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Not a copper was needlessly wasted, and never was one held back unnecessarily. Herbeck was just both in great and little things. The commoners could neither fool nor browbeat him. The dream in his eyes grew; it was tender and kindly. The bar of sunlight lengthened across his desk, and finally passed on. Still he sat there, motionless, rapt. And thus the duke found him.
"Tell the duke the truth. He will not dare go far." "He will be a good politician, too," said Ludwig, with a smile of approval at Carmichael. "No, boy, there will be no war. And yet I was prepared for it; nor was I wrong in doing so. Already, but for Herbeck, there would be plenty of fighting in the passes. Ach! Could you but see the princess!" "I have seen her," replied the king.
Well, dead or alive," the duke continued, his throat swelling, "ten thousand crowns to him who brings Arnsberg to me, dead or alive." "He will never come back," said Herbeck. "Not if he is wise. He was clever. He sent all his fortune to Paris, so I found, and what I confiscated was nothing but his estate.
Your highness is always letting your personal wounds blur your eyesight. Some day you will find that Jugendheit is innocent." "God hasten the day and hour!" "Yes, let us hope that the mystery of it all will be cleared up. You are just and patient in everything but this." Herbeck idled with his quill.
Herbeck compared the two. "Where did you find these?" "In Arnsberg's desk," returned the duke, the anger in his eyes giving place to gloomy retrospection. "Arnsberg, my boyhood playmate, the man I loved and trusted and advanced to the highest office in my power. Is that not the way? Do we ever trust any one fully without being in the end deceived?
"I shall not ask you to be careful with them, Herbeck." "I shall treasure them as my life." The duke departed, stirred as he had not been since the restoration of the princess. Herbeck sometimes irritated him, for he was never in the wrong, he was never impatient, he was never hasty, he never had to go over a thing twice.
I saw that my case was hopeless, so I fled to Paris. I wrote Herbeck once while there. He believed that I was innocent. I have his letter yet. He has a great heart, Ludwig, and he has done splendid work for Ehrenstein." "He keeps a steady hand on the duke." "But you, what are you doing in Dreiberg, in this guise?" Herr Ludwig sat upon the counter and clasped a knee.
"Herbeck, your estates are confiscated, your name is struck from the civic and military lists. Have you any ready funds?" "A little, your Highness." "Enough to take you for ever out of this part of the world?" "Yes, your Highness." "You do not ask to be forgiven, and I like that. I have judges in Dreiberg. I could have you tried and condemned for high treason, shot or imprisoned for life.
"What is it, father?" Herbeck waited. "Read," said the duke. As the last word left Herbeck's lips, she slipped from her father's arms and looked with pity at the chancellor. "What do you think of this, Hildegarde?" "Why, father, I think it is the very best thing in the world," dryly. "An insult like this?" The duke grew rigid. "You accept it calmly, in this fashion?"
The prince's advice is for you to go about your affairs as usual. Only one man must be taken into your confidence, and that man is Herbeck. If any one can straighten out his end of the tangle it is he. He is a big man, of fertile invention; he will understand. If this thing falls through his honors will fall with it.
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