"I regret to cause you any annoyance," she answered. "It is not intentional, I a.s.sure you."

A foul oath escaped him, and he turned from her to speak with Count Graesal, grand-marechal of the Court. Her face, however, betrayed nothing of his insult. At Court her countenance was always sphinx-like.

Only in her private life, in that gorgeous suite of apartments on the opposite side of the palace, did she give way to her own bitter unhappiness and blank despair.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

A SHAMEFUL TRUTH.

When at last the brilliant company moved on into the great ballroom she had an opportunity of walking among those men and women who, though they bent before her, cringing and servile, were, she knew, eagerly seeking her ruin. The Ministers, Stuhlmann, Hoepfner, and Meyer, all three creatures of the King, bowed low to her, but she knew they were her worst enemies. The Countess Hupertz, a stout, fair-haired, masculine-looking woman, also bent before her and smiled--yet this woman had invented the foulest lies concerning her, and spread them everywhere. In all that brilliant a.s.sembly she had scarcely one single person whom she could term a friend. And for a very simple reason.

Friendliness with the Crown Princess meant disfavour with the King, and none of those place-seekers and sycophants could afford to risk that.

Yet, knowing that they were like a pack of hungry wolves about her, seeking to tear her reputation to shreds and cast her out of the kingdom, she walked among them, speaking with them, and smiling as though she were perfectly happy.

Presently, when the splendid orchestra struck up and dancing commenced, she came across Hinckeldeym, the wily old President of the Council of Ministers, who, on many occasions, had showed that, unlike the others, he regarded her as an ill-used wife. A short, rather podgy, dark-haired man, in Court dress, he bowed, welcomed her back to Treysa, and inquired after her family in Vienna.

Then, as she strolled with him to the farther end of the room, lazily fanning herself with her great ostrich-feather fan, she said in a low voice,--

"Hinckeldeym, as you know, I have few friends here. I wonder whether you are one?"

The flabby-faced old Minister pursed his lips, and glanced at her quickly, for he was a wily man. Then, after a moment's pause, he said,--

"I think that ever since your Imperial Highness came here as Crown Princess I have been your partisan. Indeed, I thought I had the honour of reckoning myself among your Highness's friends."

"Yes, yes," she exclaimed quickly. "But I have so many enemies here,"

and she glanced quickly around, "that it is really difficult for me to distinguish my friends."

"Enemies!" echoed the tactful Minister in surprise. "What causes your Highness to suspect such a thing?"

"I do not suspect--I know," was her firm answer as she stood aside with him. "I have learnt what these people are doing. Why? Tell me, Hinckeldeym--why is this struggling crowd plotting against me?"

He looked at her for a moment in silence. He was surprised that she knew the truth.

"Because, your Imperial Highness--because they fear you. They know too well what will probably occur when you are Queen."

"Yes," she said in a hard, determined voice. "When I am Queen I will sweep clear this Augean stable. There will be a change, depend upon it.

This Court shall be an upright and honourable one, and not, as it now is, a replica of that of King Charles the Second of England. They hate me, Hinckeldeym--they hate me because I am a Hapsbourg; because I try and live uprightly and love my child, and when I am Queen I will show them that even a Court may be conducted with gaiety coupled with decorum."

The Minister--who, though unknown to her, was, perhaps, her worst enemy, mainly through fear of the future--listened to all she said in discreet silence. It was a pity, he thought, that the conspiracy had been betrayed to her, for although posing as her friend he would have been the first to exult over her downfall. It would place him in a position of safety.

He noted her threat. It only confirmed what the Court had antic.i.p.ated-- namely, that upon the death of the infirm old monarch, all would be changed, and that brilliant aristocratic circle would be sent forth into obscurity--and by an Austrian Archd.u.c.h.ess, too!

The Princess Claire unfortunately believed the crafty Hinckeldeym to be her friend, therefore she told him all that she had learnt; of course, not betraying the informer.

"From to-day," she went on in a hard voice, "my att.i.tude is changed. I will defend myself. Against those who have lied about me, and invented their vile scandals, I will stand as an enemy, and a bitter one.

Hitherto I have been complacent and patient, suffering in silence, as so many defenceless women suffer. But for the sake of this kingdom, over which I shall one day be Queen, I will stand firm; and you, Hinckeldeym, must remain my friend."

"Your Imperial Highness has but to command me," replied the false old courtier, bowing low with the lie ever ready upon his lips. "I hope to continue as your friend."

"From the day I first set foot in Treysa, these people have libelled me and plotted my ruin," she went on. "I know it all. I can give the names of each of my enemies, and I am kept informed of all the scandalous tales whispered into my husband's ears. Depend upon it that those liars and scandalmongers will in due time reap their reward."

"I know very little of it," the Minister declared in a low voice, so that he could not be overheard. "Perhaps, however, your Highness has been indiscreet--has, I mean, allowed these people some loophole through which to cast their shafts?"

"They speak of Leitolf," she said quite frankly. "And they libel me, I know."

"I hear to-day that Leitolf is recalled to Vienna, and is being sent as attache to Rome," he remarked. "Perhaps it is as well in the present circ.u.mstances."

She looked him straight in the face as the amazing truth suddenly dawned upon her.

"Then you, too, Hinckeldeym, believe that what is said about us is true!" she exclaimed hoa.r.s.ely, suspecting, for the first time, that the man with the heavy, flabby face might play her false.

