The Adventures of an UnderstudyWith Fritz von Tarlenheim and Colonel Sapt close behind me, Istepped out of the buffet on to the platform. The last thing I did was to feelif my revolver were handy and my sword loose in the scabbard. A gaygroup of officers and high dignitaries stood awaiting me, at their head atall old man, covered with medals, and of military bearing. He wore theyellow and red ribbon of the Red Rose of Ruritania--which, by the way,decorated my unworthy breast also.
"Marshal Strakencz," whispered Sapt, and I knew that I was in thepresence of the most famous veteran of the Ruritanian army.
Just behind the Marshal stood a short spare man, in flowing robes ofblack and crimson.
"The Chancellor of the Kingdom," whispered Sapt.
The Marshal greeted me in a few loyal words, and proceeded todeliver an apology from the Duke of Strelsau. The duke, it seemed, hadbeen afflicted with a sudden indisposition which made it impossible forhim to come to the station, but he craved leave to await his Majesty at theCathedral. I expressed my concern, accepted the Marshal's excuses verysuavely, and received the compliments of a large number of distinguishedpersonages. No one betrayed the least suspicion, and I felt my nervereturning and the agitated beating of my heart subsiding. But Fritz wasstill pale, and his hand shook like a leaf as he extended it to the Marshal.
Presently we formed procession and took our way to the door of thestation. Here I mounted my horse, the Marshal holding my stirrup. Thecivil dignitaries went off to their carriages, and I started to ride through thestreets with the Marshal on my right and Sapt (who, as my chief aide-decamp,was entitled to the place) on my left. The city of Strelsau is partlyold and partly new. Spacious modern boulevards and residential quarterssurround and embrace the narrow, tortuous, and picturesque streets of theoriginal town. In the outer circles the upper classes live; in the inner theshops are situated; and, behind their prosperous fronts, lie hidden populous but wretched lanes and alleys, filled with a poverty-stricken, turbulent, and(in large measure) criminal class. These social and local divisionscorresponded, as I knew from Sapt's information, to another division moreimportant to me. The New Town was for the King; but to the Old TownMichael of Strelsau was a hope, a hero, and a darling.
The scene was very brilliant as we passed along the Grand Boulevardand on to the great square where the Royal Palace stood. Here I was in themidst of my devoted adherents. Every house was hung with red andbedecked with flags and mottoes. The streets were lined with raised seatson each side, and I passed along, bowing this way and that, under ashower of cheers, blessings, and waving handkerchiefs. The balconieswere full of gaily dressed ladies, who clapped their hands and curtsied andthrew their brightest glances at me. A torrent of red roses fell on me; onebloom lodged in my horse's mane, and I took it and stuck it in my coat.
The Marshal smiled grimly. I had stolen some glances at his face, but hewas too impassive to show me whether his sympathies were with me ornot.
"The red rose for the Elphbergs, Marshal," said I gaily, and he nodded.
I have written "gaily," and a strange word it must seem. But the truth is,that I was drunk with excitement. At that moment I believed--I almostbelieved--that I was in very truth the King; and, with a look of laughingtriumph, I raised my eyes to the beauty-laden balconies again. . .and then Istarted. For, looking down on me, with her handsome face and proud smile,was the lady who had been my fellow traveller--Antoinette de Mauban;and I saw her also start, and her lips moved, and she leant forward andgazed at me. And I, collecting myself, met her eyes full and square, whileagain I felt my revolver. Suppose she had cried aloud, "That's not theKing!"Well, we went by; and then the Marshal, turning round in his saddle,waved his hand, and the Cuirassiers closed round us, so that the crowdcould not come near me. We were leaving my quarter and entering DukeMichael's, and this action of the Marshal's showed me more clearly thanwords what the state of feeling in the town must be. But if Fate made me aKing, the least I could do was to play the part handsomely.
"Why this change in our order, Marshal?" said I.
The Marshal bit his white moustache.
