"Oh, into what distress it will plunge
the family! The young princess loves her husband passionately; she
expects to become a mother in a few months, and is to lose the father of
her child before it sees the light!"
Again a smile overspread Talleyrand's face. He inclined closer to the
grand marshal and placed his small, emaciated hand on Duroc's vigorous
arm. "My friend," he said, in a low voice, "you must try to save the
prince!"
"I?" asked Duroc, wonderingly.
Talleyrand nodded. "Yes, you! You have long known the family; you have,
on your various missions to Berlin, been repeatedly at Hatzfeld's house,
and, as a matter of course, the young princess in her distress and
despair will apply to you for advice and assistance. You must procure
her an interview with the emperor, and she will thus obtain an
opportunity to implore his majesty on her knees to have mercy on her
husband. The whole aristocracy, then, in her person will humbly kneel
before the emperor, and they will all be pardoned in the person of the
prince. My dear sir, you must at all events procure the princess an
interview with Napoleon."
"But did you not tell me that the emperor was determined not to pardon
the prince, and that the court-marital will assemble to-morrow?"
"I did. I might have added that the emperor, when I begged him to have
mercy on Hatzfeld, angrily rejected my application, and told me he would
not permit any one to renew it.
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