*2.f y^^'-'-i^tK" 

 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 /ii^
 
 THE PRIDE OF JENNICO
 
 ^S>■ 
 
 •The
 
 THE 
 
 PRIDE OF JENNICO 
 
 BEING 
 
 A Memoir of Captain Basil Jennico 
 
 BY 
 
 AGNES AND EGERTON CASTLE 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 LONDON : MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 
 1898 
 
 A /I rights reserved
 
 Copyright, 1897, 1898, 
 By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 
 
 Set up and electrotyped February, 1898. Reprinted February, 
 April, June twice, 189S. 
 
 Nortoool) IDrcga 
 
 J. 8. Cusliiim i Co. - UiTwick & Smith 
 
 Norwuod Mau. US. A.
 
 
 Cj7p 
 
 THE PRIDE OF JENNICO 
 
 PART I 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Memoir of Captain Basil Jennico (begun, apparently 
 
 IN GREAT trouble AND STRESS OF MIND, AT THE CaSTLE 
 OF TOLLENDHAL, IN MORAVIA, ON THE THIRD DAY OF 
 THE GREAT STORM, LATE IN THE YEAR I771) 
 
 As the wind rattles the casements with impo- 
 tent clutch, howls down the stair-turret with the 
 voice of a despairing soul, creeps in long irregu- 
 lar waves between the tapestries and the granite 
 walls of my chamber and wantons with the flames 
 of logs and candles ; knowing, as I do, that out- 
 side the snow is driven relentlessly by the gale, 
 and that I can hope for no relief from the com- 
 pany of my wretched self, — for they who have 
 learnt the temper of these wild mountain winds 
 tell me the storm must last at least three days 
 more in its fury, — I have bethought me, to keep 
 
 r TOO M oty
 
 2 TJie Pride of Jcnnico 
 
 from going melancholy crazed altogether, to set 
 me some regular task to do. 
 
 And what can more fitly occupy my poor mind 
 than the setting forth, as clearly as may be, the 
 divers events that have brought me to this strange 
 plight in this strange place ? although, I fear me, 
 it may not in the end be over-clear, for in sooth I 
 cannot even yet see a way through the confusion 
 of my thoughts. Nay, I could at times howl in 
 unison with yonder dismal wind for mad regret ; 
 and at times again rage and hiss and break myself, 
 like the fitful gale, against the walls of this deso- 
 late house for anger at my fate and my folly ! 
 
 But since I can no more keep my thoughts 
 from wandering to her and wondering upon her 
 than I can keep my hot blood from running — 
 running with such swiftness that here, alone in 
 the wide vaulted room, with blasts from the four 
 corners of the earth playing a very demon's dance 
 around me, I am yet all of a fever heat — I will 
 try whether, by laying bare to myself all I know 
 of her and of myself, all I surmise and guess of 
 the parts we acted towards each other in this 
 business, I may not at least come to some under- 
 standing, some decision, concerning the manner in 
 which, as a man, I should comport myself in my 
 most singular position.
 
 The Pride of Jennico 3 
 
 Having reached thus far in his writing, the 
 scribe after shaking the golden dust of the pounce 
 box over his page paused, musing for a moment, 
 loosening with unconscious fingers the collar of 
 his coat from his neck and gazing with wide grey- 
 eyes at the dancing flames of the logs, and the 
 little clouds of ash that ever and anon burst from 
 the hearth with a spirt when particles of driven 
 snow found their way down the chimney. Pres- 
 ently the pen resumed its travels : 
 
 Everything began, of course, through my great- 
 uncle Jennico's legacy. Do I regret it .'' I 
 have sometimes cursed it. Nevertheless, although 
 tossed between conflicting regrets and yearnings, 
 I cannot in conscience wish it had not come to 
 pass. Let me be frank. Bitter and troubling is 
 my lot in the midst of my lonely splendour; but 
 through the mist which seems in my memory to 
 separate the old life from the new, those days of 
 yesteryear (for all their carelessness and fancy- 
 freedom) seem now strangely dull. Yes, it is 
 almost a year already that it came, this legacy, by 
 which a young Englishman, serving in his Royal 
 and Imperial Majesty's Chevau-Legers, was sud- 
 denly transformed, from an obscure Rittmeister 
 with little more worldly goods than his pay, into
 
 4 The Pride of Jennie o 
 
 one of the richest landowners in the broad Empire, 
 the master of an historic castle on the Bohemian 
 Marches. 
 
 It was indeed an odd turn of fortune's wheel. 
 But doubtless there is a predestination in such 
 things, unknown to man. 
 
 My great-uncle had always taken a peculiar 
 interest in me. Some fifty years before my birth, 
 precluded by the religion of our family from any 
 hope of advancement in the army of our own 
 country, he had himself entered the Imperial ser- 
 vice ; and when I had reached the age of man- 
 hood, he insisted on my being sent to him in 
 Vienna to enter upon the same career. To him 
 I owe my rapid promotion after the Turkish cam- 
 paign of 1769. But I question, for all his influ- 
 ence at Court, whether I should have benefited 
 otherwise than through his advice and interest, 
 had it not been for an unforeseen series of moves 
 on the part of my elder brother at home. 
 
 One fine day it was announced to us that this 
 latter had been offered and had accepted a barony 
 in the peerage of Great Britain. At first it did 
 not transpire upon what grounds a Catholic gentle- 
 man should be so honoured, and we were obliged, 
 my uncle and I, to content ourselves with the im- 
 possible explanation that " Dear Edmund's value
 
 The Pride of Jennie o 5 
 
 and abilities and the great services he had rendered 
 by his exertions in the last Suffolk Elections had 
 been brought to the notice of his Majesty, who was 
 thus graciously pleased to show his appreciation 
 of the same." 
 
 Our good mother (who would not be the true 
 woman she is did she not set a value on the hon- 
 ours of this world), my excellent brother, and, of 
 course, his ambitious lady, all agreed that it was 
 a mighty fine thing for Sir Edmund Jennico to be- 
 come My Lord Rainswick, and they sent us many 
 grandiloquent missives to that effect. 
 
 But with my great-uncle things were vastly dif- 
 ferent. To all appearance he had grown, during 
 the course of his sixty odd years in the Imperial 
 service, into a complete unmitigated foreigner, 
 who spoke English like a German, if, indeed, the 
 extraordinary jargon he used (under the impression 
 that it was his mother tongue) could be so called. 
 As a matter of fact it would have been difficult to 
 say what tongue was my great-uncle's own. It 
 was not English nor French — not even the French 
 of German courts — nor true German, but the 
 oddest compound of all three, with a strong pep- 
 pering of Slovack or Hungarian according ras the 
 country in which he served suggested the adjunc- 
 tion. A very persuasive compound it proved.
 
 6 The Pride of Jcnnico 
 
 however, when he took up his commanding voice, 
 poor man ! But, foreigner as he was, covered as 
 his broad chest might be with foreign orders, freely 
 as he had spent his life's energy in the pay of a 
 foreign monarch, my great-uncle Jennico had too 
 much English pride of race, too much of the old 
 Jennico blood (despite this same had been so often 
 let for him by Bavarian and Hanoverian, Prussian, 
 French, and Turk), to brook in peace what he 
 considered a slight upon his grand family tradi- 
 tions. 
 
 Now this was precisely what my brother had 
 committed. In the first place he had married a 
 lady who, I hear, is amazingly handsome, and 
 sufficiently wealthy, but about whose lineage it 
 seems altogether unadvisable to seek clear infor- 
 mation. Busy as he was in the midst of his last 
 campaign, my great-uncle (who even in the wilds 
 of Bulgaria seemed to keep by some marvellous 
 means in touch with what moves were being played 
 by the family in distant Suffolk) nevertheless had 
 the matter probed. And the account he received 
 was not of a satisfactory nature. I fear me that 
 those around him tlicn did not find the fierceness 
 of his rule softened by the unwelcome news from 
 that distant island of Britain. 
 
 The Jennicos, although Ihcy had been degraded
 
 The Pride of Jennie o 7 
 
 (so my uncle maintained) by the gift of a paltry 
 baronetcy at the hands of Charles II., as a reward 
 for their bleeding and losses in the Royal cause, 
 were, he declared, of a stock with which blood- 
 royal itself might be allied without derogation. 
 The one great solace of his active life was a recapit- 
 ulation of the deeds, real or legendary, that, since 
 the landing of the Danes on Saxon soil, had marked 
 the passage through history of those thirty-one 
 authentic generations, the twenty-ninth of which 
 was so worthily represented by himself. The 
 worship of the name was with him an absolute 
 craze. 
 
 It is undoubtedly to that craze that I owe my 
 accession of fortune — ay, and my present desola- 
 tion of heart. . . . 
 
 But to resume. When, therefore, already dis- 
 satisfied with my brother's alliance, he heard that 
 the head of the family proposed to engraft upon it 
 a different name — a soi-disant superior title — 
 his wrath was loud and deep : 
 
 ** Eh quoi ! mille millions de Donnerblitzen ! 
 what the Teufel idiot think } what you think ? " 
 
 I was present when the news arrived ; it was in 
 his chancellerie on the Josefsplatz at Vienna. I 
 shall not lightly forget the old man's saffron face. 
 
 " Does that Schaffkopf brother of yours not ver-
 
 8 Tlie Pride of Jennie o 
 
 stand what Jennico to be means ? what thinkest 
 thou ? would I be what I am, were it not that I 
 have ever known, boy, what I was geborn to when 
 I was Jennico geborn ? How comes it that I am 
 what I here am ? How is it gecome, thinkest thou, 
 that I have myself risen to the highest honour 
 in the Empire, that I am field-marshal this day, 
 above the heads of your princekins, your grand- 
 dukeleins, highnesses, and serenities ? Dummes 
 Vieh ! " — with a parenthetical shake of his fist at 
 the open paper on his desk — "how is it gecome 
 that I wedded la belle H^ritiere des Woschutzski, 
 the most beautiful woman in Silesia, the richest, 
 pardi ! the noblest ? " And his Excellency (mc- 
 thinks I see him now) turned to me with sudden 
 solemnity: "You will answer me," he said in an 
 altered voice, "you will answer me (because you 
 are a fool youth ), that I have become great general 
 because I am the bravest soldier, the cleverest 
 commander, of all the Imperial troops ; that I to 
 myself have won the laely for whom Transpar- 
 encies had sued in vain because of being the 
 most beautiful man in the whole Kaiserlich ser- 
 vice." 
 
 Here the younger Jennico, for all the vexation 
 of spirit which had suggested the labour of his
 
 The Pride of Jennie o 9 
 
 systematic narrative as a distraction, could not 
 help smiling to himself, as, with pen raised towards 
 the standish, he paused for a moment to recall on 
 how many occasions he had heard this explanation 
 of the Field-Marshal's success in life. Then the 
 grating of the quill began afresh : 
 
 When my venerable relative came to this, I, 
 being an irreverent young dog, had much ado to 
 keep myself from a great yell of laughter. He 
 was pleased to remark, latterly, in an approving 
 mood, that I was growing every day into a more 
 living image of what he remembered himself to 
 have been in the good times when he wore a 
 cornet's uniform. I should therefore have felt 
 delicately flattered, but the fact is that the tough 
 old soldier, if in the divers accidents of war he had 
 gathered much glory, had not come off without a 
 fine assortment of disfiguring wounds. The ball 
 that passed through his cheeks at Leuthen had 
 removed all his most ornamental teeth, and had 
 given the oddest set to the lower part of his coun- 
 tenance. It was after Kolin that, the sight of his 
 left eye being suppressed by the butt end of a 
 lance, he had started that black patch which im- 
 parted a peculiar ferocity to his aspect, although 
 it seemed, it is true, to sharpen the piercing quali-
 
 lO The Pride of Jennico 
 
 ties of the remaining orb. At Hochkirch, where 
 he culled some of his greenest laurels, a Prussian 
 bullet in his knee forced on him the companion- 
 ship of a stout staff for ever afterwards. He cer- 
 tainly had been known in former days as le beau 
 Jennico, but of its original cast of feature it is easy 
 to conceive that, after these repeated finishing 
 touches, his countenance bore but little trace. 
 
 "But no," the dear old man would say, baring 
 his desolate lower tusks at me, and fixing me with 
 his wild-boar eye, " it is not to my beauty, Kerl, 
 not to my courage, Kerl, that I owe success, but 
 because I am geborn Jennico. When man Jen- 
 nico geborn is, man is geborn to all the rest — 
 to the beauty, to the bravery. When I wooed 
 your late dead tante, they, mere ignorant Poles, 
 said to me : * It is well. You are honoured. We 
 know you honourable ; but are you born ^ To 
 wed a Countess Woschutzski one must be born, 
 one must show, honoured sir,' they said, 'at least 
 seize quartiers, attested in due proper form.' 
 
 " ' Eh ! ' said I, ' is that all ^ See you, you shall 
 have sixteen quarterings. Sixteen quarterings 1 
 Bah ! You shall have sixteen quarterings beyond 
 that, and then sixteen again ; and you shall then 
 learn what it is called to be called Jennico ! ' — 
 Potztausend ! — And I simply wrote to the Office
 
 The Pride of Jennie o II 
 
 of Heralds in London, what man calls College of 
 Arms, for them to look up the records of Jennico 
 and draw out a right proper pedigree of the fam- 
 ilie, spare no cost, right up to the date of King 
 Knut! Eh? Oh, ei, ei! Kerlchen! You should 
 have seen the roll of parchment that was in time 
 gesendt — Teremt^te ! and les yeux que fit monsieur 
 mon bean-p^re [my excellent great-uncle said mon 
 peau-bhe'\ when they were geopened to what it 
 means to be well-born English ! A well-born man 
 never knows his blood as he should, until he sets 
 himself to trace it through all the veins. Blood- 
 royal, yunker, blood-royal ! Once Danish, two 
 times Plantagenet, and once Stuart, but that a 
 strong dose — he-he, ei, ei ! The Merry Monarch, 
 as the school-books say, had wide paternity, though 
 — verstehts sich — his daughter (who my gross- 
 mutter became) was noble also by her mother. 
 Up it goes high, weit. Thou shalt see for thyself 
 when thou comest to Tollendhal. Na, ya, and 
 thou shalt study it too — it all runs in thine veins 
 also. Forget it not ! . . . And of all her treas- 
 ures, your aunt would always tell me there was 
 none she prized more than that document relating 
 to our family. She had it unrolled upon her bed 
 when she could no longer use her limbs, and she 
 used to trace out, crying now and then, the poor
 
 12 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 soul, what her boy would have carried of honour if 
 he had lived. Ah, 'twas a million pities she never 
 bore me another ! — 'tis the only reproach that darf 
 be made her. ... I have consoled myself hitherto 
 with the thought of my nephew's youthling ; but, 
 Potzblitz, this Edmund, now the head of our family 
 — ach, the verdamned hound ! Tausend Donnern 
 and Bomben!" — and my great-uncle's guttural 
 voice would come rumbling, like gathering thunder 
 indeed, and rise to a frightful bellow — " to barter 
 his fine old name for the verdamned mummery of a 
 Baron Rainswick — Rainswick } — pooh ! A crea- 
 tion of this Hanover dog ! And what does he 
 give on his side to drive this fine bargain .-* Na, 
 na, sprech to me not : I mislike it ; nephew, I tell 
 thee, I doubt me but there is something hinter it 
 yet. 
 
 " Nephew Basil," he then went on, this day I 
 speak of, " if I were not seventy-three years old 
 I would marry again — I would, to have an heir, 
 by Heaven ! that the true race might not die out ! " 
 
 And despite his wall-eye, his jaw, his game leg, 
 his generally disastrous aspect, I believe he might 
 have been as good as his threat, his seventy-and- 
 three years notwithstanding. But what really de- 
 terred him from such a rash step was his belief 
 (although he would not gratify me by saying so)
 
 TJie Pride of Jeimico 13 
 
 that there was at hand as good a Jennico as he 
 could wish for, and that one, myself, Basil. And he 
 saw in me a purer sproutling of that noble island 
 race of the north that he was so fiercely proud 
 of, than he could have produced by a marriage 
 with a foreigner. For, thorough " Imperial " as 
 he now was, and notwithstanding his early foreign 
 education (which had begun in the Stuart regi- 
 ments of the French king), the dominant thought 
 in the old warrior's brain was that a very law of 
 nature required the gentle-born sons of such a 
 country to be honoured as leaders among foreign 
 men. And great was the array of names he could 
 summon, should any one be rash enough to chal- 
 lenge the assertion. Butlers and Lallys, Brownes 
 and Jerninghams, by Gad ! Keiths and Dillons 
 and Berwicks, morbleit ! Fermors, Loudons, and 
 Lacys, and how many more if necessary ; ay, and 
 Jennicos not the least of them, I should hope, 
 teremtete I 
 
 I did not think that my brother had bettered 
 himself by the change, and still less could I con- 
 cur in the turn-coat policy he had thought fit to 
 adopt in order to buy from a Hanoverian King 
 and a bigoted House of Lords this accession of 
 honour. For my uncle was not far wrong in his 
 suspicions, and in truth it did not require any
 
 14 The Pride of Jcimico 
 
 strong perspicacity to realise that it was not for 
 nothing my brother was thus distinguished. I 
 mean not for his merits — which amounts to 
 the same thing. I made strong efforts to keep 
 the tidings of his cowardly defection from my 
 uncle. But family matters were not, as I have 
 said, to be hidden from Feldmarschall Edmund 
 von Jennico. I believe the news hastened his 
 dissolution. Repeated fits of anger are perni- 
 cious to gouty veterans of explosive temper. It 
 was barely three weeks after the arrival of the 
 tidings of my brother having taken the oaths and 
 his seat in the House of Lords that I was sum- 
 moned by a messenger, hot foot, from the little 
 frontier town where I was quartered with my 
 squadron, to attend my great-uncle's death-bed. 
 It was a sixteen-hours' ride through the snow, I 
 reached this frowning old stronghouse late at 
 night, hastened by a reminder at each relay ready 
 prepared for me ; hastened by the servants sta- 
 tioned at the gate ; hastened on the stairs, at 
 his very door, the door of this room. I found 
 him sitting in his armchair, almost a corpse al- 
 ready, fully conscious, grimly triumphant. 
 
 " Thou shalt have it all," was the first thing he 
 whispered to me as I knelt by his side. His voice 
 was so low that I had to bend my ear to his mouth.
 
 The Pride of Jennico 15 
 
 But the pride of race had never seemed to burn 
 with brighter flame. " Alles ist dein, alles . . . 
 aber," and he caught at me with his clawlike 
 hand, cold already with the very chill of earth, 
 "remember that thou the last Jennico bist. 
 Royal blood, Kerlchen, Knut, Plantagenet, Stuart 
 . . . noblesse oblige, remember. Bring no rotu- 
 riere into the family." 
 
 His heiduck, who had endured his testy temper 
 and his rigid rule for forty years, suddenly gave 
 a kind of gulp, like a sob, from behind the chair 
 where he stood, rigid, on duty at his proper post, 
 but with his hands, instead of resting correctly 
 on hip and sword-handle, joined in silent prayer. 
 A striking-looking man, for all his short stature, 
 with his extraordinary breadth of shoulders, his 
 small piercing eyes, his fantastically hard features 
 all pock-seared, that seemed carved out of some 
 swarthy, worm-eaten old oak, 
 
 " Thou fool ! " hissed my uncle, impatiently 
 turning his head at the sound, and making a 
 vain attempt to seek the ever-present staff with 
 his trembling fingers. " Basil, crack me the 
 knave on the skull." Then he paused a moment, 
 looked at the clock and said in a significant way, 
 "It is time, Janos." 
 
 The heiduck instantly moved and left the room,
 
 1 6 The Pride of Jc7inico 
 
 to return promptly, ushering in a number of the 
 retainers who had evidently been gathered to- 
 gether and kept in attendance against my arrival. 
 
 They ranged themselves silently in a row be- 
 hind Janos ; and the dying man in a feeble voice 
 and with the shadow of a gesture towards me, 
 but holding them all the while under his piercing 
 look, said two or three times : 
 
 "Your master, men, your master." Where- 
 upon, Janos leading the way, every man of 
 them, household-steward, huntsmen, overseers, 
 foresters, hussars, came forward, kissed my hand, 
 and retired in silence. 
 
 Then the end came rapidly. He wandered in 
 his speech and was back in the past with dead 
 and gone comrades. At the very last he rallied 
 once more, fixed me with his poor eye that I 
 had never seen dim before, and spoke with con- 
 sciousness : 
 
 " Thou, the last Jennico, remember. Be true. 
 Tell the renegade I rejoice, his shame striketh not 
 us. Tell him that he did well to change his name. 
 Kerlchen, dear son, thou art young and strong, 
 breed a fine stock. No roture ! but sell and 
 settle . . . sell and settle." 
 
 Those words came upon his last sigh. His eye 
 flashed once, and then the light was extinguished.
 
 The Pride of Jennico 17 
 
 Thus he passed. His dying thought was for 
 the worthy continuance of his race. I found 
 myself the possessor, so the tabellions informed 
 me some days later, of many millions (reckoned 
 by the florins of this land) besides the great prop- 
 erty of Tollendhal — fertile plains as well as wild 
 forests, and of this same isolated frowning castle 
 with its fathom-thick walls, its odd pictures of 
 half-savage dead and gone Woschutzskis, its an- 
 tique clumsy furniture, tapestries, trophies of 
 chase and war; master, moreover, of endless 
 tribes of dependants : heiducks and foresters ; 
 females of all ages, whose bare feet in summer 
 patter oddly on the floors like the tread of animals, 
 whose high-boots in winter clatter perpetually on 
 the stone flags of stairs and corridors ; serf-peas- 
 ants, factors, overseers ; the strangest mixture of 
 races that can be imagined : Slovacks, Bohemians, 
 Poles, to labour on the glebe ; Saxons or Austrians 
 to rule over them and cypher out rosters and re- 
 turns; Magyars, who condescend to manage my 
 horseflesh and watch over my safety if nothing 
 else ; the travelling bands of gipsies, ever chang- 
 ing but never failing with the dance, the song and 
 the music, which is as indispensable as salt to the 
 life of that motley population. 
 
 And I, who in a more rational order of things 
 
 G
 
 1 8 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 might have been leading the life of a young squire 
 at home, became sovereign lord of all, wielding 
 feudal power over strings of vassals who deemed it 
 great honour to bend the knee before me and kiss 
 my hand. 
 
 No doubt, in the beginning, it was vastly fine ; 
 especially as so much wealth meant freedom. For 
 my first act, on my return after the expiration of 
 my furlough, was to give up the duties of regi- 
 mental life, irksome and monotonous in these 
 piping days of peace. Then I must hie me to 
 Vienna, and there, for the first time of my life of 
 six-and-twenty years, taste the joy of indepen- 
 dence. In Vienna are enough of dashing sparks 
 and beautiful women, of princes and courtiers, 
 gamblers and rakes, to teach me how to spend 
 some of my new-found wealth in a manner suitable 
 to so fashionable a person as myself. 
 
 But how astonishingly soon one accustoms one- 
 self to luxury and authority ! It is but three 
 months ago that, having drained the brimming 
 cup of pleasure to the dregs, I found its first 
 sweetness cloying, its first alluring sparkle almost 
 insufferable ; that, having basked in perpetual 
 smiles, I came to weary of so much favour. Win- 
 ning at play had no fascination for a man with 
 some thirty thousand pounds a year at his back ;
 
 The Pride of Jennico 19 
 
 and losing large slices of that patrimony which 
 had, I felt, been left me under an implied trust, 
 was dully galling to my conscience. I was so uni- 
 formly fortunate also in the many duels in which I 
 was involved among the less favoured — through 
 the kindness which the fair ladies of Vienna and 
 Bude began to show to le bean Jennico (the old 
 dictum had been revived in my favour) — that 
 after disabling four of my newly-found "best 
 friends," even so piquant an entertainment lost 
 all pretence of excitement. 
 
 And with the progress of disillusion concerning 
 the pleasure of idleness in wealth, grew more 
 pressing the still small voice which murmured at 
 my ear that it was not for such an end, not for 
 the gratification of a mere libertine, gambler, and 
 duellist, that my great-uncle Jennico had selected 
 me as the depositary of his wealth and position. 
 
 "Sell and settle, sell and settle." The old 
 man's words had long enough been forgotten. It 
 was high time to begin mastering the intricacies 
 of that vast estate, if ever I was to turn it to the 
 profit of that stream of noble Jennicos to come. 
 And in my state of satiety the very remoteness of 
 my new property, its savageness, its proud isola- 
 tion, invested it with an odd fascination. From 
 one day to the other I determined on departure.
 
 20 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 and left the emptiness of the crowd to seek the 
 fulness of this wild and beautiful country. 
 
 Here for a time I tasted interest in life again ; 
 knew a sort of well-filled peace ; felt my soul ex- 
 pand with renewed vigour, keenness for work and 
 deeds, hope and healthy desire, self-pride and satis- 
 faction. Then came the foolish adventure which 
 has left me naked and weak in the very midst of 
 my wealth and power ; which has left rudderless 
 an existence that had set sail so gaily for glorious 
 happiness. 
 
 The bell of the horologe, from its snow-capped 
 turret overlooking the gate of honour in the 
 stronghold of Tollendhal, slowly tolled the tenth 
 hour of that tempestuous night ; and the notes 
 resounded in the room, now strongly vibrating, 
 now faint and distant, as the wind paused for a 
 second, or bore them away upon its dishevelled 
 wing. Upon the last stroke, as Basil Jennico 
 was running over the last page of his fair paper, 
 the door behind him, creaking on its hinges, was 
 thrown open by Janos, the heiduck, displaying in 
 the next chamber a wide table, lit by two six- 
 branched chandeliers and laid for the evening 
 meal. The twelve yellow tongues of flame glinted 
 on the silver, the cut glass, and the snow-white
 
 TJie Pride of Jennico 21 
 
 napery, but only to emphasise the sombre depth of 
 the mediasval room, the desolate eloquence of that 
 solitary seat at the huge board. Janos waited till 
 his master, with weary gesture, had cast his pen 
 aside, and then ceremoniously announced that his 
 lordship's supper was ready. 
 
 Impatiently enough did the young man dip his 
 fingers in the aiguiere of perfumed water that a 
 damsel on his right offered to him as he passed 
 through the great doors, drying them on the cloth 
 handed by another on his left. Frowning he sat 
 him down in his high-backed chair behind which 
 the heiduck stood ready to present each dish as 
 it was brought up by other menials, to keep the 
 beaker constantly filled, to answer with a bow any 
 observation that he might make, should the lord 
 feel disposed to break silence. 
 
 But to-night the Lord of Tollendhal was less dis- 
 posed than ever in such a direction. He chafed 
 at the long ceremony ; resented the presence of 
 these creatures who had seen her sit as their mis- 
 tress at that table, where now lay nought but 
 vacancy beyond the white cloth ; resented even 
 the silent solicitude that lurked in Janos's eyes, 
 though the latter never broke unauthorised his 
 rule of silence. 
 
 The generous wine, in the stillness and the
 
 22 The Pride of Jomico 
 
 black solitude, bred presently a yet deeper melan- 
 choly. After a perfunctory meal the young man 
 waved aside a last glass of the amber Tokay that 
 was placed at his hand, rose, and moodily walked to 
 and fro for some time. Feeling that the coming 
 hours had no sleep in reserve for a mind in such 
 turmoil as his, he returned to his writing-table, 
 and, whilst Janos directed the servants to bring in 
 and trim fresh candles, and pile more logs upon 
 the hearth, Basil Jennico resumed his task.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 Basil Jennico's Memoir continued 
 
 My great-uncle's will, forcible, concise, indispu- 
 table as it was, had been (so the man of law in- 
 formed me) drawn out in a great hurry, dictated, 
 indeed, between spasms of agony and rage. (The 
 poor old man died of gout in his stomach.) 
 Doubtless, had he felt sure of more time, he 
 would have burdened the inheritance with many 
 directions and conditions. 
 
 From his broken utterances, however, and from 
 what I had known of him in life, I gathered a fair 
 idea of what his wishes were. His fifty years of 
 foreign service had filled him, old pandour that he 
 seemed to have become, with but increased con- 
 tempt for the people that surrounded him, their 
 ways and customs, while his pride as an English- 
 man was only equalled by his pride as a Jennico. 
 
 " Sell and settle . . ." 
 
 The meaning of the words was clear in the light 
 of the man as I knew him. I was to sell the 
 great property, carry to England the vast hoard of 
 
 23
 
 24 The Pride of Jctmico 
 
 foreign wealth, marry as befitted one of the race, 
 and raise a new and splendid line of Jennicos, to 
 the utter mortification, and everlasting confusion, 
 of the degenerate head of the house. 
 
 Now, though I knew it to be in me, and felt it, 
 indeed, not otherwise possible, to live my life as 
 true a Jennico as even my uncle could desire, I by 
 no means deemed it incumbent upon me to set to 
 work and carry out his plans without first employ- 
 ing my liberty and wealth as the humour prompted 
 me. Nor was the old country an overpoweringly 
 attractive place for a young man of my creed and 
 kidney. In Vienna I was, perhaps, for the mo- 
 ment, the most noted figure — the guest most 
 sought after that year. In England, at daggers 
 drawn with my brother, I could only play an 
 everyday part in an unpopular social minority. 
 
 It was in full summer weather that, as I have 
 written, already tried by the first stage of my 
 career of wealth, I came to take possession of my 
 landed estates. The beauty and wildness of the 
 scenery, the strangeness of the life in the well-nigh 
 princely position to which this sudden turn of 
 fortune's wheel had elevated me, the intoxicating 
 sensation of holding sway, as feudal lord of these 
 wide tracts of hill and plain, over so many hun- 
 dreds of lives — above all, the wholesome reaction
 
 The Pride of Jennico 25 
 
 brought about by solitude and communion with 
 nature after the turmoil of the last months — in 
 short, everything around me and in me made me 
 less inclined than ever to begin ridding myself of 
 so fair a possession. 
 
 And do I wish I had not thus delayed in obey- 
 ing the injunction that accompanied the bequest? 
 Odds my life ! I am a miserable dog this day 
 through my disobedience ; and yet, would I now 
 undo the past if I could ? A thousand times no ! 
 I hate my folly, but hug it, ever closer, ever 
 dearer. The bitter savour of that incomprehen- 
 sible yearning clings to the place : I would not 
 exchange it for the tameness of peace. Weakling 
 that I am, I would not obliterate, if I could, the 
 memory of those brief, brief days of which I failed 
 to know the price, until the perversity of fate cut 
 their thread for ever — ay, perhaps for ever, after 
 all ! And yet, if so, it were wiser to quit these 
 haunted walls for ever also. But, God ! how 
 meagre and livid looks wisdom, the ghost, by the 
 side of love's warm and living line ! 
 
 And now, on ! Since I have put my hand to 
 the task, undertaken to set forth and make clear 
 the actual condition of that vacillating puppet, the 
 new-fledged Lord of Tollendhal, I will not draw it 
 back, cost me what pain it may.
 
 26 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 No doubt it was this haunting pride of wealth, 
 waxing every day stronger, even as the pride of 
 birth which my great-uncle had fostered to such 
 good purpose, the overweening conceit which they 
 bred within me, that fogged my better judgment 
 and brought me to this pass. And no doubt, 
 likewise, it is a princely estate that these lords 
 of Tollendhal of old carved for themselves, and 
 rounded ever wider and nurtured — all that it 
 should some day, passing through the distaff, 
 come to swell the pride of Suffolk Jennicos ! 
 
 My castle rises boldly on the northernmost spur 
 of the Glatzer Mounts, and defiantly overlooks the 
 marches of three kingdoms. Its lands and depen- 
 dencies, though chiefly Moravian, extend over the 
 Bohemian border as well as into that Silesia they 
 now are able to call Prussian. North and west it 
 is flanked by woods that grow wilder, denser, as 
 they spread inwards towards the Giant Moun- 
 tains. On the southern slopes are my vineyards, 
 growths of note, as I hear. My territories reach, 
 on the one hand, farther than can be seen under 
 the blue horizon, into the Eastern plains, flat and 
 rich, that stretch with curious suddenness immedi- 
 ately at the foot of the high district ; upon the 
 other hand, on the Moravian side, I doubt whether 
 even my head steward himself knows exactly how
 
 The Pride of Jennico 27 
 
 much of the timber-laden hill-ranges can be claimed 
 as appertaining to the estate. All the peaks I can 
 descry in a fine day from these casements are 
 mine, I believe ; on their flanks are forests as rich 
 in game — boar and buck, wolf and bear, not to 
 speak of lesser quarry — as are the plains below 
 in corn and maize and cattle — que sais-je? A 
 goodly heritage indeed ! 
 
 I promised myself many a rare day's sport so 
 soon as the time waxed ripe. Meanwhile, my 
 days were spent in rambles over the land, under 
 pretence of making acquaintance with the farms 
 and the villages, and the population living on the 
 soil and working out its wealth for my use, but 
 in reality for the enjoyment of delicious sylvan 
 and rustic idleness through which the memory of 
 recent Viennese dissipations was like that of a 
 fevered dream. 
 
 The spirit of my country-keeping ancestors 
 lived again within me and was satisfied. Yet 
 there were times, too, when this freedom of fancy 
 became loneliness — when my eyes tired of green 
 trees, and my ears hungered for the voice of some 
 human being whom I could meet as an equal, with 
 whom I could consort, soul and wit. Then I 
 would resolve that, come the autumn, I would fill 
 the frowning stronghouse with a rousing throng
 
 28 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 of gallant hunters and fair women such as it had 
 never seen before. Ay, and they should come 
 over, even from old England, to taste of the Jen- 
 nico hospitality ! 
 
 It was in one of these glorious moods that, 
 upon a September day, sultry as summer, al- 
 though there was a touch of autumn decay in the 
 air as well as in the tints around me, I sallied 
 forth, after noon, to tramp on foot an as yet un- 
 explored quarter of my domain. I had donned, 
 according to my wont (as being more suitable to 
 the roughness of the paths than the smallclothes, 
 skirted coats, high heels and cocked hat of Vien- 
 nese fashion), the dress of the Moravian peasant 
 — I gather that it pleases the people's heart to 
 see their seigneur grace their national garb on 
 occasions. There was a goodly store of such cos- 
 tumes among the cupboards full of hereditary 
 habiliments and furs preserved at Tollendhal, 
 after the fashion of the country, with the care 
 that English housewives bestow upon their stores 
 of linen. My peasant suit was, of course, fine of 
 cloth and natty of cut, and the symmetry of the 
 handsome figure I saw in my glass reminded me 
 more of the pastoral disguises that were the 
 courtly fashion of some years back than of our 
 half-savage ill-smelling boors. Thus it was plea.s-
 
 The Pride of Jennico 29 
 
 ant as well as comfortable to wear, and at that 
 time even so trifling a sensation of gratified van- 
 ity had its price. But, although thus freed of the 
 incumbrance of a gentleman's attire, I could not 
 shake off the watchful tyranny of Janos, the sol- 
 emn heiduck who never allowed me to stir abroad 
 at all without his escort, nor, indeed (if my whirti 
 took me far afield), without the further retinue 
 of two jagers, twin brothers, and faithful beyond a 
 doubt. These, carbine on shoulder, and hanger 
 on thigh, had their orders to follow their lord 
 through thick and thin, and keep within sight and 
 sound of whistle. 
 
 In such odd style of state, on this day, destined 
 to begin for me a new chapter in life, I took my 
 course ; and for a long hour or so walked along 
 the rocky cornice that overhangs the plains. The 
 land looked bare and wide and solitary, the fields 
 lay in sallow leanness bereft of waving crops, but 
 I knew that all my golden grain was stacked 
 safely in the heart of the earth, where these folk 
 hoard its fruits for safety from fire. The air was 
 so empty of human sounds, save the monotonous 
 tramp of my escort behind me, that all the mur- 
 murs of wind and foliage struck with singular 
 loudness upon my ear. Over night, there had, by 
 my leave, been songs and dancing in the court-
 
 30 TJie Pride of Jetmico 
 
 yard of Tollendhal, and the odd tunes, the capri- 
 cious rhythm of the gipsy musicians, came back 
 upon me as I walked in the midst of my thoughts. 
 These melodies arc fitful and plaintive as the 
 sounds of nature itself, they come hurrying and 
 slackening, rising and falling, with as true a har- 
 mony and as unmeasured a measure, — now in a 
 very passion of haste, and now with a dreamy 
 long-drawn sigh. I was thinking on this, and on 
 the love of the Empress for that music (my Em- 
 press that had been when I wore her uniform, ay, 
 and my Empress still so long as I retain these 
 noble lands), when I came to a field, sloping from 
 the crag towards the plain, where an aftermath of 
 grass had been left to dry. There was a little belt 
 of trees, which threw a grateful shade ; and feel- 
 ing something weary I flung me down on the 
 scented hay. It was on the Silesian portion of 
 my land. Against the horizon, the white and 
 brown of some townlct, clustering round the ace- 
 of-club-shapcd roof of its church-tower, rose glit- 
 tering above the blue haze. A little beyond the 
 field ran a white road. So I reclined, looking 
 vaguely into the unknown but inviting distance, 
 musing on the extent of those possessions so wide- 
 spread that I had not as yet been able to ride all 
 their marches, ever and anon recognising vaguely
 
 The Pride of Jennico 31 
 
 in the voice of the breeze through the foliage an 
 echo of the music that had been haunting my 
 thoughts all day. Everything conspired to bring 
 me pleasant fancies. I began to dream of past 
 scenes and future fortunes, smiling at the thought 
 of what my dashing friends would say if they saw 
 le bean Jennico in this bucolic attitude, wondering 
 if any of my Court acquaintances would recognise 
 him in his peasant garb. 
 
 Ah me, how eternally and lovingly I thought 
 of my proud and brilliant self then ! . . . 
 
 I cannot recall how soon this musing became 
 deep sleep, but sleep I did and dream — a singular, 
 vivid dream, which was in a manner a continuation 
 of my waking thoughts. I seemed to be at a 
 great y"^/^ at the Imperial Palace, one of the count- 
 less throng of guests. The lights were brilliant, 
 blinding, but I saw many faces I knew, and we 
 all were waiting most eagerly for some wonderful 
 event. No one was speaking, and the only sounds 
 were the rustling and brushing of the ladies' bro- 
 cades and the jingle of the ofificers' spurs, with 
 over and above the wail of the czimbalom. All 
 at once I knew, as we do in dreams, what we 
 were expecting, and why this splendid feast had 
 been prepared. Marie Antoinette, the fair young 
 Dauphine of France, the memory of whose grace
 
 32 TJie Pride of Jennico 
 
 still hangs about the Court, had come back to visit 
 her own country. The crowd grew closer and 
 closer. The crowd about me surged forward to 
 catch a glimpse of her as she passed, and I with 
 the rest, when suddenly my great-uncle stood be- 
 fore me, immensely bestarred and beribboned in 
 his field-marshal's uniform, and with the black 
 patch on his eye so black that it quite dazzled me. 
 
 "Na, Kerlchen," he was saying to me, "thou 
 hast luck! Her Imperial and Royal Highness has 
 chosen the young Jennico to dance with ... as 
 the old one is too old." 
 
 Now I, in common with the young men about 
 me, have grown to cherish since my coming to 
 this land a strange enthusiasm for the most 
 womanly and beautiful of all the Empress's daugh- 
 ters, and therefore, even in my dream, my heart 
 began to beat very fast, and I scarce knew which 
 way to turn. I was much troubled too by the 
 music, which went on always louder and quicker 
 above my head, somewhere in the air, for I knew 
 that no such things as country dances are danced 
 at Court, and that I myself would make but a poor 
 figure in such ; yet a peasant dance it undoubtedly 
 was. Next, my uncle was gone, and though I 
 could not see her, I knew the Princess was coming 
 by the swish of her skirt as she walked. I heard
 
 The Pride of Jennico 33 
 
 her voice as clear as a silver bell. *^ Ou est-il?" 
 it said, and I felt she was looking for me. I strug- 
 gled in vain to answer or turn to her, and the voice 
 cried again: "Oh est-ilV upon which another 
 voice with a quaver in its tones made reply : '■'Par 
 id, Alt esse ! " 
 
 The sound must have been very close to me, for 
 it startled me from my deep sleep into, as it were, 
 an outer court of dreams. And between slumber 
 and consciousness I became aware that I was lying 
 somewhere very hot and comfortable ; that, while 
 some irresistible power kept my eyes closed, my 
 ears were not so, and I could hear the two voices 
 talking together; and, in my wandering brain be- 
 lieved them still to belong to the Princess Marie 
 Antoinette and her attendant. 
 
 " It is a peasant," said the first voice : that was 
 the Princess of course. There was something of 
 scorn in the tone, and I became acutely and un- 
 pleasantly conscious of my red embroidered shirt. 
 But the other made answer: "He is handsome," 
 and then : "His hands are not those of a peasant," 
 and, " Re garde z ma cMre ; peasants do not wear 
 such jewelled watches!" A sudden shadow fell 
 over me and was gone in an instant. There was a 
 flicker of laughter and I sat up. 
 
 During my sleep the shade of the sun had 
 
 D
 
 34 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 shifted and I lay in the full glare, and so, as I 
 opened my eyes, I could see nothing. 
 
 I heard the laughter of my dream again, and I 
 knew that the mocking cry of "Pre?iez garde, 
 Altesse !'' that still rang in the air did not belong 
 to my sleep. But as I rubbed my eyes and looked 
 out once again, I caught first a glimpse of a 
 slender creature bending over me, outlined it 
 seemed in fire and shimmering between black and 
 gold. My next glance filled me with a woefu'. dis- 
 appointment, for I declare, what with my dream 
 and my odd awakening, I expected to find before 
 me a beauty no less bewitching than that of her 
 Royal Highness herself. What I beheld was but 
 a slim slip of a creature who, from the tip of her 
 somewhat battered shepherdess hat to the hem of 
 her loosely hanging skirts, gave me an impression 
 of being all yellow, save for the dark cloud of her 
 hair. Her skin seemed golden yellow like old 
 ivory, her eyes seemed to shoot yellow sparks, her 
 gown was yellow as any primrose. As she bent 
 to watch me, her lip was arched into a smile ; it 
 had a deep dimple on the left side. Thus I saw 
 her in a sort of flash and scrambled to my feet 
 still half drunk with drowsiness, crying out like 
 a fool : 
 
 " Ou est son Altesse ? Oh est son Altcsse ? "
 
 The Pride of Jennico 35 
 
 She clapped her hands and turned with a crow 
 of laughter to some one behind me. And then I 
 became aware that, as in the dream, there were 
 two. I also turned. 
 
 My eyes were in their normal state again, but 
 for a moment I thought myself still wandering. 
 Here was her Highness. A Princess, indeed, as 
 beautiful as any vision and yet most exquisitely 
 embodied in the flesh ; a Princess in this wilder- 
 ness ! It seemed a thing impossible, and yet my 
 eyes now only corroborated the evidence of my 
 ears. 
 
 I marked, almost without knowing, the rope 
 of pearls that bound her throat (I had become 
 a judge of jewels by being the possessor of so 
 many). I marked her garments, garments, for all 
 their intended simplicity, rich, and bearing to my 
 not untutored observation the latest stamp of fash- 
 ion. But above all I marked her air of race, her 
 countenance, young with the first bloom of youth, 
 mantled with blushes yet set with a royal dignity. 
 
 I have, since that eventful day, passed through 
 so many phases of feeling, sweet and violent, my 
 present sentiments are so fantastically disturbed, 
 that I must try to the last of this writing and 
 see matters still as I saw them at the time. Yes, 
 beyond doubt what I noticed most, what appealed
 
 36 TJie Pride of Jennico 
 
 to me most deeply then, was the great air of race 
 blended and softened by womanly candour and 
 grace. She looked at me gravely, with wide brown 
 eyes, and I stumbled into my best courtly bow. 
 
 " He wants to know," said the damsel of the 
 yellow skirts, this time in German, the clear, clean 
 utterance of which had nothing of the broad Aus- 
 trian sounds I was accustomed to hear — " he 
 wants to know 'where is the Highness }' But he 
 seems to have guessed where she stands, without 
 the telling. Truly 'tis a pity the Lord Chamber- 
 lain is not at his post to make a presentation in 
 due form ! " 
 
 The lady thus addressed took a step towards 
 her companion, with what seemed a protest on her 
 lip. But the latter, her small face quivering with 
 mischief and eagerness, whispered something in 
 her ear, and the beautiful brown eyes fixed them- 
 selves once again smilingly on me. 
 
 "Know, sir," continued the speaker then, "since 
 you are so indiscreet as to wake at the wrong 
 moment, and surprise an incognito, the mysteries 
 of which were certainly not meant for such as 
 you, that Altesse she is. Soji Altcssc SMnissime 
 la Princesse Marie Ottilic. Marie is her High- 
 ness's first name, and Ottilie is her Highness's 
 last name. And between the two and after those
 
 The Pride of Jennico 37 
 
 two, being as I said an Altesse Serenissime, she 
 has of course a dozen other names; but more than 
 this it does not suit her Highness that you should 
 know. Now if you will do me, a humble attend- 
 ant that I am, the courtesy to state who you are, 
 who, in a Silesian boor's attire, speak French and 
 wear diamond watches to your belt, I can proceed 
 with the introduction, even in the absence of the 
 Lord Chamberlain." 
 
 The minx had an easy assurance of manner 
 which could only have been bred at Court. Her 
 mistress listened to her with what seemed a toler- 
 ant affection. 
 
 Looking round, bewildered and awkwardly con- 
 scious of my peasant dress, I beheld my two chas- 
 seurs, standing stolidly sentinel on the exact spot 
 where I had last seen them before dropping asleep. 
 Old Janos, from a nearer distance, watched us sus- 
 piciously. As I thus looked round I became aware 
 of a new feature in the landscape — a ponderous 
 coach also attended by two chasseurs in unknown 
 uniforms waiting some hundred paces off, down 
 the road. 
 
 To keep myself something in countenance de- 
 spite my incongruous garb (and also perchance 
 for the little meanness that I was not displeased 
 to show this Princess that I too kept a state of
 
 38 TJie Pride of Jennico 
 
 my own), I lifted my hand and beckoned to my 
 retinue, which instantly advanced and halted in a 
 rank with rigid precision five paces behind me. 
 
 "Gracious madam," said I in German, bowing 
 to her who had dubbed herself the lady-in-waiting, 
 with a touch, I flattered myself, of her own light 
 mockery of tone, " I shall indeed feel honoured if 
 her Serene Highness will deign to permit the 
 presentation of so unimportant a person as myself 
 — in other words of Basil Jennico of Farringdon 
 Dane, in the county of Suffolk, in the Kingdom of 
 Great Britain, lately a captain in his Royal Im- 
 perial Majesty's Moravian Regiment of Chevau- 
 Legers, now master of the Castle of Tollendhal, 
 not far distant, and lord of its domain." Here, 
 led by Janos, my three retainers saluted. 
 
 I thought I saw in the Princess's eyes that I 
 had created a certain impression, but my conse- 
 quent complacency did not escape the notice of 
 the irrepressible lady-in-waiting. She promptly 
 did her best to mar the situation. 
 
 " Fi done," she cried, in French, " we are at 
 Court, Monsieur, and at the Court of — at the 
 Court of her Highness we are not such savages 
 as to perform introductions in German." 
 
 Then, drawing up her slight figure and compos- 
 ing her face into preternatural gravity, she took
 
 The Pride of Jennico 39 
 
 two steps forward and another sideways, accom- 
 panied by as many bows, and resting her hand at 
 arm's length on the china head of her stick, with 
 the most ridiculous assumption of finikin impor- 
 tance and with a quavering voice which, although 
 I have never known him, I recognised instantly as 
 the Chamberlain's, she announced : 
 
 " Monsieur Basile Jean Nigaud de la Faridon- 
 daine, dans le comte ou Ton Suffoque, . , . d'im- 
 portance, au royaume de la Grande Bretagne, 
 maitre du Castel des Fous, ici proche, et seigneur 
 des alentours, — ahem ! " 
 
 Inwardly cursing the young woman's buffoonery 
 and the incredible facility with which she had so 
 instantly burlesqued an undoubtedly impressive re- 
 cital, I had no choice but to make my three bows 
 with what good grace I could muster. Whereupon, 
 the Princess, still smiling but with a somewhat puz- 
 zled air, made me a curtsey. As for the lady-in- 
 waiting, nothing abashed, she took an imaginary 
 pinch of most excellent snuff with a pretence of high 
 satisfaction ; then laughed aloud and long, till my 
 ears burned and her own dimple literally rioted. 
 
 " And now, to complete the ceremony," said 
 she, as soon as she could speak at all, "let me 
 introduce the Court, represented to-day by myself. 
 Mademoiselle Marie Ottilie. Two Ottilies as you
 
 40 The Pride of Jcnnico 
 
 will perceive, but easily explained, thus : Feu the 
 Highest her S^r^nissime's gracious ducal grand- 
 mother being an Ottilie and godmother to us both 
 — Mademoiselle Ottilie: the rest concerns you not. 
 Well, Monsieur de la Faridondaine, Capitaine et 
 Seigneur, etc., etc., — charmed to have made your 
 acquaintance. So far, so good. But . . . these 
 gentlemen .-* Surely also nobles in disguise. Will 
 you not continue the ceremony .-' " 
 
 She waved a little sunburnt hand towards my 
 immovable body-guard, and the full absurdity of 
 my position struck me with the keenest sense 
 of mortification. 
 
 I looked back at the three, biting my lips, and 
 miserably uncertain how to conduct myself so as 
 to save some shred of dignity. My ancient Janos 
 had seen too many strange things during his forty 
 years' attendance on my great-uncle to betray 
 the smallest surprise at the present singular situa- 
 tion ; but out of both their handsome faces, set 
 like bronze, — they had better not have moved 
 a muscle otherwise or Janos would have known 
 the reason why, — the eyes of my twin attendants 
 roamed from me to the ladies, and from the 
 ladies to me, with the most devouring curiosity. 
 I tartly dismissed them all again to a distance, 
 and then, turning to the mysterious Princess I
 
 The Pride of Jcnnico 41 
 
 begged to know, in my most courtlike manner 
 if I might presume to lay my services at her feet 
 for the time of her sojourn in this, my land. 
 
 With the same adorable yet dignified bashful- 
 ness that I had already noted in her, the lovely 
 woman looked hesitatingly at her lady-in-waiting, 
 which lively wench, not being troubled with timid- 
 ity (as she had already sufficiently demonstrated), 
 promptly took upon herself to answer me. But 
 this time she so delightfully fell in with my own 
 wishes that I was fain to forgive her all that had 
 gone before. 
 
