Part 24 (1/2)
”France is as powerful to-day as she ever was,” responded the seer.
”New armies at the beck of Napoleon will spring from the ground, his military chests will be filled with new millions, and the invincible chieftain will lead his legions to new victories. Woe then to Prussia if she proves faithless--woe to her, if, in insensate infatuation, she turns her back upon France, and allows herself to listen to the insinuations and promises by which Russia is trying to gain her over to her side! Russia herself is weak and exhausted; she will be unable to afford Prussia any adequate support. Be on your guard! Russia has always been a perfidious ally; she has always crushed the hand of her allies in her grasp, while seemingly giving a pledge of her good faith. France alone is offering to Prussia substantial guaranties of peace; Napoleon alone must remain the protector of Prussia. Banish, therefore, the insidious thoughts that are troubling your soul; try no longer to dissuade the king from adhering to the alliance. Do not try to persuade him to approve York's defection! He is a traitor, whose head must fall; for such is the decree of the laws of war. To approve his defection is to throw down the gauntlet to France, and annihilate Prussia!”
”You have played your part to perfection!” exclaimed Hardenberg, laughing. ”Please accept my sincere congratulations, my dear child; the greatest actress in the world could not perform her role any better than you have done to-day, and ever since I became acquainted with you.”
At the first words of the chancellor, the clairvoyante gave a violent start; a tremor pervaded her whole frame, and a deep blush suffused her cheeks for a moment; but all this quickly pa.s.sed away, and now she was again as rigid and motionless as she was before.
Hardenberg's eyes were fixed on her. ”You do not desire to understand me, Frederica,” he said. ”Well, then, I will speak somewhat more lucidly. Will you permit me to ask two additional questions?”
”You know very well that I must reply when your soul commands me to do so,” said the young woman, in a perfectly calm voice, ”for your soul has power over mine, and I must obey it.”
”Well, then--my first question: did I really, last night, on returning to my residence, speak with no one but old Conrad? Was no one but he in my room until I went to bed? Look sharp, open the eyes of your soul as wide as you can, and then reply!”
”I see,” she said, after a pause; ”but I see that you were alone with Conrad, and with the thoughts of a lady who loves you.”
”I am very glad that you tell me so,” said Hardenberg, calmly, ”for I understand from it that my enemies, who are furnis.h.i.+ng you with correct reports as to all my doings, have yet remained ignorant of an affair in which I was engaged last night. For there really was another person with me, and your patrons would give a great deal to find out what instructions I gave to that person. Now, as to my second question; but I hope you hear my words, ma toute belle, and have not yet pa.s.sed from an unnatural sleep into a natural one!”
”I hear you, and I am ready to answer if your soul commands me.”
”Well, then,” said Hardenberg, bending over her, and fixing his piercing eyes upon her countenance, ”my question is this: How much do your protectors give you for playing the part which you performed before me?”
A pause ensued. Suddenly the clairvoyante opened her eyes, gazing with an indescribable expression on the face of the minister still bending over her.
”They give me nothing,” she said, in a firm, sonorous voice, ”but the hope of acquiring a brilliant position in the future.”
”You confess, then, that you have played a considerable farce?”
asked Chancellor von Hardenberg, smiling.
”I confess that I have played my part very badly, and that your eagle eye is able to penetrate every thing. I confess that I adore you for having unmasked me,” she exclaimed, quickly encircling Hardenberg's neck with her arms, drawing his head down to her, and pressing a glowing kiss on his lips. Then, still keeping her arms around his neck, she raised herself from the couch, and leaned for a moment against the manly form of the chancellor.
Disengaging herself from him, she jumped from the bed to the floor, and, spreading out her arms, and throwing back her head, she exclaimed in a jubilant voice: ”I am free! I need no longer play my irksome role! Oh, I am free!”
Leaping into the middle of the room, as light-footed as a sylph, and fascinating as one of the graces, she began to dance, raising her feet and moving her arms in a slow, measured mariner, at the outset; but, turning more rapidly, with more pa.s.sionate movement and increasing ardor, her countenance grew more glowing and animated.
Her large black eyes flashed fire--an air of wild, bacchantic ecstasy pervaded her whole appearance, her cheeks were burning, her beautiful red lips were half opened, and revealed her ivory teeth, and her uplifted arms (from which the wide sleeves of her negligee had fallen back to the shoulders) were of the most charming contour.
Concluding her dance, she glided breathless and with panting bosom toward Hardenberg, who had sunk into the easy-chair, and was looking on with wondering eyes. Bursting into loud, melodious laughter, she sat at his feet, and, pressing her glowing face against his knees, looked searchingly and suppliantly into his eyes.
”You are angry with me,” she said; ”oh, pardon me, but I had first to give vent to my exultation. Now I will be quite sensible.”
”And what do you call sensible, then?” asked Hardenberg, who, under the power of the woman's glances, vainly tried to impart to his countenance an air of gravity and sternness.
”I call it sensible to reply honestly to the questions your excellency will put to me now,” she said, in a caressing tone.
”Well, then, let us see whether you are really sensible or not,”
said Hardenberg. ”In the first place, please rise.”
She shook her head slowly. ”No,” she said, ”I will remain at your feet until you have heard my confession and granted me absolution.”
”And suppose I refuse to grant you absolution?”
”Then I shall die at your feet!”