"Does the King know this?" I asked.
"I and my brother," answered Johann, "put up the pipe, under the orders
of my Lord of Hentzau. He was on guard that day, and the King asked my
lord what it meant. 'Faith,' he answered, with his airy laugh, 'it's a
new improvement on the ladder of Jacob, whereby, as you have read, sire,
men pass from the earth to heaven. We thought it not meet that your
Majesty should go, in case, sire, you must go, by the common route. So
we have made you a pretty private passage where the vulgar cannot stare
at you or incommode your passage. That, sire, is the meaning of
that pipe.' And he laughed and bowed, and prayed the King's leave to
replenish the King's glass--for the King was at supper. And the King,
though he is a brave man, as are all of his House, grew red and then
white as he looked on the pipe and at the merry devil who mocked him.
Ah, sir" (and the fellow shuddered), "it is not easy to sleep quiet in
the Castle of Zenda, for all of them would as soon cut a man's throat
as play a game at cards; and my Lord Rupert would choose it sooner for
a pastime than any other--ay, sooner than he would ruin a woman, though
that he loves also."
The man ceased, and I bade Fritz take him away and have him carefully
guarded; and, turning to him, I added:
"If anyone asks you if there is a prisoner in Zenda, you may answer
'Yes.
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