Lannes would come before the next night! He must come! If he had made an
appointment for such a meeting nothing could delay him more than a day.
He did not have any great fear for Julie's present safety. The modern
civilized world had suddenly broken loose from many of its anchors, but
so conspicuous a man as Auersperg could not stain his name with a deed
that would brand him throughout Europe. Weber, however, had spoken of a
morganatic marriage, and fearful pressure might be brought to bear. A
country so energetic and advanced as Germany had clung, nevertheless, to
many repellent principles of medievalism. A nation listened with calm
acceptance and complacency, while its Kaiser claimed a partnership, and
not altogether a junior partnership either, with the Almighty. Much
could be forgiven to an Auersperg, the head of a house that had been
princely more than a thousand years. John shuddered.
He had not gone to the tent at once as he intended. His nerves were yet
leaping and he knew now that they must become quiet before he could
sleep. Men were moving about him, carrying the wounded or helping with
the camp, but they were only misty forms in the white gloom. Looking
again toward the east he saw a silver bar appear just below the horizon.
He knew it was the bright vanguard that heralded the coming sun, and his
imaginative, susceptible mind beheld in it once more an omen.
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