not think so,' said Rallywood slowly.</p> + +<p>The Count's horse plunged under the punishing spurs.</p> + +<p>'Captain Rallywood, may I ask what you hope to gain by making a scandal +in the Guard?' he asked.</p> + +<p>'Justice, perhaps. Colendorp had no reason to take his life, my lord.'</p> + +<p>'You will not find many to agree with you. The man was always +ill-conditioned. He had debts and the pride of the devil. His affairs +came to an impossible pass, I conclude. In any case a man has a right to +his own secrets.'</p> + +<p>'Yes, his affairs came to an impossible pass, perhaps. For the rest, +this seems to me less like Colendorp's secret than the secret of some +other man.' Rallywood met the red eye full of smouldering wrath. 'Pardon +me, my lord, but in the name of the Guard, I protest against burial of +Captain Colendorp in this place.'</p> + +<p>'I have given my orders,' answered Sagan. 'The Guard must consider their +reputation. We have had too many scandals already, and no one will thank +you for dragging a fresh one into Révonde for public discussion.'</p> + +<p>Sagan was amazed at his own moderation in arguing the question at all. +He looked to see it have its due effect upon the Englishman. But +Rallywood stood unmoved and stubborn beside the grave.</p> + +<p>'We have murder here!' The words fell like an accusation.</p> + +<p>Rallywood's eyes were alight now. It took little penetration to picture +how Colendorp had met his death. Round the grave, Sagan's horse with +its heavy smoking quarters trampled and fretted under the remorseless +hand upon the curb. The Count could bear no more opposition. His fury +overcame him. Roaring an oath he slashed at Rallywood with his riding +whip.</p> + +<p>'By St. Anthony, sir, you forget there is room in that grave for two,' +he shouted. 'You try me too far—your infernal officiousness—go! It is +useless to oppose my wishes here.' Which was obvious. The foresters, +lithe and strong as panthers, waited only the orders of their master. +They needed but a word, and would as lief have buried two dead men as +one in the grave under the torn pines. You may find the same type in the +mountains of Austria, where a poaching affray means a vendetta, and the +game laws are framed on corresponding principles.</p> + +<p>'I see I can do nothing now,' said Rallywood, remounting in his +leisurely way. 'The Guard must deal with the affair.'</p> + +<p>But Sagan had another word to say to him.</p> + +<p>'And I also, Captain Rallywood, shall know how to deal with you. Do not +forget that! Your conduct cannot be overlooked. You will find that in +Maäsau we are still able to get rid of those who cater for a cheap +notoriety. We shall know how to deal with you! I am the colonel of the +Guard. Are you aware that it is in my power to break you? Aye, like +that!' he smashed his riding-whip across his knee as he spoke, and +flinging away the pieces, he added, 'And by the powers above us, I +will!'</p> + +<p>Rallywood saluted and rode away. At once the foresters fell to work +feverishly to fill in the earth over Colendorp's body.</p> + +<p>Once more through the falling snow Rallywood looked back. Sagan's great +horse stood across the low mound of the finished grave.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h2> + +<p class='center'>LOVE'S BEGGAR.</p> + + +<p>A threat from Count Simon of Sagan was not to be lightly regarded at any +time, but within the boundaries of his own estates it appreciably +discounted the chances of life. Therefore Rallywood, instead of +returning to the Castle, headed for the block-house by the Ford. The +incident which had just taken place probably meant the closing of his +career in the army of Maäsau. Personal power survived in its full +plenitude in the little state, which had never made any pretence of +setting up a representative government; the Maäsaun people were as mute +as they had been in the dark ages and appeared content to remain so.</p> + +<p>The future which lay before Rallywood on that winter evening was not +enlivening. Less than three months ago he would have been half amused at +such a conclusion to his military life as offering an answer to a +perplexed question. But since then much had happened. That ill-luck +should overtake him when hope was at its keenest, and when his relations +both with the Guard and the Duke had reached a promising point, struck +him hard. If he left the Guard he must also leave Maäsau. He had told +himself a hundred times that the daughter of the Chancellor was far +beyond his winning, yet the certainty of losing her, which this last +development of events involved, was the worst blow of all. To stare an +empty future in the face is like looking into expressionless eyes where +no soul can ever come.</p> + +<p>He little guessed how close upon him were the critical moments of life, +or how much of emotion and difficulty and strenuous decision were to be +crowded into the next few days. A whirlpool of events was drawing him to +its raging centre. The death and the burial of Colendorp, Sagan's +resentment and his ruthless scheming were all eddies of circumstance +circling inward and carrying him with them to a definite issue.</p> + +<p>As he rode on the weather grew rapidly worse, and it soon became +impossible to see more than a few yards ahead. The night was settling +down thick with falling snow, so that Rallywood could only pull up and +listen when a faint noise, that might have been a woman's scream, came +to him through the storm. He shouted in return but there was no answer. +Then out of the gray curtain a sleigh with two maddened horses dashed +across his path and was as suddenly lost to sight. Rallywood had only +time to see a woman clinging to the driver's empty seat and clutching +desperately at the dangling reins.</p> + +<p>They passed like a vision, noiseless, swift, and dim, and although +Rallywood followed quickly, he could not find them. The gloom and the +snow had obliterated all trace of the sleigh, and at last Rallywood +himself, well as he knew the country, became bewildered; but luckily the +horse he rode was a charger he had had with him on the Frontier. He left +it to choose its own direction, yet it was long before a blur of light +which he knew to be the open doorway of the block-house grew out on the +shifting darkness.</p> + +<p>Within, the men of the patrol were standing in a group talking eagerly. +Flinging himself from his horse, Rallywood entered the house just as a +young cavalry officer came out from the inner room, and, recognising +Rallywood, advanced hurriedly to meet him.</p> + +<p>'I say, who do you think we have in there?' he said excitedly.</p> + +<p>'Tell me afterwards,' interrupted Rallywood; 'I met a runaway +sleigh——'</p> + +<p>'They were the horses from the Castle,' interrupted the young man with a +nervous laugh. 'Mademoiselle Selpdorf managed to get hold of the reins +after a bit, otherwise——' he snapped his fingers significantly.</p> + +<p>'Then she—the lady is safe?'</p> + +<p>'Two of them, my dear friend! One is the handsomest girl in Maäsau, and +the other is Madame de Sagan herself! And, by Jove! she's an infernally +pretty woman too. We're in luck, Rallywood! Have you come to look for +them?'</p> + +<p>Rallywood hesitated before he replied.</p> + +<p>'No, thanks. I must get back to Révonde by the first train, so I will +ride on with the next patrol to the station. Are they hurt?' he nodded +towards the inner room.</p> + +<p>'No, but how they escaped the deuce only knows! Madame de Sagan was +insensible when we found them.' He dropped his voice. 'By the way, she +has been saying some queer things! She declares the driver lashed up the +horses and purposely threw himself off the sleigh when they were on the +slope of the pine wood just above the Ingern precipice. She swears he +meant to kill them!'</p> + +<p>'She was frightened. That's all.'</p> + +<p>'It was about a certainty they'd be dashed to pieces. And look here——' +the young fellow looked oddly at Rallywood, 'she hinted that the +Count——'</p> + +<p>'Nonsense!' Rallywood forced a laugh. 'She was badly frightened, I tell +you.'</p> + +<p>'I'll take my oath there's something in it though! She refuses to let us +take her back to the Castle to-night.'</p> + +<p>'What have you given them—tea or anything?'</p> + +<p>'Faith, no! I made them each take a nip of <i>bizutte</i>—far better, too. +But we'll have some tea made now if you think they would like it.'</p> + +<p>'Of course. It will give them something to do. By the way, you might as +well ask them if they would see me.'</p> + +<p>On second thought and in view of the Countess's refusal to go back to +Sagan, he felt he must offer his assistance.</p> + +<p>'Yes, ask them if they will see me now,' he continued, looking at his +watch; 'I have not much time to spare.'</p> + +<p>The next moment Isolde's high sweet voice could be heard distinctly +through the open door.</p> + +<p>'Captain Rallywood! Pray tell him we should like to see him.'</p> + +<p>Madame de Sagan was lying on a narrow camp bed supported by wraps and +pillows, a brilliant red spot on each cheek, and her eyes darker than +ordinary under the influence of the alternate fright and stimulation of +the last two hours. She waited till the door was shut, then she put out +both hands to Rallywood.</p> + +<p>'Thank Heaven, we are safe and together again, Jack! Come here! I want +to know that you are alive and this is not all a dream,' she began +impulsively, yet behind the impulse lay a calculated design. She owed +her life to Valerie's courage, but that weighed as nothing in comparison +with the knowledge that in some indefinite manner the girl stood between +Rallywood and herself, that Rallywood for some reason held Valerie in +special regard.</p> + +<p>Rallywood bowed, still standing by the door.</p> + +<p>'Thank Heaven you are safe, Madame,' he said. 'I saw you somewhere this +side of the pine woods, but lost you in the mist.'</p> + +<p>'Oh, I did not see you! I saw nothing after that murderer leaped off. I +had a horrible instant during which I imagined myself swinging between +the gorge and the sky—after that I knew no more!' exclaimed Isolde, a +sort of complacency mixing with her agitation. 'They tell me that +Valerie was very brave and that she saved our lives, but for me these +heroisms are impossible!'</p> + +<p>She glanced at Rallywood, secure in his approval, but he had turned to +Valerie, who was sitting in a low wooden chair by the stove with her +back to the room.</p> + +<p>'It was magnificent, Mademoiselle!' he exclaimed.</p> + +<p>Valerie shivered.</p> + +<p>'There was nothing at all magnificent about it,' she said coldly. +'Self-preservation drives one to do what one can; it is only by chance +that one happens to do the right thing.'</p> + +<p>Isolde shrugged her shoulders and made a little grimace at Rallywood.</p> + +<p>'Do not heed her, Jack. People are always very pleased with themselves +for doing what other people call magnificent. Valerie is cross. Take +this chair by me; I have a very serious quarrel with you.'</p> + +<p>All the terror and peril of that dreadful drive had passed from Madame +de Sagan's facile mind. The little rivalries and coquetries of everyday +life occupied her as fully as if her lot contained no troublous outlook. +In this conjunction vanity will often do for a woman what work does for +a man. As for Isolde, the small promptings of a wounded vanity at once +absorbed her.</p> + +<p>Very unwillingly Rallywood obeyed. Between those narrow walls one was +within hand-reach of everything in the room, so that although he was +beside the Countess he was not a yard from Mademoiselle Selpdorf.</p> + +<p>'So you would not come to me last night?' began Isolde abruptly. 'You +cannot be made to understand that we Maäsauns hold human life of very +little account. It is stupid of you, Jack, but you will be forced to +believe it now. Do you know that the driver of the sleigh——'</p> + +<p>The attempt at assassination was horrible enough in itself, but from her +lips wearing their strange innocent smile he felt he could not endure +the story.</p> + +<p>'I have heard of it,' he interposed hastily; 'the Lieutenant told me. +But——'</p> + +<p>Isolde leant upon her elbow to look into his face.</p> + +<p>'What! You don't believe even now that Simon is trying to rid himself of +me? Valerie, speak! You too refused to believe me last night. What do +you say now?'</p> + +<p>'It may have been an accident,' replied Valerie with a tired movement.</p> + +<p>'Absurd! But whatever you choose to say, I will not go back to the +Castle! Révonde is perhaps safe——'</p> + +<p>'My father is there, and you will be safe,' said Valerie in a tone of +quiet certainty.</p> + +<p>Isolde laughed scornfully. 'I don't know that; for after all Sagan is +the most powerful man in the state!' she cried, with that perverse pride +in her husband that his daring personality seemed to develop in all his +dependents.</p> + +<p>As Valerie made no reply, she harked back to her former subject. 'I was +in danger last night, Jack, yet you would not come to my help. What +excuse can a man offer for such a thing?' her voice and lips had grown +tender in addressing him.</p> + +<p>'The Duke, Madame.'</p> + +<p>'That for the old Duke!' with a charming gesture of emptying both her +little hands. 'What is he in comparison with me? Jack, you are but a +poor lover after all!'</p> + +<p>Rallywood began to see that some motive underlay Isolde's wild talk. The +kind eyes with which he had been watching her changed.</p> + +<p>'It is very true,' he said.</p> + +<p>'Jack, Jack, how am I to forgive you?' she swept on. 'Yet you remember +when I was a firefly at the palace ball, I told you that like a firefly +my life would be short and merry. My prophecy is coming true.'</p> + +<p>An almost imperceptible alteration in the pose of the quiet figure by +the open stove was not lost upon Madame de Sagan.</p> + +<p>The sweet treble voice resumed:</p> + +<p>'You took a firefly from my fan and told me that one always wanted the +beautiful things to live for ever. Jack, you promised to be my friend +that night. You have not forgotten?'</p> + +<p>'I have not forgotten.'</p> + +<p>'And the firefly? Have you kept that as carelessly as you have kept your +promise? Where is your cigarette-case? Ah!' a pause, then a cry of +pleasure. 'Valerie, come here! He dropped it into his cigarette-case and +it is here still! If you had only reminded him of that——'</p> + +<p>Valerie stood up cold and proud, and exceedingly pale.</p> + +<p>'I forgot.'</p> + +<p>'It does not matter now,' Isolde replied, taking the glittering atom +from its hiding-place and holding it up on her slender finger to catch +the light, 'since we have met after all. You meant to fail, Valerie! +Were you not ashamed to deceive me last night—even last night when you +saw I was desperate, and oh, so horribly afraid?'</p> + +<p>Rallywood, absorbed in other thoughts, gathered very little of what was +being said. After avoiding Isolde of Sagan with more or less success on +the Frontier, he had, since his stay in Révonde, yielded in an odd +reserved way to her infatuation for him, partly out of a desire to +secure meetings with Mademoiselle Selpdorf, partly from a man's stupid +helplessness under such circumstances. The more chivalrous the man the +more helpless very often. But all this was entirely and for ever +unexplainable to Mademoiselle Selpdorf. He drew a deep breath. There was +nothing for it but to accept the situation.</p> + +<p>'We both owe a debt to Mademoiselle Selpdorf for carrying the message,' +he said.</p> + +<p>'You are mistaken,' said Valerie, and he winced under the contempt of +her voice. 'I should never have stooped to carry it had I not had a far +different object in view.'</p> + +<p>Isolde laughed to a shrill echo. Valerie Selpdorf's haughty spirit was +about to be humbled. She dimly felt why Rallywood held the girl to be +far above the level of ordinary womanhood—a cold and unattainable star. +But she should be dragged down from the heights before his eyes.</p> + +<p>'I was not so blind as you supposed,' Isolde said aloud, pointing an +accusing finger at Valerie. 'I knew why you went. Shall I tell you, +Jack?'</p> + +<p>Rallywood looked up quickly. Colendorp naturally recurred to his mind.</p> + +<p>'You could not have known,' Valerie answered.</p> + +<p>'But I did, though!' Isolde went on. 'Listen to me, Jack. Do you know +why she undertook my message, and why she forgot its most important +point? My life has come to-night to a crisis; I will not spare those who +have been cruel to me!' Isolde was trembling with excitement as she +leant forward, one hand holding by the table that stood between her and +Valerie, the other clenched in the soft fur of the rug on her knees. +'Why? Oh, men are so simple! They believe a woman to be pure and true +if she but knows how to temper her coquetries with a pretence of +reserve. Jack, Valerie has been false to me and to you because she is +jealous of me, and—because she herself loves you!'