Chapter XXIV. "How Shall We Find Him?"

by Frances Hodgson Burnett

　　In Vienna they came upon a pageant. In celebration of acentury-past victory the Emperor drove in state and ceremony toattend at the great cathedral and to do honor to the ancientbanners and laurel-wreathed statue of a long-dead soldier-prince.The broad pavements of the huge chief thoroughfare were crowdedwith a cheering populace watching the martial pomp and splendoras it passed by with marching feet, prancing horses, and glitterof scabbard and chain, which all seemed somehow part of music intriumphant bursts.The Rat was enormously thrilled by the magnificence of theimperial place. Its immense spaces, the squares and gardens,reigned over by statues of emperors, and warriors, and queensmade him feel that all things on earth were possible. Thepalaces and stately piles of architecture, whose surmountingequestrian bronzes ramped high in the air clear cut and beautifulagainst the sky, seemed to sweep out of his world all atmospherebut that of splendid cities down whose broad avenues emperorsrode with waving banners, tramping, jangling soldiery before andbehind, and golden trumpets blaring forth. It seemed as if itmust always be like this--that lances and cavalry and emperorswould never cease to ride by. "I should like to stay here along time," he said almost as if he were in a dream. "I shouldlike to see it all."He leaned on his crutches in the crowd and watched the glitter ofthe passing pageant. Now and then he glanced at Marco, whowatched also with a steady eye which, The Rat saw, nothing wouldescape: How absorbed he always was in the Game! How impossibleit was for him to forget it or to remember it only as a boywould! Often it seemed that he was not a boy at all. And theGame, The Rat knew in these days, was a game no more but a thingof deep and deadly earnest--a thing which touched kings andthrones, and concerned the ruling and swaying of great countries.And they--two lads pushed about by the crowd as they stood andstared at the soldiers--carried with them that which was even nowlighting the Lamp. The blood in The Rat's veins ran quickly andmade him feel hot as he remembered certain thoughts which hadforced themselves into his mind during the past weeks. As hisbrain had the trick of "working things out," it had, during thelast fortnight at least, been following a wonderful even ifrather fantastic and feverish fancy. A mere trifle had set it atwork, but, its labor once begun, things which might have onceseemed to be trifles appeared so no longer. When Marco wasasleep, The Rat lay awake through thrilled and sometimes almostbreathless midnight hours, looking backward and recalling everydetail of their lives since they had known each other. Sometimesit seemed to him that almost everything he remembered--the Gamefrom first to last above all--had pointed to but one thing. Andthen again he would all at once feel that he was a fool and hadbetter keep his head steady. Marco, he knew, had no wildfancies. He had learned too much and his mind was too wellbalanced. He did not try to "work out things." He onlythought of what he was under orders to do."But," said The Rat more than once in these midnight hours,"if it ever comes to a draw whether he is to be saved or I am,he is the one that must come to no harm. Killing can't takelong-- and his father sent me with him."This thought passed through his mind as the tramping feet wentby. As a sudden splendid burst of approaching music broke uponhis ear, a queer look twisted his face. He realized the contrastbetween this day and that first morning behind the churchyard,when he had sat on his platform among the Squad and looked up andsaw Marco in the arch at the end of the passage. And because hehad been good-looking and had held himself so well, he had throwna stone at him. Yes--blind gutter-bred fool that he'd been:--hisfirst greeting to Marco had been a stone, just because he waswhat he was. As they stood here in the crowd in this far-offforeign city, it did not seem as if it could be true that it washe who had done it.He managed to work himself closer to Marco's side. "Isn't itsplendid?" he said, "I wish I was an emperor myself. I'd havethese fellows out like this every day." He said it only becausehe wanted to say something, to speak, as a reason for gettingcloser to him. He wanted to be near enough to touch him and feelthat they were really together and that the whole thing was not asort of magnificent dream from which he might awaken to findhimself lying on his heap of rags in his corner of the room inBone Court.The crowd swayed forward in its eagerness to see the principalfeature of the pageant--the Emperor in his carriage. The Ratswayed forward with the rest to look as it passed.A handsome white-haired and mustached personage in splendiduniform decorated with