It will be but natural for her to invoke your intercession."
"If she does so, I will try, to the best of my power, to be useful to
her, for I have spent many pleasant hours at the prince's house, and it
would be agreeable to me to do her a favor. But I am afraid you are
mistaken. The emperor never takes back his word, and if he has said that
he will have no mercy, and not admit the princess, that will be the end
of it, and all endeavors of mine will be in vain."
"Try it at least," said Talleyrand. "Perhaps you may accomplish your
purpose. But you have no time to lose, for, as I have told you already,
the court-martial is to assemble to-morrow. What is to be done, must be
done, therefore, in the course of to-day."
CHAPTER XII.
THE PRINCESS VON HATZFELD.
Grand-Marshal Duroc was pacing his room in great agitation. Evening was
drawing nigh, and still he had not received any intelligence from the
Princess von Hatzfeld. Yet her husband had been arrested in the course
of the forenoon and taken to the palace, in one of the rooms of which he
was locked up and kept under strict surveillance. The news of his arrest
had spread rapidly through Berlin, and cast a gloom over the whole city.
Everywhere in the streets groups of pale and grave men were to be seen,
who whispered to each other this latest dreadful event, and vented their
anger in secret imprecations.
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