</p> + +<p>Rallywood rose slowly. 'Hush, Madame!'</p> + +<p>Valerie stood for one instant scarlet from neck to brow, then the blood +ebbed and left her of a curious deadly pallor like one who has a mortal +wound, but she still faced them.</p> + +<p>'Wait, Jack. You shall hear the end now that we have gone so far.' +Isolde laughed again. She was so sure of her lover. 'It is well for the +truth to come out sometimes, you know. Yes, Valerie Selpdorf, the proud, +unapproachable Valerie, loves a captain of the Guard, who——'</p> + +<p>Rallywood strode across in front of her. After such words of outrage, +his very nearness to Mademoiselle Selpdorf seemed in itself an insult. +With his back to the door he stopped and took up the last unfinished +sentence.</p> + +<p>'You have made a strange mistake, Madame,' he said in a low voice but +very clearly. 'On the contrary, it is the captain of the Guard who has +loved Mademoiselle Selpdorf, and even dared to tell her so, although she +had shown him that she regarded him with scorn and dislike. I hope I may +be forgiven for acknowledging this now, Mademoiselle. And let me say one +thing more, that though I have no hope, though I am one of Love's +beggars, the greatest honour of my life will be that I have loved such +a woman!'</p> + +<p>The door closed behind him. Isolde sat stupified at the result of her +stratagem, the stratagem by which she had intended to humble Valerie in +the most cruel way a woman can be humbled.</p> + +<p>Valerie, sinking down into her chair, burst into an uncontrollable flood +of tears. The secret of her heart, which she had denied to herself, +sprang up at Isolde's words and confronted her, filling her world's +horizon.</p> + +<p>'Well,' said Isolde after a long pause, '"We love but while we may." I +wish you joy of his constancy. He loved me yesterday.'</p> + +<p>Valerie raised her head with the old haughty gesture.</p> + +<p>'As for him, Isolde, you compelled him to say it! But he does not—love +me!' Her voice gathered strength. 'As for me, you shall know the whole +truth; you are right—I love him, for he is a most noble gentleman!'</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h2> + +<p class='center'>IN LOVE WITH HONOUR.</p> + + +<p>Révonde was drenched in a sudden and depressing thaw. From her crowned +ridges down to the swollen river rushing at her feet, she stood +shivering in a robe of clinging mist; yet the day was warm with the raw +deceptive closeness that chills to the bone and awakens the latent germs +of death.</p> + +<p>From the Hôtel du Chancelier the winter view over the bright, beautiful +city, glittering only yesterday in its winter bedizenment of frost and +snow, was changed. Streams of dirty water poured from the roofs, and in +the streets the miry snow sluiced slowly downhill or stuck on passing +boot-heels in treacherous pads.</p> + +<p>A thaw is demoralising; its penetrative power strikes deeper than +physical <i>malaise</i>. With the average man or woman it damps the spirits, +unstrings the will, and slackens the mental and moral fibre until +resistance of any kind becomes an effort. M. Selpdorf was in the habit +of saying that the rope by which the world swings is made up of the +strands of the days rather than of the fathoms of the years. He held +that no detail was too insignificant to be used as a factor in the +conduct of affairs; thus he habitually took everyday trifles into +account, since small items are apt to add up handsomely in the final +figure of any calculation. A man who says 'No' to-day may be won to +consent to-morrow under altered conditions of weather and diet. +Therefore the Chancellor, who had avoided his daughter since her return, +made choice of a dismal morning to bring his influence to bear upon her. +He relied a good deal upon Valerie's affection for himself, which was +strong and single-hearted. Moreover, he had trained her to the masculine +habit of taking a broad view, a bird's-eye view, of the whole of a given +subject, instead of turning the microscope of her emotions on any one +point, after the manner of women.</p> + +<p>Baron von Elmur was no longer young, but he was a personage and a figure +in the political world. By marrying him Valerie would place herself in a +position where her cleverness, her tact, and her beauty would be offered +a wide and splendid field of activity. Besides, so Selpdorf imagined, +she had no more favoured suitor.</p> + +<p>Valerie was sweet and proud and sensitive; her father gave her credit +for the two first qualities, but it probably would not have struck him +to use that last term in describing her. He forgot that, in spite of any +amount of masculine training, a woman remains always a woman at heart. +Had Valerie not met Rallywood, she might never have known as much about +herself as she discovered during her visit to Sagan; as matters stood, +however, the weak point in M. Selpdorf's theory was already under +strain. The Chancellor usually breakfasted alone with his daughter. She +was at once spirited and adaptable—adaptable enough to fall in with a +man's moods, and spirited enough to hold independent opinions, an ideal +combination in a comrade. Servants were rigorously excluded from the +room during the meal, that father and daughter might talk freely +together.</p> + +<p>'I have hardly seen you since you came back, Valerie. I have missed +you,' Selpdorf said as he turned away from the table and lit a +cigarette. 'I am hurried to-day, yet I must speak to you on a subject +that cannot be put off. One incident of your stay at the Castle has been +constantly in my mind.'</p> + +<p>'Yes, father.'</p> + +<p>The unconcern of her voice struck Selpdorf. Things were either about to +go unexpectedly well or else very badly.</p> + +<p>'Baron von Elmur tells me you yielded to my advice and his wishes. In +fact, you consented to an engagement.'</p> + +<p>'Oh, yes, for the time being.'</p> + +<p>'My dear girl,' he returned gravely, 'it has been publicly announced. It +was announced the same evening, I understand.'</p> + +<p>Valerie looked at him with a vague alarm in her eyes.</p> + +<p>'Only by an unlucky accident,' she replied. 'It was never intended to +be announced. Baron von Elmur assured me of that.'</p> + +<p>'I am sure von Elmur's intentions were most generous, but the fact +remains that it was made public. Valerie, you must be aware of his +feelings towards you?'</p> + +<p>Valerie came round the table and sat down beside her father, slipping +her hand caressingly through his arm.</p> + +<p>Selpdorf smiled down at her.</p> + +<p>'Valerie, I must ask you to consider not only your own share in this +question, but von Elmur's. It compromises Elmur no less than it +compromises you.'</p> + +<p>'I cannot carry out the engagement,' said the girl quietly.</p> + +<p>M. Selpdorf threw a great deal of surprise and disappointment into his +countenance.</p> + +<p>'I did not know you were so greatly prejudiced against him. But, +Valerie, we are honourable people, you and I, and we cannot allow Baron +von Elmur to suffer because we unluckily misunderstood one another.'</p> + +<p>Valerie grew very still, her fingers pressed upon her father's arm.</p> + +<p>'Nothing succeeds like success, and up to the present time von Elmur has +succeeded,' he went on. 'But a failure in a love affair places a man in +an absurd position, and to be laughed at means loss of prestige. +Wherever he is known the story will follow him. He has a brilliant +future before him, a future that it might be the pride of any woman to +share. I think, therefore, you will hesitate before you injure him by +giving way to a girlish and perhaps passing dislike.'</p> + +<p>'Father, I cannot!'</p> + +<p>Valerie's voice was always low pitched and had the mellow sweetness +peculiar to a contralto. But Selpdorf recognised a note in it now which +showed him that his wishes were very far from fulfilment. She was loyal +and steadfast, qualities that up to the present the Chancellor had found +very admirable in his daughter. It is a rare pleasure for men of his +type to be able to trust their womankind. In the case of his motherless +girl, the Chancellor had enjoyed this pleasure to the full. To-day for +the first time he found himself face to face with the less convenient +side of the girl's character. She was an eminently reasonable person, +and though she could stick to her point she never did so without cause. +Therefore Elmur's affair promised to be awkward.</p> + +<p>'What are your reasons?' he asked, after a pause.</p> + +<p>'I do not—like Baron von Elmur.'</p> + +<p>'That is unfortunate, but your dislike may be overcome when you know him +better.'</p> + +<p>'Oh, no!—never!'</p> + +<p>'Why not?'</p> + +<p>'Is it possible to explain a dislike?' asked Valerie rather petulantly.</p> + +<p>'No, perhaps not—for a woman,' said Selpdorf reflectively, 'but since +there is no other——' he waited, then putting his forefinger under his +chin, he raised her face and looked into it. 'Unless indeed you prefer +someone——'</p> + +<p>Her eyes, which met his with the clear direct glance they had not +inherited from himself, and her pale gravity dismayed him.</p> + +<p>'Speak, my dear child. This is a matter very near my heart,' he said +quietly.</p> + +<p>A tremulous smile came to Valerie's lips.</p> + +<p>'And near mine—or I should not oppose you, father.'</p> + +<p>Selpdorf pushed her away from him with a gentle hand.</p> + +<p>'You don't know what you are doing,' he said shortly, and gazed out with +undisguised chagrin into the mists that overhung Révonde. Presently he +stood up.</p> + +<p>'Well, well; it only goes to prove that the human element is a variable +quantity,' he remarked.</p> + +<p>'Am I only a human element in your plans? Am I no more than that to +you?' She put her hands upon his shoulder.</p> + +<p>M. Selpdorf drew her nearer and kissed her forehead.</p> + +<p>'You know what you are to me, Valerie. I had hoped to join our interests +in all things, but——' he turned to the door.</p> + +<p>'Father!' the girl cried, 'don't leave me like this. You don't +understand. I only knew by chance. He is too noble to——'</p> + +<p>'Ah!' Selpdorf recollected Elmur's phrase, 'There is always the +picturesque captain of the Guard.' He paused before speaking. 'Then this +noble individual does not propose to take my daughter from me +altogether—only to entangle her in a sentimental embarrassment?'</p> + +<p>'He made no claim upon me. He was compelled to—to speak—for my sake!'</p> + +<p>'I will not ask for further confidences to-day, Valerie. But think over +the whole of our conversation. I can trust you to be just, even to Baron +von Elmur.'</p> + +<p>M. Selpdorf knew that the longer an idea is brooded over, the harder it +becomes to part company with it. Therefore the forenoon was yet young +when von Elmur drove up to the Hôtel du Chancelier in reply to a +summons. The German plot was not yet at an end. By judicious +manipulation, Selpdorf had gleaned a dim knowledge of Counsellor's +errand from the Duke, who was as wax in his supple hands. Counsellor's +return had already become one day overdue, and Selpdorf took advantage +of the delay to infuse doubts and troubled surmises into the Duke's +wavering mind.</p> + +<p>He had recovered in some measure the royal confidence, and felt almost +certain that if the English proposals could be sufficiently delayed as +to seem to hang fire, he might still be able to persuade his master to +enter into some provisional arrangement with Germany.</p> + +<p>'You have not any definite news for me, after all,' Elmur remarked at +the end of ten minutes. 'I begin to believe the Count's declaration that +his Highness can only be driven into a reasonable treaty with us by——' +he stopped and sketched rapidly on the paper before him, 'by—in +fact—the flat of the sword, shall we say?'</p> + +<p>Selpdorf turned a look on his companion.</p> + +<p>'Could you trust Count Simon to put any man, and most of all the one +upon whose property he has a reversionary claim, in fear of death? And +further trust him not to put the threat into execution if provoked by +failure?'</p> + +<p>Elmur shrugged his shoulders.</p> + +<p>'We should have Duke Simon to deal with in that case, instead of Duke +Gustave.'</p> + +<p>M. Selpdorf's round forehead wrinkled slightly. He was apprehensive of +this new temper in Elmur. The Chancellor was too clever to be quite +honest, and too honest to be quite unflinching. A man, in fact, a little +weaker and a little stronger than his fellows. 'Then the Count's methods +still commend themselves to you, the miscarriage of the plan of Sagan +notwithstanding?' he asked with an invidious smile.</p> + +<p>'If his Highness can be brought into a complacent frame of mind as +regards our project to-day, and before the English proposals are laid +before him, I think we shall not need the methods of the Count,' Elmur +answered. 'Count Simon has undertaken to help us on the Frontier. Major +Counsellor will be detained under some pretext at Kofn Ford block-house, +and later you, Monsieur, who have so consummate a skill in covering the +mistakes of other people, will set this mistake right by a graceful +apology. The fat Major will arrive in Révonde behind time—that is all. +In the meanwhile, his despatches will be forwarded to you if you will +select a safe person to meet the Count's messenger beyond the river. +Later you can return them to Major Counsellor and score a point by the +act.'</p> + +<p>Selpdorf made no comment, but changed the subject. 'I have had a little +talk with my daughter.'</p> + +<p>Elmur laid down his pen and his impassive air became more marked than +ever.</p> + +<p>'Am I then to have the pleasure of an interview with Mademoiselle +to-day?' he inquired. 'I hope she exonerates me from any blame in +connection with the announcement made at Sagan?'</p> + +<p>'Entirely. But she is inclined to insist that her consent was +conditional—no more.'</p> + +<p>'I only desire the opportunity of assuring her of my entire devotion,' +said Elmur.</p> + +<p>'I do not fancy that she wrongs you, my dear Baron, by doubting that.'</p> + +<p>'There is then a difficulty on the part of Mademoiselle? It is +unfortunate.'</p> + +<p>'It can be overcome. She is still very young, and her imagination has +been touched. The Englishman, Captain Rallywood, has, as you once +remarked the knack of making himself picturesque, which appeals in fact +to the imagination. I am myself sensible of something of the kind when +dealing with him. Valerie imagines him to be quixotic.'</p> + +<p>'Has Mademoiselle said this?' Elmur was stiffening at every sentence. +Circumstances and not liking had put these two men on the same side, and +Selpdorf repaid Elmur's sneers at the helplessness of Maäsau with +sympathy for Elmur's position as a lover. No man likes to be pitied in +his love affairs.</p> + +<p>'No, no, my good friend, no name was mentioned. It may be more +convenient that I should never know it.'</p> + +<p>'Then you think she may be persuaded to alter her decision with regard +to me?'</p> + +<p>'I am certain of it.'</p> + +<p>'And what do you suggest shall be done with my—rival?' asked the German +with a sinister inflection of the voice.</p> + +<p>'We must break him.'</p> + +<p>'Will it not be possible to work in this small affair with Counsellor's +detention? Send Captain Rallywood to Kofn Ford to undertake the custody +of Major Counsellor. Of course, it will not be necessary for you to +mention the name of the person about whom your stupid Frontier officials +are to make so convenient a mistake. When Rallywood discovers the +identity of his prisoner, I fancy his honour will find the weight of +temptation put upon it too great. He also is in the English plot, +remember, and he will co-operate with his countryman. He will allow +Counsellor to escape. But by that time the Duke must have closed with +another ally.'</p> + +<p>Selpdorf comprehended that the German was playing his own game in a +double sense. He was, in fact, serving his own private interests and +also hustling Selpdorf along towards the German goal.</p> + +<p>'Then we shall have a court-martial,' said the Chancellor. 'Disgrace +will be more effectual than death itself in this case.'</p> + +<p>'Disgrace? ah, yes! But I know what would happen to Captain Rallywood in +my country.' Elmur's eyes had a gleam in them.</p> + +<p>'I am not so well informed. Our State is more elastic in its laws than +yours. I cannot foresee what will happen to him in mine!' replied +Selpdorf smiling.</p> + +<p>'There is but one thing that could happen to him under military law in +any country. He will be shot!' said Elmur pleasantly, then added with a +sudden uncontrolled irritation, 'And that too is picturesque.'