The Complete Novels of Robert L. Stevenson (Illustrated). Robert Louis Stevenson

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ zealously obeyed.’

      ‘Obeyed, Herr Cancellarius?’ returned the Prince. ‘And when have I obliged you with an order? Replaced, let us rather say. But to touch upon these trifles; instance me a few.’

      ‘The routine of government, from which your Highness has so wisely dissociated his leisure … ‘ began Greisengesang.

      ‘We will leave my leisure, sir,’ said Otto. ‘Approach the facts.’

      ‘The routine of business was proceeded with,’ replied the official, now visibly twittering.

      ‘It is very strange, Herr Cancellarius, that you should so persistently avoid my questions,’ said the Prince. ‘You tempt me to suppose a purpose in your dulness. I have asked you whether all was quiet; do me the pleasure to reply.’

      ‘Perfectly — O, perfectly quiet,’ jerked the ancient puppet, with every signal of untruth.

      ‘I make a note of these words,’ said the Prince gravely. ‘You assure me, your sovereign, that since the date of my departure nothing has occurred of which you owe me an account.’

      ‘I take your Highness, I take the Herr Doctor to witness,’ cried Greisengesang, ‘that I have had no such expression.’

      ‘Halt!’ said the Prince; and then, after a pause: ‘Herr Greisengesang, you are an old man, and you served my father before you served me,’ he added. ‘It consists neither with your dignity nor mine that you should babble excuses and stumble possibly upon untruths. Collect your thoughts; and then categorically inform me of all you have been charged to hide.’

      Gotthold, stooping very low over his desk, appeared to have resumed his labours; but his shoulders heaved with subterranean merriment. The Prince waited, drawing his handkerchief quietly through his fingers.

      ‘Your Highness, in this informal manner,’ said the old gentleman at last, ‘and being unavoidably deprived of documents, it would be difficult, it would be impossible, to do justice to the somewhat grave occurrences which have transpired.’

      ‘I will not criticise your attitude,’ replied the Prince. ‘I desire that, between you and me, all should be done gently; for I have not forgotten, my old friend, that you were kind to me from the first, and for a period of years a faithful servant. I will thus dismiss the matters on which you waive immediate inquiry. But you have certain papers actually in your hand. Come, Herr Greisengesang, there is at least one point for which you have authority. Enlighten me on that.’

      ‘On that?’ cried the old gentleman. ‘O, that is a trifle; a matter, your Highness, of police; a detail of a purely administrative order. These are simply a selection of the papers seized upon the English traveller.’

      ‘Seized?’ echoed Otto. ‘In what sense? Explain yourself.’

      ‘Sir John Crabtree,’ interposed Gotthold, looking up, ‘was arrested yesterday evening.’

      ‘It this so, Herr Cancellarius?’ demanded Otto sternly.

      ‘It was judged right, your Highness,’ protested Greisengesang. ‘The decree was in due form, invested with your Highness’s authority by procuration. I am but an agent; I had no status to prevent the measure.’

      ‘This man, my guest, has been arrested,’ said the Prince. ‘On what grounds, sir? With what colour of pretence?’

      The Chancellor stammered.

      ‘Your Highness will perhaps find the reason in these documents,’ said Gotthold, pointing with the tail of his pen.

      Otto thanked his cousin with a look. ‘Give them to me,’ he said, addressing the Chancellor.

      But that gentleman visibly hesitated to obey. ‘Baron von Gondremark,’ he said, ‘has made the affair his own. I am in this case a mere messenger; and as such, I am not clothed with any capacity to communicate the documents I carry. Herr Doctor, I am convinced you will not fail to bear me out.’

      ‘I have heard a great deal of nonsense,’ said Gotthold, ‘and most of it from you; but this beats all.’

      ‘Come, sir,’ said Otto, rising, ‘the papers. I command.’

      Herr Greisengesang instantly gave way.

      ‘With your Highness’s permission,’ he said, ‘and laying at his feet my most submiss apologies, I will now hasten to attend his further orders in the Chancery.’

      ‘Herr Cancellarius, do you see this chair?’ said Otto. ‘There is where you shall attend my further orders. O, now, no more!’ he cried, with a gesture, as the old man opened his lips. ‘You have sufficiently marked your zeal to your employer; and I begin to weary of a moderation you abuse.’

      The Chancellor moved to the appointed chair and took his seat in silence.

      ‘And now,’ said Otto, opening the roll, ‘what is all this? it looks like the manuscript of a book.’

      ‘It is,’ said Gotthold, ‘the manuscript of a book of travels.’

      ‘You have read it, Doctor Hohenstockwitz?’ asked the Prince.

      ‘Nay, I but saw the title-page,’ replied Gotthold. ‘But the roll was given to me open, and I heard no word of any secrecy.’

      Otto dealt the Chancellor an angry glance.

      ‘I see,’ he went on. ‘The papers of an author seized at this date of the world’s history, in a state so petty and so ignorant as Grünewald, here is indeed an ignominious folly. Sir,’ to the Chancellor, ‘I marvel to find you in so scurvy an employment. On your conduct to your Prince I will not dwell; but to descend to be a spy! For what else can it be called? To seize the papers of this gentleman, the private papers of a stranger, the toil of a life, perhaps — to open, and to read them. And what have we to do with books? The Herr Doctor might perhaps be asked for his advice; but we have no index expurgatorius in Grünewald. Had we but that, we should be the most absolute parody and farce upon this tawdry earth.’

      Yet, even while Otto spoke, he had continued to unfold the roll; and now, when it lay fully open, his eye rested on the title-page elaborately written in red ink. It ran thus:

      MEMOIRS

       OF A VISIT TO THE VARIOUS

       COURTS OF EUROPE,

       BY

       SIR JOHN CRABTREE, BARONET.

      Below was a list of chapters, each bearing the name of one of the European Courts; and among these the nineteenth and the last upon the list was dedicated to Grünewald.

      ‘Ah! The Court of Grünewald!’ said Otto, ‘that should be droll reading.’ And his curiosity itched for it.

      ‘A methodical dog, this English Baronet,’ said Gotthold. ‘Each chapter written and finished on the spot. I shall look for his work when it appears.’

      ‘It would be odd, now, just to glance at it,’ said Otto, wavering.

      Gotthold’s brow darkened, and he looked out of window.

      But СКАЧАТЬ