The prisoner of Zenda
altogether sorry to find himself here. He seems to think that when
Black Michael has brought off his coup, witnesses of how it was
effected--saving, of course, the Six themselves--will not be at a
premium.”
This idea argued a shrewdness in our captive which led me to build
hopes on his assistance. I ordered him to be brought in at once. Sapt
conducted him, and set him in a chair by my bedside. He was sullen, and
afraid; but, to say truth, after young Rupert’s exploit, we also had
our fears, and, if he got as far as possible from Sapt’s formidable
six-shooter, Sapt kept him as far as he could from me. Moreover, when he
came in his hands were bound, but that I would not suffer.
I need not stay to recount the safeguards and rewards we promised the
fellow--all of which were honourably observed and paid, so that he lives
now in prosperity (though where I may not mention); and we were the more
free inasmuch as we soon learnt that he was rather a weak man than a
wicked, and had acted throughout this matter more from fear of the duke
and of his own brother Max than for any love of what was done. But
he had persuaded all of his loyalty; and though not in their secret
counsels, was yet, by his knowledge of their dispositions within the
Castle, able to lay bare before us the very heart of their devices. And
here, in brief, is his story:
Below the level of the ground in the Castle, approached by a flight of
stone steps which abutted on the end of the drawbridge, were situated
two small rooms, cut out of the rock itself. The outer of the two had no
windows, but was always lighted with candles; the inner had one square
window, which gave upon the moat. In the outer room there lay always,
day and night, three of the Six; and the instructions of Duke Michael
were, that on any attack being made on the outer room, the three were to
defend the door of it so long as they could without risk to themselves.
But, so soon as the door should be in danger of being forced, then
Rupert Hentzau or Detchard (for one of these two was always there)
should leave the others to hold it as long as they could, and himself
pass into the inner room, and, without more ado, kill the King who
lay there, well-treated indeed, but without weapons, and with his arms
confined in fine steel chains, which did not allow him to move his elbow
more than three inches from his side. Thus, before the outer door were
stormed, the King would be dead. And his body? For his body would be
evidence as damning as himself.
“Nay, sir,” said Johann, “his Highness has thought of that. While the
two hold the outer room, the one who has killed the King unlocks the
bars in the square window (they turn on a hinge). The window now gives
no light, for its mouth is choked by a great pipe of earthenware; and
this pipe, which is large enough to let pass through it the body of
a man, passes into the moat, coming to an end immediately above the
surface of the water, so that there is no perceptible interval between
water and pipe. The King being dead, his murderer swiftly ties a weight
to the body, and, dragging it to the window, raises it by a pulley (for,
lest the weight should prove too great, Detchard has provided one) till
it is level with the mouth of the pipe. He inserts the feet in the pipe,
and pushes the body down. Silently, without splash or sound, it falls
into the water and thence to the bottom of the moat, which is twenty
feet deep thereabouts. This done, the murderer cries loudly, ‘All’s
well!’ and himself slides down the pipe; and the others, if they can and
the attack is not too hot, run to the inner room and, seeking a moment’s
delay, bar the door, and in their turn slide down. And though the King
rises not from the bottom, they rise and swim round to the other side,
where the orders are for men to wait them with ropes, to haul them out,
and horses. And here, if things go ill, the duke will join them and seek
safety by riding; but if all goes well, they will return to the Castle,
and have their enemies in a trap. That, sir, is the plan of his Highness
for the disposal of the King in case of need. But it is not to be used
till the last; for, as we all know, he is not minded to kill the King
unless he can, before or soon after, kill you also, sir. Now, sir, I
have spoken the truth, as God is my witness, and I pray you to shield me
from the vengeance of Duke Michael; for if, after he knows what I have
done, I fall into his hands, I shall pray for one thing out of all the
world--a speedy death, and that I shall not obtain from him!”
The fellow’s story was rudely told, but our questions supplemented
his narrative. What he had told us applied to an armed attack; but if
suspicions were aroused, and there came overwhelming force--such, for
instance, as I, the King, could bring--the idea of resistance would be
abandoned; the King would be quietly murdered and slid down the pipe.
And--here comes an ingenious touch--one of the Six would take his
place in the cell, and, on the entrance of the searchers, loudly demand
release and redress; and Michael, being summoned, would confess to hasty
action, but he would say the man had angered him by seeking the favour
of a lady in the Castle (this was Antoinette de Mauban) and he had
confined him there, as he conceived he, as Lord of Zenda, had right to
do. But he was now, on receiving his apology, content to let him go,
and so end the gossip which, to his Highness’s annoyance, had arisen
concerning a prisoner in Zenda, and had given his visitors the trouble
of this enquiry. The visitors, baffled, would retire, and Michael could,
at his leisure, dispose of the body of the King.
Sapt, Fritz, and I in my bed, looked round on one another in horror and
bewilderment at the cruelty and cunning of the plan. Whether I went
in peace or in war, openly at the head of a corps, or secretly by a
stealthy assault, the King would be dead before I could come near him.
If Michael were stronger and overcame my party, there would be an end.