</p> + +<p>The Chancellor spread out his hands.</p> + +<p>'What will you, my dear Baron? It is also conclusive. Besides, we shall +have gained our point. The fellow's breach of faith is our point. +Valerie will be disillusioned; for recollect, I pray you, that Valerie +is in love with honour.'</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2> + +<p class='center'>HOW RALLYWOOD HAD HIS ORDERS.</p> + + +<p>Unziar had already departed to the Frontier on a secret errand when +Rallywood started for the Chancellerie through the slush and fog. It was +yet early in the afternoon, and an hour when the Duke sometimes drove +out. As Rallywood trotted along the embankment by the river, he saw the +outriders of the Duke's carriage coming towards him.</p> + +<p>Gustave of Maäsau happened to be alone, and, to indulge the humour of +the moment, he beckoned the young man to the side of the carriage and +spoke a few words to him. He took a pleasure in the Englishman's frank +readiness.</p> + +<p>'I have to thank you for your energy in the matter of Colendorp,' he +began. 'We have, however, decided to leave the whole affair in abeyance +for the present. So M. Selpdorf has sent for you. What for?' he added +with the curiosity of an idle man.</p> + +<p>'I do not know, sire.'</p> + +<p>'Now I remember, he did mention something about—well, well, we have +worse enemies in the State than the Chancellor,' he wandered on, for he +had had an interview during the morning with Selpdorf, and was more than +half persuaded to place himself once more unreservedly under that able +direction. For Selpdorf had almost succeeded in lulling his suspicions, +and in luring him back to the old comfortable habit of believing in a +false peace. He half regretted the doubts he had lately entertained of +his Prime Minister, and was weakly willing to disabuse the Englishman's +mind of prejudice. He did not know that Rallywood was quite unaware of +Selpdorf's connection with the Sagan plot. 'The excellent Selpdorf is +unsparing of his agents,' went on the Duke in vague connection, 'but he +is also unsparing of himself. Therefore see that you obey him loyally. +For me, he does what he wills with me.' He laughed and raised his hand +by way of dismissal.</p> + +<p>Rallywood went on wondering what the Duke meant to convey by this praise +of his great Minister and in fact set many constructions on the empty +words.</p> + +<p>Selpdorf received him with an air of gravity, almost of restraint, +entirely unlike the debonnair interest he had shown in him on the +occasion of their last interview.</p> + +<p>'I have sent for you, Captain Rallywood,' he said after a moment's +consideration, 'to entrust to you a very delicate mission.'</p> + +<p>He ceased and waited for some response. He was standing opposite to +Rallywood on a white fur rug. The upstanding corners of his moustache, +his upright carriage, and the ineffaceable mark left upon him by his +short term of military service—for conscription obtains in Maäsau—had +their effect upon Rallywood. He picked out the soldier from the +chancellor and saluted in silence.</p> + +<p>Selpdorf smiled. Yet he wished the man had spoken! so much may be +deduced from a tone of voice. Did he guess how much Selpdorf knew of his +relations with Valerie? But there was nothing to be gathered from that +rigid front.</p> + +<p>'Before I give you any information, I must ask you first to say whether +you will serve his Highness or not?'</p> + +<p>'I have taken the oath, your excellency.'</p> + +<p>'Yes,' the Chancellor said dubiously, 'and an oath goes a long way but +sometimes not all the way. Has not some writer said that it is the man +that makes the oath believed, not the oath the man?'</p> + +<p>'I have taken the soldier's oath,' repeated Rallywood.</p> + +<p>But he had no protestation of fidelity to offer. It rested with Selpdorf +to choose the right man for his mission.</p> + +<p>If personal inclination had had any part in the Chancellor's plan of +life, it is certain he would have liked Rallywood. As it was, in +trusting he distrusted him. Rallywood could be relied on to follow a +straight path, he knew, but if it swerved from honour—what then?</p> + +<p>'Also I must remind you that a soldier should see no farther than the +point of his sword, and hear no more than his orders. In short, under +many circumstances he has no use for an independent judgment. He must +leave that to those whom he is pledged to obey and with whom rests the +ultimate responsibility. A soldier's single duty is blind obedience.'</p> + +<p>Rallywood bowed and continued to await his orders in silence.</p> + +<p>'That is well. I am about to send you to Kofn Ford, where you will meet +the midnight mail from the Frontier. At the foot of the mountain +incline, about half-way between the stations, the train will be stopped +and a person placed in your custody. You will take this person back with +you to the Ford block-house and keep him there until you receive orders +to bring him into Révonde. I especially charge you that no violence is +to be used, but he is not to be permitted to escape. The importance of +the duty which is entrusted to you cannot be too highly estimated.'</p> + +<p>This then was what the Duke meant. Rallywood was to place himself +unreservedly at the disposal of M. Selpdorf. Yet the preamble troubled +him. It seemed to be assumed that he might be tempted to evade his +orders.</p> + +<p>'I am to start at once, your Excellency?'</p> + +<p>'In half an hour.' Selpdorf's face cleared, something of his former +geniality returned to him. 'To-night, Captain Rallywood, the Duke has +need of a man. There are others I might have sent whose claims are +greater than yours, but you are my nominee to the ranks of the Guard, +and I would justify my choice. His Highness also is inclined to favour +you.'</p> + +<p>Selpdorf contemplated Rallywood kindly, as if prepared to be interested +in his answer. He was trying to draw something from the man, but +Rallywood only stood straighter and hugged his wooden silence closer. +Any reply he could make would give the advantage to Selpdorf. For the +present he himself held it. It is often so. The man who speaks ten words +has an advantage over the man who speaks a hundred.</p> + +<p>'I thank your Excellency,' he replied.</p> + +<p>'There is,' Selpdorf began again meditatively, as if permitting himself +the luxury of a little frankness before a trusted adherent, 'an end to +everything and a beginning. The line drawn between the new and the old +is never defined; the two overlap. We may regret the old, but since the +new is irresistible, the wise make the best of it.' He looked up with an +alert interest. 'In your own case, Captain Rallywood, you were not long +ago at the dividing line yourself; how has the new life treated you?'</p> + +<p>'Well!' said Rallywood as if flinging back a challenge.</p> + +<p>The Chancellor's round eyes met his.</p> + +<p>'Ah, I thought it would be so! You were half inclined that night to let +fortune go by you. You must mount her, man, not lead her by the bridle.'</p> + +<p>Then Rallywood broke silence.</p> + +<p>'I doubt, your Excellency, if she will carry me where I want to go, in +spite of hard riding,' he said.</p> + +<p>'That will depend upon yourself, I imagine. Good-day, Captain.'</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2> + +<p class='center'>ON THE FRONTIER.</p> + + +<p>The evening train was almost due.</p> + +<p>Upon the rise of a bare and windy ridge Rallywood sat on horseback +waiting. Man and horse seemed to be the only living things between the +horizons. From his point of vantage he looked out over the dim, +limitless marshes, north, south and west, and although the growing +darkness rendered the few features of the landscape even less +distinguishable than usual, his practiced eye passed from point to point +readily, for the flat map before him had been etched in upon his memory +by the slow-graving stylus of use.</p> + +<p>The night promised to be clear and starlit, for the tsa had risen to a +gale, and a sudden frost succeeding the thaw had already thrust its iron +fingers deep into the land. The cold was intense, and a raw wind, that +had blown across a continent and a sea, came down obliquely upon +Rallywood through a dip in the mountains. On one side the lines of the +railway track ran up a curving incline into the Kofn Hills, where, five +miles away at the bleak Frontier station, officials, imposingly +uniformed, parade the platforms, examine the baggage, and demand +passports in a manner calculated to impress the traveller with an idea +of the immense resources of the State of Maäsau. That is one part of +their duties. The other is slavish obedience. 'Do what you are ordered, +and the result will look after itself.' Such is the creed. The first +lesson taught them is that they must not hesitate, and they learn it +thoroughly. Westwards the line slipped away into the sweep of low ground +towards Alfau, the first stoppage on the way to Révonde.</p> + +<p>Rallywood drew his riding-cloak around him and settled down squarely +into the saddle. The desolate plains with the crying wind held the +loneliness of the damned. Occasionally a wolf howled in the distance, or +a wandering snipe cried as it lost itself among the stiffening reeds +about the swampy levels, and through all he could hear the hoarse roar +of the Kofn in flood, as it rushed down from its rocky bed, swollen with +the melted snows of yesterday. Another interval passed while the gray +outlook changed to black. Then a red light appeared as it were over the +edge of the world. Its coming afforded a certain break in the naked +whimpering solitude of the plain.</p> + +<p>Slowly it crept down the incline, for the engines of Maäsau, like +Belgian pistols, are not made for rough usage. Rallywood rode forward to +meet it, the tufts of grass crackling under his horse's feet. But +instead of slackening pace the chain of lighted carriages swept past +him, and, gathering speed, wound away into the desolate night.</p> + +<p>Rallywood looked after it with a sense of blankness. The Chancellor's +exordium and the Duke's remarks had rather primed him to a state of +expectation, and he felt as if he had been balked of he knew not what. +The green light contracted and died away into the gloom; then discontent +mastered him. In his restless mood he had grasped at the situation, +which had promised a stirring of the blood, but the train passed and +thrust him back with a hand that seemed almost palpable in the staleness +of ordinary life. When he left the Frontier he had left behind him the +old content, the humorous adaptability to circumstances which had once +been a main element of his character.</p> + +<p>Turning his horse's head due west he rode slowly beside the track, where +the metals had begun to gleam under the stars, and the wind drove behind +him as if driving him out into the waste. He rode on for five minutes. +Then he pulled up and listened. Through the whistling of the <i>tsa</i> and +the dull roar of the river, he fancied he had detected some other sound.</p> + +<p>Puzzled, he turned and rode back at a hand-gallop in the teeth of the +wind. As he rode, the noise became more distinct, and presently out of +the night something black and bulky came jolting painfully and slowly +down the slope of the railway track.</p> + +<p>As Rallywood drew rein alongside, he saw it was a single carriage, +unlighted and solitary, rolling aimlessly on towards the level ground +through the gloom.</p> + +<p>Gradually the pace slackened, and at last with a rheumatic jerk +backwards and forwards it came to a standstill. By this time also +Rallywood had perceived that it occupied the further set of rails, on +which the outgoing trains from Révonde travelled. And already the night +mail could not be far away.</p> + +<p>He dropped from his saddle and in a second was feeling for his matches, +while the horse fell to sniffing half-heartedly at the meagre herbage.</p> + +<p>Rallywood mounted the steps of the carriage, for the platforms in Maäsau +are very high, and turned the handle. Then, bending forward, he peered +into the interior, but through the dusk the seats seemed empty. +Rallywood stepped inside and lit a match. It sputtered in the frosty air +and flickered for a second from the route-maps under the musty racks to +the cushioned seats, and so downwards to a figure heaped on the +floor-rug by the opposite door.</p> + +<p>This wandering carriage had then one occupant. Also he gave signs of +life, for he grunted feebly in the dark as the match went out.</p> + +<p>Rallywood felt for the lamp above his head, for in Maäsau the trains are +lighted by oil lanterns let in over the doors. Finding it, he broke the +glass with the butt of his revolver and lit the wick; then he turned for +a closer examination of the man who had come to him in so strange a +manner. But the manner pointed to the fact that this must be the +prisoner he was told to hold at Kofn Ford until to-morrow. Politics are +apt to work out to curious issues in continental railways. Such things +have happened many times, though they are not often noised abroad. The +man lay with one arm thrown across the seat and his face buried in it. +He was a big man, and a fringe of white hair showed under the back of +his travelling cap above a crease of fleshy neck.</p> + +<p>'Counsellor!'</p> + +<p>For an instant Rallywood turned sick and his head felt light. He +remembered feeling the same sensation years before, when a heavy +opponent sat abruptly down on his chest in a football scrimmage. His +hands shook as he lifted the inert figure on to the cushions and scanned +the face, sticky and disfigured with blood. After forcing some brandy +from his flask down Counsellor's throat and unloosing his collar, +Rallywood opened the window wide to let the cold air blow in upon him, +and fired two shots from his revolver in rapid succession out into the +night. They must have help, for the down mail was already at Alfau.</p> + +<p>By this time, Counsellor, grunting and swearing, had got himself up on +his elbow and stared at the young man with vacant eyes.</p> + +<p>'Where the deuce have I got to? Is that you, John? By heaven, I +remember!' His fingers went groping weakly to his breast, then with a +groan he struggled to his feet. 'The ruffians have robbed me!'</p> + +<p>But the effort exhausted him; he sank back putting his hands to his +head.</p> + +<p>'I don't understand this. What has happened? John, where am I?'</p> + +<p>Rallywood explained hurriedly.</p> + +<p>'We're on the up line, Major. Have another pull at my flask, and see if +you can get to the Ford block-house. The night mail will be on us +directly. Ah, there are the men,' as a stolid sergeant thrust his +weather-beaten face in at the door.</p> + +<p>Rallywood gave the necessary orders rapidly, then turned to the Major.</p> + +<p>'Are you badly hurt? Do you think you can ride?' said he.</p> + +<p>'Ride! of course I can ride. How far is it to Révonde?'</p> + +<p>Rallywood put his arm round him, and helped him very tenderly from the +carriage.</p> + +<p>Counsellor stood up in the howling wind and looked about him into the +wild night.</p> + +<p>'I've had a nasty knock on the head, and I suppose they look to the +night mail to finish the business. Make haste, John! where's your horse? +Treachery's afoot to-night. I've lost my despatches—they robbed me of +them! But I'll beat them all yet! Give me your flask. How far is it to +Révonde?'</p> + +<p>The troopers had dispersed, some to warn the coming train, others to +arrange for the removal of the carriage from the track.</p> + +<p>Counsellor had his foot in the stirrup, and with difficulty Rallywood +got him up into the saddle.</p> + +<p>'Thirty miles, but you cannot ride there to-night,' answered Rallywood.</p> + +<p>'With your help I'll beat them yet, John! Thirty miles? I'll be there +before daylight! I can go by the stars once I find the road.'</p> + +<p>He stuck his heels into the horse's side, but Rallywood still held the +bridle.</p> + +<p>A wild gust tore round them, and in the succeeding lull Rallywood laid +his hand on the other man's knee.</p> + +<p>'Major Counsellor, you are my prisoner,' he said.</p> + +<p>'How's this, John?' the question came thin, pitiful and weak. A new +doubt, the old affection, and a strange helplessness mingled in the +words, and they cut deep into Rallywood's ears.</p> + +<p>'That was a bad knock on the head,' muttered the Major apologetically, +and sank forward on the horse's neck again unconscious.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h2> + +<p class='center'>A QUESTION OF TWO MORALITIES.</p> + + +<p>The road towards the block-house ran along the river bank past the Kofn +Ford. They went slowly on together through the starry windy night, +Rallywood with his hand on the bridle and the wounded man holding limply +to the saddle.