jeweled orders and with a cascade ofemerald-green plumes nodding in his military hat gravely salutedthe shouting people on either side. By him sat a man uniformed,decorated, and emerald-plumed also, but many years younger.Marco's arm touched The Rat's almost at the same moment that hisown touched Marco. Under the nodding plumes each saw the rathertired and cynical pale face, a sketch of which was hidden in theslit in Marco's sleeve."Is the one who sits with the Emperor an Archduke?" Marco askedthe man nearest to him in the crowd. The man answered amiablyenough. No, he was not, but he was a certain Prince, adescendant of the one who was the hero of the day. He was agreat favorite of the Emperor's and was also a great personage,whose palace contained pictures celebrated throughout Europe."He pretends it is only pictures he cares for," he went on,shrugging his shoulders and speaking to his wife, who had begunto listen, "but he is a clever one, who amuses himself withthings he professes not to concern himself about--big things.It's his way to look bored, and interested in nothing, but it'ssaid he's a wizard for knowing dangerous secrets.""Does he live at the Hofburg with the Emperor?" asked thewoman, craning her neck to look after the imperial carriage."No, but he's often there. The Emperor is lonely and bored too,no doubt, and this one has ways of making him forget histroubles. It's been told me that now and then the two dressthemselves roughly, like common men, and go out into the city tosee what it's like to rub shoulders with the rest of the world.I daresay it's true. I should like to try it myself once in awhile, if I had to sit on a throne and wear a crown."The two boys followed the celebration to its end. They managedto get near enough to see the entrance to the church where theservice was held and to get a view of the ceremonies at thebanner-draped and laurel-wreathed statue. They saw the man withthe pale face several times, but he was always so enclosed thatit was not possible to get within yards of him. It happenedonce, however, that he looked through a temporary break in thecrowdingpeople and saw a dark strong-featured and remarkably intent boy'sface, whose vivid scrutiny of him caught his eye. There wassomething in the fixedness of its attention which caused him tolook at it curiously for a few seconds, and Marco met his gazesquarely."Look at me! Look at me!" the boy was saying to him mentally."I have a message for you. A message!"The tired eyes in the pale face rested on him with a certaingrowing light of interest and curiosity, but the crowding peoplemoved and the temporary break closed up, so that the two couldsee each other no more. Marco and The Rat were pushed backwardby those taller and stronger than themselves until they were onthe outskirts of the crowd."Let us go to the Hofburg," said Marco. "They will come backthere, and we shall see him again even if we can't get near."To the Hofburg they made their way through the less crowdedstreets, and there they waited as near to the great palace asthey could get. They were there when, the ceremonies at an end,the imperial carriages returned, but, though they saw their managain, they were at some distance from him and he did not seethem.Then followed four singular days. They were singular daysbecause they were full of tantalizing incidents. Nothing seemedeasier than to hear talk of, and see the Emperor's favorite, butnothing was more impossible than to get near to him. He seemedrather a favorite with the populace, and the common people of theshopkeeping or laboring classes were given to talking freely ofhim--of where he was going and what he was doing. To-night hewould be sure to be at this great house or that, at this ball orthat banquet. There was no difficulty in discovering that hewould be sure to go to the opera, or the theatre, or to drive toSchonbrunn with his imperial master. Marco and The Rat heardcasual speech of him again and again, and from one part of thecity to the other they followed and waited for him. But it waslike chasing a will-o'-the-wisp. He was evidently too brilliantand important a person to be allowed to move about alone. Therewere always people with him who seemed absorbed in his languidcynical talk. Marco thought that he never seemed to care muchfor his companions, though they on their part always seemedhighly entertained by what he was saying. It was noticeable thatthey laughed a great deal, though he himself scarcely evensmiled."He's one of those chaps with the trick of saying witty thingsas if he didn't see the fun in them himself," The Rat summed himup. "Chaps like that are always cleverer than the other kind.""He's too high in favor and too rich not to be followed about,"they heard a man in a shop say one day, "but he gets tired ofit. Sometimes, when he's too bored to stand it any