“Ah, that is good, General! I was very thirsty without realizing it. Well, there is really not much to tell and surely nothing to command. I am here alone, with no obligations towards anyone. As it possibly may be my last chance, you may want to hear how I came to this place?”
“I beg of your Highness not to tell more than you wish. Of course I shall be glad to know your reasons for choosing this dangerous country”--then once more breaking down, he murmured: “Why did you, my boy, why did you?”
The sick man lightly pressed the older man’s arm, letting his hand rest upon the sleeve. Count Rondell mutely gazed upon the suffering youth, and saw that the boy before him knew the price he was to pay for his folly, knew it all--and it seemed as if he wanted to pay it. Through his mind there flitted thoughts of the futility of man’s plans when God willed otherwise. With this bitter reflection there came the grief of the thought of the death of this young life that had had no chance for fulfillment.
“Count, the woman who made me forget my duty, who caused me to quarrel with you and his Majesty--the woman for whose sake I was willing to give up honor, glory and a throne--she was nothing but a wanton. I shall be brief. Returning one day to our villa in Mentone, rather earlier than usual, I found her with Monsieur Goddard, her late business manager as I thought, in very intimate seclusion. I asked for explanations--she laughed! The man had the best, the only right in the world to be intimate with her--he was her lawful husband--the only man she ever really loved and always had loved. What cared she for a romantic boy--a fool! He was the man who had introduced me to her, who had aided my wooing--and who had conspired with her to gull me! During the months I was whispering words of love and endearment to the woman I was craving to make my wife, she and he were in a conspiracy to ruin me. All they wanted was my money.
“Humiliated and desperate, I grew reckless. How well you knew it, my friend! How you pleaded with me when first this great passion took hold of me! Would I had listened to you and obeyed your wise counsel; but it was too late. The poison of this ignoble passion, which I mistook for the holy fire of love, had entered my heart, had clouded my brain!