Here is the order.'
Colonel Gordon adjusted silver spectacles upon his nose. 'Yes,' he
said, 'the Princess: very right. But the warrant, madam, was
countersigned.'
'By Heinrich!' said von Rosen. 'Well, and here am I to represent
him.'
'Well, your Highness,' resumed the soldier of fortune, 'I must
congratulate you upon my loss. You have been cut out by beauty, and
I am left lamenting. The Doctor still remains to me: PROBUS,
DOCTUS, LEPIDUS, JUCUNDUS: a man of books.'
'Ay, there is nothing about poor Gotthold,' said the Prince.
'The Governor's consolation? Would you leave him bare?' asked von
Rosen.
'And, your Highness,' resumed Gordon, 'may I trust that in the
course of this temporary obscuration, you have found me discharge my
part with suitable respect and, I may add, tact? I adopted
purposely a cheerfulness of manner; mirth, it appeared to me, and a
good glass of wine, were the fit alleviations.'
'Colonel,' said Otto, holding out his hand, 'your society was of
itself enough. I do not merely thank you for your pleasant spirits;
I have to thank you, besides, for some philosophy, of which I stood
in need. I trust I do not see you for the last time; and in the
meanwhile, as a memento of our strange acquaintance, let me offer
you these verses on which I was but now engaged. I am so little of
a poet, and was so ill inspired by prison bars, that they have some
claim to be at least a curiosity.
Pages:
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243