Books: NAPOLEON AND BLUCHER

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"Do so nevertheless, Frederica," said Hardenberg, imperiously. "I
wish you to do so!" He laid his hand upon her arm, and the contact
made her start as an electric shock.

"I will obey," she whispered, in an humble tone. "I see you sitting
at the table of Marshal Augereau. You are in excellent spirits; you
are just telling the marshal that the betrothed of the crown prince
with a princess of the house of Napoleon will take place before
long; Count Narbonne is complaining of the political conversations
with which you are spicing the supper in too piquant a manner;
dispatches arrive and disturb your mirth."

"From whom do these dispatches come?" asked Hardenberg.

"From Marshal Macdonald, who addressed them to the French
ambassador, Count St. Marsan."

"Do you know their contents?"

"I am reading them. There is, in the first place, a letter from
General York--"

"Hush!" interrupted Hardenberg; "we will speak of that hereafter; do
not allude to it now. Tell me what else I did last night."

"After reading the dispatches, you hastened to the king to inform
him of the dreadful news. Scarcely had you been with him for a few
minutes, when a courier from General York arrived and delivered
dispatches concerning the same subject to which the others had
referred. After a protracted interview with the king, you went to
the French ambassador, and informed him of the sentiments and
resolutions of his majesty. The count declared himself satisfied
with what you told him, and you then hastened back to the king. You
there met Major Natzmer, whom the king intended to dispatch as a
courier to Murat and General York. You entered the king's room and
had another protracted interview with him. Thereupon you returned to
your residence."

"With whom did I speak there first of all?"

The clairvoyante was silent for a moment. "I do not see it," she
said, "the night is so dark."

"Open your eyes until you see!"

"Ah, I see now!" she exclaimed. "Your excellency spoke with old
Conrad. He accompanied you to your bedroom and handed you two
letters."

"She is right," muttered the chancellor, loudly enough to be heard
by the young woman and the physician. "Yes, she is right; it is all
precisely as she says." He then asked aloud: "Did I speak with any
one else than Conrad?"

"No," she said; "I do not see anybody else. Conrad told you that I
would open the eyes of my soul and see at eight o'clock this
morning. You ordered him to awaken you at seven o'clock, and went to
bed."

"What did I do before falling asleep?"

"You read the two little notes," she said, with a coy smile.

The chancellor turned his eyes toward the physician, who witnessed
this scene in silent and solemn earnestness. "Doctor Binder," he
said, "all that this young lady told me just now is strictly true.
All my doubts are henceforth dispelled, and from this hour I am one
of the believers. No; I say this is no deception, no imposition; it
is a mystery of nature, which I am unable to explain, but in which I
am compelled to believe. It is given to this young lady to look with
the eyes of her soul into the past, as well as into the future, and
to perceive and penetrate the most secret things. I believe in her,
and shall henceforth allow myself to be directed and instructed by
her revelations. I thank you for having brought this wonderful girl
to my notice, and you may always count on my heart-felt gratitude."

"Belief in the high art of my science and doctrines is the only
gratitude I am yearning for, and my only desire is not to be
prevented from healing poor patients and making suffering humanity
happy by my holy science."

"No one shall be allowed to prevent you from doing so as long as _I_
am minister, I pledge you my word," said Hardenberg, gravely. "Take
heart, therefore, and do not be afraid. I am your disciple, and at
the same time your protector. But now grant me a request: I should
like to put to our charming seer yet a few questions in regard to
last night's events. She shall, in her inspired and prophetic
prescience, give me her advice and tell me what course I must
pursue; but, in doing so, I shall have to allude to state secrets,
and to speak of affairs which no one is allowed to know but the king
and his ministers, and--"

"I pray your excellency to permit me to leave you alone with our
young seer," interrupted Doctor Binder, with a polite smile. "I have
to see several patients, and my presence is required at the 'Hall of
Crises' below, for my two young assistants are scarcely able to
restrain our female patients when the crisis sets in."

"Go, then, to your patients," said Hardenberg; "I shall stay here
with our clairvoyante until she awakes."

"If your excellency needs any thing," said the doctor, approaching
the door, "it will only be necessary for you to ring the bell; the
nurse is in the reception-room, and will immediately call my
assistants."

He bowed to Hardenberg, bent once more with a searching glance over
the couch of his patient, drew with his hands a few circles over her
head, and left the room with noiseless steps. The chancellor and the
clairvoyante were alone.

CHAPTER XVIII.

AN ADVENTURESS.

