This I learnt from the man Johann,
whom I was compelled to trust and send back to Zenda, where, by the way,
Rupert Hentzau had him soundly flogged for daring to smirch the morals
of Zenda by staying out all night in the pursuits of love. This, from
Rupert, Johann deeply resented, and the duke's approval of it did more
to bind the keeper to my side than all my promises.
On Flavia's arrival I cannot dwell. Her joy at finding me up and well,
instead of on my back and fighting with death, makes a picture that
even now dances before my eyes till they grow too dim to see it; and her
reproaches that I had not trusted even her must excuse the means I took
to quiet them. In truth, to have her with me once more was like a taste
of heaven to a damned soul, the sweeter for the inevitable doom that
was to follow; and I rejoiced in being able to waste two whole days with
her. And when I had wasted two days, the Duke of Strelsau arranged a
hunting-party.
The stroke was near now. For Sapt and I, after anxious consultations,
had resolved that we must risk a blow, our resolution being clinched
by Johann's news that the King grew peaked, pale, and ill, and that his
health was breaking down under his rigorous confinement. Now a man--be
he king or no king--may as well die swiftly and as becomes a gentleman,
from bullet or thrust, as rot his life out in a cellar! That thought
made prompt action advisable in the interests of the King; from my own
point of view, it grew more and more necessary.
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