Now, as is the way of an old, commanding nature that has never known a day’s sickness for fifty years, the Prince detested the doctors and looked askance at the nuns. He suffered them, because he was helpless, but Grimm was his rod and his staff, and the presence of his old servant comforted him more than all the ministrations of the strangers about his bed. By skilfully exploiting this preference, Grimm had taught the nuns to look upon him as their chief, and I think they told him more than they told the doctors, who were less content to listen than to judge for themselves: since one of the nuns had had much experience of sickness, it follows that Grimm was constantly well informed and knew better than anyone else the actual condition of the patient and the course which his illness was shaping from hour to hour.
Such knowledge was, of course, above price, for unless the Prince were to be taken off by another seizure, the nuns were sure to be able to discern the approach of the end and so to give us that notice of which we had so much need.
At a quarter to nine that evening I took my stand in the hall. My post was at the door of the bedchamber. On the opposite side of the hall young Grimm, half-dead with fatigue, stood to the door from the staircase, with his eyes on the red-glass telltale, which served as a bell. In an easy chair, some twenty paces away, one of the lords-in-waiting was slumbering peacefully.
I have said that I had made up my mind that we had little to fear. So, I think, had we all. But, looking back, I know that this was a fiction by which we sought to cheat our understanding and steady our nerves.
To be perfectly honest, if I had known the nature of the duties which we should have to perform, I should no more have engaged us to undertake them than I would have engaged us to scale the cathedral towers. In my ignorance of the state which royalty keeps, I had imagined that George and Bell and I could watch by night, clean the rooms at cockcrow and hover in the background throughout the day. I had actually wondered what four footmen could find to do. And now, within two hours of my arrival, I was upon parade, at the beck and call of the sleepy lord-in-waiting, who might any moment awake, waiting to usher three doctors into the Prince’s room. More. But for the fact that I did not know them by sight, George would have been where I was and I should have been standing at the door which led to the stairs, for, as I have said, young Grimm was at the end of his tether and moved like a man in a dream.
It was, indeed, only the physical exhaustion of himself and his son that had induced the sergeant-footman to consent to adopt my plan. He had done so in desperation and verily believing that, unless he did so, the two would fall asleep standing before six hours were out. “And there,” said he, “would have been a nice state of affairs. Not a door in the place I can lock or so much as bolt. The holy women lied to – told I was out of the suite: no one to tell you to send for the Lord Sully: and the corridor full of soldiers before we knew where we were. It’s a dreadful thing, sir, to lean on a treacherous crutch.”
I had agreed thoughtfully, for I was inwardly wondering what was the difference between a treacherous crutch and a broken reed…
The telltale glowed suddenly, turning its wine-red glass to the colour of fire.
Instantly young Grimm stiffened, and I realized with a shock that the palms of my hands were wet.
I pulled myself together and took a deep breath.
The door was ajar, and young Grimm was looking to see who it was that had ‘rung’. Then he stepped back and swung the mahogany wide.
As the physicians entered, I knocked upon the bedchamber’s door.
A moment, and this was opened by one of the nuns.
“The doctors?” she whispered.
I nodded, and she let the door go. I set it open at once and stood to one side. As the three physicians passed in, I regarded them carefully. The impulse to look elsewhere or at least to lower my head was most insistent: but it was all important that I should know them again. Two passed me by as though I did not exist, but the third looked me up and down, frowning, till the hair rose upon my head. The truth is, I think, that he mistrusted himself and so sought to allay my suspicion that he found the ways of the mighty in any way strange: but I could have spared his endeavour which seemed to me but the prelude to my denouncement.
Then at last he was gone, and I shut the door.
The visit lasted five minutes, but before they left the sick-room, the lord-in-waiting awoke and strolled up to young Grimm.
“Did I hear the doctors?” he said.
“Yes, my lord.”
He was not wearing uniform, and I made up my mind that it was Brooch. It was, of course, mere chance that he had not accosted me.
With the tail of my eye I watched him take out his watch and start to pace up and down…
My door was suddenly opened, and the doctors emerged.
Brooch came to meet them at once.
For a moment or two they stood talking. Then they passed to the door to the staircase, and the janitor opened it wide.
To my inexpressible relief, Brooch followed the doctors out.
“As usual,” he said to young Grimm. “If the doctors should have to be summoned, ring also for me.”
“Very good, my lord.”
The next moment the door was shut.
By one consent, young Grimm and I met together in the midst of the hall.
“Well done, sir,” said he. “You see, it is easy enough. Will you know the physicians again?”
“Yes,” said I. “Will anyone else come tonight?”
“I do not think so. Possibly General Kneller. Him you can never mistake. His moustache is white and flowing, and he is very bald.”
“In uniform?” said I.
“Yes. Azure, by day: by night, the Army blue. But as a General, he always wears a red sash about his waist.”
“Will the doctors return?” said I.
“Not till tomorrow morning at nine o’clock.”
