Temporal Power: A Study in Supremacy Part 36

he then said calmly--"A Jew may be called a liar with impunity, and whatever a Jew has a.s.serted can be flatly denied. Remember, he is in our pay!"

"I doubt if he will consent to be made the scapegoat in this affair,"

said Lutera; "Unless we can make it exceptionally to his advantage;--he has the press at his command."

"Give him a t.i.tle!" returned Perousse contemptuously; "These Jew press-men love nothing better!"

The Marquis smiled somewhat sardonically.

"Jost, with a patent of n.o.bility would cut rather an extraordinary figure!" he said; "Still he would probably make good use of it,--especially if he were to start a newspaper in London! They would accept him as a great man there!"

Perousse gave a careless nod; his thoughts were otherwise occupied.

"This Pasquin Leroy has gone to Moscow?"

"According to his own words, he was leaving this morning."

"I daresay that statement is a blind. I should not at all wonder if he is still in the city. I will get an exact description of him from Jost, and set Bernhoff on his track."

"Do not forget," said the Marquis impressively, "that he told Jost in apparently the most friendly and well-meaning manner possible, that the King had discovered the whole plan of our financial campaign. He even reported _me_ as being ready to resign in consequence----"

"Which apparently you are!" interpolated Perousse with some sarcasm.

"I certainly have my resignation in prospect," returned Lutera coldly--"And, so far, this mysterious spy has seemingly probed my thoughts. If he is as correct in his report concerning the King, it is impossible to say what may be the consequence."

"Why, what can the King do?" demanded Perousse impatiently, and with scorn for the vacillating humour of his companion; "Granted that he knew everything from the beginning----"

"Including your large land purchases and contract concessions in the very country you propose war with," put in the Marquis,--"Say that he knew you had resolved on war, and had already started a company for the fabrication of the guns and other armaments, out of which you get the princ.i.p.al pickings--what then?"

"What then?" echoed Perousse defiantly--"Why nothing! The King is as powerless as a target in a field, set up for arrows to be aimed at! He dare not divulge a State secret; he has no privilege of interference with politics; all he can do is to 'lead' fashionable society--a poor business at best--and at present his lead is not particularly apparent.

The King must do as We command!"

He rose and paced up and down with agitated steps.

"To-day, when he told me he had resolved to 'veto' my propositions, I accepted his information without any manifestation of surprise. I merely said it would have to be stated in the Senate, and that reasons would have to be given. He agreed, and said that he himself would proclaim those reasons. I told him it was impossible!"

"And what was his reply?" asked the Marquis.

"His reply was as absurd as his avowed intention. 'Hitherto it has been impossible,' he said; 'But in Our reign we shall make it possible!' He declined any further conversation with me, referring me to you and our chief colleagues in the Cabinet."

"Well?"

"Well! I pay no more attention to a King's sudden caprice than I do to the veering of the wind! He will alter his mind in a few days, when the exigency of the matters in hand becomes apparent to him. In the same way, he will revoke his decision about that grant of land to the Jesuits. He must let them have their way."

"What benefit do we get by favouring the Jesuits?" asked Lutera.

"Jost gets a thousand a year for putting flattering notices of the schools, processions, festivals and such nonsense in his various newspapers; and our party secures the political support of the Vatican in Europe,--which just now is very necessary. The Pope must give his Christian benediction not only to our Educational system, but also to the war!"

"Then the King has set himself in our way already, even in this matter?"

"He has! Quite unaccountably and very foolishly. But we shall persuade him still to be of our opinion. The a.s.s that will not walk must be beaten till he gallops! I have no anxiety whatever on any point; even the advent of Jost's spy, with an imitation of your signet on his finger appears to me quite melodramatic, and only helps to make the general situation more interesting,--to me at least;--I am only sorry to see that you allow yourself to be so much concerned over these trifles!"

"I have my family to think of," said the Marquis slowly; "My reputation as a statesman, and my honour as a minister are both at stake." Perousse smiled oddly, but said nothing. "If in any way my name became a subject of popular animadversion, it would entirely ruin the position I believe I have attained in history. I have always wished,--" and there was a tinge of pathos in his voice--"my descendants to hold a certain pride in my career!"

Perousse looked at him with grim amus.e.m.e.nt.

"It is a curious and unpleasant fact that the 'descendants' of these days do not care a b.u.t.ton for their ancestors," he said; "They generally try to forget them as fast as possible. What do the descendants of Robespierre, (if there are any), care about him? The descendants of Wellington? The descendants of Beethoven or Lord Byron? Among the many numerous advantages attending the world-wide fame of Shakespeare is that he has left no descendants. If he had, his memory would have been more vulgarised by _them,_ than by any Yankee kicker at his grave! One of the most remarkable features of this progressive age is the cheerful ease with which sons forget they ever had fathers! I am afraid, Marquis, you are not likely to escape the common doom!"

