PRINCE RODERICK.

Evening Star, Issue 8118, 18 January 1890, Page 1 (Supplement)

PRINCE RODERICK.

By James Brinsuiy-Rtcitaiids, Author of ' Seven Years at Eton,' ' The Duke's Marriage,' etc.

VOL. 11.-CHAPTER XXIV. I do not know whether Prince Roderick was so angry as ho pretended to be. Defiance and any reproach of being in the wrong alwajs put him in a great passion for the moment; but secretly he must have felt that Lady Springfield's dishonorable act absolved him from any further remorse about his past conduct towards Isabel : and then he may have chetished a secret gratification that the disposal of his book ha:l now been taken out of his own hands. He did not spare Lord Springfield his taunts, but the old diplomatist received them with the most easy forbearance. The interview ended with the prince's threatening to make a complaint to the police—a threat which was, of court e, idle. A foreign prefect of police could have sent hisagents to pay her ladyship a domiciliary visit in tho night, and they might have recovered the manuscript without the slightest publicity ; bat in England, where the liberty of the subject is hedged in with all kinds of antiquated defences, police action involves proceedings in open Court, and the prince upon examining the subject saw that he could not make a move without raising a scandal. Ho turned his taunts upon me when Lord Springfield wa3 gojo. Having displeasure to vent, he never took pain to control himself, but turned a tapful of boiling invective upon the first person at hand. I had answered for Isabel's integrity, but she was nothing, lie vowed, but a common adventuress. "Who could tell that she and her mother were not acting _ together in this plot? As for Lady Springfield, it W as notorious that she earned pocket - money by contributing society gossip to. newspapers; sho had been caught in the act when her husband was in the diplomatic service, and there could be no doubt that she would now try to turn her theft to pecuniary account. Daring the rest of that evening, which we spent at the theatre, the prince remained so Bulky that it was disagreeable to be in his company.

Jhifc his was a mercurial temperament, so iifixt day he was himself again, and s"oiiicd disposed to take a humorous view of hi 3 misadventure. We were going to Windsor fur a few hours, and as we started I showed him a hitter which the post had brought me from Isabel.

rark lr.n?, 22ml October.

Dkar Captain 7 Mkrkdith, —I have hid a pp.i>-.ful stv.ne with my mother, and told bur that the relations between us could nover again bs what they were unless she restored Prince Kod-ricVs manuscript. My father has also sj)n>en nv.irt? severely than I had ever heard him speak, and I trust my mother is shaken. 1 write this because I know you will not like to cMI figaiu while mamma is here, but I wish you ti feel assured that we shall not lelax our efforts to prevent any mischi f being done. My father suggests that mamma may have been only cuiioua to read the bock, and that sheluv l erhaps no further intention beyond giving us a good frigh L . Let us hone so. —Yours faithfully, Isabel Mkadowes.

The prince merely gave a shrug as he read the letter. He offered no comment, but during our short railway journey showed himself very affable to atono for his unmauncrlineEs on the previous evening.

I think the prince committed a great mistake at Windsor that day. Instead of telling the truth about his hook he invented some excuses for not producing it, and the consequence was that the true story reached the castle through one of the Court ladies, who had it from Lady Springfield herself. Tina gave jnat offence in quarters, and conjecture was then started a3 to Princa Roderick's reasons for treating L-.V'C-l Meadowes so confidently as ho hvl done. Queries on this point led to otim-inquiries, whenca it came to be ascertained that the piince had brought Mira Vogelsang to England with him, had taken a_ furnished house for her at South Kensington, And often favored her with his company to dinner and supper. I had morn than ones marvelled at the prince's imprudent patronage of Mira Vogelsang. Referring to my diary I find the entry " Prince db'ed with Mira," occur pretty frequently at that period. Sometimes I accompanied him to her house, but I did not at all like the company one met there. Hook-nosed managers, curly-headed tenors, songstresses of the second class, fjt, painted, and pas-ides, formed Mira's court, and they treated the prince with a mixture of flattery and familiarity which w?.3 irritating to witness. The equerry or secretary of a prince, can never be popular among such people, for he cannot unbend among them as hi 3 master does. Were he to adapt himself to their style he would find it difficult to recover the proper tone when alone with hi3_ master; and if he does not adopt their style his presence acts as a wet blankpf. Mira vvci3 having a success in London, and the prince enjoyed the adulation that was paid tier. She was an artistic product of his own creating. Ho had often told mo that lie had discovered her in a Vienna music ha'l. Struck with her singing, he had provided her with good masters, had procured her an engagement at the Court Opc.a of Sabelburg, and had forced her vpnn the unwilling public of Kronbeim. Mira had repaid him by bravely holding her own in the position to which he had raised her. The girl had a magnificent voice, and it improved daily in traiuing, junt a3 tier physical charms expanded under good living. Passing from a diet of ham and raw apples to rich soups, joints, and wines, she had in three or four years so developed in stature, bust, arms, and figure a3 to be a splendid creature. Her photographs in the London shop windows wrought fascination upon lean young gentlemen and shrivelled elderly beaux, who wore admirers of the fleshy order of beauty, and every evening bouquets, notes, and sometimes bracelets were left for her at the stage door of Her Majesty's. Moreover, Mira's London success gave h.er a r pntation. At one bound she passed from local renown to European celebrity. i*'ive-year summer engagements in London with provincial touring engagements were pressed upon her, and a Berlin manager crossed the Channel on purpose to hear her. All this was extremely gratifying to the priuce, who read everything that the critics wrote, and often made me translate their articles for Mira's perusal, prior to cutting them out of the papers and pasting them in an album,

