The Countess Cosel Part 29

"Because no one is friends with me," replied Anna.

She began to cry; thereupon the King rang the bell, and, despite Cosel's opposition, ordered Flemming to be summoned.

After a long time, which Augustus employed in pacing furiously up and down the room, the General arrived. He did not salute Cosel on entering, but turned straight towards the King.

"My dear Flemming," said Augustus, "if you love me, you will ask pardon of the Countess. Shake hands both of you!"

"Never!" exclaimed Cosel. "I will not shake hands with that vile courtier, who has dared to slight a woman."

"Do not be afraid," said Flemming, "I shall not bother you by shaking hands with you. I do not know how to lie, and I shall offer no excuses."

The King had risen. He was angry.

"General, you will do it for me," he said.

"Neither will I do it for your Majesty. I should prefer to leave your service."

"You villain!" screamed Cosel. "His Majesty's favours have made you arrogant; but it is not far from Dresden to Konigstein, thank G.o.d!"

"Cosel, for Heaven's sake!" interrupted Augustus.

"Your Majesty will permit me to be frank; for I likewise do not know how to lie. I must tell him what I think of him. He declared war against me, let him have it."

"I do not propose to make war against you, Countess," said Flemming. "I have something better to do."

"Leave my house!" screamed the Countess, stamping her foot on the floor.

"This house is not yours; there is not one thing that belongs to you; this is a palace belonging to my King and my lord, and I shall not leave it without his orders," replied Flemming.

Cosel began to weep and tear her dress. Then, addressing Flemming, the King said, gently and calmly,--

"General, I beg you to make peace. I love you both; I require both of you. Why must I suffer because of you?"

"Your Majesty does not need to listen to our quarrels; it were better to leave them to be decided by fate."

Having exhausted all her arguments, Cosel threw herself on the sofa.

The King, seeing no means of reconciling them, either by calming Flemming or by softening the irritated Countess, extended his hand to the General and conducted him to the door. Then Augustus began to pace up and down; he was thoughtful, and it was evident that he was occupied with matters of greater importance.

Cosel loaded him reproaches.

"Alas! sire," said she, "then it has come to this, that your servants insult me. It is my fate. Flemming laughs at the one you say you love."

"Dear Countess," he replied calmly, "all that you say proves that you do not know how I am situated. At this moment I need Flemming more than I do my right hand: to make him angry is to renounce the crown of Poland. You cannot ask that of me, and if you did, as a King I should not do it. You know that I do not refuse you anything, but there is a limit to all things. I was a King before I was Cosel's lover."

Frowning, fearful, mad, Cosel rushed towards Augustus.

"Lover!" she screamed. "I have your written promise. I am not your mistress; I am your wife!"

Augustus made a grimace.

"All the more reason you should pay attention to the interests of my crown," he replied.

Again Cosel relapsed into tears. Augustus looked at the clock.

"I am not master of my own time," said he, "I have too much to do. I must leave for Poland shortly. Dear Countess, be calm, Flemming is impetuous, but he loves me, and will do what I ask him."

Cosel made no reply. She shook hands with Augustus silently, and he departed.

Soon after this scene they began to prepare for the journey to Poland.

As she was _enceinte_, the Countess was unable to accompany the King on this expedition.

Cosel well knew the danger that threatened her. At Warsaw the King would meet Princess Teschen, and although in the whole of Augustus's life there had never occurred a reconciliation between him and a former favourite, Anna felt uneasy. Still she was more afraid of the other women whom her enemies put in the King's way, in the hope of inducing him to abandon her for a new favourite.

To save the Countess the unpleasantness of quarrels with Flemming, the King had determined to take him with him, and although Anna would rather have suffered his persecutions at Dresden, than have had him close to Augustus intriguing against her, she was powerless to prevent it.

The King was very kind towards her up to the last moment, and he a.s.sured her that he had strictly forbidden Furstenberg to annoy her.

Having learned that Flemming was going with the King, and that the Countess would remain at home, Cosel's enemies grew hopeful that things would change, and that the combined influence of Flemming and Przebendowska would ultimately prevail, and a new favourite be subst.i.tuted for Cosel.

Her downfall seemed to them certain.

The day of his departure, Augustus was as tender as possible. He spent the whole day with Cosel, whose state of pregnancy having made her weak, tried to arouse the King's pity by recalling old memories.

But this was the worst possible way she could have acted. Augustus was charmed by vivacity, gaiety, boldness, jealousy, daring--everything that acted on the senses; but sentiment was unknown to him; he played at it from time to time, but he never felt it.

To attempt to arouse in him tender feelings was the surest way to bore him. Cosel was greatly alarmed; she kissed the King; she wept; she entreated him not to leave her, not to forget her. Augustus replied in his choicest words, but his studied declarations were chilling.

Several years had pa.s.sed; the enthusiasm of both of them had cooled.

But in the woman there remained attachment, tenderness, grat.i.tude; in the King a feeling of weariness predominated. Instead of pitying her sadness, he wished to escape from it as quickly as possible; her tears made him impatient, her grief bored him.

Cosel could no longer appear gay and cheerful as formerly, in the happy days when she used to ride out with the King to hunt the deer, or took her part in shooting at a target.

Her charms had not changed, but daily intercourse with her had made them appear common in the King's eyes. Grief had not dimmed her beauty; her eye had not lost its brilliancy; but neither her charming looks, nor her smiles, could now bring the King to her feet. Her power over Augustus was ended, the beloved woman had become common, because she no longer possessed for him the charm of novelty.

Never before, when the King departed, had the Countess felt as lonely as she did now. The palace, until then crowded, was suddenly deserted.

Cosel had no one to be with her.

During the day, the gossiping Baroness Glasenapp would rush in, or the stern Baron Haxthausen, her only friend, would dine with her. This was all the company she had.

In the whole crowd, her most faithful friend was Raymond Zaklika, whose hand often trembled with the desire to attack some arrogant man who had offended the Countess. The slightest sign from her would have been sufficient for him, and the one whom he touched would have been a dead man.

Looking towards him at critical moments, Cosel had sometimes noticed him in such a state of excitement that she had been obliged to calm him.

Being a servant, Zaklika had no opportunity of expressing his feeling, but the Countess understood him perfectly, and knew that she could depend on his loyalty. Had she bidden him kill Flemming, he would have done so instantly, and would then have gone without a groan to the scaffold. In his eyes, she was always the same beautiful star that he had seen shining in bygone days among the linden trees at Laubegast. To him she even appeared more beautiful, and his whole happiness lay in the privilege of seeing her several times a day.

But whilst at Dresden all was sad and quiet, the King, in the best of spirits, and full of hope, was hastening to Warsaw. Flemming was with him, the Countess Przebendowska preceded him. It was an open secret that they wished to find a new lady for the King at Warsaw. They did not wish her to be as beautiful as Cosel, for beauty such as hers threatened a long attachment; neither must she be witty, for the King was content with giddiness, and she must not possess a heart, for it was only at the commencement that Augustus played a sentimental part.

Youth, great daring, coquetry, a good name, and good breeding were sufficient, and would counterbalance Cosel.