"It is more prudent, sire," he murmured.
I drew rein.
"Let those in front ride on," said I, "till they are fifty yards ahead. Butdo you, Marshal, and Colonel Sapt and my friends, wait here till I haveridden fifty yards. And see that no one is nearer to me. I will have mypeople see that their King trusts them."Sapt laid his hand on my arm. I shook him off. The Marshal hesitated.
"Am I not understood?" said I; and, biting his moustache again, hegave the orders. I saw old Sapt smiling into his beard, but he shook hishead at me. If I had been killed in open day in the streets of Strelsau,Sapt's position would have been a difficult one.
Perhaps I ought to say that I was dressed all in white, except my boots.
I wore a silver helmet with gilt ornaments, and the broad ribbon of theRose looked well across my chest. I should be paying a poor complimentto the King if I did not set modesty aside and admit that I made a very finefigure. So the people thought; for when I, riding alone, entered the dingy,sparsely decorated, sombre streets of the Old Town, there was first amurmur, then a cheer, and a woman, from a window above a cookshop,cried the old local saying:
"If he's red, he's right!" whereat I laughed and took off my helmet thatshe might see that I was of the right colour and they cheered me again atthat.
It was more interesting riding thus alone, for I heard the comments ofthe crowd.
"He looks paler than his wont," said one.
"You'd look pale if you lived as he does," was the highly disrespectfulretort.
"He's a bigger man than I thought," said another.
"So he had a good jaw under that beard after all," commented a third.
"The pictures of him aren't handsome enough," declared a pretty girl,taking great care that I should hear. No doubt it was mere flattery.
But, in spite of these signs of approval and interest, the mass of the people received me in silence and with sullen looks, and my dear brother'sportrait ornamented most of the windows-- which was an ironical sort ofgreeting to the King. I was quite glad that he had been spared theunpleasant sight. He was a man of quick temper, and perhaps he would nothave taken it so placidly as I did.
At last we were at the Cathedral. Its great grey front, embellished withhundreds of statues and boasting a pair of the finest oak doors in Europe,rose for the first time before me, and the sudden sense of my audacityalmost overcame me. Everything was in a mist as I dismounted. I saw theMarshal and Sapt dimly, and dimly the throng of gorgeously robed priestswho awaited me. And my eyes were still dim as I walked up the great nave,with the pealing of the organ in my ears. I saw nothing of the brilliantthrong that filled it, I hardly distinguished the stately figure of the Cardinalas he rose from the archiepiscopal throne to greet me. Two faces onlystood out side by side clearly before my eyes-- the face of a girl, pale andlovely, surmounted by a crown of the glorious Elphberg hair (for in awoman it is glorious), and the face of a man, whose full-blooded redcheeks, black hair, and dark deep eyes told me that at last I was inpresence of my brother, Black Michael. And when he saw me his redcheeks went pale all in a moment, and his helmet fell with a clatter on thefloor. Till that moment I believe that he had not realized that the King wasin very truth come to Strelsau.
Of what followed next I remember nothing. I knelt before the altar andthe Cardinal anointed my head. Then I rose to my feet, and stretched outmy hand and took from him the crown of Ruritania and set it on my head,and I swore the old oath of the King; and (if it were a sin, may it beforgiven me) I received the Holy Sacrament there before them all. Thenthe great organ pealed out again, the Marshal bade the heralds proclaimme, and Rudolf the Fifth was crowned King; of which imposing ceremonyan excellent picture hangs now in my dining-room. The portrait of theKing is very good.
Then the lady with the pale face and the glorious hair, her train held bytwo pages, stepped from her place and came to where I stood. And aherald cried:
"Her Royal Highness the Princess Flavia!"She curtsied low, and put her hand under mine and raised my hand andkissed it. And for an instant I thought what I had best do. Then I drew herto me and kissed her twice on the cheek, and she blushed red, and--thenhis Eminence the Cardinal Archbishop slipped in front of Black Michael,and kissed my hand and presented me with a letter from the Pope--the firstand last which I have received from that exalted quarter!
