Part 52 (2/2)
'2nd. That this interview shall be secret; your Highness be incognito.'
”If your Highness be disposed to accede to the first proposition, I beg to submit to you that, from the nature of my residence, its situation, and other causes, there will be no fear that any suspicion of the fact of Mr. von Philipson acceding to the two propositions will gain notoriety. This letter will be delivered into your own hands. If Mr. von Philipson determine on acceding to these propositions, he is most probably aware of the general locality in which my residence is situated; and proper measures will be taken that, if Mr. von Philipson honour me with a visit, he shall not be under the necessity of attracting attention by inquiring the way to my house. It is wished that the fact of the second proposition being acceded to should only be known to Mr. von Philipson and myself, but if to be perfectly unattended be considered as an insuperable objection, I consent to his being accompanied by a single friend. I shall be alone.
”BECKENDORFF.”
”Well!” said the Prince, as Vivian finished the letter.
”The best person,” said Vivian, ”to decide upon your Highness consenting to this interview is yourself.”
”That is not the point on which I wish to have the benefit of your opinion; for I have already consented. I rode over this morning to my cousin, the Duke of Micromegas, and despatched from his residence a trusty messenger to Beckendorff. I have agreed to meet him, and to-morrow; but on the express terms that I should not be unattended. Now then,” continued the Prince, with great energy; ”now then, will you be my companion?”
”I!” said Vivian.
”Yes; you, my good friend! you. I should consider myself as safe if I were sleeping in a burning house as I should be were I with Beckendorff alone. Although this is not the first time that we have communicated, I have never yet seen him; and I am fully aware that, if the approaching interview were known to my friends, they would consider it high time that my son reigned in my stead. But I am resolved to be firm, to be inflexible. My course is plain. I am not to be again duped by him, which,” continued the Prince, much confused, ”I will not conceal that I have been once.”
”But I!” said Vivian; ”I; what good can I possibly do? It appears to me that, if Beckendorff is to be dreaded as you describe, the presence or the attendance of no friend can possibly save you from his crafty plans.
But surely, if any one attend you, why not be accompanied by a person whom you have known long, and who knows you well; on whom you can confidently rely, and who may be aware, from a thousand signs and circ.u.mstances which will never attract my attention, at what particular and pressing moments you may require prompt and energetic a.s.sistance.
Such is the companion you want; and surely such an one you may find in Arnelm, Von Neuwied--”
”Arnelm! Von Neuwied!” said the Prince; ”the best hands at sounding a bugle or spearing a boar in all Reisenburg! Excellent men, forsooth! to guard their master from the diplomatic deceits of the wily Beckendorff!
Moreover, were they to have even the slightest suspicion of my intended movement, they would commit rank treason out of pure loyalty, and lock me up in my own cabinet! No, no! they will never do: I want a companion of experience and knowledge of the world, with whom I may converse with some prospect of finding my wavering firmness strengthened, or my misled judgment rightly guided, or my puzzled brain cleared; modes of a.s.sistance to which the worthy Jagd Junker is but little accustomed, however quickly he might hasten to my side in a combat or the chase.”
”If these, then, will not do, surely there is one man in this castle who, although he may not be a match for Beckendorff, can be foiled by few others. Mr. Sievers?” said Vivian, with an inquiring eye.
”Sievers!” exclaimed the Prince, with great eagerness; ”the very man!
firm, experienced, and sharp-witted; well schooled in political learning, in case I required his a.s.sistance in arranging the terms of the intended Charter or the plan of the intended Chambers; for these, of course, are the points on which Beckendorff wishes to consult. But one thing I am determined on: I positively pledge myself to nothing while under Beckendorff's roof. He doubtless antic.i.p.ates, by my visit, to grant the liberties of the people on his own terms: perhaps Mr.
Beckendorff, for once in his life, may be mistaken. I am not to be deceived twice; and I am determined not to yield the point of the Treasury being under the control of the Senate. That is the part of the harness which galls; and to preserve themselves from this rather inconvenient regulation, without question, my good friend Beckendorff has. .h.i.t upon this plan.”
”Then Mr. Sievers will accompany you?” asked Vivian, calling the Prince's attention to the point of consultation.
”The very man for it, my dear friend! but although Beckendorff, most probably respecting my presence, and taking into consideration the circ.u.mstances under which we meet, would refrain from consigning Sievers to a dungeon; still, although the Minister invites this interview, and although I have no single inducement to conciliate him, yet it would scarcely be correct, scarcely dignified on my part, to prove, by the presence of my companion, that I had for a length of time harboured an individual who, by Beckendorff's own exertions, was banished from the Grand Duchy. It would look too much like a bravado.”
”Oh!” said Vivian; ”is it so? And pray of what was Mr. Sievers guilty?”
”Of high treason against one who was not his sovereign.”
”How is that?”
”Sievers, who is a man of considerable talents, was for a long time a professor in one of our great Universities. The publication of many able works procured him a reputation which induced Madame Carolina to use every exertion to gain his attendance at Court; and a courtier in time the professor became. At Reisenburg Mr. Sievers was the great authority on all subjects: philosophical, literary, and political. In fact, he was the fas.h.i.+on; and, at the head of the great literary journal which is there published, he terrified admiring Germany with his profound and piquant critiques. Unfortunately, like some men as good, he was unaware that Reisenburg was not an independent state; and so, on the occasion of Austria attacking Naples, Mr. Sievers took the opportunity of attacking Austria. His article, eloquent, luminous, profound, revealed the dark colours of the Austrian policy, as an artist's lamp brings out the murky tints of a Spagnoletto. Every one admired Sievers' bitter sarcasms, enlightened views, and indignant eloquence. Madame Carolina crowned him with laurel in the midst of her coterie, and it is said that the Grand Duke sent him a snuff-box. In a short time the article reached Vienna, and in a still shorter time Mr. Beckendorff reached the Residence, and insisted on the author being immediately given up to the Austrian Government. Madame Carolina was in despair, the Grand Duke in doubt, and Beckendorff threatened to resign if the order were not signed. A kind friend, perhaps his Royal Highness himself, gave Sievers timely notice, and by rapid flight he reached my castle, and demanded my hospitality.
He has lived here ever since, and has done me a thousand services, not the least of which is the education which he has given my son, my glorious Maximilian.”
”And Beckendorff,” asked Vivian; ”has he always been aware that Sievers was concealed here?”
”That I cannot answer: had he been, it is not improbable that he would have winked at it; since it never has been his policy unnecessarily to annoy a mediatised Prince, or without great occasion to let us feel that our independence is gone; I will not, with such a son as I have, say, for ever.”
”Mr. Sievers of course, then, cannot visit Beckendorff,” said Vivian.
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