CHAPTER XV. FATHER AND DAUGHTER
With the approach of the anniversary of his son's death, the King grewincreasingly restless. Each year he determined to put away this oldgrief, and each year, as his bodily weakness increased, he found itharder to do so. In vain he filled his weary days with the routine ofhis kingdom. In vain he told himself that there were worse things thanto be cut off in one's prime, that the tragedy of old age is a longtragedy, with but one end. To have out-lived all that one loves, hefelt, was worse by far. To have driven, in one gloomy procession afteranother, to the old Capuchin church and there to have left, prayerfully,some dearly beloved body--that had been his life. His son had escapedthat. But it was poor comfort to him.
On other years he had had the Crown Prince with him as much as possibleon this dreary day of days. But the Crown Prince was exiled, indisgrace. Not even for the comfort of his small presence could sterndiscipline be relaxed.
Annunciata was not much comfort to him. They had always differed, moreor less, the truth being, perhaps, that she was too much like the Kingever to sympathize fully with him. Both were arrogant, determined,obstinate. And those qualities, which age was beginning to soften in theKing, were now, in Annunciata, in full strength and blooming.
But there was more than fundamental similarity at fault. Against herfather the Archduchess held her unhappy marriage.
"You did this," she had said once, when an unusually flagrant escapadehad come to the ears of the Palace. "You did it. I told you I hated him.I told you what he was, too. But you had some plan in mind. The plannever materialized, but the marriage did. And here I am." She hadturned on him then, not angrily, but with cold hostility. "I shall neverforgive you for it," she said.
She never had. She made her daily visit to her father, and, as he grewmore feeble, she was moved now and then to pity for him. But it waspity, nothing more. The very hands with which she sometimes changed hispillows were coldly efficient. She had not kissed him in years.
And now, secretly willing that Hedwig should marry Karl, she was readyto annoy him by objecting to it.
On the day after her conversation with General Mettlich, she visitedthe King. It was afternoon. The King had spent the morning in hisstudy, propped with pillows as was always the case now, working with asecretary. The secretary was gone when she entered, and he sat alone.Over his knees was spread one of the brilliant rugs that the peasantswove in winter evenings, when the snow beat about their small houses andthe cattle were snug in barns. Above it his thin old face looked pinchedand pale.
He had passed a trying day. Once having broken down the Chancellor'sbarrier of silence, the King had insisted on full knowledge; withthe result that he had sat, aghast, amid the ruins of his formercomplacency. The country and the smaller cities were comparativelyquiet, so far as demonstrations against the Government were concerned.But unquestionably they plotted. As for the capital, it was a seethingriot of sedition, from the reports. A copy of a newspaper, secretlyprinted and more secretly circulated, had brought fire to the King'seyes. It lay on his knees as his daughter entered.
Annunciata touched her lips to his hand. Absorbed as he was in othermatters, it struck him, as she bent, that Annunciata was no longeryoung, and that Time w as touching her with an unloving finger. Heviewed her graying hair, her ugly clothes, with the detached eye of age.And he sighed.
"Well, father," she said, looking down at him, "how do you feel?"
"Sit down," he said. The question as to his health was too perfunctoryto require reply. Besides, he anticipated trouble, and it was anage-long habit of his to meet it halfway.
Annunciata sat, with a jingling of chains. She chose a straight chair,and faced him, very erect.
"How old is Hedwig?" demanded the King
"Nineteen."
"And Hilda?"
"Sixteen."
He knew their ages quite well. It was merely the bugle before theattack.
"Hedwig is old enough to marry. Her grandmother was not nineteen when Imarried her."
"It would be better," said Annunciata, "to marry her while she is young,before she knows any better."
"Any better than what?" inquired the King testily.
"Any better than to marry at all."
The King eyed her. She was not, then, even attempting to hide her claws.But he was an old bird, and not to be caught in an argumentative cage.
"There are several possibilities for Hedwig," he said. "I have gone intothe matter pretty thoroughly. As you know, I have had this on my mindfor some time. It is necessary to arrange things before I--go."
The King, of course, was neither asking nor expecting sympathy from her,but mentally, and somewhat grimly, he compared her unmoved face withthat of his old friend and Chancellor, only a few nights before.
