dismayed?'
'Oh, no,' says I. 'When it's all over I intend to go back to England and take the place of Prince Albert, don't you know.'
Rudi laughed, but I saw Kraftstein shake his head—no doubt he was thinking that I didn't look enough like Prince Albert to get away with it.
'Sit down,' says Bismarck. 'Give him a brandy, de Gautet.' He came to stand at the table head, looking down at me. 'Listen to me carefully. When you leave here tomorrow you will be accompanied by Freiherr von Starnberg and de Gautet. They will take you by coach to the rendezvous we have appointed—you need to know nothing more than that it is a country mansion owned by a nobleman who is to play host to Prince Carl Gustaf for one night during his journey to Strackenz. The journey to the house will take two days, but we are allowing three, for safety.
On the appointed day Carl Gustaf and his retinue will arrive at the mansion in the afternoon. It stands in wooded country, but is easily accessible; you will be waiting for evening, and when it comes von Starnberg and de Gautet will take you into the grounds under cover of darkness. You will be admitted by a man who is one of the only three in the world, outside this room, who is in our plot. His name is Detchard, a Danish minister entirely faithful to me. He will conduct you secretly to the Prince's apartment; in the meantime von Starnberg will be effecting the … removal of the real Prince. Have I made myself clear so far?'
By God he had, and as I listened all my old fears came galloping back with a vengeance. The thing was obvious lunacy, and this outrageous creature, standing so straight and immaculate in his greatcoat, was a dangerous maniac.
'But … but, look here,' I began, 'suppose something goes wrong—I mean, suppose somebody comes… .'
He banged his fist on the table and glared at me. 'Nothing will go wrong! No one will come! Righteous Lord God! Do you suppose I know nothing? Do you imagine I have not planned every detail? De Gautet! Tell him—what is the name of the serving-maid whose duty it will be to change the Prince's bed linen while he is at the house?'
'Heidi Gelber,' says de Gautet.
'Starnberg—how do you reach the Prince's dressing-room from the door where Detchard will admit you?'
'Twelve paces along a passage, up the stairway to the right, left at the first landing, then ten paces along to a passage on the right. The Prince's dressing-room is the first door on the left.'
'From door to door—fifty seconds,' says Bismarck. 'If you wish, I can tell you the precise nature of the furnishings in the Prince's chamber, and their positions in the room. For example, there is a statuette of a kneeling cupid on the overmantel. Now— are you convinced that my organisation is sound, and my information complete?'
'How do you know that some drunk footman won't come blundering along in the middle of everything?' I cried.
I thought he would hit me, but he restrained himself.
'It will not happen,' he said. 'Everything will fall out exactly as I have said.'
There was no point in arguing, of course; I sat in despair while he went on.
'Once inside that room, you will be Prince Carl Gustaf. That is the fact of paramount importance. From that moment Flashman no longer exists—you understand? With you will be Detchard and the Prince's physician, Orsted, who is also privy to our plans. If at any moment you are in doubt, they will guide you. And when you set out next morning on your royal progress across the border into Strackenz, you will find that among the dignitaries who will greet you will be both de Gautet and Starnberg—it has been arranged that they will join your train as gentlemen of honour. So you will not lack for friends,' he added grimly. 'Now drink your brandy.'
I gulped it down; I needed it. At the back of my mind I suppose there had still been some futile hope that I would be able to slip out of this at the last moment, but Bismarck had squashed it flat. I was going to have to go through with it, with Rudi and de Gautet hovering alongside ready, at the first false move, to put a bullet into me, I didn't doubt. Why the hell, I asked myself for the thousandth time, had I ever come to this bloody country?
'The wedding will take place on the day after your arrival in the city of Strackenz,' Bismarck went on, for all the world as though he had been telling me the time of day. 'You have already received some instruction in the details of the ceremony, of course. And then—all plain sailing, as your people say.'
He sat down, and poured himself a glass of brandy from the decanter. He sipped at it, while I sat mute, staring at my glass. 'Well, Mr Flashman; what have you to say?'
'What the hell does it matter what I say?' I burst out. 'I've no choice, damn you!'
To my amazement, he actually chuckled. He stretched his legs and twirled the stem of his glass between his fingers.
'None at all,' says he, grinning. 'Flashman, you should be glad. You will be making history—aye, great history. Do you realise, I wonder, the magnitude of what we are doing? We are nailing a little hinge to a door, a great door which will open to reveal the destiny of a greater Germany! And
Believe it or not, he actually raised my spirits a little with that. Of course, it was all humbug, designed to put some backbone into me—that was all he knew—but the man was so supremely confident it was infectious: if he really believed we could bring it off—well, perhaps we could. The others cheered and we all drank, and Bismarck sighed and refilled his glass. I'd never seen him anything like this before; for the moment he was almost jovial, showing an entirely new side of his nature—all carefully calculated for my benefit, I imagine.
'How will we look back on this?' he mused. 'When we are old, and in our country places, and the bold lads of a new day are elbowing for power in the chancelleries? I wonder.' He shook his head. 'I think I will wear leather breeches and allow myself to be laughed at in Stettin wool market, and sell two thalers cheaper to anyone who calls me 'baron'.[27] And you, Flashman—you will sit in your club in St James, and grow fat on port and your memories. But we will have lived, by God! We will have fought! We will have won! Is it not something to have moved great affairs, and shaped the course of time?'
No doubt I should have shared his enthusiasm, like Kraftstein, who was hanging on every word, and looking like a ruptured bullock. But all I could think to myself was, God, I wish John Gully had really set to work on you. What I said aloud was:
'Herr Bismarck, I am much moved. And now, with your permission, I intend to get as drunk as possible. Afterwards, tomorrow, I shall be at your service, since I can't do anything else. But if I'm to shape the destiny of Europe, I'll need a good skinful of liquor inside me to set me off. So will you kindly oblige me with the bottle, and a cigar, and as many dirty drinking songs as you and your friends can remember? And if this seems to you a coarse and pagan spirit in which to approach our glorious adventure for the Fatherland, well—you've made your preparations; let me now make mine.'
7
As a result of the night's excesses, which Bismarck didn't discourage, I had a raging headache and a heaving stomach on the morning of my departure from Schonhausen. So I remember very little of it, which is no loss. For that matter my recollections of the journey north to Strackenz are hazy, too; I've travelled too far in my time to be anything but bored by it, and there was nothing to see that I recall except flat snowy fields, the occasional village, and bleak woodlands of bare black trees.
Rudi was full of spirits as usual, and de Gautet was his smooth, civil self, but I knew he wouldn't forget or forgive that