 "But certainly," she exclaimed, "her Serene 
 Highness will condescend to accept the services 
 of M. de Jean Nigaud. It is not every day that 
 brings forth such romantic encounters. Know, 
 sir, that we are two damozels that have by the 
 most extraordinary succession of fortunate acci- 
 dents escaped from school. You wonder } By 
 school, I mean the insupportable tedium, eti- 
 quette, and dulness of the Court of his most 
 gracious and worshipful Serenity the father of 
 her Highness. We came out this noon to make 
 hay, and hay we will make. Or rather we shall 
 sit on the hay, and you shall make a throne for 
 the Princess, and a little tabouret for me, and then 
 you may sit you down and entertain us . . . but
 
 42 The Pride of Jcnnico 
 
 on the ground, and at a respectful distance, that 
 none may say we do not observe proper forms 
 and conventions, for all that we are holiday- 
 making. And you shall explain to us how you, 
 an Englishman, came to be master of Chateau 
 des Fous, and masquerading in peasant's attire. 
 Is masquerading a condition of tenure .-• After 
 which, her Serene Highness having only one 
 fault, that being her angelic softness of heart, 
 which is pushed to the degree of absolute weak- 
 ness, she will permit me to narrate to you (as 
 much as is good for you to know) how we came 
 to be here at such a distance from our own coun- 
 try, and in such curious freedom — for her High- 
 ness quite sees that you are rapidly becoming 
 ill with suppressed curiosity, and fears that you 
 may otherwise burst with it on your way home 
 to your great castle, or at least that the pressure 
 on the brain may seriously affect its delicate 
 balance — if indeed," with a peal of her reckless 
 childish laughter, "you are not already a lunatic, 
 and those your keepers ! " 
 
 This last piece of impudence might have proved 
 even too much for my desire to cultivate an ac- 
 quaintance so extraordinarily attractive to one of 
 my turn of mind and so alluring by its mysterious- 
 ness, but that I happened to catch a glance from
 
 The Pride of Jennico 43 
 
 her Highness's eyes even as the speaker finished 
 her tirade, which glance, deprecating and at the 
 same time full of a kindly and gentle interest, 
 set my heart to beat in a curious fashion between 
 pleasure and pain. I hastened therefore to obey 
 the younger lady's behests, and began to gather 
 together enough of the sweet-smelling hay to form 
 a throne for so noble and fair an occupant. 
 
 Whereupon the little creature herself — she 
 seemed little by reason of her slenderness and 
 childishness, but in truth she was as tall as her 
 tall and beautiful mistress — fell to helping me 
 with such right goodwill, flashing upon me, as she 
 flitted hither and thither, such altogether inno- 
 cently mocking looks from her yellow-hazel eyes, 
 that I should have been born with a deeper vanity, 
 and a sourer temper, to have kept a grudge against 
 her. 
 
 Once seated in our fragrant court, in the order 
 laid down for us, the attendant, so soon as she had 
 recovered breath sufficient, began to ply me with 
 questions so multiplied, so searching, and so 
 pointed, that she very soon extracted from me 
 every detail she wished to know about myself, past 
 and present. 
 
 But although, as from a chartered and privileged 
 advocate, the sharp cross-questioning came from
 
 44 The Pride of Jcnnico 
 
 the Mademoiselle Marie Ottilie, it was to the soft 
 dumb inquiry I read in the Princess Marie Ottilie's 
 eyes that were addressed my answers. And then 
 those eyes and the listening beauty of that gracious 
 face, made it hard for me to realise, as later reflec- 
 tion proved, that their owner did not utter a single 
 word during the whole time we sat there together.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 I MIND me that when she had drawn from me 
 all she had wanted to know, the little lady's pert 
 tongue became still for a while, and that she 
 stretched her long young limbs and lay back upon 
 her mound of hay with the most absolute uncon- 
 cern either of my presence or of the Princess's, 
 gazing skyward with a sudden gravity in her look. 
 As for me, I was content to sit in silence too, glad 
 of the quiet, because it gave me leisure to taste the 
 full zest of this fortunate and singular meeting. I 
 thought I had never seen a human being whom 
 silence became so well as the Princess Ottilie. 
 Contrasted with the recklessness and chatter of 
 her companion her attitude struck me as the most 
 perfectly dignified it had ever been my lot to ob- 
 serve. 
 
 Presently the nymph in yellow roused herself 
 from her reverie, and sat up, with her battered hat 
 completely on one side and broken bits of grass 
 sticking in the tangled mass of her brown hair. 
 She arched her lip at me with her malicious smile, 
 and addressed her companion. 
 
 45
 
 46 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 "Is it your Highncss's pleasure," she asked, 
 " that I should gratify some of this young English 
 nobleman's curiosity concerning the wandering of 
 a Princess in so unprincely a fashion ? " 
 
 " Ach ! " rebuked her Highness, on the wings of 
 a soft sigh. The truth of the girl's assertion that 
 her mistress's kindness of heart amounted to weak- 
 ness, was very patent ; the dependant was undoubt- 
 edly indulged to the verge of impertinence, although 
 it is also true that her manner seemed to stop 
 short of any open show of disrespect. 
 
 " Now attention, please. Monsieur de la Faridon- 
 daine ! His Most Absolutely to be Revered and 
 Most Gracious Serenity, father of her Highness, 
 reigns over a certain land, a great many leagues 
 from here," she began, with all the gusto of one 
 who revels in the sound of her own voice. " Her 
 Highness is his only daughter, and this August 
 Person has the condescension to feel for her some 
 of those sentiments of paternal affection which are 
 common even to the lowest peasant. You have 
 been about Courts, Monsieur Jean Nigaud, the fact 
 is patent and indubitable. You can therefore 
 realise the extent of such condescension. A little 
 while ago, moved by these sentiments, my gracious 
 Sovereign believed there was a paleness upon her 
 Highness his daughter's cheek."
 
 The Pride of Jennie o 47 
 
 Involuntarily I looked at the Princess, to see, 
 with a curious elation, how the rich colour rushed, 
 under my gaze, yet more richly into her face. 
 
 "It does not appear now," pursued the imper- 
 turbable speaker, whom no blink of mine seemed 
 to escape, " but there ivas a paleness, and the 
 Court doctor decided there was likewise a triflinor 
 loss of tone and want of strength. He recom- 
 mended a change of air, tonic baths, and grape 
 cure. In consequence, after due deliberation and 
 consultation, it was decreed that her Highness 
 should be sent to a certain region in the mountains, 
 where Hochst die Selbe has a grand, a most high, 
 ducal aunt, the said region being noted for its 
 salubrious air, its baths, the quality and extent of 
 its vineyards. In company, therefore, of a few 
 indispensable court officials — the Lord Chamber- 
 lain (as a responsible person for her Highness's 
 movements), the most gracious a certain aged and 
 high born Grafin (our chief Court lady, once the 
 Highness's own gouvernante), the second Court 
 doctor, the third officier de bouche, and mine own 
 humble self " 
 
 Here she paused, and, with a sudden assumption 
 of dolefulness that was certainly comic, proceeded 
 in quite another voice : 
 
 "I am a person of no consequence at Court,
 
 48 The Pride of Jcnnico 
 
 Monsieur de la Faridondaine, I am merely toler- 
 ated because of her Highness's goodness, and also 
 because, you must know, that I have a reputation 
 of being a source of amusement to her Serenity. 
 You may already have noticed that it is fairly well 
 founded that I am talkative and entertaining, as a 
 lady-in-waiting should be, and this is the reason 
 why I have attained a position to which my birth 
 does not entitle me." 
 
 A little frown came across the Princess's smooth 
 brow at these words. She shot a look of depre- 
 cation at her attendant, but the latter went on, 
 resuming her former manner, in a bubbling of 
 merriment : 
 
 " Facts are facts, you see — I am even hardly 
 born. My mother happened to be liked by the 
 mother of her Serene Highness — an angel — and 
 when I was orphaned she took me closer to her. 
 So we grew up together, her Highness and I, 
 and so I come to be in so grand a place as a 
 Court. There, Monsieur, you have in a word the 
 history of Mademoiselle Marie Ottilie. I have no 
 wish that she should ever seem to have appeared 
 under false colours." 
 
 The Princess, whose sensitive blood had again 
 risen to a crimson tide, cast a very uneasy look 
 at her companion. I could see how much her
 
 The Pride of Jennico 49 
 
 affectionate delicacy was wounded by this unneces- 
 sary candour. 
 
 But little mademoiselle, after returning the 
 glance with one as mischievous and unfeeling as 
 a jackdaw's, continued, hugging her knees with 
 every appearance of enjoyment : 
 
 " And now we come to the series of delightful 
 accidents which brought us here. Behold ! no 
 sooner had we left the Court of — the Court her 
 Highness belongs to — than the smallpox broke 
 out in the Residenz and in the palace itself. The 
 father of her Serenity had had it ; there was no 
 danger for him, and he was in the act of con- 
 gratulating himself upon having sent the Princess 
 out of the way, when, in the most charming man- 
 ner (for the Ducal Court of her Highness's aunt 
 was even duller than Hochst die Selbe's own, and 
 after the tenth bunch of grapes you get rather 
 tired of a grape cure, and as for mud baths — 
 oh fie, the horror !), we discovered that we had 
 brought the pretty illness with us. And first one 
 and then the other of the retinue sickened and 
 fell ill. Then a Court lady of the Duchess took 
 it, and next who should develop symptoms but 
 the old growl-bear and scratch-cat, our own chief 
 Hofdame, chief duenna, and chief bore. That was 
 a stroke of fortune, you must admit ! But wait 
 
 B
 
 50 The Pride of Jeimico 
 
 a moment, you have not heard the best of it 
 yet." 
 
 At the very first mention of the smallpox the 
 Princess grew pale, and made the sign of the 
 cross. And indeed it seemed to me, myself, a 
 tempting of Providence to joke thus lightly about 
 a malady so dangerous to life and so fatal to 
 looks. But the girl proceeded coolly : 
 
 " Her Serene Highness, like her most vener- 
 ated brother, had had the disease ; I believe they 
 underwent it together in their Serene Babyhood. 
 But her Serene Highness was deeply alarmed by 
 the danger to which her Serene niece was ex- 
 posed. The Court doctor was no less concerned 
 — it is a bad thing for a Court doctor if a princess 
 in his charge fall a victim to an epidemic — so 
 they put their heads together and resolved to send 
 the exalted young lady into some safer region, in 
 company of such of her retinue as seemed in the 
 soundest health. An aged lady, mother of M. de 
 Schreckendorf, our Chamberlain already described 
 to you, dwells in these plains. As a matter of 
 fact," said the speaker, pointing a small finger in 
 the direction of the town, " her castle is yonder. 
 The Duchess had once condescended to spend a 
 night there to break a journey, and it had re- 
 mained stamped on her ducal memory that the
 
 The Pride of Jennico 5^ 
 
 place was quiet, — not to say a desert, — that there 
 were vineyards close by, and also that the air was 
 particularly salubrious. She knew, too, that the 
 Countess Schreckendorf was quite equal to the 
 guarding of any youthful Serenity, in short, a 
 dragon of etiquette, narrow-mindedness, prudery, 
 and ugliness. Together, therefore, with the Cham- 
 berlain, a few women, and the poor doctor, we 
 were packed into a ducal chariot, and carted here, 
 the Countess receiving the strictest orders not to 
 divulge the tremendous altitude of her visitor's 
 rank. She would die rather than betray the trust, 
 — especially as to thwart innocent impulses is one 
 of her chief pleasures, nay, I may say her only 
 pleasure in life. Little does she or the Highness 
 her mistress suspect the existence of a Seigneur 
 de la Faridondaine, roaming about in the guise of 
 a simple Silesian shepherd and pretending to sleep 
 in order to surprise the little secrets of wander- 
 ing princesses ! We were told, when we asked 
 whether there was no neighbourly creature within 
 reach, that the only one for leagues was a fearful 
 old man with one eye and one tooth, who goes 
 about using his cane as freely on every one's shoul- 
 ders as the Prussian king himself. Well, never 
 mind, don't speak, I have yet the cream of the 
 tale to offer ! We arrived here three weeks ago
 
 52 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 and found the grapes no more spicy, the castle no 
 more amusing, and the neighbourhood more bor- 
 ing than even the ducal Court itself. But one ex- 
 cellent day, the good little Chamberlain began to 
 look poorly, complained of his poor little head, 
 and retired to his room. The next morning what 
 does the doctor do, but pack Jiim into a coach and 
 drive away with him like a fury. Neither coach, 
 nor postillions, nor doctor, nor Chamberlain, have 
 been seen or heard of since ! But I, who am 
 awake with the birds, from my chamber window 
 saw them go — for I heard the clatter in the 
 courtyard, and by nature, M. the Captain, I am 
 as curious as a magpie." 
 
 "Oh, that," said I with conviction, "you need 
 not tell me ! " 
 
 She seemed vastly tickled by the frankness of 
 this my first observation after such long listening, 
 and had to throw herself back on the hay, and 
 laugh her laugh out, before she could sit up again 
 and continue : 
 
 " So, as I was saying, I saw the departure. 
 The doctor looked livid with fright, and as for the 
 Hcrr Chamberlain, he was muffled up in blankets 
 and coats, but I got a glimpse of his face for all 
 that, and it was spotted all over with great red 
 spots I "
 
 The Pride of Jennico 53 
 
 The Princess pushed her hat off her forehead, 
 and turned upon her lady-in-waiting a face that 
 had grown almost livid. 
 
 " Pooh ! " said the lady-in-waiting ; " your High- 
 ness is over-nervous ; 'tis now a good fortnight 
 since the old gentleman left us, and if you or I 
 were to have had it we should have shown symp- 
 toms long ago. Well, sir, to continue: our worthy 
 hostess the Countess was in a fine fume, as you 
 can fancy, between duty and natural affection, 
 terror and anxiety. She was by way of keeping 
 the whole matter a dead secret both from us and 
 from the servants ; but the fumigations she set 
 going in the house, the airing, the dosing, together 
 with her own frantic demeanour, would have been 
 enough to enlighten even obtuser wits than ours. 
 With one exception all our servants fled, and all 
 hers. She had to replace them from a distance. 
 The anger, the responsibility, the agitation gen- 
 erally, were too much for her years and constitu- 
 tion ; and three days ago — in the act (as we dis- 
 covered) of writing to the Duchess for instructions, 
 for she had expected the Court doctor would have 
 sent on special messengers to the courts of her 
 Highness's relatives, and was in a perfect fever at 
 receiving no news — as I say, in the very act of 
 writing evidently to despatch another post herself.
 
 54 TJie Pride of Jejinico 
 
 the poor old lady was struck with paralysis, and 
 was carried speechless to bed. Now, Monsieur 
 Jean Nigaud, you English are a practical race. 
 Do you not agree with me that since the Lord, 
 in His wisdom, decreed that it was good for the 
 Countess's soul to have a little physical affliction, 
 it could not have happened at a better moment 
 for us.-* I know that her Highness disapproves 
 of what she calls my heartlessness, but I cannot 
 but rejoice in our freedom. 
 
 " The Countess is recovering, but she won't 
 speak plain for a long time to come. Meanwhile 
 we are free — free as air ! Our only personal 
 attendant is my own — my old nurse. You shall 
 see her. She speaks but little, but she adores me. 
 But as we cannot understand a word of the lan- 
 guage spoken here, and the resources of this dis- 
 trict are few, I will own to you, her Highness has 
 found it a little dull, in spite of her lady-in-wait- 
 ing's well-known gift of entertainment, up to 
 to-day." 
 
 She threw me an arch look as she spoke, but 
 the Princess, rising with the dignity peculiar to 
 her, conveyed her sense that the joke had this 
 time been carried a little too far. 
 
 The shadows were lengthening, the wind had 
 fallen, it was an hour of great peace and beauty in
 
 TJie Pi'ide of Jennie o 55 
 
 the land. The Princess took a few steps towards 
 the road where waited the carriage ; I ran forward 
 and presumed to offer her my arm, which she very 
 graciously, but not without a blush, accepted. 
 The maid of honour, springing to her feet, fol- 
 lowed us, tripping over the rough ground, with a 
 torn frock and her hat hanging on her neck by 
 its ribbons. I mind me well how the chasseurs of 
 the equipage stared to see their lady come leaning 
 on the arm of a peasant. How they stared, too, 
 at the unabashed, untidy apparition of the lady-in- 
 waiting ! But she, humming a little song as she 
 went, seemed the last in the world to care what 
 impression she made. 
 
 As we neared the coach, a tall woman all in 
 black, with a black shawl over her black hair, jet- 
 black eyes, staring blankly out of a swarthy face, 
 descended from it. She looked altogether so dark 
 and forbidding a vision that I gave a start when I 
 saw her thus unexpectedly. She seemed a sort 
 of blot on the whole smiling, sunny landscape. 
 But as Mademoiselle Ottilie drew near, the woman 
 turned to her, her whole face breaking pleasantly 
 into a very eloquence of silent, eager love. 
 
 Of course I guessed at once that this was the 
 nurse to whom the saucy maiden had already re- 
 ferred. I heard them whisper to each other (and
 
 56 The Pride of Jemiico 
 
 it seemed to me as if the woman were remonstrat- 
 ing with her mistress) while I installed the Prin- 
 cess on her cushions. Then both rejoined us to 
 enter the carriage likewise. Before she jumped 
 in, Mademoiselle Ottilie tapped her nurse on the 
 shoulder with the sort of indifferent, kind little pat 
 one would bestow on a dog. The woman caught 
 the careless hand and kissed it, and her eyes as 
 she looked after the girl's figure were absolutely 
 adoring; but her whole countenance again clouded 
 over strangely when her glance fell upon us. At 
 length they all three were seated, and my graceful 
 retirement was clearly expected. But still I lin- 
 gered. 
 
 "The vintage had begun in my vineyards," 
 quoth I hesitatingly; "if her Highness would 
 honour me by coming again upon my lands, the 
 sight might interest her." 
 
 The Princess hesitated, and then, evidently 
 doubtful as to the propriety of the step, threw a 
 questioning glance at her companion. 
 
 "But certainly," said the latter instantly, "why 
 not accept? Your Highness has been advised to 
 keep in the open air as much as possible, and your 
 Highness has likewise been recommended inno- 
 cent diversion : nothing could be better. When 
 shall we say ? "
 
 The Pride of Jennico 57 
 
 " If to-morrow would suit," I suggested boldly, 
 " I could ride over after noon, if her Highness 
 would permit me to be her escort. And perhaps 
 she will also further honour me by accepting some 
 slight refreshment at my castle. It is worth see- 
 ing," I said, for I saw no reason why I should be 
 bashful in pushing my advantages, " if your High- 
 ness is not afraid to enter Le Chateau des Fous .■' " 
 I ventured to look deep into her eyes as I spoke, 
 and I remember how those eyes wavered shyly 
 from my gaze, and how the white lids fell over 
 them. And I remember, too, with what a sudden 
 mad exultation leaped my heart. 
 
 But, as before, it was the lady-in-waiting who 
 answered. 
 
 "Afraid! who is afraid.'' Your Highness, will 
 you not comfort the poor young man and tell him 
 you are not afraid t " 
 
 " If your Highness would deign," said I, plead- 
 ingly, and leaning forward into the carriage. 
 
 And then she looked at me, and said to me in 
 the sweetest guttural in all the world, " No, I am 
 not afraid." 
 
 We were speaking French. I bowxd low, fear- 
 ing to spoil it all by another word. The Princess 
 stretched out her hand and I kissed the back of 
 her glove, and then I had the privilege of also
 
 58 The Pride of Jennie o 
 
 kissing Miss Ottilia's sunburnt, scratched, and 
 rather grimy bare little paw, which she, with 
 affected dignity, thrust forward for my salute. 
 
 The carriage drove away, and as it went I mind 
 me how the nurse looked after me with a darkling 
 anxiety, and also how as I stalked homewards 
 through the evening glow, with my body-guard 
 tramping steadily behind me, I kept recalling the 
 sound of the four gracious words with which the 
 Princess had consented to accept of my hospitality. 
 
 She had said, it is true, " Che n'ai has beiir," 
 but none the less was the memory a delicate 
 delight to my heart the whole night through.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 I HAD questioned Janos on our homeward way 
 concerning my new acquaintances ; but the fellow 
 was so ill-disposed by nature to external gossip, so 
 wholly occupied with the minute fulfilment of his 
 daily task, which was to watch over the well-being 
 and safety of his master, that he had gathered no 
 acquaintance with affairs outside his province. 
 With the head factor, however, whom I sent for 
 immediately after supper, I was more fortunate. 
 This man, Karl Schultz, is Saxon-born, and conse- 
 quently one of the few of my numerous dependants 
 with whom I can hold converse here. It was but 
 natural that among the peasantry the advent of 
 strangers, evidently of wealth and distinction, 
 should have created some stir, and it is Schultz's 
 business, among many other things, to know what 
 the peasantry talk about ; although in this more 
 contented part of the world this sort of knowledge 
 is not of such importance as among our neighbours 
 the Poles. Schultz, therefore, was aware of the 
 arrival of the ladies, likewise of the rumour of 
 smallpox, which had, so he informed me, not only 
 
 59
 
 6o Tlie Pride of Jcnnico 
 
 driven all the servants out of the Castle of 
 Schreckendorf, but spread something like a panic 
 over the country-side. Tidings had also come to 
 his ears that two gentlemen — one of them suffer- 
 ing from the dreadful malady (doubtless the poor 
 Chamberlain) — had been abandoned in their car- 
 riage by their postillions and servants at the small 
 village of Kittlitz, some forty miles from here, 
 just over the Lusatian border. He corroborated, 
 in fact, greatly to my joy, all that I had been told; 
 for I had had an uneasy fear upon me, now and 
 again, as I marched home in the evening chill, 
 that I had been too ready to lend credence to a 
 romantic and improbable story. But, better than 
 all, Schultz, having felt a special curiosity con- 
 cerning visitors from his own country, had, despite 
 the attempt to keep the matter secret, contrived 
 to satisfy himself to the full as to their identity. 
 And thus did I, to my no small triumph, from 
 the first day easily penetrate the ill-guarded 
 incognita. 
 
 The beautiful wandering Princess was the only 
 daughter of the old reigning house of Lausitz- 
 Rothenburg; and it was from Georgcnbrunn, 
 where she had been on a visit to her aunt the 
 Dowager Duchess of Saxony, that the second out- 
 break of the epidemic had driven her to take
 
 TJie Pride of Jennie o 6i 
 
 refuge with the Countess Schreckendorf in our 
 neighbourhood. 
 
 Vastly satisfied with my discovery, and not a 
 little fluttered by the impending honour, I made 
 elaborate preparations the next day against the 
 coming of such guests. We rifled the gardens, 
 the greenhouses, and the storerooms, and contrived 
 a collation the elegance of which taxed our re- 
 sources to the uttermost. 
 
 Not in peasant garb did I start at noon upon 
 my romantic quest, but in my finest riding suit of 
 mulberry cloth embroidered with green and silver, 
 (of what good auguries did I not think when I 
 remembered that green and white were actually 
 the colours of the Maison de Lusace, and that in 
 this discreet manner I could wear on my sleeve 
 the mark of a delicate homage T), rufifles of finest 
 Mechlin fluttered on my throat and wrists, and a 
 hat of the very latest cock was disposed jauntily 
 at the exact angle prescribed by the Vienna mode. 
 
 With my trim fellows behind me, and with as 
 perfect a piece of horseflesh between my knees as 
 the Emperor himself could ever hope to bestride, 
 I set out in high delight and anticipation. 
 
 Now, on this freezing winter's night, when I 
 look back upon those days and the days that 
 followed, it seems to me as though it were all a
 
 62 The Pride of Joniico 
 
 dream. The past events are wrapped to memory 
 in a kind of haze, out of which certain hours 
 marked above the rest stand out alone in clear- 
 ness. — That particular day stands forth perhaps 
 the clearest of all. 
 
 I remember that the Princess Ottilie looked 
 even more queenly to my mind than at first, with 
 her fair hair powdered and a patch upon the satin 
 whiteness of her chin. In the complacency of my 
 young man's vanity, I was exceedingly elated that 
 she should have considered it worth while to adorn 
 herself for me. I remember, too, that the lady- 
 in-waiting examined me critically, and cast a look 
 of approval upon my altered appearance ; that she 
 spoke less and that her mistress spoke more than 
 upon our first meeting ; that even the presence, 
 mute, dark, and scowling, of their female attendant 
 could not spoil the pleasure of our intercourse. 
 
 In the vineyards, it is true, an incident occurred 
 which for a moment threatened to mar my perfect 
 satisfaction. The peasant girls — it is the custom 
 of the country on the appearance of strangers in 
 the midst of their work — gathered round each 
 lady, surrounding her in wild dancing bands, threat- 
 ening in song to load her shoulders with a heavy 
 hodful of grapes unless she paid a ransom. It was 
 of course most unseemly, considering the quality of
 
 The Pride of Jennico 63 
 
 the company I was entertaining, and I had not fore- 
 seen the possibility of such a breach of respect. 
 Never before, it was evident, in the delicately nurt- 
 ured life of the Princess, had such rough amuse- 
 ment been allowed to approach her. This being 
 the case, it was not astonishing that the admirable 
 composure of her usual attitude should break down 
 — her dignity give way to the emotion of fear. 
 She called — nay, she screamed- — to me for help. 
 The while her pert lady-in-waiting, no whit abashed, 
 laughed back at her circle of grinning sunburnt 
 prancers, threw mocking good-humoured gibes at 
 them in German, and finally was sharp enough to 
 draw her purse and pay for her footing, crying 
 out to her mistress to do the same. But the latter 
 was in no state to listen to advice, and, alas ! I 
 found myself powerless to deliver the distressed 
 lady. In my ignorance of their language I could 
 do nothing short of use brute force to control my 
 savages, who were after all (it seems) but acting in 
 good faith upon an old-established privilege. So 
 I was fain, in my turn, to summon Schultz to the 
 rescue from a distant part of the ground. He, 
 practical fellow, made no bones about the matter ; 
 with a bellow and a knowing whirl of his cane 
 every stroke of which told with a dull thwack, he 
 promptly dispersed the indiscreet merrymakers.
 
 64 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 I suppose it is my English blood that rises 
 within me at the sight of a woman struck. Upon 
 the impulse of the first moment I had well-nigh 
 wrenched the staff from his hands and laid it 
 about his shoulders; but fortunately, on second 
 thought, I had wisdom enough to refrain from an 
 act which would have been so fatal to all future 
 discipline. Nevertheless, as I stood by, a passive 
 spectator of it, the blood mounted, for very shame, 
 to my cheek, and I felt myself degraded to the 
 level of my administrator's brutality. 
 
 The poor fools fell apart, screaming between 
 laughter and pain. One handsome wench I 
 marked, indeed, who withdrew to the side of a 
 sullen gipsy-looking fellow, her husband or lover 
 apparently ; and as she muttered low in his ear 
 they both cast looks charged with such murderous 
 import, not only at the uncompromising justiciary, 
 but also at me, and the man's hand stole instinc- 
 tively to his back with so significant a gesture, 
 that I realised for the first time quite fully that 
 there might be good reasons for Janos's precautions 
 anent the lord's precious person when the lord took 
 his walks abroad. 
 
 Another girl passed me close by, sobbing aloud, 
 as she returned to her labour. She rubbed her 
 shoulder sorely, and the tears hopjicd off the rim
 
 The Pride of Jennico 65 
 
 of her fat cheeks, contorted like those of a blub- 
 bering child. In half-ashamed and sneaking fash' 
 ion, yet unable to resist the urging of my heart, 
 I followed her behind the next row of vines and 
 touched her on the arm. 
 
 She recognised me with a start, and I, all fearful 
 of being noticed by the others, in haste and with- 
 out a word — as what word could I find in which 
 to communicate with a Slovack ? — hastily dropped 
 a consolatory coin, the first that met my touch, into 
 her palm. 
 
 It was a poor plain creature with dull eyes, coarse 
 lips, and matted hair, and she gazed at me a mo- 
 ment stupidly bewildered. But the next instant, 
 reading I know not what of sympathy and benevo- 
 lence in my face, as a dog may read in his master's 
 eyes, she fell at my feet, letting the gold slip out of 
 her grasp that she might the better seize my hand 
 in hers and cover it with kisses, pouring forth the 
 while a litany of gratitude, as unintelligible to me 
 as if she had been indeed a dog whining at my feet. 
 
 To put an end to the absurd situation, distaste- 
 ful to my British free-born pride for all my foreign 
 training, I pushed her from me and turned away, 
 to find the lady-in-waiting at my elbow. 
 
 Instead, however, of making my weakness a 
 mark for her wit, this latter, to my great relief.
 
 66 TJic Pride of Jennico 
 
 and likewise to my astonishment, looked wistfully 
 from the ugly besmeared face to the coin lying on 
 the black soil, then at my countenance, which at 
 that moment was, I felt, that of a detected school- 
 boy. And then, without a word, she followed me 
 back to her mistress's side. 
 
 My august visitor had not yet regained her 
 wonted serenity. Still fluttered, she showed me 
 something of a pouting visage. I thought to dis- 
 cern in her not only satisfaction at the punishment 
 she had seen administered, but some resentment 
 at my passive attitude. And this, I confess, sur- 
 prised me in her, who seemed so gentle and 
 womanly. But I told myself then that it was but 
 natural in one born as she was to a throne. 
 
 On the other hand, while I confounded myself 
 in excuses and explanations, blaming myself for 
 having (through my inexperience of this country) 
 neglected to prevent the possibility of so untoward 
 an incident, I heard behind me the voice of the 
 young Court lady, rating Schultz in most explicit 
 German for the heaviness of his hand upon my 
 folk. And, as the Princess gradually became mol- 
 lified towards me and showed me once again her 
 own smiling graciousness, I contrasted her little 
 show of haughtiness with the unreserve of her 
 companion, and convinced myself that it did but
 
 TJie Pride of Jemiico 6y 
 
 become her (being- what she was). The while I 
 watched Mademoiselle Ottilie, mingling with peas- 
 ants as if she had been born among them, with 
 an ever renewed wonder that she should have been 
 chosen for the high position she occupied. 
 
 Later on my guest, according to her promise, 
 condescended to rest and refresh herself in the 
 castle. This was the culminating moment of a 
 golden afternoon. I felt the full pride of posses- 
 sion when I led her in through the old halls that 
 bore the mark of so many centuries of noble 
 masters ; although indeed, as a Jennico, I had no 
 inherited right to peacock in the glories of the 
 House of Tollendhal. But, at each portrait before 
 which she was gracious enough to halt, I took care 
 to speak of some notable contemporary among the 
 men and women of my own old line, in that dis- 
 tant enchanted island of the North, where the men 
 are so brave and strong and the women so fair. 
 And, without stretching any point, I am sure the 
 line of Jennico lost nothing in the comparison. 
 
 She was, I saw, beyond mistake impressed. I 
 rejoiced to note that I was rapidly becoming a 
 person of importance in her eyes. Even the lady- 
 in-waiting continued to measure me with an altered 
 and thoughtful look. 
 
 Between the eating of our meal together —
 
 68 The Pride of Jcnnico 
 
 which, as I said, was quite a delicate little feast, 
 and did honour to my barefooted kitchen retinue 
 — and the departure of my visitors, I took them 
 through many of the chambers, and showed them 
 some of the treasures, quaint antiquities, and relics 
 that my great-uncle had inherited or himself col- 
 lected. On a little table under his picture — 
 yonder on that wall it hangs before me — I had 
 spread forth in a glass case, with a sort of tender 
 and pious memory of the rigid old hero, his own 
 personal decorations and honours, from the first 
 cross he had won in comparative youth to the last 
 blazing order that a royal hand had pinned over 
 the shrunken chest of the field-marshal. In this 
 portrait, painted some five years before his death, 
 my uncle had insisted on appearing full face, with 
 a fine scorn of any palliation of the black patch or 
 the broken jaw. It is a grim enough presentment 
 in consequence, — the artist having evidently rather 
 relished his task, — and sometimes, indeed, when I 
 am alone here in this great room at night, and it 
 seems as if the candle-light does but serve to 
 heighten the gloom of the shadows, I find my 
 uncle's one eye following me with so living a 
 sternness that I can scarce endure it. 
 
 But that day of which I am writing, I thought 
 there was benignity in the fierce orb as it surveyed
 
 TJie Pride of Jennico 69 
 
 such honourable company, and even an actual 
 touch of geniality in the set of the black patch. 
 
 As I opened the case, both the ladies fell, 
 women-like, to fingering the rich jewels. There 
 was a snuff-box set around with diamonds, upon 
 the lid of which was painted a portrait of the 
 Dauphine. This, Maria Theresa had herself given 
 to my uncle on the occasion of her daughter's 
 marriage, to which it was deemed my uncle's firm 
 attitude in council over the Franco-Austrian diffi- 
 culty had not a little contributed. 
 
 With a cry of admiration, the Princess took it 
 up. " Ach, what diamonds ! " she said. I looked 
 from the exquisite face on the ivory to the no less 
 exquisite countenance bending above it, and I was 
 struck by the resemblance which had no doubt 
 unconsciously been haunting me ever since I first 
 met her. The arch of the dark eyebrow, the 
 supercilious droop of the eyelid, the curve of the 
 short upper lip, and the pout of the full under 
 one, even the high poise of the head on the long 
 throat, were curiously similar. I exclaimed upon 
 the coincidence, while the Princess flushed with a 
 sort of mingled pleasure and bashfulness. 
 
 Mademoiselle Ottilie took up the miniature in 
 her turn, and, after gravely comparing it with her 
 own elfish, sunburnt visage in the glass, gazed at
 
 JO The Pride of Jennico 
 
 her mistress ; then, heaving a lugubrious sigh, she 
 assented to my remarks, adding, however, that 
 there was no ground for surprise, as the Princess 
 Marie Ottilie was actually cousin to her Royal 
 Highness the Dauphine. 
 
 The Princess blushed again, and lifted up her 
 hand as if to warn her companion. But the latter, 
 with her almost uncanny perspicacity, continued, 
 turning to me : 
 
 " Of course, M. de Jennico " (she had at last 
 mastered my name) — "of course, M. de Jennico 
 has found out all about us by this time, and is 
 perfectly aware of her Highness's identity." 
 
 Then she added, and her eyes danced : 
 
 " Since M. de Jennico is so fond of genealogy " 
 (among the curiosities of the place I had naturally 
 shown them my uncle's monumental pedigree), 
 " he can amuse himself in tracing the connection 
 and relationships — no doubt he has the ' Alma- 
 nach de Gotha ' — between the houses of Hapsburg 
 and the Catholic house of Lausitz-Rothenburg." 
 
 And indeed, although she meant this in sarcasm, 
 when, after I had escorted them home, I returned, 
 through the mists and shades of twilight, to my 
 solitude (now peopled for me with delightful pres- 
 ent, and God knows what fantastic future, visions), 
 I did produce that excellent new book, the " Al-
 
 The Pride of Jennico 71 
 
 manach de Gotha," and found great interest in 
 tracing the blood-relation between the Dauphine 
 and the fairest of princesses. And afterwards, 
 moved by some spirit of vainglory, I amused my- 
 self by comparing on the map the relative sizes of 
 the Duchy of Lausitz and the lands of Tollendhal. 
 And next I was moved to unroll once again 
 my uncle's pedigree, and to study the fine chain 
 of noble links of which I stand the last worthy 
 Jennico, when something that had been lying un- 
 formed in my mind during these last hours of 
 strange excitement suddenly took audacious and 
 definite shape.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 What first entered my brain as the wildest 
 possibility grew rapidly to a desire which pos- 
 sessed my whole being with absolute passion. 
 The situation was in itself so singular and tanta- 
 lising, and the Princess was so beautiful a woman, 
 to be on these terms of delicious intimacy with 
 the daughter of one of Europe's sovereigns (a 
 little sovereign it is true, but great by race and 
 connection), to meet her constantly in absolute 
 defiance of all the laws of etiquette, yet to see her 
 wear through it all as unapproachable a dignity, 
 as serene an aspect of condescension, as though 
 she were presiding at her father's Court — it was 
 enough, surely, to have turned the head of a wiser 
 man than myself ! 
 
 It was not long before Mademoiselle Ottilie, the 
 lady-in-waiting, discovered the secret madness of 
 my thoughts — in the light of what has since 
 occurred I can truly call it so. And she it was 
 who, for purposes of her own, shovelled coals 
 on the fire and fanned the flame. One way or 
 another, generally on her initiative, but always 
 
 72
 
 The Pride of Jennico 73 
 
 by her arrangement, we three met, and met 
 daily. 
 
 On the evening of a day passed in their com- 
 pany, with the impression strong upon me of the 
 Princess's farewell look, which had held, I fancied, 
 something different to its -wont ; with the know- 
 ledge that I had, unrebuked, pressed and kissed 
 that fair hand after a fashion more daring than 
 respectful, with my blood in a fever and my brain 
 in a whirl, now seeming sure of success, now 
 coldly awake to my folly, I bethought me of tak- 
 ing counsel again with my great-uncle's pedigree. 
 And heartened by the proofs that the blood of 
 Jennico was good enough for any alliance, I fell to 
 completing the document by bringing it up to date 
 as far as concerned myself. Now, when I in 
 goodly black letters had set down my own cogno- 
 men so fair upon the parchment, I was further 
 seized with the fancy to fill in the space left blank 
 for my future marriage ; and I lightly traced in 
 pencil, opposite the words " Basil Jennico, Lord of 
 Tollendhal," the full titles and names, which by 
 this time I had studied till I knew them off by 
 heart, of her Serene Highness the Princess Marie 
 Caroline Dorothee Josephine Charlotte Ottilie of 
 Lausitz. 
 
 It made such a pretty show after all that had
 
 74 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 gone before, and it brought such visions with it of 
 the glories the name of Jennico might yet rise to, 
 that I could not find it in me to erase it again, 
 and so left it as it stood, telling myself, as I rolled 
 up the great deed again and hooked it in its place 
 beneath my uncle's portrait, that it would not be 
 my fault if the glorious entry did not remain there 
 for ever. 
 
 The next time the ladies visited me. Mademoi- 
 selle Ottilie — flitting like a little curious brown 
 moth about the great room, dancing pirouettes 
 beneath my uncle's portrait, and now and again 
 pausing to make a comical grimace at his forbid- 
 ding countenance, while I entertained her mistress 
 at its further end — must needs be pricked by the 
 desire to study the important document, which I 
 had, as I have said, already submitted to her view. 
 
 Struck by her sudden silence and stillness, I 
 rose and crossed the room to find her with the 
 parchment rolled out before her, absorbed in con- 
 templation, her elbows on the table, her face lean- 
 ing on her hands. With a fierce rush of blood to 
 my checks, in a confusion that set every pulse 
 throbbing, I attempted to withdraw from her the 
 evidence of what must seem the most impudent 
 delusion, l^ut she held tight with her elbows, 
 and then, disregarding my muttered explanation
 
 The Pride of Jeimico 75 
 
 that I intended to rub out at once the nonsense 
 I had written in a moment of idleness, she laid 
 her small finger upon the place, and, looking at 
 me gravely, said : 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 The whole room whirled round with me. 
 
 "My God," I cried, "don't mock me ! " 
 
 But she, with a new ring of feeling in her voice, 
 said earnestly : 
 
 " She has such misery before her if her father 
 carries out his will." 
 
 To hear these words from her, who of all others 
 must be in her mistress's confidence, ought, how- 
 ever amazing to reason and common sense, to 
 have been a spur to one whose ambition soared 
 so high. Nevertheless, I hesitated. To be hon- 
 est with myself, not from a lover's difBdence, from 
 a lover's dread of losing even hope, but rather 
 from the fear of placing myself in an absurd 
 position — of risking the deadly humiliation of a 
 refusal. 
 
 I dared therefore nothing but soft looks, soft 
 words, soft pressures of the hand ; and the Princess 
 received them all as she received everything that 
 had gone before. From one in her position this 
 might seem of itself encouragement enough in all 
 conscience ; but I waited in vain for some break
 
 •^6 The Pride of Jcmiico 
 
 in her unruffled composure — some instant in 
 which I could mark that the Princess was lost in 
 the woman. And so what drew me most to her 
 kept me back. At the same time a rooted dis- 
 trust of the little lady-in-waiting, a certain con- 
 tempt, too, for her personality as belonging to 
 that roture so despised of my great-uncle and my- 
 self, prevented me from placing confidence in 
 her. 
 
 But she, nevertheless, precipitated the climax. 
 It was three days after the scene in my great- 
 uncle's room, one Sunday morning, beside the 
 holy-water font in the little chapel of Schrecken- 
 dorf Castle, whither, upon the invitation of its 
 present visitors — my own priest being ill, poor 
 man, of an ague — I had betaken myself to hear 
 mass. The Princess had passed out first, and had 
 condescended, smiling, to brush the pious drops 
 from my finger ; but Mademoiselle Ottilic paused 
 as she too touched with hers my outstretched 
 hand, and said in my car as crossly as a spoilt 
 child : 
 
 " You are not a very ardent lover, M. de Jen- 
 nico. The days are going by ; the Countess 
 Schreckcndorf is beginning to speak quite plain 
 again. It is impossible tliat her Highness should 
 be left in tliis liberty mucli longer."
 
 The Pride of Jennico 'J "J 
 
 I caught her hand as she would have hurried 
 away. 
 
 " If I could be sure that this is not some foolish 
 jest," I said in a fierce whisper in her ear. 
 
 And she to me back again as fiercely : 
 
 " You are afraid ! " she said with a curling 
 lip. 
 
 That settled it, 
 
 I rode straight home, though I was expected to 
 have joined the ladies in some expedition. I 
 spent the whole day in a most intolerable state of 
 agitation ; and then, my mind made up, I sat 
 down after supper to write, beneath my uncle's 
 portrait. And the first half of the night went by 
 in writing and re-writing the letter which was to 
 offer the hand and heart of Basil Jennico to the 
 Princess Marie Ottilie of Lausitz. 
 
 I wrote and tore up till the ground around me 
 was strewn with the fragments of paper ; and 
 now I seemed too bold, when the whole incon- 
 gruity and absurdity of my desire took tangible 
 form to mock me in the silence of the night ; and 
 now too humble, when in the flickering glimmer 
 of candle-light my great-uncle would frown down 
 upon me, and I could hear him say : 
 " Remember that thou Jennico bist ! " 
 At last a letter lay before me by which I re-
 
 78 The Pride of Jcnnico 
 
 solved to abide. I believe that it was an odd 
 mixture of consciousness of my own temerity in 
 aspiring so high, and at the same time of convic- 
 tion that the house of Jennico could only confer, 
 and not receive, honour. I even proposed to pre- 
 sent myself boldly with my credentials at the 
 Court of Lausitz (and here of course the famous 
 pedigree came in once more), and I modestly 
 added that, considering my wealth and connec- 
 tions, I ventured to hope the Duke, her father, 
 might favourably consider my pretensions. 
 
 This written and sealed, I was able to sleep 
 for the rest of the night, but was awake again 
 with dawn and counting the minutes until I 
 could decently despatch a mounted messenger to 
 Schreckendorf. 
 
 When the man rode forth I believe it was a 
 little after eight ; and I know that it was on the 
 stroke of one when I heard his horse's hoofs ring- 
 ing again in the courtyard. But time had no 
 measure for the strange agony of doubt in which 
 I passed those hours, not (once again have I to 
 admit it) because I loved her too dearly to bear 
 the thought of life without her, but because of my 
 fierce pride, which would not brook the shame of 
 a refusal. 
 
 I called in a frenzy to hurry the lagging fool into
 
 The Pride of Jennie o 79 
 
 my presence ; and yet when he laid the letter on 
 my table I stared at the great seal without daring 
 to open it. And when at last I did so my hand 
 trembled like an aspen leaf. 
 
 " Monsieur de Jennico," it began abruptly, " I ought to call 
 you mad, for what you propose is nothing less indeed than 
 madness. You little know the fetters that bind such lives as 
 mine, and I could laugh and weep together to think of what 
 the Duke, my father, would say were you really to present 
 yourself before him as you suggest." 
 
 So it ran, and as I read I thought I was con- 
 temned, and in my fury would have crushed the 
 letter in my hand, when a word below caught my 
 eye, and with an intensity of joy on a par only 
 with the passion of wounded pride that had pre- 
 ceded it, I read on : 
 
 " But, dear Monsieur de Jennico," so ran the letter then, 
 " since you love me, and since you honour me by telling me 
 so ; since you offer me so generously all you have to give, I 
 will be honest with you and tell you that my present life has 
 no charm for me. I know only too well what the future 
 holds for me in my own home, and I am willing to trust my- 
 self to 3^ou and to your promises rather than face the lot 
 already drawn for me . 
 
 " Therefore, Monsieur de Jennico, if it be time that, as you 
 say, all your happiness depends upon my answer, I trust it 
 may be for the benefit of both that I should say ' Yes ' to you 
 to-day. But what is to be must be secretly done, and soon.
 
 8o The Pride of Jennico 
 
 Are you willing, to obtain your desire, to risk a little, when 
 I am willing to risk so much in granting it ? If so, meet my 
 lady-in-waiting to-day at six, alone, where we first met, and 
 she will tell you all that I have decided." 
 
 It was signed simply — "Marie Ottilie." 
 
 There was no hint of answering love to my 
 passionate declaration, but I did not miss it. I 
 had won my Princess, and the few clear words in 
 which she laid bare before me the whole extent of 
 my presumption only added to the exquisite zest 
 of my conquest. 
 
 It was a very autumn day — autumn comes 
 quickly in these lands. It had been raining, and 
 I rode down from the higher level into a sea of 
 white writhing mists. It was still and warm — 
 one of those heavy days that as a rule seem like to 
 clog the blood and fill one with reasonless forebod- 
 ing. I remember all that now ; but I know that 
 there was no place for foreboding in my exulting 
 heart as I sallied out full early to the trysting-place. 
 
 The mare I rode, because of the close atmosphere 
 and her own headstrong temper, was in a great 
 lather when I arrived at the little pine-wood, and 
 I dismounted and began to lead her gently to and 
 fro (for T loved the pretty creature, who was as 
 fond and skittish as a woman) that she might cool 
 by degrees and take no injury. I was petting and
 
 The Pride of Jennie o 8i 
 
 fondling her sleek coat, when of a sudden, without 
 my having- had the least warning of her coming, I 
 turned to find Mademoiselle Ottilie before me. 
 
 She looked at me straight with one of those odd 
 searching looks which I had now and again seen 
 her fix upon me ; and without either " Good-even" 
 or " How-do-you-do," she said abruptly : 
 
 " I saw you coming all the way along the white 
 road from the moment it turns the corner, and I 
 saw how your mare fought you, and how difficult 
 it was to bring her past the great beam of the well 
 yonder. You made her obey, but you have not 
 left a scratch upon her sides — yet you wear 
 spurs." 
 
 She looked at me with the most earnest inquiry, 
 and, ruffled by the futility of the question when 
 so much was at stake, I said to her somewhat 
 sharply : 
 
 "What has this to do, Mademoiselle, with our 
 meeting here to-day ? " 
 
 " It has this to do. Monsieur," she answered me 
 composedly, " that her Highness's interests are as 
 dear to me as my own, and that I am glad to learn 
 that the man she is to wed has a merciful heart. 
 I know a man," she went on, " in our own country 
 who passes for the finest, the bravest, the most 
 gallant, but when he brings a horse in from the 
 
 G
 
 82 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 chase its legs will be trembling and it will be 
 panting so that it can scarce draw breath, because 
 the rider is so brave and dashing that he must go 
 the fastest of all, and he will have left his mark 
 upon the poor beast's sides in great furrows where 
 he has ploughed them with his spurs. He is 
 greatly admired by every one ; but his horses die, 
 and his hounds shrink when he moves his hand : 
 that is what my country-people call being manly 
 — being a real cavalier ! " 
 
 The scorn of her tone was something beyond 
 the mere girlish pettishness I generally associated 
 with her ; but to me, except as she represented or 
 influenced her mistress, she had never had any 
 interest. And so again impatiently I brought her 
 back to the object of our meeting. 
 
 " Her Highness has entrusted you with a mes- 
 sage .? " I asked. 
 
 " Her Highness would first of all know," said 
 the maid of honour, " if you fully realise the diffi- 
 culties you may bring upon yourself by the mar- 
 riage you propose ? " 
 
 "The Princess," said I proudly, "has conde- 
 scended to say that she will trust herself to me. 
 After that, as far as I am concerned, there can be 
 no question of difficulty. As for her, if she will 
 consent to accompany me to England, no trouble
 
 The Pride of Jennico 83 
 
 or reproach need ever reach her ears. If she pre- 
 fers to remain here, I shall none the less be able 
 to protect my wife, were it against the whole 
 Empire itself." 
 
 " That is the right spirit," said Mademoiselle 
 Ottilie, nodding her head approvingly. " What 
 you say has not got a grain of common sense, but 
 that is all as it should be. And next," she con- 
 tinued, drawing closer to me, for there was a twi- 
 light dimness about us, and standing on tiptoe 
 in the endeavour to bring her gaze on a level with 
 mine, "her Highness wishes to know" — she 
 dropped her voice a little — " if you love her very 
 much .? " 
 
 As if the gaze of those yellow hazel eyes of hers 
 had cast a sudden revealing light upon my soul, 
 I stood abashed and dumb, self-convicted by my 
 silence. Love ! Did I love her whom I would 
 make my wife .■• Taken up with schemes of vain- 
 glory and ambition, what room had I in my heart 
 for love ? In all my triumph at having won her, 
 was there one qualifying thread of tenderness .-• 
 Would I, in fine, have sought the woman, beauti- 
 ful though she was, were she not the Princess .-* 
 
 In a sort of turmoil I asked myself these things 
 under the compelling earnestness of Mademoiselle 
 Ottilie's eyes, and everything in myself looked
 
 84 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 strange and hideous to myself, as beneath a vivid 
 lifrhtnin<r flash the most familiar scene assumes a 
 singular and appalling aspect. 
 
 In another moment she moved away and turned 
 aside from me ; and then, even as after the light- 
 ning flash all things resume their normal aspect, I 
 wondered at my own weak folly, and my blood 
 rose hotly against the impertinence that had 
 evoked it. 
 
 " By what right," said I, " Mademoiselle, do you 
 ask me such a question } If it be indeed by order 
 of her Highness, pray tell her that when she will 
 put it to me herself I will answer it to herself." 
 
 The maid of honour wheeled round with her 
 arch, inscrutable smile. 
 
 "Oh!" she said, "believe me, you have an- 
 swered me very well. I was already convinced of 
 the sincerity and ardour of your attachment to . . , 
 her Highness — so convinced, indeed, that I am 
 here to-night for the sole purpose of helping both 
 you and her to your most insane of marriages. 
 The Princess is accustomed to rely upon me for 
 everything, and upon me, therefore, falls the 
 whole burden of preparation and responsibility. 
 Whether the end of all this will be a dungeon for 
 the lady-in-waiting, if indeed the Duke docs not 
 have her executed for high treason, is naturally a
 
 Tlie Pride of Jeiinico 85 
 
 contingency which neither of you will consider 
 worth a moment's thought. It is quite certain, 
 however, that without me you would both do 
 something inconceivably stupid, and ruin all. 
 But, voyons. Monsieur de Jennico," she went on 
 with sudden gravity of demeanour, " this is no time 
 for pleasantry. It is a very serious matter. You 
 are wasting precious moments in a singularly 
 light-hearted fashion, it seems to me." 
 