</p> + +<p>The <i>tsa</i> raved and rocked in the pine trees, through the pauses of the +storm a wolf barked, and the black, tumbled water was still swelling and +gulping under the low stars. But the tumult of noises only served to +accentuate the hideous loneliness which is the salient characteristic of +the Frontier.</p> + +<p>Counsellor, with an unaccustomed warfare in his heart—rage and the pity +of it working together—stared into space across the leaping river.</p> + +<p>As the two men drew near the ford, they saw the dim figure of a horseman +riding down the bank on the opposite side, with the evident intention of +crossing. The approaches to the ford were flooded, for the angry water +fretted out its banks at such times and deepened into dangerous swirls +over the crossing-place.</p> + +<p>Rallywood checked the horse to shout and signal to the man that the ford +was impassable, but his voice was drowned by the harsh throated noises +of the night. Weak as was the starlight, something of the loose reckless +swing in the saddle told Rallywood that the rider was Anthony Unziar. +Unziar galloped down the stones of the incline and plunged into the +torrent. It was clear from where he took the water that he intended to +make for the little beach below the block-house. His course was marked +by a whitish rise in the water; now and then the watchers on the bank +lost sight of the struggling figure as a tree-trunk whirled past and hid +him, or he seemed to sink in some tormented eddy, but he came into view +again and always nearer. At the last moment, whether horse and man were +exhausted or whether a furious tangle of cross-currents caught them, +they were swung round and away from the landing-point.</p> + +<p>It was now evident that Unziar saw Rallywood, for in answer to the +latter's signs that he must make for the shallows lower down, Unziar +waved some object over his head as if to call attention to it. The suck +of the current was fast drawing him away, but with another strong effort +he got the horse's head round; they heard his faint shout upon the wind +then the words came more clearly:</p> + +<p>'Carry them on—Selpdorf!' He flung something forwards; the gale caught +and hurled it on to the rocks at Rallywood's feet.</p> + +<p>When they looked again Unziar had disappeared.</p> + +<p>Hurrying up to the block-house, Rallywood sent off some troopers to +Unziar's assistance; then with some difficulty got his prisoner, who was +stiff and dizzy, on his feet and supported him to the room where Madame +de Sagan and Valerie had rested on the night of the snow-storm.</p> + +<p>Rallywood did all that could be done for Counsellor, then he sat down at +the narrow table to face his position. The <i>tsa</i> battered at the little +window, and the camp-bed creaked under Counsellor's weight as he turned +and groaned upon it, while Rallywood sat with soul and body absorbed in +the consciousness that at last the time of which Counsellor had warned +him was come, the time when he should find his enemies dressed in red. +Under almost any other circumstances it would have been possible to +retire from the position with honour. Had war been declared between +England and Maäsau, he could have resigned his commission. But to-night +he found himself without any such means of escape, fast in the jaws of +the cleverly-contrived trap set for him by Selpdorf.</p> + +<p>But he scarcely yet knew the worst. Presently Counsellor spoke.</p> + +<p>'This thing has gone beyond a joke,' he said, 'What does it mean?' The +glance from under the overhanging gray brows had regained its fire.</p> + +<p>'My orders are simple enough. I am to keep you here until to-morrow +afternoon at three o'clock.'</p> + +<p>'By doing so you will ruin Maäsau as a free State and bring a most +serious defeat upon the British policy.' Counsellor's voice was +rasping. 'Are you prepared for that?'</p> + +<p>Both men were strenuous, and bred deep into the bone of each were the +same dominant qualities.</p> + +<p>'I am prepared to carry out my orders,' answered Rallywood; 'I had them +practically from the Duke himself.'</p> + +<p>'The Duke is of the same mind in which I found him at the Castle, though +he may be forced to dissemble,' asserted Counsellor; then with a twist +he sat up as his glance fell upon the square dark object lying on the +table between them. 'John Rallywood, do you know what that is?'</p> + +<p>'The despatches thrown to me by Unziar.'</p> + +<p>'That case is mine; it contains my private instructions; you can guess +something of their importance from the fact that I have been robbed of +them. You must give them back to me! As an Englishman and an honest man, +I call upon you to give them back to me.'</p> + +<p>Rallywood's long nervous fingers closed over the packet.</p> + +<p>'It is impossible!' he said. 'As an Englishman, yes, but as an honest +man, well, it—it is hard to say.'</p> + +<p>'Are you mad?' cried Counsellor.</p> + +<p>'I have not had long to think it out, and it is a tangled question,' +replied Rallywood wearily.</p> + +<p>'A tangled question? I take it you are first of all an Englishman?'</p> + +<p>'In my private capacity, and that deals with my private honour; but I +have undertaken another responsibility from which I cannot withdraw at +pleasure. I am a sworn soldier of Maäsau, and as such my public honour +has first claim.'</p> + +<p>It was a simple rendering of a tremendous problem, but it served for +Rallywood.</p> + +<p>'Then——' said Counsellor.</p> + +<p>There was a rush and a scuffle, but Rallywood was young and strong and +more active than the Major.</p> + +<p>'Confound you!' Counsellor fell back a step or two, breathing hard. +There are some situations which by their elemental force destroy all +other emotions. The situation at Kofn guard-house was one of these. The +point at issue between these two men pierced to the bed-rock of national +loyalty. Perhaps Blivinski was right. Love of country was part of their +physical equipment, yet by the irony of circumstances they were pitted +against each other.</p> + +<p>'Will you give me your parole?' asked Rallywood with his back to the +door.</p> + +<p>Counsellor drew out a big watch.</p> + +<p>'For fifteen minutes,' he said. 'It is now half-past nine; at forty-five +minutes past I shall hold myself once more free to do what I can. You +understand? In the meantime we will talk.'</p> + +<p>Rallywood motioned Counsellor back to the camp bed while he himself sat +down on the table.</p> + +<p>'I fancy, John, we are both rather in the dark about all this,' began +Counsellor. 'Tell me your story, and I'll tell you mine.'</p> + +<p>'My orders were clear enough,' Rallywood said. 'I was to take charge of +a prisoner, to be brought to me by the incoming mail at the spot where I +met you. You arrived queerly, I admit, rolling along the down line, but +you are undoubtedly the person of whom I was instructed to take charge.'</p> + +<p>'Ah—I begin to see. There may be many men in Maäsau who would rob me, +but there is only one man who could do it so clumsily.'</p> + +<p>'Count Sagan?'</p> + +<p>'Naturally. But to return, I left you at the Castle looking for +Colendorp; whether you found him or not does not come into this affair. +Perhaps he was in Sagan's way and he removed him——'</p> + +<p>'With a knife.'</p> + +<p>'That is quite in the Count's manner. Well, I got safely to England, +where my business took a day and a half longer than I expected. I +received my despatches, and five hundred miles from here I took the +precaution of removing them from my despatch-box. After we left the +Frontier station I noticed that our train had lost half its length, and +that I was in the last carriage. I didn't like it. It is never healthy +for a despatch-box to travel in an end compartment. That is tempting of +Fate.'</p> + +<p>Counsellor stopped as if to collect his thoughts again.</p> + +<p>'After a little the pace slackened and I felt a sharp jolt. They were +switching me on to the down line, an improvement upon the original plan +so like the Count's manner that it almost proves he must have been on +the spot superintending operations. Next it was a face at the window. I +used my revolver, but they stunned me and robbed me and left it to the +night mail to close my mouth for good. Now you know where you are, John +Rallywood; you are abetting a crime, and a crime against your own +country, against England!'</p> + +<p>Rallywood laughed, but a laugh against oneself has a bad sound with it.</p> + +<p>'It seems the day has come when I find my enemies dressed in red!' he +said.</p> + +<p>'Why, yes, if you choose to put it so. If you either carry these +despatches on for Unziar or remain to keep me prisoner, you play +Germany's game for her.'</p> + +<p>'Perhaps not,' suggested Rallywood. 'The Chancellor sent me here.'</p> + +<p>Counsellor's short angry grunt of derision surprised him.</p> + +<p>'Mademoiselle Valerie may be loyal, but Selpdorf is at the bottom of the +whole plot. Does he guess there is any bond of liking or interest +between you and his daughter? If so, he sent you here to break you! He +knew that between the conflicting claims of a man's public and private +honour lie shame and often death. Do you not see that amongst them they +are bent on ruining you? Just now, when I hoped all might be yours that +a man can ask for! Your Chicago cousin at Queen's Fain is dying and you +are his heir. Yet you are to be ruined—ruined by the hate of Elmur and +Sagan, and what are you to Selpdorf but a fly to be crushed whose +presence annoys him?'</p> + +<p>'Are you sure of this? His sending me to be witness of your +assassination fits in badly with the theory of his collusion.'</p> + +<p>'Perfectly; Sagan stultified the scheme, that was all. Selpdorf forgot +that Sagan is a wild beast who can only be fed with blood!' Counsellor +paused. 'The highway robbery with violence to which I have been +subjected is Sagan's bull-headed translation of Selpdorf's hint to +detain me. Thus, according to their calculations, before I can get to +Révonde the Duke will have been induced to lend himself to some other +course. It is not hard to read their tactics. They run on old lines. So +you see there is only one way out of it—you must help me, John.'</p> + +<p>What advice he might have offered to Rallywood as simple man to man +occupied no place in Counsellor's intentions. He was England's envoy as +opposed to her antagonists, and into the scale in her favour he meant to +throw the whole of his personal influence with Rallywood.</p> + +<p>Rallywood made a sign of dissent.</p> + +<p>'But surely you will not side with Sagan's party as against the Duke?' +urged Counsellor.</p> + +<p>'The Duke has been known to change his mind before now.'</p> + +<p>Counsellor bit savagely at his moustache. The minutes were flying.</p> + +<p>'I wonder if old Gustave has allowed himself to be humbugged yet once +more!' he said to himself. 'John, on which side do you suppose Valerie +Selpdorf would wish to see you?'</p> + +<p>'We need not mention her,' answered Rallywood stiffly.</p> + +<p>'What? Have you not spoken? Does she not know?'</p> + +<p>'She knows—yes, and others know too that I love her. But it is ended. +There is nothing more; there never can be now.'</p> + +<p>Counsellor put his hand to his head.</p> + +<p>'Will you help me? That after all is the question.'</p> + +<p>Rallywood looked down at him, and Counsellor fancied there was a shadow +of reproach in the glance.</p> + +<p>'For you that is the question, but for me there is another,' Rallywood +said deliberately. 'Until I can resign my oath to Maäsau, honour holds +me her sworn soldier.'</p> + +<p>'Of all things in the world what is so arbitrary as honour?' cried +Counsellor. 'Honour is a wild flower; God plants it, but man prunes it, +and the devil only can be responsible for the sports one sometimes meets +with. Well, go your own and the devil's way!' The Major turned +irritably round. 'In my creed a man's first duty is to his country.'</p> + +<p>'I wish I could see it so,' said Rallywood sadly. Then the hush of the +mighty battle fell upon the little room. The air was stifling to both, +for Counsellor knew what was in his companion's heart and even felt a +far-off pity for him, but no relenting. Rallywood's handsome brown face +had grown suddenly sharp and aged, and his gray eyes contracted to dark +points under their frowning lids. The man was looking on the wreck of +his life, and slowly coming to the conclusion that he must choose that +course which would add the defeat of the land he loved to his own ruin. +He would have died for England, happy in the sacrifice, but to lose all +in her despite was a bitter thing.</p> + +<p>'Time's up,' said the Major. 'You have one minute to give me your +decision.'</p> + +<p>'A soldier should see no further than the point of his sword,' replied +Rallywood. 'An oath stands between me and my desires. These despatches +may be yours, but you know how they have come into my charge. As long as +I am a soldier of Maäsau, my duty to her comes first of all. I cannot +let you go nor can I give up these despatches! Curse you!' a strong +flash of emotion breaking in upon the restraint of his speech, 'why have +you no sword? If you had killed me——'</p> + +<p>Counsellor put his watch back into his pocket.</p> + +<p>'A man's country should be his conscience,' said the old diplomatist, +as one who pronounces a definite and unassailable truth. Then he waited.</p> + +<p>Rallywood stood up.</p> + +<p>'I cannot argue,' he said, 'but Major, you will believe me when I say +that I see my duty plainly. I refuse!'</p> + +<p>'I have had a great regard for you,' replied Counsellor slowly, 'but if +you were my own son, by Heaven, I'd blow your brains out to-night! Give +me those despatches.'</p> + +<p>There was a rapid movement and the gleam of a pistol barrel in his hand.</p> + +<p>'Thank God!' It was not more than the faintest whisper from Rallywood as +he sprang at his companion.</p> + +<p>But there was no report, only an ominous click as Counsellor flung the +unloaded revolver in Rallywood's face with a bitter word.</p> + +<p>'It was not loaded.'</p> + +<p>Hardly had they closed when the door was opened and a couple of men +supported Unziar into the room. The water ran in streams from his +clothes to the floor, while he stood and stared at the two combatants +who had fallen apart.</p> + +<p>'I suppose they sent you to meet me, Rallywood,' he said in English; 'it +is lucky, for I'm done! You must carry those despatches on without +delay, for they must reach the Chancellor at the earliest possible +moment. Go; there is no time to lose!'</p> + +<p>Rallywood pointed to Counsellor.</p> + +<p>'This gentleman is my prisoner. You will keep him here until further +orders. Meantime I will ride on with these to Révonde.'</p> + +<p>Counsellor and Unziar remained together, but no word passed between them +till out in the windy night they heard the beat of hoofs as Rallywood +rode away on his mission.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2> + +<p class='center'>LOVE'S HANDICAP.</p> + + +<p>As Rallywood galloped steadily through the night under the shrinking +moon, with the <i>tsa</i> behind him and the pearl-grey road withering away +into the level distance ahead, it happened that the two women of whom he +must have had some thoughts during that lonely ride met and spoke +together.</p> + +<p>'Valerie, I called for you to go with me to the Abenfeldt's reception, +because I have a question to ask you,' began Isolde at once when the +door of the carriage was closed.</p> + +<p>The passing lamps shone varyingly upon their faces as they passed +through the lighted streets, and Madame de Sagan looked at her +companion.</p> + +<p>'Where is Captain Rallywood?' she added abruptly.</p> + +<p>His name had not passed between them since the interview at the +block-house.</p> + +<p>'I cannot tell you. I don't know,' said Valerie coldly.</p> + +<p>'Oh, my dear child, all is fair in love and war! Why be so dreadfully +cross with me still?'</p> + +<p>'Is it necessary to recur to the subject at all?'</p> + +<p>'Will you never forgive me, I wonder?'</p> + +<p>Valerie looked steadily back into the lovely face, where the underlying +spirit of mockery was transmuted into an innocent playfulness like a +child's.</p> + +<p>'On the contrary, I thank you.'</p> + +<p>'Why—for humbling him? Valerie, you are——'</p> + +<p>'Happy!' Valerie could not forego the very womanly triumph, 'very happy! +And you made me so.'</p> + +<p>'But,' said Isolde with some perplexity, 'you would have it that he did +not mean what he said.'</p> + +<p>In her heart she thought Valerie a great goose for making any such +disclaimer. Vanity has knowledge of no tongue whereby to interpret +pride.</p> + +<p>'No, but it showed me what he was.'