Part 37 (1/2)
The next morning Quilter-Beckett, making a report in Hogarth's _salon_, mentioned the incident, saying: ”Here are the names, with the sentences; I shall send the sailors home...” and Hogarth's eyes, resting on the doc.u.ment, chanced to catch that name of Frankl.
At once he turned pale, for his first thought was: ”Frankl must have been going to the wedding, in which case _Someone Else_ may be with him”.
But her name was not there....
He rose and paced; and he said low: ”No one else on either of the s.h.i.+ps?”
”No, my Lord King”.
Then up lifted Hogarth's brow, alight with fun, and he muttered: ”All right, Caps-and-ta.s.sels”.
He said aloud: ”Quilter-Beckett, this Frankl I know. Did you never hear anything about Caps-and-ta.s.sels at Westring? _He_ is Caps-and-ta.s.sels.
Now tell me, which is your biggest blue-jacket?”
”Man called Young, my Lord King”.
”Then, have a suit of Young's sea-clothes put upon this Frankl, and let him be brought before me in the Throne Room this morning after the Audience. He was fond of liveries....”
Accordingly, by half-past eleven Frankl entered the Throne Room, where, as soon as its rosy translucency broke upon his gaze, an ”Oh!” of admiration groaned from him, in spite of his weight of misery, he not walking, but being lifted forward in successive swings by his armpits--up the first steps to the outer circle of bal.u.s.trade, forward to the second steps and the inner bal.u.s.trade, within which shone the throne, and Hogarth, crowned and large in robes, on it.
The two warders, intent upon portering Frankl, and not noticing the cap which still covered his eyebrows, one now in sudden scare whispered: ”Off with your cap, you...!” on which Frankl s.n.a.t.c.hed it off, grasping through superabundant sleeves, he at the same moment a fury and a dazzled man, the throne before him incredible, like a dream which one knows to be a dream, in structure not unlike the Peac.o.c.k Throne of Akbar, its length fourteen feet, seating thirteen persons in recesses, standing on a gold platform with three concave steps set with rings of sapphire, and consisting of a central part and two wings, the wings being supported on twisted legs (one had been broken), and made of fretted ivory mosaicked with cabochon emerald, ruby, topaz, turquoise, chrysoberyl, diamond, opal, the large central part, with its recesses, being also of ivory, gold-arabesqued, its mosque-shape canopy (of Hindoo enamel-work on the outside) being supported by eleven pillars of emerald; at the top of each pillar a dolphin (hence the name ”Dolphin Throne”) made of turquoise, jasper, pearl, sardius, and at the bottom of each pillar a _guldusta_, or bouquet, of gems; the concave ceiling one ma.s.s of stones, representing a sea in which sailed three Dutch galleons, and seven dolphins sported.
But all that Frankl saw of it was its opulence: for his terror lest the warders should let him go occupied his mind.
And precisely the thing which he feared came upon him, for Hogarth said: ”Warders, retire”.
And now Frankl, all unsupported, stood in unstable equilibrium, anon stooping to his finger-tips, then straining doubtfully forward with struggling arms from a too backward poise: for not only did the trousers lie a twisted emptiness far below his feet, but the feet themselves were lost in Young's boots, so he stood like Scaramouch, a mere sack, a working of his chin wobbling down his beard, and there was a blaze in his stare which Hogarth, unfortunately, did not well estimate.
They faced each other, alone, save for the body-guard at the circ.u.mference of the room.
”Was it _you_ that sent me to Colmoor?” Hogarth suddenly asked in a low voice, stooping forward.
”_Me_!” shrieked Baruch Frankl, pointing a hanging sleeve-end to his breast: ”as Jehovah is my witness--”
”Were you about to _swear_? For ever the same?--tyrant and worm? It _was_ you. Now tell it me right out: you have nothing to fear: for you cannot be vain enough to imagine that I would harbour enmity against you”.
”It wasn't me, I say again, my Lord King!”--Frankl trampled a little backward, then stooped over-poised to his finger-tips: ”with what motive? Oh, that's hard--to be accused. They have already given me a month--my G.o.d! a month! And only because I am a Jew. But it wasn't me--that I'll swear to G.o.d--”
Hogarth rose to his height, descended, put his hand upon Frankl's shoulder. ”Well, leave that. But--_my sister_!”
His hand felt the shoulder beneath it start like fits.
”Your sister!” Frankl screamed with a face of scare: ”Why, what of her now?”
”Frankl, you are frightened: you know, Frankl, _where she is_!”
”Me? O, my Good G.o.d, what is this! Me, poor sinner, know where your sister is, my Lord King? Why, spare me! spare me, G.o.d of Hosts! Why, you've only got to ask yourself the question--”
”Listen to me, Frankl”, said Hogarth, bending his blazing brow low over the Jew: ”I have searched for that woman through the world, and have not found her. All the time, mind you, I felt convinced that you know where she is; and you may wonder why--years ago--I did not have you seized.