Bendel, the next morning, revealed to me in confidence that the
suspicion which he had long entertained of Rascal's honesty was now
become certainty--that he had yesterday embezzled whole purses of
gold. "Let us permit," replied I, "the poor scoundrel to enjoy
the petty plunder. I spend willingly on everybody, why not on him?
Yesterday he and all the fresh people you have brought me served me
honestly; they helped me joyfully to celebrate a joyful feast."
There was no further mention of it. Rascal remained the first of my
servants, but Bendel was my friend and my confidant. The latter was
accustomed to regard my wealth as inexhaustible, and he pried not
after its sources; entering into my humor, he assisted me rather to
discover opportunities to exercise it, and to spend my gold. Of that
unknown one, that pale sneak, he knew only this, that I could alone
through him be absolved from the curse which weighed on me; and that
I feared him, on whom my sole hope reposed. That, for the rest, I was
convinced that he could discover me anywhere; I him nowhere; and that
therefore awaiting the promised day, I abandoned every vain inquiry.
The magnificence of my feast, and my behavior at it, held at first
the credulous inhabitants of the city firmly to their preconceived
opinion. True, it was soon stated in the newspapers that the whole
story of the journey of the king of Prussia had been a mere groundless
rumor: but a king I now was, and must, spite of everything, a king
remain, and truly one of the most rich and royal who had ever existed;
only people did not rightly know what king.
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