"These accusations will be proved."
"They cannot be, for I shall find means to justify myself. Although I cannot deny having been for some time connected with you, it does not follow that this is still the case."
"That too is provided for. We possess the most irrefutable proofs that you still maintain an intercourse with us by letter." He drew out a small portfolio. "Now I will ask you for a lamp." _Heinrich_ lighted the candles, and saw two envelopes, which Severinus held out to him, addressed in his own hand. "You see,--these envelopes contained the replies to the General"s requests concerning the erection of a private inst.i.tution in H----. We shall know how to conceal the fact that these answers were refusals. It is enough that the postmarks on envelopes addressed by your own hand will afford proofs of the recent existence of a secret correspondence."
"And of what use will they be if you are forced to conceal their contents? Suppose you are asked why you do not produce the letters themselves?"
"It will be sufficient reason to say that they contained important secrets which we cannot reveal on any account."
_Heinrich_ pa.s.sionately struck his brow. "Oh, could I suspect that I had to deal with men to whom no measures are too petty, and who are not ashamed to collect pitiful envelopes and use them to aid their designs!"
"Nothing is so trivial that it is not worth the trouble of keeping, if it can serve the honest cause. Our Lord Jesus Christ was not ashamed to pick up a piece of old iron; why should not we, his servants, make even the most trifling things useful for his designs?"
"I hope, father, that you yourself feel the humorousness, not to say absurdity, of such logic at this moment."
"Let us not digress. I am aware that our proceedings can in no case meet with your approval, and bear you no ill will for it; therefore I have not submitted them to your judgment. Every word which does not directly concern the matter in hand is a mere waste of time."
"Well, then, father, we will use very few. Tell me exactly what you require."
"That you should bind yourself to contend with us no longer."
_Heinrich_ burst into a loud laugh. "And by these untenable threats you wish to induce me to take such a step! No, father, we have not yet gone so far. Although I have no proofs that our correspondence was a hostile one, you are equally unable to show that it was confidential and friendly; far less, that I have failed in my duty towards my own government. Our risks are equal."
"If they are, I need only throw in these papers and your scale will sink!" held aloft a roll of ma.n.u.script. "Here are the proofs of the offenses you committed against your government and court during your stay in Rome. Whoever sees them will no longer doubt that you are a traitor now as well as then!"
"Severinus!" cried _Heinrich_, fairly beside himself with fury.
"Be calm, my friend; we are only weighing our comparative advantages and disadvantages. If you compel me to make these papers public, your honor and all your ambitious plans are destroyed!"
"If you rob me of my future career as a statesman, woe betide you! Do you see what an enemy you will find in me? I, too, am in possession of secrets which you would not desire to have revealed!"
"As we know this, my friend, we do you the honor of treating with you.
Towards any one else we should have adopted a shorter course. The only point in question now is which of us has most to lose, and it is you!"
"What do those papers contain?" asked _Heinrich_, in a hollow tone.
"In the first place an article in your own hand, which you prepared at the rector"s command, containing the characteristics of this court and those of the most influential persons who surround the prince."
"That can only compromise me personally," said _Heinrich_, with forced composure.
"It can be displayed by a malevolent person as an act of treachery to your court in favor of the Jesuits" designs,--and in fact it was intended to aid us in our first steps here."
"It failed, however, for the characteristics were not correct. Any one who is familiar with the relations existing here will instantly perceive that they are intentionally falsified, to mislead any one who might wish to use them."
"This may have proceeded from want of judgment quite as much as design."
_Heinrich_ suppressed a smile. "Oh, father, pardon my lack of modesty if I doubt that any would impute want of judgment to _me_!"
Severinus bit his lips. "You were a very young man, whose penetration could not have been so well disciplined as now. Meantime, where many proofs are brought together the number turns the scale, and I possess one which will weigh heavier than all the rest." He drew a printed doc.u.ment from his breast and pointed to the t.i.tle. "Who is the author of this pamphlet written in favor of the Jesuits and against your government?"
"I," said _Heinrich_, coldly. "But, fortunately, you can create no proofs of the fact."
"We can procure them."
"_No_, father; there was but one, the ma.n.u.script written by my own band; and this no longer exists, for I threw it into the fire myself, and saw it burn with my own eyes. I knew you crafty gentlemen too well to allow such a dangerous doc.u.ment to fall into your possession."
"You burned the ma.n.u.script, but not the proof-sheets," said Severinus.
"When you asked for them you were told that they had already been destroyed. Here are the corrections written in your own hand! You wondered at the time that we should have such miserable compositors in our secret printing-establishments, because you found whole words wrong. You were unsuspicious enough not to perceive that the errors were only made in order to obtain as many corrections as possible in your handwriting; no one who knows its peculiar characteristics will doubt the authenticity of this doc.u.ment." _Heinrich_ turned very pale.
He cast a glance of deadly hatred at Severinus, who was quietly watching him. "Moreover, here is also the letter you sent to Father K.
with the pamphlets he had ordered; and although you took the precaution not to name the t.i.tle, no one will believe that you submitted to the judgment of the General of the Jesuits any other ma.n.u.script than one written in the interests of the order." expression of bitter irony played around the priest"s delicate lips. "It seems to me that you were not aware how "crafty" we are! You can now proceed to make public all these "contemptible coercive measures," as you call them; you may perhaps thereby injure us a little, but you will not justify yourself.
