"Then Mr. Sievers will accompany you?" asked Vivian, calling the Prince's attention to the point of consultation.
"The very man for it, my dear friend! but although Beckendorff, most probably respecting my presence, and taking into consideration the circumstances under which we meet, would refrain from consigning Sievers to a dungeon; still, although the Minister invites this interview, and although I have no single inducement to conciliate him; yet it would scarcely be correct, scarcely dignified on my part, to prove, by the presence of my companion, that I had for a length of time harboured an individual who, by Beckendorff's own exertions, was banished from the Grand Duchy. It would look too much like a bravado."
"Oh!" said Vivian, "is it so; and pray of what was Mr. Sievers guilty?"
"Of high treason against one who was not his Sovereign."
"How is that?"
"Sievers, who is a man of most considerable talents, was for a long time a professor in one