But if I were stronger, I should have no way to punish him, no means of
proving any guilt in him without proving my own guilt also. On the other
hand, I should be left as King (ah! for a moment my pulse quickened) and
it would be for the future to witness the final struggle between him and
me. He seemed to have made triumph possible and ruin impossible. At
the worst, he would stand as well as he had stood before I crossed
his path--with but one man between him and the throne, and that man an
impostor; at best, there would be none left to stand against him. I had
begun to think that Black Michael was over fond of leaving the fighting
to his friends; but now I acknowledged that the brains, if not the arms,
of the conspiracy were his.
“Does the King know this?” I asked.
“I and my brother,” answered Johann, “put up the pipe, under the orders
of my Lord of Hentzau. He was on guard that day, and the King asked my
lord what it meant. ‘Faith,’ he answered, with his airy laugh, ‘it’s a
new improvement on the ladder of Jacob, whereby, as you have read, sire,
men pass from the earth to heaven. We thought it not meet that your
Majesty should go, in case, sire, you must go, by the common route. So
we have made you a pretty private passage where the vulgar cannot stare
at you or incommode your passage. That, sire, is the meaning of
that pipe.’ And he laughed and bowed, and prayed the King’s leave to
replenish the King’s glass--for the King was at supper. And the King,
though he is a brave man, as are all of his House, grew red and then
white as he looked on the pipe and at the merry devil who mocked him.
Ah, sir” (and the fellow shuddered), “it is not easy to sleep quiet in
the Castle of Zenda, for all of them would as soon cut a man’s throat
as play a game at cards; and my Lord Rupert would choose it sooner for
a pastime than any other--ay, sooner than he would ruin a woman, though
that he loves also.”
The man ceased, and I bade Fritz take him away and have him carefully
guarded; and, turning to him, I added:
“If anyone asks you if there is a prisoner in Zenda, you may answer
‘Yes.’ But if any asks who the prisoner is, do not answer. For all my
promises will not save you if any man here learns from you the truth as
to the prisoner of Zenda. I’ll kill you like a dog if the thing be so
much as breathed within the house!”
Then, when he was gone, I looked at Sapt.
“It’s a hard nut!” said I.
“So hard,” said he, shaking his grizzled head, “that as I think, this
time next year is like to find you still King of Ruritania!” and he
broke out into curses on Michael’s cunning.
I lay back on my pillows.
“There seems to me,” I observed, “to be two ways by which the King can
come out of Zenda alive. One is by treachery in the duke’s followers.”
“You can leave that out,” said Sapt.
“I hope not,” I rejoined, “because the other I was about to mention
is--by a miracle from heaven!”
CHAPTER 14
A Night Outside the Castle
It would have surprised the good people of Ruritania to know of the
foregoing talk; for, according to the official reports, I had suffered a
grievous and dangerous hurt from an accidental spear-thrust, received in
the course of my sport. I caused the bulletins to be of a very serious
character, and created great public excitement, whereby three things
occurred: first, I gravely offended the medical faculty of Strelsau by
refusing to summon to my bedside any of them, save a young man, a friend
of Fritz’s, whom we could trust; secondly, I received word from Marshal
Strakencz that my orders seemed to have no more weight than his, and
that the Princess Flavia was leaving for Tarlenheim under his unwilling
escort (news whereat I strove not to be glad and proud); and thirdly, my
brother, the Duke of Strelsau, although too well informed to believe the
account of the origin of my sickness, was yet persuaded by the reports
and by my seeming inactivity that I was in truth incapable of action,
and that my life was in some danger. This I learnt from the man Johann,
whom I was compelled to trust and send back to Zenda, where, by the way,
Rupert Hentzau had him soundly flogged for daring to smirch the morals
of Zenda by staying out all night in the pursuits of love. This, from
Rupert, Johann deeply resented, and the duke’s approval of it did more
to bind the keeper to my side than all my promises.
On Flavia’s arrival I cannot dwell. Her joy at finding me up and well,
instead of on my back and fighting with death, makes a picture that
even now dances before my eyes till they grow too dim to see it; and her
reproaches that I had not trusted even her must excuse the means I took
to quiet them. In truth, to have her with me once more was like a taste
of heaven to a damned soul, the sweeter for the inevitable doom that
was to follow; and I rejoiced in being able to waste two whole days with
her. And when I had wasted two days, the Duke of Strelsau arranged a
hunting-party.
The stroke was near now. For Sapt and I, after anxious consultations,
had resolved that we must risk a blow, our resolution being clinched
by Johann’s news that the King grew peaked, pale, and ill, and that his
health was breaking down under his rigorous confinement. Now a man--be
he king or no king--may as well die swiftly and as becomes a gentleman,
from bullet or thrust, as rot his life out in a cellar! That thought
made prompt action advisable in the interests of the King; from my own
point of view, it grew more and more necessary. For Strakencz urged on
me the need of a speedy marriage, and my own inclinations seconded him
with such terrible insistence that I feared for my resolution. I do not
believe that I should have done the deed I dreamt of; but I might have