If only to keep him beside me, I could have questioned the lad for another hour, but to prime me as I should have liked would have taken a week, so he left to fetch George Hanbury, and I took his place by the door that led to the stairs.
When George came, Grimm came with him.
“The Grimms,” said George, “are going to take their rest. They won’t undress, of course. Bell will be round the corner.” He nodded in the direction from which he had come. “From where he stands he can watch the back door as well as the second door of the Prince’s room. When the nuns want the sergeant-footman, they always go to that door – not this. If we’re in trouble, one of us will have to fetch Grimm.”
He spoke in English, but that Grimm understood his last sentence was plain enough.
“No trouble will arise, sir,” he said. “I am there, of course, if you need me; but no one will seek admission for another ten hours.”
The next moment he was gone.
With my eyes fixed upon the telltale, I took my seat upon a bench, while George fell to pacing the hall.
And here once again George Hanbury’s rare intelligence pulled the fat out of the fire.
I fear I should make a bad servant, for I might have viewed disorder a hundred times and never conceived the notion of setting it straight: but George knew better. The chair which Brooch had been using caught his critical eye…
At once he ordered its cushions and folded up the papers which sprawled by its side. As he did so, a pair of spectacles fell to the floor.
I saw George look at them and finger his chin.
Then he came to my side and set them upon a salver which lay on a little table beside my bench.
“Did you see who was there?” he said.
“Brooch,” said I.
“Forewarned is forearmed,” said he. “He’ll be glad of those back.”
Half an hour perhaps had gone by, when, to my indescribable horror, the telltale glowed.
I think the sight of that signal – silent, angry, inexorable, took a month from my life.
As George whipped back to his post, I
moistened my lips. Then I took a deep breath and opened the door.
Brooch came in, peering.
In a flash I had the salver and was proffering what he had lost.
For a moment he stared at the glasses: then, with a grunt of satisfaction, he picked them up.
“That’s right,” he said agreeably, blinking up into my face. “It was you that found them last time, wasn’t it?”
I dared not reply, but bowed: but he seemed to expect no answer and left at once.
I shut the door behind him and wiped the sweat from my face…
When another half-hour had gone by, but no one had ‘rung’, I began to dare to hope that until the morning came we should not be disturbed. I, therefore, caught George’s eye, and he came to my side.
Hastily we whispered together.
It was no good our looking for Rowley for several hours, for he had some twenty miles to cover on foot, and since one could watch the hall and another was only needed in case Grimm had to be fetched, we arranged that George should lie down and take what rest he could. This, of course, on the carpet and by my side, so that at a touch of my slipper he could be instantly afoot. When he had rested I could lie down in my turn, and when my spell was over one of us could relieve Bell. In this way all three of us would enjoy some relaxation – if you can call it such.
The immediate strain had lessened, but the thought of the morrow made my blood run cold. Grimm and his son would be rested and so better able to keep us in countenance, but the sergeant-footman would be frequently with the Prince, and his son could not be expected never to leave the hall. Even if he stood at the door for twelve hours on end, any moment some crisis might arise which he could not control. The lad was pleasant and was by no means a fool: but he had not the ready wit of Rowley or Bell: what was worse, he would see no danger and smiled at our apprehension that anything might go wrong – anything…
For one thing only, one or other of the lords-in-waiting was on duty from nine in the morning till nine at night. And that in the corridor. If he happened to ask us a question, in case our speech should betray us, neither George nor I could reply, while Bell, who knew no German, could not so much as obey the simplest command.
For another, from ten o’clock to midday, distinguished subjects and personal friends of the Prince would be brought to an antechamber, there to learn from the lips of the lord-in-waiting the latest news. For those two hours, therefore, another door would have to be manned.
Three doors, not counting the back door – where orderlies would render ‘parade states’ and copies of the ‘orders of the day’, and messengers and postmen would deliver dispatches and mails… Four doors between four footmen, three of whom were play-acting and had never rehearsed their parts.
These things considered, I think I may be forgiven for, as the saying is, seeing a robber behind every bush.
Over all lowered, as ever, the cloud of Time. How many hours would go by before Johann discovered that the footmen that he had been using had been replaced?
I wrenched my thoughts from the future and turned to the past, and while I remembered the mountains and the cow-bells and the brush of the Grand Duchess’ lips, I tried to pretend that the telltale was a tail-lamp which had gone out.
The next day stands out of my memory as high hills stand out at sundown after the rain.
I think any one of us three could set down the whole of its burden, quarter by quarter of an hour, and never make one mistake.
To say that time seemed to drag conveys nothing at all. There were moments when I could have sworn that the clock in the sober hall was standing still. Ten minutes seemed an hour; an hour, eternity: and this unkind illusion far more than doubled the strain which was fretting our nerves.
This was continuously heavy.
We could not take counsel together – each had to act for himself when the moment came: while he sought to foresee some crisis and settle the line he must take, another would spring upon him, demanding immediate action so that the brain boggled at the issues with which it was faced: yet the demeanour of a statue must be deliberately preserved.
