Please permit me to go down-stairs and enter it in your place. I
want to see whither they will take me."
"No," said the king--"no! I wish to avoid any thing like an open
rupture with France. The time for that has not come yet."
"Oh," whispered Hardenberg to himself, sadly and reproachfully,
"that time will never come! My hopes are blasted."
The king paced the room silently and musingly, with his hands folded
behind him. Field-Marshal Kalkreuth and General Kockeritz followed
every motion in anxious suspense. Hardenberg cast down his eyes, and
his features were expressive of profound grief.
"Gentlemen," said the king, "come with me! Let us go down to my
carriage!"
"Your majesty, I trust, does not intend to enter it?" exclaimed
Kockeritz, in dismay.
"Come with me!" said the king, almost smilingly. "Come!"
The firm, determined tone of his majesty admitted of no resistance.
The three left the cabinet with him in silence, crossed the anteroom
and the lighted corridor, until they arrived at the small staircase
leading to the side-gate of the palace. All was silent. Not a
footman met them on the way, and only a single sentinel stood at the
upper end of the passage. The king, who led the way, went quickly
down and across the small hall toward the door, which he opened with
a jerk. The storm swept into the hall and beat into the faces of the
gentlemen.
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