</p> + +<p>'I wonder how Baron von Elmur would like to hear that his future wife +was not ashamed to declare her love for another man!' retorted Isolde.</p> + +<p>'I mean to tell him.'</p> + +<p>'No, no, Valerie, don't!' exclaimed Madame de Sagan, whose weakness +exuded very often in a sort of kind-heartedness, 'I should not tell him. +Such a confidence is apt to turn sour in a husband's memory. You may +trust me—I will keep your secret.' Valerie smiled scornfully.</p> + +<p>'But I can keep a secret! For instance, I want to hear where Captain +Rallywood is, because I know the Count hates him, and also,' she nodded +her head slowly, 'and also our dear friend Baron von Elmur.'</p> + +<p>Valerie was startled.</p> + +<p>'Baron von Elmur?' she repeated.</p> + +<p>'Oh, you quite mistake the matter. The ill-feeling has nothing to do +whatever with you or with me. The Count and von Elmur hate him on very +different grounds. Everything appears to interest men now-a-days but +ourselves!' she ended sadly.</p> + +<p>'Because he is English, perhaps?'</p> + +<p>'Well, yes, it has something to do with it. You remember that last night +at the Castle? I conclude it was Jack who spoiled their plans when Simon +and the Baron went to the Duke's apartments.'</p> + +<p>'The Count and Baron von Elmur together? What did they go for?'</p> + +<p>The question dried up the little stream of babble.</p> + +<p>'How should I know? But there was a fight—I'd back Jack against most +people! That is one reason I—liked him. We heard the shots, and though +I was horribly frightened I told you none of the particulars, yet I knew +all. Speak to me, Valerie! What are you thinking of?'</p> + +<p>Valerie had been rapidly going over in her mind the incidents Isolde had +alluded to. For the first time she understood. There had been a German +plot which she had helped to defeat, a plot to place Count Sagan at the +head of the State, and the price he was to pay was the freedom of +Maäsau. She must see her father before she slept and warn him of the +conspiracy, which although it had failed temporarily at the Castle of +Sagan was still in existence. She felt certain that her father knew +nothing of the German plot, nor of Sagan's bitter enmity against +himself, as proved by the attempt on her own life. Fears for her father, +for Rallywood, and for Maäsau crowded upon her, though she kept up an +appearance of composure that Isolde might not guess the importance of +the information she had given.</p> + +<p>'I was thinking of Captain Rallywood,' answered the girl at last, +offering the excuse Isolde would be most likely to accept as true. 'I +did not know he had so many enemies. But is he not in Révonde?'</p> + +<p>'No, he has not been at the barracks since yesterday afternoon. I sent +him an invitation. You never give me credit for sincerity, but I am +steady in my friendships. I do not mean to drop him because he talked +all that nonsense at Kofn Ford. You boasted about M. Selpdorf's +power—make him use it now to save Rallywood. I begin to believe that +you are really as cold as you pretend to be, Valerie, you care so +little! Whereas I, in spite of all that has happened, would serve him if +I could.'</p> + +<p>'I shall see my father when I return to-night, I promise you.'</p> + +<p>Isolde buttoned her glove thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>'You must be careful not to let him suspect that you have any especial +interest in Jack,' she said, 'for that would be merely an additional +reason for letting Rallywood—go.'</p> + +<p>Valerie could not misunderstand the euphemism.</p> + +<p>'Isolde, my father is not a savage!' she exclaimed.</p> + +<p>'Perhaps not,' said Madame de Sagan simply. 'He is, I know, a very +charming man in society, but my experience goes to show that every man +is a savage—<i>au fond</i>.'</p> + +<p>Words which embody the opinion of more women than one cares to number.</p> + +<p>It was three o'clock when an officer of the Guard, leaving the +wind-swept darkness of the country behind him, rode through the north +gate of Révonde into the vivid black and white perspectives of the city, +where close outside the brilliant line of electric lights night herself +seemed to stand incarnate, a jealous intensity of blackness.</p> + +<p>Rallywood had picked up Unziar's relays of horses at certain points, and +on the whole had made good time of the ride. Now he crossed the bridge +that lies opposite to the gate of the Palace, and mounted the curving +streets towards the Chancellerie.</p> + +<p>He swung from his horse at the foot of the broad flight of granite steps +under its overhanging portico as a carriage dashed up on the other side. +The high doors above were flung open and a roll of red cloth dropped +from step to step down to the pavement, a couple of footmen placing it +with the quick deftness of use until it reached the carriage.</p> + +<p>As she alighted Mademoiselle Selpdorf recognised the tall figure in the +travel-stained riding cloak.</p> + +<p>'Captain Rallywood, where have you come from?' she asked almost +involuntarily.</p> + +<p>'From the frontier, Mademoiselle.'</p> + +<p>'Will you give me your arm? What has happened? Has Major Counsellor +come back?' she whispered as they went up the steps.</p> + +<p>'He is at the Ford. He has met with an accident.'</p> + +<p>Valerie said no more, but as she entered the hall she read Rallywood's +face.</p> + +<p>'Has his Excellency returned?' she asked of an attendant. 'Then place +refreshments in the small library. Captain Rallywood, I will join you in +a few moments. M. Selpdorf will be home very soon. He is anxious to see +you.'</p> + +<p>It was a little necessary make believe before the numerous servants. How +far it deceived them may be faintly guessed when one considers anyone's +secrets in relation to anyone's servants.</p> + +<p>'Man designs his own game,' thought Rallywood as he followed the servant +into whose charge he was given, 'or he is forced to stand out and +circumstances play it for him. In the years all is one.'</p> + +<p>Whichever way the issue of this night's work turned, Maäsau and Valerie +must both pass from his life forever. The one supreme obstacle which +lurks always beside the mercenary's path had arisen to bar his advance +at last.</p> + +<p>Valerie opened the door softly. She was trembling and afraid, but she +would not be outdone in generosity by Rallywood. She had determined to +thank him for the words spoken at Kofn Ford, and to show him how +entirely she comprehended their chivalrous intention. But when her eyes +fell upon him all thought of self faded. He was standing midway between +the gleaming wine and glass of the side-table and the flickering glow of +the open stove, upright and stately as he ever appeared to her, but in +his new attitude her sharpened senses perceived a suggestion of +disheartenment and solitude.</p> + +<p>Swept away by the feeling of the moment, she crossed the room to his +side and laid her hand upon his arm.</p> + +<p>'What is it? Something has happened,' she said.</p> + +<p>Rallywood looked down at her. The beautiful eyes like starlit darkness, +her clear-hued loveliness, the soft dusky curls about her brow, her +girlish reserves and petulances, all her sweet unapproachable +personality enhanced to pain the knowledge that he was looking his last +upon them.</p> + +<p>'Nothing to distress you, Mademoiselle, because M. Selpdorf knows all +about it.'</p> + +<p>'Then tell me; I know so much already.'</p> + +<p>'I wish I could. But I think his Excellency might prefer to tell you +himself.'</p> + +<p>'Is it good news, then? Major Counsellor has succeeded? Then why are you +so sad?'</p> + +<p>'Sad, Mademoiselle?' he answered with a smile. 'Men often look sad when +they are only hungry and dog-tired.'</p> + +<p>'Then eat,' she said. 'Let me give you some wine.'</p> + +<p>She drew him to the table and poured out a glass of wine.</p> + +<p>'To the success of Maäsau and of England,' she said. Then touching it +with her lips in the graceful fashion of Maäsau, she handed it to him.</p> + +<p>'Hark! I think I hear my father arriving, and there is something I must +say to you before he comes.'</p> + +<p>She clasped her hands nervously, the bare shapely hands with their +gleaming rings, and Rallywood watched her and felt as if he were +dreaming.</p> + +<p>'Captain Rallywood, I want to thank you. I can never thank you enough +for that night at Kofn Ford. I understood—pray believe I understood +it—and I think you are the noblest gentleman alive!'</p> + +<p>Rallywood did not hesitate. There was one thing Valerie should know and +be certain of in the uncertain future.</p> + +<p>'Give me a moment, Mademoiselle,' he exclaimed, detaining her. 'I see +you do not quite understand. I could not expect you to understand. But +now—now that I am leaving Maäsau, I must tell you the truth. Perhaps +you will believe it some day. I am proud——'</p> + +<p>'I know it, and yet you—oh, say no more! For my sake you stooped to say +it. It was not true! But I knew that.'</p> + +<p>He took her hands between his own in a firm strong clasp.</p> + +<p>'Listen, Mademoiselle. It was true! Since first I saw you it has always +been true!'</p> + +<p>'I remember!' she said breathlessly. She could not help saying it.</p> + +<p>'Do you?' he answered; the temptation to wander a little was too sweet. +'You wore this cloak,' he touched it softly with his fingers, then laid +his hand over hers deliberately, in the quiet confident way in which he +did everything and which she had grown to love, 'and ever since I have +carried the glove you despised. And though this is my good-bye, I will +carry it—always.'</p> + +<p>'But—but——'</p> + +<p>'Oh, I don't ask you to believe me now,' he said bitterly. 'I am not +noble, Mademoiselle. I was only too proud to say I loved you that night, +as,' with another smile, 'I was only too proud not to say it before.'</p> + +<p>Valerie raised her face and her eyes were full of light.</p> + +<p>'Then it was true—thank God!'</p> + +<p>But Rallywood, though he saw the purpose of her speech, would not +understand its significance. He led her towards the door by which she +had entered.</p> + +<p>'You must go, Mademoiselle. I—dare not keep you with me longer. +Good-bye, and may God go with you, Valerie!'</p> + +<p>She stopped suddenly and kissed the hand that held hers.</p> + +<p>'I too am proud,' she whispered, and the door closed upon her.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2> + +<p class='center'>THE MAN OF THE HOUR.</p> + + +<p>'Selpdorf is the man of the hour,' Counsellor once said to Rallywood, +and the Major's sayings had a trick of lingering in the memory. With the +Chancellor then still remained the key to the situation. He was +implicated in the conspiracy, but he had less to gain and far more to +lose than the others. A dangerous condition and one possible of +development.</p> + +<p>All this passed in a flash through Rallywood's mind as the opposite door +opened to admit M. Selpdorf, who replied stiffly to Rallywood's bow.</p> + +<p>'I was not prepared to see you this evening,' began Selpdorf.</p> + +<p>'I have brought the despatches, your Excellency,' replied Rallywood, +taking the packet from his pocket but continuing to hold it in his hand.</p> + +<p>Selpdorf eyed him.</p> + +<p>'From whom?'</p> + +<p>'Lieutenant Unziar.'</p> + +<p>The affair was falling out in an unexpected manner. Selpdorf was a +student of human nature as all of his craft must be, and Rallywood +offered for his observation a character out of the common and hard for +a Maäsaun to read. How had he escaped from the dilemma in which he had +been so carefully placed? The Chancellor was curious to hear. The man +was an artist in the human passions.</p> + +<p>'From Lieutenant Unziar?' Selpdorf repeated tentatively. 'And your +prisoner? The man whom I ordered you to keep at the block-house?'</p> + +<p>The Chancellor half expected to hear that Counsellor was also in +Révonde, and that Rallywood with an unassuming but unspeakable +effrontery had called to explain his own view of the matter.</p> + +<p>'Unziar is with him—with Major Counsellor at Kofn Ford. Unziar was +unable to ride on at once after crossing the river, which is in flood. +Therefore I have come.'</p> + +<p>Was it possible Rallywood had merely shirked facing the difficulty in +this way? thought Selpdorf.</p> + +<p>'Ah, Major Counsellor? And these are the despatches?'</p> + +<p>'These are Major Counsellor's private despatches, which were stolen from +him within the frontier of Maäsau!' said Rallywood.</p> + +<p>Selpdorf's round eyes showed their lids in an odd flicker. The attack +was sudden. He brushed his moustache upwards with a thoughtful movement +of the finger and thumb, regarding Rallywood as he did so.</p> + +<p>'Then why have you brought them to me?' he said at last.</p> + +<p>'Because a soldier should see no further than the point of his sword, +your Excellency,' replied Rallywood slowly.</p> + +<p>'Good! And how do you come to know what the packet contains?'</p> + +<p>'The persons who robbed Major Counsellor did not even take the +precaution of placing it under another cover. He recognised it at the +block-house.'</p> + +<p>'It seems to me then that you had a decision to make at the +block-house?'</p> + +<p>'Yes,' said Rallywood simply.</p> + +<p>But it was not a subject to bear discussion.</p> + +<p>'As a soldier of Maäsau you decided rightly.' Selpdorf misjudged +Rallywood for the moment; it crossed his mind that this was a mercenary +after all and to be bought.</p> + +<p>'But as a man I now wish to resign my commission.'</p> + +<p>Selpdorf raised his brows.</p> + +<p>'But why? At the very moment when you have proved your faithfulness and +your zeal? When we owe you recognition of these high qualities?'</p> + +<p>'I want nothing, your Excellency, but to go out from this house a free +man,' returned Rallywood coldly.</p> + +<p>'Reconsider your words, Captain Rallywood.'</p> + +<p>'Even if other difficulties had not arisen,' went on Rallywood, 'I may +remind your Excellency that a soldier's oath does not cover robbery and +assassination.'</p> + +<p>Selpdorf was, and looked, astonished.</p> + +<p>'I don't understand you,' he said gravely. 'Pray tell me what you mean.'</p> + +<p>'I found Major Counsellor alone and unconscious in a single carriage +that had been sent rolling down the incline on the line where the +outgoing mail train could not fail to collide with it. The inference is +clear. Some one wished to make an end of him—in a railway accident. But +the plan was a curiously stupid one, for nothing could satisfactorily +explain Major Counsellor's presence there, since it was well known to +the British Legation in Révonde that he was entering, not leaving +Maäsau.'</p> + +<p>Selpdorf stood silent. Here was another ill-devised amendment born of +Count Sagan's blundering brain.</p> + +<p>'It is a very strange story,' he said at length. 'Had the train come in +collision with the carriage which you assert was on the down line——'</p> + +<p>'The troops from Kofn and the railway people at Alfau can prove that.'</p> + +<p>'The mail might have been derailed, with no one can tell what loss of +life.'</p> + +<p>'Count Simon holds life cheap,' said Rallywood. 'No life that stands in +his way can be safe. Not even the life of Mademoiselle Selpdorf!'</p> + +<p>The Chancellor was moved for once.</p> + +<p>'You are out of your senses!' he said sternly.</p> + +<p>'It is true!'</p> + +<p>Both men looked around. Valerie had entered.</p> + +<p>'Father, you must hear me before you—before you——'</p> + +<p>She glanced at Rallywood and stopped.</p> + +<p>'Go, Valerie; you have nothing to do with these things.'</p> + +<p>Selpdorf met her as she came towards him.</p> + +<p>'You must hear me to-night, father. You are mistaken; I have had a great +deal to do with them. I know all that Captain Rallywood has said to +you—yes, I had a right to know. For it was I who brought Major +Counsellor to the Duke's apartments at the Castle, because I knew there +was a plot against his Highness. But I did not know it was a German plot +in which Baron von Elmur was using Count Sagan. Oh, you must be on your +guard against them!'</p> + +<p>'Who has been frightening you with all this nonsense?' asked Selpdorf +with cold suspicion.</p> + +<p>'You don't understand me! Father, I know how Captain Colendorp died. I +saw it—the struggle and his fall over the cliff. Then I guessed his +Highness was in danger, and I went to warn him. Captain Rallywood, tell +my father of Count Sagan's visit to the Duke's rooms in the middle of +the night with Baron von Elmur. I—we, Isolde and I—heard the shots. +You do not know it, but there is a plot. Your life is not safe! Captain +Rallywood is right; no life that stands in Count Sagan's way is safe! +And you on whom the State depends—you who alone can uphold her +liberty—you are the first they will try to destroy! He hates you, else +why should he try to kill me?'