When the physician left the room, the chancellor returned to the
bedside of the young woman; her position was the same, and her eyes
were still closed. She did not see, therefore, the sarcastic smile
with which Hardenberg looked down upon her, or the proud, triumphant
expression that was beaming from his eyes. Hers were closed, and,
notwithstanding her clairvoyance, she saw nothing, nor did
Hardenberg's voice betray to her aught of the expression of his
countenance or the character of his thoughts.

"Frederica," he said, in his soft, gentle voice, "speak to me now,
my seer; be my prophetess now, and let me see the future. Tell me
what I must do in order to reconcile all these dissensions, and
harmonize all these clashing interests. On which side is justice,
prosperity, and peace?"

"On the side of the great man whose gigantic strength has lifted the
world out of its hinges, and given it a new aspect," she said,
gravely. "Stand faithfully by the alliance with France, unless you
wish the crown to fall from the head of your king, and Prussia to be
divided into two provinces, one annexed to the kingdom of
Westphalia, and the other to the duchy of Warsaw."

"But will France then still have power to do so?" asked Hardenberg;
"is not France herself on the brink of the abyss into which she has
hurled all states, princes, and crowns?"

"France is as powerful to-day as she ever was," responded the seer.
"New armies at the beck of Napoleon will spring from the ground, his
military chests will be filled with new millions, and the invincible
chieftain will lead his legions to new victories. Woe then to
Prussia if she proves faithless--woe to her, if, in insensate
infatuation, she turns her back upon France, and allows herself to
listen to the insinuations and promises by which Russia is trying to
gain her over to her side! Russia herself is weak and exhausted; she
will be unable to afford Prussia any adequate support. Be on your
guard! Russia has always been a perfidious ally; she has always
crushed the hand of her allies in her grasp, while seemingly giving
a pledge of her good faith. France alone is offering to Prussia
substantial guaranties of peace; Napoleon alone must remain the
protector of Prussia. Banish, therefore, the insidious thoughts that
are troubling your soul; try no longer to dissuade the king from
adhering to the alliance. Do not try to persuade him to approve
York's defection! He is a traitor, whose head must fall; for such is
the decree of the laws of war. To approve his defection is to throw
down the gauntlet to France, and annihilate Prussia!"

"You have played your part to perfection!" exclaimed Hardenberg,
laughing. "Please accept my sincere congratulations, my dear child;
the greatest actress in the world could not perform her role any
better than you have done to-day, and ever since I became acquainted
with you."

At the first words of the chancellor, the clairvoyante gave a
violent start; a tremor pervaded her whole frame, and a deep blush
suffused her cheeks for a moment; but all this quickly passed away,
and now she was again as rigid and motionless as she was before.

Hardenberg's eyes were fixed on her. "You do not desire to
understand me, Frederica," he said. "Well, then, I will speak
somewhat more lucidly. Will you permit me to ask two additional
questions?"

"You know very well that I must reply when your soul commands me to
do so," said the young woman, in a perfectly calm voice, "for your
soul has power over mine, and I must obey it."

"Well, then--my first question: did I really, last night, on
returning to my residence, speak with no one but old Conrad? Was no
one but he in my room until I went to bed? Look sharp, open the eyes
of your soul as wide as you can, and then reply!"

"I see," she said, after a pause; "but I see that you were alone
with Conrad, and with the thoughts of a lady who loves you."

"I am very glad that you tell me so," said Hardenberg, calmly, "for
I understand from it that my enemies, who are furnishing you with
correct reports as to all my doings, have yet remained ignorant of
an affair in which I was engaged last night. For there really was
another person with me, and your patrons would give a great deal to
find out what instructions I gave to that person. Now, as to my
second question; but I hope you hear my words, ma toute belle, and
have not yet passed from an unnatural sleep into a natural one!"

"I hear you, and I am ready to answer if your soul commands me."

"Well, then," said Hardenberg, bending over her, and fixing his
piercing eyes upon her countenance, "my question is this: How much
do your protectors give you for playing the part which you performed
before me?"

A pause ensued. Suddenly the clairvoyante opened her eyes, gazing
with an indescribable expression on the face of the minister still
bending over her.

"They give me nothing," she said, in a firm, sonorous voice, "but
the hope of acquiring a brilliant position in the future."

"You confess, then, that you have played a considerable farce?"
asked Chancellor von Hardenberg, smiling.

