ccasionally wandering to the busts and the long array of many-coloured books, was quietly reviewing the labours of the day before. He was a man of about forty, flaxen-h

s to take up at once the thread of their suspended intimacy. Gotthold, the virgin priest of knowled

e had not been long about his manuscript when a door opened and the Prince stepped into the apartment. The doctor watched him as he drew near, receiving, from each of the embayed windows in succession, a flush of morning

hold,’ said Otto, d

arian. ‘You are an early bird. Is this

e, I fancy,’ ans

an ethical adviser; and as for good resolutions, I believed in

I am not a popular sovereign.’ And with a

sonal, as unreal as the nightmare; the politician’s, a mixed variety; and yours, which is the most personal of all. Women take to you; footmen adore you; it is as natural to like you as to p

osophical?’ r

uld not be dogmatic

, and certainly not vi

virtue,’ chuck

on it with his elbow, and looked his cousin square

e about you; inclined, I believe, to admire. The names of virtues exercise a charm on most of us; we must lay claim to all of them, however incompatible; we must all be both daring and prudent;

. And the question, Gotthold, the question that I have to face is this: Can

smiss the notion. And besides,

ly unfit to be a sovereign, what am I doing with this money, with this pal

difficulty,’

‘Am I not bound to try? And with the

librarian. ‘No

was told last night,’ he laughed, ‘that with a man like me to impersonate, and a

nation,’ Gotthold said, ‘that prepos

n trade — a writer: on

orant puppy!’ cri

id Otto. ‘He is one of y

ust read his stuff again. It is the rather to his credit, as our views are opposite. The east and

asked the Prince,

’ said Gotthold. ‘I a

if revolution is preparing at this hour, must I not go forth to meet the inevitable? should I not save these horrors and be done with these absurdities? in a word, should I not abdicate? O, bel

e them: sterile flowers! All — down to the fellow swinking in a byre, whom fools point out for the exception — all are useless; all weave ropes of sand; or like a child that has breathed on a window, write and obliterate, write and obliterate, idle words! Talk of it no more. That way, I tell you, madness lies.’ The speaker rose from his chair and then sat down again. He laughed a little laugh, and then, changing his tone,

when I have washed my hands of it three years, and left all — labour, responsibility, and honour and enjoyment too, if there be any — to Gondremark and to — Seraphina —’ He hesitated at the name, and Gotthold glanced aside. ‘Well,’ the Prince continued, ‘what has come of it? Taxes, army, cannon — why, it’s like a box of lead so

despised public opi

loathed in this country that I brought her to and suffered her to spoil. Yes, I gave it her as a plaything, and

ian: ‘but since you ask me seriously, I would

The course that I have been following all these years, to come at last to this. O, ill-advised! if that were

pursed lips,

s to my conduct as the Prince; have I ev

‘this is another chapter. I am an old celibate,

‘All of this must cease.’ And he began to wa

u!’ said Gotthold, after a co

nothing; I was ashamed of this toy kingdom from the first; I could not tolerate that people should fancy I believed in a thing so patently absurd! I would do nothing that cannot be done smiling. I have a sense of humour, forsooth! I mus

Gotthold. ‘You are drawing, with fine st

‘Coward is the word. A springless

ure of formality; and in ordinary circumstances, strutting behind the drum of his corporation, he impressed the beholder with a certain air of frozen dignity and wisdom. But at the smallest contrariety, his trembling hands and disconnected gestures betrayed t

your Highness at such an hour in the library! — a circumstance so unusual

done, Herr Cancell

t with the Herr Doctor,’ said the Chancellor of Grunewald. ‘Herr

f manuscript to the old gentleman, who prepared,

ince we have met,’ sai

Highness’s commands,’

ce I left?’ asked the P

; ‘punctual trifles: huge, indeed, if neglected, but trifle

n have I obliged you with an order? Replaced, let us rathe

your Highness has so wisely dissociated

sure, sir,’ said Otto

roceeded with,’ replied the of

my questions,’ said the Prince. ‘You tempt me to suppose a purpose in your d

t,’ jerked the ancient puppet,

ou assure me, your sovereign, that since the date of my dep

Doctor to witness,’ cried Greisengesang

ore you served me,’ he added. ‘It consists neither with your dignity nor mine that you should babble excuses and stumbl

is labours; but his shoulders heaved with subterranean merriment. The

being unavoidably deprived of documents, it would be difficult, it would be imp

nd, that you were kind to me from the first, and for a period of years a faithful servant. I will thus dismiss the matters on which you waive immediate inquir

r Highness, of police; a detail of a purely administrative order. These

to. ‘In what sense?

ed Gotthold, looking up, ‘was

Cancellarius?’ dem

ecree was in due form, invested with your Highness’s authority by pro

d,’ said the Prince. ‘On what grounds

cellor s

eason in these documents,’ said Gottho

look. ‘Give them to me,’ he s

ir his own. I am in this case a mere messenger; and as such, I am not clothed with any capacity t

ense,’ said Gotthold, ‘and most of

Otto, rising, ‘the

gesang insta

ng at his feet my most submiss apologies, I will now

er orders. O, now, no more!’ he cried, with a gesture, as the old man opened his lips. ‘You have

the appointed chair and

roll, ‘what is all this? it look

ld, ‘the manuscript

octor Hohenstockwitz

Gotthold. ‘But the roll was given to me o

Chancellor an

employment. On your conduct to your Prince I will not dwell; but to descend to be a spy! For what else can it be called? To seize the papers of this gentleman, the private papers of a stranger, the toil of a life, perhaps — to open, and t

roll; and now, when it lay fully open, his eye rested on

mo

it to th

s of

Crabtree,

ne of the European Courts; and among these the nineteent

Otto, ‘that should be droll reading

tthold. ‘Each chapter written and finished on the

just to glance at it,

rkened, and he loo

weakness prevailed. ‘I will,’ he said, with an u

d spread the traveller’s manuscri