"And an artiste," said Consuelo, "that is to say independent, virgin and dead to all sentiment of love, such as Porpora always represented the ideal type of the muses. My terrible master carried his point, and at last I consented to what he struggled for. I do not think that I am happier, nor that I am better. Since I love no longer, and feel no longer capable of loving, I feel no longer the fire and inspiration of the stage. This icy atmosphere, and this courtly air precipitates me into the deepest distress. The absence of Porpora, the despair in which I am, and the will of the king, who prolongs my engagement, contrary to my wishes. May I not confess this, madame, to you?"
"I might have guessed it, poor thing—all thought you proud of the kind of preference with which the king honors you; but like myself, you are his slave and prisoner,—in the same condition as his family favorites, soldiers, pages and puppies. Alas! for the glitter of royalty, the glories of the princely crown; how nauseous are they, to those whose life is exhausted in furnishing them with rays of light. But, dear Consuelo, you have yet other things to tell me, which are not those that interest me least. I expect from your sincerity, that you will tell me on what terms you are with my brother, and I will induce you to do so by my own frankness. Thinking that you were his mistress, and flattering myself that you could obtain Trenck's pardon from him, I sought you out, to place the matter in your hands. Now, thank heaven! we have no need of that, and I shall be pleased to love you for yourself. I think you can tell me all without compromising yourself, especially as the affairs of my brother do not seem far advanced from me."
"The manner in which you speak of this matter, madame, makes me shudder," replied Consuelo, growing pale. "Eight days ago I heard it whispered around me, that the king, our master, entertained a serious passion for me, his sad and trembling subject. Up to that time I had never conceived anything possible between him and me, but a pleasant conversation, benevolent on his side, and respectful on mine, he exhibits a friendship and gratitude which was too great for the simple part I had played at Roswald. There is a gulf, though, between that and love, which I hope he will never pass."
"I think differently. He is impetuous, talkative and familiar with you; he talks to you as to a boy, and passes your hand to his brow and to his lips. He effects in the presence of his friends—and for some days this has been the case—to be less in love with you than he is. This all proves that he is likely to become so. I know it, and warn you, that ere long you will be called on to decide. What will you do? If you resist, you are lost; if you yield that will still be the case. If this be so, what will you do?"
"Neither, madame. Like his recruits, I will desert."
"That is not easy, and I do not wish you to do so, having become very fond of you; and I think I would put the recruiters on your tracks rather than you should escape. Well, we will find a way. The case is grave, and demands consideration. Tell me all that has passed since Albert's death."
"Some strange and inexplicable things amid a monotonous and moody life. I will tell you what they are, and your highness perhaps will aid me in understanding them."
"I will try, on condition that you will call me Amelia, as you did just now. It is not yet midnight, and I do not wish to be highnessed until day."
Porporina resumed her story thus:
"I have already told to Madame Von Kleist, when she first did me the honor of coming to my house, that I was separated from Porpora on the frontier of Prussia, as I was coming from Bohemia. Even now, I am ignorant, whether his passport was not regular, or if the king had caused us to be preceded by one of those orders, the rapidity of which is a prodigy, to exclude Porpora from his territories. This idea, perhaps wrong, at first suggested itself to me, for I remembered the brusque lightness and scowling sincerity with which the maestro defended Trenck, and blamed the king, when Frederick, at supper at Count Hoditz's, where he had represented himself as the Baron Von Kreutz, and told us himself of Trenck's treason and confinement at Glatz."