Chapter 11

by William Makepeace Thackeray

　　IN WHICH THE LUCK GOES AGAINST BARRY.My hopes of obtaining the hand of one of the richest heiresses inGermany were now, as far as all human probability went, and as faras my own merits and prudence could secure my fortune, prettycertain of completion. I was admitted whenever I presented myself atthe Princess's apartments, and had as frequent opportunities as Idesired of seeing the Countess Ida there. I cannot say that shereceived me with any particular favour; the silly young creature'saffections were, as I have said, engaged ignobly elsewhere; and,however captivating my own person and manners may have been, it wasnot to be expected that she should all of a sudden forget her loverfor the sake of the young Irish gentleman who was paying hisaddresses to her. But such little rebuffs as I got were far fromdiscouraging me. I had very powerful friends, who were to aid me inmy undertaking; and knew that, sooner or later, the victory must bemine. In fact, I only waited my time to press my suit. Who couldtell the dreadful stroke of fortune which was impending over myillustrious protectress, and which was to involve me partially inher ruin?All things seemed for a while quite prosperous to my wishes; and inspite of the Countess Ida's disinclination, it was much easier tobring her to her senses than, perhaps, may be supposed in a sillyconstitutional country like England, where people are not brought upwith those wholesome sentiments of obedience to Royalty which werecustomary in Europe at the time when I was a young man.I have stated how, through Magny, I had the Princess, as it were, atmy feet. Her Highness had only to press the match upon the old Duke,over whom her influence was unbounded, and to secure the goodwill ofthe Countess of Liliengarten, (which was the romantic title of hisHighness's morganatic spouse), and the easy old man would give anorder for the marriage: which his ward would perforce obey. Madamede Liliengarten was, too, from her position, extremely anxious tooblige the Princess Olivia; who might be called upon any day tooccupy the throne. The old Duke was tottering, apoplectic, andexceedingly fond of good living. When he was gone, his relict wouldfind the patronage of the Duchess Olivia most necessary to her.Hence there was a close mutual understanding between the two ladies;and the world said that the Hereditary Princess was already indebtedto the favourite for help on various occasions. Her Highness hadobtained, through the Countess, several large grants of money forthe payment of her multifarious debts; and she was now good enoughto exert her gracious influence over Madame de Liliengarten in orderto obtain for me the object so near my heart. It is not to besupposed that my end was to be obtained without continualunwillingness and refusals on Magny's part; but I pushed my pointresolutely, and had means in my hands of overcoming the stubbornnessof that feeble young gentleman. Also, I may say, without vanity,that if the high and mighty Princess detested me, the Countess(though she was of extremely low origin, it is said) had bettertaste and admired me. She often did us the honour to go partnerswith us in one of our faro-banks, and declared that I was thehandsomest man in the duchy. All I was required to prove was mynobility, and I got at Vienna such a pedigree as would satisfy themost greedy in that way. In fact, what had a man descended from theBarrys and the Bradys to fear before any von in Germany? By way ofmaking assurance doubly sure, I promised Madame de Liliengarten tenthousand louis on the day of my marriage, and she knew that as aplay-man I had never failed in my word: and I vow, that had I paidfifty per cent. for it, I would have got the money.Thus by my talents, honesty, and acuteness, I had, considering I wasa poor patronless outcast, raised for myself very powerfulprotectors. Even his Highness the Duke Victor was favourablyinclined to me; for, his favourite charger falling ill of thestaggers, I gave him a ball such as my uncle Brady used toadminister, and cured the horse; after which his Highness waspleased to notice me frequently. He invited me to his hunting andshooting parties, where I showed myself to be a good sportsman; andonce or twice he condescended to talk to me about my prospects inlife, lamenting that I had taken to gambling, and that I had notadopted a more regular means of advancement. 