The old chancellor was a very good fellow, and I do
not think that Rudolf did wrong in relying upon him. Where he
miscalculated was, of course, just where he was ignorant. The
whole of what the queen's friends, ay, and the queen herself, did
in Strelsau, became useless and mischievous by reason of the
king's death; their action must have been utterly different, had
they been aware of that catastrophe; but their wisdom must be
judged only according to their knowledge.
In the first place, the chancellor himself showed much good
sense. Even before he obeyed the king's summons he sent for the
two servants and charged them, on pain of instant dismissal and
worse things to follow, to say nothing of what they had seen. His
commands to his wife and daughter were more polite, doubtless,
but no less peremptory. He may well have supposed that the king's
business was private as well as important when it led his Majesty
to be roaming the streets of Strelsau at a moment when he was
supposed to be at the Castle of Zenda, and to enter a friend's
house by the window at such untimely hours. The mere facts were
eloquent of secrecy. Moreover, the king had shaved his beard--the
ladies were sure of it--and this, again, though it might be
merely an accidental coincidence, was also capable of signifying
a very urgent desire to be unknown.
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