</p> + +<p>She was clinging to his arm.</p> + +<p>'To kill you? If I thought that was true—if I could believe he meant to +injure you——'</p> + +<p>It added very much to Selpdorf's difficulties that he had a conscience +and a heart. Perhaps Valerie had kept both awake. He, who acted a part +to all the world, had been sedulous to maintain a high <i>rôle</i> before his +daughter. Perhaps he valued her absolute faith in him even more than her +love, which is a commoner attitude of mind than we realise.</p> + +<p>He felt himself at fault. Although he had heard no details to enable him +to judge for himself, yet he knew he could rely upon Valerie's statement +that an attempt had been made upon her life. Count Simon's +unscrupulousness was an old tale, but this crime was not only +cold-blooded but also extraordinarily stupid, since the faintest +suspicion of foul play would finally estrange the one person in all +Maäsau whose help was necessary to the success of his plans and hopes. +It is to be doubted whether the Count's ineptitude did not disgust the +Chancellor more thoroughly than his treachery towards Valerie.</p> + +<p>Selpdorf was at no time a man who made up his mind irrevocably. +Astuteness sometimes keeps step with uncertainty. To a clever man so +many sides of a question are visible. On all counts he was now prepared +to yield to Valerie's wishes; perhaps looking ahead even in that +moment, he saw a fresh combination before him, which, while quite +equally safe and useful to himself, omitted Count Sagan.</p> + +<p>The Chancellor raised his eyes. At this moment—diplomatically—he was +superb. He had an air of sagacious decision, an air of holding a +master-stroke in reserve, whereas he was in reality merely retiring to a +negative position to wait upon events.</p> + +<p>'Tell me the story,' he said.</p> + +<p>'There is nothing further to tell,' replied Rallywood. 'Mademoiselle has +given you the main facts. But for her Maäsau would to-day be a province +of Germany, in fact if not in name.</p> + +<p>'I have been misinformed and deceived in an incomprehensible manner,' +the Chancellor said emphatically. There was still the matter of +Counsellor's despatches. Nothing was now to be gained by keeping them, +whereas by giving them back to the old diplomatist, Maäsau was sure to +profit for the time at least. The difficulty was to get rid of the +packet without loss of prestige to himself. 'Now as to Major +Counsellor's despatches,' he added doubtfully.</p> + +<p>'You will send them back to him,' said Valerie eagerly.</p> + +<p>'You cannot see the difficulty of my position.' The Chancellor laid his +hand upon her shoulder. 'To be frank with you, and in confidence, +Captain Rallywood, I have not been ignorant that an understanding +existed between Count Sagan and the Baron von Elmur. I have even been +obliged to countenance it to a certain extent. As you know, they are +aware that these despatches have been sent to me. If I use them as my +daughter suggests, I need scarcely point out that trouble must ensue, +since I, more or less, represent Maäsau. Now we cannot afford to offend +Germany. She only awaits a pretext to hurl down her army of occupation +upon us. Had I never had those despatches the way might have been +easier.'</p> + +<p>His glance at Rallywood held a large reproach.</p> + +<p>'But, father, in honesty and justice'—</p> + +<p>'It is a case of private justice as opposed to national necessity. If +Captain Rallywood had sacrificed his public to his private honour, if he +had chosen to prefer his country's cause to his oath of fealty——'</p> + +<p>Rallywood understood.</p> + +<p>'No one knows I am here,' he said.</p> + +<p>'Ah, true!'</p> + +<p>'No one need ever know where the despatches have been. In four hours +they shall be with Major Counsellor at the British Legation.'</p> + +<p>'If you, Captain Rallywood, will bear the whole responsibility that +would simplify the matter. Otherwise it is war.' Selpdorf looked +meaningly at Rallywood as he spoke.</p> + +<p>But Valerie was not deceived.</p> + +<p>'Not that! not that!' she cried.</p> + +<p>'It must be that or nothing.' Selpdorf did not look at her and he spoke +almost brusquely.</p> + +<p>'I know what it means. They will say he was false to his oath! Oh, +father, is there no other way? I cannot let him go!'</p> + +<p>Rallywood's face changed. Fate was crushing her two strange gifts into +his hands, love and death at the same moment! He crossed to Valerie's +side, and drawing her to him his gray eyes looked their courage and +their happiness into hers.</p> + +<p>'My darling, this makes it easy, whatever comes!'</p> + +<p>'It may be death! It will be death!' He winced at the low agonised +whisper.</p> + +<p>She turned to her father.</p> + +<p>'Father, you have the power to do anything you please in Maäsau. You +will save him for me! You can save him! Promise me that or I cannot let +him go!'</p> + +<p>Selpdorf was touched. He liked Rallywood. There was much in the +single-hearted soldier that appealed to his sympathies. But——</p> + +<p>'I will not deceive you, Valerie, at such a time as this,' he answered +gently; 'I cannot foresee what may happen. I may not be able to prevent +the worst. Captain Rallywood holds the despatches. He offers to +sacrifice himself for the State, and the decision rests with you.'</p> + +<p>Valerie buried her face in her hands. The clock moved noiselessly on and +on, and the very air seemed to throb in the silence. Then the girl +raised her head and looked steadily at Rallywood.</p> + +<p>'It would not be love if I said otherwise. You would not love me if I +said otherwise. You must go, John!'</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2> + +<p class='center'>THE ARREST.</p> + + +<p>By the following evening tongues were busy in Révonde. Rumour and +mystery and an absence of any definite information added zest to the +town talk. The broken reports were curious.</p> + +<p>Major Counsellor had fallen down the staircase at the British Legation +and injured his head, his brow being much contused. His return to +Révonde was explained on the ground that Germany and England had joined +forces in compelling Selpdorf to lessen the heavy taxation with which +Maäsau was burdened. Count Sagan had been seen in the city with a +lowering face—ah, yes! it was well known he had a most patriotic +distrust of German interference. Madame de Sagan had quarreled with her +husband because she had insisted on helping Mademoiselle Selpdorf, who +was about to be married to Baron von Elmur, in the choice of her +trousseau. Some excitement was being caused in the Guards' barracks by +the case of Captain Rallywood, whom Count Sagan accused of using his +influence unduly with his brother-officers to forward the projects of +Germany. Some even went so far as to say that he was in arrest, and +others were found who shook their heads and laughed, professing to be +aware of a yet deeper reason for the colonel-in-chief's animosity +against the English captain.</p> + +<p>Out of all this chaff the one grain of truth was that Counsellor, +released by Unziar on the authority of a telegram from Rallywood, had +arrived by the first train in the morning and had at once proceeded to +the British Legation. There he found Rallywood waiting for him. 'You +have seen the Chancellor?' asked Counsellor, looking hard at Rallywood, +whose brown face wore a look he had never seen upon it before. 'Why was +I released? Am I already too late?'</p> + +<p>'No, you are not too late. You must see the Duke at once. Here are your +despatches. Good-bye, Major, I'll meet you presently.'</p> + +<p>'I shall not in all probability see Duke Gustave again. My part is over +and done with. The world, my dear John, never sees a national policy +until it begins to fly. There is no credit for hatching the egg. One +would almost think it hatched of itself. Occasionally the egg is found +to be addled, and then the old birds make away with it in private. But +don't go yet. How have you managed to keep these? What does it mean?'</p> + +<p>'It means principally that you must forget you have been robbed, that +Elmur's game is up, and that you were mistaken in your opinion of the +Chancellor.'</p> + +<p>Counsellor looked hurriedly through the papers contained in the packet, +'John,' he said suddenly, as he folded up a small sheet of cypher notes, +'you are an infernal liar.'</p> + +<p>Rallywood laughed and his spurs jingled as he left the room, glad to +have escaped so cheaply from Counsellor's keen observation. The old +Major went to the window and watched him ride away in the sunshine, a +gallant figure in his glittering uniform, sitting squarely on his big +bay charger. No suspicion crossed his thoughts that Rallywood was +probably taking his last ride through the sunny streets, that at every +stride of his high-stepping horse he drew nearer to the final scene of +all. He had gathered from Rallywood's bearing that the difficulties in +his path had somehow been surmounted. Rallywood was capable. He had won +the day by energy or pluck or both, but the old diplomatist had no time +at the moment to trouble his head as to the exact means.</p> + +<p>Before the forenoon was over Counsellor, acting through the proper +channels, secured Maäsau's acceptance of the British proposals, and a +satisfactory undertaking which excluded all rivals from the field, at +any rate during the Duke's lifetime. Counsellor did not appear in the +negotiations. He remained shut up at the Legation, but when at length +they came to public knowledge the German party were not under any +delusion; they recognised to whose direct offices they owed defeat.</p> + +<p>Baron von Elmur said nothing, as a matter of fact he did nothing, but +he used his influence with an effect that was yet to bear fruit. He was +inclined to suspect Selpdorf, but the Chancellor proved that he had only +carried out the German's own suggestion in sending Rallywood to the +Frontier. Ill-luck, he argued, combined with Sagan's blundering, had +done the rest. He deplored it. It was clear that Rallywood, taking +advantage of his position, and under pretence of carrying the despatches +to the Chancellor had simply gone to Révonde and wired to Unziar a false +order of release for Major Counsellor. The sole delinquent was +Rallywood, and the Count in a torrent of curses promised himself a time +of reckoning.</p> + +<p>The day, which had begun in a brief burst of sunshine, closed in clouds. +Evening climbed sullenly up out of the bleak river.</p> + +<p>Traffic died in the streets, and the cloaked troopers passing hither and +thither against the rising tsa became the chief objects to be seen as +night gathered.</p> + +<p>Rallywood stood at the side window of his quarters looking out over the +twinkling city. He seemed to have had as yet no time for regret or +gloomy anticipation. He had dwelt absorbed on the single fact that +Valerie loved him. He was ready to sacrifice himself and his hopes with +a smile. Later on, in sorrow and heaviness of heart, he accused himself +bitterly of spoiling Valerie's young life. But he had not reached that +stage yet; he was lingering in the first transient period when men and +women see visions and dream dreams, when the present is lost in the +recent past, while love's first spell is laid upon them, and the light +that never was on land or sea blinds them to the chances and changes of +common life. As long as the glory of it lasts a man is caught up into +the seventh heaven, and the things of earth have no power over him.</p> + +<p>But the breaking of the vision came to Rallywood sufficiently quickly. +His view of the lamp-lit city grew suddenly blurred and he saw instead +his own reflection in the polished glass, as the lights were turned on +in the room behind him. In that same instant too the vague sweet outlook +faded from his mind.</p> + +<p>Then a hand was laid upon his shoulder and he saw another figure +mirrored beside his own against the dark background of the night. There +was a suggestion of reluctance in Unziar's movements.</p> + +<p>'I regret, Captain Rallywood, that I have been ordered to place you in +arrest.'</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2> + +<p class='center'>THE COURT-MARTIAL.</p> + + +<p>It has been the privilege of one or two famous Gardes du Corps to be a +law unto themselves. The Guard of Maäsau shares that privilege. The +inquiry or rather trial was to be held within closed doors, and by the +express order of the colonel-in-chief all the officers, including those +junior to the prisoner, were to be present. And every officer present on +such occasions had the right to vote. The procedure was simple. When the +witnesses had been examined the accused was invited to speak in his own +defence, then the senior officer summed up and lastly the officers +recorded their votes.</p> + +<p>Rallywood's offence had outraged the fundamental principle of the Guard, +the blind self-sacrificing obedience which in trivial as in vital +matters demanded the merging of the private individual with hopes and +conscience of his own into the body corporate of the Guard. With the +single exception of Unziar, no man present was acquainted with the +details of Rallywood's crime. They knew only that he had grossly +disobeyed orders, and not only that, but had disobeyed them for the +furtherance of private ambition. So the charge against him intimated. It +was understood that the accusation had been lodged by Count Sagan in +consequence of information received by him, and the court-martial at +once assembled to deal with the matter.</p> + +<p>The original prejudice against Rallywood as a foreigner and an +interloper was revived, with all the more bitterness because the men had +in the interval come to respect if not to like him. They resented the +deception they believed to have been practised upon them with the +rancour of those who find they have not only been played upon but made +tools of. Rallywood had gained his position among them by false +pretences to serve his own ends—gained it to betray them.</p> + +<p>But more than this, he had dishonoured the Guard, brought the first blot +of treachery upon its long and unblemished traditions. Hereditary +instincts inbred and powerful were arrayed against him in the hearts of +six of his judges; in the seventh, Count Sagan, he had to encounter the +ill-blood of a profoundly vindictive nature whose purposes he had +crossed and baffled, and who harboured towards him a savage personal +hatred.</p> + +<p>It must be understood that so far no hint of the arrangement with +England had been allowed to transpire. The engagement to be given by +Maäsau in return for the promised British loan and moral support was in +train for completion, but the final signature was not to take place till +that afternoon. Meantime the Chancellor kept a still tongue in his head +and waited upon events, knowing that when all transpired the +responsibility could be shifted on to the shoulders of the Duke. It was +a risky game, but M. Selpdorf had played many another—and won them all. +At the same time he had no intention of putting out his hand to save +Rallywood, whose disappearance from the scheme of earthly affairs would +remove an awkward cause of disagreement from the range of his own family +circle. Yet it must be admitted that M. Selpdorf really regretted that +the necessities of the case required the sacrifice of the Englishman, +for whom his former abstract liking remained entirely unaltered.</p> + +<p>The doors of the great mess-room were closed, for within them the +court-martial was in progress. At the central table seven men with the +marks of power upon them were gathered. Above them the torn banners of +the regiment hung in the red gloom of the dome, but about the men +themselves the gray-white light of a winter day fell from the riverward +windows. It seemed to dull even the red glow of the hangings, that cold +light, which lent to the faces of those assembled a strange effect of +pallor.</p> + +<p>It is a common experience that silence in a place associated in the mind +with voices and the movement and sounds of life has a weird and +impressive effect. Enter an empty church and you are chilled; hear a +will read in the room which you connect with laughter and the genial +routine of everyday events, and the uncanny quiet, falling away from the +single voice, benumbs you. Thus in the mess-room, where music and +laughter and the hubbub of men's talking usually resounded, the unwonted +stillness, broken only by the piercing wail of the <i>tsa</i>, struck coldly +and heavily upon the senses.</p> + +<p>Count Sagan, his big chest covered with gold-lace and orders, loomed at +the head of the table, Wallenloup and Ulm to his right and left, Adiron, +Unziar, Adolf and Varanheim seated according to their rank. At the foot +of the table in the uniform of the Guard but without a sword stood the +prisoner.