 The reproach came well from her ! But she 
 left me no time to protest. 
 
 "I am here," she said, "as you know, to tell 
 you what the Princess has decided, and how we 
 must act if the whole thing is not to fail. First 
 of all, the arrival of some important person from 
 the Court of Lausitz may take place any day, and 
 then — 'Bonjour!'" She blew an airy kiss and 
 waved her hand, while with a cold thrill I realised 
 the irrefutable truth of her words. 
 
 " If it is to be," she went on, unconsciously re- 
 peating almost the exact text of her mistress's 
 letter to me, "it must be at once and in secret. 
 Mind, not a word to a soul till all is accomplished ! 
 On your honour I lay it ! And she, her Highness, 
 enjoins it upon you not to betray her to any single 
 human being before you have acquired the right to 
 protect her. It is surely not too much to ask ! "
 
 86 TJie Pride of Jennie o 
 
 She spoke with deep solemnity, and yet charac- 
 teristically cut short my asseverations. 
 
 " And, that being settled, and you being willing 
 to take this lady for your wife, — ^probably without 
 a stiver, and certainly with her father's curse " 
 (I smiled proudly in the arrogance of my heart : 
 all Duke as he was I did not doubt, once the first 
 storm over, but that my exalted father-in-law 
 would find very extenuating circumstances for his 
 wilful daughter's choice), — "that being settled," 
 continued Miss Ottilie, " it only remains to know 
 — are you prepared to enter the marriage state 
 two nights hence ? " 
 
 " I wish," said I, and could not keep the note 
 of exultation from my voice at having the rare 
 prize thus actually within my reach — "I wish you 
 would ask me for some harder proof of my com- 
 plete devotion to her Highness." 
 
 "Well, then," she said hastily, whispering as if 
 the pines could overhear us, " so be it ! I have 
 not been idle to-day, and I have laid the plot. 
 You know the little church in that wretched vil- 
 lage of Wilhelmsdhal we posted through two days 
 ago ? The priest there is very old and very poor 
 and like a child, because he has always lived 
 among the peasants ; and now indeed he is almost 
 too old to be their priest any more. I saw him
 
 The Pride of Jennico 87 
 
 to-day, and told him that two who loved each 
 other were in great straits because people wanted 
 to wed the maiden to a bad and cruel man, — that 
 is true, Monsieur de Jennico, — I told him that 
 these two would die of grief, or lose their souls, 
 perhaps, were they separated, because of the love 
 they bore each other. . , . There, sir, I per- 
 mitted myself a poetical license ! To be brief, I 
 promised him in your name what seemed a great 
 sum for his poor, a thousand thalers — you will 
 see to that — and he has promised me to wed 
 you on Wednesday night, at eight of the clock, 
 secretly, in his poor little church. He is so old 
 and so simple it was like misleading a child, 
 but nevertheless, the cause being good, I trust 
 I may be forgiven. Drive straight to the church, 
 and there you will find one who will direct 
 you. The Princess will not see you again till 
 she meets you before the altar. You will bring 
 her home to your castle. A maid will accom- 
 pany her. And that is all. Adieu, Monsieur de 
 Jennico." 
 
 She stretched out her hand and her voice 
 trembled. 
 
 "You will not see the maid of honour perhaps 
 ever again. Her task is done," she added. 
 
 I took her hand, touched by her accent of ear-
 
 88 The Pride of Jcimico 
 
 nestness, and gratefully awoke to the fact that 
 she alone had made the impossible possible to my 
 desire. I looked at her face, close to mine in the 
 faint light ; and as she smiled at me, a little sadly, 
 I was struck with the delicate beauty of the curve 
 of her lip, and the exquisite finishing touch of the 
 dimple that came and went beside it, and the 
 thought flashed into my mind — " That little maid 
 may one day blossom into the sort of woman that 
 drives men mad." 
 
 She slipped her hand from mine as I would 
 have kissed it, and nodded at me with a return 
 of the cool impudence that had so often vexed 
 me. 
 
 " Good-bye, gallant cavalier," she said mock- 
 ingly. 
 
 She whistled as if for a dog, and I saw the 
 black figure of the nurse start from the shadow of 
 the trees a few yards away, and, meeting, they 
 joined in the mist and merged swiftly into it. 
 
 Whereupon I mounted the mare, who was sorely 
 tried by her long waiting ; and as we cantered 
 homewards I was haunted, through the extraordi- 
 nary blaze of my triumphant thoughts, to my own 
 exasperation and surprise, oddly and vnwillingly, 
 by the arch sweetness of the maid oi honour's 
 smile.
 
 The Pride of Jemiico 89 
 
 And once (I blushed all alone in the darkness 
 for the shame of such a thought in my mind at 
 such a moment) I caught myself picturing the 
 sweetness a man might find in pressing his lips 
 upon the tantalising dimple.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 The night before my wedding-day — it was nat- 
 ural enough — there was a restlessness upon me 
 which would not let me sleep, or think of sleep. 
 
 When supper was over I bade my servants re- 
 tire. They had thought me cracked, and with 
 reason, I believe, for the way in which I had wan- 
 dered about the house all day, moving and shifting 
 and preparing, and giving orders to no seeming 
 purpose. I sat down in my uncle's room, and, 
 drawing the chair he had died in opposite his por- 
 trait, I held a strange conclave with (as I believed 
 then) his ghost, I know now that if any spirit 
 communed with mc that night it was my own evil 
 angel. 
 
 I had had the light set where it best illuminated 
 the well-known countenance. At my elbow was a 
 goodly bottle of his famous red wine. 
 
 " Na, old one," said I aloud, leaning back in my 
 chair in luxurious self-satisfaction and proud com- 
 placency, " am I doing well for the old name ? 
 Who knows if one day thou countest not kings 
 among thy descendants ! " 
 
 90
 
 The Pride of Jennico gi 
 
 Methought the old man grinned back at me, his 
 hideous tusked grin. 
 
 "'Tis well, Kerlchen," he said. 
 
 I unrolled the pedigree. That cursed parch- 
 ment, what a part it has played in my life! — as- 
 evil a part, as fatal as the apple by which our first 
 parents fell. It is pride that damns us all ! And 
 I read aloud the entries I had made : they sounded 
 very well, and so my uncle thought — or seemed 
 to — for I swear he winked at me and said: 
 
 " Write it in ink, lad ; that must stand clear, 
 for das klingt schon." 
 
 And then, though I was very comfortable, I had 
 to get up and find the ink and engross the noble 
 record of my marriage, filling in the date with 
 care, for my uncle, dead or alive, was not one to 
 disobey. 
 
 "Tis good," then again said my uncle, "and 
 thou dost well. But remember, without I had 
 done so well, lad, thou hadst not risen thus. And 
 what," added my uncle, sniggering, "will the Bru- 
 derl say when he hears the news — hey, nephew 
 Basil .? " 
 
 I had thought of that myself: it was another 
 glorious pull over the renegade ! 
 
 Whereupon my uncle — it was surely the proud 
 fiend himself bent upon my destruction — fell to
 
 92 The Pride of Jemiico 
 
 telling me I must write to my family at once, that 
 the letter might be despatched in the morning. 
 
 I protested. I was bound to secrecy, I told 
 him. But he scowled, and would have it that I 
 must remember my duty to my mother, and he fur- 
 ther made me a very long sermon upon the curses 
 that will befall a bad child. And thus egged on — 
 and what could I do .•" — I indited a very flaming 
 document indeed, and under the seal of the strict- 
 est confidence made my poor mother acquainted 
 with all the greatness her son was bringing into 
 his family, and bade her rejoice with him. 
 
 The night was well worn when I had finished, 
 and the bottle of potent Burgundy was nearly 
 out too. Then, meaning to rise and withdraw, I 
 fell asleep in my chair. It was grey dawn before 
 I awoke, and I was cold as I stretched myself and 
 staggered to my feet. In the weird thin light my 
 uncle's face now shone out drawn and austere, 
 with something of the look I remembered it to 
 have borne in death. 
 
 But it was the dawn of my wedding-day, and I 
 went to my bed — stumbling over old Janos, who 
 sat, the faithful dog! asleep on the threshold — to 
 dream of my wedding ... a wedding with royal 
 pomp, to the blare of trumpets and the acclama- 
 tions of a multitude :
 
 Tlie Pride of Jcnnico 93 
 
 " Jennico hoch — hoch dem edlen Jennico ! " 
 
 The village of Wilhelmsdhal is quite an hour's 
 drive (even at the pace of my good horses) along 
 the downhill road which leads from my uplifted 
 mansion into the valley land ; it takes two hours 
 for the return way. 
 
 For safety's sake I made the announcement of 
 my approaching marriage to the household as late 
 in the day as possible, and, though sorely tempted 
 to betray the exalted rank of the future mistress to 
 the astonished major-domo, to whom Janos, with 
 his usual imperturbability, interpreted my com- 
 mands, I refrained, with a sense that the impres- 
 sion created would only after all be heightened if 
 the disclosure were withheld till the actual appari- 
 tion of the newly-made wife. 
 
 But in the vain arrogance of my delight I or- 
 dered every detail of the reception which was to 
 greet us, and which I was determined should be 
 magnificent enough to make up for the enforced 
 hole-and-corner secrecy of the marriage ceremony. 
 
 Schultz the factor, my chief huntsman, and the 
 highest among my people were to head torch- 
 light processions of their particular subordinates 
 at stated places along the avenue that led upwards 
 to the house. There was to be feasting and 
 music in the courtyard. Flowers were to be
 
 94 The Pride of Jcnnico 
 
 strewn from the very threshold of her new home 
 to the door of my Princess's bridal chamber. 
 
 God knows all the extravagance I planned ! It 
 makes me sick now to think back on it ! 
 
 And the wedding ! Ah ! that was a wedding to 
 be proud of ! 
 
 It was a dull and cloudy evening, with a high, 
 moist wind that came in wild gusts, sweeping over 
 the plains and tearing the leaves from the forest 
 trees, briniring: with it now a swift moonlit clear- 
 ing upon the lowering face of heaven, now only 
 thicker darkness and torrents of rain. It was all 
 but night already in the forest roads when I 
 started, and quite night as I emerged from out of 
 the shelter of the mountains into the flat country. 
 Jdnos sat on the box and my chasseurs hung on 
 behind, and my four horses kept up a splendid 
 pace upon the level ground. I had dressed very 
 fine, as became a bridegroom ; but fortunate it 
 was that I had brought a dark cloak with me, for 
 a fearful burst of storm-rain came down upon me 
 as I jumped out from the carriage at the church 
 door. And indeed, despite that protection, my 
 fine white satin clothes were splashed with mud, 
 my carefully powdered queue sadly disarranged 
 in the few steps I had to take before reach- 
 ing shelter, for the wind blew a very hurricane,
 
 The Pride of Jennico 95 
 
 and the rain came down like the rain of the 
 deluge. 
 
 The church porch was lit only by an ill-trimmed 
 wick floating in a saucer of oil ; but by the flicker- 
 ing light, envious and frail as it was, I discerned 
 at once the figure of Mademoiselle Ottilie's nurse 
 awaiting us. Without a word she beckoned to me 
 to follow her into the church. 
 
 The place struck cold and damp with a death- 
 like closeness after the warm blustering air I had 
 just left. It was even darker than the porch out- 
 side, its sole illumination proceeding from the 
 faint glow of the little sanctuary lamp and the 
 sullen yellow flame of two or three tallow candles 
 stuck on spikes before a rough wooden statue on a 
 pillar at one side. I, flanked by Janos and his two 
 satellites, followed the gaunt figure to the very 
 altar rails, where, with an imperious gesture, she 
 signed to mc to take my place. 
 
 Before turning to go she stood still a second 
 looking at me, and mcthought — or it may have 
 been a fancy born of the dismal place and the 
 dismal gloom — that I had never seen a human 
 countenance express so much hatred as did that 
 woman's in the mysterious gleam of the lamp. My 
 heart contracted with an omen of forthcoming ill. 
 
 Then I heard her feet go down the aisle, the
 
 96 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 door open and close, and we were left alone. In 
 the silence of the church— the most poverty- 
 stricken and desolate, the most miserable, the 
 most ruined to be yet used as the House of God, I 
 think I had ever entered — at the foot of the altar 
 of my faith, a sudden misgiving seized upon me. 
 How would all this end.? I was going to bind 
 myself for life with the most solemn vows. Would 
 all the honour and glory of the alliance compen- 
 sate me for the loss of my liberty } 
 
 I was only twenty-six, and I knew of her who 
 was henceforth to be my second self no more, 
 rather less, than I knew of any of the bare-footed 
 maids that slipped grinning about the passages of 
 Tollendhal. To be frank with myself, the glamour 
 of gratified vanity once stripped from before the 
 eye of my inmost soul, what was the naked, hid- 
 eous truth? I had no more love for her — man 
 for woman — than for rosy Kathi or black-browcd 
 Sarolta ! 
 
 Here my reflections were broken in ui)on by 
 that very patter of naked soles that had been in 
 my thoughts, and a little ragged boy, in a dilapi- 
 dated surplice, ran round the sanctuary from some 
 back door, and fell to lighting a pair of candles on 
 the altar, a proceeding which only seemed once 
 more to heighten the darkness. Presentl)', in a
 
 The Pride of Jennico 97 
 
 surplice and cassock as tattered as his acolyte's, 
 with long white hair lying unkempt upon his shoul- 
 ders, an old priest — in sooth, the oldest man I have 
 ever seen alive, I believe — came forth with totter- 
 ing steps ; before him the tattered urchin, behind 
 him a sacristan well-nigh as antique as himself, 
 and as utterly pauperised. 
 
 These were to be the ministers of my grand 
 marriage ! 
 
 But almost immediately a fresh clamour of open- 
 ing doors, and a light, sedate footfall, struck my 
 ear, and all doubt and dismay disappeared like 
 magic. Closely enveloped in the folds of a volu- 
 minous dark velvet cloak, with its hood drawn 
 forward over her head, and beneath this shade her 
 face muffled in the gathers of a white lace veil, I 
 knew the stately height of my bride as she advanced 
 towards me — and the sight of her, the sound of 
 her brave step, set my heart dancing with the 
 old triumph. 
 
 She stood beside me, and as the words were 
 spoken I thought no more of the mean surround- 
 ings, of the evil omens, of the responsibilities and 
 consequences of my act. It was nothing to me 
 now that the old priest who wedded us, and his 
 companion who ministered to him, should look 
 more like mouldering corpses than living men — 
 
 H
 
 98 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 that the nurse's burning eyes should still seek my 
 face with evil look. I had no thought to spare for 
 the position of my bride herself — her filial dis- 
 obedience, her loneliness — no feeling of tender- 
 ness for the touching character of her confidence 
 in me — no doubt as to her future happiness as 
 my wife, nor as to my capacity for compensating 
 her for the sacrifice of so much. I did not wonder 
 at, nay, notice even, the absence of the lady-in- 
 waiting — that moving spirit of our courtship. My 
 whole soul was possessed with triumph. I was 
 self-centred on my own success. The words were 
 spoken ; my voice rang out boldly, but hers was 
 the barest breath of speech behind her muffling 
 drapery. I slipped the ring (it had been my aunt's), 
 with a passing wonder that it should prove so much 
 too large, upon the slender finger, that hardly pro- 
 truded from a fall of enveloping lace. 
 
 We were drenched with a perfect shower of holy 
 water out of a tin bucket ; and then, man and wife, 
 we went to the sacristy to sign our names by the 
 light of one smoking tallow candle. 
 
 I dashed mine forth with splendid flourish — the 
 good old name of Jennico of P^arringdon Dane and 
 Tollendhal, all my qualifications, territorial, mili- 
 tary, and inherited. And she penned hers in the 
 flowing handwriting I already knew, Marie Ottilie :
 
 The Pride of Jennico 99 
 
 the lofty, simple signature, as I thought with 
 swelling heart, of sovereigns ! 
 
 I pressed into the old priest's cold fingers, as he 
 peered at us from the book, right and left, with 
 dull, bewildered eyes, in which I thought to see 
 the dawn of a vague misgiving, a purse bulging 
 with notes to the value of double the sum prom- 
 ised ; and then, with her hand upon my arm, I led 
 her to my carriage. 
 
 The rain had begun again and the wind was 
 storming when we drove off, my wife and I. And 
 for a little while — a long time it seemed to me — 
 there was silence between us, broken only by the 
 beating of the drops against the panes of the car- 
 riage, and the steady tramp of my horses' hoofs 
 on the wet road. Now that I had accomplished 
 my wish, a strange embarrassment fell upon me. 
 I had no desire to speak of love to the woman I 
 had won. I had won her, I had triumphed — that 
 was sufficient. I would not have undone my deed 
 for the world ; but none the less the man who finds 
 himself the husband and has never been the lover 
 is placed in a singular position. 
 
 I looked at the veiled figure beside me and won- 
 dered at its stillness. The light of the little lantern 
 inside the carriage flickered upon the crimson of 
 the velvet cloak and the white folds of the veil
 
 lOO The Pride of Jcjinico 
 
 that hid her face from mc. Then I awoke to the 
 consciousness of the sorry figure I must present 
 in her eyes, and, drawing from my pocket a ring, 
 — the richest I had been able to find among my 
 aunt's rich store, — I took the hand that lay half 
 hidden and passive beside me, meaning to slip the 
 jewel over the plain gold circlet I had already 
 placed upon it. Now, as I took the hand into my 
 own, I was struck with its smallncss, its slenderness, 
 its lightness ; I remembered that even in the dark 
 church, and with but the tips of the fingers rest- 
 ing in my own, a similar impression had vaguely 
 struck me. I lifted it, spread out the little, long, 
 thin fingers — too often had I kissed the dimpled 
 firm hand of her Serene Highness not to know the 
 difference ! This was my wife's hand ; there was 
 my ring. But who was my wife .-* 
 
 I felt like a man in a bad dream. I do not 
 know if I spoke or not ; but every fibre of mc was 
 crying out aloud, as it were, in a frenzy. I suppose 
 I turned, or looked ; at any rate my companion, as 
 if in answer to a question, said composedly : 
 
 " Yes, sir, it is so." At the same moment, put- 
 ting up her veil with her right hand, she disclosed 
 to me the features of Ottilie, the lady-in-waiting.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 I MUST have stared like a madman. For very 
 fear of my own violence, I dared not move or 
 speak. Mademoiselle Ottilie, or, to call her by 
 her proper name, Madame de Jennico, very com- 
 posedly removed her veil from her hair, pushed 
 back her hood, and withdrew the hand which I 
 still miconsciously clutched. Then she turned 
 and looked at me as if waiting for me to speak 
 first. I said in a sort of whisper: 
 
 " What does this mean .-' " 
 
 " It means, Monsieur de Jennico, that, for your 
 own good, you have been deceived." 
 
 There was a little quiver in her voice. Was it 
 fear .'' Was it mockery ? I thought the latter, 
 and the strenuous control I was endeavouring to 
 put upon my seething passion of fury and bewil- 
 derment broke down. I threw up my arms, the nat- 
 ural gesture of a man driven beyond bounds, and 
 as I did so felt the figure beside me make a sud- 
 den, abrupt movement. I thought that she shrank 
 from me — that she feared lest I, /, Basil Jennico, 
 would strike her, a woman ! This aroused me at 
 
 lOI
 
 102 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 once to a sense of my own position, and at the 
 same time to one of bitterest contempt for her. 
 But as I wheeled round to gaze at her, I saw that 
 whatever charges might be laid upon her — and 
 God knows she had wrought a singular evil upon 
 me! — the accusation of cowardice could not be 
 part of them. Her face showed white, indeed, 
 in the pale light, her features set ; but her eyes 
 looked fearlessly into mine. Every line of her 
 figure expressed the most dauntless determination. 
 She was braced to endure, ready to face, what she 
 had drawn upon herself. This was no craven, 
 rather the very spirit of daring. 
 
 "In God's name," I cried, "why have you done 
 this > " 
 
 "And did you think," she said, looking at me, 
 I thought, with a sort of pity, "that princesses, 
 out of fairy tales, arc so ready to marry lovers of 
 low degree, no matter how rich or how gallant .-' 
 Oh, I know what you would say — that you are 
 well-born ; but for all that, princesses do not wed 
 with such as you, sir ! " 
 
 Every drop of my blood revolted against the 
 smart of this humiliation. Stammering and pro- 
 testing, my wrath overflowed my lips. 
 
 "But this deception, — this impossible, insane 
 fraud, — what is its object ? What is j/our object ?
 
 TJie Pride of Jennico 103 
 
 You encouraged me — you incited me. Confu- 
 sion ! " I cried and clasped my head. " I think I 
 am going mad ! " 
 
 " Her Serene Highness thought that she would 
 like to see me settled in life," said my bride, with 
 the old look of derision on her face. 
 
 I seized her hand. 
 
 " It was the Princess's plan, then } " I asked in 
 a whisper; and it seemed to me as if everything 
 turned to crimson before my eyes. 
 
 She met my look — and it must have been 
 a terrible one — with the same dauntlessness as 
 before, and answered, after a little pause, with 
 cool deliberation : 
 
 "Yes, it was the Princess's plan." 
 
 The carriage drove on through the rain ; and 
 again there was silence between us. My pulses 
 beat loud in my ears ; I saw, as if written in fire, 
 the whole devilish plot to humiliate me for my pre- 
 sumption. I saw myself as I must appear to that 
 high-born lady — a ridiculous aspirant whose claim 
 was too absurd even to be seriously dealt with. 
 And she, the creature who had lent herself to my 
 shame, without whose glib tongue and pert auda- 
 cious counsels I had never presumed, who had dared 
 to carry out, smiling, so gross a fraud, to wear my 
 ring and front me still — how was I to deal with her.?
 
 I04 TJie Pride of Jcnnico 
 
 These were the thoughts that surged backwards 
 and forwards in my mind, futile wreckage on a 
 stormy sea, in the first passion of my anger, 
 
 " You know," I said at last, and felt like a man 
 who touches solid earth at last, " that this is no 
 marriage." 
 
 Her countenance expressed at this the most 
 open amazement and the most righteous indig- 
 nation. 
 
 "How, sir," she cried — "has not the priest 
 wedded us ? Are we not of the same faith, and 
 does not the same Church bind us ? Have not 
 we together received a most solemn sacrament ? 
 Have not you, Basil, and I, Marie Ottilie, sworn 
 faith to each other until death do us part ? You 
 may like it or not, Monsieur de Jennico, but we 
 are none the less man and wife, as fast as Church 
 can make us." 
 
 As she spoke she smiled again, and looked at 
 me with that dimple coming and going beside the 
 curve of her lip. 
 
 As they say men do at the point of some 
 violent death, so I saw in the space of a second 
 my whole life stretched before me, past and 
 future. 
 
 I saw the two alternatives that lay to my hand, 
 and their full consequences.
 
 The Pride of Jcnnico 105 
 
 I knew what the audacious httle deceiver beside 
 me ignored — that it rested upon my pleasure 
 alone to acknowledge or not the validity of this 
 marriage. Let me take the step which as a man 
 of honour I ought to take, which as a Jennico and 
 my uncle's heir I was pledged in conscience to 
 take, it was to hold myself up to universal mock- 
 ery — and I should lay bare before a grinning 
 v/orld the whole extent of my pretensions and 
 their requital. 
 
 On the other hand, let me keep my secret for a 
 while and seemingly accept my wife : the whole 
 point of the cursed jest would fail. 
 
 Let me show the Princess that my love for her 
 was not so overpowering, nor my disappointment 
 so heart-breaking, but that I had been able to find 
 temporary compensation in the substitute with 
 whom she had herself provided me. There are 
 more souls lost, I believe, through the fear of ridi- 
 cule than through all the temptations of the world, 
 the flesh, and the devil ! 
 
 My resolution was promptly taken : my revenge 
 would be more exquisite and subtle than the trick 
 that had been played upon me. 
 
 I would take her to my home, this damsel whom 
 no feeling of maidenly restraint, of womanly com- 
 passion, had kept from acting so base a part ; and
 
 io6 The Pt'ide of Jcnnico 
 
 for a while, at least, not all the world should guess 
 but that in winning her my dearest wish had been 
 accomplished. Afterwards, when I had tamed that 
 insolent spirit, when I had taught this wild tassel- 
 gentle to come to my hand and fly at my bidding — 
 and I smiled to myself as I laid that plan which was 
 full as cruel as the deception that had been prac- 
 tised upon me, and which I am ashamed to set out 
 in black and white before me now — afterwards, 
 when I chose to repudiate the woman who had 
 usurped my name through the most barefaced 
 imposture, if I knew the law both of land and 
 Church, I could not be gainsaid. I had warned her 
 that this marriage was no marriage. What could 
 a gentleman do more .-' 
 
 A sudden calmness fell over me ; it struck me 
 that the laugh would be on my side after all. 
 
 My companion was first to speak. She settled 
 herself in the corner of the carriage something like 
 a bird that settles down in its nest, and, still with 
 her eyes, which now looked very dark in the uncer- 
 tain light, fixed upon me, said in a tone of the 
 utmost security : 
 
 "You can beat mc of course, if you like, and 
 you can murder me if )'ou are very, very angry ; 
 but you cannot undo what is done. I am your 
 wife ! " She gave a little nod which was the perfec-
 
 Tho Pride of Jennico 107 
 
 tion of impudence. She was like some wild thing 
 of the woods that has never seen a human being 
 before, and is absolutely fearless because of its abso- 
 lute ignorance. I ought to have pitied her, seeing 
 how young, how childish, she was. But though 
 there sprang into my heart strange feelings, and 
 that dimple tempted me more and more, there 
 was no relenting in my angry soul. Only I told 
 myself that my revenge would be sweet. And I 
 was half distraught, I think, between the conflict 
 of pride, disappointment, and the strange allur- 
 ing charm that this being who had so betrayed me 
 was yet beginning to have upon me. 
 
 The speed of our four horses was slackening ; 
 we were already on the mountain road which led to 
 my castle. There was a glimmer of moon again, 
 the rain-beat was silent on the panes, and I could 
 see from a turning in the road the red gleam of the 
 torch-bearers whom I had ordered for the bridal 
 welcome. 
 
 The monstrous absurdity of the situation struck 
 me afresh, and my resolution grew firmer. How 
 could I expose myself, a poor tricked fool, to the 
 eyes of that people who regarded me as something 
 not unlike a demi-god .■' No, I would keep the 
 woman. She had sought me, not I her. I would 
 keep her for a space at least, and let no man sus-
 
 io8 TJie Pride of Jciinico 
 
 pect that she was not my choice. And then, in 
 the ripeness of time, when I would sell this old 
 rook's nest and betake me home to England as a 
 dutiful nephew, why, then ray lady Princess should 
 have her maid of honour back again, and see if 
 she would find it so easy to settle her in life once 
 more ! What pity should I have upon her who 
 had no pity for me, who had sold her maiden 
 pride in such a sordid barter for a husband ? This 
 was no mere tool of a woman's scorn. No ! Con- 
 temned by her I had wooed, played with, no doubt 
 I had been ; but I had seen enough of the relations 
 of the two girls not to know well who was the 
 moving spirit in all their actions. This lady had 
 had an eye to her own interests while lending her- 
 self to my humiliation. Thinking upon it now 
 with as cool a brain as I might, — and once I had 
 settled upon my resolve, the first frenzy of my rage 
 died away, — I told myself that the new Madam 
 Jennico lied when she said it was altogether the 
 Princess's plan ; and indeed I afterwards heard 
 from her own lips that in this I had guessed but a 
 third of the actual truth. 
 
 And now, as v/e were drawing close to the first 
 post where my over-docile and zealous retainers 
 were already raising a fearful clamour, and I 
 must perforce assume some attitude to face the
 
 The Pride of Jennico 109 
 
 people, I turned to my strange bride, and said 
 to her : 
 
 " Do 3^011 think, then, it is the right of a hus- 
 band to strike or slay his wife ? If so, I marvel 
 that you should have been so eager to enter upon 
 the wedded state." 
 
 She put out her hand to me, and for the first 
 time her composure wavered. The tears welled 
 into her eyes and her lip quivered. 
 
 "No," she said; "and therefore I chose you, 
 Monsieur de Jennico, not for your fine riches, not 
 for your pedigree," — and here, the little demon! 
 it seemed she could not refrain from a malicious 
 smile under the very mist of her tears, — "but 
 because you are an Englishman, and incapable of 
 harshness to a woman." 
 
 " And so," said I, not believing her disinterested 
 asseveration a whit, but with a queer feeling at my 
 heart at once bitterly angry at each word that 
 betrayed the determination of her deceit and her 
 most unwomanly machinations, and yet, and yet 
 strangely melted to her, " it is reckoning on my 
 weak good-nature that you have played me this 
 trick .? " 
 
 " No, sir," she said, flushing, " I reckoned on your 
 manliness," And then she added, with the most 
 singular simplicity : " I liked you, besides, too well
 
 no The Pride of Je7viico 
 
 to see you unhappily married, and the other Ottilie 
 would have made you a wretched wife." 
 
 I burst out laughing, for, by the manes of my 
 great-uncle, the explanation was comic ! And she 
 fell to laughing too, — my servants must have 
 thought we were a merry couple ! And, as she 
 laughed and I looked at her, knowing her nov^r my 
 own, and looking at her therefore with other eyes, 
 I deemed I had never seen a woman laugh to such 
 bewitching purpose ! And though I was full of 
 my cruel intent, and though I dubbed her false 
 and shameless and as deceitful a little cat as ever 
 a man could meet, yet the dimple drew me, and I 
 put my arms around her and kissed it. As my lips 
 touched hers if knciv I ivas a lost man ! 
 
 The next moment we were surrounded with a 
 tribe of leaping peasants, the horses were plunging, 
 torches were waving and casting shadows upon the 
 savage, laughing faces. If I had cursed myself for 
 my happy thought before, I cursed myself still 
 more now ; but the situation had to be accepted. 
 And the way in which my bride, blushing crimson 
 from my kiss, — she who had no blush to spare for 
 herself before this night, adapted herself to it was 
 a marvel to me, as indeed all that I was to see or 
 learn of her during our brief moon of wedded life 
 was likewise to prove.
 
 The Pride of Jennico in 
 
 I am bound to say that the Princess herself could 
 not have behaved with a better grace than this 
 burgher daughter amid the wild peasants and their 
 almost Eastern fashion of receiving their liege lady. 
 
 Within a little distance of the house it became 
 impossible to advance v/ith the carriage, and we 
 were fain to order a halt and alight all in the 
 stormy wind, and proceed on foot through the 
 throng which had gathered thick and close about 
 the gates, and which even Schultz's stout cane 
 failed to disperse. My wife — I did not call her so 
 then in my mind, but now I can call her by no 
 other name — my wife passed through them as if 
 she had done nothing all her life but receive the 
 homage of the people. She gave her hand to be 
 kissed to half a hundred fierce lips ; she smiled at 
 the poor women who clutched the hem of her 
 gown and knelt before her. The flush my kiss 
 had called into being had not yet faded from her 
 cheek ; there vv^as a light in her eye, a smile upon 
 her lip. As I looked at her and watched I could 
 not but admit that there was no need for me to 
 feel ashamed of her, that night. 
 
 I had sworn to give my bride a royal reception, 
 and a royal reception she received. 
 
 Schultz had generously carried out his instruc- 
 tions. We sat down to a sumptuous meal which
 
 112 TJie Pride of Jennico 
 
 would not have misbefitted the Emperor himself. 
 I could not eat. The acclamations and the rejoic- 
 ings struck cold upon my ear. But the bride — 
 enigma to me then as now — sat erect in her great 
 chair at the other end of the great table, and 
 smiled and drank and feasted daintily, and met my 
 eye now and again with as pretty and as blushing 
 a look as if I had chosen her among a thousand. 
 The gipsies played their maddening music — the 
 music of my dream — and the cries in the court- 
 yard rose now and then to a very clamour of 
 enthusiasm. Schultz, with a truly German senti- 
 mentality, had presented his new mistress with a 
 large bouquet of white flowers. The smell of them 
 turned me faint. I knew that in the great room 
 beyond, all illuminated by a hundred wax candles, 
 was the portrait of my uncle, stern and solitary. I 
 would not have dared to go into that room that night 
 to have met the look of his single watchful eye. 
 
 And yet, O God ! how are we made and of 
 what strange clay ! What would I not give now 
 to be back at that hour ! What would I not give 
 to see her there at the head of my ])oard once 
 more ! What is all the world to me — what all the 
 traditions of my family — what even the knowledge 
 of her deceit and my humiliation, compared with 
 the waste and desolation of my life without her!
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 And now what I must set down of myself is so 
 passing strange tliat had I not, I myself, lived 
 through it, were I not now in an earthly hell for 
 the mere want of her, I could not have believed 
 that human nature — above all the superior quality 
 of human nature appertaining to Basil Jennico — 
 could be so weak a thing. 
 
 I had meant to be master : I found myself a 
 slave ! And slave of what ? A dimple, a pair of 
 yellow eyes, veiled by long black lashes — a saucy 
 child ! 
 
 I had meant to have held her merely as my toy, 
 at the whim of my will and pleasure : and behold ! 
 the very sound of her voice, the fall of her light 
 foot, would set my blood leaping; under the glance 
 of her wilful eye my whole being would become as 
 wax to the flame. 
 
 In olden days people would have said I was 
 bewitched. 
 
 I think, looking back on it all now, that it was 
 perhaps her singular dissimilarity from any other 
 woman I had ever met that began the spell. Had 
 I .. "3
 
 114 The Pride of Jennie o 
 
 she opposed to my anger, on that memorable night 
 of our marriage, the ordinary arms of a woman dis- 
 covered ; had she wept, implored, bewailed her 
 fate, who shall say that, even at the cost of my 
 vanity, I might not have driven her straight back, 
 to her Princess? Who shall say that I should 
 have wished to keep her, even to save myself from 
 ridicule ? It is impossible for me now to unravel 
 the tangled threads of that woof that has proved 
 the winding-sheet of my young happiness ; but 
 this I know — this of my baseness and my better 
 nature — that once I had kissed her I was no 
 longer a free man. And every day that passed, 
 every hour I spent beside her, welded closer and 
 firmer the chains of my servitude. 
 
 She was an enigma which I ever failed to solve. 
 That alone was alluring. Judged by her actions, 
 most barefaced little schemer, most arrant advent- 
 uress plotting for a wealthy match, there was yet 
 something about her which absolutely forbade me 
 to harbour in her presence an unworthy thought 
 of her. Guilty of deceit such as hers had been 
 towards me, she ought to have displayed either a 
 conscience-stricken or a brazen soul : I found her 
 emanate an atmosphere not only of childlike inno- 
 cence but of lofty purity that often made me blush 
 for my grosser imaginings.
 
 The Pride of Jcnnico 115 
 
 She ought, by rights, to have feared me — to 
 have been humble at least : she was as proud as 
 Lucifer before the fall and as fearless as he when 
 he dared defy his Creator. She ought to have 
 mistrusted me, shown doubt of how I would treat 
 her : and alas ! in what words could I describe the 
 confidence she gave me? so generous, so sublime, 
 so guileless. It would have forced one less enam- 
 oured than myself into endeavouring to deserve it 
 for very shame ! 
 
 A creature of infinite variety of moods, with 
 never a sour one among them ; the serenest temper 
 and the merriest heart I have ever known ; a laugh 
 to make an old man young, and a smile to make a 
 young man mad ; as fresh as spring ; as young and 
 as fanciful ! I never knew in what word she would 
 answer me, what thing she would do, in what 
 humour I should find her. Yet her tact was ex- 
 quisite. She dared all and never bruised a fibre 
 (till that last terrible day, my poor lost love !). 
 And besides and beyond this, there was yet an- 
 other thing about her which drew me on till I was 
 all lost in love. She was elusive. I never felt 
 sure of her, never felt that she was wholly mine. 
 Her tenderness — oh, my God, her tenderness ! — 
 was divine, and yet I felt I had not all she had to 
 give. There was still a secret hanging upon that
 
 Ii6 The Pride of Jcnnico 
 
 exquisite lip, a mystery that I had yet to solve, a 
 land that lay unexplored before me. And it comes 
 upon me like madness, now that she is gone from 
 me, perhaps for ever, that I may never know the 
 word of the riddle. 
 
 I have said that the past is like a dream to look 
 back upon ; no part of it is more dreamlike than 
 the days which followed my strange wedding. 
 They seemed to melt into each other, and yet it is 
 the mem.ory of them which is at once my joy and 
 my torture now. 
 
 At first she did not touch, nor did I, upon the 
 question which lay like a covered fire always sm.oul- 
 dering between us ; and in a while it came about 
 with me that I lived as a gambler upon the pleas- 
 ure of the moment. And though in my heart I 
 had not told myself yet that I would give up my 
 revenge, — though it was hidden there, a sleeping 
 viper, cruel and implacable, — I strove to forget it, 
 strove to think neither of the future nor of the 
 past. I hung a curtain over my uncle's picture, 
 at which old Janos nearly broke his heart. I 
 rolled up the pedigree very tight and rammed it 
 into a drawer . , . and the autumn days seemed 
 all too short for the golden hours they gave me. 
 
 No one came to disturb us in our solitude, no 
 hint from the outer world. We two were as apart
 
 TJie Pride of Jcnnico 117 
 
 in our honeymoon as the most jealous lovers could 
 wish. I knew not what had become of the Prin- 
 cess, In very truth I could not bear to think of 
 her ; the memory of the absurd part I had been 
 made to play was so unpalatable, was associated 
 with so much that was painful and humiliating, 
 and brought with it such a train of disquieting 
 reflections that I drove it from me systematically. 
 I never wanted to see the woman again, to hear 
 her voice, or even learn what had become of her. 
 That I never had one particle of lover's love for 
 her was plainer than ever to me now, in the midst 
 of the new feelings with which my unsought bride 
 inspired me. I knew what love meant at last, and 
 would at times be filled with an angry contempt 
 for myself, that she who had proved herself so all 
 unworthy should be the one to have this power 
 upon me. 
 
 Thus the days went by quite aimlessly. And 
 by-and-by as they went the thought of what I had 
 planned to do became less and less welcome to 
 me, not (to my shame be it said) for its wicked- 
 ness, but because I could not contemplate life 
 without my present happiness. And after yet a 
 while the idea (at first rejected as monstrous, 
 impossible, nay, even as a base breach of faith to 
 my dead uncle) that I might make the sacrifice of
 
 ii8 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 my Jennico pride and actually content myself after 
 all with this unfit alliance, began to take shape 
 within me. Gradually this idea grew dearer to 
 me hour by hour, though I still in secret held to 
 the possibility of my other plan, as a sort of " rod 
 in pickle " over the head of my perverse com- 
 panion, and caressed it now and again in my 
 inmost soul — when she was most provoking — as 
 a method to bring her to my knees in dire humili- 
 ation, but only to have the ultimate sweetness of 
 nobly forgiving her. For Ottilie was far from 
 showing a proper spirit of contrition or a fitting 
 sense of what she owed me ; and this galled me at 
 times to the quick. I had never ceased to enter- 
 tain the resolve of taming the wild little lady, 
 although I found it increasingly difficult to begin 
 the process. 
 
 Alone we were by no means lonely, even though 
 the days fell away into a month's length. We 
 rode together, we drove, we walked ; she chattered 
 like a magpie, and I never knew a second's dul- 
 ness. She whipped my blood for me like a frosty 
 wind, and, or so it seemed to me, took a new 
 bloom, a new beauty in her happiness. For she 
 was happy. The only sour visage in Tollendhal 
 at the time was, I think, that of the strange nurse. 
 I had found her waiting in my wife's bedroom the
 
 The Pride of Jennico 119 
 
 night of our home-coming. She never spoke to 
 me during the whole time of her stay, nor to 
 Schultz, although he was her countryman. With 
 the others, of course (saving Janos) she could not 
 have exchanged a word, and but that she spoke 
 with her mistress sometimes, I should have thought 
 her dumb. That woman hated me. I have seen 
 her eyes follow mc about as if she would willingly 
 murder me ; but her nursling she loved in quite as 
 vehement a fashion, and therefore I bore with her. 
 
 We had been married a week when Ottilie first 
 made allusion to the Princess. We were to ride 
 out on that day, and she came down to breakfast 
 all equipped but for one boot, 
 
 I have never seen so daintily untidy a person as 
 she was in all my life. Her hair smelt of fresh 
 violets, but there was always a twist out of place, 
 or a little curl that had broken loose. Her clothes 
 were of singular fineness and richness, but she 
 would tear them and tatter them like a very 
 schoolgirl romp. And so that morning she tripped 
 in with one pink satin bedroom slipper and one 
 yellow leather riding boot. I would not let her 
 send for her dark-visaged attendant to repair the 
 neglect, but fetched the boot myself and knelt to 
 put it on. As I took off the slipper I paused for 
 a moment weighing it in my hand. It was so
 
 120 TJie Pride of Jennico 
 
 little a thing, so slender, so pretty ! She looked 
 down at me with a smile, and said composedly : 
 
 " Do you think, sir, that the other Ottilia could 
 have put on that shoe ? " 
 
 It was, as I said, the first time that the subject 
 had been mentioned between us since the night of 
 our marriage. I felt as if a cloud came over me, 
 and looked up darkly at her. It was not wise, 
 surely, I thought in my heart, to touch upon what 
 I was willing to forget. But she had no misgiv- 
 ing. She slipped out from under her long riding 
 skirt the small unbooted foot in its shining pink 
 silk stocking, and said : 
 
 " You would not have liked. Monsieur de Jen- 
 nico, to have acted lady's-maid to her, for you are 
 very fastidious, as it did not take me long to find 
 out. Oh," she went on, "if you knew how grate- 
 ful you ought to be to me for preventing you from 
 marrying her ! You would have been so unhaj^py, 
 and you deserved a better fate." 
 
 "But I thought," said I — and such was my 
 weakness that the sight of her pretty foot took 
 away my anger, and I was all lost in the discovery 
 of how everything about her seemed to curve : 
 her hair in its ripples, her lip in its arch, her 
 nostrils, her little chin, her lithe young waist, 
 and now, her foot — "I thought," and as I spoke
 
 The Pride of Jennico I2i 
 
 I took it into my hand, "it was the Princess's 
 plan." 
 
 " Did I say so ? " she said lightly. " That woman 
 was never capable of a plan in her life ! No, sir, 
 I always made her do what I liked. Her intel- 
 ligence was just brilliant enough to allow her' 
 to realise that she had better follow my advice. 
 Will you put on my boot, sir } Ah ! what treach- 
 ery." I held her tightly by the heel and looked 
 up well pleased at her laughing face — I loved to 
 watch her laugh — and then I kissed her silk stock- 
 ing and put the boot on. To such depths had I 
 come in my unreasoning infatuation. I felt no 
 anger with her for the revelation which, indeed, 
 as I think I have previously set down, was from 
 the beginning scarcely news to me. I had yet to 
 learn how completely innocent of all complicity in 
 the deception played upon me was her poor Se- 
 renity, how innocent even of the pride and con- 
 tempt I still attributed to her ! 
 
 The season for the chase had opened ; once or 
 twice I had already been out with the keepers 
 after stags, or wild boars, and my wife, a pretty 
 figure in her three-cornered hat and fine green 
 riding suit, had ridden courageously at my side. 
 At the beginning of the third week we made a 
 journey higher into the mountains and stayed a
 
 122 TJie Pride of Jennico 
 
 few clays at a certain hunting-box, the absolute 
 isolation of \vhich seemed by contrast to make 
 Tollendhal a very vortex. The wild place pleased 
 her fancy. We had some splendid boar-hunting 
 in the almost inaccessible passes of the mountains, 
 and Ottilie showed herself as keen at the chase as 
 I, although, woman-like, she shrank from the finish. 
 She vowed she loved the loneliness, the simplicity, 
 of the rough wood-built lodge, the savageness of 
 the scenery. She loved too the novel excitement 
 of the life, the long day's riding, the sleepy supper 
 by the roaring wood fire, with the howl of the dogs 
 outside, and the cry of the autumn wind about the 
 heights. She begged me with pretty insistence 
 that we should come back and spend the best 
 part of the coming month in this airy nest. 
 
 "We arc more alone," she said coaxingly, with 
 one of her rare fits of tenderness. " You arc more 
 mine, Basil." And I promised her that we should 
 only return to Tollendhal to settle matters with the 
 steward and provide ourselves with what we wanted, 
 and then that we should have a new honeymoon. 
 I would have promised anything at sucli a moment. 
 It is the truth tliat in those days, somehow, we 
 had, as she said, grown closer to each other. 
 
 On the last night, wearied out by the long hours 
 on horseback, she had fallen asleep as she sat in
 
 The Pride of Jcnnico 123 
 
 a great carved wooden chair by the flaming hearth, 
 while I sat upon the other side, wakeful, watching 
 her, full of thought. She looked all a child as she 
 slept, her face small and pale and tired, the shadow 
 of the long lashes very black upon her cheeks. And 
 then came upon me like a sort of nightmare the 
 memory of what I had meant to make of this 
 young creature who had trusted herself to me. 
 For the first time I faced my future boldly, and 
 took a great resolve in the silence, listening to the 
 fall of her light breath, and the sullen roar of the 
 wind in the pine forest without. 
 
 I resolved to sacrifice my pride and keep my 
 low-born wife.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 It was full of this resolve, with an uplifted con- 
 sciousness of my own virtue, that I started next 
 morning beside her upon our homeward way. The 
 day was very bright ; and the bare trees, with here 
 and there a yellow or red leaf, showed against a sky 
 of palest blue. There was a frost about us, and our 
 horses were fresh and full of pranks, as we wound 
 down the rocky paths. My wife, too, was in a skit- 
 tish humour, which irritated me a little as being ill- 
 assorted to my own high-strung feelings and my 
 secret sense of magnanimity. She mocked at my 
 solemn face, she sang ends of silly songs to herself, 
 I would have spoken to her of what was on my heart ; 
 I would have had her grateful to me, conscious of 
 her own sin and my generosity. But I could get 
 her to hearken to no serious speech. She called 
 me "Monsieur de la Faridondainc," and plucked 
 a bunch of ash berries as we rode, and stuck them 
 over one car, and asked me, her face dimpling, if 
 it was not becoming to her. And then, when I 
 still urged that I would talk of grave matters, she 
 pulled a grimace, and fell to mimicking Schultz 
 
 124
 
 The Pride of Jennico 125 
 
 with "Jawohl, Gnadigster Herr," till I was fain to 
 laugh with her and put off my sermon till the audi- 
 ence was better disposed. 
 
 But my heart was something sore against her. 
 And when we reached home, I found that awaiting 
 me which awoke a flame of the fierce resentment 
 of the first hour of discovery. It was a letter from 
 my mother in answer to the wild, inflated, trium- 
 phant lucubration I had sent her on the eve of my 
 wedding-day. I had, of course, not attempted to 
 undeceive her — in fact, as I have already set down, 
 it was only within the last twenty-four hours that 
 I had settled upon a definite plan of action. My 
 dear mother, who dearly loved, as she herself ad- 
 mitted, the princes of this earth, was in a tremen- 
 dous flutter at my exalted alliance. I read her 
 words, her proud congratulations, with a feeling 
 of absolute nausea. My brother, she wrote, was 
 torn betwixt a sense of the increased family impor- 
 tance and the greenest envy, that I, who had paid 
 no price of honour for the gaining of them, should 
 have risen to such heights of grandeur and wealth. 
 Not hearing from me since the great announcement, 
 she had ventured (so she confessed) to confide my 
 secret to a few dear friends, and " it had got about 
 strangely," she added naively. The whole Catholic 
 world, the whole English world of fashion, was ring-
 
 126 The Pride of Jcnnico 
 
 ing with the news of the great Jennico match. In 
 fact, the poor lady was as nearly beside herself with 
 pride and glory when she wrote to me, as I had 
 been when I gave her the news. I did not — I 
 am glad to say this — I did not for a second waver 
 in my resolution of fidelity to my wife, but I told 
 myself, with an intolerable sense of injury, that I 
 could never face the shame of returning to Eng- 
 land again ; that the full sacrifice entailed upon 
 me was not only the degradation of an unsuitable 
 alliance, but that hardest of trials to the true- 
 blooded Englishman, perpetual expatriation ! 
 
 In this grim and bitter temper I marched into 
 the room where I now sit, and drew back the 
 curtain from my uncle's picture and took forth 
 the pedigree from its hidden recess. The old 
 man wore, as I knew he would, a most severe 
 countenance. 
 
 But I turned my back upon him in a disrespect- 
 ful fashion I had never dared display during his 
 life, and spread out again that fateful roll of parch- 
 ment on the table before me, while with penknife 
 and pumicestone I sought to efface all traces of 
 that vainglorious entry that mocked me in its 
 clear black and white. The blood was surfiinor in 
 my head and singing in my cars, when I heard a 
 light step, and looking up saw Ottilie. She could
 
 The Pride of Jennie o 127 
 
 not have come at a worse moment. She held 
 letters in her hand, which upon seeing me she 
 thrust into her pocket with a sly look and some- 
 thing of a blush. She too, it seemed, had found 
 a courier awaiting her ; the secretness of the ac- 
 tion stirred the heat of my feelings against her 
 yet more. But I strove to be calm and judi- 
 cial. 
 
 "Ottilie," I said, "come here. I have to con- 
 verse with you on matters of importance." 
 
 She drew near me, pouting and with a lagging 
 step, like a naughty child. 
 
 "That sacred pedigree," she said, and thrust 
 out her under-lip. She spoke in French, which 
 gave the words altogether a different meaning, 
 and in my then humour I was hugely shocked to 
 hear such an expression from her lips. 
 
 " You behave strangely," I said, with coldness, 
 not to be mollified by the half-pleading, half-mis- 
 chievous glance she cast upon me, " and you speak 
 like a child. There has been enough of childish- 
 ness, enough of folly, in this business. It is time 
 to be serious," I said, and struck the table with 
 my flat palm as I spoke. 
 
 " Well, let us be serious," she retorted, slapping 
 the table too, and then sat down beside me, prop- 
 ping her chin upon her hands in her favourite
 
 128 The Pride of Joinico 
 
 attitude. " Am I not serious ? " she proceeded, 
 looking at me with a face of mock solemnity. 
 " Well, Mr. my husband, what do you wish of 
 me .? " 
 
 "Have you ever thought, Ottilie," said I, "of 
 the position you have placed me in .-' I have been 
 obliged to-day to come to a grave resolution — I 
 have had to make up my mind to give up my 
 country and remain here for the rest of my life. 
 It is in direct defiance to my uncle's commands 
 and last wishes, and it is no pleasant thing to an 
 Englishman to give up his native land." 
 
 " If so, why do it .'' " she said coolly. " I am 
 quite willing to go to England. In fact, I should 
 rather like it." 
 
 "Because, before heaven, madam," said I, irri- 
 tated beyond bounds, "you have left me no other 
 alternative. Do you think I am going home to be 
 a laughing-stock among my people .-• " 
 
 "Then," she said with lightning quickness, 
 "you broke your promise of secrecy. It is your 
 own fault : you should have kept your word." 
 
