"What message shall I have announced?"
"That the Countess Minna von Gramberg accepts the high mission to which she is called, but that to-night she is too unwell to be present," I answered; "and let the message be given at once."
"We can't do that," he replied, seeing my object—to bind him to this public acceptance of the throne by Minna. "She must be here in person to make that possible."
"If that is not done and at once," I cried, going close to him and speaking the words between my teeth, "I myself will proclaim the fact that the man who was here a minute since was not the King, but your dummy, and that the whole thing is a farce got up by you and these gentlemen. You will then have to bring back the King himself, and you can judge as well as I how he will view the acts that have been done here to-night, and reward the actors."
"You dare not play the traitor in that way!"
"Dare not? I dare do more than that," and I clipped my words short as I whispered them into his ear. "I dare stand up now and tell the whole story of your double treachery, for I know it all: and, by God! if you thwart me any farther I'll make my words good to the last letter."
I meant every syllable of the threat, and I made this perfectly plain in my manner. Whether the man was actually afraid for himself I know not; but he saw clearly enough that any such sensational statement made by me at that juncture would inevitably result in the complete overthrow of the scheme for which he had worked so hard.
"I don't affect to understand your meaning," he said; "but one way is as good as another to put an end to a scene that must be ended somehow."
"Then give the instructions, and let the people see that they come from you," and I drew back.
He called the man who had been acting as herald, and spoke to him in an undertone; and the latter was turning to the people when I interposed.