The Ravishing of Lady Mary Ware by Dennis Wheatley Page B

tragedy, lest she be accused of having had a hand in it.’
    â€˜You admit then that you brought about their deaths?’
    â€˜I do. But you must know me well enough to be certain that never would I have done such a thing had it not been in your service.’
    â€˜Ha! The same old plea that you have so often made to excuse your wild escapades and neglect of your duties. I’ll hear no more.’
    â€˜I protest, Sire! I have ever served you well, and in this matter have done so yet again. Since you rightly pride yourself upon your sense of justice, you must hear me out.’
    â€˜Speak then, but be brief.’
    â€˜Your Majesty may recall that, while at Erfurt, you gave me leave so that I might pay a visit to Schloss Langenstein. While I was there, Prince Metternich came one day to luncheon. Afterwards, I chanced to overhear a brief conversation between the Prince and the Baron, which led me to believe that the latter was secretly an enemy of France. With the intention of endeavouring to verify my suspicions, I went on another visit to the Schloss in mid-September. On my second night there, when everyone had retired, I stole along to the Baron’s cabinet andwent through his papers. Among them I found a letter incriminating him up to the hilt.
    â€˜I must now reveal to you the truth about my wife. She turned out to be a most evil woman. The black infant she gave birth to while we were at Erfurt was not the result of rape, but of her having given herself willingly while in Brazil to a Negro slave. Although I would admit this to no-one but yourself, on her return to Europe she
trompéd
me with numerous men, among them von Haugwitz.
    â€˜The Baron’s cabinet was adjacent to his bedroom. She had been in there with him, but came out to return to her own room just as I was abstracting this incriminating letter from his files. I attempted to stifle her cries before she could bring her lover on the scene, but failed. Among her crimes was the appalling one that, in my presence, she had knifed her own father in the back and killed him. Knowing her ferocity, and that I stood little chance of overcoming both her and von Haugwitz, if they attacked me together, I struck her senseless. Next moment, the Baron was upon me. Fortunately, he had been drinking heavily. One blow to the jaw and he fell senseless to the floor.’
    â€˜What then was I to do with their two unconscious bodies? By ancient right, the Baron maintained in the Schloss a small bodyguard under the orders of his steward, Big Karl. When they learned what I had done, they would certainly have killed me. The only possible course was to hide the bodies and tell Big Karl in the morning that the two of them had gone out early to see the vintagers at work, then make off as swiftly as I could, with the Baroness.
    â€˜For that they had to be kept quiet until we had got well away. Had I gagged them they might have suffocated; so I found some laudanum in a medicine cupboard and drugged them both. Then I carried their bodiesdown to the
weinstube
and lowered them to the bottom of one of the big wine presses, feeling confident that they would not be found there, but regain consciousness by midday.
    â€˜The Baroness and I succeeded in escaping to Coblenz. It was not until forty-eight hours later that we learned that I had drugged them too heavily, and they had been crushed to death under a load of grapes.’
    With set face the Emperor had listened to Roger’s account. Now he burst out, ‘Liar! Liar! Liar! I know of old your ability to invent specious excuses for your doings. ’Tis a tissue of lies from start to finish. I’d wager a million francs that you could not produce that letter.’
    â€˜Then you would lose your wager, Sire,’ Roger retorted sharply, and he took the letter from his pocket, adding, ‘It is from the
Freiherr
von Stein.’
    â€˜What! That recalcitrant German cur!’ Napoleon ex-claimed.