And then came the Duke of Strelsau. His step trembled, I swear, andhe looked to the right and to the left, as a man looks who thinks on flight;and his face was patched with red and white, and his hand shook so that itjumped under mine, and I felt his lips dry and parched. And I glanced atSapt, who was smiling again into his beard, and, resolutely doing my dutyin that station of life to which I had been marvellously called, I took mydear Michael by both hands and kissed him on the cheek. I think we wereboth glad when that was over!
But neither in the face of the princess nor in that of any other did I seethe least doubt or questioning. Yet, had I and the King stood side by side,she could have told us in an instant, or, at least, on a little consideration.
But neither she nor anyone else dreamed or imagined that I could be otherthan the King. So the likeness served, and for an hour I stood there, feelingas weary and blase as though I had been a king all my life; and everybodykissed my hand, and the ambassadors paid me their respects, among themold Lord Topham, at whose house in Grosvenor Square I had danced ascore of times. Thank heaven, the old man was as blind as a bat, and didnot claim my acquaintance.
Then back we went through the streets to the Palace, and I heard themcheering Black Michael; but he, Fritz told me, sat biting his nails like aman in a reverie, and even his own friends said that he should have made abraver show. I was in a carriage now, side by side with the Princess Flavia,and a rough fellow cried out:
"And when's the wedding?" and as he spoke another struck him in theface, crying "Long live Duke Michael!" and the princess coloured--it wasan admirable tint--and looked straight in front of her.
Now I felt in a difficulty, because I had forgotten to ask Sapt the state of my affections, or how far matters had gone between the princess andmyself. Frankly, had I been the King, the further they had gone the bettershould I have been pleased. For I am not a slow-blooded man, and I hadnot kissed Princess Flavia's cheek for nothing. These thoughts passedthrough my head, but, not being sure of my ground, I said nothing; and ina moment or two the princess, recovering her equanimity, turned to me.
"Do you know, Rudolf," said she, "you look somehow differenttoday?"The fact was not surprising, but the remark was disquieting.
"You look," she went on, "more sober, more sedate; you're almostcareworn, and I declare you're thinner. Surely it's not possible that you'vebegun to take anything seriously?"The princess seemed to hold of the King much the same opinion thatLady Burlesdon held of me.
I braced myself up to the conversation.
"Would that please you?" I asked softly,"Oh, you know my views," said she, turning her eyes away.
"Whatever pleases you I try to do," I said; and, as I saw her smile andblush, I thought that I was playing the King's hand very well for him. So Icontinued and what I said was perfectly true:
"I assure you, my dear cousin, that nothing in my life has affected memore than the reception I've been greeted with today."She smiled brightly, but in an instant grew grave again, and whispered:
"Did you notice Michael?""Yes," said I, adding, "he wasn't enjoying himself.""Do be careful!" she went on. "You don't--indeed you don't-- keepenough watch on him. You know--""I know," said I, "that he wants what I've got.""Yes. Hush!"Then--and I can't justify it, for I committed the King far beyond what Ihad a right to do--I suppose she carried me off my feet--I went on:
"And perhaps also something which I haven't got yet, but hope to winsome day."This was my answer. Had I been the King, I should have thought it encouraging:
"Haven't you enough responsibilities on you for one day, cousin?"Bang, bang! Blare, blare! We were at the Palace. Guns were firing andtrumpets blowing. Rows of lackeys stood waiting, and, handing theprincess up the broad marble staircase, I took formal possession, as acrowned King, of the House of my ancestors, and sat down at my owntable, with my cousin on my right hand, on her other side Black Michael,and on my left his Eminence the Cardinal. Behind my chair stood Sapt;and at the end of the table, I saw Fritz von Tarlenheim drain to the bottomhis glass of champagne rather sooner than he decently should.
I wondered what the King of Ruritania was doing.