"It is a regrettable fact," he went on, "that I must leave, as I shall,a sadly troubled country. But for that--" he paused. But for that, hemeant, he would go gladly. He needed rest. His spirit, still so alive,chafed daily more and more against its worn body. He believed in anotherlife, did the old King. He wanted the hearty handclasp of his boy again.Even the wife who had married him against her will had grown close tohim in later years. He needed her too. A little rest, then, and afterthat a new life, with those who had gone ahead.
"A sadly troubled country," he repeated.
"All countries are troubled. We are no worse than others."
"Perhaps not. But things are changing. The old order is changing. Thespirit of unrest--I shall not live to see it. You may, Annunciata. Butthe day is coming when all thrones will totter. Like this one."
Now at last he had pierced her armor. "Like this one!"
"That is what I said. Rouse yourself, Annunciata. Leave that littleboudoir of yours, with its accursed clocks and its heat and itsflub-dubbery, and see what is about you! Discontent! Revolution! We arehardly safe from day to day. Do you think that what happened nine yearsago was a flash that died as it came? Nonsense. Read this!"
He held out the paper and she put on her pince-nez and read itsheadings, a trifle disdainfully. But the next moment she rose, and stoodin front of him, almost as pale as he was. "You allow this sort of thingto be published?"
"No. But it is published."
"And they dare to say things like this? Why, it--it is--"
"Exactly. It is, undoubtedly." He was very calm. "I would not havetroubled you with it. But the situation is bad. We are rather helpless."
"Not--the army too?"
"What can we tell? These things spread like fires. Nothing may happenfor years. On the other hand, tomorrow--!"
The Archduchess was terrified. She had known that there was disaffectionabout. She knew that in the last few years precautions at the Palace hadbeen increased. Sentries were doubled. Men in the uniforms of lackeys,but doing no labor, were everywhere. But with time and safety she hadfelt secure.
"Of course," the King resumed, "things are not as bad as that paperindicates. It is the voice of the few, rather than the many. Still, itis a voice."
Annunciata looked more than her age now. She glanced around the room asthough, already, she heard the mob at the doors.
"It is not safe to stay here, is it?" she asked. "We could go to thesummer palace. That, at least, is isolated."
"Too isolated," said the King dryly. "And flight! The very spark,perhaps, to start a blaze. Besides," he remind her, "I could not makethe journey. If you would like to go, however, probably it can bearranged."
But Annunciata was not minded to go without the Court. And shereflected, not unwisely, that if things were really as bad as theyappeared, to isolate herself, helpless in the mountains, would be but toplay into the enemy's hand.
"To return to the matter of Hedwig's marriage," said the King. "I--"
"Marriage! When our very lives are threatened!"
"I would be greatly honored," said the King, "if I might be permitted tofinish what I was saying."
She had the grace to flush.
"Under the circum
stances," the King resumed, "Hedwig's marriage takes ongreat significance--great political significance."
For a half-hour then, he talked to her. More than for years, heunbosomed himself. He had tried. His ministers had tried. Taxes hadbeen lightened; the representation of the people increased, until; as hesaid, he was only nominally a ruler. But discontent remained. Some whohad gone to America and returned with savings enough to set themselvesup in business, had brought back with them the American idea.
He spoke without bitterness. They refused to allow for the differencebetween a new country and an old land, tilled for many generations. Theyforgot their struggles across the sea and brought back only stories ofprosperity. Emigration had increased, and those who remained whisperedof a new order, where each man was the government, and no man a king.
Annunciata listened to the end. She felt no pity for those who wouldbetter themselves by discontent and its product, revolt. She felt onlyresentment that her peace was being threatened, her position assailed.And in her resentment she included the King himself. He should have donebetter. These things, taken early enough, could have been arranged.
And something of this she did not hesitate to say. "Karnia is quietenough," she finished, a final thrust.
"Karnia is better off. A lowland, most of it, and fertile." But a spotof color showed in his old cheeks. "I am glad you spoke of Karnia.Whatever plans we make, Karnia must be considered."
"Why? Karnia does not consider us."
He raised his hand. "You are wrong. Just now, Karnia is doing us thehonor of asking an alliance with us. A matrimonial alliance."
