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With a firm, sure tread, he hurried through the halls and chambers. No one stopped him, for no one was there to see him. In the king's antechamber sat Deesen taking his breakfast. "Is the king up?" asked Weingarten. "The sun has been up for hours, and so of course the king is up," said Deesen, proudly. "Announce me to his majesty; I have some important news for him."
"Because I have been so accustomed to be where you are!" said Fritz Kober, quietly. "When I heard Deesen call for a tailor, and you answered, 'Here! here! I stepped out of my tent and followed you; nothing more! But you would also know why I look at you? Well, while it pleases me to see you sewing, it brings strange and pleasant thoughts to my mind."
The king declared he needed rest, and wished to pass a few days in undisturbed quiet at the castle of Moyland. No one accompanied him but Colonel Balby, his intimate friend, and his cabinet-hussar, Deesen. The king was in an uncommonly good humor, and his eyes sparkled with delight. After a short rest in his chamber, he desired to see Colonel Balby.
"His majesty holds a cabinet council," said he, "and it is expressly commanded to allow no one to enter." "Then I will force an entrance," said Pollnitz, stepping boldly to the door. "I must speak to his majesty; I have something most important to communicate." "I think it cannot be more important than that which now occupies the king's attention," said the intrepid Deesen.
I forbid you, however, to repeat one word of this conversation." "Ah, your majesty, I am well pleased that I need not do it, for Deesen is very passionate, and if he learns that I have betrayed his secret he is capable of giving me a box on the ear." "Which would, perhaps, be very wholesome for you," said the king, as he turned toward his library.
"I know one, at least, who is rejoicing," said Balby, laughing, "the unhappy Deesen, who has just sworn most solemnly that he would throw himself in the river if he had to play much longer the part of a servant without livery a servant of two unknown musicians; and he told me, with tears in his eyes, that not a respectable man in the house would speak to him; that the pretty maids would not even listen to his soft sighs and tender words."
"No," said Fritz Kober, resolutely, "we have a request to make of the king, and he once gave us permission to come directly to him when we had a favor to ask." He pushed Deesen aside and entered the room with Charles Henry. The king sat in his bed reading, and was so absorbed that he did not see them enter. But Fritz stepped up boldly to the bed and laid the breeches upon the chair.
And with a beaming smile illuminating his countenance, like a ray of the morning sun, the king took the arm of his friend, and followed by his servant and cabinet-hussar, Deesen, left the pavilion. As they stood at the little gate of the garden, the king said to Deesen, "You must be for us the angel with the flaming sword, and open the gates of paradise, but not to cast us out."
Their servant followed with the little carpet-bag and the two music-cases. When Deesen became aware of the presence of the hostess, and the two head-servants, he advanced near to the king. "Your majesty, may I now speak?" he murmured. "Not yet," said the king, smiling, "wait until we are in the carriage." He descended the steps, with a friendly nod to the hostess. Balby and himself left the house.
While the king was undressing, he heard Deesen's stentorian voice, calling out lustily through the streets "A tailor! a tailor! is there a tailor amongst the soldiers?" The king was scarcely covered up in bed before Deesen entered, with a joyous face. "Sire, I have found a soldier who can do the work; he is not a tailor, but he swears he can sew and patch, and he undertakes to dress the wounds."
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