Lutera rose slowly, and prepared to take his departure.

"I shall call a Cabinet Council for Monday," he said; "This is Friday.

You will find it convenient to attend?"

Perousse, rising at the same time, a.s.sented smilingly.

"You will see things in a better and clearer light by then," he said.

"Rely on me! I have not involved you thus far with any intention of bringing you to loss or disaster. Whatever befalls you in this affair must equally befall me; we are both in the same boat. We must carry things through with a firm hand, and show no hesitation. As for the King, his business is to be a Dummy; and as Dummy he must remain."

Lutera made no reply. They shook hands,--not over cordially,--and parted; and as soon as Perousse heard the wheels of the Premier's carriage grinding away from his outer gate, he applied himself vigorously to the handle of one of the numerous telephone wires fitted up near his desk, and after getting into communication with the quarter he desired, requested General Bernhoff, Chief of the Police, to attend upon him instantly. Bernhoff's headquarters were close by, so that he had but to wait barely a quarter of an hour before that personage,--the same who had before been summoned to the presence of the King,--appeared.

To him Perousse handed a slip of paper, on which he had written the words 'Pasquin Leroy.'

"Do you know that name?" he asked.

General Bernhoff looked at it attentively. Only the keenest and closest observer could have possibly detected the slight flicker of a smile under the stiff waxed points of his military moustache, as he read it.

He returned it carefully folded.

"I fancy I have heard it!" he said cautiously; "In any case, I shall remember it."

"Good! There is a man of that name in this city; trace him if you can! Take this note to Mr. David Jost"--and while he spoke he hastily scrawled a few lines and addressed them--"and he will give you an exact personal description of him. He is reported to have left for Moscow,--but I discredit that statement. He is a foreign spy, engaged, we believe, in the work of taking plans of our military defences,--he must be arrested, and dealt with rigorously at once. You understand?"

"Perfectly," replied Bernhoff, accepting the note handed to him; "If he is to be discovered, I shall not fail to discover him!"

"And when you think you are on the track, let me have information at once," went on Perousse; "But be well on your guard, and let no one learn the object of your pursuit. Keep your own counsel!"

"I always do!" returned Bernhoff bluntly. "If I did not there might be trouble!"

Perousse looked at him sharply, but seeing the wooden-like impa.s.siveness of his countenance, forced a smile.

"There might indeed!" he said; "Your tact and discretion, General, do much to keep the city quiet. But this affair of Pasquin Leroy is a private matter."

"Distinctly so!" agreed Bernhoff quietly; "I hold the position entirely!"

He shortly afterwards withdrew, and Carl Perousse, satisfied that he had at any rate taken precautions to make known the existence of a spy in the city, if not to secure his arrest, turned to the crowding business on his hands with a sense of ease and refreshment. He might not have felt quite so self-a.s.sured and complacent, had he seen the worthy Bernhoff smiling broadly to himself as he strolled along the street, with the air of one enjoying a joke, the while he murmured,--

"Pasquin Leroy,--engaged in taking plans of the military defences--is he? Ah!--a very dangerous amus.e.m.e.nt to indulge in! Engaged in taking plans!--Ah!--Yes!--Very good,--very good; excellent! Do I know the name? Yes! I fancy I might have heard it! Oh, yes, very good indeed--excellent! And this spy is probably still in the city?

Yes!--Probably! Yes--I should imagine it quite likely!"

Still smiling, and apparently in the best of humours with himself and the world at large, the General continued his easy stroll by the sea-fronted ways of the city, along the many picturesque terraces, and up flights of marble steps built somewhat in the fashion of the prettiest corners of Monaco, till he reached the chief promenade and resort of fashion, which being a broad avenue running immediately under and in front of the King's palace facing the sea, was in the late sunshine of the afternoon crowded with carriages and pedestrians. Here he took his place with the rest, saluting a fellow officer here, or a friend there,--and stood bareheaded with the rest of the crowd, when a light gracefully-shaped landau, drawn by four greys, and escorted by postillions in the Royal liveries, pa.s.sed like a triumphal car, enshrining the cold, changeless and statuesque beauty of the Queen, upon whom the public were never weary of gazing. She was a curiosity to them--a living miracle in her unwithering loveliness; for, apparently unmoved by emotion herself, she roused all sorts of emotions in others.

Bernhoff had seen her a thousand times, but never without a sense of new dazzlement.