</p> + +<p>One man present was a complete stranger to Rallywood—Major Ulm, who had +just returned from leave, and whose keen eyes set in a thin shaven face +scrutinised him coldly. Behind Ulm's bald forehead dwelt most of the +sagacity and discretion of the Guard. Strongly as his prejudices were +excited he could not avoid being struck by the bearing of the prisoner.</p> + +<p>There was a cold fierceness about the men of the Guard, but Rallywood +stood unmoved under the many hostile eyes.</p> + +<p>A court-martial, where the prisoner is condemned, is perhaps the most +awful scene of justice upon earth. This is so because it contains within +itself elements that edge its painfulness. The judges wield not only the +power of death, but the power of putting a man to utter shame. The +prisoners who stand at such a tribunal may be credited with the +capability, given to them by training if not by nature, of feeling +shame. And the capability of suffering shame is as distinct a quality as +the sense of honour.</p> + +<p>Count Sagan glared round the table, and the aspect of his colleagues +pleased him; they felt under his rough imagination like a sword whose +temper the fighter is sure of. There was a horrible energy, a furious +relentlessness about his very attitude and ringing in his voice that +drove every word of his accusation into and through his hearers. As +president he put questions to the prisoner, who answered them unmoved.</p> + +<p>Rallywood fronted them calm and soldierlike, the picture of a gallant +despair. He felt as though he stood clear of his life. It was lived and +the end in sight. His position was hard, but he seemed to be ready to +say Amen to whatever the fates might send. He had no thought of +struggling for life and love. He was far otherwise. He was one whose +love is hopeless, whose loved one is lost as though in death, and who +lives through the present dream according to an ideal, the ideal of +being worthy of the vanished past.</p> + +<p>Unziar alone looked stonily blank, but the other grim faces round the +table regarded Rallywood with a sort of satisfaction. He had sinned +against them, but they were about to make him pay the highest human +penalty for his sin. Yet to Ulm his demeanour was suggestive. There was +something eloquent of singleness of heart and nobleness that seemed to +buoy up this man with his broken honour. There was no parade of +outraged innocence, nothing but a fearless reserve.</p> + +<p>Rallywood hardly heard the grave voices that discussed his fate, +stirring as they did so the clogging quiet which hung with such solemn +effect over the historic room.</p> + +<p>Those lofty walls had never before echoed to a similar charge or a like +disgrace. The accusation was set forth in general terms. It spoke only +of a certain prisoner and certain despatches. Rallywood acting under +valid orders, had taken over the despatches from Unziar, and next by a +false telegram to Unziar had ordered the release of a certain prisoner. +Also he had used the despatches to forward aims of his own, to the loss +and detriment of the Free State of Maäsau. Anthony Unziar gave his +evidence briefly and with caution, but it was conclusive.</p> + +<p>After the charge had been completed and proved, a few minutes silence +ensued. Then Count Sagan addressed the prisoner.</p> + +<p>'Captain Rallywood, have you anything to say in your own defence?'</p> + +<p>A sudden jarring sense of amusement struck upon Rallywood. They were +playing a farce; Count Simon, with his mortal enmity, was but acting his +part. The whole procedure was hollow yet he Rallywood would have to give +his life to prove that all this seeming was deadly earnest—that the +blustering traitor opposite was not a defeated schemer but a loyal son +of Maäsau!</p> + +<p>Rallywood could not repress a quick smile.</p> + +<p>Count Simon flung his fist upon the table.</p> + +<p>'Do you hear me?' he shouted; 'what have you to say in your defence?'</p> + +<p>Rallywood looked him in the eyes.</p> + +<p>'Nothing,' he said.</p> + +<p>There was a hush. Sagan picked up the glances of the officers round him. +Rallywood's words had come as a shock. Most of the men expected some +attempt if not at a defence at least at a justification of his conduct.</p> + +<p>Sagan's harsh voice was raised again.</p> + +<p>'His sword.'</p> + +<p>Unziar sprang up hurriedly.</p> + +<p>'It is in the ante-room,' he said; 'I will bring it.'</p> + +<p>Sagan rose from his place as Unziar returned with a naked sword in his +hand. The Count took it and laid it on the table before him.</p> + +<p>Then standing he addressed the court.</p> + +<p>'Gentlemen of the Guard,—I must thank you in the first place for the +admirable patience with which you have listened to the details of the +abominable crime with which the prisoner, John Rallywood, is charged. +His guilt has been proved up to the hilt by Lieutenant Unziar's +evidence, but in addition to that the accused was not ashamed to convict +himself out of his own mouth. The sentence upon a traitor as upon a +mutinous soldier is unalterable. It is death! No doubt, gentlemen, we +are unanimously agreed upon that, and the formality of the ballot is all +that is left.'</p> + +<p>The ballot-box stood upon a side-table at the upper end of the room, and +beside it a basket with a number of ivory balls, some black, some white. +The officers went up in rotation and each with his back to the company +placed a ball of the colour he chose in the ballot-box.</p> + +<p>The haggard daylight was fading slowly as the men left their chairs and +returned to them in silence.</p> + +<p>Rallywood waited, not in suspense indeed, but with the full sense that +his fate was being legally recorded by a jury of his fellows. It is at +such a moment as this that a man goes back to his belief in God. If +there is no God, to what end anything? Those who say there is no God say +the world is a sad and very evil place. If their creed were universally +accepted, the last state of humanity would be worse than the first, and +earth degenerate into a hopeless and helpless hell.</p> + +<p>'Six black balls, one white,' announced Major Ulm.</p> + +<p>The prisoner's gray frank eyes flashed out at Unziar, but the Maäsaun's +rigid face gave no sign.</p> + +<p>Then Count Sagan, secure of his enemy, let himself go. He lifted the +sword from the table, and casting one more glance at the prisoner, he +placed the gleaming point upon the floor, bending the delicate blade, +and stamping upon it midway with his booted heel. There was a shallow +ring as the steel broke, then a clash of metal as the Count flung the +hilt upon the point, as if the touch contaminated him.</p> + +<p>'John Rallywood, this court has found you guilty and condemned you to +die! And I, Count Simon of Sagan, colonel-in-chief of the Guard of +Maäsau, now pronounce upon you the sentence of death. Trusted by the +Guard, you chose to betray them! Where is the oath of fealty by which +you swore to obey? We are polluted by your treason, we are tainted by +your shame! Are you afraid to speak? Is your voice frozen in your +throat? The greater part of your punishment should be in its shame. But +you cannot feel it! You and shame are strangers—the last infamy of the +base! You are loathsome, a mercenary false to his salt, a hound who sold +himself for money first and for disgraceful gain afterwards! How can I +touch you? Where can I prod you? On what nerve, since the nerve of shame +is dead? Like the groom, one could only punish you with a whip. I shall +lay the matter before the Duke. I will urge it upon my colleagues,' he +swept his arm round the table; 'a hundred with the whip or to run the +gauntlet of the Guard. That would touch you more than words, or shame, +or death! Ha, that reaches you!' he cried, and then there was a fierce +exultation in the raucous volleying words, 'You have disgraced the Guard +but we cannot for reasons of state publicly disgrace you. But you shall +be shot—shot like a dog! You shall not meet death face to face as many +a brave man has met it, but you shall be shot, cringing with your back +to the gun-muzzles—like the cur you are!'</p> + +<p>Rallywood's pale features had flushed for a second. There was a +brutality about Sagan's denunciations which shocked the men around him. +Rallywood deserved something, but not this, not that! Unziar's eyes +burned, Wallenloup was frowning. But Sagan swept on. He was a man who +trampled horribly upon a fallen foe.</p> + +<p>At last Wallenloup could bear it no longer. He rose to his feet and +saluting the Count led the way from the room, the line closing with +Rallywood between Adolf and Unziar as guard.</p> + +<p>Left alone in the great dim vaulted chamber, Sagan stood upright and +watched the door through which they had filed out, and there came upon +him in the dying daylight a terrible moment, such as all uncontrolled +natures must at times know. A sense of the futility of all things, a +knowledge that life has lost its taste, the hideousness of finally +baffled desire.</p> + +<p>He hurled out his heavy arms with a wild gesture.</p> + +<p>'Where have they gone? Where are they, the strong lusts and hates and +triumphs—the satisfactions of the old days? The world has grown puny. +It is empty, empty, empty!'</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX.</h2> + +<p class='center'>'UPON THE GREAT WORLD'S ALTAR-STAIRS.'</p> + + +<p>It is a commonplace that selfish natures, balked of gratification, seek +relief in making the unhappiness of others, preferably of those who are +helpless to resist or to resent. Therefore Count Sagan employed the +interval before going to the Palace to procure the signature of the Duke +to Rallywood's death-warrant in paying a flying visit to his wife, whom +he had not seen since the morning of the boar-hunt at the Castle.</p> + +<p>He found several other people calling upon Madame de Sagan, who was not +fond of solitude. Numbers gave the pretty Countess courage. She took no +notice of her husband's entrance, although the soft colour left her face +instantly as a candle-flame is blown out. But Count Simon had only five +minutes to spare and something to say in them. Isolde's feeble rebellion +escaped him; he strode to her side, and with a single glance dispersed +the little coterie of guests about her, the only one who kept his +position being Baron von Elmur.</p> + +<p>Sagan stood before his wife, an evil smile on his coarse bearded mouth. +He nodded at Elmur.</p> + +<p>'I have news of interest for both of you.'</p> + +<p>'Ah! it is over then?' Elmur asked at once. He discerned the Count's +intention and would have averted its fulfilment if possible. The thought +that he was about to make a woman unhappy never deterred Elmur from any +course of action whatsoever, but he preferred not to see them so. He +delighted in pretty women, and Isolde of Sagan was exceptionally pretty; +therefore, for the sake of the next half hour of her society he would +have spared her the tidings her husband's malice designed to thrust upon +her in public. Afterwards the deluge might come, but what matter? Have +we not all our deluges in private that submerge our world in tears? +'Madame has kindly promised to assist in the <i>tableaux vivants</i> next +week,' he added hastily.</p> + +<p>The Count grinned his contempt.</p> + +<p>'You should reproduce the death of a traitor. Come to see Rallywood shot +in the morning by way of an object lesson.'</p> + +<p>Madame de Sagan's hand flew to her throat with a quick gasp of horror; +for a second the room seemed to swing round, then slowly settle again.</p> + +<p>'Why, what has he done?' she asked; her lips were dry but she spoke +deliberately.</p> + +<p>'Nothing new, only he happened to be found out this time. Well, au +revoir!'</p> + +<p>Elmur stood up and followed him.</p> + +<p>'The signature of his Highness?' he asked in a low voice.</p> + +<p>'I go to get it and other things also. I have arranged the interview +with Selpdorf.'</p> + +<p>Elmur bowed and returned to his place by the side of the Countess. +Isolde's blue eyes, dewy as a child's with unshed tears, appealed to +him.</p> + +<p>'It is not true?'</p> + +<p>Elmur reflected that he had never before seen her look so pretty. Most +women with tears in their eyes repelled his fastidiousness, but this one +was delicious. He bent towards her and said as much with a fervour that +surprised her. She smiled tremulously. She had always considered the +wary German worth capturing, but he was an elusive bird. Admiration had +never before got the better of his self-possession; now for the first +time he appeared to be carried away by it. The keenness of conquest +thrilled her. Jack?—ah, yes, poor Jack! But he was practically lost to +her for ever. She sighed a little; she had been fond of Jack, but the +love that can stand against the inevitable was not hers. She reminded +herself that Jack had preferred Valerie—but, why, so had Elmur! A +temptation came to her; she glanced again at Elmur. He was personable +though advancing to middle age, and handsome as men go, though his eyes +were close-set and cunning. He was not like poor Jack—no, she would +never find anyone perhaps quite so good to look upon as Jack, with his +broad shoulders and corn-coloured hair, and those dear frank eyes! No, +but——</p> + +<p>'Madame, what are you thinking of? I wish I dared flatter myself that I +could ever draw tears to those exquisite eyes,' Elmur said again with +warmth. He wanted excitement and Isolde was yielding. There are women +who will sacrifice the most sacred things, God's word itself, on the +altar of their vanity. Isolde withdrew her slight hand from his touch, +but it was the withdrawal that invites advance. She hesitated no longer.</p> + +<p>'There are other eyes whose tears will be bitterer than mine; are you +not jealous of them? I am sorry for Captain Rallywood, of course, but +poor Valerie—what am I saying?'</p> + +<p>'Whatever you say interests me,' he urged, his eyes following hers.</p> + +<p>She pouted coquettishly.</p> + +<p>'Yes, because I speak of Valerie!'</p> + +<p>'No, it is because you speak!' he declared amorously. 'Tell me of +Mademoiselle Valerie if you will,' this as a concession, 'though you +could tell me something more interesting.'</p> + +<p>'Not more interesting to you than this,' she exclaimed, nodding her +golden head at him with her little air of foolish wisdom. 'It is lucky +that Captain Rallywood is—is about to furnish an object-lesson, +for——' she raised her slender finger and laid it on her lips, smiling +at him.</p> + +<p>He looked round. They were alone in a smaller drawing-room; it was not +possible for the guests in the other saloon to see them. He drew the +finger from her lips and pressed it to his own. He would woo the truth +from this beautiful fool. His words meant one thing, his looks another.</p> + +<p>'And Valerie?' he questioned, seeming to count her fingers on his palm.</p> + +<p>'Valerie loves him—she told me so,' whispered Isolde, since there was +no longer need to speak louder.</p> + +<p>'And you, my dear lady?' And it may be the speech was the more +impassioned because in his heart he was damning the picturesqueness of +the captain of the Guard.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>And Rallywood? Rallywood sat in his quarters thinking thoughts that, +like music, lead sometimes on to exaltation. His earthly life was done, +and he looked out into the dim beyond fearlessly. His eyes were set and +sad, for he should see her face and hear Valerie's voice no more, but he +would be waiting in that somewhere for her. A man in the supremer hours +often turns again to the faiths of his childhood; so now Rallywood, at +the summit of his life, found himself given back all those lost dreams.</p> + +<p>He did not know how she came there. He heard no footstep enter. And when +he knew, neither spoke.</p> + +<p>There was nothing to say; it was all understood so well. She stood +beside him, her hands in his in a strange lull of mutual knowledge.</p> + +<p>'How did you come?' he asked her at last.</p> + +<p>'Anthony,' she answered, 'he knows—all.'</p> + +<p>'How like him! But,' with a man's ready thought for the woman he loves, +'you must not be found here. Say good-bye to me, Valerie.'</p> + +<p>'John,' she clung to him, 'how can I let you go? You are dying for +Maäsau—for my father—for me—yes, yes, I can guess all!'</p> + +<p>'Valerie, do you know what your love is to me? I need nothing more. I +have not thought of what there is beyond, but when you want me you will +find me waiting.'</p> + +<p>In the long silence life itself might have been suspended.</p> + +<p>'When?' said Valerie, in a sudden recollection of anguish.</p> + +<p>'To-morrow,' he answered, understanding the broken question.</p> + +<p>Valerie raised her wet eyes.