'Sir,' said I, 'if youwill allow me to speak frankly to your Highness, play with me isonly a means to an end. Where should I have been without it? Aprivate still in King Frederick's grenadiers. I come of a race whichgave princes to my country; but persecutions have deprived them oftheir vast possessions. My uncle's adherence to his ancient faithdrove him from our country. I too resolved to seek advancement inthe military service; but the insolence and ill-treatment which Ireceived at the hands of the English were not bearable by a high-born gentleman, and I fled their service. It was only to fall intoanother bondage to all appearance still more hopeless; when my goodstar sent a preserver to me in my uncle, and my spirit and gallantryenabled me to take advantage of the means of escape afforded me.Since then we have lived, I do not disguise it, by play; but who cansay I have done him a wrong? Yet, if I could find myself in anhonourable post, and with an assured maintenance, I would never,except for amusement, such as every gentleman must have, touch acard again. I beseech your Highness to inquire of your resident atBerlin if I did not on every occasion act as a gallant soldier. Ifeel that I have talents of a higher order, and should be proud tohave occasion to exert them; if, as I do not doubt, my fortune shallbring them into play.'The candour of this statement struck his Highness greatly, andimpressed him in my favour, and he was pleased to say that hebelieved me, and would be glad to stand my friend.Having thus the two Dukes, the Duchess, and the reigning favouriteenlisted on my side, the chances certainly were that I should carryoff the great prize; and I ought, according to all commoncalculations, to have been a Prince of the Empire at this presentwriting, but that my ill luck pursued me in a matter in which I wasnot the least to blame,--the unhappy Duchess's attachment to theweak, silly, cowardly Frenchman. The display of this love waspainful to witness, as its end was frightful to think of. ThePrincess made no disguise of it. If Magny spoke a word to a lady ofher household, she would be jealous, and attack with all the fury ofher tongue the unlucky offender. She would send him a half-dozen ofnotes in the day: at his arrival to join her circle or the courtswhich she held, she would brighten up, so that all might perceive.It was a wonder that her husband had not long ere this been madeaware of her faithlessness; but the Prince Victor was himself of sohigh and stern a nature that he could not believe in her stooping sofar from her rank as to forget her virtue: and I have heard say,that when hints were given to him of the evident partiality whichthe Princess showed for the equerry, his answer was a stern commandnever more to be troubled on the subject. 'The Princess is light-minded,' he said; 'she was brought up at a frivolous Court; but herfolly goes not beyond coquetry: crime is impossible; she has herbirth, and my name, and her children, to defend her.' And he wouldride off to his military inspections and be absent for weeks, orretire to his suite of apartments, and remain closeted there wholedays; only appearing to make a bow at her Highness's levee, or togive her his hand at the Court galas, where ceremony required thathe should appear. He was a man of vulgar tastes, and I have seen himin the private garden, with his great ungainly figure, runningraces, or playing at ball with his little son and daughter, whom hewould find a dozen pretexts daily for visiting. The serene childrenwere brought to their mother every morning at her toilette; but shereceived them very indifferently: except on one occasion, when theyoung Duke Ludwig got his little uniform as colonel of hussars,being presented with a regiment by his godfather the EmperorLeopold. Then, for a day or two, the Duchess Olivia was charmed withthe little boy; but she grew tired of him speedily, as a child doesof a toy. I remember one day, in the morning circle, some of thePrincess's rouge came off on the arm of her son's little whitemilitary jacket; on which she slapped the poor child's face, andsent him sobbing away. Oh, the woes that have been worked by womenin this world! the misery into which men have lightly stepped withsmiling faces; often not even with the excuse of passion, but frommere foppery, vanity, and bravado! Men play with these dreadful two-edged tools, as if no harm could come to them. I, who have seen moreof life than most men, if I had a son, would go on my knees to himand beg him to avoid woman, who is worse than poison. Once intrigue,and your whole life is endangered: you never know when the evil mayfall upon you; and the woe of whole families, and the ruin ofinnocent people perfectly dear to you, may be caused by a moment ofyour folly.When I saw how entirely lost the unlucky Monsieur de Magny seemed tobe, in spite of ail the claims I had against him, I urged him tofly. He had rooms in the palace, in the garrets over the Princess'squarters (the building was a huge one, and accommodated almost acity of noble retainers of the family); but the infatuated youngfool would not budge, although he had not even the excuse of lovefor staying. 