“It will please me, messieurs,” said the Queen, when Cyril had shut the door, “if you will have the goodness to regard the incident which has just occurred as though it had not taken place. Will your Excellency,” she turned to M. Drakovics, “be kind enough to explain to me the words which fell from Count Mortimer a few minutes ago as to plunging Thracia into a hopeless war?”
“It is my duty to inform your Majesty,” returned the Premier, with great solemnity, “that the letter so mysteriously abstracted and so iniquitously published would infallibly plunge us into a war with Scythia, into which other nations would certainly be drawn. Whatever the result of the whole contest, it can scarcely be doubted that Thracia would be swallowed up by one of the victorious Powers.”
The Queen grew paler and paler. “And is there any measure you can propose to avert this disaster?” she asked, in a voice that was almost a whisper.
“In the confidence that I was honoured with your Majesty’s favour, I have already, with Count Mortimer’s assistance, taken steps which we hope may ensure that object, madame.”
“You rejoice me, monsieur. Pray unfold them to me. But,” her voice took a firmer tone, “I must desire that no inquiry be made into the abstraction of the letter from my escritoire. I propose to deal with that myself.”
“Your Majesty shall be obeyed. The measures I would venture to suggest are briefly these: that your Majesty should write another letter to replace that now in the hands of Baron Natarin, if we can by any means obtain its restoration; that the secretary Christophle be instantly dismissed in disgrace——”
“Oh no, not dismissed!” cried the Queen. “He was wrong, but he erred from excess of zeal. I dictated and signed the letter; the writing alone was his. He must not be punished for—for my fault.”
“Am I to understand that your Majesty commissioned Herr Christophle to sell your letter to the daily newspapers?”
“Certainly not. Why should I wish it to appear in them?”
“I cannot tell, madame; but it did appear there. The issues of the papers in which it appeared are now suppressed, but that cannot excuse the secretary. He has rendered himself liable to very heavy punishment for betraying State secrets, and we shall be able to deal with him effectively in that way.”