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"You accused him of being a Jugendheit spy," broke in Gretchen, who was growing impatient under these questions, which seemed to go nowhere in particular. "You be silent," warned the sub-chief. "I am here because of that accusation," said the vintner. "What have you to say?" "I deny it." "That is easy to do. But can you prove it?" "It is for you to prove, Herr." "Read this." It was the cutting.
Let us go to prison as quickly as possible, blockheads!" The sub-chief laughed uproariously, and even the disciplined soldiers smiled. The king of Jugendheit and the prince regent! This was a good joke, indeed! "Your majesty and your royal highness," said the sub-chief, his eyes twinkling, "will do me, a poor sub-chief of the police, the honor of accompanying me to the Stein-schloss."
This will be Arnsberg. But" mildly "who may say that it is not a cunning forgery?" "Forgery!" roared the duke. "Read this one from the late king of Jugendheit to Arnsberg, then, if you still doubt." Herbeck read slowly and carefully. Then he rose and walked to the nearest window, studying the letter again in the sharper light.
Suddenly he laughed; but it was the terrible laughter of a madman. There were death and desolation in it. "Come, all of you; you, Gretchen, and you, Hildegarde; come, Carmichael, and you, Arnsberg; all of you! Let us go and pay a visit to our good friend, Herbeck!" The king of Jugendheit, Prince Ludwig, and the chancellor sat in the form of a triangle.
By and by he resumed his chair. What should he do? Where should he begin? Suppose the chancellor should look at the situation adversely, from the duke's angle of vision, should the duke learn? There was but one thing to do and that was to go boldly to Herbeck and lay the matter before him frankly. Neither Jugendheit nor Ehrenstein wanted war.
He pulled her toward him so that he could look into her eyes. "What is the matter? Answer!" "Are you not a spy from Jugendheit?" thinly. He flung aside her hand. "So! The first doubt that enters your ear finds harbor there. A spy from Jugendheit; that is a police suggestion, and you believed it!" "Do you deny it?" Gretchen was not cowed by his anger, which her own evenly matched.
The duel in the Biergarten; the king of Jugendheit and the prince regent in the Stein-schloss; the flight of the ambassador to the palace, more like a madman than one noted for his calm and circumspection; Gretchen carried into the palace in a dead faint, and her highness weeping; the duke in a rage and brought over only after the hardest struggle Carmichael had ever experienced.
"I give you," resumed the duke, "her serene highness and his majesty, Frederick of Jugendheit!" The princess grew delicately pale as the men and women sprang to their feet. Every hand swept toward her, holding a glass. She had surrendered that morning.
"Your Highness, here is a letter from the prince regent of Jugendheit, formally asking the hand of the Princess Hildegarde for his nephew, Frederick, who will shortly be crowned. My advice is to accept, to let bygones be bygones." "Write the prince that I respectfully decline." "Do nothing in haste, your Highness. Temporize; say that you desire some time to think about the matter.
"Gentlemen," said the duke, rising and holding up his glass, "this night I give you a toast which I believe will be agreeable to all of you, especially to his excellency, Baron von Steinbock of Jugendheit. What is past is past; a new regime begins this night." He paused. All eyes were focused upon him in wonder. Only Baron von Steinbock displayed no more than ordinary interest.
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