Chamberlain."
"Permit me, then, to apply to you directly, and to ask you whether Baron
von Stein is so ill that I cannot see him about grave and important
business?"
"The baron is very ill," said the physician, "but there is no immediate
danger; and, as the fever has left him to-day, he will be able to
converse about serious matters--that is to say, if they are not of a
very sad and disheartening character."
"Grief for Prussia's misfortunes is my husband's disease," said the
baroness; "consider well, therefore, if what you intend telling him will
aggravate it, or bring him relief. If a change for the better has taken
place--if you bring him the news that that disgraceful treaty of Tilsit
has been repudiated, and that the war will continue, it will be a
salutary medicine, and, in spite of the warlike character of your news,
you will appear as an angel of peace at his bedside. But if you come
only to confirm the disastrous tidings that have prostrated him, it may
cause his death."
"I do not bring any warlike tidings," said M. von Schladen, sadly; "I do
not bring intelligence that the treaty of Tilsit has been repudiated!
Hence, I cannot, as you say, appear as an angel of peace. Nevertheless,
I do not come croaking of our disasters. I come in the name of, and
commissioned by Prussia, to remind Baron von Stein of the words he
uttered to the queen when he took leave of her.
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