As soon as this secret is revealed you are lost. Suppose you hold psychological discussions with your court and government concerning the transformation which has taken place in you, and the causes that induced you to deny your convictions for an entire year,--you will be laughed at, and your name will be handed before all parties."
_Heinrich_ trembled with rage. The painful dilemma into which he found himself hurried without the slightest warning, the incomprehensibility of his situation, the priest"s crushing dialectics, and his own physical exhaustion--all these combined causes so bewildered him that he lost all control over himself, and following only the blind impulses of his instinct, he vigorously rushed upon Severinus, who had just replaced the doc.u.ment in his breast. "Hold!" he cried, seizing his arm.
"Do you really suppose I will voluntarily leave these papers, which decide the destiny of my whole life, in your hands?"
Severinus remained perfectly calm, and measured him with a contemptuous glance. "Ottmar, I could defend myself if I did not have sufficient confidence in your good sense to know that I am safe from violence."
After a long pause, Severinus approached him; his expression became more gentle, his harsh tone softened, and it seemed as if sorrow was mirrored in his eyes as he laid his hand gently upon the young man"s shoulder and in a low tone murmured his name. The latter looked up sullenly.
"Ottmar, I do not act for myself, but for my church."
"It is a matter of indifference to me for when you act if you destroy my career. Oh, it is despicable! I have robbed you of the labors of a year, but you are defrauding me of a whole life! Woe to him who rashly ventures within your charmed circle! He can never break through it without being crushed."
"Ottmar, I do not understand how you could ever have imagined we would send such an invaluable power into the world without holding in our hands the leading-strings by which we could draw you back at any moment. Let us come to some conclusion. I have the most positive orders not to leave here without the security I have already mentioned. If you do not promise to-night that you will voluntarily send in your resignation, to-morrow I must commence proceedings which will make you a dishonored man."
"And I am to allow my hands to be tied, I am to mount to this height, and in the zenith of my success to be hurled back to every-day obscurity, laughed at and dishonored! No, I will not and cannot be ruined by you! You recognize only the fanaticism with which you incessantly pursue your own aims. I too am a fanatic; but it is in the cause of ambition, and to this everything must yield, good and bad. You shall perceive that I have not been your pupil in vain. You have impressed upon me the stamp of your society to brand me in the eyes of my party; but what will injure me at _Protestant_ courts will aid me in _Catholic_ ones. If I am reported to be a Jesuit, I will make the rumor profitable. I will enter the service of a Catholic country under the guise of being in accord with you. You cannot contradict yourselves so far as to decry me here as an ultramontanist and there as a liberal. I will go to N----, where you are sure that I am powerless against you.
If this is not sufficient security, let the battle begin,--I can do no more!"
"It is the only expedient that you still have, if you seek your happiness solely in the brilliancy of a diplomatic career; and it is not our intention to exclude you from it, for we do not wish to drive you to extremities unnecessarily. N---- is at least the only place where you cannot injure us. On this condition we will mutually spare each other and keep the peace; but if you succeed in obtaining influence in N----, and should ever attempt to use it against us, we have the power there to crush you at once: not by stratagem, but by our firmly-established might. Do not forget this."
"Ottilie," thought _Heinrich_, "you spoke the truth. I have so poisoned the air with my falsehoods that I breathe nothing but corruption, and am rightly served." "Well, then," he said to Severinus, "your holy object is attained by the n.o.blest means. You thrust a man, who has. .h.i.therto made only a short digression from the path of right, into a course of wrong and hypocrisy, careless whether a soul is destroyed, so that appearances are preserved."
Severinus cast down his eyes. "The cause must be saved; the individual must be sacrificed to the cause. May G.o.d have mercy upon his soul, if that which should lead him to good turns him to evil! Come, we will repeat our agreement before witnesses." Severinus opened the door, and they entered the drawing-room, where the others were waiting with anxious faces.
_Heinrich"s_ offer was discussed in detail and confirmed by his word of honor, after which he took a formal leave of the gentlemen.
Severinus turned in the doorway and clasped his hand. "I do not know what mysterious impulse of affection binds me to you, that, while treating you as my worst enemy, tears of sorrow dim my eyes, although I have only faithfully obeyed my orders. For Christ"s sake forgive me, as I pardon you, and if ever you need me call upon me!" He gazed at _Heinrich_ with all the strange meaning of his wonderful eyes. It seemed as if their brilliancy was shadowed by tears as he asked, "Shall I not see you again when I return to H---- in a few weeks?"
"No," said _Heinrich_. "I shall send in my resignation to-morrow, and depart as soon as possible."
Severinus suddenly clasped him pa.s.sionately to his breast. "Farewell, my lost son! From this hour I will love nothing but G.o.d!" Then he went down the staircase with a steady step, without casting another glance behind. Old Anton lighted the way, and then returned, pale but calm.
"Where is Roschen?" exclaimed _Henri_, who was longing to forget the tortures of the past hour in the arms of love.
"She is not here," said the old man.
"Not here?" asked _Henri_, in amazement. "Where is she?"
"Forgive me, Herr Baron! I could do nothing else,--I took her home to her father."