They were very elated and confident, these German friends of mine. And rightly; for within a few weeks the Germans entered the city and a General quartered himself in my villa. It was he who brought the Crown Prince to see me.
"Mon cher, you know this young man and his reputation. I am not excusing myself; but all my life had been spent up to then in the bas-fonds of society. I had never known what it was to be courted and admired by one who had the world at his feet. Parbleu! one does not meet a future Emperor every day!
"Enfin! the Prince carried me with him back to Metz, where he had his headquarters. He was very epris with me, but you know his temperament! No woman can hold him for more than a few weeks, vain and weak and arrogant as he is. But pardon! I was forgetting that you are a good German. I fear I offend your susceptibilities..."Desmond laughed drily.
"Madame," he said, "I hope I have preserved sufficient liberty of judgment to have formed my own opinion about our future sovereign. Most Germans have...""Alors," she broke in fiercely, her voice shaking with passion, "you know what an ignoble canaille is this young man, without even enough decency of feeling to respect the troops of whom he has demanded such bloody sacrifices. At Metz we were near enough to the fighting to realize the blood and tears of this war. But the Prince thought of nothing, but his own amusement. To live as he did, within sound of the guns, with parties every night, women and dancing and roulette and champagne suppers--bah! c'etait trop fort! It awakened in me the love of country which lies dormant in all of us. I wanted to help my country, lest I might sink as low as he...""One day the Prince brought a young officer friend of his to dine with me. This officer had come from the Eastern front and had been present at the capture of Warsaw. After dinner he took a leather case out of his pocket and said to the Prince: "I have brought your Imperial Highness a little souvenir from Poland!" As he spoke he touched a spring and the case flew open, displaying an enormous diamond, nearly as big as the great Orloff diamond which I have seen at Petrograd, surrounded by five other brilliants, the whole set like a star.
"'The Star of Poland,' said the young officer (the Prince called him 'Erich;' I never heard his full name), 'it comes from the long-lost Coronation sword of the Polish kings. I took it for your Imperial Highness from the Chateau of John Sobieski at Villanoff.
"I could not take my eyes off the gem. As the Prince held it down under the lamp to study it, it shone like an electric light. Ihad met many of my fellow countrymen in America and I had often heard of this jewel, famous in our unhappy history.
"The Prince, who was gay with champagne, laughed and said:
"'These lousy Poles will have no further use for this pretty trinket, thanks to our stout German blows, will they, Erich?'
"And his friend replied:
"'We'll give them a nice new German constitution instead, your Imperial Highness!'
"The Prince, as I have said, was very merry that night. He let me take the jewel from its case and hold it in my hands. Then Ifastened it in my hair before the mirror and turned to show myself to the Prince and his companion.
"'Donnerwetter! said Willie. 'It looks wonderful in your hair, Marcelle!'
"Then, as if struck by a sudden thought, he cried:
"'Erich! What do you say, Marcelle is a Pole. She shall have the Star of Poland and wear it in memory of me!'
"The other thought this a famous idea, and so the jewel passed into my hands. That same evening I resolved that it should be a sacred duty on my part to keep it in safety until I could hand it back to the lawful sovereign of an independent Poland.
"I was very unhappy at Metz until the Star of Poland came to comfort me. When I was alone, I used to take it from its case and feast my eyes upon it. I made many attempts to get away, but the Prince would never let me go, though he had long since tired of me and I was merely one of his harem of women. Pfui!"She gave an exclamation of disgust.
"It was the Crown Princess who eventually came to my rescue," she continued. "Long-suffering wife as she is, the stories that came to her ears from Metz were such that she went to the Emperor and declared that she would insist upon a divorce. There was a great scandal. The Prince's headquarters were moved and at length I got my release.
"I had no money. This was a detail which the Prince overlooked.
But I wanted to resume my stage work, so, with great difficulty, through the influence of the Prince, I obtained a passport to Holland and from there got across to England.
