He paused, and gazed away into the misty distance. Gabrielle laid her hand on his arm entreatingly.
"Arno, I have long felt that there is some bitter memory in your life, and I know it has come through some misfortune, and no fault. Will you not open your heart to me now? I think I have a right to hear the tale."
"You have a right," said Raven, gravely, "and you shall hear it."
He put his arm round her shoulder, and drew her nearer to him.
"You know that I come of plain burgher stock. The early death of my parents taught me betimes to think and act for myself. I entered the service of the State, and had to work my way up from the lowest grade. When the whole land was swept by a storm of revolution, and the capital itself was in a state of armed insurrection, of open rebellion against the Government, I was chained to my desk in a remote provincial town, and so prevented from taking part in a movement with which my convictions led me to sympathise. The very next year, as chance would have it, I was transferred to the capital; I was thus brought into closer contact with my chief, who had lately come into office, and was about to inaugurate that period of reaction which has since followed. He must have perceived that I was not to be weighed in the same scale with his other officials, for he showed a decided preference for me, and I felt that I and my work were being watched with special attention. As yet, however, no opportunity of distinguishing myself occurred. In the capital I fell in again with Rudolph Brunnow, my old and intimate university friend. Though the revolutionary movement itself had been quelled, the land was still in a state of ferment; and as the factious elements, now kept down with a strong hand, could no longer agitate their designs openly, they met and pursued their work in secret. I was drawn into these circles, to which my political convictions had long inclined me, by Brunnow, who was an enthusiastic reformer. He was at the head of a secret association of which I now became a member. We believed in Utopias, impossibilities, and chimeras, which could have no lasting existence in real life; but, foolish as was our creed, we would have died rather than abandon it."
Raven paused a moment. These recollections seemed to move him greatly.
"Then came the catastrophe," he went on, speaking now with more animation. "We were suspected and watched, though we ourselves had no idea of it, until the Minister himself took action against us. He must have supposed that I was in some way connected with the band, for one day he sent for me, and called me to account, though by no means as an offender whom he was anxious to convict. He talked to me in a kind, almost a paternal manner, and that disarmed me. At that time I was not well enough acquainted with him to be aware how inexorable, irreconcilable an opponent of the revolution he was at heart. Like many others, I allowed myself to be deceived by the moderation he displayed at the outset. I was so far carried away as to avow my political views, and to defend them--to defend them to him!
"It was a grave error, and one that has cost me dear. No word fell from my lips regarding the secret I was bound to keep; the Minister, indeed, made no attempt to extract a confession of it from me. He knew me, and was well aware that neither threat nor promise could induce me to act a perfidious part; but my ardent enthusiasm, my imprudent championship of Liberal ideas, were enough to put the experienced statesman on the right track. He dismissed me with apparent friendliness, but I had hardly reached my home when I was arrested, my papers were seized, and every chance of communicating with my comrades was cut off from me. Rudolph, who was known as my intimate friend, was the next victim. At his lodgings was found the correspondence relating to our association, and in it a key was had to the whole business. Four others of our band shared our fate. The blow fell so unexpectedly that none had time to escape.
"The charge against us was one of high treason, and we might hold ourselves prepared for any fate. After a short interval I was again conducted to the Minister's presence. He informed me that I was released from confinement. He had, he said, convinced himself that I had been led astray, that I had merely been the dupe of Brunnow and his confederates, and offered to overlook what had passed, if I would give him my word of honour to break once for all with the revolutionary party. I stared at my chief in stunned amazement. Did he really not know how I stood towards this secret society, or was he intentionally ignoring the offence? My name, it was true, had nowhere figured in its records. Rudolph was esteemed our leader, but so keen-sighted and discerning a man as the Minister must be conscious that the passive, subordinate part of a lowly recruit was foreign to my whole character. I did not then divine that he purposely shut his eyes, in order to pardon. I decidedly refused to give the promise required of me, declaring that I would not abjure my principles, and was ready to share the fate of my friends.
"The Minister preserved his imperturbable calm, and repeated the offer he had made.