 Struck by the irrefutable truth of this remark, 
 although at the same time my wrath was secretly 
 accumulating against her for this systematic in- 
 difference to her own share in a transaction where 
 she was the chief person to blame, I kept silence
 
 Tlie Pride of Jennico 129 
 
 for a moment, drumming with my fingers on the 
 table. 
 
 " Eh bien ! " she said at last, with a note of 
 amusement and tender indulgence in her voice as 
 a mother might speak to her unreasonable infant. 
 " This terrible resolution taken, what follows ? 
 You have effaced, I see, your entry in the famous 
 pedigree, and you would now fill it up with the 
 detail of your real alliance .■' Is that it .-' " 
 
 I glanced up at her : her eyes were dancing 
 with an eager light, her lip trembling as if over 
 some merry word she yet forbore to speak. Her 
 want of sympathy in sight of my evident distress 
 was hard to bear. 
 
 "Yes," I answered, "the pedigree must be 
 filled up. I don't even know your whole name, 
 nor who your father was, nor yet your mother. 
 I have your word for it, however," I said, and the 
 sentence was bitter to me to speak, "that your 
 family was originally of burgher origin." 
 
 " Put down," she answered, " Marie Ottilie Pah- 
 len, daughter of the deceased Herrn Geheimrath 
 Baron Pahlen, Hof Doctor to his Serene Highness 
 the Reigning Duke of Lausitz." 
 
 The pen dropped from my hand. 
 
 " Your father was a doctor .'' " I asked in an ex- 
 tinguished voice. 
 
 K
 
 130 The Pride of Jeniiico 
 
 " Ennobled," she returned promptly, " after suc- 
 cessfully piloting his Serene Highness through a 
 bad attack of jaundice." 
 
 "And your mother?" I murmured, clinging yet 
 to the hope that on the mother's side at least the 
 connection might prove a little more worthy of 
 the House of Jennico. 
 
 She hesitated and glanced at me. Once more I 
 seemed to see some inner source of mirth bubble 
 on her lip ; or was it only that she was possessed 
 by the very spirit of mischief .-' Anyhow, she 
 forced her smile to gravity again and answered me 
 steadily, while her eyes sought mine with a curious 
 determined meaning at variance with the mock 
 meekness of the rest of her countenance. 
 
 "Put down. Monsieur de Jennico, — 'and of 
 Sophia Miiller, likewise deceased,' and add if you 
 like, 'once personal maid to her Serene Highness 
 the Dowager Duchess, Marie Ottilie of Lausitz.' " 
 
 I sat like a man struck silly, and in the tide of 
 fury that swept over me my single lucid thought 
 was that if I spoke or moved I should disgrace 
 myself. And she chose that moment, poor child, 
 to come over to me and place her arms round my 
 neck, and say caressingly in my ear : 
 
 "Write it, write it, sir, and then tell me that, 
 seeing that I am I, and that I should not be dif-
 
 TJie Pride of Jennico 131 
 
 ferent from myself were I the daughter of the 
 Emperor, all this matters little to you since we 
 love each other." 
 
 I put her from me : my hands were trembling, 
 but I was very gentle. I brought her round to 
 face me, and she awaited my answer with a tri- 
 umphant smile. It was that smile undid me and 
 her. She made too sure of me — she had con- 
 quered me too easily all along, 
 
 "You ask overmuch," I said when I could com- 
 mand my voice enough to speak, " you take over- 
 much for granted. You forget how you have 
 deceived me ; how you have betrayed me. I am 
 willing," I said, " to believe you have not been all 
 to blame, that you were encouraged and upheld by 
 another, but this does not exonerate you from the 
 chief share in a very questionable transaction." 
 
 The words fell cuttingly. I saw how the smile 
 faded from her face, saw how the pretty dimple 
 lingered a second like a pale ghost of itself, and 
 then was lost in the droop of her lip, which trem- 
 bled like a chidden babe's. And I took a cruel 
 joy to think I had hit her at last. But in a second 
 or two she spoke with all her old courage. 
 
 " It is well," she said, "to blame where blame is 
 due. If you wish to blame any one for our mar- 
 riage, blame me alone. The other Ottilie never
 
 132 The Pride of Jcnnico 
 
 received your letter ; never knew you wanted to 
 marry her ; had nothing to say to what you call 
 my betrayal of you. She would have prevented 
 this marriage if she could. Nay, I will tell you 
 more: I believe she might even have married 
 you had I given her the chance. But I knew 
 you would marry her solely because of her posi- 
 tion, of her title ; that you had no love for her 
 beyond your insane love of her royal blood. I 
 thought you worthy of better things ; I thought 
 you could rise above so pitiable a weakness ; I 
 thought you could learn of love that love alone is 
 worth living for ! And if you have not learned, 
 if indeed, my scholar, you have been taught noth- 
 ing in love's school, if you can lay bare your soul 
 now and tell yourself that you would rather have 
 had the wife you wanted in your overweening 
 vanity than the wife I am to you, why then, sir, I 
 have made a grievous mistake, and I am willing to 
 acknowledge that I have committed an irrevocable 
 wrong both to you and to myself." 
 
 Now, as she spoke, I was torn by a strange mixt- 
 ure of feelings, and my love for her contended 
 with my pride, my wounded vanity, my sense of 
 injury. I could not in truth answer that I would 
 rather have been wedded to the Princess, for one 
 thing had these weeks made clear to mc above all
 
 The Pride of Jennico 133 
 
 things, and that was that married life with her 
 would have been intolerable. But my anger 
 against the woman I did love in spite of myself 
 was not lessened by the tone of reproachful supe- 
 riority she assumed ; and because of the truth of 
 her rebuke it was the harder for my self-love to 
 bear. Before I could muster words clear enough 
 and severe enough to answer her with, she 
 proceeded : 
 
 "Come, Basil, come, rise above this failing 
 which is so unworthy of you. Throw that musty 
 old pedigree away before it eats all the manliness 
 out of your life. What does it mean but that you 
 can trace your family up to a greater number of 
 probable rascals, hard and selfish old men, than 
 another t Be proud of yourself for what you are ; 
 be proud of your forefathers, indeed, if they have 
 done fine deeds of valour, or virtue ; but this cant 
 about birth for birth's sake, about the superiority 
 of aristocracy as aristocracy — what does it amount 
 to } It is to me the most foolish of superstitions. 
 Was that old man," she asked, pointing to my 
 uncle, who frowned upon her murderously — "was 
 that old man a better man than his heiduck 
 Janos ? Was he a braver soldier } Was he a 
 better servant to his master } Was he more 
 honest in his dealings .-' shrewder in his counsel }
 
 134 TJie Pride of Jennico 
 
 I tell you I honour Janos as much as I would have 
 honoured him. I tell you that if I love you, I 
 love you for what you arc, not because you are 
 descended from some ignorant savage king, not 
 because you can boast that the blood of the worst 
 of men and sovereigns, the most profligate, the 
 most treacherous, the most faithless, Charles 
 Stuart, runs in your veins — I hope, sir, as little 
 of it as possible." 
 
 I sprang to my feet. To be thus rated by her 
 who should be kneeling for forgiveness ! It was 
 intolerable. 
 
 "I think," I thundered, "that, considering 
 your position, a little humility would be more 
 becoming than this attitude ! You should remem- 
 ber that you are here on tolerance only ; that it 
 is to my generosity alone that you owe the right 
 to call yourself an honest woman." 
 
 "What do you mean?" said she, as fiercely as 
 I had spoken myself. 
 
 " I mean," said I — "I mean, madam, that you 
 are what I choose to make you. That marriage 
 you so skilfully cncompas.sed is, if I choose it, no 
 marriage." 
 
 She put her hands to her head like one who has 
 turned suddenly giddy. 
 
 " You married me before God's altar," she said
 
 The Pride of Jennie o 135 
 
 in a sort of whisper; "you married me, and you 
 took me home." 
 
 I was still too angry to stay my tongue. 
 
 With a bitter laugh, " I married the Princess," 
 I said, " but I took the servant home." 
 
 A burning tide of blood rushed to her brow ; I 
 saw it unseeing, as a man does in passion ; but 
 I have lived that scene over and over again, 
 waking and dreaming, since, and every detail of 
 it is stamped upon my brain. Next she grew 
 livid white, and spread out her hands, as though 
 a precipice had suddenly opened before her ; and 
 then she cried : 
 
 "And this is your English honour!" and turn- 
 ing on her heel she left me. 
 
 The scorn of her tone cut rne like a whip. I 
 swore a mighty oath that I would never forgive her 
 till she sued for pardon. She must be taught who 
 was master. In solitude she should reflect, and 
 learn to rue her sins to me — her audacity — her 
 unwarrantable presumption — her ingratitude ! 
 
 All in my white heat of anger I summoned 
 Janos and bade him tell his mistress's nurse that 
 I had gone into the mountains for a week. And 
 then I ordered a fresh horse, and followed only 
 by the old man, dashed off like one possessed into 
 the rocky wastes.
 
 136 TJie Pride of Jennico 
 
 Alone in the solitary hut, by that hearth where 
 but the night previous my heart had overflowed 
 with such tenderness for her, I sat and nursed my 
 grievances and brooded upon my wrongs till they 
 grew to overpowering size and multiplied a thou- 
 sandfold ; and curious it is that what I thought 
 of most was the bitter unfairness to me, the 
 monstrous injustice of her contempt, at the very 
 moment when I had meant to sacrifice my life 
 and prospects to her. I told myself she did 
 not love me, had never loved me, and worked 
 myself to a pitch of frenzy over that thought. 
 The memory of her announcement on this after- 
 noon, the full knowledge of her deceit, the confes- 
 sion of her worse than burgher origin, weighed 
 not now one feather-weight in my resentment. 
 That I had cast from me as the least of my 
 troubles ; so can a man change and so can love 
 swallow up all other passions ! No doubt, I told 
 myself, she was mocking me now in her own 
 mind ; no doubt she reckoned that her poor in- 
 fatuated fool would come creeping back with all 
 promptitude and beg for her smile. She should 
 learn at last that she had married a man ; not till 
 I saw her down at my very feet would I take her 
 back to my breast. 
 
 All next day I hunted in a bitter wind and in
 
 The Pride of Jennie o 137 
 
 a bitter temper. There were clouds arising, my 
 huntsmen told me, that looked very like snow 
 clouds, and I must beware being snowed up upon 
 the height. I was in the humour to welcome 
 hardship and even danger, and so the whole day 
 we rode after an old rogue boar and came back 
 in darkness, at no small risk, empty handed, and 
 the roughness of my temper by no means im- 
 proved. Next day the weather still held up, and 
 again I hunted. My men must have wondered 
 what had come over their erstwhile genial master. 
 Even my uncle could not have shown them a 
 harder rule or ridden them with less consideration 
 through the hardest of ways in the teeth of the 
 most fiendish of winds. 
 
 That night, again, I sat and brooded by the 
 leaping flame of the pine logs, but it was in a 
 different mood. All my surly determination, my 
 righteous indignation, had melted from me, leav- 
 ing me as weak as water. Of a sudden in the 
 closest heat of the chase there had come to me 
 an awful vision of what I had done ; a terrible 
 swift realisation of the insult I had flung at the 
 face of the woman who was indeed the wife of 
 my heart and love. Oh, God, what had I done } 
 I had sought to humble her — I had but debased 
 myself ! Through the whole day her words, " Is
 
 138 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 this your English honour?" had rung a dismal 
 rhythm in my ear to the beat of my horse's hoofs 
 on the hard ground, to the call of the horn amid 
 the winding rocks. The vision of her faded smile, 
 of her dimple paled to a pitiable ghost, of her 
 babyish drooping lip, and then of her white face 
 struck with such scorn, haunted me to madness. 
 I sickened from my food as I sat to my supper, 
 and put down my cup untastcd. And now as the 
 wind whistled and the foreboded storm was gather- 
 ing upon us, the longing to see her, to be with 
 her, to kneel at her feet — yes, / would now be 
 the one to kneel — came upon me with such 
 violence that I could not withstand it. 
 
 I ordered my horses. I would listen to no 
 remonstrance, no warning. I must return to 
 Tollendhal, I said, were all the powers of dark- 
 ness leagued against me. And return I did. It 
 was a piece of foolhardiness in which I ran, un- 
 heeding, the risk of my life ; but the Providence 
 that protects madmen protected me that night, 
 and Janos and I arrived in safety through a gale 
 of wind and a fall of snow that might indeed have 
 proved our death. All covered with rime I ran 
 into the house and up to the door of her room. 
 It was past midnight, and there I paused for a 
 moment fearing to disturb her.
 
 The Pride of Jennico 139 
 
 Two or three of the women came pattering 
 down the passage to me and with expressive 
 gestures addressed me volubly ; one of the girls 
 was weeping. I could not understand a word 
 they said, but with a new terror I burst open 
 the door of the bedroom. In this appalling 
 dread I realised for the first time how I loved 
 my wife ! 
 
 The room was all empty and all dark ; I called 
 for lights. There was no trace of her presence ; 
 her bed had not been slept in. Like a maniac 
 I tore about the house, seeking her, shrieking 
 her name, demanding explanations from those to 
 whom my speech meant nothing. I recked little 
 of my dignity, little of the impression I must 
 create upon my household ! And at last Janos, 
 his wrinkled face withered up and contorted with 
 the trouble he dared not speak, gave me the 
 tidings that the gracious lady had gone. She 
 and her nurse had set forth on foot and left no 
 message with any one. 
 
 What need is there for me to write down what 
 I endured that black night } When I look back 
 upon it it is as one may look back upon some 
 terrible nightmare, some hideous memory of de- 
 lirium. She had left me, and left me thus, without 
 a word, and with but one sign. The cursed pedi-
 
 140 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 gree was still spread upon the table where we 
 had quarrelled. I found upon it her wedding 
 ring. A great cross had been drawn over the 
 half-written entry of our marriage. That was all, 
 but it was surely enough. The jewels I had given 
 her were carefully packed in their cases and laid 
 upon a table in her room. Her own things had 
 been gathered together the day of her departure, 
 which was the day I left her, and they had been 
 fetched the next morning by some strange ser- 
 vant in an unknown travelling coach. More 
 than this I have not been able to glean, for 
 the storm has rendered the ways impassable ; but 
 it is rumoured that the Countess de Schreckcndorf 
 is dead, and that the Princess also has left the 
 country. 
 
 I have no more to say. It is only two nights 
 ago since I came home to such misery, and how I 
 have passed the hours, what needs it to set forth } 
 At times I tell myself that it is better so, that she 
 is false and base, and that I were the poorest of 
 wretches to forgive her. But at times again I see 
 the whole naked truth before me, and I know that 
 she was to me what no woman can be again. 
 And my uncle looks down at me as I write, with 
 a sour frowning face, and seems — strange it is, 
 yet true — to revile me now with bitter scorn, not
 
 Tlie Pride of Jennico 141 
 
 for having kept her, the roturiere, but for having 
 driven her from my castle ! 
 
 "Thou hadst her; thou couldst not hold her," 
 he seems to snarl. 
 
 Old man, old man, it is your teaching that has 
 undone me ; do you reproach me now that it has 
 wrought my ruin ? 
 
 Basil Jennico flung his pen from him ; the logs 
 in the hearth had burnt themselves to white ash ; 
 his candles were guttering in their sockets, and 
 behind the close-drawn curtains the faint dawn 
 was spreading over a world of snow. The wind 
 still howled, the storm was still unabated. 
 
 "Another day," groaned he, "another hateful 
 day ! " He flung his arms before him and his 
 head down upon them. So sleep came upon him ; 
 and so old Janos, creeping in a little later, red-eyed 
 from his watchful night, found him. The sleeper 
 woke as the man, with hands rough and gnarled, 
 yet tender as a woman's, strove to lift him to an 
 easier attitude ; woke and looked at him with a 
 fixed semi-conscious stare. 
 
 "Ottilie!" he cried wildly, and suddenly brought 
 back to grey reality stopped and clasped his head. 
 There was in the old servant's hard and all but 
 immutable face so wistful a yearning of kindred
 
 142 The Pride of Jeiinico 
 
 sorrow that, suddenly catching sight of it in the 
 midst of his despair, the young man broke down 
 and fell forward like a child upon that faithful 
 breast. 
 
 "Courage, honoured master," said Janos, "we 
 will find her again."
 
 PART II 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Memoir of Captain Basil Jennico (a portion, written 
 
 EARLY in the YEAR 1 772, IN HIS ROOMS AT GRIFFIN'S, 
 
 CuRZON Street) 
 
 Home in England once again, if home it can 
 be called, this set of hired chambers, so dreary 
 within, with outside the lowering fog and the 
 unfamiliar sounds that were once so familiar. 
 It is all strange, after eight years' exile ; and the 
 grime, the noise, the narrow limits, the bustle of 
 this great city, weary me after the noble silence, 
 the wide life, at Tollendhal. 
 
 It was with no lightening of my thoughts that 
 I saw the white cliffs of old England break the 
 sullen grey of the horizon, with no patriotic joy 
 that I set foot on my native soil again, but rather 
 with a heavy, heavy heart. What can this land 
 be to me now but a land of exile .■' All that 
 makes home to a man I have left behind me. 
 
 143
 
 144 The Pride of Jennie o 
 
 I hardly know why I have resumed the thread 
 of this miserable story. God knows that I have 
 no good thing to narrate, and that this setting 
 forth, this storing, as it were, of my bitter har- 
 vest of disappointments, can bring no solace with 
 it. And yet man must hope as long as life 
 lasts ; and the hope keeps springing up again, in 
 defiance of all reason, that, somehow, some day, 
 we shall meet again. Therefore I write, in order 
 that, should such a day come, she may read 
 for herself and learn how the thought of her 
 filled each moment of my life since our part- 
 ing ; that she may read how I have sought her, 
 how I have mourned for her ; that she may know 
 that my love has never failed her. 
 
 This it is that heartens me to my task. More- 
 over, all else is so savourless that I know not 
 how otherwise to fill the time. I have been 
 here five weeks ; there are many houses where 
 I am welcome, many friends who would gladly 
 lend me their company, many places where young 
 men can find distraction of divers kinds and de- 
 grees ; but I have not succeeded in bringing 
 myself to take up the new life with any zest : 
 I had rather dwell upon the past in spite of all 
 its bitterness, than face the desolation of the 
 present.
 
 The Pride of Jennico 14$ 
 
 It was on the third day of the great storm 
 that the pen fell from my hand at Tollendhal, and 
 for four and twenty hours more that self-same 
 storm raged in violence. One word of my old 
 servant's had brought me on a sudden to a 
 definite purpose. I was full of eager hope of 
 tracing her, of finding her, once it were possible 
 to start upon the quest. For the gale which 
 kept me prisoner must have retarded her like- 
 wise ; and even with two days' start, I told my- 
 self, she could not have gone far upon her road. 
 
 But I reckoned without the difficulties which 
 the first great snowfall of the year, before the 
 hard frost comes to make it passable for sledg- 
 ing, was creating for us in these heights where 
 the drifts fill to such depth. Day and night my 
 fellows worked to cut a way for me down to the 
 imperial road ; and I worked with them, watched, 
 encouraged them, and all, it seemed, to so little 
 purpose that I thought I should have gone mad 
 outright. The cruel heavens now smiled, now 
 frowned, upon our work, so that, between frost 
 and thaw and thaw and frost, the task was 
 doubled, and my prison bars seemed to grow 
 stronger instead of less. 
 
 In this way it came to pass that it was full 
 ten days from the time that she had left Tol-
 
 146 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 lendhal that I was at length able to start forth 
 in pursuit. 
 
 My first stage was of course to the castle of 
 the old Countess Schreckendorf, where I found 
 the place well-nigh deserted, its mistress having 
 been, even as I had been informed, a fortnight 
 dead and buried. But there was a servant in 
 charge of the empty, desolate house, and from 
 her I gleaned tidings both precise and sufficient. 
 
 The Princess had remained quietly at Schreck- 
 endorf during the weeks which had followed 
 upon my marriage, but on the day previous to 
 our return to Tollendhal from the shooting-lodge, 
 a couple of couriers had arrived at the Countess's 
 gates close one upon the other, bringing, it would 
 seem, important letters for the Princess, who had 
 been greatly agitated upon receipt of them. 
 She had hastily despatched a mounted messen- 
 ger to my wife, whether with a private communi- 
 cation from herself or merely to forward missives 
 addressed to her from her own home I know 
 not ; but at any rate the papers which Ottilie 
 had hidden from me that fatal day were brought 
 her by this man. After she left Tollendhal a 
 few hours later, my wife had arrived at Schreck- 
 endorf in a peasant's cart. That same evening 
 two travelling coaches, bringing ladies, officers,
 
 The Pride of Jermico 147 
 
 and servants, had made their appearance at the 
 castle ; it was one of these coaches which went 
 to the stronghouse next morning and bore away 
 Ottilie's belongings. In the afternoon the whole 
 party, including my wife, had set forth in great 
 haste for the north, despite universal warning of 
 the gathering storm. There could be no doubt 
 but that their destination was Lausitz, most prob- 
 ably the Residence itself, Budissin. 
 
 When I had ascertained all this I promptly 
 decided upon my course. Taking with me Janos 
 only, I instantly started for the next post-town, 
 where we were able to secure fresh horses, and 
 whence we pushed on the same night some twenty 
 miles farther. 
 
 Not until the sixth evening, however, despite our 
 extraordinarily hard travelling, did we, mounted 
 upon a pair of sorry and worn-out nags, find our- 
 selves crossing the bridge under the towered gates 
 of Budissin. That was then the sixteenth day 
 from the date of my wife's flight. 
 
 It seemed a singularly deserted town as we 
 stumbled aver the cobbles of the streets, with 
 the early dusk of the November day closing in 
 upon us — so few people passed us as we went, 
 so few windows cast a light into the gloom, so 
 many houses and shops presented but blank closed
 
 148 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 shutter-fronts. Janos knew his way, having rid- 
 den with my uncle in all this district during the 
 late war. There was a very good inn, he told me, 
 on the Burg Platz, in the shadow of the palace ; 
 and as nothing could suit my purpose better, to 
 the "Silver Lion of Lusatia" we therefore turned 
 our horses' heads. 
 
 It was cheering, after our long wayfaring, and 
 the dismal nightmare-like impression of our pas- 
 sage through the empty town, to see the case- 
 ments of that same " Silver Lion " shine afar off 
 ruddily ; and my heart leaped within me to dis- 
 cern, dimly sketched behind it, the towering out- 
 line of the palace, wherein, no doubt, my lost 
 bird had found refuge. 
 
 The voice of the red-faced host who, at sound 
 of clattering hoofs before his door, came bustling 
 to greet us as fast as his goodly bulk would allow, 
 struck on my ear with cheering omen. 
 
 "God greet ye, my lords!" he cried, as he 
 lent a shoulder for my descent ; "you are welcome 
 this bitter night to fireside and supper. Enter, 
 my lords ; I have good wine, good beds, good 
 supper, for your lordships, and the best beer that 
 is brewed between Munich and Berlin. Joseph, 
 thou rag, see to his lordship's horses ; wife, come 
 greet our worshipful visitors ! "
 
 The Pride of Jennico 149 
 
 I write down the jargon much as I heard it, 
 for, as I write, I am back again at that moment 
 and feel once more the glow of hope which crept 
 into my heart, even as the genial warmth of the 
 room unbent my frozen Kmbs. I had reached my 
 journey's end, and the old rhyme in the play, 
 "journeys end in lovers meeting," rang a merry 
 burden in my thoughts. 
 
 I marvel now that my hopes should have been 
 so forward ; that I should have reckoned so much 
 more upon her woman's love than upon her 
 woman's pride. Indeed, I had not deemed my 
 sin so great but that my penitence would amply 
 atone. So I was all eagerness to satisfy my hun- 
 gering heart by tidings of her, and could hardly 
 sit still to my supper — though we had ridden 
 hard and I was famished — till I had induced 
 mine host to sit beside me and crack a bottle 
 of his most recommended Rhenish, which should 
 unloose a tongue that scarcely needed such in- 
 ducement. For her sake, that no scandal might 
 be bruited about her fair name, I had determined 
 to proceed cautiously. 
 
 "You have a fine town here, friend," said I, 
 "so far as I can judge this dark night." 
 
 "Truly, your lordship may say so," said he, 
 and smacked his lips that I might understand
 
 150 The Pride of Jemiico 
 
 how great a relish this fruit of his cellar left on 
 a man's palate. 
 
 "But it has a deserted look," said I idly, just 
 to encourage him in talk ; " so many houses shut 
 up — so few people about." 
 
 He rolled the wine round his mouth in a re- 
 flective manner, then swallowed it with a gulp, 
 and threw an uneasy look at me. At the same 
 instant there flashed upon my mind what, strange 
 as it may seem, I had clean forgotten in the tur- 
 moil of my thoughts and the hurry of my pur- 
 suit : the reason for the very state of affairs I 
 was commenting on — the plague of smallpox, the 
 malady that had driven the Princess to my land ! 
 Ay, in very truth the town had a plague-stricken 
 look, and I felt myself turn pale to think my wife 
 had come back to this nest of infection. 
 
 " The sickness," said I then quickly, — " has it 
 abated here .-' Nay, I know all about it, man, and 
 have no fear of it. But how fares it in the town 
 and in the palace } " 
 
 " Oh, the sickness ! " quoth mine host with a 
 great awkward laugh. "His lordship means these 
 few little cases of smallpox. Na, it had been 
 nothing, and is all over now ; only folk were 
 such cowards and frightened themselves sick, 
 and families fled because of this same foolish
 
 The Pride of Jennico 15 1 
 
 fear. Now myself, as his lordship sees, myself 
 and my family and my servants, we have not 
 known a day's ill-health, because we kept our 
 hearts up and drank good stuff. 'It is,' as I said 
 to his Highness himself, who never left the place, 
 but went out in our midst, the noble prince, and 
 spat at fear (besides that he had already had it, 
 like myself), — 'it is the wine,' said I, 'or the beer, 
 if you know where to get it, that keeps a man 
 sound.' And his Highness says to me " 
 
 But here I interrupted the speaker in a voice 
 the trembling of which I could not control. 
 
 " Is the Duke at the palace now, then, with all 
 his household .-* " 
 
 " He has been so, my lord," said the man 
 eagerly, " up to the last week ; so long, indeed, as 
 there was a suspicion of illness among us. But 
 now he is at the summer castle, Ottilienruhe, near 
 Rothenburg. 'Tis but three leagues from the 
 town. The Princess, sir, is always fond of Otti- 
 lienruhe, even in this cold weather. And as she 
 has but just returned from visiting at another 
 Court, his Highness, her father, has gone to join 
 her thither. Our Princess, sir, is a most beautiful 
 young lady ; nay, if you will allow me, I will show 
 you a portrait of her, which we have framed in my 
 wife's room. A beautiful young lady, sir ! There
 
 152 The Pride of Jeiniieo 
 
 will be rare festivities when she weds her cousin, 
 the Margrave of Liegnitz-Rothenburg. We have 
 his portrait, too — a very noble gentleman ! I 
 would show you these pictures; I think you would 
 admire them." 
 
 But I arrested him with a gesture, as, in the 
 hopes of distracting my attention from an awk- 
 ward topic, he was about to roll his bulk in quest 
 of these treasures. 
 
 I had no wish, indeed, to feast my eyes upon 
 that face, the lineaments of which, with all their 
 beauty, I could not bear to recall. What was it 
 to me whom tJiat Ottilie married } If they had 
 had a portrait of my Ottilie, indeed ! . . . But, 
 sweet soul, she had told me herself of her obscu- 
 rity and unimportance. 
 
 "And so," said I, "they are at the summer 
 palace, your reigning family .-' " 
 
 And though I had hugged the thought of her 
 deal living presence so close to me this night, 
 behind yonder palace walls, I nevertheless rejoiced 
 to learn that she was safer harboured. 
 
 "The Princess has her retinue with her, I sup- 
 pose } " 
 
 "Oh, ay," said the innkeeper, rising as he spoke 
 and clacking his tongue again over the last drop 
 of his wine. " Though our Princess is so simple a
 
 The Pride of Jennico 153 
 
 lass, if I may say so without disrespect, and loves 
 not Court fashions. But she has one favourite 
 companion, and they are as sisters together, so 
 that when one sees her Highness, one may be 
 sure the Fraulein is not far distant. Oh, ay, sir, 
 they have returned from their travels together, 
 thoujrh I have heard it rumoured that one or two 
 of her Highness's attendants have been left be- 
 hind, dead or ailing. Na, it is better to stay at 
 home : strange places are unwholesome ! " 
 
 He opened the stove door and shoved in two 
 or three great logs, and I turned and stretched my 
 limbs to the warmth with lazy content, and, for 
 the first time for many a long day and night, a 
 restful heart. 
 
 To-morrow I should see her. When I slept that 
 night I dreamed golden dreams. 
 
 The next day dawned upon a world all involved 
 in creeping grizzling mist, that seemed to ooze 
 even into the comfortable rooms of the " Silver 
 Lion " ; that wrapped from my view the lofty 
 towers of the palace beyond my window, and 
 damped even my buoyant confidence. My good 
 Janos had the toothache, and though it was not 
 in him to complain, the sight of his swollen, suf- 
 fering face did not further encourage me to cheer.
 
 154 TJie Pride of Jennie o 
 
 A little before noon we mounted to ride forth to 
 Ottilienruhe in the dismal weather. Our gar- 
 ments, despite the hciduck's endless brushing, 
 bore many traces of our hard journey. We cut 
 but a poor figure, I thought, in these stained, 
 rusty clothes ; and the young lord of Tollendhal 
 was ill-mounted upon the wretched jade, which 
 had, nevertheless, faithfully served him upon his 
 last cruel stage. The poor nag was yet full weary, 
 and stumbled and drooped her head, while Janos's 
 white-faced bay might have stood for the very 
 image of starving antiquity. 
 
 1 winced as I thought of Ottilie's mocking 
 glance ; but the haste to see her overcame even 
 my delicate vanity. 
 
 Following my host's directions, who marvelled 
 greatly at our eccentricity that we should leave a 
 warm stove door and good cheer from mere trav- 
 ellers' curiosity on such a day, we pattered forth 
 through the town again — through streets yet 
 more ghost-like in their daylight emptiness than 
 they had seemed yestereven ; pattered once more 
 across the wood of the bridge beneath which the 
 sullen waters ran, without appearing to run, as 
 grey and leaden as the heavens above. 
 
 And after two hours' dreary tramp along a 
 poplar-bordered, deserted road, we saw before us
 
 The Pride of Jennico 1 55 
 
 the gilded iron gateway of Ottilienruhe. Beyond 
 there was a vision of French gardens ; of bowhng- 
 greens all drenched ; of flat terraces whereon the 
 yews, fantastically cut, stood about like the pieces 
 of a chessboard. Beyond that again rose the odd 
 Grecian porticos and colonnades, the Chinese cu- 
 polas, appertaining to the summer pleasaunce of 
 the reigning house. 
 
 It might have looked fair enough under bright 
 skies in summer weather, with roses on the empty 
 beds and sunshine on the little yellow spires ; but 
 it seemed a most desolate place as it lay beneath 
 my eyes that noon. I told myself I should find 
 sunshine enough within, yet my heart lay heavy in 
 my breast. 
 
 A sentry, with his pointed fur cap drawn down 
 over his eyes, with the collar of his great-coat 
 drawn up above his ears, so that of his counte- 
 nance only the end of a red nose was visible to 
 the world, marched up and down before the gates, 
 and, as we made ready to halt, challenged us 
 roughly. 
 
 At the sound of his call two more sentries ap- 
 peared at different points, and tramped towards us 
 with suspicion in their bearing. 
 
 Evidently the Duke was well guarded. I rode 
 a few steps forward, when, to my astonishment.
 
 156 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 it being full peace-time, the fellow brought his 
 musket to the ready, and again cautioned me to 
 pass on my way. 
 
 " But my way is to the palace," I bawled to him 
 defiantly, despite the consciousness that the doubt- 
 ful impression I must myself create could not be 
 mitigated by the sight of Janos behind me. For 
 I am bound to say that in the plain garb I had 
 insisted on his donning, now much disordered, as 
 I have said, by our travels, with the natural grim- 
 ness of his countenance enhanced by a screw of 
 pain, a more truculent-looking ruffian it would 
 have been hard to find. 
 
 But so far I did not anticipate any more serious 
 difficulty than what a few arguments could re- 
 move : and I carried a heavy purse. So I added 
 boldly : 
 
 " I have business at the palace." 
 
 The man lowered his weapon and came a step 
 nearer. 
 
 "Whence come you .^" he asked more civilly. 
 
 " From Budissin," said I. 
 
 The musket instantly went up again, and its 
 bearer retreated hastily a couple of paces. 
 
 " 'Tis against orders," he said, "because of the 
 sickness ; no one from Budissin may pass the 
 gates."
 
 The Pride of Jennico 157 
 
 The sickness again ! I had, then, by my im- 
 petuosity, my haste to follow in her traces, but 
 raised a new barrier between us. 
 
 I dismounted, threw my reins to Janos, and ad- 
 vanced upon the soldier. 
 
 " But, friend," said I 
 
 The fellow covered me with his weapon. 
 
 " Stand ! " he cried roughly ; " stand, or I fire ! " 
 
 I stood back stock-still. Here was a quandary 
 indeed ! 
 
 " But, my God ! " I cried to him, " I am a trav- 
 eller. I have but passed through the town. I 
 have come these eighty leagues upon urgent busi- 
 ness, and I must see some one who I am told is 
 in the palace." 
 
 So saying I drew forth a louis d'or, a stock of 
 which I kept loose for such emergencies in my 
 side pocket, and tossed it to the rascal. 
 
 " Now get me speech with a person in au- 
 thority," said I. 
 
 With one hand, and without lowering his fire- 
 lock, he nimbly caught the coin on the fling and 
 placed it in his mouth, after which he shook his 
 head and remarked indistinctly : 
 
 "*Tis no use." 
 
 And then at last my sorely-tried patience broke 
 down, impotent otherwise in front of his menacing
 
 158 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 barrel. I cursed him long and loud with that 
 choiceness and variety of epithet of which my 
 own squadron-life experience as well as my ap- 
 prenticeship to my great-uncle had given me a 
 command. 
 
 The clamour we made first drew the other 
 soldiers, and next a little dapper officer from the 
 guard-room behind the inner gate, who ran out 
 towards us, and at the utmost pitch of his natu- 
 rally piping voice demanded in the name of all 
 gods, thunders, and lightning-blasts what the 
 matter was. 
 
 My particular sentinel's utterance was some- 
 thing impeded by the louis d'or in his cheek, and 
 I was consequently able to offer an explanation 
 before him. Uncovering my head and bowing, I 
 introduced myself in elegant phraseology, though 
 of necessity, for the distance between us, in tones 
 more suited to the parade ground than to a 
 polite ceremony, and laid bare my unfortunate 
 position. I bewailed that through my brief halt 
 in Budissin, ignorant of the infection, I had evi- 
 dently made myself amenable to quarantine, and 
 requested his courteous assistance in the matter. 
 
 My name was evidently quite unfamiliar to his 
 ears, but, perceiving that lie had to deal with an 
 equal, the little officer at once returned my salute
 
 The Pride of Jennico 159 
 
 with an extra flourish, and my civility by ordering 
 the sentry to stand aside. Then, advancing gin- 
 gerly in the mud to a more reasonable interval for 
 conversation, he informed me, with another sweep- 
 ing bow, that he was Captain Freiherr von Krap- 
 pitz, and that, while it would be his pleasure to 
 serve me in every possible manner, he regretted 
 deeply that his orders were such that he could 
 only ratify the sentry's conduct. 
 
 " And are there no means, then," cried I, " by 
 which I can communicate in person with any resi- 
 dent of the palace .-'" 
 
 " In person," said the officer, " I regret, none. 
 His Serene Highness's orders are stringent, and 
 when I tell you that our Princess is actually be- 
 hind these walls, you will understand the neces- 
 sity. The sickness has been appalling," he added. 
 
 He must have seen the blank dismay upon my 
 countenance, for his own sharp visage expressed 
 a comical mixture of sympathy and curiosity, and 
 again approaching two steps he proceeded : 
 
 "I could perhaps convey some message. I shall 
 soon be relieved from duty here. The person you 
 wish to see is .-' " 
 
 " It is a lady," said I, flushing. 
 
 This was what the little gentleman had evi- 
 dently expected. Suppressing a grin of satisfac-
 
 i6o The Pride of Jennico 
 
 tion, he gave another salute and placed himself 
 quite at my disposal. But I had an unsurmount- 
 able objection to announce my real relationship 
 to the woman who had fled from my protection. 
 Courteous as my interlocutor was, and honourable 
 and kind as he seemed to be, I could send no mes- 
 sage to my wife through him. 
 
 " If you will see to the safe delivery of a letter," 
 said I, " I should be grateful indeed." 
 
 His face fell. 
 
 " It is possible, perhaps," he said dubiously, 
 " but less easy of accomplishment. There will be 
 the necessity of disinfection. If you think your 
 billet-doux — forgive me for supposing you to be 
 a sufferer from the tender passion, and believe me 
 I speak with sympathy " (here he thumped his 
 little chest and heaved from its restricted depths 
 a noisy sigh) — " if you think your billet-doux will 
 not lose of its sweetness by a prolonged immersion 
 in vinegar, I will do what I can. Nay, I think I 
 can promise you that your letter will be delivered, 
 if you will kindly inform me who the fair recipient 
 is to be." 
 
 Again I hesitated, I would not call her by her 
 maiden name ; to speak of her as my wife, to bawl 
 my strange story on the high road, was not only 
 intolerable to my pride, but seemed inadvisable
 
 The Pride of Jennico i6i 
 
 and certainly imprudent in my ignorance of her 
 attitude at the Court. 
 
 "It is," said I, "one of your Princess's Court 
 ladies." And here his volubility spared me further 
 circumlocution. 
 
 "It can certainly not be," he cried, "that you 
 have formed an unhappy attachment for the Frau 
 Grafin von Kornstein .? There remains then only 
 the young Comtesse d'Assier, Fraulein von Auer- 
 bach and her sister, and Fraulein Ottilie Pahlen — 
 these are all of our fair circle that are now in 
 attendance at the palace," 
 
 " It is the last lady," I said, and was at once 
 glad of my own circumspection and troubled in 
 my mind that she should be keeping her secret 
 so well. 
 
 "Mes compliments," said he with a smirk, but I 
 thought also with a shade of patronage, as if by 
 mentioning her last he had also shown her to be 
 the last in his worldly esteem. Once, doubtless, 
 this would have galled me. 
 
 "Then if I write now," I cried, "and you, ac- 
 cording to your kind offer, take charge of my 
 letter, how soon can it be in her hands .'' " 
 
 "But as soon as the guard has relieved me, 
 good sir, am I free to act the gallant Mercury — 
 pity it is that these sordid details of sickness 
 
 M
 
 1 62 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 and quarantine should come to spoil so pretty an 
 errand. This was a fair Court for Cupid before 
 the ugly plague came on us. Yes," he added, 
 " I have seen days ! " 
 
 I had already drawn out my tablets, and, thank- 
 ing him hurriedly (without, I fear, evincing much 
 interest in his sentimental reflections), turned and, 
 making a standing desk of my horse, with the 
 sheet spread upon the saddle, began, all in the 
 dreary drizzle, to trace with fingers stiffened from 
 the cold the few lines which were to bring my 
 wife back to me. 
 
 I had little time for composition, and so wrote 
 the words as they welled up from my heart. 
 
 " Dear love," said I, in the French which had 
 been the language of our happiest moments, "your 
 poor scholar has learnt his lesson so well that he 
 cannot live without his teacher. Forget what has 
 come between us. Remember only all that unites 
 us, and forgive. I have, it seems, involved myself 
 in difficulty by passing through Budissin, and so 
 will, I fear, have to endure delay before being 
 permitted sight of your sweet face again. But let 
 me have a word which may help me to bear the 
 separation, let me know that I may carry home 
 my wife." I signed it, "Your poor scholar and 
 loving husband." Then I folded it, fastened it
 
 The Pride of Jemiico 163 
 
 with a wafer, and after a minute's pause decided 
 to burn my ships and address it by the right name 
 of her to whom I destined it — "Madame OttiUe 
 de Jennico, Dame d'honneur de S. A. S. la Prin- 
 cesse Marie OttiHe de Lusace." 
 
 Bending over the hving desk, — the poor patient 
 brute never budged but for his heaving flanks, — 
 I laid for a second, unperceived I thought, my lips 
 upon that name which haunted me, sleeping and 
 waking, and turning, with the letter in my hand, 
 found the Freiherr watching me, with his head 
 upon one side and so comic an air of sympathy 
 that, at another moment, I should have burst out 
 laughing. 
 
 "It is mille dommages," quoth he as, bending 
 his supple spine again, he drew his sword with a 
 charming gesture of courtesy, "that this chaste 
 salute should have to pass through the bitter 
 waves of the Court doctor's vinegar basin before 
 reaching the virginal lips for which it is intended." 
 
 "Then I may rely upon your countenance.-'" 
 said I, unmindful of his mock Versailles floweri- 
 ness as I fixed ray missive to the point of the 
 sword extended towards me for that purpose by 
 the longest arm the little fellow could make. I 
 knew he would not read the tell-tale inscription 
 until the unpoetic process he had so feelingly
 
 164 The Pride of Jermico 
 
 lamented should have been gone through, and I 
 wondered something anxiously whether it would 
 not prove another complication, my wife in her 
 wounded pride having thus chosen to conceal our 
 marriage — in truth, I might have known it : had 
 she not shaken off my ring ? Seeing upon what 
 grounds we had parted, however, I dared not have 
 addressed her otherwise, and so could see no way 
 but to run some risk. 
 
 "When may I hope to receive an answer? — 
 you will forgive my impatience," said I, with a 
 somewhat rueful smile, "for you have some know- 
 ledge of the human heart, I see, and so I venture 
 further to trespass on your great courtesy. I will 
 meet here any messenger you may depute at any 
 hour you name this afternoon." 
 
 "Myself, sir, myself," said the good-natured 
 gentleman, "and in as short a space as possible. 
 Shall we say three o'clock } " 
 
 There were then a few minutes wanting to noon 
 by my uncle's famous chronometer. Three hours 
 seemed long, but, as we must ever learn to do in 
 life, I had to be content with a slice where I 
 wanted the loaf. (Now I have not even a crumb 
 for my starving heart, and yet I live.) 
 
 As I had surmised, my messenger continued to 
 hold the missive at the extreme length of his
 
 The Pride of Jennico 165 
 
 weapon and arm, while we made our divers con- 
 gees and compliments. Thus we parted, he to 
 withdraw to his guard-house, and I, with my attend- 
 ant, to ride back to the nearest village, with what 
 appetite we might for our noonday meal. 
 
 I rode alone again to the rendezvous, full early, 
 poor fool ! Janos I had sent on to find lodgings 
 for me in the neighbourhood, out of range of 
 infection, so that my time of purgatory need not 
 be an hour prolonged. 
 
 The sky had cleared somewhat and it rained 
 no more, but there was now a penetrating and 
 moisture-charged wind. A little after the stroke 
 of three my friend of the morning came forth, 
 waved aside the sentry as before, and halted within 
 the former distance, while I dismounted. His 
 countenance was far from bearing the beaming 
 cordiality with which he had last surveyed me, nor 
 had his bow anything like its previous depth and 
 roundness. He drew a folded paper from his 
 pocket, attached it to the point of his sword, 
 according to the process I had already witnessed, 
 and presented it to me, observing drily : 
 
 " I regret, sir, that there seems to be some mis- 
 take about this matter. The Court doctor, who 
 duly delivered the letter at the palace, informs me 
 that none of her Highness's ladies-in-waiting will
 
 1 66 The Pride of Jcnnico 
 
 consent to receive it, it being indeed addressed to 
 some person unknown among them. There is no 
 lady of the name of Jennico among her Highness's 
 attendants." 
 
 I felt myself blanching. 
 
 "Am I to understand," said I, "that Fraulein 
 Ottilie Pahlen has repudiated this letter .-' " 
 
 " My good sir," said he, looking at me, I 
 thought, with a sort of compassion, as if he feared 
 I was weak in my head, " I understand from the 
 Court doctor that Mademoiselle Pahlen was the 
 lady to whom the letter was at once offered, 
 according to my request and yours. There is per- 
 haps some mystery .''" — here his interest seemed 
 to flicker up again, and he smiled as who would 
 say, ^^ confide in vie"; but I could not bring my 
 tongue to this humiliation, less than ever then. 
 
 I flicked the poor, vinegar-sodden, despised epis- 
 tle from the point of his sword, and, spreading it 
 out once again, added to it in a sort of frenzy this 
 appeal : / 
 
 " For God's sake forgive me ! You cannot 
 mean to send me away like this. Ottilie, write 
 me one line, for from my soul I love you." 
 
 Then I pasted the sheet again, and, drawing a 
 line through the title, wrote above it in great 
 letters :
 
 The Pride of Jennie o 167 
 
 " Fraulein Ottilie Pahlen," and then I said to 
 the officer : 
 
 "You will be doing a deed of truer kindness 
 than you can imagine, Captain von Krappitz, if 
 you will have this letter placed again in the hands 
 of Fraulein Pahlen. More I cannot say now, but 
 some day, if my fortune is not more evil than I 
 dare reflect upon, I will explain." 
 
 "Wait here half an hour," he responded with 
 a return of his good nature ; " I am off duty and 
 free for the rest of the day. If I can induce the 
 Court doctor to attend to me — in truth, he is of a 
 very surly mood this afternoon — I trust you may 
 see me return a messenger of better tidings." 
 
 Besides a very bubbling heat of curiosity there 
 was real amiability in this readiness to help me. 
 
 The half hour sped and half an hour beyond it 
 — why do I linger upon such details .-' From 
 sheer cowardly reluctance, I believe, to describe 
 those moments of my great despair. 
 
 And then a cockscomb of a servant fellow, in 
 gorgeous livery and ribboned cue, stepped forth 
 from the gates, sniffing a bunch of stinking herbs, 
 and stood and surveyed me for a second from head 
 to foot, grinning all over his insolent visage, till I 
 wonder how I kept my riding-whip from searing 
 it across.
 
 1 68 The Pride of Jcnnico 
 
 "Well, sir?" said I sternly. 
 
 He felt, maybe, the note of master in my voice, 
 for he cringed a little, and, more civilly than his 
 countenance suggested, requested to know if I was 
 the gentleman with whom Captain the Freiherr 
 von Krappitz had recently been conversing. Upon 
 my reply he gingerly held up a filthy rag of paper, 
 in which I recognised, with a failing of the heart 
 such as I cannot set forth in words, my own letter 
 once more. And in sight of my discomfiture, 
 resuming his native impudence, he proceeded in 
 loud tones : 
 
 " My master bids me inform you that he can no 
 longer be the means of annoying a young lady 
 whom he respects so much as Mademoiselle 
 Pahlcn. She has requested that your letter may 
 be returned to you again, and declares that she 
 knows no such person as yourself, and is quite at 
 a loss why she should be made the object of this 
 strange persecution." 
 
 The rogue sang out the words as one repeating 
 a lesson in which he has been well drilled. 
 
 As I stood staring at him, all other feelings 
 swallowed up in the overwhelming tide of my dis- 
 appointment, I saw him, as in a dream, toss the 
 much-travelled note in the mud between us, turn 
 on his heel, exchange a grin with the nearest
 
 TJie Pride of Jennico 169 
 
 sentry, jerk his thumb over his shoulder in my 
 direction, tap his forehead significantly, and finally 
 swagger out of sight behind the little wicket. 
 
 And still I stood immovable, unable to formulate 
 a single thought in my paralysed brain, the whole 
 world before me a dull blank, yet knowing that, 
 when I should begin to feel again, it would be hell 
 indeed. 
 
 A shout from the sentry suddenly aroused me, 
 "'Tis better," he called, "that you should move 
 on." 
 
 And in good sooth what had I more to do before 
 those gates .'' I mounted my horse and rode back- 
 wards and forwards upon that wretched scrap of 
 paper that had been charged with all the dearest 
 longings of my heart, until it lay indistinguishable 
 in the mud around it. Then I set spurs to my 
 jade, and we rode, a well-matched couple, away 
 towards the strange village where I was to meet 
 Janes. 
 
 With the memory of that bitterest hour of his 
 life burning so hot within him that he could con- 
 tinue his sedentary task no longer, but must rise 
 and pace the room after the sullen way now well 
 known to Janos as betokening his master's worst 
 moments, Basil Jennico laughed aloud. Pride
 
 170 The Pride of Jcnnico 
 
 must have a fall ! God knows his pride had had 
 falls enough to kill the most robust of vices. 
 
 Had ever man been so humiliated, so con- 
 temned as he ? Had ever poor soul been made to 
 suffer more relentlessly where it had sinned ? 
 
 " I have been brought low, very low," said he to 
 himself, and thought of the early days at Tollcndhal 
 when its young lord had deemed the whole earth 
 created for his use. Yet, even as he spoke, he 
 knew in his heart that the pride that was born in 
 him would die with him only, and that if it had 
 been mastered awhile it was only but because love 
 had been stronger still. 
 
 When he had taken the roturi^re unreservedly to 
 his heart ; when he had returned from the moun- 
 tains to seek reconciliation ; when he had followed 
 her upon her flight, had twice besought her to re- 
 turn to him ; when he had made his third and last 
 futile appeal in the face of a slashing rebuff, pride 
 had lain beneath the heel of love. He had been 
 beaten, after all, by a pride greater than his own ; 
 and he knew that were she to call him even now, 
 he would come to lier bidding in spite of all and 
 through all. 
 
 The boards of the narrow, irregular room creaked 
 beneath his impatient tread. Outside, the sounds 
 of traffic were dying away. The last belated
 
 The Pride of Jennie o 171 
 
 coaches had clattered down the streets, the tall 
 running footman had extinguished his link. Basil 
 Jennico turned instinctively towards the south, 
 like the restless compass-needle, a way that had 
 grown into a habit of late as his spirit strove to 
 bridge across the leagues of sea and land that lay 
 between him and his wife. 
 
 Was she thinking of him now .? What was his 
 curse was at the same time his triumph : he defied 
 her to forget him any more than he could forget 
 her ! Those hours, had she not shared them 
 with him .? Come what would, no man could lay 
 claim to be to her what he had been. No man — 
 that way madness lay ! . . . 
 
 He looked round at the pages scored with his 
 writings and gave a heart-sick sigh, and then at 
 the door of the room beyond, wherein stood that 
 huge four-post bed where he had tossed through 
 such sleepless hours and dreamed such dreams 
 that the waking moment held the bitterness of 
 death. Next he thought of the town beyond, so 
 full, yet to him so empty. 
 
