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When he married Countess Blanka he was very intimate with the Marchioness Caldariva, formerly known to lovers of the ballet as 'the beautiful Cyrene. She practised the terpsichorean art with such success that one day she danced into favour with an Italian marquis who honoured her with the gift of his name and rank, after which he shot himself.
The decree which was in due time issued from the Vatican, that, so long as his divorced wife lived, the prince might not marry again, was a serious check upon certain pet schemes cherished by the Marchioness Caldariva.
While blood was being shed on the banks of the Theiss, on the slopes of the Carpathians, and in the mountains of Transylvania, life at the Austrian capital went on much as usual. A grand ball given by the Marchioness Caldariva made its due claim on the attention of the fashionable world.
Like yourself, he is bent on securing a divorce, but only that he may marry you to his protégé and favourite. He is even capable of selling his own wife. Hitherto you have been Cagliari's wife, and the Marchioness Caldariva his mistress; now he wishes to reverse these relations, and make the marchioness his wife, and you his mistress. Be on your guard. You are in the country of the Borgias."
Blanka started slightly at the bare thought of friendship with this woman. "I am in love with you already," continued the Marchioness Caldariva. "For the past week we have been meeting every day. We kneel side by side in the same church, for I go to church regularly; but you have not noticed me, because you never raise your eyes from your prayer-book to look at your neighbours' bonnets and gowns.
Thus the coffin-lid was closed on the young wife, who was, as it were, buried alive; but in falling it had caught and held fast the bridal veil of the Marchioness Caldariva, who could not now hope to be led to the altar so long as the princess remained alive.
"I can tell you, for I recognise the handwriting. The Marchioness Caldariva wrote you that letter." "The Marchioness Caldariva? Is she here?" "To be sure. The prince never travels without her." "But what motive had she thus to injure herself and, perhaps, prevent her marriage with the prince?" "Motive enough for a woman," replied Vajdar, "jealousy." "Jealousy!" repeated Blanka, in astonishment.
When the Marchioness Caldariva entered her boudoir a little later, her eyes fell at once on her open writing-desk, and she perceived that the morocco pocketbook was gone. She laughed, but it was not a pleasant laugh to hear. "Very good," said she, half aloud; "you would have it so, and I am not to blame." Anna Adorjan hovered on the brink of the grave.
"Ah, you don't remember it, after all." "I can't play when I look at you," was the reply; and the Marchioness Caldariva believed her. "You could drive a man fairly insane." "As long as the men will torment us, we must be able to pay them back." She took Blanka's arm and returned with her to the other room. "Woe to him who invades my kingdom!" she continued. "He is bound to lose his reason.
Further particulars or explanations were denied him, except that he would find a special police officer placed at his service from that moment until he reached his destination, which was a polite intimation that he was thenceforth under government surveillance, and that any attempt at flight would be frustrated. He returned at once to his house, which adjoined that of the Marchioness Caldariva.