Part 20 (2/2)
said Count de Lacy, in very fluent German, but with the hard foreign accent of a Hungarian. ”After a battle won, I know nothing pleasanter than to recall with a comrade the past danger, and to revel again in memory the excitement of the fight.”
”May I request your excellency to remember that the Austrians cannot count the conquest of Berlin in the list of their victories,” cried Count Tottleben, with a sarcastic smile. ”It was the Russian army which besieged Berlin, and Berlin surrendered _to us_.”
”You are very kind to remind me of it,” said Count de Lacy, with his unchangeable, pleasant smile. ”In the mean time may I request a more particular explanation than this polite reminder?”
”You shall have it, sir,” cried Tottleben, pa.s.sionately. ”I mean to say that Berlin is not Charlottenburg, and to request that the vandalism which the Austrian troops practised there, may not be transferred to Berlin. Be satisfied with the booty which your soldiers stowed away in their knapsacks at that place, and have the kindness to order the Austrian army to learn a little discipline and humanity from the Russians.”
”From the Russians?” asked Count de Lacy, with ironical astonishment.
”Truly one is not accustomed to learn humanity from that quarter.
Does your excellency mean to say that the Austrians are to learn good manners from the Russians?”
”Yes, from the Russians,” replied Tottleben--”from my soldiers, who neither plunder nor rob, but bear in mind that they are soldiers, and not thieves!”
”Sir,” cried De Lacy, ”what do these words mean?”
”They mean that I have promised my protection to the people of Berlin, and that I am prepared to afford it to them, even against our own allies. They mean that I have made myself sufficiently strong to bid you defiance, sir, and to defend Berlin against the cruelty and inhumanity of the Austrian army. The Russian army will compel it to be humane, and to pause in the cruel rage with which they have desolated unhappy Germany.”
Count de Lacy shrugged his shoulders. ”What is Germany to you, and why do you feel for her?” asked he jeeringly. ”I beg you, count, let us not speak of Germany. What to us is this lachrymose, fantastic female Germania, which has been betrothed to so many lords and wooers, that she can remain faithful and true to none? Germania will then only be happy when one of her lovers has the boldness to kill off and tread under foot all his rivals and so build himself up an undisputed throne. That is Austria's mission, and our duty is to fulfil it. We are the heralds who go before Germania's Austrian bridegroom, and everywhere illuminate the heavens with the torches of our triumphs. If the torches now and then come too near some piece of humanity and set it on fire, what is that to us? Germany is our enemy, and if we have a puling compa.s.sion on our enemy, we become traitors to our own cause. That's all. But what is the use of this strife and these recriminations?” asked he, suddenly breaking into a smile. ”I have only come to ask your excellency when you intend to light these new wedding-torches which are to redden the sky of Berlin?”
”What wedding-torches?” inquired Tottleben, turning pale.
”Well, those which are to burst out from the mint and factory buildings,” said De Lacy, with a smile of indifference. ”I antic.i.p.ate with extraordinary pleasure this exhibition of fireworks which the town of Berlin is going to give in honor of our presence.”
”You mean to say in disgrace of our presence,” exclaimed Tottleben, ardently.
Count de Lacy looked at him with a compa.s.sionate shrug of the shoulders. ”My dear count,” said he, with cutting coldness, ”when a man becomes a Russian general, he must have a Russian heart, and not allow himself to be influenced by any German softness or sympathy.
Otherwise it might happen that they might make a mistake, and not being able to deprive you of your German heart, might take your German head instead.”
General Tottleben drew back with astonishment, and stared at him.
Count de Lacy continued, smiling, and in a quiet tone: ”I warn you to guard against your own mildness and your German heart. General Fermore is my friend, and often consults me about the meaning of German words.
How would you like it if I should explain the word _treason_ in a manner dangerous to yourself, and if this explanation should result in translating your excellency into Siberia?”
”General Fermore is neither my commander nor my master,” cried Tottleben, proudly.
”But the lord and master of your lady and mistress, the high and mighty Empress Elizabeth--remember that. Will your excellency now condescend to inform me at what time the Berlin armory shall rise fluttering in the air like a bird?”
”And do you know that, too?” asked Tottleben, with painful astonishment.
”I have already told you that the Russians and Austrians are faithful allies, and have no secrets from each other, as far as their designs upon Germany are concerned. Oh, it will be a splendid _feu de joie_ for the house of Austria, when the Prussian armory is blown into the air! When are we to enjoy this spectacle, general?”
General von Tottleben sank his head in silence on his breast. Count de Lacy regarded him with a cold and piercing glance. Tottleben felt this look, and understood its important significance. He knew that his whole future, his freedom, perhaps even his life, hung upon this moment.
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