 How to pass the time that went by with such 
 leaden feet .-* The days were bad enough, but the 
 nights — the nights were terrible ! Should he 
 don his most brilliant suit and hie him out into 
 the throng of men of fashion t Some of the Wo-
 
 172 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 scliutzski gold would not come amiss at the dicing- 
 table of my Lady Brambury, or at the Cocoa-tree, 
 or yet the Hummums, where (his head being as 
 strong as the best of them) he could crack a few 
 bottles in good company. Good company, forsooth ! 
 What could all the world be to him for want of that 
 one small being ? He might drink himself into 
 oblivion, perhaps, a few hours' oblivion, and be car- 
 ried home in the early morning and wake at midday 
 with a new headache and the old heartache. Pah ! 
 Of three evils choose the least : since the great 
 feather bed would hold no sleep yet awhile ; since 
 to drag his misery into company was to add fire to 
 its fever, Mr. Jennico sat down again to his task, 
 hoping so to weary his brain that it would grant 
 him a few hours' dreamless rest.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 Captain Basil Jennico's Memoir continued 
 
 There is very little more to tell. The new inn 
 wherein I found Janos established was but a poor 
 place in a poor village, a sort of summer resort 
 abandoned in winter-time save by its own wretched 
 inhabitants. The private chamber allotted to me 
 — it was the only one — was bitter cold, but my 
 choice lay between that and the common room 
 below, full of evil smells and reeking boors and 
 stifling stove heat. 
 
 But I was in no mood to reck of bodily incon- 
 venience. My further action had to be determined 
 upon ; and, torn two ways between anger and long- 
 ing, I passed the evening and the greater part of 
 the night in futile battle with myself. 
 
 At length I resolved upon a plan which brought 
 some calm into my soul, and with it a creeping 
 ray of hope. 
 
 I would lay my case before the Princess herself. 
 She had been ever kindly in her dealings towards 
 me. I had no reason to imagine but that she was 
 
 173
 
 174 l^^i^ Pride of Jemiico 
 
 well disposed in my favour ; she had had no part 
 in her maid of honour's double dealings with me : 
 I would pray her to speak to the wayward being 
 on my behalf, to place before her her duty towards 
 the husband she had herself chosen. 
 
 Thus next morning, as clearly, temperately, and 
 respectfully as might be, I indited my letter, sealed 
 it upon each fold with the Jennico coat-of-arms, 
 and, after deliberation, despatched Janos with it. 
 The fellow had, according to my orders, purchased 
 fresh horses, and cut a better figure than the yes- 
 terday's, when he set off upon his errand. Duly 
 and minutely instructed, he was to present him- 
 self at another gate of the palace, and I trusted 
 that, making good use of the purse with which he 
 was supplied, his mission might be more success- 
 fully accomplished than had been mine. 
 
 And indeed, so far as he was concerned, this 
 was the case. He came back sooner than I had 
 supposed it possible, to inform mc that, having 
 been able to say he was not from l^udissin, he had 
 been received with civility, and permitted to wait 
 at the guard-house of the north entrance while my 
 letter was carried to the palace. After a short 
 time, the messenger who had taken charge of it 
 had returned, demanded and carefully noted my 
 name, qualities, and exact whereabouts, and bidden
 
 The Pride of Jennico 175 
 
 him go back to his master with the assurance that 
 the Princess would send her answer. 
 
 I waited, tramping the short breadth of my mis- 
 erable room like a caged wolf, anxiously peering 
 every other minute through the rain-stained win- 
 dow which overlooked the high road. 
 
 Reason seemed to offer but one conclusion con- 
 cerning the result of the last appeal : she would 
 come back to me. My offence — bad as it had 
 been, unmanly towards the woman who had lain 
 in my arms, unworthy of a gentleman towards the 
 lady whom he had resolved to acknowledge as his 
 wife — my offence was not one that so true a peni- 
 tence might not amply atone for. That was what 
 reason said. But, as often as confidence began to 
 rise in my heart, an instinctive dread overcame it, an 
 unaccountable, ominous misgiving that the happi- 
 ness I had once held in my hand and so perversely 
 cast from me was never to be mine again. And, as 
 the hours slowly fell away, the dread became more 
 poignant, and the effort to hope more futile. 
 
 Janos had returned with his message about noon. 
 It must have been at least five o'clock (for the 
 world outside was wrapped in murky shadow) when 
 there came a sound on the road that made my 
 heart leap : a clatter of horses' hoofs and the rum- 
 bling of a coach. I threw open my window and
 
 176 The Pride of Jeiuiico 
 
 thrust out my head. How vividly the impression 
 comes back on me now !- — ^the cold rain upon my 
 throbbing temples, the blinding light of joy that 
 filled my brain as I strained my eyes to distinguish 
 in the dusk the nature of the vehicle which an- 
 nounced its approach with such important noise. 
 It was a carriage, guarded by an escort of dragoons, 
 who rode by the door, musket on thigh. An escort ! 
 It must be the Princess herself : the Princess come 
 in person, the noble and gentle lady, to bring me 
 back my wife, my love ! 
 
 Fool ! Fool ! Fool thrice told ! for my vain- 
 glorious self-conceit, my loving, yearning heart ! 
 
 My spirits bounded at one leap to their old im- 
 portant, arrogant level. I threw a hasty glance in 
 the mirror to note that the pallor of my counte- 
 nance and the disorder of my unpowdcred hair 
 were after all not unbecoming. As I dashed along 
 the narrow wooden passage and down the break- 
 neck creaking stairs I will not say that in all the 
 glow of my heart, that had been so cold, there was 
 not now, in this sudden relief from the iron press- 
 ure of anxiety, a point of anger against the little 
 truant — a vague determination to establish a cer- 
 tain balance of account, to inflict some mild pen- 
 ance upon her as a set-off against the very bitter 
 one she had imposed on me. A minute ago I
 
 The Pride of Jennico 177 
 
 would have knelt before her and humbled myself 
 to the very dust : when I reached the door of the 
 drinking-room I was already pluming myself upon 
 a resolution to be merciful. 
 
 I broke into the room out of the darkness with 
 my head high, and was at first so dazzled by the 
 light within, as well as by the reeling triumph in 
 my brain, that for an instant I could distinguish 
 nothing. 
 
 Then, with a sickening revulsion, with such 
 rage as may have torn the soul of Lucifer struck 
 from the heights of heaven to the depths of hell, 
 I saw the single figure of Captain von Krappitz 
 standing in the middle of the floor with much 
 gravity and importance of demeanour. Flattened 
 against the walls, the boors stood open-mouthed, 
 all struck with amazement ; and the little host 
 was bowing anxiously to the belaced officer. Two 
 dragoons guarded the door. 
 
 Before even a word was uttered I felt that all 
 was over for me. 
 
 Concentrating my energies, then, to face mis- 
 fortune with as brave a front as I might, I halted 
 before my friend of yesterday, and waited in 
 silence for him to open proceedings. 
 
 He bowed to me with great courtesy, looking 
 upon me the while with eyes at once compassion- 
 
 N
 
 178 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 ate, curious, and yet respectful, as though upon 
 one of newly-discovered importance, and said : 
 
 " I grieve, sir, to be the bearer of an order which 
 may cause you displeasure, but I beg you, being a 
 soldier yourself, to consider me only as the instru- 
 ment which does not presume to judge but obeys. 
 Be pleased to read this — it is addressed to you." 
 
 I took the great sealed envelope with fingers as 
 cold and heavy as marble, broke it open mechani- 
 cally, and read. At first it was without any com- 
 prehension of the words, which were nevertheless 
 set forth in a very free, flowing hand, but pres- 
 ently, as the blood rushed in a tide of sudden 
 anger to my brain, with a quickening and re- 
 doubled intensity of intelligence. 
 
 "The Princess Marie Ottilia of Sachs-Lausitz," so ran the 
 precious document, " has received M. de Jennico's letter con- 
 cerning a certain lady. 
 
 " M. de Jennico has already been given clearly to understand 
 that his importunities are distressing. 
 
 "As the lady in question is a member of the Princess's 
 household, M. de Jennico will not be surprised at the steps 
 which are now taken to secure her against furtlier per- 
 secution, lie is advised to accept the escort of the officer 
 who carries this letter, and warned that any attempt at re- 
 sistance, or any future infringement of the order issued by 
 command of his Serene Highness, will be visited in the se- 
 verest manner."
 
 The Pride of Jeimico 179 
 
 In a bloody heat of rage I looked up, ready for 
 any folly — to strangle the poor courteous little 
 instrument of a woman's implacable resentment — 
 to find death on the bayonets of the hulking sen- 
 tinels at the door, and be glad of it, so that I had 
 shed somebody's blood for these insults ! But, 
 meeting Captain von Krappitz's steady glance, I 
 paused. And in that pause my sense returned. 
 
 If love itself be a madness, as they say, what 
 name shall we give to our wrath against those 
 that we love ! For that minute no poor chained 
 Bedlamite could have been more dangerously mad 
 than I. But my British dread of ridicule saved my 
 life that day, and perhaps that of others besides. 
 
 Perhaps also the real pity, the sympathy, that 
 was stamped on the captain's honest face had 
 something to say to calming me. At any rate, I 
 recovered from my convulsion, and awoke to the 
 fact that blood was running down my shirt from 
 where I had clenched my teeth upon my lip, 
 
 I must have been a fearsome object to behold, 
 and I have a good opinion of Captain von Krappitz's 
 coolness that he should thus have stood and faced 
 a man of twice his size and, in such a frenzy, of 
 probably four times his strength, with never a sig- 
 nal to his guard or even a step in retreat. 
 
 Said this gentleman then, delicately averting his
 
 i8o The Pride of Jennico 
 
 eyes from my countenance, so soon as he saw I 
 had come to my senses : 
 
 " If you will glance at this paper you will see 
 that my orders are stringent, and I shall be greatly 
 indebted to your courtesy if you will co-operate in 
 their being carried out in the least unpleasant 
 manner possible. Indeed, sir," he added in my 
 ear hastily and kindly, " resistance would be worse 
 than useless." 
 
 I glanced at the paper he presented to me, 
 caught the words: "Order to Captain Freiherr 
 von Krappitz to convey M. de Jennico beyond the 
 frontier of Lusatia, at any point he may himself 
 choose" ; caught a further glimpse of such expres- 
 sions : "formal warning to M. de Jennico never 
 to set foot more within the dominions of the Duke 
 of Lausitz," " severe penalty," and so forth. I 
 glanced, and tossed the paper contemptuously on 
 the table. 
 
 That wife of mine had greater interest at the 
 Court than she had been wont to pretend, and she 
 was using it to some purpose. She was mightily 
 determined that her offending husband should pay 
 his debt to her pride, to the last stripe of his pun- 
 ishment. 
 
 I smiled in the bitterness of my soul. I was 
 sane enough now, God knows !
 
 The Pride of Jennico i8i 
 
 Well, she should have her wish, she should be 
 persecuted no longer. 
 
 " I place myself entirely at your convenience," 
 said M. de Krappitz discreetly, adding, however, 
 the significant remark, " my order gives me twelve 
 hours." 
 
 He picked up the document as he spoke, folded 
 it carefully, and placed it in his breast pocket. 
 
 " Oh, as for me," said I, " I ask for no respite." 
 (Could I desire to waste a second before shaking 
 the dust of this cursed country from my feet .-•) 
 " The time but to warn my servant and bid him 
 truss up my portmanteau and saddle the horses. 
 I understand," I added, with what, I fear, was a 
 withering smile, " that you are kind enough to 
 offer me a seat in your carriage ? " 
 
 "Ah, my dear sir," returned the little man, with 
 an expression of relief, " what a delightful thing it 
 is to deal with an homme d'esprit ! " 
 
 And so, in scarce half-an-hour*s time, the tri- 
 umphal procession was ready to set forth. I 
 entered the coach, the Freiherr took his seat be- 
 hind me, Janos, impassive, mounted his horse 
 between two dragoons, whilst my own mount was 
 led by a third soldier in the rear. And in this 
 order we set off at a round pace for the Silesian 
 frontier, where I begged to be deposited.
 
 1 82 TJie Pride of Jetmico 
 
 At first my good-tempered and garrulous escort 
 tried in vain to beguile me into some conversation 
 upon such abstract subjects as music and poetry. 
 But his well-meant efforts failed before my hope- 
 less taciturnity, and it was in silence that we 
 concluded the transit between Rothenburg and the 
 border. 
 
 As we parted, however, he held out his hand, 
 " Sans rancune, camarade," said he. 
 
 What could I do but clasp the good-natured little 
 paw as heartily as I might, and echo, although 
 most untruly, " Sans rancune " .-* To the very 
 throat I was full of rancour for everything belong- 
 ing to Lusatia, and I swear the bitterness of it lay 
 a palpable taste on my tongue. 
 
 A free man again, I threw myself upon my 
 horse, and took the straightest road for my empty 
 home. Janos had the wit to speak no word to me, 
 save a direction now and again as to the proper 
 way. And we rode like furies through the cold, 
 wet night. 
 
 "Breed a fine stock . . ." had said my good 
 uncle to his heir. 
 
 At least, I thought — and the sound of my 
 laugh rang ghastly even in my own ears — if I 
 have brought roture into the family, I am not like 
 now to graft it on the family tree !
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 Captain Basil Jennico's Memoir, resumed three 
 
 MONTHS LATER, AT FaRRINGDON DANE 
 
 Suffolk, i^k April, 1772. 
 
 I HAD thought upon that day when, in my ill 
 temper, I irreparably insulted my wife, that I 
 could never bring myself to face the exposure 
 which a return to England would necessarily bring 
 about. But when I found the desolation and the 
 haunting memories of Tollendhal like to rob me of 
 all I had left of reason and manliness ; when, to 
 my restless spirit, the thought of home seemed to 
 promise some chance of diversion and relief, I did 
 not hesitate. Without delay I set to work to put 
 matters at Tollendhal upon a sufficiently regular 
 scale, also to have realised and transferred to my 
 London bankers a sum of money large enough to 
 meet any reasonable demand. This business ac- 
 complished, in less than a month from the date of 
 the ill-fated Rothenburg expedition I found my- 
 self breathing my native air again. 
 
 Before my departure I charged Schultz — and I 
 
 183
 
 184 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 know I can rely upon his faithfulness — to be per- 
 petually on the look-out for any communication 
 from Lausitz, and to be ready to give any one im- 
 mediate cognisance of my whereabouts. It is a 
 forlorn hope. 
 
 Although the humour had come upon me to go 
 back to my own land — after the fashion, I fancy, 
 that a sick man deems he will be better anywhere 
 than where he is — and although I did not hesitate 
 to gratify that humour, I was, nevertheless, not 
 blind to the peculiar position I must occupy among 
 my people. I had no desire to lay claim to the 
 honours I had so prematurely announced, no desire 
 to present myself under false colours, even were 
 such an imposture likely to succeed ; but neither 
 did I see why I should lay bare to the jeers of the 
 fashionable world, to the sneers of dear relatives 
 and friends, or, more intolerable still, to their 
 compassion, the whole pitiful plot of that comedy 
 which has turned to such tragedy for me. So, 
 when I wrote to my mother to announce my 
 arrival, I adopted a purposely evasive tone. 
 
 " It is deeply unfortunate," I wrote, " that you should have 
 broken the bond of secrecy which I enjoined upon you when 
 I informed you of my intended marriage. You know too 
 much of the world, my dear mother, not to understand that 
 when a commoner like myself, however well born and dowered,
 
 The Pride of Jennico 185 
 
 would contract an alliance with the heiress of a reigning house, 
 it is more than likely that there may be a < slip 'twixt the cup 
 and the lip.' My cup has been spilt. I come home, a broken- 
 hearted man, to find myself, I fear, owing to your breach of 
 confidence, the laughing-stock of our society. But the yearn- 
 ing for home is too strong upon me to be resisted ; I am 
 returning to England at once. If you would not add yet more 
 to the bitterness of my lot you will strenuously deny the report 
 you indiscreetly spread, and warn curiosity-mongers from 
 daring to probe a wound which I could not bear even your 
 hand to touch." 
 
 These words, by which I intended to spare my- 
 self at least the humiliation of personal explana- 
 tion, have produced an unexpected effect. My 
 poor mother performed her task so well that I find 
 myself quite as much the hero of the hour over 
 here as if I had brought back my exalted bride. 
 
 The mystery in which I am shrouded, the ob- 
 vious melancholy of my demeanour, the very indif- 
 ference with which I receive all notice, added, of 
 course, to my wealth, and possibly to the belief 
 that I am still a prize in the matrimonial market, 
 my extraordinary luck at cards, when I can be 
 induced to play, my carelessness to loss or gain — 
 all this has placed me upon a pinnacle which is as 
 gratifying to my mother as (or, so I hear, for I 
 have declined all reconciliation with the renegade) 
 it is galling to my brother and his family.
 
 1 86 The Pride of Jcnnico 
 
 But the best yet, so far as I am concerned, is 
 that no one has dared to put to me an indis- 
 creet question, and that even my mother, although 
 her wistful eyes implore my confidence, respects 
 my silence. 
 
 Now, having tried in vain to find a solace in the 
 pleasures of town, I have betaken myself to that 
 part of the island which is the cradle of our race, 
 to try whether a taste of good old English sport 
 may not revive some interest in my life. 
 
 Often in that last month at Tollendhal, when 
 the whole land was locked in ice and the grey sky 
 looked down pitilessly upon the white earth, day 
 by day, with never a change and scarcely a shadow, 
 I thought of the green winters of my youth in the 
 old country ; of rousing gallops, with the west 
 wind in my face, across wide fields all verdant still 
 and homely ; of honest English faces, English 
 voices, the tongue of the hounds, the blast of the 
 cracked horn, with almost a passion of desire. It 
 seemed to me that, if I could be back in the midst 
 of it all again, I might feel as the boy Basil had 
 felt, and be rid, were it but for the space of a good 
 cross-country run, of that present Basil Jennico 
 whose brain was so weary of working upon the 
 same useless round, whose heart was so sore within 
 him.
 
 The Pride of Jennico 187 
 
 So soon therefore as the weather broke — for 
 the winter has been hard even in this milder cli- 
 mate — I accepted my mother's offer of her dower- 
 house, set up a goodly stable of hunters, and 
 established myself at the Manor of Farringdon 
 Dane. I have actually derived some satisfaction 
 from a couple of days' sport, to which a sight of 
 my lord brother's discomfiture, each time I cut 
 him deliberately in the face of the whole field, has 
 added perhaps a grain. 
 
 April 2gtk. 
 
 I am this day like the man in the Gospel who, 
 having driven out the devil from his heart and 
 swept and garnished it, finds himself presently 
 possessed of seven devils worse than the first ! 
 The demon of wrath I had exorcised, I believed, 
 long ago ; the fiend of unrest and longing I had 
 thought these days to have laid too. In spite of 
 her too obdurate resentment, I had no feeling for 
 my wife, wherever she might be, but tenderness. 
 Now, oh, Ottilie, Ottilie ! do I most hate thee or 
 love thee } I know not, by my soul ! Yet this at 
 least I do know : mine thou art, and mine thou 
 shalt remain, though we never meet again on 
 earth : mine, as I am thine, though the true, good 
 race of Jennico wither and die on my barren stock.
 
 1 88 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 But what serves it to rant in this fashion to my- 
 self when I have not even the satisfaction of hear- 
 ing a contradiction — not even an excuse to shake 
 my fury? Small satisfaction likewise has that 
 puling, mincing messenger to carry back to you, 
 my wife. Poor old man ! I am fain to laugh even 
 in my anger when I recall his panic-stricken coun- 
 tenance of an hour ago. 
 
 The hounds were to meet at ten this morning 
 at Sir Percy Spalding's, not three miles from here, 
 and so I was taking the day easy. I had but just 
 finished breakfast, and was standing on the steps 
 of the porch quaffing a draught of ale, as I awaited 
 my horse, sniffing the while the moist southern 
 wind ; and my thoughts for once were pleasantly 
 occupied — for once the gnawing canker was at rest 
 within me. Presently my attention was awakened 
 by the rumbling sound of wheels ; and, looking 
 towards the avenue, yet so sparsely be-leaved as 
 to afford a clear view down its whole length, I saw 
 coming along it, at slow pace, a heavy vehicle, 
 which in time disclosed itself as a shabby, hired 
 travelling chaise, drawn by an ancient horse, and 
 driven by that drunken scoundrel Bateman from 
 Yarmouth, once a familiar figure to my childish 
 eyes. My heart leaped. I expected no one — 
 my mother was at Cheltenham for the waters —
 
 The Pride of Jennico 189 
 
 no one, save, indeed, her whom I ever uncon- 
 sciously await ! 
 
 It was perhaps the unreasonable disappoint- 
 ment that fell upon me, when, gazing eagerly for a 
 glimpse of the occupant, as the carriage lumbered 
 through the inner gate, I saw that it contained 
 but the single figure of an old man (huddled, 
 despite the spring warmth of the day, in furs to 
 the very chin) that turned me into so bitter and 
 black a temper. 
 
 Even as the chaise drove up before the steps, 
 and as I stood staring down at it, motionless, 
 although within me there was turmoil enough, the 
 fellows came round with my horses. Bess, the 
 Irish mare, took umbrage at the little grotesque 
 figure that, with an alertness one would scarcely 
 have given it credit for, skipped from the chaise, 
 looking more like one of those images I have seen 
 on Saxon clocks than anything human. How she 
 plunged and how the fool that held her stared, and 
 how I cursed him for not minding his business — 
 it was a vast relief to my feelings — and how the 
 old gentleman regarded us as one newly come 
 among savages, and how he finally advanced upon 
 me mincing — I laugh again to think back upon it! 
 But I had no mind to laughter then. 'Twas plain, 
 before he opened his mouth to speak, that my
 
 IQO The Pride of Jenftico 
 
 visitor hailed from foreign parts. And at closer 
 acquaintance the reason why, even from a dis- 
 tance, he had appeared to me as something less 
 than human, became evident. His countenance 
 was shrivelled and seared by recent smallpox ; 
 scarred in a manner perfectly fantastic to behold. 
 
 That curse of my life, that persistent hope — I 
 believe I could get along well enough, but 'tis the 
 hope that kills me — began to stir within me. 
 
 " Have I the honour of speaking to Captain 
 Basil de Jennico } " said the puppet in French ; 
 and before the question was well out of his mouth, 
 I had capped it with another, breathless : 
 
 " Come you not from Rothenburg ? " 
 
 He bowed and scraped : each saw he had his 
 answer. I was all civility now, Heaven help me ! 
 and cordial enough to make up for a more discour- 
 teous reception. 
 
 I ordered my horses back to the stables, dis- 
 missed the chaise, in spite of the newcomer's pro- 
 testations, and led him within the house, calling 
 for refreshments for him ; all the while a thousand 
 questions, to which I yet dreaded the answers, 
 burning on my tongue. 
 
 I had installed him in the deepest armchair in 
 the apartment I habitually used ; I had kindled 
 a fire with my own hands, for he was shivering
 
 The Pride of Jennico 191 
 
 in his furs, whether from fear, embarrassment, 
 or cold, I know not — maybe all three together; I 
 had placed a glass of wine at his elbow, which he 
 sipped nervously when I pressed him ; and then, 
 when I knew that I should hear what had brought 
 him, from very cowardliness I was mute. It 
 seemed to me as if my courtesies embarrassed him, 
 and that this augured ill, although (I reasoned 
 with myself) if she should send me a messenger at 
 all, I ought to anticipate good tidings. 
 
 " I am fortunate, sir," began the old man in 
 quavering tones, "to find you at home. Sir, I 
 have come a long way to seek you. I went first 
 to your castle at Tollendhal, where your steward, 
 a countryman of my own, to whose politeness I 
 am much indebted, gave me very careful instruc- 
 tions as to the road to your English domicile. A 
 most worthy and amiable person ! I should not 
 so soon have had the advantage of making your 
 acquaintance had it not been for the help he gave 
 me. I have come by Yarmouth, sir : the wind 
 was all in our favour. I am informed we had a 
 good passage." Here he shivered, and a yet 
 greener shade underspread the scars upon his 
 brow. " But I am not accustomed to the sea, and 
 I have been ill, sir, lately, very ill." 
 
 He coughed awkwardly, reached out his trem-
 
 192 TJie Pride of Jennico 
 
 bling hand for the wine, but put down the glass 
 again untasted. 
 
 " Surely I am right in believing," said I, " that 
 you come from some one very dear to me — from 
 one from whom I am parted by a series of un- 
 fortunate misunderstandings?" I felt my lips 
 grow cold as I spoke, and I know that I panted. 
 
 " If you have a letter," said I, "give it to me." 
 
 I reached out my hand, and saw, with a strange 
 sort of self-pity, that it shook no less than had the 
 old man's withered claw. 
 
 " Or if you have a message," cried I, breaking 
 out at last, "speak, for God's sake ! " 
 
 He drew back from my impetuosity. There 
 was fear of me in his eye ; at the same time, I 
 thought, with a chill about my heart, compassion. 
 
 "My good sir," he said, between "hums" and 
 "ha's" which well-nigh drove me distracted, "I 
 believe I may say — in fact, I will venture to assert 
 that I have come from the — ahem, ahem! — young 
 lady I apprehend you speak of. I have been made 
 aware of the — ah, hum! — unfortunate circum- 
 stances. The young lady ." Here he hitched 
 
 himself up in his chair and began to fumble in 
 the skirts of his floating coat. Between his furs 
 and his feebleness this was a sufficiently lengthy 
 operation to give time for my hopes to kindle
 
 The Pride of Jemiico 193 
 
 stronger again and my small stock of patience 
 to fail. 
 
 " You are doubtless prepared to hear," he went 
 on at length, "that the young lady, being now 
 fully alive to the consequence of her — her — ill- 
 considered conduct — a girlish freak, sir, a child's, 
 I may say! — believes that she will be meeting 
 your wishes, nay, your express desire, by joining 
 with you in an application to his Holiness for the 
 immediate annulment of so irregular a marriage." 
 
 "What.''" cried I with a roar, leaping from my 
 chair. So occupied had I been in watching the 
 movements of his hands as he fingered a great 
 pocket-book, expecting him every instant to pro- 
 duce a letter from her to me, that I had scarce 
 heeded the drift of his babble till the last words 
 struck upon my ear. 
 
 "Annul our marriage!" I thundered, "at my 
 desire ! In the devil's name, who are you, and 
 whence come you, for it could not be my wife who 
 has sent you with such a message to me ? " 
 
 The little man had jumped, too, at my violence 
 — like a grasshopper. But my question evidently 
 touched his pride in a sensitive quarter, and roused 
 him to a sense of offence in which he forgot his 
 tremors. 
 
 "Truly, sir, truly, you remind me," he said 
 o
 
 194 TJie Pride of Jcnnico 
 
 tartly. " If you will have but a little patience, I 
 was in the very act of seeking my credentials when 
 you so — ahem! — impetuously interrupted me." 
 
 As he spoke, with a skip and a bow, which 
 recalled I know not what vague memory of a 
 bygone merry hour, he drew forth a folded sheet, 
 and, unfolding it, presented it to me. I knew the 
 handwriting too well to doubt its authenticity. 
 How often had I conned and kissed the few 
 poor lines she had ever written to me ; ay, al- 
 though they had been penned in her assumed 
 character ! 
 
 "To M. DE Jennico — 
 
 " I empower M. de Schreckendorf to act for me in the 
 affair M. de Jennico wots of, and I agree beforehand to all 
 his arrangements. 
 
 (Thereto the signature.) 
 
 Not a word more ; not a word of regret, even 
 of anger ! The same implacable, unbending re- 
 sentment. 
 
 I stood staring at the lines, reading them and 
 re-reading them, and each letter seemed to print 
 itself like fire upon my soul. I heard, as in a 
 dream, my visitor pour forth further explanations, 
 still in that tone of injury my roughness had 
 evoked.
 
 The Pride of Jennico 195 
 
 " I am myself, sir, a friend. Yes, I may say a 
 friend, an old friend, of the young lady. Her 
 parents — ahem ! — have always reposed confidence 
 in me. I, sir, am M. de Schreckendorf. The 
 very fact, I should think, of my being in posses- 
 sion of this letter, of this document" — here there 
 was a great rattling of stiff parchment — " will 
 assure you, I should hope, of my identity. Never- 
 theless, if you wish further proof, I have a letter 
 to our ambassador in London, and I am willing to 
 accompany you to his house, or meet you there at 
 your convenience. Indeed, it would perhaps be 
 more proper and correct, in every way, that the 
 whole matter should be settled and the documents 
 duly attested at the residence of the accredited 
 representative of Lusatia. I will not disguise to 
 you that his Serene Highness, the Duke himself, 
 takes — takes an interest in the lady, and is desir- 
 ous of having this business, which so nearly affects 
 the welfare and credit of a well-known member of 
 his Court, settled in the promptest and most effi- 
 cacious manner. A sad escapade, you must admit 
 yourself ! " 
 
 And all the while my heart was crying out 
 within me in an agony, "Oh, Ottilie, how could 
 you, how could you } Was the memory of those 
 days nothing to you .-' Is the knowledge of my
 
 196 The Pride of Jcnnico 
 
 love and sorrow nothing to you ? Are you a 
 woman, and have you no forgiveness ? " 
 
 Taking perhaps my silence for acquiescence (for 
 this messenger of my wife, albeit entrusted with 
 so delicate a mission, was no shrewd diplomatist), 
 M. de Schreckendorf here spread out with an 
 agreeable flourish an amazing-looking Latin docu- 
 ment with rubrics ready filled up, it seemed, but 
 for certain spaces left blank, for the names, I sup- 
 pose, of the appealing parties. 
 
 " I have been led to understand," pursued he 
 then in tones of greatly increased confidence, 
 "that you entirely concur in the lady's desire 
 for the annulment of this contestable union, the 
 actual legality of which, indeed, is too doubtful to 
 be worth discussing. From the religious point of 
 view, however, one of chief importance to my 
 young friend (I think I may call her so), the 
 matter is otherwise serious, for there was, no 
 doubt, a sacrament administered by a priest, duly 
 ordained, but unfortunately, through old age and 
 natural infirmity, wanting in due prudence, and 
 further misled as to the identity of one of the 
 contracting persons. A sacrament, sir, there un- 
 doubtedly was ; but I am glad to inform you that 
 special leading divines have been already ap- 
 proached upon the subject, and they give good
 
 The Pride of Jennico 197 
 
 hope, sir, good hope, that a properly drawn up 
 petition, supported by the signatures of the two 
 persons concerned, will meet at Rome with most 
 favourable consideration. The ecclesiastical part 
 of the difficulty once settled, the legal one goes 
 of itself. " 
 
 I was gradually becoming attentive to the run 
 of his glib speech. I hardly know now how I con- 
 tained myself so far, but I kept a rigid silence, 
 and for yet another minute or two gave him all 
 my ear. 
 
 " Such being the case," he continued, " I need 
 hardly trouble you to disturb yourself by journey- 
 ing all the way to London. We need proceed no 
 farther than Yarmouth, indeed, and there in the 
 presence of two competent witnesses — I would 
 suggest a priest of our religion and some neighbour- 
 ing gentleman of substance — all you will have to 
 do is just to sign this document. I repeat, I un- 
 derstand that you are naturally anxious likewise to 
 be delivered from a marriage in which you have 
 considered yourself aggrieved : and not unnatu- 
 rally." Here the little monster threw a sly look at 
 me, and added : " You were made the victim of a 
 little deception, eh } Then in the course of a few 
 months — Rome is always slow, you know — you 
 will both be as free as air ! With no more loss to
 
 198 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 either of you than the loss of — ahem! — a little 
 inexperience." 
 
 As free as air ! Ottilie as free as air ! Then 
 it was that the violence of my wrath overflowed. 
 That moment is a blank to my memory. I only 
 know that I heard the sound of my own voice ring- 
 ing with shattering violence in the room, and I 
 came to myself again to find that, with a strength 
 my fury alone could have lent, I was shredding the 
 tough parchment between my fingers, so that the 
 ground was strewn with its rags. What most re- 
 stored me to something like composure was the ab- 
 ject terror of the unlucky messenger, who, huddled 
 away from me in a corner of the room, was peeping 
 round a chair at me, much as you might see a 
 monkey caught in mischief. His teeth were chat- 
 tering ! Good anger was wasted on so miserable 
 an object, and indeed the feelings that swayed me 
 had had roots in ground such as he could never 
 tread upon. 
 
 " Come out, M. de Schreckendorf," I said, with a 
 calmness which surprised myself — but there are 
 times when a man's courage rises with the very 
 magnitude of a calamity — "you have nothing to 
 fear from me. You will want an answer to carry 
 back to her that sent you. Take her this." 
 
 I stooped as I spoke, and gathered together the
 
 The Pride of Jennico 199 
 
 shreds of the document, folded them in a great sheet 
 of paper, and tied it with ribbon into a neat parcel. 
 
 " Not a word," I went on ; "I will hear no more ! 
 When you have rested and partaken of refreshment, 
 one of my carriages will be at your disposal for 
 whatever point you may desire to reach to-day. 
 Stay, you will want some evidence to show that 
 you have fulfilled your embassy." 
 
 Sitting down to my writing-table, I hastily ad- 
 dressed the packet to " Madame Basil de Jennico," 
 adding thereafter her distinctive title as maid of 
 honour. This done, I sealed it with my great seal, 
 M. de Schreckendorf meanwhile uttering uncouth 
 little groans. 
 
 " Here, sir," said I, holding out the packet with 
 its bold inscription, " they will no longer, it is evi- 
 dent, deny the existence at the Court of Lusatia 
 of the person I have here addressed. Here, sir. 
 Take this to my wife, and tell her that her hus- 
 band has more respect than she has for the holy 
 sacrament he received with her. Here, sir ! " 
 
 At every " Here, sir," I advanced a step upon 
 him, holding out the bundle, and at every step I 
 took he retreated, till impatiently I flung it on the 
 table nearest him, and making him a low ironical 
 bow of farewell, turned to leave him. 
 
 I paused a moment on the threshold of the
 
 200 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 room, however, and had the satisfaction of seeing 
 him, after throwing his hands heavenwards, as if 
 in despairing protest, bring them down again on 
 the packet and proceed to stuff it into the recesses 
 of his coat. 
 
 I turned once more to go, when to my surprise 
 he called after me in tones unexpectedly stern and 
 loud : 
 
 " Young man, young man, this is a grave mis- 
 take ; have a care ! " 
 
 I shrugged my shoulders and slammed the door 
 upon his warning cry. Nor, though he subse- 
 quently sent twice by my servants — first to de- 
 mand, then to supplicate, a further interview — 
 would I consent to parley with him again. 
 
 I passed a couple of restless hours, until, at 
 length, from an upper window I saw him depart 
 from my house in far greater state and comfort 
 than he had come. 
 
 Now, as I write, I know that he is being whirled 
 along the Yarmouth road at the best pace of my 
 fine horses, speeding back to Lausitz to take my 
 wife my eloquent answer.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Narrative of an episode at White's Club, in which 
 Captain Jennico was concerned, set forth from 
 contemporary accounts 
 
 The tenth hour of an October night had rung 
 out over a fog-swathed London ; yet, despite the 
 time of year, unfashionable for town life, despite the 
 unpropitious weather, the long card-room at White's 
 was rapidly filling. The tables, each lit by its 
 own set of candles, shone dimly like a little green 
 archipelago in a sea of mist. Groups were gather- 
 ing round sundry of these boards ; the dice had 
 begun to rattle, voices to ring out. The nightly 
 scene was being repeated, wherein all were actors, 
 down to the waiters, who had their private bets, 
 and lost and won with their patrons. 
 
 Somewhat apart in the seclusion of a window- 
 recess, cosily ensconced so as to profit of the 
 warmth of the great yellow fire, sat three gentle- 
 men. A fourth chair remained vacant at their 
 table ; and from the impatient glances which two 
 of the party now and again turned upon the differ- 
 ent doors, it was evident that the arrival of its 
 
 20I
 
 202 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 expected occupant was overdue. The third gen- 
 tleman, who bore the stamp of a distinctly for- 
 eign race, — although his hair, which he wore but 
 slightly powdered, was of a fair hue, and his face 
 rather sanguine than dark, — seemed to endure the 
 delay with complete indifference. His attention 
 was wholly given to the shuffling of a pack of 
 cards, which he manipulated with extreme dexter- 
 ity, while he listened to his companions' remarks 
 with impassive countenance. He was a handsome 
 man, despite a bulk of frame and feature which 
 almost amounted to coarseness ; hardly yet in the 
 prime of life, with full blue eyes and full red lipS; 
 which took, when he spoke or smiled, a curious 
 curve, baring the canine in almost sinister fash- 
 ion. The Chevalier de Ville-Rouge, introduced at 
 White's by the Prussian Ambassador, as a distin- 
 guished officer of the great Frederick visiting 
 England for his pleasure, had shown himself so 
 daring a player as to be welcomed among the 
 most noted gamblers. He had lost and won large 
 sums with great breeding, and had in his six 
 weeks' stay contrived to improve an imperfect 
 knowledge of an alien tongue in such fashion as 
 to make intercourse with his English companions 
 quite sufficiently easy. 
 
 The youngest of the trio at the table in the
 
 The Pride of Jennico 203 
 
 corner, this foggy night, was naturally the one to 
 display his feelings most openly. A clean-faced, 
 square-built English lad, fresh it would seem from 
 the playing fields of school, yet master of his title 
 and fortune, and cornet in the Life Guards, Sir 
 John Beddoes was already a familiar figure in the 
 club, as indeed his finances could bear doleful tes- 
 timony. The green cuff -guards adju.sted over his 
 delicate ruffles, the tablets and pencil ready at his 
 elbow, it was clear he was itching to put another 
 slice of his patrimony to the hazard. His opposite 
 neighbour. Beau Carew (as he dearly loved to hear 
 himself dubbed), was a man of another kidney, 
 and fifteen years of nights, systematically turned 
 into days, had left their stamp upon features once 
 noted for their beauty. Though ready now with a 
 sneer or jest for his companion's youthful eager- 
 ness, his eyes wandering restlessly from the clock 
 to the doors betrayed an almost equal anxiety to 
 begin the business of the evening. 
 
 "Devil take Jennico ! " cried the Baronet at last, 
 striking the table so that the dice leaped in their 
 box ; " 'pon my soul it's too bad ! He gave me an 
 appointment here at ten to-night, and it wants 
 now but six minutes to eleven." 
 
 "Bet he comes before the clock strikes," inter- 
 posed Mr. Carew ; " ten guineas ? "
 
 204 1^^^^ Pride of Jennico 
 
 "Done with you, Dick," said Sir John promptly. 
 
 The bet was registered, and five minutes passed 
 in watching the timepiece on the mantel-shelf : all 
 the young Baronet's eagerness being now against 
 the event he had been burning to hasten. The 
 strokes rang out. With a smile he held out his 
 broad palm, into which Carew duly dropped ten 
 pieces. 
 
 " 'Tis the first bit of luck the fellow has brought 
 me yet. Gad, I believe my luck has turned ! 
 Why the devil don't he come, that I may ease him 
 of a little of that superfluous wealth of his } I 
 swear he gets more swollen day by day, while we 
 grow lean — eh, Carew.'' — like the kine in the 
 Bible. D him ! " 
 
 " The water goes to the river, as the French 
 say, in spite of all our dams," sniggered Carew \ 
 " but as for me I am content that you should go 
 on playing with Jennico so that I may back him ; 
 my purse has not been in such good condition for 
 many a long day. Poor devil ! How monstrous 
 unfortunate his amours must still be ! I only 
 wish," with a conscious wriggle, "he could give 
 me the recipe." 
 
 "Yet you have lost on him now," retorted 
 Beddoes, tapping his breast pocket, "and if you 
 back him to-night, you lose on him again, I warn
 
 The Pride of Jennico 205 
 
 you. I am in the vein, I tell ye ! But there is 
 the quarter ! Rot him, I believe he is going to 
 rat after all ! Bet you he don't come till half-past, 
 Carew. Fifty ? " 
 
 "Done," said Carew quietly, noting down the 
 entry. "He is erratic, I grant you — he, he, he! 
 — did you note me, Chevalier.-' But he has a 
 taste for the table, though I believe he'd as soon 
 lose as win, were it only for the sake of change. 
 'Tis about all he cares for — the dullest dog! 
 Bet you there is not a man in the room has heard 
 him laugh." 
 
 " You won't find any fool to take up that bet, 
 Carew. Heigh-ho ! I'd willingly accommodate 
 myself with a little of his melancholy at the price." 
 
 "Better look up a princess for yourself then. 
 Jack," said Carew; "perhaps the Chevalier here 
 can give you an introduction to some other fasci- 
 nating German Highness." 
 
 "Won't it do over here.'*" asked Beddoes, with 
 a grin. "D'ye think I'd have a chance with Au- 
 gusta .? Twenty past ! Let him keep away till 
 the half-hour now. Zounds ! 'twould be a mean 
 trick if he failed me on my lucky night ; though 
 I don't want him for ten minutes yet. He has 
 fairly cleared me out ; the team will have to go 
 next if I don't get back some of my I O U's."
 
 206 TJie Pride of Jennico 
 
 " Why, it would be a very good thing for thee, 
 Jack, if he played thee false. I say so though I 
 should lose most damnably by it. Thy team will 
 go, thy coaches will go, thy carts, thy grooms, thy 
 dog, thy cat. Why, man, thou must lose — 'tis as 
 plain as the nose on Lady Maria's face. And he 
 must win, poor wretch, and I too, since I back 
 him. Ask the Chevalier if it is not a text of 
 truth all the world over : lucky at cards, unlucky 
 in love. Never look so sulky, boy ; 'tis provi- 
 dential compensation." 
 
 " You surprise me, gentlemen," said the Cheva- 
 lier, with a strong guttural accent, lifting as he 
 spoke his heavy lids for the first time. "I was 
 not aware that Captain Jennico was so afflicted in 
 his affections." 
 
 "You surprise me, Chevalier," returned Carcw 
 gaily. " I deemed you and he such friends. Why, 
 I won a hundred from my Lord Ullswater but 
 yestereven by wagering him that you would be 
 the only man in the room to whom Jennico would 
 speak more than ten words within the hour. The 
 counting was not difficult. He said sixty-four to 
 you and five to Jack." 
 
 " Mr. Jennico has certainly shown me both kind- 
 ness and sympathy," said the Chevalier, who had 
 now folded his strong white hands over the paclc
 
 The Pride of Jennico 207 
 
 of cards, and sat the very embodiment of repose. 
 "Doubtless our having both served in the same 
 part of the world, though under different stand- 
 ards, has somewhat drawn us together : but he 
 has not made me his confidant." 
 
 "And so you don't know the tale of Jennico 
 and the Princess .-* 'Tis a dashed fine tale. Carew, 
 you are a wit, or think you are — it comes to 
 much the same thing : tune up, man, give your 
 version ; for," turning to the Chevalier again, 
 " there are now as many versions current as days 
 in the month. 'Tis twenty-five minutes past ; 
 you had better get your I O U ready. Master 
 Carew." 
 
 " I have three hundred chances yet," said Carew, 
 Then turning to the foreigner, " Would you really, 
 sir, care to hear the true story of our friend's dis- 
 comfiture .'' I am about the only man in town that 
 knows the true one ; but all that's old scandal now 
 — town talk of last year, as stale as Lady Villiers's 
 nine virgin daughters. There are a dozen new 
 ones since. Would you not rather hear the last 
 of his Royal Highness the Duke of C. and Lady 
 W. } That is choice if you like, and as fresh as 
 Rosalinda's last admirer — eh, John.-*" 
 
 "I am not fond," said the Chevalier drily, "of 
 hearing those discussed who, being High Born,
 
 208 The Pride of Jcmtico 
 
 have the right to claim respect and homage. 
 But I confess to some interest in my friend Mr. 
 Jennico." 
 
 " Begad, then," responded Mr. Carew, flicking 
 a grain of snuff from the ruffles of his pouting 
 bosom, " I cannot promise to spare your scruples 
 concerning scandal in high quarters, for the hero- 
 ine of the romance is, it would appear, one of your 
 own German royalties ; but since you wish the 
 story, you shall have it. There is then a certain 
 Dorothea Maria Augusta Carolina Sophia, etc., 
 etc., daughter of some Duke of Alsatia, Swabia, 
 Dalmatia — no, stay, Lusatia, wherever that may 
 be; ay, that's the name — one of your two hun- 
 dred odd principalities — you know all about it, I 
 don't — and Jennico, who, as you are aware, was 
 in the Imperial service, met this wondrously beau- 
 tiful Princess at some Court function somewhere. 
 They danced, they conversed, she was fair and 
 he was fond — fill it in for yourself. He thought 
 himself a tremendous cock of the walk ; to be 
 brief, he aspired to act King Cophetua and the 
 beggar maid, turned the other way, with the ex- 
 ception that he is as rich as Croesus. He made 
 so sure of the lady's favour that he wrote over to 
 his mother to announce the marriage as a settled 
 thing. A royal alliance, with the prospect of
 
 The Pride of Jennico 209 
 
 speedily mounting to the throne on the strength 
 of his wife's pretensions ! Ha, ha ! " 
 
 " 'Tis a droll story," said the Chevalier gravely ; 
 "and then?" 
 
 " Oh, then ! — Zounds ! you can conceive the 
 flutter in the dovecot over him. My Lady Jen- 
 nico, his mother, was blown out with pride, swim- 
 ming in the higher regions, a perfect balloon ! 
 Gad, she would no longer bow to any one less than 
 a Duke ! She ran hither and thither cackling the 
 news like the hen that has laid an q%^. She sent 
 — I was told on the best authority — to the Lord 
 Chamberlain to know what precedence the young 
 couple would be given at the next Birthday. She 
 called at the College of Arms to inquire about the 
 exact marshalling of the coat of Lusatia with that 
 of Jennico. He, he ! And whether the resultant 
 monstrosity would comport a royal crown ! " 
 
 " Faith, that's a good one," said Sir John, with 
 a guffaw ; " I had not heard that, Carew." 
 
 " Fact, fact, I assure you," smiled the wit. 
 
 "Very droll," repeated M. de Ville-Rouge, with 
 impassive muscles. 
 
 "When," continued Carew, "lo and behold, 
 what a falling off was there, as young Roscius 
 says ! What a come down ! Humpty-Dumpty 
 was nothing to it — poor Lady Jennico's egg !
 
 2IO The Pride of Jennico 
 
 Ah ! well, we all know pride must have a fall. 
 Your fair compatriot, sir, had but amused herself 
 with the fine Englishman, for which I would be 
 loath to blame her. She gave him, it is said, 
 indeed, every pledge of her affection. But when 
 he began to prate of rings and marriage lines, and 
 pressed her to become Mrs. Jennico, she found 
 him a little too presumptuous — at least, I take it 
 so ; and being, it would seem, of a merry turn of 
 mind, devised a little joke to play upon him. 
 Pretending to yield at last to his urgency, she 
 gave her consent to a secret marriage, and in the 
 dark chapel palmed off her chambermaid upon 
 him I Ha, ha ! So the poor devil, carrying off 
 his bride by night in high glee, thinking himself 
 a very fine fellow indeed, never discovered till he 
 had brought her home that he had given his hand 
 and name to a squinting, sausage-nosed, carroty 
 maid, daughter of the Court confectioner, called 
 in baptism by the Princess's names, like half the 
 girls in the town. The story goes that the Prin- 
 cess with all the Court were waiting at his house 
 to see the happy pair arrive, and I have had 
 secret, but absolutely incontestable, information 
 that the Princess laughed till she had to be bled." 
 M. de Ville-Rouge smiled at last in evident 
 appreciation of the humour of the situation.
 
 The Pride of Jcnnico 211 
 
 "It is, on my honour, a most comic story," he 
 said. "But how come you so well acquainted 
 with the matter ? Surely my poor friend Jennico 
 has ill-chosen his confidant." 
 
 " Devil a word have I heard from Jennico," said 
 Carew. " Faith, he has ever been the same cheer- 
 ful, conversational fellow you wot of, and it would 
 take a bold man to question him. But truth, you 
 know, will out — truth will out in time." 
 
 " Ay," said the Chevalier, and was shaken with 
 silent merriment. 
 
 "Half-past eleven," roared the Baronet, sud- 
 denly, stretching out a great paw and snapping 
 his fingers under the beau's face. 
 
 "Zounds ! " cried the wit, turning to look at the 
 clock with some discomposure; "no, Jack, no, 
 there is still a fraction of a minute — the half-hour 
 has not struck. And, by Heaven, here's our man ! 
 Had you not better sup with Rosalinda to-night ? " 
 
 Sir John, in the act of looking round pettishly — 
 he had not yet reached that enviable state of mind 
 in which a gambler declares that the greatest 
 delight after winning is that of losing — found his 
 attention unexpectedly arrested by the counte- 
 nance of the Chevalier de Ville-Rouge, which pre- 
 sented at that moment such an extraordinary 
 appearance that the young man forgot his irrita-
 
 212 The Pride of Jcnnico 
 
 tion, and remained gazing at it in open-mouthed 
 astonishment. 
 
 The features, usually remarkable for their set, 
 rather heavy composure, were perturbed to the 
 versre of distortion. The whole face was stained 
 with angry purple, the veins of the forehead swol- 
 len like whipcord. 
 
 Sir John Beddoes's wits were none of the sharp- 
 est, but it was clear even to him that the emotion 
 thus expressed was one of furious disappointment. 
 
 But while he cudgelled his brains for an expla- 
 nation of this sudden humour in a man who was 
 neither winner nor loser by Basil Jennico's ap- 
 pearance, the face of the Chevalier resumed its 
 wonted indifferent expression and dulness of hue 
 with a rapidity that altogether confounded the 
 observer. 
 
 By this time the tall figure of the new-comer 
 had wended its way down the room and was close 
 upon them. All turned to greet him, and poor 
 Sir John found his feelings once more subjected 
 to a shock. 
 
 The acquaintances of Basil Jennico were accus- 
 tomed to find his brow charged with gloom, to see 
 his cheek wear the pallor of one who sleeps little 
 and thinks much. But in his demeanour to-night 
 was more than the usual sombreness, on his coun-
 
 The Pride of Jennico 213 
 
 tenance other than natural pallor. As he stood 
 for a moment responding absently to the Cheva- 
 lier's hearty greeting, and Carew's bantering salu- 
 tation of "All hail!" it became further apparent 
 that his dress was disordered, that his ruffles were 
 torn and blood-stained, that his brocade jacket 
 was jaggedly rent upon the left side, and also 
 ominously stained here and there. 
 
 "Gadzooks, man ! " exclaimed Carew, his bleared 
 grey eyes lighting at the prospect of a new whole- 
 sale scandal for his little retail shop. " What has 
 happened thee } Wounded } How } Ah, best 
 not inquire perhaps ! Beddoes, lad, see you he 
 has got reasons for his delay. Who knows but 
 that you may have a chance to-night after all. A 
 deadly dig, well aimed under the fifth rib, a true 
 Benedick's pinking ; or shall we say goring } — 
 ahem ! Have a care, Jennico, these wounds from 
 horned beasts are reputed ill to heal. Ah, sad dog, 
 sad dog I I will warrant thou hast had the balance 
 nevertheless to thy credit. Now do I remember 
 a little lady was casting very curious looks at you 
 at Almack's last night." 
 