</p> + +<p>'In my life there can be no to-morrow. God may not let me die, but my +life will always be one long remembrance of to-day. I shall live in +to-day always. To-morrows are for happier women, John. And yet I am +wicked to say that. I would not change my lot with any other. For have I +not my memories? And I will learn to have my hopes. And whenever that +blessed day of release may come to me, I will bring my heart to you as +it is to-day, my king!'</p> + +<p>Rallywood looked into the beautiful tear-dimmed eyes. He was too wise to +say that he had spoilt her life, that had it been possible to set the +wrong right by any sacrifice he would have done so. Of this he said +nothing. He only kissed her.</p> + +<p>'Next to living to be with you, darling, I am in love with dying for +you, Valerie!'</p> + +<p>The silence grew again between them, the best and saddest silence upon +earth—the silence of all's said.</p> + +<p>'And yet, John, I have one thing left to live for. I will live to see +your name stand where it should. For men like you are only understood +and honoured—afterwards,' she said presently.</p> + +<p>Another man might have disclaimed all praise. Rallywood, who believed he +deserved none, kept silence. He knew that to deny would be to wound. And +he was fain to say to her a thing which was hard to say and hard to +hear. But he was looking out into the troubled future, and his anxiety +for her grew bitter upon him. So he nerved himself to the greatest +sacrifice of all. And Valerie's next words gave him the opening he +desired.</p> + +<p>'Your sword——' she began.</p> + +<p>'Is broken.'</p> + +<p>'No, no! Anthony brought another to Count Sagan, not yours. Yours was +not the sword of a traitor! That also I will keep.'</p> + +<p>'Unziar—I thank him. And Valerie, listen! When they condemned me there +was one vote in my favour. You can guess whose.'</p> + +<p>'Anthony's?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, Valerie, and he loves you, and I will not blame—I wish—I would +ask——'</p> + +<p>Valerie's glance met his. She understood.</p> + +<p>'No,' she said; 'I will thank him, and like him dearly and pray for him, +but not that—no, not ever that!'</p> + +<p>A quiet knock on the door.</p> + +<p>'And now it is good-bye.'</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI.</h2> + +<p class='center'>DUKE GUSTAVE.</p> + + +<p>Whatever may be said to the contrary, the fact remains that a little +independent success acts on a morally weak man as a glass of wine upon a +physically weak one. For a time it exalts and quickens him.</p> + +<p>Duke Gustave of Maäsau was in a condition of mental exhilaration, and +experiencing to the full the false sensation of strength thus created +when Sagan was announced. Selpdorf, who had been listening for some +minutes to his master's self-gratulations on the newly ratified British +contract rose as if to take his departure.</p> + +<p>'Wait, Selpdorf!' the Duke said.</p> + +<p>'My lord has asked for a private interview, your Highness,' Selpdorf +reminded him.</p> + +<p>'Yes, but I have no private affairs to discuss with my cousin. Anything +that need be said between us is better said before a witness,' replied +the Duke. 'How do you suppose he will take the news of our agreement +with England?'</p> + +<p>Selpdorf's answer was slow in coming, and before he spoke Count Sagan +strode into the room. He carried a sheaf of papers; his imperious temper +was wont to rush every business through to which he put his hand.</p> + +<p>'I begged for a few moments in private with your Highness,' he said, +with a glance at the Minister.</p> + +<p>'Our good Selpdorf is too discreet to be considered a third,' answered +the Duke blandly. 'He knows our secrets without being told them. Pray +proceed, my lord; is there anything I can do for you?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, sire; I wish to lay before you the matter I was forced to postpone +at the Castle. I also made use of the opportunity to bring one or two +papers relating to the Guard for signature.'</p> + +<p>The Duke took the papers. He was seated at a writing-table, and he +glanced carelessly over them as Sagan went on.</p> + +<p>'Under your approval those papers include Lieutenant Unziar's +appointment as captain, vice Colendorp——'</p> + +<p>'Deceased,' put in the Duke with a sharp significance.</p> + +<p>Sagan frowned. Gustave had a curious alertness about him to-night.</p> + +<p>'Yes, poor fellow! We can ill spare him,' he said. 'Also we have agreed +to propose Abenfeldt as junior subaltern.'</p> + +<p>'I have no objection,' the Duke said.</p> + +<p>'As for the other subject upon which I have for some time wished to +speak to you, sire, I am authorised to lay before your Highness certain +proposals—'</p> + +<p>'Stop, my lord,' again interrupted the Duke, 'if those proposals have +any reference to von Elmur and his projects for the good of the State, I +absolutely decline to hear them. What's this?' he had laid aside the +upper papers after signature, and was scanning the one below with an +expression of countenance which showed that he liked what he read very +little.</p> + +<p>Sagan watched him with a deepening frown, the more subtle Selpdorf with +curiosity. At other times it had been the Duke's custom to add his +signature to papers without a glance at their contents. The destiny of +one man is thus often decided by the passing mood of another.</p> + +<p>'What's this about Rallywood?'</p> + +<p>'A bad business, but your Highness's signature makes many a wrong +right,' said Sagan, with a clumsy attempt at pleasantry; 'it needs only +that. You have the pen and ink, sire.'</p> + +<p>'But, by Heaven, not the will!' cried the Duke. 'I will not sign it! And +if I will not, hey?'</p> + +<p>'M. Selpdorf will assure you that it is necessary in the case of +discipline,' urged Sagan with a lowering look.</p> + +<p>'And I will assure M. Selpdorf that I am accustomed to make up my own +mind! You know it already, Selpdorf!'</p> + +<p>'I have always known it, sire,' said the supple Chancellor.</p> + +<p>'You will hear my reasons?' asked Sagan angrily.</p> + +<p>The Duke nodded.</p> + +<p>'Captain Rallywood was guilty of gross disobedience of orders. His case +has been laid before a court-martial of his brother officers, and he has +been condemned to be shot. The trial has been conducted with justice.'</p> + +<p>'What were Captain Rallywood's orders, then?'</p> + +<p>'He was ordered to carry certain dispatches to the Chancellor, but he +carried them elsewhere for his own purposes.'</p> + +<p>The Duke nodded slowly and half closed his eyes. He remembered a certain +damp morning by the river, when Rallywood had ridden to take orders from +Selpdorf.</p> + +<p>'So you are in this also, Selpdorf?' he said. 'What despatches were +these? Pray tell me frankly. I believe I know something already.'</p> + +<p>'Despatches sent to me from the Frontier, sire.'</p> + +<p>'Which he failed to bring to you. Where then did he take them?'</p> + +<p>The delay and the persistent unexpected questioning of the Duke +irritated Sagan almost beyond endurance. He struck in.</p> + +<p>'Sire, does it matter what he did with them, as we have proof that he +disobeyed orders? That is the point—what need to ask further?' Then, as +the Duke still shook his head, he burst out, 'Well, then, he carried +them to the British Legation—to his own countrymen, mind you. He was +false to his oath as a soldier! He must be shot!'</p> + +<p>Gustave of Maäsau was a man who lied much and often, as those of poor +moral calibre will. He lied now with zest.</p> + +<p>'So? Although Captain Rallywood acted under my personal instructions, +Simon?' he said quietly.</p> + +<p>Sagan sprang to his feet.</p> + +<p>'Yes,' resumed the Duke, warming to his <i>rôle</i>. 'Yes, he acted under my +orders, for the despatches were connected with the agreement I have +within the last hour signed with England, and about which the first +proposals were laid before me at midnight by the British Envoy during my +visit to your Castle!'</p> + +<p>'What?' shouted Sagan, as his house of cards fell about him. 'You lie, +Gustave! And Germany? Selpdorf, we hold your promises! It is impossible +to think this to be true?'</p> + +<p>'It is true,' said the Chancellor. 'I beg you will recollect that his +Highness is present, my lord. This excitement——'</p> + +<p>Sagan stood gasping and staring. His passion seemed to choke him as he +stood, but the Duke, still exalted by the sense of triumph and power, +mistook the silence for speechless humiliation. His temper rose as the +other's seemed to sink.</p> + +<p>'You can deceive me no more, my lord Sagan!' he cried in a high excited +voice. 'You took Colendorp from me, you would now take Rallywood, one +by one all my faithful Guard! But I am sovereign still! You shall not +tamper any longer with my loyal State; you shall never bring your +traitorous German schemes to an issue!'</p> + +<p>But there were things impossible for Count Simon of Sagan to endure. +Never before had he been twitted with impotence and failure. He could +not survive so utter a defeat. A man to bear these things must be less +thorough than the Count. He was too fierce, too imperious, to bear so +great a reverse. If he must be put to shame before the world, if even a +paltry captain of the Guard were to be permitted to negative his will, +why then life had best be over!</p> + +<p>He seemed to struggle for speech; at last, without warning, his passion +leaped into flame. Like a wild beast he sprang across the table at the +Duke—the poor snivelling coward who had dared to flay him with his +tongue! The old hate fired the new fury as he clutched Gustave.</p> + +<p>The Duke gave a shrill feeble cry, not such a cry as one would have +expected from a man of his age, and then Selpdorf was between them +shouting for the Guard.</p> + +<p>'You false hound!' Sagan gnashed his teeth in Selpdorf's face as the +Chancellor threw himself upon him.</p> + +<p>Shouts and shots, and the wild turmoil of a deadly struggle. Then the +Guard had secured Sagan. The Duke stood trembling and incoherent, +leaning upon the table, and between them, face downwards on the floor, +the Chancellor with a bullet in his groin and for once playing a <i>rôle</i> +he had not prepared.</p> + +<p>Sagacious, supple, self-seeking, yet not utterly seared, in the last +resort he offered up his life for the master he had almost betrayed.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a>CHAPTER XXXII.</h2> + +<p class='center'>FOR A SEASON.</p> + + +<p>Queens Fain lies upon the inner edge of Lincolnshire, in an undulating +countryside amongst great old trees, where of an evening the sun throws +bars of light across the levels of turf, where homing rooks fly in +scattered lines against a gleaming sky, the air breathes coolness and +peace, and the scene lays that ineffable spell upon the heart of which +only the exile can ever know the full pathetic power.</p> + +<p>Round the house tall fences of yew and holly fend off the colder winds. +On an evening in early spring Rallywood and Counsellor strolled under +the shelter of a massive black wall of yew. The daffodils were blowing +about the border of the lake below them, and along the distant hedges +furry catkins were already nodding and floating on the crisp breeze.</p> + +<p>'I have found it necessary once or twice before to say that you were a +fool, John,' said Counsellor, looking up at a corner of the great +stone-built mansion, its cold aspect yellowed and mellowed by the +strengthening sunshine.</p> + +<p>'Always or on occasion?' Rallywood laughed easily.</p> + +<p>'Mostly. You will not leave the Guard. If I were you I should go +to-morrow. Marry the girl as soon as she will let you, and bring her +here. Then sit down and shoot partridges. She will like it. It is better +than Maäsau.'</p> + +<p>'It is altogether good to own the old place again,' Rallywood said, 'and +we'll do our duty by the partridges, Major, you and I, I hope, +by-and-by, but to do that and nothing else—not yet!'</p> + +<p>'You've stalked bigger game and that has spoilt you,' grumbled the +Major. 'After Count Sagan, partridges pall. Yet it is a pity.'</p> + +<p>'I shall bring Valerie here sometimes, of course. I think she'll like +the old place almost as much as I do.'</p> + +<p>'More, since it is the birthplace and home of one John Rallywood,' said +Counsellor with a twist of his big moustache. 'You lucky, undeserving +beggar! So Selpdorf's gone. A queer compound.'</p> + +<p>'His death redeemed—much,' said Rallywood, shortly.</p> + +<p>'Yes,' Counsellor puffed out a great cloud of smoke, 'yes, but we have +no reason to forget the fact that he was very ready to secure himself at +a heavy cost to you.'</p> + +<p>'For the sake of Maäsau,' interposed Rallywood.</p> + +<p>'Hum—for the sake of Maäsau! And you were an inconvenient personality +also. Well, well, let it pass. But it was touch and go with you, John, +for no one could have foreseen that shaky old Gustave would rise to the +occasion as he did. And what has he done for you after all?'</p> + +<p>'He saved my life first, and gave me the Gold Star of Maäsau +afterwards,' said Rallywood, 'an honour which I share with some +monarchs—and Major Counsellor.'</p> + +<p>'Dirt cheap, too!' grunted Counsellor. 'I hear that Madame de Sagan sent +you a very neat congratulation.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 15em;"> +"A genoux sur la terre<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nous rendons grâces à Dieu</span><br /> +Et nous lui faisons vœux<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">D'une double prière."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>You can take your own meaning out of it,' ended the Major.</p> + +<p>'And the people being chiefly malicious will take the wrong one.'</p> + +<p>'That is as it may be. But for you I hope a fine morning will follow the +stormy evening. You will grow fat and selfish, John, like many a better +man.'</p> + +<p>Rallywood smiled. He was thinking of a certain elderly diplomat who, +rumour said, had been moved out of his usual composure on one occasion +only. It was at the moment when he heard that Captain Rallywood of the +Maäsaun Guard was sentenced to be shot.</p> + +<p>'By the way,' resumed Counsellor, 'did I tell you that I saw von Elmur +yesterday at Charing Cross? He said he was starting for Constantinople. +I bade him good-bye, but he corrected me, "Au revoir, my dear Major," +and kissed the tips of his fingers to me as the train passed. So perhaps +the end is not yet.'</p> + +<p>'God bless the present!' said Rallywood.</p> + +<p>And while they walk and talk over the past and the future in the +pleasant places of England, the surf is beating round an island off the +Maäsaun coast, upon which a storm-stricken fortification has been +adapted to the use of a certain political prisoner, Count Simon of +Sagan. There he frets, and schemes, and longs through the endless +afternoons. He does not accept his destiny as final, his hopes are +unimpaired, his resolves as strong as in the old keen days at Sagan. He +clings to a blind conviction that Time and the Man must inevitably meet +together, and he lives for that meeting.</p> + +<p>There, too, Anthony Unziar serves his country and his sovereign, +relentlessly watchful through the dead monotony of the days. At his own +urgent request he was given charge of the lonely prison, its solitude +appearing to him the one bearable condition of life. He has his work to +do and he does it well, and always between Count Sagan and his dreams +stands the irrevocable figure of the young Maäsaun.</p> + +<p>Sometimes Sagan taunts him with his hopeless love, but he only answers +by a look. And each knows that wherever he may turn, he will find the +other standing up against him—the fierce imbruted prisoner with his +royal fearlessness, and his intense and frigid guard.</p> + +<p>They are waiting. They have each his dream. Sagan's of empire and +revenge, for he is after all a splendid ruffian, untamable, gallant, a +man who could never be compelled to cry 'Enough' to evil fortune.</p> + +<p>Sometimes deep in the night, while the two enemies play their long games +together, Sagan flings down the cards and laughs and speaks of another +game which will find its conclusion in the dim paths of the future. But +Unziar only smiles. If that day should ever come it will find him ready. +But to-day is not to-morrow, and 'God bless the present!' as Rallywood +said.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MODERN MERCENARY***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 28167-h.txt or 28167-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/8/1/6/28167">http://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/1/6/28167</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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