“None, but that I have received his letter, and I am under great obligations to him for making me acquainted with so agreeable a man as yourself.”
Gavin then advancing, Frederick said:
“Farewell. I have not had much speech with you, but I perceive you to be no ordinary man.”
And Gavin, meaning to make a very conventional and correct reply, said earnestly:
“Your Majesty, I have been in your company now several times, and I never was ennuyéed for one single moment when your Majesty was speaking!”
“Take care of him,” cried the King to St. Arnaud, both of them laughing. “You have an original there, and he may either be exiled or become Prime Minister.”
The return journey to Vienna was made rapidly, and on a pleasant spring night their travelling chaise rattled up to the house in the Teinfeltstrasse. They were received with open arms by Lady Hamilton and Madame Ziska and her family. St. Arnaud and Gavin had agreed to say nothing for the present about Gavin’s little adventure with Captain Dreisel, and Lady Hamilton thought their journey had been one of unmixed pleasure, except for the trifling accident to Gavin’s leg.
Next morning they went to the palace, and were summoned before the Empress Queen and the Emperor. St. Arnaud gave an account of their mission, together with the ill success of it for the poor Prince of Bevern. Marie Theresa listened with a scornful smile. Frederick of Prussia was not only to her the enemy of her country, but an object of the deepest personal dislike, and nothing good, in her opinion, could be expected of him.
“The conduct of the King of Prussia in this affair does not surprise me in the least,” she said; “and so much was it expected by me, that, with the Emperor’s consent, I had already determined upon my course toward the Prince of Bevern. He shall be released at once and allowed to return to his country, with no condition beyond that of not serving against us during the present war. If the King of Prussia has no merciful impulses toward his officers, who, though brave, may meet with misfortunes, I and the Emperor feel much sympathy for them; and we will do for the Prince of Bevern what his own sovereign refuses to do. Have you anything else of moment to tell me?”
“Nothing, madam, except an adventure of Lieutenant Hamilton’s, which may interest you.” And St. Arnaud, with inimitable archness, told the story of Gavin’s bringing Frederick through the flooded garden on his back, and the conversation that ensued.