 Basil had flung himself into the chair that had 
 so long awaited him, and seemed to lend but a 
 half-apprehending ear to the prattler on his left, 
 who, as he leant towards him, was hardly able to
 
 214 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 restrain his eager hand from fingering the hurt 
 so unmistakably evidenced. On the right the 
 ChevaHer as unsuccessfully pressed him with 
 earnest queries, manifesting, it would seem, a 
 genuine anxiety. 
 
 " Great God, my friend ! what has happened ? " 
 
 The stentorian tones of Sir John Beddoes, who 
 saw an opportunity of retrieving his fortunes, here 
 broke in hastily upon Carew's flow of words : " Bet 
 you double or quits it was not Lady Sue," and 
 aroused Mr. Jennico's attention. 
 
 " I should be loath to spoil sport," he said, "but 
 I advise no one to bet on my bonnes fortunes. 
 This scratch — for it is nothing more, Mr. Carew, 
 and I would show it to you with pleasure in reward 
 for your flattering interest, but the surgeon has 
 just bound it up very neatly, and it would be 
 a pity to disturb his handiwork — is but the sixth 
 of a series of attempts on my life, made within the 
 last six weeks, by persons unknown, for purposes 
 likewise unknown." 
 
 " Dash it, Jennico, you might have let me enter 
 the bet," said the l^aronct sulkily, while Carew, 
 sniffing a choicer titbit of gossip than he had 
 expected, wriggled with pleasure, and the Chevalier 
 expressed unbounded amazement that such a state 
 of things could exist, above all in England.
 
 The Pride of Jennico 215 
 
 " It is even so," resumed Basil, turning to the 
 last speaker as if glad to give vent to some of his 
 pent-up irritation. " I confess that when I re- 
 turned to my native land I did expect to find at 
 least a quiet Hfe. Why, in my house at Tollendhal, 
 where those who surrounded me were half sav- 
 ages, ruled by the stick and the halter, where 
 it was deemed imprudent for the master to walk 
 the roads without his body-guard, there was never 
 so much as a stone thrown after me. But here, 
 in old England, my life, I believe, would not be 
 worth backing for a week." He looked round 
 with a smile in which melancholy and disdain were 
 blended. 
 
 " Now, d me ! " cried Sir John, struck in 
 
 his easy good nature into sudden warmth and 
 
 sympathy, "nay, now d me, Jennico! I will 
 
 take any man a hundred guineas that you are alive 
 this day month." 
 
 " Done ! " said the Chevalier, with such un- 
 expected energy that all three turned round to 
 look at him with surprise ; perceiving which he 
 went on, laughing to conceal an evident embar- 
 rassment : " Your betting habits here are infec- 
 tious, but while I will not withdraw, I am prepared 
 to be glad to lose rather than gain for once." He 
 fixed Basil across the table with his brooding eye
 
 2i6 TJic Pride of Jennico 
 
 as he spoke, and bowed to him, then turned to the 
 Baronet. " No, Sir Beddoes, I am not going to 
 recede from the wager." 
 
 This, as a wager worth recording, was forthwith 
 entered into the club book. Basil looked on, half 
 in amusement, half in bitterness. 
 
 " 'Tis likely, after all," he said, addressing Sir 
 John, " that you may win and that the Chevalier 
 may be afforded the i:)leasure of losing, for I seem 
 to bear a charmed life. Perhaps," he added with 
 a sigh, "because I care so little for it. Though 
 to be sure there is something galling to a man in 
 being shot at from behind a hedge and set on in 
 the dark ; in not knowing where the murderer may 
 be lying in wait for him, at what street corner, at 
 what turn of the road, behind what hayrick. If I 
 have not kept my appointment over punctually 
 to-night, it is because a rogue has had me by the 
 Park gateway in Piccadilly. There is more here 
 than mere accidental villainy. The next will be 
 that I shall see murder in my own servant's eyes. 
 Or, who knows, find it lying at the bottom of my 
 cup. Pah ! I am as bold as most men ; I would 
 welcome death more readily than most ; but, by 
 Heaven ! it is unfair treatment, and I have had 
 more than my share of it." 
 
 "Why, Jennico," said Carew, "you never spoke
 
 The Pride of Jennico 217 
 
 a word of this before. A fellow has no right to 
 keep such doings dark. Tell us the details." 
 
 "Ay, tell us all about it," said Sir John, with 
 round eyes ready to start from their orbits. 
 
 " True," said Basil, " you have now an interest. 
 Jack, in knowing what sort of odds are against 
 you. Well, you shall learn all you wish ; but let 
 us to supper, gentlemen, meanwhile, that we may 
 lose no further time and start better fortified upon 
 the evening's business, if Beddoes is still anxious 
 for his revenge."
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Narrative of an Episode at White's continued 
 
 It was over a dish of devilled kidneys and a 
 couple of bottles of Burgundy that — pressed by 
 the eager curiosity of his English friends, no less 
 than by the interest M. de Ville-Rouge continued 
 to profess in his concerns with all Teutonic earnest- 
 ness — Basil Jennico began to narrate his misad- 
 ventures in the same tone of ironical resentment 
 with which he had already alluded to them. 
 
 "It began at Farringdon Dane," he said, "on 
 the little property in Suffolk which my mother 
 has placed at my disposal. 'Twas some six weeks 
 gone, walking through the wood at sundown, I 
 was shot at from behind a tree. The charge 
 passed within an inch of my face, to embed itself 
 in a sapling behind me. I was, according to my 
 wont — an evil habit — deeply absorbed in thought, 
 and was alone ; consequently, although I searched 
 the copse from end to end, I could find no trace 
 of my well-wisher. That was number one. I 
 gave very little heed to the occurrence at first, 
 
 218
 
 TJie Pride of Jennico 219 
 
 believing it to be some poacher's trick, or maybe 
 the unwitting act of what you call in your country, 
 Chevalier, a Sunday sportsman, who mistook my 
 brown beaver for the hide of a nobler quarry. 
 But the next attempt gave me more serious food 
 for reflection. This time I was shot at while sit- 
 ting reading in my study at night, when all the 
 household had retired. It was close weather, and 
 I had drawn the curtains and opened the windows. 
 The bullet again whizzed by my ear, and this time 
 shattered the lamp beside me. No doubt the total 
 darkness which ensued saved me from a second 
 and better aim." 
 
 "You are a fortunate young man," said the 
 Chevalier gravely. 
 
 " Do you think so. Chevalier ? " answered Jen- 
 nico, with a smile which all the bitterness of his 
 thoughts could not altogether rob of sweetness. " I 
 do not think any one need envy my fate. Well, 
 gentlemen, you can conceive the uproar which 
 ensued upon the event I have just described. The 
 best efforts of myself, my servants, and my dogs 
 failed, however, to track the fugitive, although the 
 marks of what seemed a very neat pair of shoes 
 were imprinted on my mother's most choice flower- 
 beds. After this adventure I received a couple 
 more of such tokens of good-will in the country.
 
 220 The Pride of Jennie 
 
 Once I was shot at crossing a ford in full daylight, 
 and my poor nag was struck ; this time I did catch 
 a glimpse of the scoundrel, but he was mounted 
 too, and poor Bess, though she did her utmost, 
 fell dead after the first twenty strides in pursuit. 
 Thereupon my mother grew so morbidly nervous, 
 and the mystery resisting all our attempts at elu- 
 cidation, I gave way to her entreaties and returned 
 to London, where she deemed I would find myself 
 in greater safety." 
 
 "And has your friend followed you up here.''" 
 exclaimed Sir John, forgetting his supper in his 
 interest. " By George, this is a good story ! " 
 
 " I was stopped on the road by a highwayman," 
 answered Mr. Jennico quietly. " Nothing unusual 
 in that, you will say ; but there was something a 
 little out of the common nevertheless in the fact 
 that he fired his pistol at me without the formality 
 of bidding me stand and deliver ; which formality, 
 I believe, is according to the etiquette of the road. 
 I am glad to tell you that I think we left our mark 
 on the gentleman this time, for as he rode away 
 he bent over his saddle, we thought, like one who 
 will not ride very far. But, faith ! the brood is 
 not extirpated, and the worthy folk who display 
 such an interest in me, finding hot lead so unsuc- 
 cessful, have now taken to cold steel."
 
 The Pride of Jennico 221 
 
 Sir John Beddoes damned his immortal soul 
 with great fervour. 
 
 " Pray, sir," remarked Mr. Carew with an in- 
 sinuating smile, "may not the identity of the 
 murderer be of easier solution than you deem .-' 
 Are there no heirs to your money .'' " 
 
 " I might pretend to misunderstand you, Mr. 
 Carew," said Basil, flushing, " although your mean- 
 ing is plain. Permit me to say, however, that I 
 fail to find a point to the jest." 
 
 " 'Twas hardly likely you would find humour in 
 a point so inconveniently aimed against yourself," 
 answered Carew airily. " But 'tis a rarity, Jen- 
 nico, to find a man ready to take up the cudgels 
 for his heirs and successors. Nevertheless, I 
 crave your pardon, the more so because I am 
 fain to know what befell you to-night." 
 
 " To-night was an ill night to choose for so 
 evil an attempt," said the Chevalier, rousing 
 himself from a fit of musing and looking reflec- 
 tively round upon the fog, which hung ever 
 closer even in the warm and well-lit room. 
 
 " It was the very night for their purpose, my 
 dear Chevalier," returned the young man with 
 artificial gaiety. " Faith, it was like to have suc- 
 ceeded with them, and I make sure mine enemy, 
 whoever he may be, is pluming himself even now
 
 222 The Pride of Jcnnico 
 
 upon the world well rid of my cumbersome exist- 
 ence. I was on foot, too, and what with the dark- 
 ness and emptiness of the streets I was, I may say, 
 delivered into their hands. But they are sad bun- 
 glers. One of my pretty fellows in Moravia v/ould 
 have done such a job for me, were I in the way to 
 require it, as cleanly and with as little ado as you 
 pick your first pheasant in October, Jack. And 
 yet it may be that I am providentially preserved — 
 preserved for a better fate." Here he tossed off 
 his glass as if to a silent toast. 
 
 "But why on foot, my dear Jennico.-' On foot 
 — fie, fie, and in this weather ! What could you 
 expect.''" cried Carew with a shiver of horror. 
 
 " If you were not so fond of interruption, Mr. 
 Carew," said the Chevalier vv'ith a sinister smile, 
 " perhaps we might sooner get to the end of Mr. 
 Jennico's story. We are all eagerness to hear 
 about this last miraculous preservation." 
 
 " I hardly know myself how I come to be alive ! 
 I could get no sedan, my dear Carew, and that 
 was just the rub. What with Lady Bedford's 
 card-party and the fog, there was not one to be 
 had within a mile, and I had given my stablemen 
 a holiday. I sent my servant upon the quest for 
 a chair, but got tired of waiting, mindful of my 
 appointment with my fi iend and neighbour here,
 
 The Pride of Jeiinico 223 
 
 and so it was that I set forth, as I said, on foot 
 and alone. The mist was none so thick but that 
 I could find my way, and I was pursuing it at a 
 round pace when, oi^posite Devonshire House, 
 some fellow bearing a link crossed from over the 
 road, came straight upon me without a word, 
 raised his torch, and peered intently into my face. 
 I halted, but before I could demand the meaning 
 of his insolence down v/ent his fire-brand fizzing 
 into the mud, out came his sword, and I was 
 struck with such extreme violence that, in the 
 very attempt to recover my balance, I fell back- 
 wards all my length upon the pavement, skewered 
 like a chicken, and carrying the skewer with me. 
 Some gentlemen happened to reach the spot at 
 that moment, there was a cry for the v/atch, but 
 the rogue had made good use of his heels and 
 the fog, and was out of sight and hearing in a 
 moment." 
 
 "Verdammt villain!" cried M. de Ville-Rouge, 
 whose brow had grown ever blacker during this 
 account. " Say, my amiable friend, did you not 
 get even a lunge at him } " 
 
 " Lunge, man ! I was skewered, I tell you ; I 
 could not even draw ! His sword — 'twas as sharp 
 as a razor, a fine sword, I have had it brought to 
 my chambers — had gone clean through innumcr-
 
 224 The Pride of Jcnnico 
 
 able folds of cloak and cape, back and front, only 
 to graze my ribs after all. It was bent double by 
 the fall, and it took the strength of the watch- 
 man and the two gentlemen to draw it out again. 
 By George ! they thought I was spitted beyond 
 hope." 
 
 " A foul affair altogether," murmured Carew 
 absently ; but the sorry jest was lost in the stri- 
 dent tones of the Chevalier, who now anxiously 
 plied Basil as to the surgeon's opinion of the 
 wound, and expressed himself relieved beyond 
 measure by the reply. 
 
 At this juncture Sir John Beddoes, who had 
 drunk enough to inflame his gambler's ardour to 
 boisterous pitch, began to clamour for his prom- 
 ised revenge, and the whole party once more 
 adjourned to the card-room. 
 
 In his heart, I^asil Jennico would have been 
 genuinely glad to be unsuccessful at the hazard 
 that night ; partly from a good-natured dislike to 
 be the cause of the foolish young man's complete 
 ruin, partly from a more jicrsonal feeling of super- 
 stition. But tlic luck ran as persistently in his 
 favour as ever. 
 
 Carew, with drawn tablets, began loudly to back 
 the winner, challenging all his acquaintance to 
 wager against him. But although the high play
 
 The Pride of Jcnnico 225 
 
 and Sir John's increasing excitement and restless- 
 ness, as well as the extraordinary good fortune 
 which cleaved to Jennico, soon attracted a circle 
 of watchers, men were chary of courting what 
 seemed certain loss, and Carew found his easy 
 gains not likely further to accrue. 
 
 Suddenly the Chevalier, who, with his cheek 
 resting upon his hand, had seemed plunged in 
 deep reflection ever since they had left the supper- 
 room, rose, and with an air of geniality which sat 
 awkwardly enough upon him, cried out to the sur- 
 prise of all — for he had not been wont to back 
 any player in the club : 
 
 "And there is really no one to side with my 
 good friend Beddoes to-night? Why then, Mr. 
 Carew, I will be the man. Thunder-weather, 
 Beddoes," clapping him on the shoulder — "I 
 believe the luck will turn yet; so brave a heart 
 must needs force fortune ! What shall it be, Mr. 
 Carew ? Something substantial to encourage our 
 friend." 
 
 Jennico looked down at the pile of vouchers 
 which lay at his elbow. It amounted already to 
 a terrible sum. Then he looked across at the 
 boy's face, drawn, almost haggard in spite of its 
 youth and chubbiness, and sighed impatiently. 
 He could not advise the fool to go home to bed ; 
 Q
 
 226 The Pride of Jcnnico 
 
 yet for himself he was heartily sick of these 
 winnings. The dice were thrown again, Sir 
 John's hand trembling like a leaf; and again 
 Basil won, and again vouchers were added to the 
 heap. 
 
 M. de Ville-Rouge threw a dark glance at the 
 winner as he stepped up to Carew to settle his 
 own debt. 
 
 "You should not have backed me," said Sir 
 John ruefully, lifting his eyes from the contempla- 
 tion of the paper that meant for him another step 
 towards ruin. " The devil's in it ; I will play no 
 more to-night ! " 
 
 " Nay, then," cried the Chevalier, " by your 
 leave I will take your place. I for one am no 
 such believer in the continuance of Mr. Jennico's 
 good luck." 
 
 There was something harsh, almost offensive, in 
 the tone of the last words, and Basil turned in 
 surprise towards the speaker. 
 
 " The Chevalier," he said, " is very ready to risk 
 his gold against me to-night." 
 
 " 'Tis so, sir," returned the Chevalier, with such 
 singular arrogance that the watchers looked at 
 each other significantly, and Carew whispered to 
 a young man behind his chair, " Faith, our foreign 
 friend is a bad loser after all ! "
 
 TJie Pride of Jcnnico 227 
 
 Basil had flushed, but he made no reply, and 
 contented himself with raising his eyebrows some- 
 what contemptuously, while he languidly pushed 
 his own dice-box across the table towards his new 
 opponent. 
 
 " Come," said the Chevalier, seizing it and shak- 
 ing it fiercely, " I will not mince the stake. A 
 hundred guineas on the main." 
 
 He threw, and the result of all his rattling be- 
 ing after all the lowest cast of the evening, there 
 was an ill-suppressed titter round the table. Basil 
 made no attempt to hide his smile as he lazily 
 turned over his dice and threw just one higher. 
 
 The German's face had grown suffused with 
 dark angry crimson ; the veins of his throat and 
 his temples began to swell. 
 
 " Double or quits," he cried huskily. He threw 
 and lost; doubled his stake, threw and lost again. 
 
 There was something about the scene that 
 aroused the audience to more potent interest than 
 the ordinary nightly repeated spectacle of loss and 
 gain. 
 
 The extraordinary passion displayed by the 
 foreigner, not only in his inflamed countenance, 
 but in the very motion of his hands, in the rigid 
 tension of his whole body, presented a strange 
 contrast to the languor of his opponent. It was,
 
 228 TJie Pride of Jcmtico 
 
 moreover, a revelation in one who had been 
 known hitherto as courteous and composed to 
 formaHty. 
 
 " It is to be hoped some one has a lancet," said 
 Carew, " for I believe the gentleman will have an 
 apoplexy unless a little blood be let soon." 
 
 " I fear me," answered his companion, " that 
 there will be more blood let than you think for. 
 Did you mark that look .-' " 
 
 At the same instant the Chevalier flung down 
 his box with such violence that the dice, rebound- 
 ing, flew about the room, and gazed across at 
 Basil with open hatred, as one glad to give vent 
 at last to long-pent-up fury. 
 
 "By Heaven, Mr. Jennico ! " he cried, "were it 
 not that I have been told how well you have 
 qualified for this success, I should think there 
 was more in such marvellous throwing of dice 
 than met the eye. But your love affairs, I hear, 
 — and I should have borne it in mind, — have 
 been so disastrous, so more than usually dis- 
 astrous," here his voice broke into a sort of 
 snarl, " as to afford sufficient explanation for the 
 marvel." 
 
 There was a cold silence. Then Jennico rose, 
 white as death. 
 
 " If you know so much about me, sir," he said
 
 TJie Pride of Jennico 229 
 
 in tones that for all the an£:er that vibrated in 
 them fell harmoniously upon the ear after the 
 Chevalier's savage outburst, "you should know 
 too that there is a subject upon which I never 
 allow any one to touch. Your first insinuation I 
 pass over with the contempt it deserves, but as 
 regards your observation on what you are pleased 
 to call my love affairs, I can only consider it as an 
 intentional insult. And this is my answer." 
 
 The German in his turn had sprung to his feet, 
 but Basil Jennico leant across the table, and be- 
 fore he could guard himself struck him lightly but 
 deliberately across the mouth.
 
 PART III 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Memoir of Captain Basil Jennico (resumed in the 
 spring of the year 1 773) 
 
 In my Castle of Tollendiial, March, 1773. 
 
 It is the will of one whose wishes are law to 
 me that I should proceed with these pages, begun 
 under such stress of mental trouble, until I bring 
 the tangled story of Basil Jennico's marriage to its 
 singular settlement. 
 
 Without, as I now write, all over the land, the 
 ice-bound brooks are melting, and our fields and 
 roads are deep in impassable mud. The whole 
 air is full of the breath of spring, as grateful to the 
 nostrils as it is stirring to the blood of man, to the 
 sap of trees. 
 
 But it is ill getting about, for all that the spring- 
 time is so sweet — as sweet and as capricious as a 
 
 woman wooed — and thus there is time for this oc- 
 
 230
 
 The Pride of Jennico 231 
 
 cupation of scribe ; yet it is a curious task for one 
 bred to so vastly different a trade ; neither, God 
 knows, do I find time heavy on my hands just 
 now ! Nevertheless, I must even end this preface 
 as I have begun it, and say that I am fain to do as 
 I am bidden. 
 
 The last line I traced upon these sheets (I am 
 filled with a good deal of wonder at, and no little 
 admiration of myself, when I view what a goodly 
 mass I have already blackened) was penned at one 
 of the darkest moments of that dark year. 
 
 M. de Schreckendorf — little messenger of such 
 ill omen — had but just departed, and in the month 
 that followed his visit the courage had failed me 
 to resume my melancholy record, though truly I 
 had things to relate that a man might consider like 
 to form a more than usually thrilling chapter of 
 autobiography. 
 
 Towards the beginning of September, I, still a 
 dweller upon my mother's little property — most 
 peaceful haunt, it would seem, in the heart of our 
 peaceful land — began to find myself the object of 
 a series of murderous attacks — these, so repeated 
 and inveterate, that it was evident that they were 
 dictated by the most deliberate purpose, and the 
 more alarming, perhaps, that I could give then no 
 guess from what quarter they proceeded.
 
 233 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 Suspicion fell on a poaching gang, on a dis- 
 honest groom, on a discharged bailiff. At length, 
 seeing my mother like to fall ill of the anxiety, I 
 consented to return to London, although the coun- 
 try life and the wholesome excitement of sport had 
 afforded me a relief from my restlessness which 
 existence in the town was far from providing. 
 
 No sooner, however, was I fully installed in 
 my London chambers, than the persecution began 
 afresh. I had fallen into an idle habit of going 
 night after night to White's, there to bet and gam- 
 ble with my modish acquaintances. 'Twas not that 
 the dice had any special attraction for me, but that 
 my nights were so long. 
 
 On my way thither one mid-October foggy even- 
 ing, my life was once more attempted, and this 
 time with a deliberation and ferocity which might 
 well have proved successful at last. 
 
 As it was, however, I again providentially es- 
 caped, and v/as able to proceed to the club, where 
 I had an appointment with a poor youth — our 
 Norfolk neighbour. Sir John Beddoes — who had 
 already lost a great deal of money to me, and 
 would not be content until he had lost a great deal 
 more : I had the most insupportable good luck. 
 
 I little knew that I should find awaiting me 
 there the greatest danger I had yet to run ;
 
 The Pride of Jciinico 233 
 
 that the head which had directed all these blows 
 in the dark was, de guerre lasse, preparing to 
 attack me in the open, and push its malice 
 to a certain climax. A foreign gentleman — one 
 Chevalier de Ville-Rouge, as I knew him then — 
 had sedulously sought first my acquaintance, and 
 thereupon my company, for some weeks past. 
 And though I had not found him very entertain- 
 ins: — I was not in the mood to be entertained 
 by any one — I had no reason to deny him either 
 the one or the other. 
 
 But this night, after first addressing me with 
 looks and tones which began to strike me as un- 
 warrantable, he sat a round of hazard with me, 
 for the sole and determined purpose, as I even 
 then saw, of grossly insulting me. As a reply, I 
 struck him across the face, for, however transpar- 
 ent was the trap laid for me, the provocation before 
 witnesses was of a kind I could not pass over. 
 And, 'fore Heaven, I believe I was in my heart 
 glad of the diversion ! 
 
 The meeting was fixed for the next morning. 
 Neither of us would consent to delay, and indeed 
 the German's whole demeanour, once he had given 
 a loose rein to his fury, was more that of a wild 
 beast thirsting for blood than of a being endowed 
 with reason.
 
 234 ^'^^^ Pride of Jennico 
 
 Both Sir John Beddoes and Mr. Carew, who had 
 formed our party, indignant at the coarseness of 
 tlie foreigner's behaviour, voknitcered on the spot 
 to be my seconds, and Carew, who has a subtle 
 knowledge of the etiquette of honour, arranged the 
 details of our meeting. It was to take place in 
 Chelsea Gardens half an hour after sunrise. The 
 weapons chosen by M. de Ville-Rouge were swords, 
 for although the quarrel had been of his own seek- 
 ing, my blow had given him the right of choice. 
 
 It was two o'clock before I found myself again 
 alone in my rooms that night, my friends having 
 conducted me home, and seeming somewhat loath 
 to retire. I was longing for a couple of hours' 
 solitude before the dawn of the day which might 
 be my last. I felt that my career had reached its 
 turning-point, that this was an event otherwise 
 serious than any of the quarrels in which I had 
 been hitherto embroiled, and that the conduct of 
 affairs was not in my hands. 
 
 Carew was anxious about me — he had never 
 yet seen a duellist of my kidney, I believe — and 
 my very quietness puzzled him. 
 
 " Make that nutcracker attendant of yours pre- 
 pare you a hot drink, man," cried he, as at last, 
 with honest Beddoes, he withdrew, "and get to bed. 
 Nothing will steady your hand like a spell of sleep."
 
 The Pride of Jennico 235 
 
 But there was no sleep for me. Besides that 
 the pain of the shght wound which I had received 
 in the night's guet-apens was stiffening to great 
 soreness, there was an excitement in my brain — 
 partially due to the fever incident on the hurt — 
 which would not permit the thought of rest. 
 
 I had but little business to transact. In view 
 of the present uncertainty of my life, I had re- 
 cently drawn up a will in which, after certain fitting 
 legacies, I left my great fortune to my wife. Now 
 I merely gathered together the whole of this accu- 
 mulated narrative of mine into a weighty packet, 
 and after addressing it, deposited it in Janos's hands 
 with the strict injunction, in the event of my de- 
 mise, to deliver it personally to Ottilie. 
 
 No farewell message would be so eloquent as 
 these pages in which I had laid bare the innermost 
 thoughts of my soul since I first knew her. She 
 should receive no other message from me. I next 
 tore up poor Beddoes's litter of I O U's, and mak- 
 ing a parcel of the fragments directed it to him. 
 Janos received my instructions with his usual taci- 
 turn docility, yet if anything could have roused me 
 from the curious state of apathy in which I found 
 myself, it would have been the sight of the dumb 
 concern on the faithful fellow's countenance. 
 
 Having thus put all my worldly affairs in order,
 
 236 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 I sat me down in my armchair, awaiting the dawn, 
 and viewed the past as one who has done with 
 life. I had a strong presentiment upon me that 
 I should not survive the meeting. 
 
 At times, the vision of my wife sleeping, at that 
 very moment, as I had so often watched her sleep, 
 lightly and easily as a child, little wotting, little 
 caring, perhaps, if she had wotted, of her hus- 
 band's solemn vigil, would rise up before me with 
 a vividness so cruel as well-nigh to rouse me. But 
 the new calmness of my soul defied these assaults ; 
 an unknown philosophy had succeeded to the vio- 
 lence of my emotions. 
 
 When my seconds called for me in the first grey- 
 ness of the morning they found me ready for them. 
 They themselves were shivering from the raw cold, 
 with arms thrust to the elbows into the depths of 
 their nniffs; Carew, all yellow and shrivelled, — 
 an old man of a sudden, — and Bcddoes, blue and 
 purple, the sleep still in his swollen eyes, hardly 
 able to keep his tcetli from chattering — a very 
 schoolboy ! They could scarce conceal their 
 amazement at my placidity. It was not, indeed, 
 that I found myself bodily fit for the contest, for 
 the whole of my left side was stiff, and I could 
 hardly move that arm without pain ; yet placid I 
 was, I scarcely now know why.
 
 TJie Pride of Jcnnico 2^y 
 
 Thus v/e set forth m Sir John Beddoes's coach, 
 Janos on the box, and a civil, shy young man on 
 the back seat beside Beddoes : this was, the latter 
 informed me, the best surgeon he had been able 
 to secure at such short notice. 
 
 The fog disappeared, and when the mists evapo- 
 rated it promised to be a fine, bright, frosty 
 morning. 
 
 Now, it may be after all that I was a little light- 
 headed with the heat of the wound in my blood, 
 for I have no very clear recollections of that morn- 
 ing. It remains in my mind rather as a bright- 
 coloured fantasy than a series of events I have 
 actually lived through. 
 
 I rememxber, as a man may remember a scene in 
 a play, a garden running down to the river-side, 
 very bare and desolate, and the figure and face 
 of my bulky antagonist as he conferred excitedly 
 with tv/o outlandish-looking men, his seconds. 
 These had fierce moustaches, and reminded me 
 vaguely of the cravat captains I had knov/n in 
 the Empire. Then the scene shifts : we stand 
 facing each other. I am glad of the chill of the 
 air, with nothing between it and my fevered breast 
 but the thinness of my shirt. But my opponent 
 stamps like a menacing bull, as if furious at the 
 benumbing blasts. Now I am fighting — fighting
 
 238 The Pride of Jcjinico 
 
 for my life — as never in battle or in single com- 
 bat have I had need to fight before. This is 
 no courteous duel between gentlemen, no hon- 
 ourable meeting, but the struggle of a man with 
 his murderer. Physically at a disadvantage from 
 my hurt, I am moreover conscious that against 
 this brute fury all my skill at arms is of no 
 avail and my strength is rapidly failing. Then, 
 as he drives me by the sheer weight of his mass, 
 I see his face thrust forward into mine, distorted 
 with such a frenzy that I wonder in a sort of 
 unformed way why this man should thus thirst 
 to kill me. The next moment, with an extraordi- 
 nary sense of universal failure and disorganisation 
 which is yet not pain, I realise that I am hit — 
 badly hit. 
 
 Upon that instant I find my brain cleared to 
 a lucidity I have never felt before. I see my 
 opponent's sword flash ruby red with my own 
 blood in the sun rays ; I see him smile, a smile 
 of glorious triumph, which cuts a deep dimple 
 beside his lip ; I hear him pant at me the strange 
 words, "Ha! Ottilie ! " and then I am again 
 seared, rent once more, and to the sound of a 
 howl of many voices my world falls into chaos 
 and exists no more.
 
 TJie Pride of Jennico 239 
 
 It is sometimes but a short and easy way up to 
 the gates of death, but a long and weary journey 
 back to life. It was a long and weary journey to me. 
 
 I was like to a man who travels in the dead of 
 night over rough ways, and now and again slum- 
 bers uneasily with troubled dreams, and now looks 
 out upon a glimmer of light in some house or 
 village, and now on nothing but the pitchy dark- 
 ness; and yet he is always travelling on and on 
 till he is weary with madness of fatigue. And 
 then, as the dawn breaks upon the wanderer, and 
 he sees a strange land around him, so the dawn 
 of what seemed a new existence began to break 
 for me, and I looked upon life anew with wonder- 
 ing eyes. 
 
 At first I looked as the traveller may, with eyes 
 so tired and drowsy as scarce to care to notice. 
 But in yet a little while I warmed and cjuickened 
 to the sun of returning health. I began to be 
 something more than a mere tortured mass of 
 humanity; each breath was no longer misery to 
 draw; the mind was able to re-assert authority 
 over the flesh. That dark, watchful figure that 
 seemed to have been sitting at the foot of my 
 bed for centuries, that was Janos! Poor old fel- 
 low ! I could not yet speak to him, but I could 
 smile. My next thought was amaze that I should
 
 240 TJie Pride of Jennico 
 
 be in a strange room ; it had a very teasing tap- 
 estry ; its figures had worried me long before I 
 could notice them. In a little while I began to 
 understand that I was not in my own chambers, 
 and to feel such irritation at the liberty which had 
 been taken with me that I should have demanded 
 instant explanation had my strength been equal to 
 the task. 
 
 But I come of too vigorous stock, the blood 
 that runs in my veins is too sweet — because I 
 have not, like so many young fools of my day, 
 poisoned it with endless potations and dissolute- 
 ness — for me, when once on the broad high road 
 to recovery (to continue my travelling simile), to 
 dally over the ground. 
 
 Moreover I was too well nursed. Janos, it 
 seems, after the first couple of visits, in each of 
 which I was wisely bled of the diminished store 
 the Chevalier's sword had left in my veins — 
 Janos had had a great quarrel with the surgeon, 
 vowing he would not see his master's murder 
 completed before his eyes and never a chance of 
 hanging the murderer. 
 
 It had ended in tlie old soldier taking the law 
 into his own hands, dismissing the man of medi- 
 cine, and treating me after his own lights. He 
 had had a fairl)'- good apprenticeship, having
 
 The Pride of Jcnnico 241 
 
 attended my uncle through all his campaigns. 
 As far as I am concerned I am convinced that 
 in this, as well as in another matter which I 
 am about to relate, he saved my life. 
 
 The other matter has reference to the very 
 chancre of Quarters which had excited my ire, the 
 true explanation of which, however, I did not re- 
 ceive until I was strong enough to entertain visit- 
 ors. Janos would give me little or no satisfaction. 
 
 " I thought in myself it would be more whole- 
 some for your honour than your other house," was 
 the utmost I could extract. Indeed, he strenuously 
 discouraged all conversation. But the day when 
 this stern guardian first consented to admit Carew 
 and Beddoes to my presence, — and that was not 
 till I could sit up in bed and converse freely, — all 
 that I had been curious about was made clear to 
 me. 
 
 Carew, indeed, had the virtue of being an ex- 
 cellent gossip. I had at one time deemed it his 
 only quality, but I learned better then. Both the 
 gentlemen, each in his own fashion, displayed a 
 certain emotion at seeing me again, in v/hich 
 pleasure at the fact of my being still in the land 
 of the living, and likely to remiain so, v/as qualified 
 by the painful impression produced by my altered 
 appearance. 
 
 R
 
 242 TJie Pride of Jeimico 
 
 Sir John, the boy, sat himself down on the edge 
 of my bed and squeezed my hand in silence, with 
 something like tears in his eyes. Carew, the rou6, 
 was very deliberate in his choice of a chair, took 
 snuff with a vast deal of elegant gesture, and 
 fired off, with it might be an excess of merriment, 
 such jocularities as he had gathered ready against 
 the occasion. Both of them seemed to deem it 
 incumbent upon them to avoid any reference to the 
 duel. I, however, very promptly brought up the 
 subject. 
 
 " Now, for God's sake," I said, " let a poor man 
 who has been kept like a child with a cross nurse 
 — take your pap, go to sleep, ask no questions — 
 learn at last a little about himself. In the first 
 place, where am I } In the second, what has be- 
 come of the red devil who brought me to this 
 pass } " 
 
 "In the first place, Jcnnico," said Carew, "you 
 are at the house of Lady Beddocs, mother to 
 our friend here, a very pleasing little residence 
 situate on Richmond Hill. Secondly, that red 
 devil, as you call him, that most damnable villain, 
 has fled the country, as well he might, for if ever 
 a knave deserved stringing up as high as Ha- 
 man — but of that anon. There is a good deal to 
 tell you if you think you can bear the excitement.
 
 The Pride of Jennico 243 
 
 " Well," he pursued, upon my somewhat pettish 
 asseveration, " I myself think a little pleasant con- 
 versation will do you more good than harm. To 
 begin with, you are doubtless not aware that you 
 are a dead man." 
 
 "How.?" cried I, a little startled, for my nerve 
 was yet none of the strongest. 
 
 " Nay, nay, dash you, Carew," interposed Sir 
 John, " don't ye make those jokes. Gruesome, 
 I call 'em : it makes me creep ! No, Basil, lad, 
 thou art alive, and wilt live to set that Chevalier, 
 whoever he may be, swinging for it yet." And 
 here in his eager partisanship he broke into a 
 volley of execrations which would have run my 
 poor great-uncle's performances pretty close. 
 
 "Why," said I impatiently, "'tis enigma to me 
 still why I am here ; why I am dead ; why the 
 Chevalier should hang. I think you have all 
 sworn to drive me mad among you." 
 
 I was so evidently exasperated that Beddoes, 
 all of a tremble, besought Carew to explain the 
 situation. 
 
 "He'll do himself a mischief," he cried patheti- 
 cally; "do you tell him, Carew, — you know what 
 a fool I am ! " 
 
 Carew was nothing loath to set about what was 
 indeed the chief pleasure of his life, the retailing of
 
 244 ^^^^ Pride of Jcnnico 
 
 scandal; and it seems that the Jennico duel was 
 a very pretty scandal indeed. 
 
 " I will take your last question first," said he, 
 settling himself to his task with gusto. " Why the 
 Chevalier should hang .? Who he really is, where 
 he comes from, why he hates you with such deadly 
 hatred, Jennico, are all mysteries which I confess 
 myself unable to fathom — doubtless you can fur- 
 nish us with the clue by-and-by." 
 
 As he spoke his pale eye kindled with a most 
 devouring curiosity. Nevertheless as I showed no 
 desire to interrupt him by any little confidence, he 
 proceeded glibly : 
 
 " But why the Chevalier should hang is another 
 matter. Gadzooks, I'd run him down myself were 
 it but for his impudence in getting gentlemen like 
 myself to come and see foul play. Why, Jennico, 
 man, don't you know that after charging you like 
 a bull, and running you once through the body, the 
 scoundrel stabbed you again as you were sinking 
 down and the sword had dropped from your hand. 
 I doubt me he would have spitted you a third time 
 to make quite sure, had not Beddoes and I fallen 
 upon him." 
 
 " I'd have run him through," here interposed 
 Sir John excitedly ; " I had drawn for it, had I not, 
 Dick .-• — and I'd have run him through, but that
 
 TJic Pride of Jcnnico 245 
 
 the surgeon called out that you were dead ; and 
 dash me, between the turn I got and the way 
 those queer seconds of his hustled him away, I lost 
 the chance ! And the three of them ran, they ran 
 like rats, to the river. Gad, I'd have left my mark 
 on them even then, but Carew, be hanged to him, 
 held on by my coat-tails." 
 
 " 'Tis just as Jack told you," said Carew. " No 
 sooner had they heard you were dead, ray friend, 
 than they ran for it, and it is quite true that I 
 restrained Jack here from sticking them in the 
 back as they skedaddled. A pretty affair of 
 honour, indeed ! " 
 
 I lay back on my pillows awhile, musing. I 
 had had time to reflect on many things these 
 days, and — God knows — there were enigmas 
 enough in my life to give me food for reflection. 
 What I had just heard caused me no surprise, 
 tallying as it did with conclusions I had previously 
 reached. 
 
 After a moment Carew cleared his throat, edged 
 his chair a foot nearer, and queried confidentially : 
 " Did it never strike you that the Chevalier must 
 have been part and parcel, if not the moving spirit, 
 of those attacks upon your life which you told us 
 of that night at the club .-' You did not appear to 
 have a notion of it then. Yet there was not a man
 
 246 TJie Pride of Jennico 
 
 of us there who did not see but the quarrel was 
 deliberately got up." 
 
 "And d'ye mind," cried Sir John, "how he bet 
 me you would not live a month ? " 
 
 "Ay," said Carew, "and Jennico knows best 
 himself if in his gay youth, in foreign parts, he 
 has not given good cause for this mortal enmity, 
 though to be sure the mystery thickens when we 
 remember how friendly you were with each other. 
 Jennico is such a close dog; he keeps such a 
 dashed tight counsel ! " 
 
 I smiled. Jennico would keep his counsel still. 
 I meant these good fellows should expound my 
 riddles for me, not I theirs. 
 
 " But since I am dead," said I, " I fear. Jack, 
 thou hast lost on me again." 
 
 " The gentleman did not leave his address," said 
 Sir John with a grin ; and he furtively squeezed 
 my hand to express his secret sense of the little 
 transaction of tlic I O U's. 
 
 " We made some clamour at the Embassy, I 
 promise you," interposed Carew ; " we were anx- 
 ious to pay him all his due, you may be sure. 
 But devil a bit of satisfaction could we get, save 
 indeed that the Ambassador took to his bed with 
 a fit of gout, and you l^eing dead, Jennico, — you 
 are dead still, remember, — to bury you was the
 
 The Pride of Jennico 247 
 
 best thing your friends could do for you, till you 
 were able to take fit measures to protect yourself. 
 And indeed it was that queer old Tartar of yours, 
 your Janos, or whatever you call him, who loudly 
 insisted upon your demise, when we found the first 
 alarm was unfounded and that you still breathed. 
 Gad, I believe you have as many lives as a cat ! 
 This fellow then says to us in his queer jargon : 
 * My master lives, but he must all the same be 
 thought dead.' And faith he besought us with 
 such urgency, that, what with seeing you lying 
 there, and knowing what we knew of the foul 
 play that had been practised upon you, we were 
 ready enough to fall in with his desires. Sir John 
 bethought him of his mother's house at Richmond, 
 and offered to accompany you there, — or rather 
 your body : you were little less just then. Next 
 the surgeon swore the journey would kill you, and 
 your servant swore you should not be harboured 
 in the town. The fellow knew you : ' Good breed,' 
 he said, ' not easily killed ! ' And so he won the 
 day, and Miles the surgeon gave in ; but indeed he 
 told me apart, 'twas waste of time disputing, for 
 anyhow you could not see the noon. But here 
 you are at my Lady Beddoes's house at Richmond, 
 alive and like to live, though you have ceased to 
 exist for most men. There was a charming, really
 
 248 TJie Pride of Jcnuico 
 
 a most touching, obituary notice in the Gazettes ; 
 you have been duly lamented at the clubs — and 
 forgotten within the usual nine days. Rumours 
 will soon begin to get about of course, but nobody 
 knows anything positive. The secret is still kept. 
 Janos, I believe, has contrived to assuage the anx- 
 iety of your relatives." 
 
 Here the speaker took so copious a pinch to 
 refresh himself after his long speech that he set 
 me off sneezing, whereupon my special Cerberus 
 promptly made his appearance and bundled the 
 visitors forth without more ado. 
 
 ****** 
 
 I have said that my friend's belief in the Cheva- 
 lier's implication in the divers murderous onsets 
 that had been made upon me, previous to his own, 
 did not surprise me. The memory of M. de Ville- 
 Rouge's cry, as he dealt me what he believed my 
 death stroke, — a cry in which it would be hard 
 to say whether savage triumph or sheer vindictive- 
 ness most predominated, — had come back on me, 
 as soon as I could think at all, with most revealing 
 force. 
 
 His arrival in I'lngland had coincided with the 
 beginning of the persecution. The look on his 
 face as I had last seen it, that smile and that 
 dimple, had haunted me during long hours of dc-
 
 The Pride of Jennie o 249 
 
 liriiim with a most maddening, grotesque, and hor- 
 rible likeness to the face of her I had so loved. 
 Coupling these things in later sanity of mind with 
 the other evidence, I could not doubt but that here 
 had been some relative of Ottilie, who had interest 
 to put an end to her husband's existence. Had 
 not her pock-marked Mercury at the close of our 
 interview uttered words of earnest warning.? ay, 
 I minded them now : 
 
 " The matter will not end here. . . . Have a 
 care, young man. . . ." 
 
 As I thought of all this, as the whole meaning 
 of what had seemed so mysterious now lay clear 
 before me, I would be seized with a sort of deadly 
 anguish, compared to which all my previous suf- 
 ferings, whether of body or mind, had been but 
 trivial. Could she, could Ottilie, have knoivn of 
 this work 1 Could she — have inspired it .'' 
 
 The sweat that would break out upon me at 
 such a thought was more than all my fever had 
 wrung from my body, and my faithful leech v/ould 
 wonder to find me faint and reeking, and would 
 puzzle his poor brains in vain upon the cause, and 
 decoct me new teas of dreadful compounds, febri- 
 fuges which he vowed had never failed. 
 
 But then at other times the vision of my wife 
 would rise before me and shame me. I would see
 
 250 The Pride of Jennie 
 
 again her noble brow, her clear eye, her arched 
 and innocent lip, and in my weakness and the 
 passion of my longing I would turn and weep 
 upon my pillow to think that, having to my sorrow 
 lost her, I should come now to lose even my faith 
 in her, and yet should love her still with such mad 
 love. 
 
 Now there must be, as Janos would have it, 
 something remarkably tough in the breed of Jen- 
 nico for me to recover from such wounds both 
 bodily and mental. Recover I did, however, in 
 spite of all odds ; and a resolve I made with re- 
 turning strength did a good deal to ease my mind, 
 tossed between such torturing fluctuations. 
 
 This resolve was no less than to leave the coun- 
 try some fine morning, in secret, so soon as I 
 could undertake the journey with any likelihood 
 of being able to persevere in it, to speed to Budis- 
 sin, and discover for myself the real attitude of 
 Ottilie towards me. I was determined that, ac- 
 cording as I found her, — either what my heart 
 would still deem her, or yet so base a thing as the 
 fiend whispered, — that I would try to win her 
 back, were I to die in the attempt, or thrust her 
 from my life for ever. 
 
 Thus when I heard that my enemy and the 
 world believed me dead, when I realised that she
 
 TJie Pride of Jennico 251 
 
 too must probably share in the dehision, I was 
 glad, for not only would it materially facilitate 
 my re-entering the Duchy, but it would afford me 
 an excellent opportunity of judging her real feel- 
 ings. I had no doubt but that, if I set to work in 
 a proper manner and duly preserved my incognito, 
 I should be able, now that all pretext for quaran- 
 tine had disappeared, to secure an interview with- 
 out too much difficulty. 
 
 So all my desires hastening towards that goal, 
 I set myself to become a whole man again with so 
 much energy that even Janos was surprised at the 
 rapidity of my progress.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 It was towards the middle of December that we 
 started upon the journey — a little sooner indeed 
 than my surgeon and mentor approved of, but 
 his power over me dwindled as my own strength 
 returned. 
 
 Being chiefly anxious to preserve my incognito, 
 I hesitated some time before permitting Jdnos to 
 accompany me, his personal appearance unfortu- 
 nately being of a kind unlikely to be forgotten 
 when once seen. But, besides the fact that I 
 could not find it in me to inflict such pain upon 
 that excellent fellow, there was an undoubted ad- 
 vantage to myself in the presence of one upon 
 whose fidelity and courage I could so absolutely 
 reckon in an expedition likely to prove of extreme 
 difficulty and perhaps of peril. Moreover, the man 
 would have followed me in spite of me. I insisted, 
 however, upon his shaving off his great pandour 
 moustaches — a process which though it altered 
 did not improve his appearance ; his aspect, 
 indeed, being now so fantastically ugly as to 
 drive me, despite my preoccupation, into inextin- 
 
 252
 
 The Pride of Jennico 253 
 
 guishable paroxysms of laughter every time I 
 unexpectedly got a glimpse of his visage, until 
 habit wore away the impression. 
 
 As to myself, my long illness had, as I thought, 
 sufficiently changed me. Besides, the news of my 
 resurrection was too recently and too vaguely 
 rumoured in London to have reached, or to be 
 likely to reach, the Continent for many a long day. 
 
 Under the humble style, therefore, of a Munich 
 gentleman returning from his travels, — one Theo- 
 dor Desberger, with his attendant (now dubbed 
 Johann), a character which my Austrian-German 
 fitly enabled me to sustain, — I set sail from Lon- 
 don to Hamburg, and after a favourable sea-pas- 
 sage, which did much to invigorate me, we landed 
 in the free city and proceeded towards Budissin 
 by easy stages ; for, despite the ardour of my im- 
 patience, I felt the importance of husbanding my 
 newly-acquired strength. At Budissin we put up 
 of course at a different hostelry from that chosen 
 upon our first venture — one much farther away 
 from the palace. 
 
 The little town presented now a very different 
 aspect. Indeed, its gay and cheery bustle, and 
 the crisp frosty weather which greeted us there, 
 might have raised inspiriting thoughts. But it 
 was with a heart very full of anxiety, with the
 
 254 '^^^^ Pride of Jcnnico 
 
 determination rather to face ill fortune bravely 
 than the hope of good, that I passed the night. 
 I got but little sleep, for, having reached my goal, 
 I scarcely knew how to begin. Nor in the morn- 
 ing had I arrived at any definite conclusion. 
 
 The risk of presenting myself in person at the 
 palace after my former fashion was too great to 
 be entertained for a moment. I had therefore to 
 content myself with despatching Janos to make 
 cautious inquiries as to one Fraulein Pahlen and 
 her relatives, not forgetting a bulky gentleman he 
 knew of, recently returned from England. 
 
 I myself, in my plainest suit, and with my cloak 
 disposed as a muffler, partly concealing my face, 
 set forth upon my side to gather what crumbs of 
 information I might. 
 
 At the very outset I had a most singular meeting. 
 Traversing the little town in the brisk morning air 
 under a dome of palest blue, I naturally directed 
 my steps towards the castle, seated on its terrace 
 and towering above the citizens' brown roofs. 
 
 I had taken a somewhat circuitous route to 
 avoid passing in front of the main guard, and 
 found myself presently in a quiet street, one side 
 of which was bound by the castle garden walls, 
 and the other — that upon which I walked — by 
 a row of private houses seemingly of some im-
 
 The Pride of Jejmico 255 
 
 portance. Now, as I walked, engaged in gazing 
 upwards at the long row of escutcheoned windows 
 which I could just see above the wall, and fool- 
 ishly wondering through which of them my cruel 
 little wife might be wont to look forth into the 
 outer world, I nearly collided with a woman who 
 was hurrying out of one of the houses. 
 
 As I drew back to recover myself, and to apolo- 
 gise, something in the dark figure struck me with 
 poignant reminiscence. The next instant, as she 
 would have passed me, I caught her by the 
 shoulder. 
 
 "Anna!" I cried wildly, "God be thanked, 
 Anna ! " For upon this very first morning of my 
 quest Heaven had brought me face to face with 
 no less a person than Ottilie's old nurse. 
 
 The recognition on her side was almost simul- 
 taneous. No sooner had the muffling cloak fallen 
 from my mouth, than the dull and rather surly 
 countenance that she had turned upon me became 
 convulsed by the most extraordinary emotion. 
 She gave a stifled cry. Then she clapped her 
 hands together, pressed them clasped against her 
 cheek, and stared at me with piercing intensity, 
 crying again and again : 
 
 " God in heaven — you ! God in heaven — you ! " 
 
 The black eyes were as hard to read as those
 
 256 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 of a shepherd's dog, who fixes with the same 
 earnest look the master he loves or the enemy- 
 he suspects. And as we stood thus, the space of 
 a few seconds, my mind misgave me as to whether 
 I had not already jeopardised all my prospects by 
 this impulsive disclosure. It was evident that the 
 woman had heard the story of my death, which in 
 this hostile place was my chief security. But the 
 die was cast, and the chance of information was 
 too precious not to be seized even at greater risks. 
 I laid hold of her cloak, then passionately grasped 
 her hands. " Oh, Anna ! " I cried again, and the 
 bare thought that I was once more so near the 
 beloved of my heart brought in my weakness 
 the heat of tears to my eyes. " Where is she .-* 
 Where is my wife } What does she } Anna, I 
 must see her. My life is in danger in this place ; 
 they have tried to kill mc because I love her, but 
 I had rather risk death again a thousand times 
 than give her up. Take me to her, Anna ! " 
 
 The woman had never ceased regarding me 
 with the same enigmatic earnestness ; all at once 
 her eyes lightened, she looked from side to side 
 with the cautiousness of some animal conscious 
 of danger, then wrenched her hands out of mine : 
 
 " Follow mc, sir," she said in a whisper, so 
 urgent in its apprehension as to strike a colder
 
 TJie Pride of Jennico 257 
 
 chill into my veins than the wildest scream could 
 have done. Without another glance at me she 
 started off in front, and I as hastily followed, 
 almost mechanically flinging my cloak once more 
 across my mouth as I moved on. 
 
