Marianne was awakened after a short and calm slumber by the low sound of stealthy steps approaching her couch. She opened her eyes hastily, and beheld her mistress of ceremonies, who stood at her bedside, holding in her hand a golden salver with a letter on it.
"What, Camilla," she asked, in terror, "you have not yet dispatched the letter which I gave you last night? Did I not instruct you to have it delivered by the footman early in the morning?"
"Yes, your highness, and I have faithfully carried out your orders."
"Well, and this letter?"
"Is the major's reply. Your highness ordered me to awaken you as soon as the footman would bring the answer."
Marianne hastily seized the letter and broke the seal.
"He will come," she said, loudly and joyfully, after reading the few lines the letter contained. "What o'clock is it, Camilla?"
"Your highness, it is just ten o'clock."
"And I am looking for visitors already at eleven o'clock. Quick, Madame Camilla, tell my maid to arrange every thing in the dressing- room. Please see to it yourself that I may find there an elegant, rich, and not too matronly, morning costume."
"Will your highness put on the dress which Lord Paget received the other day for you from Loudon?" asked Madame Camilla. "Your highness has never yet worn it, and his lordship would doubtless rejoice at seeing your highness in this charming costume."
"I do not expect Lord Paget," said Marianne, with a stern glance;
"besides, you ought to confine your advice to matters relating to my toilet. Do not forget it any more. Now bring me my chocolate, I will take it in bed. In the mean time cause an invigorating, perfumed bath to be prepared, and tell the cook that I wish him to serve up a sumptuous breakfast for two persons in the small dining-room in the course of an hour. Go."
Madame Camilla withdrew to carry out the various orders her mistress had given her, but she did not do so joyfully and readily as usual, but with a grave face and careworn air.
"There is something going on," she whispered, slowly gliding down the corridor. "Yes, there is something going on, and at length I shall have an opportunity for spying and reporting what I have discovered. Well, I get my pay from two men, from the French governor of Vienna and from Lord Paget. Would to God I could serve both of them to-day! As for Lord Paget, I have already some news for him, for Mr. von Gentz was with her last night, and remained for two hours; my mistress then wrote a letter to Major von Brandt, which I had to dispatch early in the morning. And this is exactly the point, concerning which I do not know whether it ought to be reported to my French customer or to the English lord. Well, I will consider the matter. I will watch every step of hers, for it is certain that something extraordinary is going on here, and I want to know what it is."
And, after taking this resolution, Madame Camilla accelerated her steps to deliver the orders of the princess to the cook. An hour later, the lady's maid had finished the toilet of the princess, who approached the large looking-glass in order to cast a last critical look on her appearance.
A charming smile of satisfaction overspread her fair face when she beheld her enchanting image in the glass, and she said, with a triumphant air, "Yes, it is true, this woman is beautiful enough even to court the favor of an emperor. Do you not think so, too, Madame Camilla?"
Madame Camilla had watched, with a very attentive and grave face, every word her mistress tittered, but now she hastened to smile.
"Your highness," she said, "if we lived still in the days of the ancient gods, I would not trust any butterfly nor any bird, nay, not even a gold-piece, for, behind every thing, I should suspect Jove disguised, for the purpose of surprising my beautiful mistress."
Marianne laughed. "Ah, how learned you are," she said. "You refer even to the disguised bull of poor Europa and to the golden rain of Danae. But fear not; no disguised god will penetrate into my rooms, for unhappily the time of gods and demi-gods is past."
"Nevertheless, those arrogant French would like to make the world believe that M. Bonaparte had restored that time," said Madame Camilla, with a contemptuous air; "they would like to persuade us that the son of that Corsican lawyer was a last and belated son of Jove."
"Oh!" exclaimed Marianne, triumphantly; "the world shall discover soon enough that he is nothing but a miserable son of earth, and that his immortality, too, will find sufficient room between six blackboards. I know, Camilla, you hate the usurper as ardently, as bitterly and vindictively as I do, and this hatred is the sympathetic link uniting me with you. Well, let me tell you that your hatred will speedily be gratified, and that your vindictiveness will be satiated. Pray to God, Camilla, that He may bless the hand about to be raised against the tyrant; pray to God that He may sharpen the dagger which may soon be aimed at his heart! The world has suffered enough; it is time that it should find an avenger of its wrongs!"
"Major von Brandt," announced a footman, entering the room.
"Conduct the major to the drawing-room," said Marianne, hastily; "I will join him directly."
She cast a last triumphant look on the mirror, and then left the room.
Madame Camilla watched her, with a scowl, until the door had closed behind her. "Now I know whom I have to inform of her doings," she muttered. "They concern the French governor; I have to take pains, however, to find out more about her schemes, so that my report may embrace as much important information as possible. The better the news, the better the pay."
Marianne had meanwhile gone to the drawing-room. A tall, elderly officer, in Austrian uniform, with the epaulets of a major, came to meet her, and bent down to kiss reverentially the hand which she offered to him.
Marianne saluted him with a fascinating smile. "You have entirely forgotten me, then, major?" she asked. "It was necessary for me to invite you in order to induce you to pay me a visit?"