Falkenberg

“ Who knows what Falkenberg ever wants? He is here, there and everywhere—today in Paris, tomorrow in Berlin, next week in Moscow. Yet it is he, as you know well, who shapes the whole destinies of my country. It is he alone in whom the Emperor has blind and absolute confidence. If he holds up his hand, it is war. If he holds it down, it is peace."
"What does he do in Paris?" Julien inquired. ”

“ Sara did not love Falkenberg—she loved Jerome Wellfield; but the former he believed and grasped at. Every sign of devotion on Rudolf’s part put a weapon into his hands for the furtherance of his plan. He heard glowing accounts of Falkenberg’s riches and great possessions; of his status in the world of finance; of his interviews with royal and imperial personages and their ministers; of what changes a word of his could work in the state of the Börse; in short, every word that Frau Goldmark said convinced him that here was a splendid alliance, waiting [258] for Sara Ford to ratify it ”

“ Not long after the siege of Magdeburg, under the Elector Maurice, commenced, at which this lord Falkenberg was present, under a German prince of high rank. The besieged made a gallant resistance, and night and day kept up a firing of double-harquebuses, and other kinds of artillery; and it happened that one day Falkenberg's chin was shot away by a ball from a falconet, and three days after he died of the wound, in great agony.
Any one whom the spirit could not endure he used to plague or punish for his vices. ”

“ Falkenberg loves war. We others hate it. We work always to infuse throughout the army our own principles and theories. Falkenberg falls upon them with all his might and main. There are orders posted in every barracks in Germany. Our literature is confiscated. Any man preaching our doctrines is drummed out upon the streets. I say that these things cannot last. I say that Falkenberg must go. A friend in the audience has asked how. I will answer you. There is a body of men whose beliefs are somewhat similar to ours, but who go further. It is possible they see the truth. ”

“ Why should your cousins object?’
‘My dear Sara! I believe you live in a dream. Don’t you know that Helene Lehnberg would give her right hand if Falk——Oh, here he is. Good-morning, Herr Falkenberg. I shall not be a moment. How beautifully you are dressed, Sara! Beside you, I feel like a collection of tags of coloured ribbon. You are both ready. Well, shall we go? Herr Falkenberg, I am going to ask you to drive Miss Ford to the station in the pony-phaeton. Herr von Lemde will go with my cousins and me.’
‘I shall be delighted,’ observed Herr Falkenberg ”

“ Falkenberg did call, half an hour after those words had passed between Ellen and her mistress. Ellen repeated them to him, and ushered him into the parlour, where Sara lay on the couch, looking infinitely weak and exhausted, and scarcely able to lift a hand, or to smile faintly, when the tall, strong man came softly up to her; his face working, his eyes dim. ”

“ Elisabet is standing by the flagstaff, and Captain Falkenberg comes out. They talk a little, and are occupied with their own affairs. The Captain glances round every time he speaks; possibly he is not talking of trifles, but of something he must needs be careful with.
Then comes the other Captain, the fat and jovial one; we can hear his laugh right over in the servants' quarters. He calls out to Captain Falkenberg to come along, but gets back only a curt answer. A few stone steps lead down to the lilac shrubbery; the Captain goes down there now, a maid following after with wine and glasses. ”

“ Prince Falkenberg asserted. "If I had ever valued my own life highly, there would have been no Herr Freudenberg; and if the whole history of Herr Freudenberg is discovered, I follow you, my friend, post haste. If I seem to be taking any pains to hold my own, remember that mine is a life which is valuable to the Fatherland. You have been and you are only a feeder at the troughs. One more or less such as you in the world makes just the difference of a speck of dust—that is all." ”

“ Late the following evening, Falkenberg was pacing up and down the space jutting out from the Hofgarten towards the river, and known as the Schöne Aussicht. (Schöne Aussicht—Belle Vue—Bella Vista: why have we [216] no name for it in England, we who have so much of the thing itself?) It was the very hour which Sara had mentioned as being her favourite one for strolling about. Had Falkenberg had any idea of meeting her there? Hardly. He was scarcely the man to go with such a purpose, especially in the case of Sara Ford. ”

