In the previous year Frederick of Prussia had given his Minister Hcinrich Stein virtually the powers of a civil dictator. Stein had then revolutionised his country's political system, by bringing in most drastic reforms. He had abolished serfdom, admitted all classes to the ownership of land, and imbued municipal Governments with new vitality. This had resulted in the masses now feeling that they had a real stake in their country's future. Meanwhile, his colleague Scharnhorst, at the Ministry of War, had conceived the new idea that in peace time all able-bodied men should serve for a period in the Army, then become available as reserves. Foreseeing danger to himself in this, Napoleon had forced Frederick William to sign a treaty agreeing that the Prussian Army should never exceed forty-two thousand men; but this failed to invalidate the fact that Prussia was steadily building up a great reserve of men trained to arms.
Napoleon, continuing to discount the war in the Peninsula and the ominous rumblings now coming from Germany, was still obsessed with his dreams of conquering the East and sought to woo Alexander by a glamorous prospect of adding Turkey's European dominions to the Imperial Russian Crown; but they failed to agree on the thorny subject of Constantinople.
The Czar desired to turn the Black Sea into a Russian lake, with an exit through the Dardanelles to the Mediterranean. The Emperor could not bring himself to allow another Great Power to occupy the Porte and Narrows, lest later it might menace his operations in Asia.
. Meanwhile, Frau Gunther had secured a wet-nurse for the Negro infant, and Josefa had gone with it to live in a farmstead outside the town. In answer to the enquiries of his friends about his wife's accouchement, Roger gave this information while, naturally, refraining from mentioning the baby's colour. Somewhat to his surprise and much to his relief, the discretion shown by the Gunthers appeared to have proved effective. Two people casually mentioned to him that a lady in the town was said to have given birth to the child of a Negro, but it was obvious that neither connected this scandal with Lisala. It therefore seemed that, after all, he need not have disclosed the affair to Josephine; but he was not to know at the time that gossip would not swiftly inform her of it, and he had always held that it was better to be safe than sorry.
Being young and healthy, Lisala made a speedy recovery and, greatly annoyed at having already missed several splendid entertainments, on the fifth night she insisted on attending a ball given by the Czar. When they were presented, Roger felt certain that Alexander would recognise him, so having bowed low, he said:
'I am happy, Sire, to have this opportunity of again thanking Your Imperial Majesty for arranging my exchange last year.'
Alexander smiled and replied, 'On two occasions while you were a prisoner, Colonel, I found your conversation most interesting. We must talk again. At a convenient time I will send one of my officers to request your attendance on me.'
As they entered the ballroom, Roger began to point out to Lisala numerous people of interest, among them Count Haugwitz. He was the pro-French statesman whom Napoleon had forced King Frederick to make his Prime Minister, after the defeat of Prussia, instead of the pro-English Count Hardenberg. Talking to him were a slightly taller man and a dark-haired woman with a voluptuous figure. The couple had their backs to Roger but, as though impelled by an impulse, the woman suddenly turned right round. At the same moment Roger took a quick step towards her. Their eyes met, and both gave a cry of delight. She was his beloved Georgina.
Introductions followed. Georgina had not heard that Roger had remarried. After a swift appraisement of Lisala, she smilingly congratulated him on the peerless beauty of his new wife. Roger had met the Prussian Prime Minister's cousin, Baron Haugwitz, once before, at the Tuileries toward the end of '99. The Baron had then just been transferred from Ambassador to the Court of St. James to that of Napoleon who was at that time still First Consul. It was Haugwitz who had told Roger that when he had left London, Georgina had been reported desperately ill and so led to Roger's returning to England in record time. But neither had been aware that the other was in love with her.
Soon afterwards Haugwitz presented Lisala and Roger to Louisa, the beautiful and courageous Queen of Prussia who, while her craven husband sullenly submitted to Napoleon's bullying, was fighting the Emperor tooth and nail, in an endeavour to make him reduce the taxation which was ruining her people, and give up the important fortress of Magdeburg.
Later, Georgina and Roger twice waltzed together. Dances were too brief for them to exchange detailed confidences; but the bond between them which had existed since their teens, was as strong as ever. They had not taken three turns in their first waltz before both said simultaneously, 'You are not happy.'
They laughed at this evidence of their life-long rapport. Then Georgina went on, 'She is so superb a creature that I do not wonder you fell in love with her. But those splendid eyes of hers are too far apart for a normal mind to lie behind them, and about her I sensed an aura of evil.'
Roger had many times had evidence of the psychic perception which Georgina had inherited from her gipsy mother, so her statement did not surprise him. 'You are right,' he agreed. 'And what of your Baron? He's a devilish handsome fellow, and has both charm and intellect. In what way do you find him unsatisfactory?'
'He was charming enough when in England,' she replied. 'But, like all Germans, he is harsh and dictatorial at home. Still, he is no more tiresome to live with than was my first husband Humphrey Etheredge.'
'How is young Charles ?' Roger asked.
She hesitated a moment. 'I could not have a more loving son, and he is growing into a fine youth. But he does not like living in Germany, and he misses the companionship of your litde Susan terribly, as indeed do I.'
During their second dance, he twitted her. 'You always vowed that you would be a Duchess before your hair turned grey. But now you have taken a step down, from Countess of St. Ermins to be a German Baroness.'
She winked a naughty eye and whispered, 'For your ear alone, dear heart, I at least recently achieved an Archduke as a lover.' Throwing back their heads, they both laughed uproariously.
Before the dance finished, she said earnestly, ' Tis all too long since we have seen anything of each other. And I am confronted with a problem that I need to talk to you about. As soon as the conference ends, please bring your wife to stay at my new home, Schloss Langenstien, near Bingen. This is important to me, my love, very important. So you must come. You must.'
'Of course I will come,' he assured her immediately. 'And I would that I could come alone. But that is not possible. As things are I'd be grateful if you would give Lisala and me separate rooms.'
She made a little grimace. 'So things are already come to such a sorry pass with you. 'Tis so also with myself. Ulrich and I now sleep apart.'
Giving her a wicked grin, Roger murmured, 'That being so, most beloved of beloveds, perhaps...'
Georgina made a movement of her full red lips, as though blowing him a kiss, and whispered, 'The vintage will be over, but for you I shall ever be as a ripe grape ready to fall.'
The ball went on until three o'clock in the morning. Captains and Kings, Russian Grand Duchesses and beautiful prostitutes who had become the wives of the gallant warriors of the French Empire, Germans, Poles and Danes, mingled together, laughed, flirted outrageously and quaffed glass after glass of champagne. At length, many of them far from steady on their feet, they began to drift away. Lisala had naturally refrained from dancing; but had enjoyed herself enormously, having spent the evening surrounded with a succession of handsome officers eager to talk to her. And Josephine had beckoned her over, and had spoken to her with great kindness.