The Archduchess was hardly surprised, as one may believe. But she wasnot minded to yield too easily. The old resentment against her fatherflamed. Indifferent mother though she was, she made capital of a fearfor Hedwig's happiness. In a cold and quiet voice she reminded him ofher own wretchedness, and of Karl's reputation.
At last she succeeded in irritating the King--a more difficult thingnow than in earlier times, but not so hard a matter at that. He listenedquietly until she had finished, and then sent her away. When she hadgot part way to the door, however, he called her back. And since a kingis a king, even if he is one's father and very old, she came.
"Just one word more," he said, in his thin, old, highbred voice. "Muchof your unhappiness was of your own making. You, and you only, knowhow much. But nothing that you have said can change the situation. I ammerely compelled to make the decision alone, and soon. I have not muchtime."
So, after all, was the matter of the Duchess Hedwig's marriage arranged,a composite outgrowth of expediency and obstinacy, of defiance andanger. And so was it hastened.
Irritation gave the King strength. That afternoon were summoned in hastethe members of his Council: fat old Friese, young Marschall with the ratface, austere Bayerl with the white skin and burning eyes, and others.And to them all the King disclosed his royal will. There was some demur.Friese, who sweated with displeasure, ranted about old enemies andbroken pledges. But, after all, the King's will was dominant. Friesecould but voice his protest and relapse into greasy silence.
The Chancellor sat silent during the conclave, silent, but intent.On each speaker he turned his eyes, and waited until at last Karl'sproposal, with its promises, was laid before them in full. Then, andonly then, the Chancellor rose. His speech was short. He told them ofwhat they all knew, their own insecurity. He spoke but a word of theCrown Prince, but that softly. And he drew for them a pictures of thefuture that set their hearts to glowing--a throne secure, a greaterkingdom, freedom from the cost of war, a harbor by the sea.
And if, as he spoke, he saw not the rat eyes of Marschall, the greedyones of some of the others, but instead a girl's wide and pleading ones,he resolutely went on. Life was a sacrifice. Youth would pass, and lovewith it, but the country must survive.
The battle, which was no battle at all, was won. He had won. The countryhad won. The Crown Prince had won. Only Hedwig had lost. And onlyMettlich knew just how she had lost.
When the Council, bowing deep, had gone away, the Chancellor remainedstanding by a window. He was feeling old and very tired. All that day,until the Council met with the King, he had sat in the little officeon a back street, which was the headquarters of the secret service. Allthat day men had come and gone, bringing false clues which led nowhere.The earth had swallowed up Nikky Larisch.
"I hope you are satisfied," said the King grimly, from behind him. "Itwas your arrangement."
"It was my hope, sire," replied the Chancellor dryly.
The necessity for work brought the King the strength to do it. Mettlichremained with him. Boxes were brought from vaults, unlocked andexamined. Secretaries came and went. At eight o'clock a frugal dinnerwas spread in the study, and they ate it almost literally over statedocuments.
On and on, until midnight or thereabouts. Then they stopped. The thingwas arranged. Nothing was left now but to carry the word to Karl.
Two things were necessary: Haste. The King, having determined it, wouldlose no time. And dignity. The granddaughter of the King must be offeredwith ceremony. No ordinary King's messenger, then, but some dignitary ofthe Court.
To this emergency Mettlich rose like the doughty old warrior andstatesman that he was. "If you are willing, sire," he said, as he rose,"I will go myself."
"When?"
"Since it must be done, the sooner the better. To-night, sire."
The King smiled. "You were always impatient!" he commented. But helooked almost wistfully at the sturdy and competent old figure beforehim. Thus was he, not so long ago. Cold nights and spring storms hadhad no terrors for him. And something else he felt, although he saidnothing--the stress of a situation which would send his Chancellor outat midnight, into a driving storm, to secure Karl's support. Things mustbe bad indeed!
"To the capital?" he asked.
"Not so far. Karl is hunting. He is at Wedeling." He went almostimmediately, and the King summoned his valets, and was got to bed. Butlong after the automobile containing Mettlich and two secret agents wason the road toward the mountains, he tossed on his narrow bed. To whatstraits had they come indeed! He closed his eyes wearily. Something hadgone out of his life. He did not realize at first what it was. When hedid, he smiled his old grim smile in the darkness.
He had lost a foe. More than anything perhaps, he had dearly loved afoe.