what is your uncle's name?
oh, yes, of course, ambassador o'grady.
it hurts my feelings to be obliged to commune with such wretches, but the stern necessities of war demand men continually, and hence these recruiters whom you see market in human flesh. they get five-and- twenty thaler a man from our government for every man they bring in. for fine men -- for men like you. they would go as high as hundred.
this is a very good inn. shall we stop for dinner?
do you want to see the loveliest woman in europe?
ah! you sly rogue, i see that will influence you.
the people are great farmers, as well as inn-keepers.
parties of french horsemen are about the country, and one cannot take too many precautions against such villains.
well, our meal is a frugal one, but a soldier has many a time a worse.
it was my joke. i was tired, and did not care to go farther. there's not prettier woman here than that. if she won't suit your fancy, my friend, then you must wait awhile.
i have acted as i think fit.
it's a lie! you're a deserter! you're an impostor, sir; your lies and folly have confirmed this to me. you pretend to carry dispatches to a general who has been dead these ten months; you have an uncle who is an ambassador and whose name you don't know. will you join and take the bounty, sir, or will you be given up?
advance a step, and i send this bullet into your brains!
good morning, private james. please come in. i should like you to meet my uncle, herr minister of police galgenstein.
your loyalty to me and your service to the regiment has pleased me very well -- and now there is another occasion on which you may make yourself useful to us; if you succeed, depend on it, your reward will be your discharge from the army, and a bounty of 100 guineas.
there is lately come to berlin a gentleman in the service of the empress queen, who calls himself the chevalier de belle fast, and wears the red riband and star of the pope's order of the spur. he is made for good society, polished, obliging, a libertine, without prejudices, fond of women, of good food, of high play, prudent and discreet.
he speaks italian and french indifferently; but we have some reason to fancy this monsieur de belle fast is a native of your country of ireland, and that he has come here as a spy.
naturally, your knowledge of english makes you an ideal choice to go into his service. of course, you will not know a word of english; and if the chevalier asks as to the particularity of your accent, say you are hungarian. the servant who came with him will be turned away today, and the person to whom he has applied for a faithful fellow will recommend you.
you are a hungarian; you served in the army, and left on account of weakness in the loins. he gambles a great deal, and wins. do you know the cards well?
i had thought you more expert. you must find out if the chevalier cheats. he sees the english and austrian envoys continually, and the young men of either ministry sup repeatedly at his house. find out what they talk of, for how much each plays, especially if any of them play on parole. if you are able to, read his private letters, though about those which go to the post, you need not trouble yourself -- we look at them there. but never see him write a note without finding out to whom it goes, and by what channel or messenger. he sleeps with the keys of his dispatch-box with a string around his neck -- twenty frederics, if you get an impression of the keys.
what are the chevalier's intentions?
has he sent the challenge yet?
you say he drives after breakfast and before dinner. when he comes out to his carriage a couple of gendarmes will mount the box, and the coachman will get his orders to move on.
oh! that will be sent after him. i have a fancy to look into that red box which contains his papers, you say; and at noon, after parade, shall be at the inn. you will not say a word to any one there regarding the affair, and will wait for me at the chevalier's rooms until my arrival. we must force that box. you are a clumsy hound, or you would have got the key long ago.
roderick! are you there?
the rogue is gone out.