So I stood, eager and breathless, on the verge of the gravel. So they every moment drew nearer the spot where I was standing. As they came close, my father's eyes met mine. He shook his head, and frowned. He thought I had come there to stare at the King.
Nothing daunted, I took two steps forward. I had Monsieur Maurice's card in my hand. I held it out to him.
"Read it," I said. "It is from Monsieur Maurice."
But he crushed it in his hand without looking at it, and waved me back authoritatively.
The gentleman in the blue frock stopped and smiled.
"Is this your little girl, Colonel Bernhard?" he asked.
The strange gentleman beckoned me to draw nearer.
"A golden-haired little Mädchen!" said he. "Come hither, pretty one, and tell me your name."
I knew then that he was the King. I trembled and blushed.
"And you have brought a letter for your father?"
"It is not a letter," I said. "It is a card. It is from Monsieur Maurice."
"And who is Monsieur Maurice?" asked the King.
"So please your Majesty," said my father, answering the question for me, "Monsieur Maurice is the prisoner I hold in charge."
"The prisoner!" he repeated, inquiringly. "What prisoner?"
"The state-prisoner whom I received, according to your Majesty's command, eight months ago--Monsieur Maurice."
"I know the gentleman by no other name, please your Majesty," said my father.
"I never heard of Monsieur Maurice," he said, "I know of no state-prisoner here."
"The prisoner was consigned to my keeping by your Majesty's Minister of War," said my father.
"What papers did you receive with your prisoner, Colonel Bernhard?" he said.
"None, your Majesty--except a despatch from your Majesty's Minister of War, delivered a day or two before the prisoner arrived at Brühl."
"How did he come? and where did he come from?"
"He came in a close carriage, your Majesty, attended by two officers who left Brühl the same night and whose names and persons are unknown to me. I do not know where he came from. I only know that they had taken the last relay of horses from Cologne."
"I was told nothing, your Majesty, except that Monsieur Maurice was an enemy to the state, and--"
My father's hand went up to his moustache, as it was wont to do in perplexity.
"I--so please your Majesty, I think there is some foul mystery in it at bottom," he said, bluntly. "There hath been that thing proposed to me that I am ashamed to repeat. I do beseech your Majesty that some investigation...."
