The Prisoner and the King In order to a full understanding of what had occurred in the Castle of Zenda, it is necessary to supplement my account of what I myself saw and did on that night by relating briefly what I afterwards learnt from Fritz and Madame de Mauban.
The story told by the latter explained clearly how it happened that the cry which I had arranged as a stratagem and a sham had come, in dreadful reality, before its time, and had thus, as it seemed at the moment, ruined our hopes, while in the end it had favoured them.The unhappy woman, fired, I believe by a genuine attachment to the Duke of Strelsau, no less than by the dazzling prospects which a dominion over him opened before her eyes, had followed him at his request from Paris to Ruritania.
He was a man of strong passions, but of stronger will, and his cool head ruled both.He was content to take all and give nothing.When she arrived, she was not long in finding that she had a rival in the Princess Flavia; rendered desperate, she stood at nothing which might give, or keep for her, her power over the duke.As I say, he took and gave not.
Simultaneously, Antoinette found herself entangled in his audacious schemes.Unwilling to abandon him, bound to him by the chains of shame and hope, yet she would not be a decoy, nor, at his bidding, lure me to death.Hence the letters of warning she had written.
Whether the lines she sent to Flavia were inspired by good or bad feeling, by jealousy or by pity, I do not know; but here also she served us well.
When the duke went to Zenda, she accompanied him; and here for the first time she learnt the full measure of his cruelty, and was touched with compassion for the unfortunate King.From this time she was with us; yet, from what she told me, I know that she still (as women will)loved Michael, and trusted to gain his life, if not his pardon, from the King, as the reward for her assistance.His triumph she did not desire, for she loathed his crime, and loathed yet more fiercely what would be the prize of it--his marriage with his cousin, Princess Flavia.
At Zenda new forces came into play--the lust and daring of young Rupert.
He was caught by her beauty, perhaps; perhaps it was enough for him that she belonged to another man, and that she hated him.
For many days there had been quarrels and ill will between him and the duke, and the scene which I had witnessed in the duke's room was but one of many.Rupert's proposals to me, of which she had, of course, been ignorant, in no way surprised her when I related them; she had herself warned Michael against Rupert, even when she was calling on me to deliver her from both of them.
On this night, then, Rupert had determined to have his will.
When she had gone to her room, he, having furnished himself with a key to it, had made his entrance.Her cries had brought the duke, and there in the dark room, while she screamed, the men had fought; and Rupert, having wounded his master with a mortal blow, had, on the servants rushing in, escaped through the window as I have described.
The duke's blood, spurting out, had stained his opponent's shirt;but Rupert, not knowing that he had dealt Michael his death, was eager to finish the encounter.How he meant to deal with the other three of the band, I know not.I dare say he did not think, for the killing of Michael was not premeditated.Antoinette, left alone with the duke, had tried to stanch his wound, and thus was she busied till he died; and then, hearing Rupert's taunts, she had come forth to avenge him.Me she had not seen, nor did she till I darted out of my ambush, and leapt after Rupert into the moat.
The same moment found my friends on the scene.They had reached the chateau in due time, and waited ready by the door.
But Johann, swept with the rest to the rescue of the duke, did not open it; nay, he took a part against Rupert, putting himself forward more bravely than any in his anxiety to avert suspicion;and he had received a wound, in the embrasure of the window.
Till nearly half-past two Sapt waited; then, following my orders, he had sent Fritz to search the banks of the moat.I was not there.
Hastening back, Fritz told Sapt; and Sapt was for following orders still, and riding at full speed back to Tarlenheim; while Fritz would not hear of abandoning me, let me have ordered what I would.On this they disputed some few minutes; then Sapt, persuaded by Fritz, detached a party under Bernenstein to gallop back to Tarlenheim and bring up the marshal, while the rest fell to on the great door of the chateau.
For several minutes it resisted them; then, just as Antoinette de Mauban fired at Rupert of Hentzau on the bridge, they broke in, eight of them in all: and the first door they came to was the door of Michael's room; and Michael lay dead across the threshold, with a sword-thrust through his breast.Sapt cried out at his death, as I had heard, and they rushed on the servants; but these, in fear, dropped their weapons, and Antoinette flung herself weeping at Sapt's feet.
And all she cried was,that I had been at the end of the bridge and leapt off.
"What of the prisoner?" asked Sapt; but she shook her head.Then Sapt and Fritz, with the gentlemen behind them, crossed the bridge, slowly, warily, and without noise; and Fritz stumbled over the body of De Gautet in the way of the door.They felt him and found him dead.
Then they consulted, listening eagerly for any sound from the cells below; but there came none, and they were greatly afraid that the King's guards had killed him, and having pushed his body through the great pipe, had escaped the same way themselves.Yet, because I had been seen here, they had still some hope (thus indeed Fritz, in his friendship, told me);and going back to Michael's body, pushing aside Antoinette, who prayed by it, they found a key to the door which I had locked, and opened the door.The staircase was dark, and they would not use a torch at first, lest they should be more exposed to fire.
