Part 33 (1/2)
”Fritz!” I said
”Ay, friend--dear friend!” he said, tender as a wo alive?”
He took his handkerchief and wiped my lips, and bent and kissed entle is alive!”
The little farht and wide-eyed for wonder; for she had seen , foul, and bloody as I was--yet was not I the King?
And when I heard that the King was alive, I strove to cry ”Hurrah!” But I could not speak, and I laid roaned; and then, lest Fritz should do hts, I opened ain But I could not And being very tired, and now very cold, I huddled et the warain and went to sleep
CHAPTER 20
The Prisoner and the King
In order to a full understanding of what had occurred in the Castle of Zenda, it is necessary to suppleht by relating briefly what I afterwards learnt from Fritz and Madame de Mauban The story told by the latter explained clearly how it happened that the cry which I had arranged as a stratagem and a sham had come, in dreadful reality, before its time, and had thus, as it seemed at the moment, ruined our hopes, while in the end it had favoured theenuine attach prospects which a dominion over him opened before her eyes, had followed him at his request fro passions, but of stronger will, and his cool head ruled both He was content to take all and give nothing When she arrived, she was not long in finding that she had a rival in the Princess Flavia; rendered desperate, she stood at nothing which ive, or keep for her, her power over the duke As I say, he took and gave not Siled in his audacious sche to abandon him, bound to him by the chains of sha, lureshe had written Whether the lines she sent to Flavia were inspired by good or bad feeling, by jealousy or by pity, I do not know; but here also she served us well When the duke went to Zenda, she accompanied him; and here for the first time she learnt the full measure of his cruelty, and was touched with co From this time she ith us; yet, from what she told me, I know that she still (as woain his life, if not his pardon, fro, as the reward for her assistance His triumph she did not desire, for she loathed his crime, and loathed yet e with his cousin, Princess Flavia
At Zenda new forces ca Rupert
He was caught by her beauty, perhaps; perhaps it was enough for hied to another man, and that she hated him For many days there had been quarrels and ill will between him and the duke, and the scene which I had witnessed in the duke's room was but one of many Rupert's proposals to norant, in no way surprised her when I related theainst Rupert, even when she was calling on ht, then, Rupert had deterone to her roo furnished himself with a key to it, had ht the duke, and there in the dark roo wounded hisin, escaped through theas I have described The duke's blood, spurting out, had stained his opponent's shi+rt; but Rupert, not knowing that he had dealt Michael his death, was eager to finish the encounter How he meant to deal with the other three of the band, I know not I dare say he did not think, for the killing of Michael was not premeditated Antoinette, left alone with the duke, had tried to stanch his wound, and thus was she busied till he died; and then, hearing Rupert's taunts, she had coe him Me she had not seen, nor did she till I darted out of my ambush, and leapt after Rupert into the moat
The same moment found my friends on the scene They had reached the chateau in due time, and waited ready by the door But Johann, sith the rest to the rescue of the duke, did not open it; nay, he took a part against Rupert, putting himself forward more bravely than any in his anxiety to avert suspicion; and he had received a wound, in the embrasure of theTill nearly half-past two Sapt waited; then, following my orders, he had sent Fritz to search the banks of theback, Fritz told Sapt; and Sapt was for following orders still, and riding at full speed back to Tarlenhei me, let me have ordered what I would On this they disputed some few minutes; then Sapt, persuaded by Fritz, detached a party under Bernenstein to gallop back to Tarlenheireat door of the chateau For several minutes it resisted them; then, just as Antoinette de Mauban fired at Rupert of Hentzau on the bridge, they broke in, eight of them in all: and the first door they came to was the door of Michael's room; and Michael lay dead across the threshold, with a sword-thrust through his breast Sapt cried out at his death, as I had heard, and they rushed on the servants; but these, in fear, dropped their weapons, and Antoinette flung herself weeping at Sapt's feet And all she cried was, that I had been at the end of the bridge and leapt off ”What of the prisoner?” asked