“ Falkenberg tells many a thrilling tale of life in the far north. The west with its opportunities for advancement made strong appeal to him and he possesses that character that is ever ready to cope with new conditions and mold them to his own ends. His course as a representative business man has been characterized by all those qualities which men in every clime and country respect. ”

“ It was afternoon of the following day. Sara was much in the same state–no stronger, no weaker. She saw, with something like apathy, how Wilhelmi, his wife, and Luise came into her room together, spoke to her, and seated themselves side by side.
She had a faint remembrance that Rudolf had said something about witnesses; she was not quite sure what it all meant, but no doubt it was right. Falkenberg was there too, seated beside her, and, in an unconscious appeal to his protecting power, she had moved her hand into his, and then lay back in her chair, silent and indifferent. ”

“ But Ingeborg Torsen is of tougher fibre than Fru Falkenberg, and she saves herself in a marriage which brings her children and heavy household cares. The Wanderer has played the rôle of her fatherly friend and confidant, but at last he realizes that she does not need him any more even in this capacity. The knowledge hurts, but not for very long, and not very severely. His feeling for her has been real, the loss of her leaves him a little more sad and lonely than before, but love with him is no longer the inexorable, devastating passion that sent Glahn and Nagel to their death. ”

“ Here the curtain went up for the last picture, and when that was over, came the crush to get out of the hall.
‘Look here, mein Bester!’ observed Wilhelmi to Herr Falkenberg. ‘My womenkind will be more than enough for me. Will you take Miss Ford and Miss Wellfield under your charge, and see them home?’
‘With pleasure,’ was the reply; and with an exchange of hasty good-nights, the Wilhelmis were carried forward in the crowd, while [183] Falkenberg and the two English girls made their way slowly after them. ”

“ Herr Freudenberg said slowly. "No man can be at his best who knows care. I, Prince Falkenberg, I promise you that it is the truth which I have spoken, the truth which I shall show you. You lose no shadow of honor or self-respect. There will come a day when the millions of readers whom you shall influence will say to themselves—'Paul Jesen, he is the man who saw the truth. It is he who has saved France.' You accept?" ”

“ She does not need money, she needs territory. Falkenberg is a rabid imperialist, a dreamer of splendid dreams, a real genius. He is fighting to-day with the subtlest weapons the mind of man ever conceived. Now, Julien, listen. I am here with a direct proposition to you."
"But what can I do?" Julien exclaimed.
"This," Kendricks replied. "It is my idea. I saw Lord Southwold this morning and he agreed. We want you to write for our paper a series of articles, dated from Paris and signed in your own name, and we want you to attack Falkenberg and the game he is playing. ”

“ But I couldn't get done with my machine in so short a time. We'd each our own affairs to take our time; apart from the machine, there was that thumbnail for the pipe I wanted to finish, and the evenings came out all too short. As for Falkenberg, he had made it up with Emma again. And that was a difficult matter and took time. She had been going about with Markus Shoemaker, 'twas true, but Falkenberg for his part could not deny having given Helene presents—a silk handkerchief and a work box set with shells. ”

“ Julien announced, "I am going back. I have heard from England this evening. Your friend Carraby is resigning."
Falkenberg shook his head. He remained calm, but there was an ominous flash in his eyes.
"You would make a mistake," he asserted. "No one ever goes back—successfully. Do I not know—I who am twenty years your senior, I who have felt my way into all the corners and crevices of life? Listen to me, please."
He drew a chair towards them and sat down, crossing his knees and looking towards them both in friendly fashion. ”

“ As Falkenberg saw this sight–saw this girl crouching and weeping, and heartbroken and desperate in consequence of having been deceived and deserted by Jerome Wellfield, his heart was hot within him. He went up [Pg 99] to her, took her hands from before her face, and as she looked at him she saw that his eyes were full of wrath, and his brow clouded with angry feeling.
‘Sara!’ he said abruptly, and almost sharply, ‘you demean yourself by this behaviour. Listen to me: answer me: You will never cast a thought to that man again. ”