 Whither was she leading me .-' Into the hands 
 of my enemies, whoever they were ? — she had 
 always, I had thought, hated me — or into the 
 arms of my wife .-' 
 
 She turned away from the palace, down a bye- 
 street, and then took another turn which brought 
 us into a poor alley where the houses became 
 almost cottages, and where the gutters ran among 
 the cobbles with liquid filth. 
 
 My wild hope gave place to sinister foreboding ; 
 and as I plodded carefully after her unwavering 
 figure, I loosened the hilt of my sword in its scab- 
 bard, and settled the folds of my cloak around my 
 left arm so that at a pinch I might doff it and use 
 it for defence. 
 
 Suddenly my guide halted for a second, looked 
 at me over her shoulder, and disappeared down 
 some steps into the open door of a mean little 
 shop. I entered after her, at once disappointed in 
 all my expectations and reassured by the humble 
 vulgarity of the place. Anna, as I had ever 
 known her, was chary of speech. Even, as stoop-
 
 258 TJie Pride of Jennie o 
 
 ing I made my way into the low, gloomy, and 
 evil-smelling narrow room, I saw her imperiously 
 motion an ugly sallow young woman out of her 
 presence ; and, still in silence, I watched her, won- 
 dering, as she made fast the doors and bent her 
 dark face to listen if all were still. Then she 
 produced from a counter, paper, ink, and pen, 
 and spreading them out turned to me with a sin- 
 gle word : " Write." 
 
 So small was the result of all these preliminaries. 
 
 "You mean," said I, "that if I write to your 
 mistress, you will convey the letter } Alas ! I 
 have written before and she would not even re- 
 ceive my writing. Oh ! can you not get me 
 speech of her.'' I conjure you by the love you 
 bear her, let me see her but for a few min- 
 utes." 
 
 The woman fixed me for a second with a 
 startled wondering eye, opened her mouth as if 
 to speak, but immediately clapped her hand to it 
 as if to restrain the words. Then, with a passion 
 of entreaty that it was impossible to withstand, 
 she pointed to the paper and cried once more, 
 "Write." 
 
 And so I seemed ever destined to comm.unicate 
 with my wife from strange places and by strange 
 messengers.
 
 The Pride of Jeiinico 259 
 
 With a trembling hand and a brain in a whirl 
 I wrote — I hardly know what: a wild, passion- 
 ate, reproachful appeal, setting forth in incohe- 
 rent words all I had done and suffered, all my 
 desire, all my faithful love. When I looked up 
 at length I found the black eyes still watching 
 me with the same inscrutable fierceness. I was 
 going to trust my life and its hopes to this woman, 
 and for a moment I hesitated. But at the same 
 instant there was some noise without, and snatch- 
 ing the letter unfinished from before me, she 
 thrust it into her bosom, folded her cloak across 
 it, and stooping close to me demanded in her 
 breathless undertone : 
 
 " Where do you live } " 
 
 Mechanically I told her, adding: "Ask for 
 M. Desberger." 
 
 She nodded with swift comprehension, unbolted 
 the barred front door of the little shop, and drew 
 me hastily out by the back, along a close, flagged 
 passage, leaving an irate customer hammering and 
 clamouring for admittance. 
 
 We proceeded through a small yard into another 
 alley, and here she halted a second, still detaining 
 me by my cloak. 
 
 " Go home," she said then ; " keep close. There 
 is danger — danger. You will hear."
 
 26o The Pride of Jennico 
 
 She suddenly caught my hand, kissed it, and 
 was gone. I stood awhile bewildered, aston- 
 ished, staring, hardly able to grasp the meaning 
 of what had passed, for this last scene in the 
 drama of my life had been acted hurriedly and 
 was full of mysterious significance. Then, unob- 
 trusively, I sought the shelter of my own inn, 
 resolving to obey to the letter the injunctions laid 
 upon me ; but fate had willed it otherwise. 
 
 Determined not to interfere with the course of 
 fortune by any least indocility, I retired into the 
 seclusion of my chambers, and pretexting a slight 
 indisposition, to rouse no undue suspicion by an 
 air of mystery, gave orders for my dinner to be 
 served there. 
 
 A stout red-cheeked wench with rough bare 
 arms had just, grinning, clattered the first greasy 
 dish before me, when I heard Janos's foot upon 
 the stairs. I had learnt to know the sound of 
 his step pretty well in my recent weeks of sick- 
 ness, but I had not been wont to hear it come 
 so laggingly, and the fact that it halted altogether 
 outside the door for a second or two, as if its 
 owner hesitated to enter, filled me with such a 
 furious impatience that I got up and flung it 
 open to wrest his news from him. Not even 
 when he had held up my poor great-uncle in his
 
 The Pride of Jennico 261 
 
 arms to let him draw his last breath on earth, had 
 I seen the fellow wear a countenance of such dis- 
 composure. 
 
 " In Heaven's name, Janos," cried I, and the 
 sturdy house-wench turned and stared at him 
 more agoggle and agrin than before. 
 
 " Get out of that, you " cried my servitor, 
 
 snapping at her with such sourness, and so for- 
 getful of the decorum he usually displayed in my 
 presence, that it was clear he was mightily moved. 
 
 She fled as if some savage old watch-dog had 
 nipped at her heel, and we were alone. 
 
 I had returned from my own exploration full of 
 hope, and at the same time of wonder, so that I 
 was at once ill and well prepared for any tidings, 
 however extraordinary. But Janos's tidings seemed 
 difficult of telling. 
 
 " Let us go home, honoured sir," he stammered 
 again and again, surveying me with a compassion 
 and an anxiety he had not vouchsafed upon me 
 at the worst of my illness. I had to drag the 
 words from him piecemeal, as the torturer forces 
 out the unwilling confession. 
 
 Yes, he had news — bad news. This was no place 
 for me. It was not wholesome for us here. Let us 
 return to Tollendhal, or Vienna, or even England. 
 Let us start before further mischief overtook us.
 
 262 The Pride of Jcnnico 
 
 I believe I fell upon him at last and shook him. 
 What had he heard. What had he heard of her ? 
 I vowed he was driving me mad, vowed that if he 
 did not instantly tell me all I would throw cau- 
 tion to the wind and go to the palace and demand 
 my wife in person, were it of the Duke himself. 
 This threat extorted at length the terrible thing 
 that even the rough old soldier feared to utter. 
 
 "The lady," he stammered, "the lady can no 
 longer be spoken of as your honour's wife. She 
 is married." 
 
 "Married!" I cried. "What do you mean, 
 you scoundrel .'' No longer my wife ! Married ! 
 You are raving — this is stark lunacy." 
 
 He shook his grey head under the shower of my 
 fury. 
 
 " Married. Does your honour forget that they 
 think here that they have at last succeeded in 
 killing you } " 
 
 I looked at him aghast, unwilling to admit the 
 awful illumination that flashed upon my mind. 
 He, believing me still incredulous, proceeded : 
 
 " Married she is. Fraulein Pahlen, the lady-in- 
 waiting, — Fraulein Pahlen, as your honour bade 
 me call her, and as it seems she called herself 
 until ..." and then with a significant emphasis, 
 "until six weeks ago."
 
 The Pride of Jennieo 263 
 
 " And who is the man ? " said I. The words 
 sounded in my ears as if some one else had spoken, 
 but I beheve I was astoundingly calm. 
 
 Misled no doubt by this appearance of com- 
 posure, Janos seemed to take more confidence, and 
 continued in easier tones, while I held myself still 
 to listen. 
 
 " It is the Court physician, one privy counsellor 
 Lothner. I was shown his house, a big one in the 
 Schloss Graben, number ten, opposite the palace 
 walls. Ay, yes, they were married six weeks ago, 
 and the Duke was present at the marriage . . . 
 and the Princess too ! They say it was made 
 up by their wishes. Oh ! honoured sir, let us 
 hence. You are well quit of it all ; this is a bad 
 place ! " 
 
 Yet I stood without moving. Chasm after 
 chasm, horror after horror, seemed to be opening 
 before my mind ; chasms so black that I scarce 
 ventured to look into their depths ; horrors so un- 
 speakable that I could put no word-shape to them. 
 After Ottilie's messenger had failed to induce me 
 to give up my rights, had come the attempts upon 
 my life, then the duel. The mysterious stranger 
 who had sought to slay me with such rancorous 
 hate, and had called '' Ottilie" into my dying ears, 
 had returned to claim his bride, and they had
 
 264 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 wedded in their blood-guilt. Well might the nurse 
 cry and repeat the cry of " God in heaven ! God 
 in heaven ! " 
 
 What new ambush would they now contrive ? 
 
 " Your honour " said Janos, and he put his 
 
 hand respectfully upon my sleeve. I caught sight 
 of his frightened face and burst into a fit of rasp- 
 ing laughter. 
 
 " Look at your master, Janos, and see the great- 
 est fool in Christendom ! The fool of the play, 
 that is tricked and mocked and beaten from one 
 act to another. Tricked into marrying a serving- 
 maid instead of a princess ; tricked into loving her 
 when he should have repudiated her with scorn ; 
 abandoned by her when he could no longer live 
 without her ; mocked when he sought his wife ; 
 driven away by lackeys ; stabbed by a murdering 
 hound, a skulking thief in the night! . . , But 
 the last act is only about to begin — every one has 
 had his laugh at the fool, but we shall sec, Janos, 
 we shall see ! lie laughs best who laughs last, 
 they say. Ten, Schloss Graben, did you say } " 
 
 I caught my cloak. I think the faithful fellow 
 actually laid hands upon me to arrest me, but 
 I broke from him as if his clasp had been a 
 straw. 
 
 " I'll drive my sword," I remember saying, "into
 
 The Pride of Jcnnico 265 
 
 the first man who dares come between me and my 
 purpose." 
 
 And indeed as I fled along the street, scarce 
 knowing what way I took, yet going as straight 
 as a die to my goal, I had no other thought but 
 how clean I would run my blade through the 
 clumsy lumbering brute who deemed he had so 
 well widowed my wife. I had the strength of ten 
 men in me.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 When I reached the Schloss Grabeii I stood a 
 moment to reconnoitre, and found myself in the 
 same still, cobble-paved road where I had met 
 Anna a few hours before. On my left rose the 
 high garden-walls overtopped by a web of bare in- 
 terlacing branches, and over that again the palace 
 windows and its mansard roof; on my right the 
 row of silent brown or red stone houses, well-to-do 
 and snugly private, with beaten iron bars to the 
 low windows and great scallop shells over the 
 doors. This was the house down the stone steps 
 of which my wife's servant had come this morning, 
 and this was number ten. Of course ! How clear 
 it was all becoming to me ! I dashed the sweat 
 from my brow, for I had come like a lamplighter. 
 Then I tramped up the three steps and again 
 halted a second. How quiet the house was ! 
 
 But I should soon put some bustle into it, I said 
 to myself, and smiled. I plied the knocker till the 
 sleeping echoes awoke, and I hung on the iron 
 rope of the bell till the shrill protest of the jingling 
 peal rang out into the street. There came other 
 
 266
 
 TJic Pride of Jennico 267 
 
 sounds from within as of a flutter in a dovecot 
 Doors were opened and shut precipitately. A 
 window was thrown back above my head; there 
 was a vision of a white-capped face thrust forward 
 and withdrawn ; and, indeed, Hke rabbits from a 
 warren, most, I beheve, of the idle servants in the 
 street were popping out to see whence could pro- 
 ceed such unholy clangour. 
 
 The door before me was at length cautiously and 
 slowly opened, and through the aperture the fright- 
 ened, rose-red face of a maid looked out at me. 
 
 I saw that I had been incautious, and therefore 
 addressed her with a suave mock courtesy. In- 
 deed, now that the actual moment had come I felt 
 stealing over me a very deadly calm. 
 
 "Forgive me," said I, "my wench, for disturb- 
 ing you thus rudely. I see I have alarmed you. 
 These are, however, but old soldiers' ways, which 
 I trust your good mistress will pardon to an old 
 friend. Your mistress is, if I mistake not, now 
 the doctor's lady. But when I knew her she was 
 Fraulein Ottilie Pahlen." 
 
 The girl's mouth had, during this long speech, 
 which in my new mood came glibly enough to my 
 lips, become broadened into a grin. There are 
 very few girls in the Empire, I have been told, that 
 will not feel mollified towards a soldier.
 
 268 TJie Pride of Jcimico 
 
 " Is your mistress within ? " I pursued. 
 
 She dropped a curtsey, and after a comprehen- 
 sive glance over my person threw open the door. 
 Would the gentleman walk in ? She brought me 
 through a brick-paved hall into a long low oak- 
 panelled room, all dark and yet all shining with 
 polish. It was very hot from a high china stove. 
 
 " What visitor shall I announce to the gracious 
 lady.? "she asked, sidling towards me, and thrust- 
 ing her apple face as forward as she dared. 
 
 " I am so old a friend, in fact, I may say so 
 near a connection, that I should like to give your 
 gracious lady a pleasant surprise," said I ; " I will 
 not therefore give my name." As a propitiatory 
 after-thought, I pinched the hard red check and 
 dropped a coin into her apron pocket. I tried to 
 make my smile very sweet, but it felt stiff upon 
 my lips. She, however, saw nought amiss, and 
 pattered out well content. 
 
 Then followed a few minutes' waiting ; all had 
 grown still again around me. Through the deep 
 recessed windows I looked forth into a little court- 
 yard with one bare tree. This, then, was the home 
 Ottilic had chosen instead of an English estate, 
 instead of Tollendhal, instead of all I could offer 
 her in courtly Vienna or great London ! How she 
 must love this man ! Or was it only the plebeian
 
 The Pride of Jcnnico 269 
 
 instinct reasserting itself in spite of all ? . . . The 
 Court doctor's lady ! 
 
 I heard a footfall on the bare-boarded stair, and 
 with a smile that was this time the natural expres- 
 sion of the complicated bitterness of my soul, I 
 moved a few steps so as to place myself in the 
 best light. 
 
 My wife was, perhaps, still in ignorance of my 
 escape from death. Anna had not yet carried her 
 grievous news of the failure of their endeavours. 
 Indeed, this was evident from the general placidity 
 of the household, as well as the staid regularity of 
 the approaching steps. To witness her joy at the 
 discovery was sufficient revenge for the moment. 
 After that the reckoning would be with — well, 
 with my successor. 
 
 Such was the state of my thoughts at the crucial 
 moment of my strange story. 
 
 I have said that I was calm, but during the little 
 pause that took place between the cessation of the 
 footsteps and the turning of the lock I could hear 
 the beating of my own heart like the measured 
 roar of a drum in battle. 
 
 Then was the door opened, and before me stood 
 — not Ottilie, who had been my Ottilie, but the 
 other Ottilie, the Princess ! She was advancing 
 upon me with the old well-remembered gracious
 
 270 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 smile, when all at once she halted with much the 
 same terror-stricken look with which Anna earlier 
 in the day had recognised me, and clasped her 
 hands, crying : 
 
 "God be merciful to us, M. dc Jennico!" and 
 seemed the next instant ready to burst into tears. 
 
 In the first confusion of my thoughts, in the 
 rage created by this eternal quid pro quo, — that I 
 should ever find the lady-in-waiting when I wanted 
 the Princess, and the Princess when I wanted the 
 lady-in-waiting, — I might have been inclined to 
 think that Anna had after all spread her tidings, 
 and that my wife's former mistress had come to her 
 aid at this awkward moment ; but the surprise 
 and consternation on this woman's countenance 
 were too genuine to have been counterfeit. 
 
 Whatever reason brought the Princess here I 
 was in no humour to inquire. 
 
 " I came to see my wife. Madam," said I, " and 
 not to presume upon your Highness's condescen- 
 sion. I am determined to see my wife," I insisted; 
 " that Ottilie Pahlen, who was your maid of hon- 
 our, and lived with me as my wife for a month, as 
 your Highness well knows, and who was in such 
 haste to wed this Court doctor of yours at the first 
 rumour of her husband's death." 
 
 I spoke in a very uncourtier-like rage. But she
 
 The Pride of Jennico 271 
 
 whom I addressed showed neither anger nor as- 
 tonishment, but sank into the nearest chair, a mere 
 heap of soft distressed womanhood, wringing her 
 plump dimpled hands, while tears of extraordinary 
 size suffused her eyes and overflowed upon her 
 cheeks. 
 
 At sight of this my heat fell away ; I threw my- 
 self on my knees beside her, and, all forgetful of 
 the distance between us, took one of her hands in 
 mine and poured forth an appeal. 
 
 "You were always kind to me; be kind now. I 
 must see my wife. I have been cruelly treated ; I 
 am surrounded with enemies ; be you my friend ! " 
 
 She leant forward and looked at me earnestly 
 with swimming eyes. 
 
 " Is it possible," she exclaimed — "is it possible, 
 M. de Jennico, that you have not found out yet } 
 . . . that you do not suspect .'' . . ." 
 
 Even as she spoke, and while I knelt looking 
 up at her, the scales fell from my eyes. I needed 
 no further word. I knew. How was it possible, 
 indeed, that I should not have known before .'' 
 I saw as in a flash that this comely burgher 
 woman was not, had never been, never could 
 have been, the Princess. I saw that the hand I 
 still unconsciously held bore marks of household 
 toil, that on the third finger glittered a new wed-
 
 2/2 TJic Pride of Jcnnico 
 
 ding ring. Tiicn a thousand memories rushed 
 into my mind, a thousand confirmatory details. 
 Oh, bhnd — bhnd — blind that I had been — 
 fool, and worse than fool ! The mystery of my 
 wife's mocking smile ; the secret that had so often 
 hung unspoken on her lips ; her careless pretty 
 ways; the depth of her injured pride; and then 
 the manner in which she had been guarded from 
 me, the force employed against mc, the secret 
 diplomatic attempts to free her, followed, on their 
 failure, by the relentless determination to do away 
 with me altogether ! Before my reeling brain it 
 all rose into towering conviction — a joy, a sorrow, 
 both too keen for humanity to bear, seized upon 
 my weakened frame. I heard as if in the far dis- 
 tance the words the woman near me was saying : 
 
 " It all began by a freak of her Highness, ..." 
 and with the echo of them whirling as it were in 
 a mad dance through my brain to the sound of 
 thundering cataracts, a whirlpool of flame spread- 
 ing before my eyes, I fell with a crash, as it 
 seemed, into a yawning black abyss. 
 
 When I again came to myself the cold air was 
 blowing in upon me through the open casement, 
 and I was stretched full length on a hard floor, 
 in what seemed a perfect deluge of the very 
 strongest vinegar I have ever smelt. At one side
 
 TJie Pride of Jejznico 273 
 
 of me knelt my hostess, her healthy face blanched 
 almost beyond recognition. On the other, between 
 my wandering gaze and the window, swam the 
 visage of the maid, eyes and mouth as round as 
 horror could make them, but with cheeks the 
 ruddiness of which, it seemed, no emotion could 
 mitigate. 
 
 Both my kind attendants gave a cry as I opened 
 my eyes. 
 
 " He is recovering, Trude," said Madam Loth- 
 ner (to call her now by her proper name). 
 
 " Ah ! gracious lady," answered the wench in 
 an unctuous tone of importance; "his face is 
 still as red as the beet I was pickling when I 
 heard you scream — would God the master were 
 here to bleed him. Shall I send into the town to 
 seek him .'' " 
 
 "God forbid!" cried her mistress, in a hasty 
 and peremptory tone. " No, I tell you, Trude, he 
 is recovering, and I have not been a doctor's wife 
 these six weeks for nothing. The flush is fading 
 even as I look at him. See thee here, fetch me 
 some of the cordial water." 
 
 I do not know how far her six weeks' associa- 
 tion with the medical luminary, her husband, had 
 profited Madam Lothner. I have since been told 
 that her administration of cordial, immediately
 
 274 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 upon such a blood stroke to the head as mine, 
 ought really to have finished me off. But as it 
 happened it did me a vast deal of good, and I 
 was soon able to shake off the giddiness, the 
 sickness, and the general confusion of my system. 
 
 With recovered wits it gradually became appar- 
 ent to me that while Madam Lothner continued 
 to ply me with every assistance she could think 
 of, regarding me with eyes in which shone most 
 kindly and womanly benevolence, her chief anxiety 
 nevertheless was to get rid of me with all possible 
 despatch. 
 
 But I was not likely to give up such an oppor- 
 tunity. The chaos in my mind consequent upon 
 the unexpected revelation, and its disastrous physi- 
 cal effect, was such as to render me no very cohe- 
 rent inquisitor. Nevertheless, the determination 
 to learn all that this woman could tell me about 
 my wife rose predominant above the seething of 
 my thoughts. 
 
 Ottilie, my wife, was Ottilie the Princess after 
 all ! I had felt the truth before it had been told 
 me. But whilst they removed an agonising sup- 
 position, these struck me nevertheless as strange 
 unhomely tidings which opened fresh difficulties 
 in my path — difficulties the full import of which 
 were every second more strongly borne upon me.
 
 The Pride of Jennico 275 
 
 Ottilie the Princess ! . . . Everything was changed, 
 and the relentless attitude of the Princess bore a 
 very different aspect to the mere resentment of 
 the injured wife. When my letters had been 
 flung back in my face, when I had been kid- 
 napped and expelled the country, it had been 
 then by her orders. She had sent to demand 
 the divorce. Who had set the bravo on my 
 track 1 By whose wish had my life been so 
 basely, so persistently, attempted .-' By hers — 
 Ottilie, the Princess } A Princess who had re- 
 pented of her freak, whose pride, whose reputa- 
 tion, had suffered from the stigma of an unequal 
 match. 
 
 The man whose sword had twice passed through 
 my body had called out, " Ha ! Ottilie ! " Who 
 dare call on a Princess thus save her kinsman or 
 — her lover } 
 
 I felt the blood surge through me again, but 
 this time in my anger it brought a sense of 
 courage and strength. I interrupted Madam 
 Lothner as, with a joyful exclamation that I 
 "was now quite restored, she was about to issue 
 an order for the summary fetching of a hired 
 coach. 
 
 "Let your maid go," said I authoritatively, "but 
 not for a coach. I have yet much to say to you."
 
 276 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 I was without pity for the distress this demand 
 occasioned, deaf to the hurried whisper : 
 
 " For pity's sake, go now that you can. You are 
 in danger here. Think of yourself, if you will not 
 think of me ! " 
 
 " I can think of but one person," said I harshly. 
 " I have come a thousand miles to learn things 
 which I know you can tell me, and here I remain 
 until I have heard them. Any delay on your 
 side will only prolong the danger, since danger 
 there be." 
 
 She looked up in tearful pleading, met my obsti- 
 nate gaze, and instantly submitted — a woman born 
 to be ruled. 
 
 " Go, Trude," she said faintly, " and warn me if 
 you see your master coming. What will she think 
 of me .'' " sighed the poor lady as the door closed 
 upon an awe-struck but evidently suspicious Trude. 
 " But no matter, better that just now than the 
 truth. Now, sir, for God's sake, what is it you 
 would have of me } " 
 
 "Let me go back," said I, "to the beginning. 
 When I married . . . my wife at Tollendhal, she 
 was then, for a freak as you say, acting the lady- 
 in-waiting, while you assumed her role of Prin- 
 cess ? " 
 
 " It is so," said Madam Lothner, "but I never
 
 The Pride of Jennico 277 
 
 knew till the deed was accomplished to what length 
 her Highness had chosen to push her folly. I 
 could not then attempt to interfere or advise, still 
 less could I be the person to send tidings to the 
 Court." 
 
 " So ? " said I, as she paused. 
 
 " So," said she, " in great fear and trembling, I 
 deemed it best to obey her Highness's strict com- 
 mand, and await events at the Castle of Schreck- 
 endorf, still in my assumed part." 
 
 " But when my wife returned to you," I said, 
 and my voice shook, " returned to you in a peas- 
 ant's cart, — oh, I know all about it, Madam, I 
 know that I drove her forth through the most 
 insensate pride that ever lost soul its paradise, — 
 when she returned, the truth must have already 
 been known.?" 
 
 "Ach, yes," murmured the sentimental Saxon, 
 her eyes watering with very sympathy at the sight 
 of my bitter self-reproach. " Yes, it was because 
 of rumours which had already reached the resi- 
 dence (from your friends in England, I believe), 
 that his Serene Highness the Duke sent in such 
 haste to recall us. He would not come himself 
 for fear of giving weight to the scandal. But 
 it was her Highness who chose to confirm the 
 report."
 
 278 TJie Pride of Jennico 
 
 " How ? " cried I eagerly. 
 
 "Why, sir," answered the doctor's lady, flowing 
 on not unwillingly in her soft guttural, though 
 visibly perturbed nevertheless, and now and again 
 anxiously alive to any sound without — "why, sir, 
 her Highness having returned to Schreckendorf 
 before the arrival of the ladies and gentlemen 
 from Lausitz, and being, it seemed, determined " 
 — here she hesitated and glanced at me timidly — 
 " determined not to return to Tollendhal ever again, 
 her Highness might easily, had she wished, have 
 denied the whole story. And indeed," continued 
 the speaker with a shrewdness I would not have 
 given her credit for, " had she so behaved it 
 would have best pleased her relations. But she 
 was not so made." 
 
 " Ah, no indeed," said I, " her pride would not 
 stoop to that." 
 
 " You are right," said Madam Lothner, with a 
 sigh, " she is very proud. She was calm and 
 seemed to have quite made up her mind. ' I will 
 give no explanation to any one,' she said to me, 
 ' and I recognise in no one the right to question 
 me. But my father shall know that I am married, 
 and that I am separated from my husband for ever. 
 I am not the first woman of my rank on whom 
 such a fate has fallen.' That was her attftude."
 
 The Pride of Jennico 279 
 
 And here the good creature broke forth as if in 
 spite of herself with passionate expostulation. 
 
 "Ah, M. de Jennico, but she suffered! Oh, if 
 you would atone, leave her now, leave her at least 
 in peace ! You have brought enough sorrow al- 
 ready into her life. Ach ! I do not know how it 
 has been between you ; but now that she thinks 
 you dead, for God's sake let it be ! " 
 
 " By Heaven, Madam," cried I, half mad, I be- 
 lieve, between pain, remorse, and fury, " these are 
 strange counsels ! Do you forget that we are man 
 and wife, and this by her own doing } But truly 
 I need not be surprised, for you do not hesitate 
 before crime at the Court of Lausitz, and if mur- 
 der be so lightly condoned, sure it is that bigamy 
 must seem a very peccadillo." 
 
 Madam Lothner stared at me with startled eyes 
 and dropping jaw. 
 
 "Murder," she whispered, " M. de Jennico! 
 what terrible thing do you say } " 
 
 Then she put her hand to her head, ejaculating : 
 " True, it was the Margrave himself who brought 
 us news of your death on his return from England. 
 It was in the English papers. I feared I know 
 not what, but this — this — God save us ! " 
 
 I looked at her in fresh bewilderment. She 
 was as one seized by overwhelming terror. I felt
 
 28o TJie Pride of Jcjmico 
 
 that her emotion had its origin in causes still 
 unknown to me. 
 
 " And who is the Margrave ? " I cried quickly. 
 
 She lowered her voice to the barest breath of 
 sound, and glanced fearfully over her shoulder as 
 if afraid of eavesdroppers even in this retired 
 room. 
 
 " Prince Eugen, as they call him," she said, 
 "one of her Highness's cousins. He has, I do not 
 quite know how, hopes of sovereignty in Poland, 
 and they were to have been married : it was her 
 father's wish, and it is so still." 
 
 I sprang up with an imprecation, but the lady 
 almost flung herself upon me, and clapped her 
 hand over my mouth. 
 
 "In the name of God," she said, "be still, or 
 you will ruin us ! My husband is his most devoted 
 adherent. In this house he rules, and we bow to 
 the earth before him." 
 
 I sank back into my seat, docile, in spite of my- 
 self, impressed by the strength of her fear. New 
 trains of revelations crowded upon me. Eugen of 
 Licgnitz-Rothenburg — Rothenburg — Ville-Rouge 
 — I saw it all ! 
 
 She went on, bringing her mouth close to my 
 ear: 
 
 "The Princess hated him, and indeed he has
 
 The Pride of Jcnnico 281 
 
 grown into a strange and terrifying man, so oddly 
 impulsive, cruel, wilful, vindictive. He always 
 professed to love the Princess, but I cannot but 
 think that it was the love of taming — he would 
 dearly love to break her, just as he loves to 
 break the proudest-spirited horse. His grey eye 
 makes me grow cold. As I said, from a child 
 she hated him, and it was for that — having seen 
 one whom she thought she could love . . ," Here 
 she paused, and glanced at me, and hesitated. 
 
 It was for that. I remembered. She had told 
 me of the unhappy fate that threatened " the 
 Princess " that evening when we met under the 
 fir-trees to decide upon my crazy match, and when, 
 as I had deemed, she had fooled me to the top of 
 my bent. She had spoken in tones of scathing 
 contempt and hatred of some cavalier. And now } 
 Suddenly gripped by the old devil of doubt and 
 jealousy, I cried out, "And now, after all, the fate 
 of being wedded to an obscure gentleman seems 
 to her more dreadful than that of sharing her 
 place with her cousin, and the peculiar qualities 
 of the hated relative have been very usefully em- 
 ployed in ridding her of the inconvenient husband .'' 
 Oh, Madam, of course you know your Court of 
 Lausitz, and I think I begin to see your drift : 
 you think, in your amiability, that it would be
 
 282 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 preferable to see your mistress bigamously united, 
 than that she should legitimise her position by yet 
 another and more successful attempt at assassina- 
 tion." 
 
 " I fail to understand you, sir," drawing back 
 from me, nevertheless, with a glance of mistrust 
 and indignation. 
 
 "I will be plain," said I: "when the Princess, 
 who is my wife, left me, — I will own I bear some 
 blame, but then I had been strangely played with, 
 — she had doubtless already begun to repent what 
 you call her freak. When I followed her and 
 implored her forgiveness, — you yourself know all 
 about it, Madam, for you must have acted under 
 her orders, — she flung back my letters, through 
 your agency, with a contemptuous denial of any 
 knowledge of such a person as M. dc Jennico. 
 When I wrote to her, her whom I believed to 
 bear your name, a pleading, abject letter, for 
 I was still but a poor living fool, her only 
 answer was to have me seized and driven from 
 the country like a criminal. Later on, when I 
 refused to be a party to her petition for divorce, 
 she thought, no doubt, she had given me chances 
 enough, and this time she deputed the noble 
 bully, her cousin, to manage the matter in his 
 own fashion. My life was attempted five times,
 
 The Pride of Jennico 283 
 
 Madam. And when it all failed, — your Prince 
 Eugen, you tell me, he was in England, and there 
 was a certain great bulky Chevalier de Ville- 
 Rouge, who particularly sought my acquaintance 
 — 'tis he, is it not ? — your Prince Eugen hon- 
 oured me by seeking a duello, and by running his 
 august sword through my common body, and that 
 more often, be it said, than custom sanctions in 
 honourable encounters. I was given for dead. 
 No wonder ! It seems to be the sport of hell to 
 keep me alive. I can scarce think it is the will 
 of Heaven." 
 
 Madam Lothner had followed my tirade with 
 what appeared the most conflicting sentiments : 
 blank astonishment, horror, indignation. It was 
 the last, however, that predominated. Her coun- 
 tenance became suffused with crimson ; her blue 
 eyes flashed a fire I had not deemed them capable 
 of harbouring ; she forgot the precautions she her- 
 self had so strenuously enjoined. 
 
 " And do you dare, sir," cried she, " accuse my 
 mistress of these things — you, whom she loved .'' 
 You knew her as your wife for four weeks, and 
 yet you know her so little as to believe her plot- 
 ting your death ! Those letters, sir, you speak of, 
 she never received, nor did I, nor did she nor I 
 ever hear of your presence in this land. 'Tis
 
 284 The Pi'ide of Jcnnico 
 
 true that after you had left, — for you left her 
 first, remember, — after well-nigh a year without 
 tidings of you, she did herself send to you to 
 request the annulment of the marriage. It was 
 to free you because she believed you repented of it, 
 and she felt she had entrapped you into it. And 
 when, sir, you refused, she had hope again in her 
 heart, for she loved you. And she suffered perse- 
 cution on your account, and was kept and watched 
 like a state prisoner — she that had always lived 
 for the free air, and for her own way. They were 
 cruel to her, and put dreadful pressure upon her 
 that she should make her appeal alone to the 
 Pope. But she held firm, and bore it all in silence, 
 and lived surrounded by spies, her old friends and 
 old servants banished from her sight, until the 
 news came that you were dead. Then . . . ah, 
 then, she mourned as never a woman mourned 
 yet for her first and only love ! As to marriage 
 — what dreadful things have you been saying .'' 
 Her Highness will never marry again. She will 
 be faithful as long as she lives to you, whom she 
 believes dead. And God forbid it should be other- 
 wise, for Prince Eugen would wed her from no 
 love, I believe, but solely to punish her for resist- 
 ing him so long, to break her to his will at last, 
 and triumph over her. Oh, no, she would never
 
 The Pride of Jennico 285 
 
 wed again ! You must believe me, for I have been 
 with her through it all, and though she would 
 mock me and laugh at me once, she turned to 
 
 me afterwards as to her only friend Get up, 
 
 M. de Jennico, get up ! Ach Gott ! what a coil 
 this is ! My good sir, get up ; think if the doctor 
 were to come in ! Ach Gott ! what is that you 
 say ? Nay, I have been a fool, and this is the 
 worst of all. My poor friend, there is no room for 
 happiness here ! " 
 
 For I had fallen at her feet again, and was 
 covering her hand with kisses, blessing her with 
 tears, I believe, for the happiness of this moment. 
 
 She ended, good soul, by weeping with me, or 
 rather, over the pity of the joy that was doomed, 
 as she thought, to such brief duration. 
 
 " Oh, you are mad, you are mad ! " she said, as 
 I poured forth I know not what extravagant plans. 
 Ottilie loved me, cried I in the depths of my ex- 
 ultant soul : what could be difficult now } " You 
 are mad ! Have you not yet learned your lesson ? 
 Do you not understand that they will never, 7ici'ct 
 let you have her .'' Go back to your home, sir, 
 and if you love her never let her know you are 
 still alive, for if they heard it here, God knows 
 what she would be put to bear ; and if she knew 
 they had tried to murder you, it would kill her.
 
 286 The Pride of Jcnuico 
 
 I tell you, sir, a Court is a dreadful place, and 
 Prince Eugen, you know what he is, and his 
 Serene Highness himself, he is hard as the stones 
 of the street. You have seen what they have 
 done — no law can reach them ! They will not 
 
 fail again. And if a second scandal " she 
 
 paused, hesitated, shuddered, then bending over 
 to me she whispered, half inarticulately, " if a 
 second scandal came to pass, who knows what 
 forfeit she might not have to pay!" 
 
 But I rose, clasped her two hands, and looked into 
 her eyes with all the bold joy that filled my heart. 
 
 " My kind friend," I said, " you cannot frighten 
 me now. Keep you but our secret, and you will 
 yet see your mistress happy." I wrung her hands, 
 and hurried to the door, as eager now to be gone 
 as I had been to enter. I must act, and act at 
 once, and there was nnich to do. 
 
 She followed me, lamenting and entreating, to 
 the steps, where stood faithful Trude, with gar- 
 ments blown about in the cold wind. But, as I 
 turned to take a last farewell, my hostess caught 
 me by the sleeve. 
 
 " Keep close," she said, " keep close ; and if you 
 
 are hurt, if you are ill " she hesitated a second, 
 
 then leaned forward and breathed into my car, 
 "do not send for the Court doctor."
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 I RUSHED out into the street, treading as if on 
 air, my cloak floating behind me, my head thrown 
 back, all warnings unheeded in the first overpower- 
 ing tide of this joy which had come upon me at the 
 darkest hour of all. 
 
 I had told myself that I must act, and act at 
 once. But till I had had a moment's breathing 
 time to realise the extraordinary revelations by 
 which the whole face of the past and of the 
 future was changed to me, I could form no 
 coherent thought, much less could I form plans. 
 
 I wanted space for this — space and solitude. 
 And so I hurried along as I have described, 
 looking neither to the right nor to the left, when 
 I was seized upon from behind, and by no means 
 gentle hands brought me first to a standstill, and 
 next threw the folds of my cloak around me in 
 such a fashion as once more to cover my face. 
 
 "Are you mad.?" said Janos, with a fiercer 
 display of anger than I had ever known him 
 show to me, though he had marshalled me pretty 
 rigidly through my illness. " I have been fol- 
 
 287
 
 288 TJie Pride of Jcnnico 
 
 lowing you these five minutes, and all the town 
 stares at your honour. 'Tis lucky you took a side 
 turning just now or you would have been straight 
 into the great place, perhaps into the main guard. 
 If you want to look for death, you can go to the 
 wars like my old master, but 'tis an ill thing to find 
 it in the assassin's blade, as I thought you had 
 learned by now. Do you forget," continued Janos, 
 scolding more vehemently, "that they are all 
 leagued against you in this country .-' Do you for- 
 get how they packed you out of the land last year, 
 and warned you never to return 1 'Tis very well 
 to risk one's life, but 'lis ill to throw it away." 
 
 " Oh, Janos, true soul," said I, as soon as I could 
 get air to speak with, for his grasp upon the folds of 
 my cloak was like an iron clamp, " all is changed, 
 all is explained. You saw me last the most miser- 
 able of men : you see me now the happiest ! " 
 
 We had paused in a deserted alley leading into 
 the gardens on the ramparts. As I looked round 
 I saw that the sky had grown darkly overcast, and 
 by Janos's pinched face, as well as by the bowing 
 and bending of the trees, that the wind had risen 
 strong and cold. To me it might have been the 
 softest breeze of spring. I drew the man over to a 
 bench all frosted already by tiny flakes which fell 
 persistently, yet sparsely, and there I told him my
 
 The Pride of Jennico 289 
 
 tale of joy. He listened, blinking and grinning. 
 At length when it was duly borne in upon him that 
 the wife I was seeking was really and actually the 
 Princess of the land, he clasped his hands and 
 cried with a certain savage enthusiasm : 
 
 " Oh, that my old master had lived to see the 
 day ! " But the next instant the bristling difficul- 
 ties of the situation began to oppress his aged 
 heart. He pondered with a falling face. 
 
 "Then your honour is in even greater danger 
 than I had thought," said he, "and every second 
 he passes in this town of cut-throats adds to the 
 risk." 
 
 " Even so," said I, clapping him on the shoulders, 
 my spirits rising higher, it seemed, with every fresh 
 attempt to depress them, — " Even so, my good 
 fellow ; and therefore since my wife I mean to 
 have, and since I mean to live to be happy with 
 her, what say you to our carrying her off this very 
 night?" 
 
 He made no outcry : he knew the breed (he 
 himself had said it) too well. As you may see 
 a dog watch his master's signal to dash after 
 the prey, wagging his tail faintly the while, so 
 the fellow turned and fixed me. 
 
 "And how will your honour do it.?" said he 
 without a protest.
 
 290 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 "How?" said T, and laughed aloud; "by my 
 soul I know not! I know nothing yet, but we will 
 home to the inn and deliberate. There is nought 
 so difficult but love will find the way, and Romeos 
 will scale walls to reach their Juliets so long as 
 this old world lasts." 
 
 I rose as I spoke, and so did Janos, shaking the 
 snow from his bent shoulders. 
 
 " I know nothing of the gentlemen your honour 
 speaks of, nor of the ladies, but my old master, 
 your honour's uncle, did things in his days. . . . 
 God forgive me that I should remember them 
 against a holy soul in heaven ! There was a time 
 when he kept a whole siege (it was before Reichen- 
 berg in '59) — a whole siege waiting, ordered a ces- 
 sation of fire for a night, that he might visit some 
 lady in the town. He was the general of the be- 
 sieging army, and he could order as he pleased. By 
 Saint Stephen, he got into the town somehow . . . 
 and I with him . . . and next morning wc got out 
 again ! No one knew where we had been but 
 himself, and myself, and herself — he, he! — and 
 before midday we had that tovv'n." 
 
 "Fie, fie, Jano.s," said I, "these are sad tales of 
 a field-marshal ; let us hope my good aunt never 
 heard them." 
 
 " Her Excellency," said Janos, and crossed him-
 
 The Pride of Jennico 291 
 
 self, " would have gloried in the deed. But, your 
 honour, we have the heavens against us to-night ; 
 I have not seen a sky look blacker, even in Eng- 
 land, since the great storm at Tollendhal. . . . 
 Ah, your honour remembers when." 
 
 "All the better," said I, as we turned the corner; 
 " a stormy night is the best of nights for a bold 
 deed." 
 
 And I thought within myself : " I lost her in the 
 storm; in the storm shall I find her again." Thus 
 docs a glad heart frame his own omen. 
 
 It v/as all very fine to talk of carrying off my 
 wife in such fashion; but when, seated together 
 near the fire in my room, talking in whispers so 
 that not even the great stove door could catch the 
 meaning of our conclave, Janos and I discussed 
 our plans, we found that everything fell before the 
 insuperable difficulty of our ignorance of the to- 
 pography of the palace. There seemed nothing 
 for it but to endeavour to interviev/ Anna once 
 more, dangerous as the process might be. And we 
 were already discussing in what character Janes 
 should present himself, when Fortune — that jade 
 that had long turned so cold a shoulder upon me 
 — came to the rescue in the person of the good 
 woman herself. There was a hard knock at the 
 door, which made us both, conspirators as we
 
 292 The Pride of Jcnnico 
 
 were, jump apart, and I involuntarily felt for the 
 pistol in my coat skirts, whilst Janos stalked to 
 open. 
 
 And there stood the lank black figure which had 
 once seemed to cast a sort of shadow on my young 
 delight, but which now I greeted as that of an 
 angel of deliverance. She loved her mistress, her 
 mistress loved me — what could she do me then 
 but good ? 
 
 I sprang forward and drew her in by both hands. 
 She threw back the folds of her hood and looked 
 round upon us, and her grim anxious countenance 
 relaxed into something like a smile. Then she 
 dropped me a stiff curtsey, and coming close to 
 my ear: 
 
 " I gave my mistress the gracious master's let- 
 ter," she said, and paused. I seized upon her 
 hand again. 
 
 " Oh, Anna, dear Anna, how is she .'' How did 
 she take it .-' Was she much concerned .-" Was 
 she ..." I hesitated, "was she glad to learn I 
 am not dead .-' " 
 
 The woman's eyes looked as if they would fain 
 speak volumes, but her taciturn tongue gave 
 utterance to few words. 
 
 "My mistress," she said, "wept much, and 
 thanked God." That was all, but I was satisfied.
 
 TJic Pride of Jcfinico 293 
 
 "She is in much fear for you," the messenger 
 went on after a pause. " She bade me say she 
 dared not write because of the danger to you ; 
 she bade me say that the danger is greater than 
 you know of ; that your enemies are other than 
 you think. Now they beHeve you dead, but you 
 may be recognised. And you were out to-day 
 again ! " said Anna, suddenly dropping the sing- 
 song whisper of her recitation and turning ujDon 
 me sternly with uplifted finger. " Out, in spite 
 of my warning ! I know, for I came to the inn to 
 find you. All this is foolish." 
 
 "And this is the end of your message.''" said 
 I, who had been drinking in every word my wife's 
 sweet lips had so sweetly spoken for me. " Was 
 there nothing else } " said I again, for my soul 
 hungered for a further sign of love. 
 
 "There was one thing more," said Anna in her 
 stolid way : " she bade me say she would contrive 
 to see you somehow soon, but that as you love 
 her you must keep hidden." 
 
 I shut my eyes for a second to taste in the 
 secret of my heart the honeyed savour of that 
 little phrase that meant so much : " as you love 
 me!'' for there rang the unmistakable appeal of 
 love to love! And I smiled to think that she still 
 reserved the telling of her secret. I guessed it
 
 294 TJie Pride of Jennico 
 
 was because she was pleased that I should want 
 her for herself, and not for the vain pride that 
 had been our undoing. 
 
 And then, with my bold resolve a thousandfold 
 strengthened, I caught Anna by the arm. 
 
 " Now listen," said I, and stooped to bring my 
 lips to her car. "When I went out this afternoon 
 it was to good purpose. I have seen Frau Loth- 
 ner. ... I know all." 
 
 " Lord God ! " cried Anna, and snatched her 
 hand from mine and threw her arms to heaven, 
 her long brown face overspread with pallor ; " and 
 she has seen you, has recognised you — the Court 
 doctor's wife ! Then God help us all ! If the 
 secret is not out to-day it will be to-morrow. Oh, 
 my poor child, my poor child ! " She rocked 
 herself to and fro in a paroxysm of indignant 
 grief. 
 
 " l^ut," said I, trying to soothe her that she 
 might listen to my plan, " Madam Lothner is an 
 old friend of mine, she is devoted to the Princess, 
 she has a kind heart, she has promised me dis- 
 cretion." 
 
 ".She!" said Anna, and paused to throw me 
 a look of unutterable scorn. " She, the sheep- 
 head ! in the hands of such an one ns the Court 
 doctor! My lord, I give you hut to nn'dnight to
 
 The Pride of Jcnnico 295 
 
 escape ! for as it happens — and God is merciful 
 that it happens so — the Margrave has sent for 
 the doctor at his camp of Liegnitz, and he will 
 not return until after supper." 
 
 "So be it," said I gaily; "escape I shall, Anna, 
 but not alone." 
 
 The woman's sallow face grew paler yet. The 
 depth of the love for the child she had nursed at 
 her breast gave her perspicacity. Her eye sought 
 mine with fearful anticipation. 
 
 I drew her to the furthest end of the room and 
 rapidly expounded my project, which developed 
 itself in my mind even as I spoke. Outside the 
 snow was falling fast. All good citizens were 
 within doors; there was as yet no suspicion of 
 my presence in the town ; the palace was quiet 
 and my bitterest enemy was absent; to delay 
 would be to lose our only chance. The passion 
 of my arguments, none the less forcible, perhaps, 
 because of the stress of circumstances which kept 
 my voice at whisper pitch, bore down Anna's 
 protests, her peasant's fears. I had, I believe, a 
 powerful auxiliary in the woman's knowledge of 
 all that her beloved mistress might be made to 
 suffer upon the discovery of my reappearance. 
 She felt the convincing truth of my statement, 
 that if the attempt was to be made at all it must
 
 296 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 be made this very nif^ht, and she saw too that I 
 said true when I told her I would only give up 
 such attempt with my life. 
 
 Moreover (joy as yet hardly realised !) she 
 knew that my wife's happiness lay in me alone; 
 and so she agreed, with unexpected heartiness, 
 to every detail of my scheme. 
 
 She was to meet me at the end of the palace 
 garden lane before the stroke of eight, two hours 
 hence, and admit me through a side postern into 
 the garden itself. We were obliged to fix so early 
 an hour to avoid the necessity of running twice 
 past sentries, who, it seemed, were doubled around 
 the palace after eight o'clock. The Princess's 
 apartments were upon the first floor on the garden 
 side, and from the terrace below it was quite pos- 
 sible, it appeared, for an active man to climb up 
 to her balcony. I would bring a rope-ladder — 
 Janos should make it, for he had no doubt some 
 knowledge of that scaling implement. As soon 
 as she had shown me the way, Anna was to 
 endeavour to prepare her mistress for my coming. 
 Janos in his turn was to be waiting with my car- 
 riage and post-horses as near the garden gate as 
 he dared. The Princess, the nurse told me, was 
 wont to retire about nine, it might be a little 
 earlier or later, and liked then to be left in soli-
 
 The Pride of Jeiinico 297 
 
 tude, Anna herself being the only person admitted 
 to her chamber. 
 
 Among the many risks there was one inevitable, 
 the danger of being discovered by my wife lurking 
 on her balcony before Anna had had time to carry 
 her message : for it was impossible, the woman 
 warned me, that she should now see her mistress 
 before the latter descended to meet the Duke at 
 supper. I was, however, gaily prepared to face 
 this risk, and even, foolhardy as it may seem, 
 desired in my inmost soul that there should be 
 no intermediary on this occasion, and that my 
 lips only should woo her back to me; that this 
 first meeting after our hard parting should be 
 sacred to ourselves alone. 
 
 I reckoned besides upon the fact that since 
 Ottilie knew I was in the town, she would not be 
 surprised at my boldness, however desperate ; that 
 she would ascertain with her own eyes who it was 
 who dared climb so high, before she called for 
 help. 
 
 At length, when everything was clear, — and the 
 woman showed after all a wonderful mother wit, — 
 Anna departed in the storm, and I and Janos were 
 left to our own plans and preparations. As for 
 me, my heart had never ridden so high ; never for 
 a second did I pause or hesitate. In a few minutes
 
 298 The Pride of Jcnnico 
 
 \vc had devised half a dozen alternate schemes of 
 flight, all equally good — all equally precarious. 
 
 "Will your honour leave it to me," said the old 
 campaigner at last, as he sat beginning to plait 
 and knot various lengths of our luggage ropes into 
 an escape ladder, — "the settlement of the inn ac- 
 count, the post-horses, and the choice of the road?" 
 
 With this I was content. 
 
 The wind had abated a little, but the snow was 
 still falling steadily when I set forth at length. 
 The streets were, as I expected, very empty, and 
 the few wayfarers whom I chanced to meet were 
 so enveloped and so plastered with white, the chief 
 thought of every one was so obviously how best 
 to keep himself warm, how soonest to get within 
 shelter, that I hugged myself again upon my 
 luck. There was a glow within me which defied 
 the elements. 
 
 At the corner of the garden lane, at the ap- 
 pointed place, even as the tower clock began the 
 quarter chimes, I saw a woman's figure rapidly 
 approaching the trysting spot from the opposite 
 direction. I hesitated for a moment, uncertain as 
 to its identity, but it made straight for me, and I 
 saw it was Anna. As we turned into the lane 
 itself she suddenly whispered : 
 
 " Put your arm round my waist," and the next
 
 The Pride of Jemiico 2g(^ 
 
 instant, from the very midst of ray amazement, I 
 realised her meaning : we had to pass close by 
 a sentry-box. Woman's wits are ever sharper 
 than man's. The sentry was stamping to and fro, 
 beating his breast with his disengaged hand, but 
 ceased his bear dance to stare at us, as we came 
 within the light of the postern lamp, and launched 
 at the dim couple so lovingly embraced some rude 
 witticism in his peasant tongue, accompanied by 
 a grunt of good-natured laughter. My supposed 
 sweetheart pulled her hood further over her face, 
 answered back tartly with a couple of words in the 
 country dialect ; and, followed by an ironical bless- 
 ing from the churl, we were free to pursue our 
 way unchallenged. 
 