'How she squints,' he would say of the Princess, 'andhow crooked she is! She thinks no one can perceive her deformity.She writes me verses out of Gresset or Crebillon, and fancies Ibelieve them to be original. Bah! they are no more her own than herhair is!' It was in this way that the wretched lad was dancing overthe ruin that was yawning under him. I do believe that his chiefpleasure in making love to the Princess was, that he might writeabout his victories to his friends of the petites maisons at Paris,where he longed to be considered as a wit and a Vainqueur de Dames.Seeing the young man's recklessness, and the danger of his position,I became very anxious that my little scheme should be brought to asatisfactory end, and pressed him warmly on the matter.My solicitations with him were, I need not say, from the nature ofthe connection between us, generally pretty successful; and, infact, the poor fellow could refuse me nothing as I used oftenlaughingly to say to him, very little to his liking. But I used morethan threats, or the legitimate influence I had over him. I useddelicacy and generosity; as a proof of which, I may mention that Ipromised to give back to the Princess the family emerald, which Imentioned in the last chapter that I had won from her unprincipledadmirer at play.This was done by my uncle's consent, and was one of the usual actsof prudence and foresight which distinguish that clever man. "Pressthe matter now, Redmond my boy," he would urge. "This affair betweenher Highness and Magny must end ill for both of them, and that soon;and where will be your chance to win the Countess then? Now is yourtime! win her and wear her before the month is over, and we willgive up the punting business, and go live like noblemen at ourcastle in Swabia. Get rid of that emerald, too," he added: "shouldan accident happen, it will be an ugly deposit found in our hand."This it was that made me agree to forego the possession of thetrinket; which, I must confess, I was loth to part with. It waslucky for us both that I did: as you shall presently hear.Meanwhile, then, I urged Magny: I myself spoke strongly to theCountess of Liliengarten, who promised formally to back my claimwith his Highness the reigning Duke; and Monsieur de Magny wasinstructed to induce the Princess Olivia to make a similarapplication to the old sovereign in my behalf. It was done. The twoladies urged the Prince; his Highness (at a supper of oysters andchampagne) was brought to consent, and her Highness the HereditaryPrincess did me the honour of notifying personally to the CountessIda that it was the Prince's will that she should marry the youngIrish nobleman, the Chevalier Redmond de Balibari. The notificationwas made in my presence; and though the young Countess said 'Never!'and fell down in a swoon at her lady's feet, I was, you may be sure,entirely unconcerned at this little display of mawkish sensibility,and felt, indeed, now that my prize was secure.That evening I gave the Chevalier de Magny the emerald, which hepromised to restore to the Princess; and now the only difficulty inmy way lay with the Hereditary Prince, of whom his father, his wife,and the favourite, were alike afraid. He might not be disposed toallow the richest heiress in his duchy to be carried off by a noble,though not a wealthy foreigner. Time was necessary in order to breakthe matter to Prince Victor. The Princess must find him at somemoment of good-humour. He had days of infatuation still, when hecould refuse his wife nothing; and our plan was to wait for one ofthese, or for any other chance which might occur.But it was destined that the Princess should never see her husbandat her feet, as often as he had been. Fate was preparing a terribleending to her follies, and my own hope. In spite of his solemnpromises to me, Magny never restored the emerald to the PrincessOlivia.He had heard, in casual intercourse with me, that my uncle and I hadbeen beholden to Mr. Moses Lowe, the banker of Heidelberg, who hadgiven us a good price for our valuables; and the infatuated youngman took a pretext to go thither, and offered the jewel for pawn.Moses Lowe recognised the emerald at once, gave Magny the sum thelatter demanded, which the Chevalier lost presently at play: never,you may be sure, acquainting us with the means by which he had madehimself master of so much