Part 56 (1/2)
An exclamation of surprise escaped from the lips of the three gentlemen, and their eyes turned toward the door, the threshold of which f.a.n.n.y Arnstein was crossing at that moment. She seemed just to have returned home; her tall form was still wrapped in a long Turkish shawl, embroidered with gold; a charming little bonnet, adorned with flowers and plumes, covered her head, and in her hand she held one of those large costly fans, adorned with precious stones, which were in use at that time in the place of parasols. She greeted the gentlemen with a winning smile; not the slightest tinge of care or uneasiness was visible in her merry face; not the faintest glimmer of a tear darkened the l.u.s.tre of her large black eyes.
”Gentlemen will please accept my apology for making them wait, although this is the hour when I am in the habit of receiving visitors,” said the baroness, in a perfectly careless manner. ”But I hope my husband has taken my place in the mean time and told you that I had to preside over a meeting of our Hebrew Benevolent Society, and you will acknowledge that that was a duty which I ought not to have failed to fulfil. Ah, you smile, Baron Weichs; you must explain to me what is the meaning of this smile, if you wish to intimate thereby, perhaps, that there are no important duties at all for us ladies to perform. Come, gentlemen, let us sit down and hear in what manner Baron Weichs will be able to defend his smile. Sit down here on my right side, prince, and you, Baron Weichs, on my left, and my husband may take a seat opposite us and play the role of an arbiter.”
”I regret that I cannot comply any longer with your amiable invitation,”
said the prebendary, gloomily. ”You have made me wait too long, baroness; my time has now expired, and I must withdraw. I suppose you will accompany me, Prince Lichtenstein?”
”Yes, I shall accompany you,” said the prince, ”for unfortunately my time has also expired, and I must go.”
”Oh, no,” exclaimed the baroness, smiling, ”you must stay here, prince.
I dare not prevent the prebendary from attending to his important affairs, but you, prince, have no such pretext for leaving me; I therefore order you to remain and to tell me all about yesterday's concert at the imperial palace.”
”I regret exceedingly that I am unable to obey your orders,” said the prince, mournfully. ”But I must go. You just said, dear lady, that an important duty had kept you away from home; well, it is an important duty that calls me away from here; hence I cannot stay. Farewell, and permit me to kiss your hand before leaving you.”
She gave him her hand, which was as cold as ice and trembled violently when he took it. He pressed his glowing lips upon this hand and looked up to her. Their eyes met in a last, tender glance; the prince then rose and turned toward the prebendary, who was conversing with Baron Arnstein in a low and excited tone.
”Come, sir, let us go,” he said, impetuously, and walked toward the door.
”Yes, let us go,” repeated the prebendary, and bowing profoundly to the baroness, he turned around and followed the prince.
f.a.n.n.y, who was evidently a prey to the most excruciating anguish, followed them with her distended, terrified eyes. When the door closed behind them, she hastily laid her hand on her husband's shoulder, and looked at him with an air of unutterable terror.
”They will fight a duel?” she asked.
”I am afraid so,” said the baron, gloomily.
The baroness uttered a shriek, and after tottering back a few steps, she fell senseless to the floor. Early on the following morning, four men with grave faces and gloomy eyes stood in the thicket of a forest not far from Vienna.
Two of them were just about divesting themselves of their heavy coats, embroidered with gold, in order to meet in mortal combat, their bare b.r.e.a.s.t.s only protected by their fine cambric s.h.i.+rts. These two men were Prince Charles von Lichtenstein and the prebendary, Baron Weichs.
The other two gentlemen were engaged in loading the pistols and counting off the steps; they were Baron Arnstein and Count Palfy, the seconds of the two duellists. When they had performed this mournful task, they approached the two adversaries in order to make a last effort to bring about a reconciliation.
”I implore you in my own name,” whispered Baron Arnstein in the ear of the Prince von Lichtenstein--”I implore you in the name of my wife, if a reconciliation should be possible, accept it, and avoid by all means so deplorable an event. Remember that the honor of a lady is compromised so easily and irretrievably, and that my wife would never forgive herself if she should become, perhaps, the innocent cause of your death.”
”n.o.body will find out that we fight a duel for her sake,” said the prince. ”My honor requires me to give that impertinent fellow a well-deserved lesson, and he shall have it!”
Count Palfy, the prebendary's second, approached them. ”If your highness should be willing to ask Baron Weichs to excuse your conduct on yesterday, the baron would be ready to accept your apology and to withdraw his challenge.”
”I have no apology to offer,” exclaimed the prince, loudly, ”and I am unwilling to prevent the duel from taking its course. I told the prebendary that I disliked his nose, and that I wished to amputate its impertinent tip. Well, I am now here to perform this operation, and if you please, let us at once proceed to business.”
”Yes, let us do so,” shouted the prebendary. ”Give us the pistols, gentlemen, and then the signal. When you clap for the third time, we shall shoot simultaneously. Pray for your poor soul, Prince von Lichtenstein, for I am a dead shot at one hundred yards, and our distance will only be twenty paces.”
The prince made no reply, but took the pistol which his second handed to him. ”If I should fall,” he whispered to him, ”take my last greetings to your wife, and tell her that I died with her name on my lips!”
”If I should fall,” said the prebendary to his second, in an undertone, but loud enough for his opponent to hear every word he said, ”tell the dear city of Vienna and my friends that I have fought a duel with Prince Lichtenstein because he was my rival with the beautiful Baroness Arnstein, and that I have died with the conviction that he was the lover of the fair lady.”
A pause ensued. The seconds conducted the two gentlemen to their designated places and then stood back, in order to give the fatal signals.
When they clapped for the first time, the two duellists raised the hand with the pistol, fixing their angry and threatening eyes on each other.