The prince treated Mira very kindly, and to her he was always the lord and mister. Not a clever girl, lyit thoroughly gay, and obedient, she knew his moods as a nurse doe 3 a child's. A glance at him when he entered the room was enough to tell her whether she could be familiar or ought to make a hush around him as in a sick chamber. If he looked serious she kissed hia hand, or curtsied so that he might touch her forehead with his lips. She had not the savoir faire which exactly hits the mean between subserviency and comradeship, but I think he liked her equally whether she made him drink out of'her glass or paid him deference with wistful eyes, or sang "for him" before a crowded house, Tendering all her songs with exactly the expression which he had taught her to put into them. Whatever a'r.c did she was hi 3 slave, and it never entered her mind to bd jealous of him. frhe knew* that he must rharry some day, and whether he were married <-r single, she would remain his slave all the same. Pecuniarily she was independent bf his caprices, for he had acted most generously in providing her with a fine income for life. Besides this, he was always giving her costly presents of jewellery and dresses. In all that he did for Mira the prince eaw no harm. He never could see harm in what he did; but a widely different view of the case was taken by those in whose good opinion he just then desired to stand well. I find an entry in my' diary which runs : " Took Mira for a walk. The prince to Windsor with Stolz. Exposure. Explosion." Very well do I remember all the incidents of the day to which that entry refers. The prince received a summonß to Windsor by telegram in the mprning, and took a fancy for going down on horseback with Stolz the Royal stablea supplying mounts for the occasion. Mira Vogelsang

was to sing next flay, for the first time in London, the part of Valentine in the 'Huguenots,'and the prince had promised the manager to attend a morning rehearsal. Being unable to do so, he sent me, and appointed a meeting between us at Mira's house towards six. We were then to dine, and finish the evening by visiting the Houses of Parliament, which were enjoying an autumn session.

I escorted Mira to the rehearsal, which lasted till about two, after which I took her to a restaurant, where she ate a regular dinner, beginning with two dozen oysters, for singing made her hungry. She had some shopping to do, and we walked about Bond street till nearly four, when it came on to rain. This drove us home. The sky had been overcast all day, and the shower soon settled into a steady downpour. It was not worth while going back to my hotel only to return at six o'clock, so I sat down by a window in Mira's drawing room reading newspapers, while she studied the words of her new part and hummed snatches of the music, beating time gravely with her forefinger. I made sure that the rain would compel Prince Roderick to return from Windsor by train, and bring him back sooner than he had appointed ; but towards six darkness came on and he was not back, the street lamps were lighted, and dinner was ready. Mira, who was never disturbed by unpunctuality (she was too much of a Viennese for that), placidly gazed out of the window and pitied the people who were trudging through puddles. At last towards seven, there was a rapid clattering of hoofs down the street, and the prince dashed up to the door with Stolz and a groom following behind, all three reeking wet. The prince alone dismounted. Stolz, calm as usual, lifted his hat, and rode away with the groom, who led the prince's hack. j

Mira and I went down to meet the prince, and the poor girl uttered "Lieber HimmelH as she saw him stand on the door-mat with water dripping from every part of him. But his pale frowning face and set lips checked further exclamations. " Fetch a cab," he said hoarsely to one of the servants, and then sent Mira away to prepare him some tea with rum in it, while he walked iuto the dining room, where the table was laid. He sighed heavily as he muttered something about having galloped all the way from Windsor ; and for nearly five nihiute3 he stood by the fire warming his hands and shivering slightly, while the moisture rose from his wet clothes in clouds.