Sapt; but she shook her head Then Sapt and Fritz, with the gentlee, sloarily, and without noise; and Fritz stumbled over the body of De Gautet in the way of the door They felt hierly for any sound froreatly afraid that the King's guards had killed hireat pipe, had escaped the same way themselves Yet, because I had been seen here, they had still some hope (thus indeed Fritz, in his friendshi+p, toldaside Antoinette, who prayed by it, they found a key to the door which I had locked, and opened the door The staircase was dark, and they would not use a torch at first, lest they should be more exposed to fire But soon Fritz cried: ”The door down there is open! See, there is light!” So they went on boldly, and found none to oppose theian, Bersonin, lying dead, they thanked God, Sapt saying: ”Ay, he has been here” Then rushi+ng into the King's cell, they found Detchard lying dead across the dead physician, and the King on his back with his chair by him And Fritz cried: ”He's dead!” and Sapt drove all out of the roo learnt n of death than I, he soon knew that the King was not dead, nor, if properly attended, would die
And they covered his face and carried him to Duke Michael's roo by the body of the duke and went to bathe the King's head and dress his wounds, till a doctor ca heard Antoinette's story, sent Fritz to search the moat and then the forest He dared send no one else And Fritz found my horse, and feared the worst Then, as I have told, he found uided by the shout hich I had called on Rupert to stop and face lad to find his own brother alive than was Fritz to coht nothing of a thing so great as would have been the death of Rupert Hentzau Yet, had Fritz killed hi's rescue being thus prosperously concluded, it lay on Colonel Sapt to secure secrecy as to the King ever having been in need of rescue Antoinette de Mauban and Johann the keeper (who, indeed, was too ue just noere sworn to reveal nothing; and Fritz went forth to find--not the King, but the unna, who had lain in Zenda and flashed for a moment before the dazed eyes of Duke Michael's servants on the drawbridge The , wounded aluarded his friend, had at last overcome them, and rested noounded but alive, in Black Michael's own room in the Castle There he had been carried, his face covered with a cloak, from the cell; and thence orders issued, that if his friend were found, he should be brought directly and privately to the King, and that ers should ride at full speed to Tarlenheim, to tell Marshall Strakencz to assure the princess of the King's safety and to co
The princess was enjoined to re or his further injunctions Thus the King would coht brave deeds, and escaped, almost by a miracle, the treacherous assault of his unnatural brother
This ingenious arrange-headed old friend prospered in every way, save where it encountered a force that often defeats theelse than the pleasure of a won send what command he chose (or Colonel Sapt chose for him), and let Marshal Strakencz insist as he would, the Princess Flavia was in no way minded to rest at Tarlenheim while her lover lay wounded at Zenda; and when the Marshal, with a small suite, rode forth froe followed ih the tohere the report was already rife that the King, going the night before to remonstrate with his brother, in all friendliness, for that he held one of the King's friends in confinement in the Castle, had been most traitorously set upon; that there had been a desperate conflict; that the duke was slain with several of his gentle, wounded as he was, had seized and held the Castle of Zenda All of which talk hty excites came to Strelsau only just after orders had been sent thither to parade the troops and overawe the dissatisfied quarters of the toith a display of force
Thus the Princess Flavia came to Zenda And as she drove up the hill, with the Marshal riding by the wheel and still i's orders, Fritz von Tarlenheie of the forest I had revived fro out from the cover of the trees, I saw the princess Suddenly understanding frolance at my companion's face that we must not meet her, I sank on my knees behind a cluotten, but who followed us, and was not disposed to let slip the chance of earning a smile and maybe a crown or two; and, while we lay hidden, the little far and crying:
”Madauide you to him, mada lies wounded in the Castle”
”Yes, sir, he's wounded, I know; but he's there--with Count Fritz--and not at the Castle,” she persisted
”Is he in two places, or are there two Kings?” asked Flavia, bewildered
”And how should he be there?”
”He pursued a gentleht till Count Fritz caentle is here with Count Fritz Why, ?”