And she had confessed to him, of all men, her intention of changing the whole Court entourage the instant her husband ascended the throne! She saw how terribly injudicious she had been.

But the cringing courtier exhibited his white palms, and with that clever exhibition of sympathy which had hitherto misled her, said,--

"Surely your Imperial Highness knows me sufficiently well to be aware that in addition to being a faithful servant to his Majesty the King, I am also a strong and staunch friend of yours. There may be a plot," he said; "a vile, dastardly plot to cast you out from Marburg. Yet if you are only firm and judicious, you must vanquish them, for they are all cowards--all of them." She believed him, little dreaming that the words she had spoken that night had sealed her fate. Heinrich Hinckeldeym was a far-seeing man, the friend of anybody who had future power in his hands--a man who was utterly unscrupulous, and who would betray his closest friend when necessity demanded. And yet, with his courtly manner, his fat yet serious face, his clever speech, and his marvellous tact, he had deceived more than one of the most eminent diplomatists in Europe, including even Bismarck himself.

He looked at her with his bright, ferret-like eyes, debating within himself when the end of her should be. He and his friends had already decided that the blow was soon to be struck, for every day's delay increased their peril. The old King's malady might terminate fatally at any moment, and once Queen, then to remove her would be impossible.

She had revealed to him openly her intention, therefore he was determined to use in secret her own words as a weapon against her, for he was utterly unscrupulous.

The intrigues of Court had a hundred different undercurrents, but it was part of his policy to keep well versed in them all. His finger was ever upon the pulse of that circle about the throne, while he was also one of the few men in Marburg who had the ear of the aristocratic old monarch with whom etiquette was as a religion.

"Your Imperial Highness is quite right in contemplating the Crown Prince's accession to the throne," he said ingeniously, in order to further humour her. "The doctors see the King daily, and the confidential reports made to us Ministers are the reverse of rea.s.suring.

In a few months at most the end must come--suddenly in all probability.

Therefore the Crown Prince should prepare himself for the responsibilities of the throne, when your Highness will be able to repay your enemies for all their ill-nature."

"I shall know the way, never fear," she answered in a low, firm voice.

"To-day their power is paramount, but to-morrow mine shall be. I shall then live only for my husband and my child. At present I am living for a third reason--to vindicate myself."

"Then your Imperial Highness contemplates changing everything?" he asked simply, but with the ingenuity of a great diplomatist. Every word of her reply he determined to use in order to secure her overthrow.

"I shall change all Ministers of State, Chamberlains, every one, from the Chancellor of the Orders down to the Grand Master of the Ceremonies.

They shall all go, and first of all the _dames du palais_--those women who have so cleverly plotted against me, but of whose conspiracy I am now quite well aware." And she mentioned one or two names--names that had been revealed to her by the obscure functionary Steinbach.

The Minister saw that the situation was a grave, even desperate one. He was uncertain how much she knew concerning the plot, and was therefore undecided as to what line he should adopt. In order to speak in private they left the room, pacing the long, green-carpeted corridor that, enclosed in gla.s.s, ran the whole length of that wing of the palace. He tried by artful means to obtain from her further details, but she refused to satisfy him. She knew the truth, and that, she declared, was all sufficient.

Old Hinckeldeym was a power in Marburg. For eighteen years he had been the confidant of the King, and now fearing his favour on the wane, had wheedled himself into the good graces of the Crown Prince, who had given him to understand, by broad hints, that he would be only too pleased to rid himself of the Crown Princess. Therefore, if he could effect this, his future was a.s.sured. And what greater weapon could he have against her than her own declaration of her intention to sweep clear the Court of its present entourage?

He had a.s.suredly played his cards wonderfully well. He was a past master in deception and double-dealing. The Princess, believing that he was at least her friend, had spoken frankly to him, never for one moment expecting a foul betrayal.

Yet, if the truth were told, it was that fat-faced, black-eyed man who had first started the wicked calumny which had coupled her name with Leitolf; he who had dropped scandalous hints to the Crown Prince of his beautiful wife's _penchant_ for the good-looking _chef du cabinet_; he who had secretly stirred up the hostility against the daughter of the Austrian Archduke, and whose fertile brain had invented lies which were so ingeniously concocted that they possessed every semblance of truth.

A woman of Imperial birth may be a diplomatist, versed in all the intricacies of Court etiquette and Court usages, but she can never be at the same time a woman of the world. Her education is not that of ordinary beings; therefore, as in the case of the Princess Claire, though shrewd and tactful, she was no match for the crafty old Minister who for eighteen years had directed the destiny of that most important kingdom of the German Empire.

The yellow-haired Countess Hupertz, one of Hinckeldeym's puppets, watched the Princess and Minister walking in the corridor, and smiled grimly. While the orchestra played those dreamy waltzes, the tragedy of a throne was being enacted, and a woman--a sweet, good, lovable woman, upright and honest--was being condemned to her fate by those fierce, relentless enemies by which she was, alas! surrounded.

As she moved, her splendid diamonds flashed and glittered with a thousand fires, for no woman in all the Court could compare with her, either for beauty or for figure. And yet her husband, his mind poisoned by those place-hunters--a man whose birth was but as a mushroom as compared with that of Claire, who possessed an ancestry dating back a thousand years--blindly believed that which they told him to be the truth.

De Trauttenberg, in fear lest she might lose her own position, was in Hinckeldeym's pay, and what she revealed was always exaggerated--most of it, indeed, absolutely false.