For myself, I lived and moved as a man in some frightful dream in which nothing seemed to happen which did not set the nerves tingling or fill the heart with dismay; and, while I am properly ashamed of this disorder, I sinned in good company, for George Hanbury always declares that twice in that day he made up his mind to tell me that he could not go on and that Rowley must be brought from the passage to take his place. This, I think, shows that our plight – which was really more delicate than dangerous – was made to appear more horrid by some malignant means, and I am inclined to lay the blame upon the telltales, for their sudden, noiseless illumination smacked of the supernatural and their sinister likeness to signals of danger was most importunate.
Since, however, the tale of our troubles would fill up a book, I will pass over most of the duty we tried to do and only relate such events as bear upon our endeavour to bring Duke Paul to the throne.
The apartments were swept and garnished by seven o’clock. At that hour, by my request, Grimm opened the door to the passage, and there was Rowley asleep.
He reported that all was well, so I told him to stay where he was and take his ease, holding himself ever ready to seek the Grand Duchess and Sully according to the plan we had laid.
This plan was not at all to my liking, but the devil was driving, and we could think of no better, try as we would.
When the Prince was seen to be sinking, Rowley would run to the Lessing Strasse and give the alarm. At once the Grand Duchess would telephone to Duke Paul. Rowley would run on to Sully’s and give him his news and would then repair to Duke Paul’s. There he would await the Grand Duchess and Madame Dresden, who, sure to be the first ready, would call for the Duke. Rowley would escort the three to the passage and up to the suite, where Sully would be already, for he had less distance to go.
Such was our miserable scheme. And there I will leave it, for its faults need no pointing out and cannot be diminished by any argument.
At a quarter to nine came Kneller, and at nine the three physicians visited the Prince. They had been gone some ten minutes when Sully arrived.
The Lord President entered quickly, and I saw that his nerves were on edge. Young Grimm admitted him, and I was standing beside the bedchamber’s door.
At once Kneller came to meet him and seemed very anxious to please, but Sully, though courteous as ever, was very grave and, while he listened to Kneller, made little or no reply.
So soon as he decently could, he turned to the door upon which I was waiting to knock, but the lord-in-waiting turned with him and the two approached me together, side by side.
This was the last thing I wanted. In Sully’s philosophy sensation had no part, and I feared very much that my appearance would discompose my old tutor and that Kneller would remark not only his discomposure, but the source from which it sprang.
I had knocked and was standing, waiting, when I noticed the beads of sweat upon Sully’s brow.
My summons was not answered at once, because, I suppose, the nurses were somehow engaged, and the three of us stood together for the longest minute that I have ever known.
Sully stared upon the carpet, I strained my ears for the sound of the nurse’s approach, and Kneller put up an eye-glass and surveyed me from head to foot.
I suppose this was natural. The man had held many inspections and had an eye for precision in matters of dress. But his scrutiny was very trying, and I was mortally afraid that he would find something about me which belied the lackey.
At last the door was opened, and Sully passed in.
Kneller turned on his heel and strolled down the hall.
Now it was most important that Sully should be put in possession of the plan I have already set out. It had been arranged, therefore, that when he had seen the Prince, Grimm should conduct him from the sick-room by way of the service door, that so he might speak with George, before returning
to the hall by the way he had come. It follows that Sully’s reappearance was something delayed, and Kneller, who was waiting to waylay him, more than once glanced at the clock.
At last the door was opened, and Sully emerged.
“Is he speaking?” said Kneller. “I mean—”
“With difficulty,” said Sully slowly. “He – he wishes you sworn of the Council as soon as may be.”
Kneller started, and I saw his hand fumble for his glass.
“But surely he knows—”
“Oh, yes,” said Sully. “He knows that he will not be there. He wishes you sworn at the first Council held by Duke Paul.”
What more was said I did not hear, but Kneller’s ears were crimson and his hands were very busy behind his back. Indeed, it was very plain that his withers were wrung, for for the rest of the day he never sat down, but constantly paced the corridor, frowning and blowing through his nose and pulling his heavy moustache. I began to have hope that Kneller might be reclaimed.
Little more than half an hour later George came to say that the door of the south antechamber must now be manned and that young Grimm must mind the back door, because the sergeant-footman had been called to the Prince.
Argument was not to be thought of, but the hall might have been a scaffold upon which we three poor wretches were going to strut.
Two minutes later Bell had taken my place, George was at the door from the staircase, and I stood to that of the antechamber, salver in hand.
It was the practice of visitors to present their cards: these the footman accepted and took to the lord-in-waiting, who immediately repaired to the antechamber and spoke with whoever was there.
Thirty-four visitors paid their respects that day.
I do not know why I had not expected Madame Dresden. As the Grand Duchess’ lady-in-waiting, she called at the palace daily. I never knew this nor had given the matter a thought, but at half past ten that morning I was looking into her eyes.
The sentries were watching us, and I was greatly afraid that either she or I had shown some sign of surprise, and, to tell the truth, I can remember no more until I heard her greet Kneller and ask for news.
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