"I confess that I have played my part very badly, and that your
eagle eye is able to penetrate every thing. I confess that I adore
you for having unmasked me," she exclaimed, quickly encircling
Hardenberg's neck with her arms, drawing his head down to her, and
pressing a glowing kiss on his lips. Then, still keeping her arms
around his neck, she raised herself from the couch, and leaned for a
moment against the manly form of the chancellor.

Disengaging herself from him, she jumped from the bed to the floor,
and, spreading out her arms, and throwing back her head, she
exclaimed in a jubilant voice: "I am free! I need no longer play my
irksome role! Oh, I am free!"

Leaping into the middle of the room, as light-footed as a sylph, and
fascinating as one of the graces, she began to dance, raising her
feet and moving her arms in a slow, measured mariner, at the outset;
but, turning more rapidly, with more passionate movement and
increasing ardor, her countenance grew more glowing and animated.
Her large black eyes flashed fire--an air of wild, bacchantic
ecstasy pervaded her whole appearance, her cheeks were burning, her
beautiful red lips were half opened, and revealed her ivory teeth,
and her uplifted arms (from which the wide sleeves of her negligee
had fallen back to the shoulders) were of the most charming contour.
Concluding her dance, she glided breathless and with panting bosom
toward Hardenberg, who had sunk into the easy-chair, and was looking
on with wondering eyes. Bursting into loud, melodious laughter, she
sat at his feet, and, pressing her glowing face against his knees,
looked searchingly and suppliantly into his eyes.

"You are angry with me," she said; "oh, pardon me, but I had first
to give vent to my exultation. Now I will be quite sensible."

"And what do you call sensible, then?" asked Hardenberg, who, under
the power of the woman's glances, vainly tried to impart to his
countenance an air of gravity and sternness.

"I call it sensible to reply honestly to the questions your
excellency will put to me now," she said, in a caressing tone.

"Well, then, let us see whether you are really sensible or not,"
said Hardenberg. "In the first place, please rise."

She shook her head slowly. "No," she said, "I will remain at your
feet until you have heard my confession and granted me absolution."

"And suppose I refuse to grant you absolution?"

"Then I shall die at your feet!"

"Ah, it is not so easy to die."

"It is easy to die when one wants to, and has such a friend as this
is," she exclaimed, drawing from her hair one of the two long silver
pins with which her heavy black tresses were partially fastened.

"Strange girl!" murmured Hardenberg, surprised, while she was
looking up to him with radiant eyes, and a smile playing on her
lips.

"Will you ask me now?" she then said, gently and almost humbly. "I
am lying here at your feet as if you were my confessor, and I am
longing with trembling impatience for my absolution."

"Well, then, tell me, in the first place, who you are."

"Who am I?" she asked. "A cheat, who, by intrigues, cabals, and
cunning, tried to attain the object she yearned for so intensely,
namely, to lie at the feet of a noble and eminent man, as she is
doing now, and to tell him that she loves him. Who am I? An
adventuress, who has gone out into the world to seek her fortune; to
play, if possible, a prominent part; to acquire a distinguished
name, and to obtain riches, power, and influence. Who am I? A diver,
who has plunged with reckless audacity into the foaming sea, to find
at its bottom either pearls or a grave."

"But, my child," said Hardenberg, "do you not know that the divers,
when plunging into the sea to seek pearls, always gird a safety-rope
around their waist for the purpose of being drawn to the surface
whenever they are in danger of drowning?"

"The man who loves me will be my safety-rope and draw me up," she
said, gravely.

Hardenberg laughed. "In truth," he said, "I must admire your
sincerity and naivete. You must be very courageous to utter such
truths about yourself."

"Certainly, it would have been easier to play the virtuous,
forsaken, and unfortunate girl," she said, with a contemptuous
smile. "It would have been less troublesome to throw myself at your
feet, bathed in a flood of tears, and to say, 'Oh, have mercy upon
me! Free me from this unworthy role which has been forced upon me!
Save me from the torture of being compelled to dissimulate, to lie,
and to cheat. Virtue dwells in my heart, innocence and truth are
upon my lips. I have been forced to play a part that dishonors me.
Have mercy upon me, save me from the snares threatening me!'" While
saying so, she imparted to her features precisely the expression
that was adapted to her words; she had spoken in a tremulous,
suppliant voice, with folded hands and tearful eyes.

"Poor child," exclaimed Hardenberg, surprised, "you weep, you are
deeply moved! Ah, now at last you show me your true face, now you
cause me to see the poor, innocent, and unfortunate child that you
really are!"