“ Falkenberg is a man possessed of one idea—to upset the relations between France and England. For that purpose he has been paying secret visits to Paris for the last year. He has corrupted the Press here. He has wormed his way into the confidence of one or two of the Ministers. The thing is a perfect mania with him. He has taken it into his head that the articles which Kendricks has made me promise to write, and the first one of which appeared in Le Grand Journal yesterday—the one you read at dinner-time—are going to be exploited as an exposure of his methods. ”

“ I have a special fondness for the “still, sad music of humanity,” which one comprehends best at such times.’
‘Yes, it is a music worth listening to. But the music of humanity is not always sad, Herr Falkenberg, is it?’
‘No,’ said Rudolf, looking down at her. He was standing, Sara was seated on a low chair, leaning forward, and looking up at him with an earnest, large gaze, and in her eyes was so deep, so triumphant and secure a happiness, that he could not fail to see it—it made her face glorious with its reflection. ”

“ There are fairer flowers in life to be plucked than any which can be reached from the high places in Downing Street or Berlin.... Let me, at least, Lady Anne, make sure of your support? Mind, I am not threatening now—I plead."
Lady Anne looked at him gravely.
"Sir Julien," she declared, "will answer you for himself."
"But I want your own decision," Falkenberg insisted. "I want you to see the truth as I see it. I want you to tell me that you agree with me."
She shook her head.
"But I do not!" she exclaimed. "To me you have spoken like a sophist. One does not gain happiness by seeking it. ”

“ In passing my threshold you have broken your word of honor. What do you want?"
"I want Julien Portel!"
Madame Christophor shrugged her shoulders.
"You have wanted him for some little time."
"Never so badly as at this instant," Falkenberg declared bitterly. "He has set all Europe in a ferment with those infernal letters. He knows too much. He knows whence came the money which bought Le Jour. He knows every detail of my campaign here."
"There are surely others," she objected, "who must have guessed—"
"But there was no one else," he interrupted, "who had the special knowledge which Portel has. ”

“ But then, of course, it [146] could never appeal to sense, and sex, and sentiment, as it must if it is to be an influence. It is a thousand pities, it is lamentable. And Falkenberg wrote of her in what might for him be called enthusiastic strains. I wish there were some way of saving her. I wish the man would play false, or that some shock would rouse her from this apathy!’
It may here be casually observed that Professor Wilhelmi cherished a conviction that he understood woman, and could account for and cure all her vagaries, had he but the power placed in his hands. ”

“ He leaned back in his chair, his hands in his pockets and his face set, his eyes fixed frowningly upon the green leather top of the table at which he sat. Two sentences which he had heard, earlier in the day, [Pg 208] exchanged between two gentlemen in the coffee-room of his hotel, had banished all other subjects from his mind.
‘When is Falkenberg going to be back from that immense Reise in’s Blaue that he undertook in May? and has he left his wife alone all this time?’
‘Oh, I fancy no one knows when he will be back. His wife is at his place at Lahnburg. ”

“ The estate of Brokind, before it came into the possession of the family of Count Falkenberg, was owned, for about two centuries, by the family of Night and Day. It is probable that the Lady Barbro wrought into this legend is Lady Barbro, Erik’s daughter, wife of Senator Mons, Johnson Night and Day, though how she was made to play a part in the narrative is not known, as her body was not impaled in a swamp, but rests peacefully in an elegant grave in the cathedral of Linköping. ”

“ All the guests are gone—stout Captain Bror, the lady with the shawl, Engineer Lassen as well. And Captain Falkenberg is getting ready to start for manoeuvres at last. It struck me that he must have applied for leave on very special grounds, or he would have been away on duty long before this.
We farm-hands have been hard at work in the fields the last few days—a heavy strain on man and beast. But Nils knew what he was doing; he wanted to gain time for something else. ”