Part 15 (1/2)
”The king?”
”My business here is with his Majesty.”
Maurice filled the gla.s.ses and pushed one across the table.
”Here's!” said he, and gulped.
Fitzgerald drank slowly, however, as if arranging in his mind the salient points in his forthcoming narrative.
”I have never been an extraordinarily communicative man; what I shall tell you is known only to my former Colonel and myself. At Calcutta, where you and I first met, I was but a Lieutenant in her Majesty's.
To-day I am burdened with riches such as I know not how to use, and possessor of a t.i.tle which sounds strange in my ears.”
The dim light from the gas-jet in the room flickered over his face, and Maurice saw that it was slightly contorted, as if by pain.
”My father was Lord Fitzgerald.”
”What!” cried Maurice, ”the diplomat, the historian, the millionaire?”
”The same. Thirteen years ago we parted--a misunderstanding. I never saw him again. Six months ago he died and left me a fortune, a t.i.tle and a strange legacy; and it is this legacy which brings me to Bleiberg. Do you know the history of Leopold?”
”I do. This throne belongs to the house of Auersperg, and the Osian usurps. The fact that the minister of the d.u.c.h.ess has been discredited was what brought me here. Continue.”
And Fitzgerald proceeded briefly to acquaint the other with the strange caprice of his father; how, when he left Bleiberg, he had been waylaid and the certificates demanded; how he had entrusted them to his valet, who had gone by another route; how the duke had sought him in Vienna and made offers, bribes and threats; how he had laughed at all, and sworn that Duke Josef should never be a king.
”My father wished to save Leopold in spite of himself; and then, he had no love for Josef. At a dinner given at the legation, there was among others a toast to her Majesty. The duke laughed and tossed the wine to the floor. It lost him his crown, for my father never forgave the insult. When the duke died, his daughter took up the work with surprising vigor. It was all useless; father was a rock, and would listen neither to bribes nor threats. Now they are after me. They have hunted me in India, London, and Vienna. I am an obscure soldier, with all my t.i.tles and riches; they threaten me with death. But I am here, and my father's wishes shall be carried out. That is all. I am glad that we have come together; you have more invention than I have.”
”But why did you come yourself? You could have sent an agent. That would have been simple.”
”An agent might be bought. It was necessary for me to come. However, I might have waited till the twentieth. I should have come openly and informed the British minister of my mission. As to the pheasants, they could have waited. Perhaps my fears are without foundation, unless you have been the unconscious cause of my true name being known. Every one has heard the story. It is known as 'Fitzgerald's folly,' and has gone the rounds of the diplomatic circles for ten years. I shall ask for an audience to-morrow morning.”
”And these certificates fall due the same day that the princess is to be married,” mused his auditor. ”What a yarn for the papers!” his love of sensation being always close to the surface. ”Your father, you say, took four million crowns; what became of the fifth?”
”The duke was permitted to secure that.”
”A kind of court plaster for his wounds, eh? Why don't you get that other million and run the kingdom yourself? It's a great opportunity.”
Maurice laughed.
”Her Royal Highness must not be forgotten. My father thought much of her.”
”But really I do not see why you are putting yourself to all this trouble. The king will pay off the indebtedness; the kingdom is said to be rich, or Austria wouldn't meddle with it.”
”The king, on the twentieth of this month, will be some three millions short.”
”And since he can not pay he is bankrupt. Ah, I see the plan. The duke knew that he wouldn't be able to pay.”
”You have hit it squarely.”
”But Austria, having placed Leopold here, is his sponsor.”
”Austria has too many debts of her own; she will have to disavow her protege, which is a fact not unthought of by the house of Auersperg.