“I recollect too much. In mercy do not keep dwelling on that.”
“Well, since you recollect it, I will pass on. Your comrades have been dispersed since then, Karl, but they have not forgotten you. We have watched your career with interest. We have seen you return to your old pursuits, and escape this time without a whipping. We have even watched you entering the palace, and becoming the favourite—valet, is it, or groom?—of the young King. We gave you credit for good motives. We said to ourselves—‘He has gone in there to be in a position to serve us when the time comes.’ For that reason we spared you, Karl. We have left you alone all this time because we had no need of your services. Now we have need of them. What do you say? Are you prepared to serve us?”
The unfortunate forester had listened to this biting speech in stony silence. But at its close he roused himself for a last effort, and angrily replied—
“By what right do you make these demands on me? Oh, I know; I have felt this coming all along. All these years the remembrance of that wretched act of folly has overhung me like a storm-cloud, and I have never risen in the morning without wondering whether it would burst before night. You call yourselves the friends of freedom, you extol the name of liberty, and all the time you are coercing others, using the hasty words extorted from a boy to bind the grown man and compel him to commit crimes at your dictation. I tell you that you are worse tyrants yourselves than any of those you conspire against. Look at me. I am happy here; King Maximilian has done me no harm, he has shown me every favour; I have lost all the inclinations that made me join you ten years ago, I have forgotten you, and only desire to be left in peace. And yet you track me down like bloodhounds, and order me to risk my neck at your bidding. What could be worse tyranny than that?”
Johann had listened perfectly unmoved to the other’s passionate protests. He hardly deigned to answer them.
“It is a case of tyranny against tyranny. There is no such thing as free will in this world, Karl. Kings use their weapons, and we use ours. They have their troops, their judges, their spies. We have our oaths and our daggers. If we are dealing with men of ignoble minds that can only be swayed by selfish considerations we have to employ the arguments that appeal to them. If kings use bribes, we must use threats.”
He paused, and for some moments nothing more was said. Then Johann spoke again—
“After all, we do not really ask very much of you. In enterprises of this kind a faint-hearted ally is more dangerous than an enemy. All I want of you is to place me somewhere where I may meet the King. You can go where you like, and no one need know that you were concerned in the affair.”
“What is it that you mean to do?” demanded Karl sullenly.
For answer Johann thrust his hand into an inner pocket of his coat, and produced a pistol, at the sight of which the other man recoiled, with a fresh cry.