"I am not equal to much.A man can not see his wedding day come and go without him, helpless to prevent it, and not have the desire to sit down and weep and curse.You will see nothing but the unfavorable side of me for the next dozen hours.""I'm not altogether amiable myself," replied Maurice with a short laugh."Let us get out of the moonlight," he added; "we are somewhat conspicuous, and besides, we should keep moving;this cold is paralyzing.Is your Highness equal to the climbing?""Equal or not, lead the way.If I fall I'll call you."And the weary march began again; over boulders, through tangles of tough shrubbery, up steep inclines, around precipices, sometimes enveloped in mists, yet still they kept on.Often the prince fell over ragged stones, but he picked himself up without assistance; though he swore some, Maurice thought none the less of him for that bit of human weakness.The cold was numbing, and neither felt the cuts and bruises.
After two hours of this fatiguing labor they arrived upon a small plateau, about two thousand feet above the valley.The scene was solemn and imposing.The world seemed lying at their feet.The chateau, half hidden in the mist, sparkled like an opal.Maurice scowled at it.To the prince the vision was as reviving as a glass of wine.He threatened it with his fist, and plunged on with renewed vigor.There are few sensations so stimulating as the thought of a complete revenge.The angle of vision presently changed, and the historic pile vanished.
Maurice never saw the Red Chateau again.
Little more in the way of mishap befell them; and when the moon had wheeled half way down from the zenith, the kingdom lay below them.A descent of an hour's duration brought them into the pass.
Maurice calculated that nearly five hours had passed since he left the chateau; for the blue was fading in the east.The phantom vitality of the prince now forsook him; his legs refused their offices, and he sank upon a boulder, his head in his hands.
Maurice was not much better; but the prince had given him the burden of responsibility, and he was determined to hold up under it.
"If your Highness will remain here," he said, "I will fetch assistance, for the barrack can not be far off."The prince nodded and Maurice tramped away.But the miniature barrack and the quaint stone customs house both were wrapt in gloom and darkness.Maurice investigated.Both buildings were deserted; there was no sign of life about.He broke a window, and entered the customs office.Remembering that Colonel Mollendorf smoked, he searched the inner pocket of his coat.He drew forth a box of wax matches, struck one and looked about.Astruggle had taken place.Evidences were strewn on the floor.
The telegraph operator's table had been smashed into bits, the instrument twisted out of shape, the jars broken and the wires cut.Like indications of a disturbance were also found in the barrack.
Maurice began to comprehend.Madame's troopers had crossed the frontier, but they had returned again, taking with them the handful of troopers belonging to the king.It was plain that the object of this skirmish had been to destroy communications between Bleiberg and the frontier.Madame desired to effect a complete surprise, to swoop down on the capital before it could bring a large force into the field.
There is an unwritten law that when one country intends to wage war against its neighbor a formal declaration shall be made.But again Madame had forsaken the beaten paths.More than three weeks had passed since the duchy's representative in Bleiberg had been discredited and given his passports.At once the duchess had retaliated by discrediting the king's representative in Brunnstadt.Ordinarily this would have been understood as a mutual declaration of war.Instead, both governments ignored each other, one suspiciously, the other intentionally.All of which is to say, the gage of war had been flung, but neither had stooped to pick it up.
Perhaps Madame expected by this sudden aggressiveness to win her fight with as little loss of blood as possible, which in justice to her was to her credit.Again, a declaration of war openly made might have moved the confederation to veto it by coercion.
To win without loss of life would leave the confederation powerless to act.Therefore it will be seen that Madame was not only a daring woman, but a general of no mean ability.
This post was an isolated one; between it and Bleiberg there was not even a village.The main pass from the kingdom into the duchy was about thirty miles east.Here was a small but lively city named Coberg, a railway center, garrisoned by one thousand troops.At this pass Madame's contemplated stroke of war would have been impossible.The railway ran directly from Coberg to Brunnstadt, fifty miles south of the frontier.A branch of the railway ran from Brunnstadt to a small town seven miles south of the Red Chateau, which accounts for the ease with which Madame's troops had reached the isolated pass.It was now likely that Madame would arrive before Bleiberg ere her enemies dreamed of the stroke.Maurice could see how well the traitorous administration had played into Madame's hands.Here was the one weak spot, and they had allowed it to remain thus weak.
"The kingdom is lost," thought Maurice."His Highness and I may as well return to the chateau, for all the good our escape will do us.Hang them all!"He began to forage, and discovered a bottle full of peach brandy.
He drank half the contents, reserving the remainder for the prince.As he lowered the bottle there came a sound which caused him almost to lose hold of the vigorous tonic.The sound he heard was the shrill whinney of a horse.He pocketed the bottle and dashed out to the stables.To his joy several horses stamped restlessly in the stalls.The attacking party had without doubt come on foot.He led out two, saddled and bridled them and returned to the prince, who had fallen asleep.Maurice roused him.