She shook away her tears and burst into laughter. "No," she
exclaimed, "I have only proved to you that I would be able to play
the virtuous and innocent girl to perfection, and that I might,
perhaps, thereby succeed in touching your noble heart. But you have
commanded me to tell you the truth, and I have pledged you my word
to do so. I tell you, then, I am no persecuted, virtuous girl, no
innocent angel; I am a woman, carrying a heaven and a hell in her
bosom; I can be an angel, if happiness and love favor me; I will be
a demon, if fate be hostile to me. Yes," she exclaimed, jumping up
and pacing the room in great agitation, "there are hours and days
when I myself believe that I am a demon, an angel hurled down from
heaven, and doomed to walk the earth on account of some crime. There
are hours when heavenly recollections fill my imagination, when an
indescribable, blissful yearning is, as it were, enveloping me in a
veil--when there are resounding in my heart the sweetest and most
enchanting notes of sacred words and devout prayers, and when it
seems to me as though I were sitting in the midst of radiant angels,
surrounded by luminous clouds, at the feet of God, His breath upon
my cheek, and looking down with compassionate, merciful love upon
the world, lying at an unfathomable distance under my feet. And then
I say to myself: 'You have reviled and slandered yourself; you are,
after all, a good angel; God is with you, and prayer, love, and
innocence, are in your heart.' Then it suddenly seems to me as if my
heart were rent, and I heard loud, scornful laughter. I fall from my
heaven; I look around and behold men, with their bittersweet faces,
smiling on, and lying to each other; I see all their duplicity and
their infamy; I laugh at my own transports and swear never to be
human with humanity, but a demon with demons--to cheat as they
cheat, to lie, and win from them as much happiness, honor, and
wealth, as I can with some mimic talent, a cool and sharp mind, a
pretty figure, and an ugly face."

"Ah, you are slandering yourself," exclaimed Hardenberg, smiling.
"You have no ugly face."

She hastened to the looking-glass, and gazed on herself with
searching glances. "Yes," she said, "I am really ugly. My mouth is
too large, my lips too full, my face is angular and by no means
prepossessing, my nose is vulgar, my forehead too low and too wide,
these bushy eyebrows become rather a grenadier than a young lady,
and these large black eyes look like a couple of sentinels, which,
with sharp glances, have to watch the rabble of nose, mouth, ear,
and cheek, lest one should try to escape from disgust at the
ugliness of the others. But I do not regret my want of beauty, for
it is uncommon and piquant, and I can imagine that a gifted, eminent
man, who is tired of the pretty faces of so-called virtuous women,
may feel attracted by my ugliness. Beauty at least always becomes
tiresome, for it treats you at once to all that it is and has, but
ugliness excites your curiosity more and more from day to day, for,
at certain moments, it may be transformed into beauty!"

"Your own case shows that," said Hardenberg, "for, although you call
yourself ugly, there is a fascinating beauty in your whole
appearance."

She gazed on him with a long and radiant look. "You are a great man,
a genius, and you are, therefore, able to understand me. I will tell
you my history now, that you may at last grant me the blessing of
your forgiveness."

"Well, tell me your history," exclaimed Hardenberg. "Come,
Frederica, sit down by my side here on the couch on which you have
so often reposed as a modern Pythia, and proclaimed to me the
oracles which your mysterious priest had whispered to you. Now you
are no priestess uttering equivocal wisdom, but a young woman
telling the truth, and making me listen to the revelations of her
heart."

"A young woman," she repeated, sighing and reclining on the bed
close to the easy-chair on which Hardenberg was sitting. "Am I
young, then? It seems to me sometimes as though I were old--so old
as no longer to have any illusions, any hopes or wishes; as though I
were the 'Wandering Jew' who has been travelling through the world
so many centuries, seeking perpetually for the rest which he can
nowhere find. But still you are right; I am young, for I am only
twenty years old.".

"And who are your parents? Where do they live?"

"Who are my parents?" she asked, laughing. "My father was a holy
man, a high-priest in the temple of Time. It depended on him when
men were to awake or sleep, eat or work. It was his will that
regulated rendezvous and weddings, parties and arrests, and he had
no other master than the sun. He allowed the sun alone to guide him,
and still he was no Persian!"

"But he was a watchmaker?" asked Hardenberg, smiling.