capital. We, for our parts, supposed thathe had been supplied by his usual banker, the Princess: and manyrouleaux of his gold pieces found their way into our treasury, whenat the Court galas, at our own lodgings, or at the apartments ofMadame de Liliengarten (who on these occasions did us the honour togo halves with us) we held our bank of faro.Thus Magny's money was very soon gone. But though the Jew held hisjewel, of thrice the value no doubt of the sums he had lent upon it,that was not all the profit which he intended to have from hisunhappy creditor; over whom he began speedily to exercise hisauthority. His Hebrew connections at X--, money-brokers, bankers,horse-dealers, about the Court there, must have told theirHeidelberg brother what Magny's relations with the Princess were;and the rascal determined to take advantage of these, and to pressto the utmost both victims. My uncle and I were, meanwhile, swimmingupon the high tide of fortune, prospering with our cards, and withthe still greater matrimonial game which we were playing; and wewere quite unaware of the mine under our feet.Before a month was passed, the Jew began to pester Magny. Hepresented himself at X--, and asked for further interest-hush-money;otherwise he must sell the emerald. Magny got money for him; thePrincess again befriended her dastardly lover. The success of thefirst demand only rendered the second more exorbitant. I know nothow much money was extorted and paid on this unluckly emerald: butit was the cause of the ruin of us all.One night we were keeping our table as usual at the Countess ofLiliengarten's, and Magny being in cash somehow, kept drawing outrouleau after rouleau, and playing with his common ill success. Inthe middle of the play a note was brought into him, which he read,and turned very pale on perusing; but the luck was against him, andlooking up rather anxiously at the clock, he waited for a few moreturns of the cards, when having, I suppose, lost his last rouleau, hegot up with a wild oath that scared some of the polite companyassembled, and left the room. A great trampling of horses was heardwithout; but we were too much engaged with our business to heedthe noise, and continued our play.Presently some one came into the play-room and said to the Countess,'Here is a strange story! A Jew has been murdered in the Kaiserwald.Magny was arrested when he went out of the room.' All the partybroke up on hearing this strange news, and we shut up our bank forthe night. Magny had been sitting by me during the play (my uncledealt and I paid and took the money), and, looking under the chair,there was a crumpled paper, which I took up and read. It was thatwhich had been delivered to him, and ran thus:-'If you have done it, take the orderly's horse who brings this. Itis the best of my stable. There are a hundred louis in each holster,and the pistols are loaded. Either course lies open to you if youknow what I mean. In a quarter of an hour I shall know our fate--whether I am to be dishonoured and survive you, whether you areguilty and a coward, or whether you are still worthy of the name of'M.'This was in the handwriting of the old General de Magny; and myuncle and I, as we walked home at night, having made and dividedwith the Countess Liliengarten no inconsiderable profits that night,felt our triumphs greatly dashed by the perusal of the letter. 'HasMagny,' we asked, 'robbed the Jew, or has his intrigue beendiscovered?' In either case, my claims on the Countess Ida werelikely to meet with serious drawbacks: and I began to feel that my'great card' was played and perhaps lost.Well, it was lost: though I say, to this day, it was well andgallantly played. After supper (which we never for fear ofconsequences took during play) I became so agitated in my mind as towhat was occurring that I determined to sally out about midnightinto the town, and inquire what was the real motive of Magny'sapprehension. A sentry was at the door, and signified to me that Iand my uncle were under arrest.We were left in our quarters for six weeks, so closely watched thatescape was impossible, had we desired it; but, as innocent men, wehad nothing to fear. Our course of life was open to all, and wedesired and courted inquiry. Great and tragical events happenedduring those six weeks; of which, though we heard the outline, asall Europe did, when we were released from our captivity, we wereyet far from understanding all the particulars, which were not muchknown to me for many years after. Here they are, as they were toldme by the lady, who of all the world perhaps was most likely to knowthem. But the narrative had best form the contents of anotherchapter.