" I'm done for again, Meredith," he said at la3t. " It's about Mira this time, and all sorts of other things besides the book. I'm looked upon as a reprobate, and everybody gives me up. The princess leaves England to-morrow." " And your engagement, sir ?" " Broken off!" Mira came in with the tea, and the prince drank it standing, lie said nothing to her about his troubles, but patted her on the shoulder and asked her some questions about her part. Twice he looked at his watch and said we must be going, but he lingered by the fire and seemed unwilling to go. At length he roused himself and reminded me of our appointment at the House of Commons. He walked towards the door, but of a sudden turned round with a laugh that was nearly a scream, beat the air with his hands, and fell heavily on the floor. CHAPTER XXV. It was nothing but a fainting fit. Mira frantically lifted him up in her arms, and raised her voice to its loudest stage pitch in ahrieking for help ; but before the useless fo >tmen had hurried in the prince was recovering. We sat him in an arm-chair ; and Mira, with one of her arms round him to prop him up, pressed a bottle of salts to his nostrils. The footmen brought brandy, I rubbed his hands, whioh were chilled, and in a few minutes he wa3 all right, though nervous about what had happened, for he wa3 always anxious about his own health.

"Do you think it was apoplexy?" he asked, looking keenly at me. " No, sir ; only a swoon." " It's the first time such a thing has ever occurred to me," he said, standing up and feeling himself all over. "If it were apoplexy you would say so, wouldn't you ? —for I ought to know the truth." Reassured by my manner, he insisted on returning to the hotel. Mira, who had been frightened, pressed him eagerly to stay, but he would not. What he really wanted was a warm bath, a change of clothes, and some dinner, for he had not eaten since breakfast. When ho had had these things the effects of his chill passed off, and at ten o'clock he was quite ready to go to the House of Commons. He had made an appointment with a Cabinet Minister, and it was one of hh good points that he hated to break an appointment.

The Minister who met us, the Right Hon. John Robinson, was a man who had gruvn hard and grey in Parliamentarywork, awl was as unlike the common type of Continental Ministers as the tough holly differs from the mimosa. Criticisms and personal attacks', which would have made Count Hochort ill, left no traces on his well - inured cuticle. Daily showers of newspaper articles fell upon him as rain on a roof, trickling off and doing no hurt. He was amenable enough to public opinion when it blew in gusts ; but to these he bent as the stoutest tree does. In fact he was always in a state of bend. His communications were never yea, yea, and nay, nay, but affirmatives qualified by negatives, apd negatives enrolled in coils of explanations. He had Buch a deep knowledge of Parliamentary ways that in marking out the course of a Rill from the first reading to the Royal assent, he allowed for time on the scale which might be reckoned by man who proposed to walk from the Nelson Column to Westminister Hall by way of Whitschapel, Brixton, and Highgate ; and his calculations of public moneys for any public object were on the Bame assumption—namely, that three-fourths of the money would be wasted. He was in charge of a great State department, but had no time to learn its business ; for during the session he was "constantly employed in preparing speeches on whatever great Bill (not concerning his department) happened to he before the House ; and during the recesses he travelled about the country on the stump. He spoke no languago but English, and could not have stated where Natal was without consulting a map. If he had known for certain where Natal was, he would not have trusted his memory, but would have spoken from a note, lest he should make a mistake in the longitude and give a point to the Opposition. He kept a secretary, whose only business it was to instruct him to dodge questions which were put to trip him up. Taking him all in all, Mr Robinson was an honest English gentleman with a great deal of outward bluftness a man of property, keen_ as a file in all hia personal affairs, religious on Sunday mornings, overworked but happy in his way all the year round, and having, like other politicians, two compasses of quite different sensitiveness by which he guided his conduct—his regard for truth and his sense of fair-play—-in public or in private life.

Mr Robinson took us to the Distinguished Strangers' Gallery, and there presently came up a throng of M.P.s and peers to speak to the prince among them Mr Lemesurier, the Radical with the white hat, red tie, and eyeglass who was going to marry Connie Davenant. I must here mention that since we came to London I had'thought often' eriough of Connie, but'had never .been able to obtain much information about her. London society is composed of so many circles that people who arc " in society " may be absolute strangers to all the haunts of others who are "in society " too. Beyond having heard that Connie was soon to be married I knew nothing, for I had met nobody who was acquainted with her.