"Yes, he was a watchmaker, and, thanks to him, the whole town where
he lived knew exactly what time it was. Only my mother did not know
it. She believed herself to be a great lady, although she was only a
poor watchmaker's wife, but was unable to efface the recollections
of her youth. She was the daughter of a French marquis, who, after
gambling away his whole fortune at the court of Louis XV., had
emigrated with his young wife and daughter to Berlin, in order to
seek another fortune at the court of Frederick the Great. But
Frederick the Great had already become somewhat distrustful of the
roving marquises and counts whom France sent to Berlin. Marquis de
Barbasson, my worthy grandfather, received, therefore, no office and
no money, and a time of distress set in, such as he would previously
have deemed utterly unlikely to befall the descendant of his
ancestors. He left Berlin with his family, to make his living
somewhere else as a teacher of languages. He travelled from one
place to another, and arrived at length at a small town called New
Brandenburg. There he remained, for his feet were weary, and his
poor wife was sick and tired of life. Well, Madame la Marquise de
Barbasson died, and the marquis taught the young ladies of New
Brandenburg how to conjugate avoir and etre; his daughter assisted
him, and, as she was very pretty, she taught many a young man how to
conjugate aimer. But who would have thought of marrying the daughter
of a French adventurer, who, it is true, styled himself marquis, but
was as poor as a beggar! He was unable long to bear the privations
and humiliations of his life; he fled from his creditors, and
perhaps also from his remorse, by committing suicide; and his
daughter, who was twenty years of age at that time, remained alone,
and without any other inheritance than the debts of her father. One
of the principal creditors of the marquis was the proprietor of the
house in which father and daughter had lived for three years without
paying rent, or refunding the small sums he had lent to them. This
proprietor was a young watchmaker, named Hahn, an excellent young
man, who had given the family of the French marquis not only his
money, but his heart. He loved the young Marquise de Barbasson,
unfortunate, or, if you prefer, fortunate man! for his courtship was
successful. Now, after the death of the old marquis, he played the
part of an importunate creditor, and told her she had the
alternative of paying or marrying him. The young Marquise de
Barbasson married him, and then paid the poor watchmaker in a manner
which was not very pleasant to him. She never forgave him for having
reduced her to the humble position of a watchmaker's wife, and found
it disgusting to be obliged to call herself Hahn, after having so
long borne the aristocratic name of Barbasson. However that might
be, she was his wife, and I have the honor to represent in my humble
person the legitimate daughter of Hahn, the watchmaker, and the
Marquise de Barbasson."

"And I must confess that you are representing your mother and your
father in a highly becoming manner," said Hardenberg. "You have the
bearing and the savoir vivre of a French marquise, and from your
oracular sayings I have seen that you are as familiar with the time
as a watchmaker is. But I can imagine that the descent of your
parents produced many a discord in your life."

"Say rather that my whole life was a discord," she exclaimed,
vehemently, "and that I have lived in an unending conflict between
my head and my heart, my reality and my imagination. Oh, how often,
when lying in dreary loneliness, in the shade of an oak on the shore
of the charming lake near the small town in which we lived--how
often did I utter loud cries of anguish, and say to the billows that
washed the shore with a low, murmuring sound: 'I am a French
marquise; there is aristocratic blood in my veins; it is my vocation
to shine at the courts of kings, and to see counts and princes at my
feet!' Yet none but the waves of the lake believed my words; men
treated me never as a Marquise de Barbasson, but only as little
Frederica Hahn, daughter of a poor watchmaker. I felt this as a
personal insult, and at many a bitter hour it seemed to me as
though, like my mother, I hated my poor father because he had robbed
us of our brilliant name and our nobility. My father bore my whims
patiently, for he loved me, and I believe he loved nothing on earth
better than his daughter. He saw that I was pining away in the
wearisome loneliness of our dull life; he knew that ambition was
burning in my heart like a torrent of fire, and he wept with me and
begged my pardon for being a poor watchmaker, and no nobleman. He
did all he could to make amends for this wrong; he treated me not as
his daughter, but as his superior; and, although we were scarcely in
easy circumstances, he surrounded me with all comforts becoming an
aristocratic young lady. I had my servants, my own room, a tolerably
fashionable toilet, a piano, a small library; and my father was
proud of being able to have me instructed by the best and most
expensive teachers, and of hearing that I was their most industrious
and talented pupil. But what good did all this do me? I remained
what I was--Frederica IIahn, the watchmaker's daughter--and the
blood of the Barbassons revolted against my position in life; and
the marquises and viscounts, my distinguished ancestors, appeared to
my inward eye, and seemed to beckon me and call me to the proud
castles which had formerly belonged to our family. But how should I
get thither?--how escape from my small native town?--how rid myself
of the burden of my name and my birth? That was the question which
put my brain night and day on the rack, and to which my intellect
was unable to make a satisfactory reply. An accident, however, came
to my assistance."