 This was the only obstacle we encountered ; the 
 lane was quite deserted. We stopped before a 
 little postern door half buried in ivy, which Anna, 
 producing a key from her pocket, unlocked after 
 some difficulty. At last it rolled back on its rusty 
 hinges with what sounded in my ears as an exult- 
 ant creak. An ancient bird's nest fell upon my 
 head as we passed through into the garden. Anna 
 carefully pushed the door to once more, but with- 
 out locking it, and we hastened towards the dis- 
 tant gleaming front of the palace, stumbling as we 
 went, for the soft snow concealed the irregularities
 
 300 The Pride of Jcnuico 
 
 of the path. Without hesitation, however, my 
 guide led me between two fantastically carved 
 hedges of box and yew till we came to a statue, 
 rearing a blurred outline, ghostly white in the 
 faint snowlight. Here she stood still and pointing 
 to the south wing : 
 
 " There," she said, while all the blood in my 
 body leaped, " there are my mistress's apartments ; 
 see you those three windows above the terrace? 
 The middle window with the balcony is that of 
 her Highness's bedroom. You cannot mistake it. 
 The ivy is as thick as a man's arm, and you may 
 climb by it in safety. Now that I have done what 
 you bade me I will go to the palace. God see us 
 through this mad night's work ! " 
 
 With these words she left me. I ventured to 
 the foot of the terrace wall, and creeping alongside 
 soon found the terrace steps, which I ascended 
 with a tread as noiseless as the fall of the thick 
 snowflakes all around me. I stood under her 
 balcony. I groped for the ivy-stems, and found 
 tl)cm indeed as thick as cables. It was a plant of 
 centenarian growth, and it clasped the old palace 
 walls with a hundred arms, as close as welded 
 iron : as strong and commodious a ladder as my 
 purpose required. I swung myself up (I tremble 
 now to think how recklessly, when one false step
 
 The Pride of Jennico 301 
 
 might have ended the life that had grown 
 so dear), and next I found myself upon the 
 balcony — Ottilie's balcony ! — and through the 
 parted curtains could peer into her lighted 
 room. 
 
 Then for the first time I paused, hesitating to 
 pry upon her retirement like a thief in the night. 
 For a moment I knelt upon the snow and cried in 
 my heart for pardon to her. Then, drawing cau- 
 tiously aside from the shaft of light, I looked in. 
 It was a large lofty apartment with much gilding, 
 tarnished it seemed by time, and with faded paint- 
 ings and medallions on the walls. In an alcove 
 curtained off I divined in the shadow a great carved 
 bed, whose gilt curves caught now and again a 
 gleam of ruby light from the open door of an 
 immense rose china stove. My eyes lingered ten- 
 derly over every detail of the sanctuary sacred to 
 my lady. Outside upon the balcony, all in the 
 darkness, the cold, and the snow, my whole being 
 began to swim in a dreamy warmth of love. It 
 is like enough that had not something come to 
 rouse me, I might have been found next morn- 
 ing, stiff, frozen upon my perch, with a smile 
 upon my lips — a very sweet and easy death ! 
 But from this dangerous dreaminess I was pres- 
 ently aroused to vivid watchfulness and energy,
 
 302 TJie Pride of Jennico 
 
 My wandering gaze had been for a little while 
 uncomprehcndingly fixed upon a shining wing of 
 flowered satin stuff that trailed on one side of a 
 great armchair, the back of which was turned 
 towards me. This wing of brocade caught the 
 full illumination of the candles on the wall and 
 showed hues of pink and green as dainty as the 
 monthly roses in the garden of my old home in 
 England. Now as I gazed the roses began to 
 move as if a breeze had shaken them, and lo ! 
 the next moment, a little hand as white as milk 
 fluttered down like a dove upon them and drew 
 them out of sight. For a second my heart stood 
 still, and then beat against my breast like a frantic 
 wild thing of the woods against the bars of its 
 cage. She was there, there already, my be- 
 loved ! What kept me from breaking in upon 
 her, I cannot say — a sort of fear of looking upon 
 her face again in the midst of my great longing 
 — or maybe my good angel ! Anyhow I paused, 
 and pausing was saved. For in a second more a 
 door opposite to me opened, and an elderly lady, 
 followed by two servants carrying a table spread 
 for a repast, entered the room. The lady came 
 towards the armchair and curtsied. I saw her 
 lips move and caught the murmur of her voice, 
 and listened next in vain for the music of those
 
 TJie Pride of Jeimico 303 
 
 tones for which my ear had hungered so many- 
 days and nights. 
 
 I saw the white hand cleave the air again as if 
 with an impatient gesture. The lady curtsied, the 
 lackeys deposited the table near the chair, and all 
 three withdrew. 
 
 I had trusted to fate to be kind to me this night, 
 but I had not dared expect from fate more than 
 neutrality ; and now it was clear that it was taking 
 sides for me, and that my wife had been strangely 
 well inspired to sup in her chamber alone, instead 
 of in public with her father, as I had been told 
 was her wont. 
 
 No sooner had the attendants retired than I 
 beheld her light figure spring up with the old 
 bounding impetuosity I had loved and laughed 
 at, fling herself against the door, and I heard the 
 snap of the key. Now was my opportunity ! And 
 yet again I hesitated and watched. My face was 
 pressed against the glass in the full glare of the 
 light, without a thought of caution, forgetting that, 
 were she to look up and see me, the woman alone 
 might well scream at the wild, eager face watch- 
 ing her with burning eyes from out of the black 
 night. But she did not look up. 
 
 Wheeling round at the door itself as if she could 
 not even wait to get back to her chair, Ottilie —
 
 304 Tlie Pride of Jennico 
 
 my Ottilie — drew from beneath the lace folds 
 that crossed upon her young bosom a folded let- 
 ter, which I recognized, by the coarse grey paper, 
 as that which my own hand had scored in the little 
 provision shop a few hours ago. 
 
 An extraordinary mixture of emotions seized 
 upon my soul : a sort of shame of myself again 
 for spying upon her private life, and an unutter- 
 able rapture. I could have knelt once more in 
 the snow as before a sacred shrine, and I could 
 have broken down a fortress to get to her. From 
 the very strength of the conflict I was motionless, 
 with all my life still in my eyes. 
 
 When she had finished reading she lifted her 
 face for a moment, and then for the first time I 
 saw it. Oh, dear face, paled with many tears 
 and dark thoughts, but beautiful, beyond even my 
 heated fancy, with a new beauty, rarer and more 
 exquisite than it is given me to describe ! The 
 same, yet not the same ! The wife I had left 
 had been a wilful and wayward child, a mocking 
 sprite — the wife I hci-e found again was a gra- 
 cious, a ripe and tender woman, upon whose lips 
 and eyes sat the seal of a noble, sorrowful 
 endurance. 
 
 She lifted the letter to her lips and kissed it, 
 looked up again, and then our eyes met ! Then I
 
 TJie Pride of Jennico 305 
 
 hardly remember what I did. I was unconscious 
 of any deliberate thought ; I only knew that there 
 was my wife, and that not another second should 
 pass before I had her in my arms. 
 
 I suppose I must have hurled myself against 
 the casement ; the lock yielded, and the window 
 flew open. Enveloped in a whirl of floating snow 
 I leaped into the warm room. With dilated, 
 fixed eyes, with parted lips, she stood, terror- 
 stricken, at first, yet erect and undaunted. I had 
 counted all along on her courage, and it did not 
 fail me ! But before I had even time to speak, 
 such a change came over her as is like the first 
 upspring of sunlight upon the colourless world of 
 dawn. As you may see a wave gather itself aloft 
 to break upon the shore, so she drew herself up 
 and flung herself, melting into tears, body and 
 soul, as it were, upon my heart. And the next 
 moment her lips sought mine. 
 
 Never before had she so come to me — never 
 before had life held for me such a moment! Oh, 
 my God ! it was worth the suffering !
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 A KNOCK without aroused us. With a stifled cry 
 of alarm, the woman who had made no sound on 
 the violent entry of an armed man upon her un- 
 protected solitude, now fell into deadly anguish. 
 She sprang to the door, and I could see the lace 
 on her bosom flutter with the fear of her heart 
 as she bent her ear to listen. The knock was 
 repeated. 
 
 " Who is it .'' " cried Ottilie, in a strangled voice. 
 " I had said I would be alone." 
 
 " 'Tis I, child," came the answer in the well- 
 known deep note; "it is Anna, alone." 
 
 I thrust my sword back into its scabbard ; my 
 wife drew a long breath of relief, and glanced at 
 me with her hand pressed to her heart. 
 
 " Anna, thank God ! We can admit her : Anna 
 is safe," she said, and turned the key. 
 
 Anna opened the door, stood an instant on t^hc 
 threshold, contemplating us in silence ; a faint 
 smile hovered about her hard mouth. Then, 
 without wasting words on futile warnings, she 
 made fast the lock, deposited on the floor a dark 
 
 306
 
 The Pride of Jennico 307 
 
 lantern she had concealed under her apron, walked 
 to the window, which she closed as best she could, 
 and drew the curtains securely. Indeed, her pre- 
 caution was not idle : through the silence of the 
 outside world of night, muffled by the snow, but 
 yet unmistakable, the tread of the first patrolling 
 round now grew even more distinctly upon our 
 ear, passed under the terrace, emphasised by an 
 occasional click of steel, and died away round the 
 corner. With the vanishing sound melted the nev/ 
 anxiety which had clutched me, and I blessed the 
 falling snow which must have hidden again, as 
 soon as registered, the tell-tale traces of my foot- 
 steps below. 
 
 Anna had listened with frowning brow; when 
 all was still once more, she turned to the Princess, 
 and briefly, but in that softened voice I remem- 
 bered of old : 
 
 " I have told your ladies that you had bidden me 
 attend to you this night, and that you must not 
 be disturbed in the morning," and then turned to 
 me : " All is ready, sir ; we have till noon before 
 bi?ing discovered. And now, child," she continued, 
 as Ottilie, still closely clinging to my side, looked 
 up inquiringly, " no time to lose ; there is death in 
 this for thy gracious lord, if not for us all as well." 
 
 "What does she mean.?" asked Ottilie, and
 
 3o8 The Pride of Jcnnico 
 
 seemed brought from a far sphere of bliss face 
 to face with cold reality. " Oh, Basil, Basil, to 
 leave me again ! " 
 
 " Leave you ! I will never leave you," cried I, 
 touched to the quick at the change which had 
 come upon the proud spirit of my beloved ; "but 
 if you will not come with me, with your husband, 
 if you fear the perils of flight, the hardships of 
 the road, or even," said I, though it was only to 
 try her and taste once again the exquisite joy of 
 loving, humble words from her lips, " if you can- 
 not make up your mind to give up your high state 
 here, to live as the wife of a simple gentleman, 
 I am content to die at your side. But leave you, 
 never again ! Ah ! my God, once was too much." 
 
 She looked at me for a second with tender 
 reproach in her tear-dimmed eyes and upon her 
 trembling lips ; then she answered with a simplicity 
 that rebuked my mock humility : 
 
 " I am content to go with you, Basil, were it to 
 the end of the world." 
 
 At this I could not, in spite of Anna's presence, 
 but take her to my heart again, and the nurse, 
 after watching us with a curious look of mingled 
 pleasure and jealousy in her hollow eyes, sud- 
 denly and somewhat harshly bade us remember 
 once more that time was short.
 
 The Pride of Jcnnico 309 
 
 "You," she went on to her lady, peremptorily, 
 as if conscious of being herself the true mistress of 
 the situation, " drink you of that broth and break 
 some bread, and drink of that wine, for you have 
 not eaten to-day. And you," she added, turning 
 to me, "make ready with your ladder." 
 
 Impatiently and sternly she stood by us until we 
 prepared to obey her orders. 
 
 We owe a very great debt of gratitude to this 
 woman ! 
 
 My wife sat down like a child, watching me, 
 sweet heart ! over every mouthful of soup as 
 one who fears the vision may fade. As for 
 me, appreciating all the importance of immediate 
 action, I threw from me the perilous temptation of 
 letting myself go to the delight of the moment — 
 a delight enhanced, perhaps, by the very know- 
 ledge of environing danger. Opening my cloak, 
 I unwound the length of rope from my waist, 
 cautiously slipped out again on the balcony and 
 fastened one end to the iron rail. Remembering 
 the precious burden it was to bear, I could not 
 be satisfied without testing every knot, and finally 
 trying its strength with my own weight by de- 
 scending to the terrace. It worked satisfactorily, 
 and the distance, fortunately, was not excessive. 
 Then leaving it dangling, in three leaps I was
 
 3IO TJie Pride of Jennico 
 
 up again and once more in the warm room, just 
 in time to see an exquisite gleam of silk stocking 
 disappear into the depths of the fur boot which 
 Anna was fastening with all the dexterity of a 
 nurse dressing a child. 
 
 And, indeed, my sweet love submitted to be 
 turned and bustled and manipulated with an un- 
 complaining docility as if she was again back in 
 her babyhood — although in truth I have reason 
 to believe, from what I know of her and have 
 heard since, that not even then had she ever been 
 remarkable for docility. 
 
 Grimly smiling, Anna completed her labour by 
 submerging the dainty head in a deep hood ; 
 the sable-lined cloak and the muff she handed 
 over to me with the abrupt command : " Throw 
 them out! Auswerfen!" Anna should have been 
 a grenadier sergeant ; nevertheless, the thought 
 was good, and I promi)tly obeyed. Next she gave 
 me the lantern — she had thought of everything ! 
 — and commenced extinguishing the lights in the 
 room. I took Ottilie by the hand, the little warm 
 hand, ungloved, that it might the tighter feel the 
 rope. 
 
 "Will you trust yourself, love .-* " said I. She 
 gave me no answer but a shaft of one of her old 
 fearless looks and yielded her waist to my arm.
 
 The Pride of Jennico 311 
 
 and thus we stepped forth into the snow and the 
 night. I guided her to the rope and showed her 
 where to hold, and where to place her feet, and 
 then, climbing over the balcony, supporting my- 
 self by the projecting stones and the knotted ivy 
 I was able to guide the slender body down each 
 swinging rung : for when the blood is hot and 
 the heart on fire one can do things that would 
 otherwise appear well-nigh impossible. 
 
 Safely we reached the ground. I enveloped 
 her in the cloak which Anna's forethought had 
 provided, and after granting myself the luxury 
 of another embrace I was preparing to ascend 
 the blessed rope again for the purpose of assist- 
 ing Anna, when I discovered that incomparable 
 woman solidly and stolidly planted by our side in 
 the snow. 
 
 "All is right, gracious sir," she said in a hoarse 
 whisper ; " but it would be as well to take away 
 that rope, since you can go up and down so easily 
 without it." 
 
 Recognising in an instant the wisdom of the 
 suggestion — it was well some one had a waking 
 brain that night! — I clambered up once more, 
 and in a few seconds had flung down the tell-tale 
 ladder, and descended again. 
 
 Anna took up the lantern, which she hid under
 
 312 TJie Pride of Jeiinico 
 
 her cloak, and, all three clinging together, we 
 hastened to the postern as noiselessly as shadows. 
 The snow fell, but the wind had all subsided, and 
 the air was now so still that the cold struck no 
 chill. 
 
 Outside the postern, seeing no one in sight, we 
 paused. 
 
 " I have told Janos to be at the bottom of the 
 lane," said I to Anna, as she pocketed the key 
 after turning the lock. And then to my wife, who 
 hung close and silent to my arm : " It is but a 
 little way, and then you shall rest." 
 
 Even as I spoke I turned to lead her, but Anna 
 arrested me : 
 
 " I have thought better," she said. " To leave 
 the town in a carriage is dangerous. I have ar- 
 ranged otherwise." 
 
 I was about, I believe, to protest, or at least 
 discuss, when Ottilie, who had hitherto permitted 
 herself to be led whither I would, like one in a 
 dream, suddenly cried to me in an urgent under- 
 tone to let Anna have her way : " Believe me," 
 she said, "you will not repent it." I would have 
 gone anywhere at the command of that voice. 
 
 "It shall be so," said I; "but there is Janos, 
 and we cannot leave him in the lurch." 
 
 " No, we must have Janos with us," said Anna ;
 
 The Pride of Jennico 313 
 
 "but that is easy. Follow me, children." And 
 uncovering her lantern, with her skirts well kilted 
 up, she preceded us with fearless strides to the 
 secluded turn at the bottom of the lane, where, 
 true to his promise, I found the heiduck and his 
 conveyance. 
 
 For the greater security the lamps of the car- 
 riage had not been lit, but we could see its bulk 
 rise in denser black against the gloom before us, 
 and feel the warmth of the horses steam out upon 
 us, with a pleasant stable odour, into the purity 
 of the air. 
 
 There was a rapid colloquy between our two 
 old servants. Janos, the cunning fox! at once 
 and appreciatively agreed to Anna's superior plan 
 of action, and indeed his old campaigner's wits 
 promptly went one better than the peasant's 
 shrewdness : instead of merely dismissing the car- 
 riage as she suggested, he bade the coachman 
 drive out by the East Gate of the town and, halt- 
 ing at Gleiwitz, await at the main hostelry there 
 the party that would come on the morrow. And 
 in the dark I could see him emphasise the order 
 by the transfer of some pieces, that clicked know- 
 ingly in the night silence. The point of the 
 manoeuvre, however, was only manifest to me 
 when, turning to follow Anna's lead again down
 
 314 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 a side alley, the fellow breathed into my ear with 
 a chuckle : 
 
 " While your honour was away I took upon 
 myself to despatch his carriage with our luggage, 
 to meet us, I said, at Dresden, That will be two 
 false scents for them — and wc, it seems, take 
 the south road to Prague ! We shall puzzle Bu- 
 dissin yet." 
 
 On we tramped through the deserted bye-streets. 
 It was only when we were stopped at last, in that 
 self-same poor little mean lane, before the self- 
 same poor little mean shop, faintly lit inside by 
 a dull oil lamp, that I recognised the scene of my 
 morning's interview with Anna — that interview 
 which seemed already to have passed into the 
 far regions of my memory, so much had I lived 
 through since. 
 
 We met but few folk upon our way, who 
 paid little attention to us. As we entered into 
 the evil-smelling room, stepping down into it 
 from the street, and as Anna shot back the slide 
 of the lantern and turned upon us a triumphant 
 smiling face, I felt that our chief peril was over. 
 The shop was empty, but she was not disposed 
 to allow us even a little halt : she marshalled us 
 through the dank narrow passages with which I 
 had already made acquaintance, across the court-
 
 The Pride of Jennico 315 
 
 yard into the back street. There stood a country 
 waggon with a leathern tent. By the flash of the 
 lantern I saw that to it were harnessed a pair of 
 great raw-boned chestnuts that hung their heads 
 patiently beneath the snow, yet seemed to have 
 known better service in their days — no doubt at 
 one time had felt the trooper's spurs. 
 
 Beside them stood a squat man, enveloped to 
 the ears in sheepskin, with a limp felt hat drawn 
 over his brow till only some three-quarters of a 
 shrewd, empurpled, not unkindly visage was left 
 visible. The waggoner was evidently expecting 
 us, for he came forward, withdrew his pipe, touched 
 his hat, and made a leg. 
 
 "My cousin," said Anna to us, and added 
 briefly and significantly : " He asks no questions." 
 
 Then in a severe tone of command she pro- 
 ceeded to address several to him. Had he placed 
 fresh hay in the waggon according to her orders } 
 Had he received from her sister the ham, and the 
 wine and the blankets } Had the horses been 
 well fed } On receiving affirmative grunts in 
 answer, she bade him then immediately produce 
 the chair, that the lady and the gentleman might 
 get in. 
 
 Between the closed borders of her hood I 
 caught a glimpse of Ottilic's faint smile, as lighted
 
 3i6 The Pride of Jc7inico 
 
 by the lantern rays she mounted upon the wooden 
 stool and disappeared into the dark recesses of 
 the waggon, stirring up a warm dust as she went, 
 and a far-away fragrance of hay and faded clover. 
 
 " Now you, sir," said Anna, and jogged my 
 elbow. 
 
 I believe at that moment we were to her but 
 a pair of babes and nurslings for whom she was 
 responsible, and that she would have as readily 
 combed our hair and washed our faces as if we 
 were still of a size to be lifted on her knee. 
 
 I obeyed. And truly, as I crawled forward in 
 the dark, amid the warm straw, groping my way 
 to the further end till I laid my hand on Ottilie's 
 soft young arm extended towards me, when I 
 heard her laugh a little laugh to herself as we 
 snuggled in the nest together, I felt a happiness 
 that was like that of a child, all innocent of past 
 and improvident of future. Nevertheless at one 
 and the same time my whole being was stirred to 
 its depths with a tenderness my manhood had not 
 yet known. 
 
 In those foolish bygone days I had loved her, 
 the sweet soul, with the unworthy, mad passion 
 of a lover for his mistress. When she left me 
 I had mourned her as a man mourns for his wife, 
 flesh of his flesh, bone of his bone. Now, how-
 
 TJie Pride of Jennico 317 
 
 ever, we seemed to be lad and maid together ; our 
 love, after all the sorrow and the agony we had 
 passed through, seemed to wear the unspeakable 
 freshness of a first courtship. It was written that 
 good measure was to be paid me to compensate 
 for past anguish — good measure, heaped up, flow- 
 ing over ! I took it with a thankful heart. 
 
 The cart swayed and creaked as Janos and 
 Anna mounted and settled themselves at our feet, 
 drawing the hay high over themselves. Then 
 came another creaking and swaying in the forward 
 end, we heard a jingle of bells, a crack of the 
 whip and a hoarse shout : the cart groaned and 
 strained to the effort of the horses, then yielded. 
 And at a grave pace we rumbled over the cobble- 
 stones, turning hither and thither through street 
 after street which we could not see. And in the 
 midst of our hay we felt a sense of comfortable 
 irresponsibility and delicious mystery. All in the 
 inner darkness we were dimly conscious of the 
 snowy pageant outside : the ghost-like houses and 
 the twinkling lights. Ottilie lay against my 
 shoulder, and I felt her light breath upon my 
 cheek. 
 
 After a while — it would be hard to say how long 
 — there was a halt ; there came a shout from our 
 driver, and an answering shout beyond. I knew
 
 3i8 TJic Pride of Jcuuico 
 
 we had come to the Town Gates. That was a pal- 
 pitating moment of anxiety as the two voices ex- 
 changed parley, which the heavy beating of the 
 pulses in my ears would not allow me to follow. 
 Next the rough cadence of a jovial laugh fell loud 
 upon the air, and then — sweeter music I have sel- 
 dom heard ! — the clank of the gate's bar. Once 
 more we felt ourselves rumbling on slowly till we 
 had passed the bridge and exchanged the cobbles 
 of the town for the surface of the great Imperial 
 road, more lenient for all its ruts. The cousin 
 cracked his whip again and bellowed to his cattle ; 
 after infinite persuasion they broke into a heavy 
 jog-trot. 
 
 " In the name of the Father, and of the Son, 
 and of the Holy Ghost," said Anna suddenly from 
 her dark corner, in a loud vibrating voice, " give 
 thanks to God, you children ! " She leant forward 
 as she spoke, and pulled aside the leathern cur- 
 tains that hung across the back of the cart. 
 
 With the rush of snowy air came to us framed 
 by the aperture a retreating vision of Budissin, 
 studded here and there with rare gleams of light. 
 
 Thus did my wife, the young Princess of Lusa- 
 tia, leave her father's dominions, her prospects of 
 a throne, for the love of a simple English gentle- 
 man !
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 I SHALL carry to the grave, as one of the sweet- 
 est of my life, the memory of that night journey. 
 Coming as it did between the fierce emotions and 
 dangers of our meeting and flight, and the perilous 
 and furious episode that yet awaited us, it seems 
 doubly impregnated with an exquisite serenity of 
 happiness. Full of brief moments, that brought 
 me then a poignant joy, it brings to my heart as 
 I look back on it now a tenderness as of smiles 
 and tears together. 
 
 After a little while the flakes had ceased falling, 
 and, in the faint snowlight, beneath a clear sky, 
 we gazed forth together from our ambulant nest, 
 here upon mysterious stretches of plain-land, there 
 upon ghosts of serried trees, trees that marched as 
 it were past us back towards Budissin. I remem- 
 ber how in a clear space of sky a star shone out 
 upon us at last, and how it seemed a good omen, 
 and how we kissed in the darkness. 
 
 Then there was our meal, with Anna's lantern 
 to illumine the feast. I was so lost in watching 
 my beloved bite her black bread contentedly with 
 
 319
 
 320 Tlic Pride of Jennico 
 
 small white teeth, and toast me with loving eyes 
 over the thin wine, that I could scarce fall to, my- 
 self. Yet when I did so it was with right good 
 appetite, for I was hungered, and I never tasted 
 better fare. 
 
 Then Janos got out of the waggon to sit in 
 front by the driver and smoke. My great-uncle 
 had been such a confirmed tobacco-man that Janos 
 had acquired the habit in attendance upon him, 
 and it did not behove me to interfere with an in- 
 dulgence fostered by thirty years' service. 
 
 Anyhow, on that night the stray whiffs of his 
 strong tobacco mingled not unpleasantly with the 
 keen cold scents of the night ; and the sound of 
 the two men's talk, with the monotonous jingle 
 and rumble of harness and cart, made a comfort- 
 able human accompaniment to our passage in the 
 midst of the great silence. Anna went to sleep 
 and snored after her good day's work, waking now 
 and again with a start and a groan, and thence to 
 oblivion once more. And then we too, oblivious of 
 the world, fell into a long dream, hand in hand — 
 a great wide-eyed dream filling our silence with 
 soaring music, our darkness with all the warm 
 colour of life. 
 
 And thus we reached the first halting-place in 
 the itinerary planned by Janos and myself on the
 
 The Pride of Jennico 321 
 
 Imperial Chaussee. The place whence we would 
 best defy our enemies, and therefore our ultimate 
 destination, was of course my own Castle of 
 Tollendhal, recent experience having sufficiently 
 demonstrated that in England we should be ill- 
 protected from the machinations of Budissin. 
 This first stage was Lobau. 
 
 Never did town look so thoroughly asleep under 
 its snow-laden eaves, behind its black shutters, 
 thought I, as our tired horses, steaming and stum- 
 bling, dragged our cart up the main street. 
 
 A watchman had just sung out his cry : " The 
 twelfth hour of the night, and a clear heaven," 
 when we turned into the market-place, from the 
 middle of which he chanted his informing ditty to 
 those Lobauers who might chance to be awake to 
 hear and thereby be comforted. 
 
 Spear in one hand and lantern in the other, the 
 fellow approached to inquire into such an unusual 
 event as the passage of midnight travellers. We 
 heard Janos, in brief tones, tell a plausible tale of 
 his lordship's travelling coach having broken down 
 (on its way from Gorlitz, said he, who never missed 
 a chance of falsifying a scent !), and of his lord- 
 ship, who happened to be in a special haste to 
 proceed, having availed himself of a passing coun- 
 try cart to pursue his journey to the next posting
 
 322 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 town, and so forth, all the main points of this 
 story being corroborated by an affirmative growl 
 from our Jehu. Whereupon the watchman, honest 
 fellow, nothing loath doubtless to vary the perennial 
 monotony of his avocation, undertook to awaken 
 for our benefit the inmates of the post-house, the 
 best house of entertainment, he asseverated, in the 
 town. 
 
 It will be long, I take it, before the worthy 
 burghers of Lobau, and especially mine host of 
 the "Cross Keys," forget the mysterious passage 
 at dead of night of the great unknown magnate 
 and his hooded lady, of the tire-woman with the 
 forbidding countenance, and of the ugly body-ser- 
 vant, whose combined peremptoriness and lavish 
 generosity produced such wonders, — even had 
 subsequent events not sufficed to fix it upon their 
 minds as a tragic epoch in the history of their 
 country. 
 
 A few minutes of obstinate hammering and 
 bell-ringing by Janos and by the deeply impressed 
 watchman, awoke the hostelry from the depths 
 of its slumbers. The bark of dogs responded 
 first to the clangour ; lights appeared at various 
 corners ; windows, and then doors, were thrown 
 open. At last Janos threw back the leather cur- 
 tain of our conveyance, and hat in hand, with his
 
 The Pride of Jennico 323 
 
 greatest air of bonne maison assisted my lord in 
 his cloak, my lady in the furs (both much orna- 
 mented with wisps of hay), to alight from their cart. 
 
 My lady, veiled and silent, retired for an hour's 
 rest, and so away from the peering curiosity of 
 the assembling servants. And my lord paced the 
 common-room, feverishly waiting for the coming 
 of the new conveyance which Janos, after one of his 
 brief requisitioning interviews (pandour style), had 
 announced would be forthcoming with brief delay. 
 
 The common-room was dank and cold enough, 
 but my lord's soul was in warm consorting : it was 
 still exalted by the last look that my lady had 
 thrown back at him, raising her hood for one 
 instant as, ascending the stairs, she had left him 
 for the first separation. 
 
 In less than an hour the tinkling of collar-bells 
 and the sound of horses' hoofs, clattering with a 
 vigour of the best augury, were heard approach- 
 ing. Even as Janos entered to confirm by word 
 the success of his quest, my beloved appeared 
 with a readiness which to me was sweeter than 
 any words : she too had been watching the mo- 
 ments which would speed us onwards together 
 once more. 
 
 Through a pretty concourse of dependants, all of 
 whom had now got wind of the rain of gratuities
 
 324 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 with which the great traveller's servant eased the 
 wheels of difficulty, we entered our new chariot. 
 I can hardly mind now what sort of a vehicle this 
 was. I believe in its days it had been a decent 
 enough travelling chaise : at any rate it moved 
 fast. Once more we rolled through the silent 
 street, on the hillside roads, up hill and down dale, 
 my bride warmly nestled in my arms, and both of 
 us telling over again the tangled tale of the year 
 that had been wasted for us. 
 
 And thus, in the idle iteration of lovers* talk, 
 with the framing of plans for the future, change- 
 able and bright as the clouds of a summer's day, 
 did we fill the rapid hours which brought us to 
 Zittau in the early morning. 
 
 But Zittau was still within the dominions of the 
 eloping Princess's father ; and at Zittau, therefore, 
 much the same procedure was hastily adopted as 
 at the previous stage : another hour or so of sepa- 
 ration, another chaise and fresh horses, and once 
 more a flight along the mountain roads, as the 
 dawn was spreading grey and chill over the first 
 spurs of the Lusatian hills. 
 
 This time we spoke but little to each other. The 
 fatigue of a great reaction was upon us. Anna 
 was already snoring in her corner, her head com- 
 pletely enveloped in her shawl, when, as I gazed
 
 The Pride of Jennico 325 
 
 down tenderly at my wife's face, I saw the sweet 
 lids close in the very middle of a smile, and the 
 placidity of sleep fall upon her. 
 
 I have had, since the Budissin events, many 
 joys; but there is none the savour of which dwells 
 with so subtle, so delicate, a perfume in my mem- 
 ory as that of my drive in the first dawn with my 
 wife asleep in my arms. 
 
 It was not yet twelve hours since I had found 
 her; and during those twelve hours I had only 
 seen her in the turmoil of emotion, or under stress 
 of anxiety, or by some flitting lamplight. Her 
 image dwelt in my mind as I had first beheld it 
 through the glass of the palace window, lovely 
 in the first bloom of graceful womanhood, stately 
 amid the natural surroundings of her rank. Now, 
 wrapped in confident slumber, swathed in her 
 great robes of fur, the only thing visible of her 
 young body being the little head resting in the 
 hollow of my arm, the fair skin flushing faintly 
 in the repose of sleep, fresh even in the searching 
 cruelty of the growing light, like the petal of a 
 tea rose, the rhythmic pulse of her bosom faintly 
 beating against my heart, she was once more, for 
 a little while, to me the Ottilie I had held in my 
 castle at Tollendhal. And as, for fear of disturb- 
 ing her, I restrained my passionate longing to kiss
 
 326 The Pride of Jejinico 
 
 those parted lips, those closed lids with the soft 
 long eyelashes, I could not tell which I yearned 
 for most : the Princess, the ripe woman I had 
 found again ... or the wayward mistress play- 
 ing at wife I had schooled myself to banish in the 
 wasted days of my overweening vanity. 
 
 But why thus linger over the first stage of that 
 happy journey ? Joy can only be told by contrast 
 to misery. We can explain sorrow in a hundred 
 pages, but if delight cannot be told in one, it can- 
 not be told at all. It is too elusive to be kept 
 within the meshes of many words. Sorrows we 
 forget, — by a merciful dispensation, — and it may 
 be wholesome to keep their remembrance in books. 
 Joys ever cling to the phials of memory like a scent 
 which nought can obliterate. 
 
 And since I have undertaken to record the 
 reconquest of Jennico's happiness, there remains 
 yet to tell the manner in which it all but found- 
 ered in the haven. For this heartwhole ecstasy 
 of mine could not last in its entirety beyond a 
 few brief moments. As I thus grasped my happi- 
 ness, with a mind free at last from the confusing 
 vapours of haste and excitement, even as the fair 
 world around us emerged sharp and bright from 
 amid the shadows of dawn, all the precariousness 
 of our situation became likewise defined. Between
 
 The Pride of Jemiico 327 
 
 me and the woman I loved, though now I held her 
 locked in my arms, arose the everlasting menace of 
 separation. How long would we be left together ? 
 Where could I fly with her to keep her safe ? I 
 hoped that amid the feudal state of my castle I 
 could defy persecution, but what could such a life 
 be at best ? Thus, in the very first sweetness of 
 our reunion, was felt the bitterness of that hidden 
 suspense that must eventually poison all. 
 
 Now as I look back, nothing seems more dream- 
 like than the way in which my boding thought 
 suddenly assumed the reality of actual event. 
 
 " In a little while " (I was saying to myself, as 
 I watched the shadows shorten, and the beams of 
 sunlight grow broader upon the snow), " in a little 
 while the hounds will be started in pursuit, the old 
 persecution will be resumed, more devilish than 
 ever." And at the thought, against my will, a 
 contraction shook the arm on which my love was 
 resting. She stirred and awoke, at first bewil- 
 dered, then smiling at me. I let down the glass 
 of the coach, that the brisk morning air might 
 blow in upon us and freshen our tired limbs. 
 
 We were then advancing but slowly, being mid- 
 way up the slope of a great wide dale ; the horses 
 toiled and steamed. And then as we tasted keenly 
 the vigorous freshness of the morning air, and
 
 328 TJic Pride of Jeimico 
 
 looked forth, speechless, upon the beauty of the 
 wakmg hour of nature — that incomparable hour 
 so few of us wot of — there came into the great 
 silence, broken only by the straining of harness 
 and the faint thud of our horses' hoofs in the 
 snow, another noise : a curious, faint, little, far- 
 off noise like to no sound of nature. Ottilie 
 glanced at me, and I saw the pupil of her eye 
 dilate. She uttered no word, neither did I. But, 
 all at once, we knew that there was some one 
 galloping behind us. 
 
 I thrust my head out. Janos was already on 
 the alert: standing with his back to the horses, 
 leaning upon the top of the coach, he was looking 
 earnestly down the valley. I can see his face 
 still, all wrinkled and puckered together in the 
 effort of peering against the first level rays of the 
 sun. Now, as I leaned out also, and the horse's 
 gallop grew nearer and nearer upon my ear, I 
 caught, as I thought, a faint accompaniment of 
 other hoofs, still more distant. I looked at Janos, 
 who brought down his eyes to mine. 
 
 " But three altogether, my lord," he said. And, 
 reaching as he spoke for his musketoon, he laid 
 it on top of the coach. "And, thank God," he 
 added, " one can see a long way down this slope." 
 He bade the driver draw up on one side of the
 
 TJie Pride of Jcnnico 329 
 
 road, and I was able myself to look straight into 
 the valley. 
 
 A flying figure, that grew every second larger 
 and blacker against the white expanse beneath us, 
 was rushing up towards us with almost incredible 
 swiftness. In the absolute stillness of the world 
 locked in snow, the rhythm of the hoofs, the 
 squelching of the saddle, the laboured snorting 
 of the over-driven horse, were already audible. 
 There were not many seconds to spare — and 
 action followed thought as prompt as flash and 
 sound. There was only time, in fact, to place the 
 bewildered Anna, just awakened, by my wife's side 
 at the back of the coach, to pull up the shutter of 
 both windows, and to leap out. 
 
 I was hatless. I grasped my still sheathed 
 sword in one hand, and with the other fumbled 
 for my pistols in my coat skirts, whilst with a 
 thrust of my shoulder I clapped the coach door 
 to. There was not time even to exchange a word 
 with Ottilie, but her deathly pallor struck me to 
 the heart and fired me to the most murderous 
 resolve. 
 
 And now all happened quicker than words can 
 follow. No sooner had I touched the ground, 
 than out of space as it were, roaring and reeking, 
 hugely black against the sunshine, the horse and
 
 330 TJie Pride of Jcnnico 
 
 his rider were upon me. I had failed to draw 
 my pistol, but I had shaken the scabbard off my 
 sword. There seemed scarce a blade's length 
 between me and the flying onslaught. Suddenly, 
 however, the great animal swerved upon one 
 side, and was pulled up, almost crouching on its 
 haunches, by the force of an iron hand. The 
 rider's face, outlined against the horse's steaming 
 neck, bent towards me : Prince Eugen's — great 
 indeed would have been my surprise had it been 
 any other — ensanguined, distorted with fury, glow- 
 ing with vindictive triumph, as once before I had 
 seen it thus thrust into mine. 
 
 "Thou dog, Jennico . . . ill-slaughtered inter- 
 loper ... at last I have got thee ! Out of my 
 way thou goest this time ! . . ." 
 
 As it spat these words, incoherently, the red 
 face became blocked from my view by a fist out- 
 stretched, and I found myself looking down the 
 black mouth of a pistol barrel. I cut at it with 
 my sword, even as the yellow flame leaped out : 
 my blade was shattered and flew, burring, over- 
 head. But the ball passed me. At the same 
 instant there came a shout from above ; the 
 Prince looked up and, quick as thought, wrenched 
 at his horse ; the noble beast rose, beating the air 
 with his forefeet, just as Janos fired, over my head.
 
 TJie Pride of Jennico 331 
 
 For a second all was confusion. The air seemed 
 full of plunging hoofs and blinding smoke. Our 
 own horses, taking fright, dragged the carriage 
 some yards away, where it stuck in a snowheap. 
 Then things became clear again. I saw, — I know 
 not how, — but all in the same flash, I saw a few 
 paces beyond me, Janos now standing in the road, 
 my wife in her dishevelled furs behind him ; and 
 in front, free from the bulk of his dying horse, 
 my enemy on foot, pistol in hand, and once more 
 covering me with the most determined delibera- 
 tion of aim. With my bladeless sword hilt hang- 
 ing bracelet-like on my sprained wrist, defenceless, 
 I stood, dizzily, facing my doom. 
 
 Then for a third time the air rang with a shat- 
 tering explosion. The Prince flung both arms up, 
 and I saw his great body founder headforemost, 
 a mere mass of clay, almost at my feet. I turned 
 again, and there was my Jdnos, with the smoking 
 musketoon still to his cheek, and there also my 
 wife with the face of an avenging angel, one hand 
 upon his shoulder, and the other, with unerring 
 gesture of command, still pointing at the space 
 beyond me where but a second before stood the 
 enemy who had held my life on the play of his 
 forefinger.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 For the space of a few seconds we three stood 
 motionless. The awful stillness of the shadow of 
 death was upon our souls. Then, approaching 
 from the distance came again to our ears the sound 
 of hoofs, the stumbling trot of a tired horse ; and 
 the quick wits of Janos were awakened to action. 
 
 " Into the carriage, my lady," said he, " and you, 
 my lord ! We have loosed enough shots for one 
 day, and so it is best we should move on again and 
 avoid these other gentlemen." 
 
 He smiled as he spoke, a grim, triumphant 
 smile. As for me, it was certes nothing less than 
 triumph I felt in my heart. I would have had 
 Prince Eugen dead, indeed, but not so, not so ! 
 
 "Let us, at least," I cried a little wildly, "see 
 if he still breathes!" 
 
 " No need, my lord ; " and Janos caught me by 
 the wrist. " I am not so old yet," he added, eye- 
 ing his weapon with a delighted look, "but what 
 I can still aim straiiiht. Did I not know him to 
 be as truly carrion now as his good horse itself, 
 poor beast, I would surely enough despatch him 
 
 332
 
 TJie Pride of Jetmico 333 
 
 as he lies there biting the mud. But no need, my 
 lord. Right in the heart ! The man was dead 
 before he touched the ground." And as he spoke 
 Janos dragged us towards the coach. 
 
 The driver, half risen from his seat, still clutch- 
 ing one rein, seemed struck into an imbecility of 
 terror; the horses, now quieted, stretching their 
 necks luxuriously against the loosened bits, were 
 sniffing at the snow, as if in the hope of lighting 
 upon a blade of grass. Anna sat on the steps, 
 her face blanched to a sort of grey. 
 
 " Up with you ! " said Janos, and pushed her 
 with his knee. " Do you not see your lady is 
 faint .'* " The words aroused her, and they roused 
 me. In truth, Ottilie seemed scarcely able to 
 sustain herself; it was time I carried her away 
 from such scenes. 
 
 After closing the doors, Janos handed me the 
 musketoon and the cartouche-box, with the brief 
 remark : " His lordship had better load again, the 
 while I drive, for this coachman of ours is out of 
 his wits with fright." And thus we started once 
 more ; and in the crash and rattle of the speed to 
 which Janos mercilessly put the horses, the stum- 
 bling paces of the approaching pursuers were lost 
 to our hearing. The draught of air across her 
 face revived Ottilie, who now sat up with courage,
 
 334 J^l^^ Pride of Jennico 
 
 and tried to smile at me, though her face was still 
 set in a curious hardness, whilst I, with the best 
 ability of a sprained wrist, reloaded and reprimed. 
 Events (as I have oft thought since) had proved 
 how happy a thought it had been of mine (some 
 two weeks before, when we made our prepara- 
 tions to leave London, to gratify my good Janos's 
 desire for one of those admirable double-barrels I 
 had seen him so appreciatively and so covetously 
 handle at Fargus and Manton's, in Soho. 
 
 When we reached the neck of the valley, I 
 leaned out again and looked back. The scene 
 of that crisis in my eventful life lay already some 
 hundred yards below us. The second of our pur- 
 suers — a dragoon of Liegnitz, as I now could see 
 by his white coat, dirty yellow against the snow 
 — was in the act of dismounting from his ex- 
 hausted steed. I watched him bend over the 
 prostrate figure of his chief for an instant or two ; 
 then straighten himself to gaze up at our retreat- 
 ing coach ; then, with his arms behind him and 
 his legs apart, in what, even at that distance, I 
 could see was an attitude of philosophical indiffer- 
 ence, turn towards the approaching figure of his 
 comrade, who, some hundred yards further down, 
 now made his appearance on the road, crawhng 
 onwards on an obviously foundered horse. It
 
 The Pride of Jcnnico 335 
 
 was evident that whatever admiration the Mar- 
 grave may have commanded during his lifetime, 
 his death did not inspire his followers with any 
 burning desire to avenge it. 
 
 I leant out further and handed back the loaded 
 musketoon to Janos. 
 
 " You may spare our horses now," said I ; 
 " there is no fear of further pursuit to-day." 
 
 "Ay, my lord, so I see," responded the hei- 
 duck, with a cheerful jerk of the head in our rear. 
 "And, moreover, in a quarter of an hour we shall 
 be across the border." 
 
 Now of our story there is little more to tell. 
 And well for us that it is so ; for one may, as I 
 have said, chronicle strange adventures and perils 
 of life and limb, and one may pour out on paper 
 the sorrows of an aching heart, the frenzy of de- 
 spair ; but the sweet intimate details of happiness 
 must be kept secret and sacred, not only from the 
 pen but from the tongue. It will not, however, 
 come amiss that, to complete my narrative — in 
 which, one day, if Heaven will, my children shall 
 learn the romance of their parents' wooing and 
 marriage — I should set down how it came about 
 that the Margrave contrived (to his own undoing) 
 to track us so speedily ; how, with his death,
 
 336 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 came the dispelling of the shadows upon both 
 our lives. 
 
 Shortly after our return to Tollendhal, a letter 
 reached my wife from the other Ottilie. It was 
 evidently written in the greatest distraction of 
 mind, upon the very morning after our escape 
 from Budissin. Although conversation may not 
 have been a strong point with Madam Lothner, 
 she seemed to wield a very fluent pen. She 
 took two large sheets to inform us how, upon her 
 husband's return on the previous night, his sus- 
 picions being by some unaccountable means awak- 
 ened, he had forced from her the confession of all 
 that had passed between us in the afternoon. I 
 cannot here take up my space and time with the 
 record of her excuses, her anguish, her points of 
 exclamation, her appeals to Heaven to witness the 
 innocence of her intentions. But when I read her 
 missive I understood Anna's contemptuous proph- 
 ecy : " She keep a secret .■' the sheep-head ! " I 
 understood also my wife's attitude of tolerant 
 affection, and I bkished when I remembered the 
 time when, blinded by conceit, I had sought this 
 great mock-pearl, when the real jewel lay at my 
 hand. . . . But to proceed. 
 
 The doctor had instantly given the alarm at the 
 palace, with the result that the Princess's flight
 
 The Pride of Jennico 337 
 
 was discovered within two hours after it had taken 
 place. Now the uproar in the Ducal household 
 was, it seems, beyond description. Two detach- 
 ments of dragoons were at once sent in pursuit of 
 the two carriages which were known to have left 
 the town that night. (How we blessed Anna's 
 shrewder scheme !) When they returned, empty- 
 handed of course, the nature of the trick was per- 
 ceived. Prince Eugen — whose fury, it appears, 
 was something quite appalling to behold, not only 
 because of the reassertion of the Princess's inde- 
 pendence, but because the man whom he had 
 taken so much trouble to obliterate had presumed 
 to be alive after all ! — Prince Eugen, according to 
 his wont, took matters into his own hands. He 
 sallied forth with his henchman the doctor, to 
 make inquiries for himself in the town. The re- 
 sult of these was the discovery of the passage of 
 one Hans Meyerhofer's cart out by the South 
 Gate after closing hours. This man was known to 
 the doctor (whose stables he supplied with fodder) 
 as being Anna's cousin, and the connection of the 
 Princess's nurse with the scheme of escape was 
 well demonstrated by her own disappearance. 
 This discovery was sufficient for the Margrave, 
 and (very much, it would appear, against the real 
 wishes of the Duke, whose most earnest desire
 
 338 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 was to proceed with as little scandal as possible) 
 he with half a dozen troopers instantly set forth 
 in pursuit on the road to Prague. Of these troop- 
 ers, as we had seen, most had broken down on 
 the way, and none had been able to keep up with 
 the higher mettled mount of their leader — fortu- 
 nately for us. 
 
 It was after his departure that Madam Lothner 
 wrote. She was convinced, as she characteristi- 
 cally remarked, that the Prince would be success- 
 ful, and that the most dire misfortunes were about 
 to fall upon everybody — all through the obstinacy 
 of M. de Jennico, who really could not say he had 
 not been warned. Nevertheless, on the chance of 
 their having escaped, either to England or to 
 Tollendhal (and she addressed her letter to Tol- 
 lendhal, trusting that it would be forwarded), she 
 could not refrain from pouring forth her soul into 
 her beloved Princess's bosom — and so forth and 
 so on. In fact, the good woman had wanted a 
 confidant, and had found it on paper. 
 
 Our next information regarding the Court of 
 Lausitz came from a very different source, and 
 was of a totally different description. It was the 
 announcement in the Vienna News-Shect of the 
 death of Eugen, Margrave of Liegnitz-Rothen- 
 burg, through a fall from his horse upon a hunt-
 
 The Pride of Jennico 339 
 
 ing expedition. It was also stated that, yielding 
 at last to her repeated requests, the Duke had 
 consented to the retirement into a convent of his 
 only daughter, Princess Marie Ottilie, such hav- 
 ing been (it was stated) her ardent desire for more 
 than a year. The name of the convent was not 
 given, 
 
 id * * % * ^ 
 
 Here this memoir, begun in such storm and 
 stress, within and without, continued in such dif- 
 ferent moods and for such varied motives, ends 
 with the mantle of peace upon us, with the song 
 of birds in our ears. 
 
 Tollendhal, that I knew beautiful in the autumn ; 
 Tollendhal, the shrine of our young foolish love, is 
 now beautiful with the budding green all round 
 it under a dappled sky. But never had the old 
 stronghouse looked to me so noble as when I 
 brought my bride back to it in the snow. As the 
 carriage at last entered upon the valley road and 
 we saw it rise before us, high against the sky, 
 white-roofed and black-walled, stern, strong, and 
 frowning, while the winter sun flashed back a 
 warm, red welcome to the returning masters, from 
 some high window here and there, I felt my heart 
 stir. And as I looked at Ottilie I saw in her eyes 
 the reflection of the same fire.
 
 340 The Pride of Jennico 
 
 Our people had been prepared for our coming 
 by messengers from Prague. The court of honour 
 was thronged, and we entered amid acclamations 
 such as would have satisfied the heart of a king 
 coming to his own again. We had broken the 
 bread and tasted the salt; we had drunk of the 
 wine on the threshold ; we had been conducted in 
 state ; and at last, at last we found ourselves alone 
 in the old room where my great-uncle's portrait 
 kept its silent watch ! Janos, who, his work of 
 trust done, had fallen back into his place of 
 heiduck as simply as the faithful blade falls back 
 into the scabbard, had retired to his station outside 
 the door. Without rang the wild music of the 
 gipsies to the feasting people, and the tremors of 
 the czimbalom found an answer in the very fibres 
 of my soul — to such music she had first come to 
 me in my dreams ! 
 
 The walls of the room were all ruddy with the 
 reflection of the bonfire in the courtyard : the 
 very air was filled with joy and colour. And 
 there was my great-uncle's portrait — he was sim- 
 pering with ineffable complacency ; and there the 
 rollcd-up parchment; and there the table where 
 we had quarrelled, and where, since then, I had 
 poured forth such mad regrets. Oh! my God! 
 what memories ! . . . and there was my wife !
 
 The Pride of Jennico 341 
 
 Since the events which had first divided and 
 then reunited us for ever, I had not yet been able 
 to find in the sweet, silent, docile woman I had 
 snatched back to my heart, the wilful Ottilie of 
 old. Her spirits seemed to have been sobered ; 
 her gaiety, her petulance, to have been lost in 
 the still current of the almost fearful happiness 
 bought at the price of blood ; and at times, in 
 my inmost heart, I had mourned for my lost 
 sprite. But now, as we stood together, she all 
 illumined with the rosy radiance from the fire, 
 she looked of a sudden from the picture on the 
 wall to me, and I saw a spark of the old mockery 
 leap into her eyes. 
 
 "And so, sir," she said, "the forward person 
 who married you against your will is mistress here 
 again, after all ! . . . but you will always remem- 
 ber, I trust, that it is the privilege of a princess 
 to choose her partner." And then she added, 
 coming a step nearer me : " To-morrow we must 
 fill in the pedigree again — what say you, M. Jean 
 Nigaud de la Faridondaine } " 
 
 Now, as she spoke, her lips arched into the 
 well-remembered smile, and beside it danced the 
 dimple. And I know not what came upon me, 
 for there are joys so subtle that they unman even 
 as sorrows, but I fell at her feet with tears.
 
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