Lemesurier wanted me to present him to the prince—which I did. While waiting his turn for a little conversation, he said : " You'll find Mrs and Miss Davenant in the Ladies' Gallery. They have come to hear a speech,"

" A speech of yours, I suppose ?" "I don't know; perhaps I shall say a few words."

The announcement of Connie's presence left me cool, for what waß the use of thinking further about her ? Possibly her heart fluttered as she saw me through the grating,

and possibly I kept my eyes away from that grating on purpose ; but so many things had happened since we last met, and our paths were so divergent, that it would, only have been a waßte of emotion to renew acquaintanceship for a few minuter. What man cares to meet the girl who was his darling and was to have been his wife ? The gulf between what is and what was to have been, is so deep and wide that, although sighs and looks of regret may reach across it, one had much better avoid making these unavailing signals from Bhore to shore.

Lemesurier had his turn of chatting with the prince, and ingratiated himself, for he was clever and interesting. England alone produces such politicians as this gentleman. A man of good old family, educated at Eton and Oxford, having a fine estate and plenty of money derived from good investments, he had espoused extreme Radicalism partly from biliousness of temperament and partly from cool, calculating ambition. Not being dependent upon his land for an income, ho could advocate all sorts of experiments with the lands of others; and the inciting of other men's tenants to discontent enabled him to be very strict with his own. He was always on the side of law-breakers, though careful not to break the law himself. He did not join with the London mobs who plundered West End shops, nor with tho Irish rabble who stoned the police at evictions, cut off the tails of cows, and butchered old men after dark under the eyes of shrieking women ; but he spoke up for the miscreants who did these things. He had no religion, patriotism, or loyalty; but the correctness of his private life covered his tolerance of blasphemy, and give an appearance of strongmindedness to his systematic depreciation of England in its foreign and colonial relations, and to his rancorous encouragement of attacks against the Queen and Royal Family. In the House of Commons Lemesurier spoke like a gentleman ; on public platforms like a blackguard. So far from feeling that his superior education bound him to instuut his ignorant hearers, he not only pandered to their prejudices, but deliberately endeavored to convert their good-natured grumbles against inevitable social inequalities into savage outcries against the classes whose wealth is the fruit of intelligence, enterprise, and labor. Such, however, is the confusion in our English ideas of right and wrong, where politics are concerned, that this man, who in most Continental countries would have been slimmed by every gentleman of honor, had friends in all ranks. He went to Court, associated with princes and men of science, and was generally regarded as a politician who, when next his party came into office, must certainly be chosen as one of the advisers of the Crown,

_ Lemesurier, seated beside Prince Roderick, and with his eyeglass jauntily cooked in hi 3 left eye, was explaining to him the business before "the House. "The first Legislature in the world" had been engaged for two hours over one of those Irish interlocutory motions which are intended to stop business.

The Government was being asked to declare by what right the patent leather boots of an Irish patriot, imprisoned for sedition, had been removed from his cell. The venerable Opposition leader, who when in power had imprisoned hundreds of Irishmen without trial, and roundly ordered that rebels against him should be treated like ordinary felons, declared, in a voice trembling with fury, that the civilisation of the nineteenth centuary was disgraced when rebels against "the party opposed to him were made to wear prison clothe?. Auother statesman out of office, a fat man, who when Home Secretary had kept a bodyguard of police to protect him from that Poland had better treatment than Ireland—a statement which made the Russian ambassador in the gallery look as modest as an old ballet dancer receiving a wreath of orange flower blossoms. At last the Irishman's boots were put out of the way, and Lemesurier went downstairs to make an attack upon Mr Robinson, with whom he had spoken a few minutes before in the gallery on terms of easy friendship.

It was not oratory this speaking of Lemesurier'a. The man had a bundle of papers; he stammered and hawed, the Home thinned, some of the remaining members cried " Hear, hear," others " Oh !" but the reporters in the gallery went on scribbling, and this was all that Lemesurier wanted. His charge against Robinson—if it meant anything—was one of downright lying and dishonesty, but he kept on callijg Robinson the "right honorable gentleman." " The right honorable gentleman," he said, "has been clearly con victed of misstatements which I cannot but characterise as inconsistent with any standard of good faith." Mr Robinson rose to answer, and the House filled. His reply, if it meant anything, amounted to a charge that Lemesurier had wilfully lied by stating facts which he knew to be false, and sup° pressing information which was within his knowledge, and which would convince all the world that he was merely telling spiteful falsehoods. But he kept on calling Lemesurier "my honorable friend." "My honorable friend," he said, " has once more given us a, proof of his remarkable capacity for making black appear white." After this the subject dropped, and nobody appeared to think a penny the worse of Lemesurier or of Robinson. " Won't those two men cut each other's throats now ?" asked the prince of me ; but when it was explained to him that Robinson would gladly have given his daughter in marriage to Lemesurier, and that Lemesurier had lately subscribed towards a Joint Stock Company's testimonial of esteem to Robinson, he lifted up his hands. "If I ever get my book back," he said laughingly, " I must add a footnote to my chapter on Parliaments." Sad as Prince Roderick was, this evening in the Hou3e of Commons did him good. It was really more amusing than a farce. We stayed till past midnight, and the weather having cleared walked home arm-in-arm along the Embankment. On the way the prince had an outburst of merriment. I had said something about the variableness of our climate, when he exclaimed laughing i

