Count Bruhl Part 3

'And you?'

The page shook his head.

'It's for you, my dear sir.'

'May the G.o.ds reward you for this!' exclaimed Pauli enthusiastically.

'May Venus give you the prettiest girl in Dresden; may Hygiea give you a stomach with which you can digest stones; may Bacchus give you everlasting thirst and the means to quench it with Hungarian wine; may--'

But the tempting dishes did not permit him to finish. Bruhl stood smiling at the councillor. Pauli poured out the first gla.s.s of wine. He expected an ordinary, light Hungarian wine, which they usually served at the court, but when he tasted it, his face brightened, his eyes shone, and having drunk he leaned back in his chair and smiled.

'Divine drink! My dear boy, you are working miracles! Where did you get it from? I know that wine, it's King's Tokay; smell it, taste it--it's ambrosia, nectar!'

'You must show your favour to the bottle, and not leave its contents to the profane, who would drink it without proper appreciation.'

'That would certainly be a profanation,' exclaimed the councillor, pouring out another large gla.s.s. 'To your health, to your success.

Bruhl--I shall be thankful to you till the day of my death--you saved my life. An hour longer and I should have been a dead man; I felt that my life was slipping away.'

'I am very glad,' said Bruhl, 'that I have been able to be of service to you, sir. But pray, drink!'

Pauli drank another gla.s.s, smacked his lips, and said:

'What a wine! What a wine! Every gla.s.s tastes better than the last.

It's like a good friend whom the more we know the better we love. But, Bruhl, when the post comes, and his Majesty calls me, if it should be necessary for me to write a letter to Berlin or Vienna--'

In the meanwhile he poured out the third gla.s.s.

'Such a small bottle for you is nothing; it is only a _stimulans_.'

'Bruhl, you are right. I have drunk more than that in my life.' He laughed. 'The worst thing is to mix the drinks. Who knows in what relation they stand to each other? There might meet two bitter foes, for instance, the French with German wine; they begin to fight in the stomach and head, and the man suffers. But when one drinks an honest, intelligent, matured wine, then there is no danger, it does no harm.'

Speaking thus the councillor ate the meat, drank the Tokay and smiled again. Bruhl stood, looked, and when the gla.s.s was empty, he filled it once more.

At length the food having all disappeared, there remained only the wine.

Pauli sighed and mumbled:

'But the letters!'

'Would you be afraid?'

'You are right, if I were afraid, I should be a coward, and that is a despicable thing. Fill up! To your health! You shall get on! It's brighter in my head! It seems that the sun has come out from beneath the clouds, for everything looks brighter. I feel as if I could write more fluently than ever!'

Bruhl filled the gla.s.s constantly.

The councillor looked at the bottle, and observing that it was larger at the bottom, promised himself that the wine would last still for some time.

'I have nothing to be afraid of,' said Pauli as though wishing to rea.s.sure himself. 'I don't know whether you remember or not. I remember once on a very warm day, when his Majesty was writing to that unfortunate Cosel, I drank some treacherous wine. It tasted as good as this Tokay, but it was treacherous. When I went out into the street my head swam. It was too bad, for I was obliged to write the letters. Two courtiers seized my arms--it seemed to me that I was flying; they put me at the table, they put a pen in my hand the paper before me; the King said a few words and I wrote an excellent letter. But if you killed me I could not remember what I wrote then. Suffice it that the letter was good, and the King, laughing, gave me a magnificent ring as a souvenir of that day.'

The wine was poured from the bottle to the gla.s.s, from the gla.s.s into the throat. The councillor smiled.

'Hard service,' he said quietly, 'but the wine is excellent.'

During the conversation the bottle was emptied. The last gla.s.s was a little clouded; Bruhl wished to push it aside.

'Tyrant!' cried the councillor. 'What are you doing? It is the nature of the wine to have dregs, they are not to be wasted, but exist to hide the virtue which is in it,--the elixir, the essence.'

While Pauli was emptying the last gla.s.s, Bruhl bent forward and took from under the table another bottle. Seeing it, the councillor wished to rise, but the sight rivetted him to his chair.

'What do I see?' he cried.

'It's another volume,' said the page quietly, 'of the work. It contains its conclusion, its quintessence. As you are fond of literature--'

Pauli bent his head.

'Who would not be fond of such literature?' sighed he.

'--I have been trying to get you a complete work,' continued the boy.

'I could not get both volumes of the same edition. The second volume is _editio princips_.'

'Ah!' exclaimed Pauli approaching the gla.s.s. 'Pour me only one page of that respectable volume.'

'But it will spoil. You must finish the bottle.'

'That's true! But the letters! The letters!' said Pauli.

'There will be none to-day.'

'Would that that were true,' Pauli sighed.

Bruhl poured out another gla.s.s; Pauli drank it.

'This wine the King alone drinks when he doesn't feel well,' whispered Bruhl.

'_Panaceum universale!_ The lips of a woman are not sweeter.'

'Oh! oh!' exclaimed the youth.

'It is quite different for you,' said the councillor, 'but for me they have lost all sweetness. But the wine! wine is a nectar which, never loses its charm. Were it not for these letters!'

'You are still thinking of them?'

'Well, let the deuce take them.'

The councillor drank, but the wine was beginning to take effect. He grew heavier, he smiled, and then closed his eyes.

'Now a short nap,' said he.

'But you must finish the bottle,' said the page.