King In Prussia by Raphael Sabatini

Author:Raphael Sabatini
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: House of Stratus

Chapter 19

Prietsch

In a dismal room of an indifferent inn – the Weintraube – at Prietsch, where they had lain the night, they applied their minds on the following morning to the formidable problem of Dorothea’s future.

They were facing each other across a table and the remains of breakfast when she raised the question to which a sleepless night had provided no answer. “And whither now, Monsieur le Marquis?”

“My notion is to set out in an hour for Leipzig. We should be quite safe there, and there we can consider further at our leisure.”

“Would it not be better to consider now? There can be no purpose in going farther if in the end I am to return to Berlin.”

“To Berlin?” He was aghast. “That is out of all question.”

“Is it? And the alternative?”

“Any alternative you please. You should realize that the fate that awaits you there is made the more certain now by your flight. Oh, I am not thinking only of the public whipping; but of your final disposal. Frederick William announced the intention of shutting you up for life in Spandau.”

“Perhaps I should not live long,” said she.

“That, of course, would be your best hope. But I haven’t brought you out of Prussia to no better purpose.”

“Aren’t you forgetting that things have changed since I fled? Had I foreseen that my father would be prevented from joining us I think I must have remained. What else could I choose to do?”

“Would that help your father? Would you deny him in his prison the one consolation of knowing that you are safe?”

“Safe? What is this safety? Where am I to go? What is there for me?” Then through her distress surged fierce anger. “Oh, it is vile, infamous, to visit this horror upon the helpless. If I were a criminal I could not be more cruelly punished. And I have done nothing. Nothing. It is monstrous that any man should have the power to do this. God punish that monster as he deserves! May he be brought to such despair as now is mine.”

“He’ll rot in hell for his iniquities, no doubt. But that is not important, and it won’t help you.”

“Nothing will.”

“Do not persuade yourself of that. Come. Let us count your assets.”

“My assets? Some odd thalers and my few jewels, of which the best is a bracelet which you thought his Highness should not have given me.”

“I seem to have been right, for it is answerable for a good deal of your trouble. However, I was thinking of your more enduring riches. You are well instructed, a good musician, a fine needlewoman, and you paint well enough to teach the elements of the art to the young. In France or England you could find employment for these qualities.”

She looked at him in wide-eyed amazement. “You have been thinking for me!” She was breathless. Then she controlled herself and added: “But even if it were as you say, we are not in France or England.”

“Not yet. No. But you

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