The Princess's mother saw here a hindrance to success and eagerly she
spoke of it.
"How will the woman enter? How, too, will my daughter leave?"
M. Chateaudoux coughed and hemmed in a great confusion. He explained in
delicate hints that he himself was to bribe the sentry at the door to
let her pass for a few moments into the house. The Princess broke into a
laugh.
"Her name is Friederika, I'll warrant," she cried. "My poor Chateaudoux,
they will give you a sweetheart. It is most cruel. Well, Friederika,
thanks to the sentry's fellow-feeling for a burning heart, Friederika
slips in at the door."
"Which I have taken care should stand unlatched. She changes clothes
with your Highness, and your Highness--"
"Slips out in her stead."
"But he is to come for you, he says," exclaimed her mother. "And how
will he do that? Besides, we do not know his name. And there must be a
fitting companion who will travel with you. Has he that companion?"
"Your Highness," said Chateaudoux, "upon all those points he bade me say
you should be satisfied. All he asks is that you will be ready at the
time."
A gust of hail struck the window and made the room tremble. Clementina
laughed; her mother shivered.
"The Prince of Baden," said she, with a sigh. Clementina shrugged her
shoulders.
"A Prince," said Chateaudoux, persuasively, "with much territory to his
princeliness."
"A vain, fat, pudgy man," said Clementina.
"A sober, honest gentleman," said the mother.
"A sober butler to an honest gentleman," said Clementina.
"He has an air," said Chateaudoux.
"He has indeed," replied Clementina, "as though he handed himself upon a
plate to you, and said, 'Here is a miracle. Thank God for it!' Well, I
must take to my bed. I am very ill. I have a fever on me, and that's
truth."
She moved towards the door, but before she had reached it there came a
knocking on the street door below.
Clementina stopped; Chateaudoux looked out of the window.
"It is the Prince's carriage," said he.
"I will not see him," exclaimed Clementina.
"My child, you must," said her mother, "if only for the last time."
"Each time he comes it is for the last time, yet the next day sees him
still in Innspruck. My patience and my courtesy are both outworn.
Besides, to-day, now that I have heard this great news we have waited
for--how long? Oh, mother, oh, mother, I cannot! I shall betray myself."