"Don't you think you could the climate better on your parliamentary syßtem ? Imagine the Celestial Powers, leaving you English to settle your weather for yourselves. Can't you picture Mr Robinson introducing a Climate Reform iVll, and that Grand Old Man with the i.'ii't collars denouncing winter as an inv. cli >n of the Tories, and that demagogue —the fat man swearing there should be do more darkness to make the poor buy candles, and Mr Lemesurier promising to convert Britain into a land of oranges and olives without any oppressive sunshine to make the working men perspire ?" He developed this idea with great glee till we reached the hotel, when he felt too wide awake to go to bed. He seemed unwilling to be left alone with his own thoughts. We had a very large suite of apartments on the first floor, and the prince had never entered any of the public rooms ; but now he suddenly proposed that we should turn into the smoking room and have a drink.

"I shouldn't mind some Scotch whisky," he said, settling into a comfortable armchair, and throwing an' admiring look round the spacious room, where a number of visitors were lounging. " This is just the place for a talk. I should like some of my cigarettes though.". I toid'l would g'6 upstairs to fetch him the cigarettes, and also to see if any letters had come. The first thing I Baw on the table in the drawing room was a parcel with Lady Springfield's card under the string.

It contained the prince's manusoript, and on the card these words were pencilled t

Lady Springfield returns Captain Meredith his very dreary manuscript, with the request that he will send no more such unimproving literature into her house.

I tore up the card, but It was with the greatest elation that I took the parcel down to the smoking room. At the moment I clean forgot all the good reasons there were for pitching this unhappy book into the fire, and thought only that there might yet be time to send the manuscript to Windsor.

" Gott sei Dank.'" ejaculated the prince, as he caught at the parcel, and during a minute or two hia eyes kindled with excite-

meat. Having looked to sen that none of the pages were missing, he drank off his whiskj', and made some disconnected remarks about sending a special messenger to Windsor in the morning. Then his spirits gradually fell, and he put the parcel on the table with a sigh; "It is too late," he muttered ; " and it would be of no use. there's that affair about Mira, and a number of other things, which have been divulged about me. Will you touch the bell and ask the waiter for some more of that staff with soda? my throat is parched." The waiter brought the refreshment, and the prince took a deep draught out of the tall tumbhr. "I've reached a turning point in my life, Meredith," he said, with heightened color. "I'm beaten again, and heaven knows what I shall do next. I must take a few days to think over it. Till today I had hopes; now I have none. At present I'm in the mind to abandon all my rights if only those who want to see me out of the way will leave me alone. Once I have stepped aside "

" I hope you will think many times over that," I said.

, "I may perhaps think' too long and live to repent it," was his answer. "King Franz looks as if he had years of life before him, and while I am waiting for his crown my days are wasted in useless struggles and fits of impotent rage. Why not fling the crown to those who want it, and strike out a new path for myself? I am rich, I can live where I please, and do as I please, _ I might found a kingdom for myself while I am young enough to enjoy it. Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Albania are open fields. There are combustible materials there which it only requires a spark to light, and armies which need only money to set them marching. If my, fate a3 an heir-presumptive has only been to lose character, let me at least show that I am better than my reputation, and do something before I die to leave a name in history." "Might I only advise you to have patience ?" I pleaded.

"Patience must have an object," he answered, emptying his glass. "If I cease to care for the throne of Kronheim, what then ? I am never likely to marry now, unless I find a new love in some new country where I can found a new dynasty. Leave me to this dream for to-night. Perhaps it may vanish—perhaps not. But dont be surprised if I call upon you to bapk my fortunes in some dare-devil enterprise where your drawn sword will be of use."

I told him that my sword was at his service, and he said with one of his princely nods as he rose from his chair:

" Well, if you once draw it for me, it shall have good work to do." ( To be continued.)