The secretaries, in the background, were exchanging glances of
delight; a row at the council was for them a rare and welcome
feature.
'Gentlemen,' said Otto, when he had finished, 'I have read with
pain. This claim upon Obermunsterol is palpably unjust; it has not
a tincture, not a show, of justice. There is not in all this ground
enough for after-dinner talk, and you propose to force it as a CASUS
BELLI.'
'Certainly, your Highness,' returned Gondremark, too wise to defend
the indefensible, 'the claim on Obermunsterol is simply a pretext.'
'It is well,' said the Prince. 'Herr Cancellarius, take your pen.
"The council," he began to dictate - 'I withhold all notice of my
intervention,' he said, in parenthesis, and addressing himself more
directly to his wife; 'and I say nothing of the strange suppression
by which this business has been smuggled past my knowledge. I am
content to be in time - "The council,"' he resumed, '"on a further
examination of the facts, and enlightened by the note in the last
despatch from Gerolstein, have the pleasure to announce that they
are entirely at one, both as to fact and sentiment, with the Grand-
Ducal Court of Gerolstein." You have it? Upon these lines, sir,
you will draw up the despatch.'
'If your Highness will allow me,' said the Baron, 'your Highness is
so imperfectly acquainted with the internal history of this
correspondence, that any interference will be merely hurtful.
Pages:
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128