longer, hegives it out that he's gone into the mountains somewhere, and allthe time he's shut up alone with his pictures in his ownpalace."That very night The Rat came in to their attic looking pale anddisappointed. He had been out to buy some food after a long andarduous day in which they had covered much ground, had seen theirman three times, and each time under circumstances which made himmore inaccessible than ever. They had come back to their poorquarters both tired and ravenously hungry.The Rat threw his purchase on to the table and himself into achair."He's gone to Budapest," he said. "now how shall we findhim?"Marco was rather pale also, and for a moment he looked paler.The day had been a hard one, and in their haste to reach placesat a long distance from each other they had forgotten their needof food.They sat silent for a few moments because there seemed to benothing to say. "We are too tired and hungry to be able tothink well," Marco said at last. "Let us eat our supper andthen go to sleep. Until we've had a rest, we must `let go.' ""Yes. There's no good in talking when you're tired," The Ratanswered a trifle gloomily. "You don't reason straight. Wemust `let go.' "Their meal was simple but they ate well and without words.Even when they had finished and undressed for the night, theysaid very little."Where do our thoughts go when we are asleep," The Rat inquiredcasually after he was stretched out in the darkness. "They mustgo somewhere. Let's send them to find out what to do next.""It's not as still as it was on the Gaisberg. You can hear thecity roaring," said Marco drowsily from his dark corner. "Wemust make a ledge--for ourselves."Sleep made it for them--deep, restful, healthy sleep. If theyhad been more resentful of their ill luck and lost labor, itwould have come less easily and have been less natural. In theirtalks of strange things they had learned that one great secret ofstrength and unflagging courage is to know how to "let go"--tocease thinking over an anxiety until the right moment comes. Itwas their habit to "let go" for hours sometimes, and wanderabout looking at places and things--galleries, museums, palaces,giving themselves up with boyish pleasure and eagerness to allthey saw. Marco was too intimate with the things worth seeing,and The Rat too curious and feverishly wide-awake to allow oftheir missing much.The Rat's image of the world had grown until it seemed to know noboundaries which could hold its wealth of wonders. He wanted togo on and on and see them all.When Marco opened his eyes in the morning, he found The Rat lyinglooking at him. Then they both sat up in bed at the same time."I believe we are both thinking the same thing," Marco said.They frequently discovered that they were thinking the samethings."So do I," answered The Rat. "It shows how tired we were thatwe didn't think of it last night.""Yes, we are thinking the same thing," said Marco. "We haveboth remembered what we heard about his shutting himself up alonewith his pictures and making people believe he had gone away.""He's in his palace now," The Rat announced."Do you feel sure of that, too?" asked Marco. "Did you wakeup and feel sure of it the first thing?""Yes," answered The Rat. "As sure as if I'd heard him say ithimself.""So did I," said Marco."That's what our thoughts brought back to us," said The Rat,"when we `let go' and sent them off last night." He sat uphugging his knees and looking straight before him for some timeafter this, and Marco did not interrupt his meditations.The day was a brilliant one, and, though their attic had only onewindow, the sun shone in through it as they ate their breakfast.After it, they leaned on the window's ledge and talked about thePrince's garden. They talked about it because it was a placeopen to the public and they had walked round it more than once.The palace, which was not a large one, stood in the midst of it.The Prince was good-natured enough to allow quiet andwell-behaved people to saunter through. It was not a fashionablepromenade but a pleasant retreat for people who sometimes tooktheir work or books and sat on the seats placed here and thereamong the shrubs and flowers."When we were there the first time, I noticed two things,"Marco said. "There is a stone balcony which juts out from theside of the palace which looks on the Fountain Garden. That daythere were chairs on it as if the Prince and his visitorssometimes sat there. Near it, there was a very large evergreenshrub and I saw that there was a hollow place inside it. If someone wanted to stay in the gardens all night to watch the windowswhen they were lighted and see if any one came out alone upon thebalcony, he could hide himself in the hollow place and stay thereuntil the morning.""Is there room for two inside the shrub?" The Rat asked."No. I must go alone," said Marco.