With great difficulty we are
able to draw our breath.
STROEBEL. If I had only had an inkling about it.
COMMISSIONER [angrily]. The police are expected to grasp
conditions.
SCHMETTAU. Then what followed? In heavy-nailed shoes the men go
from room to room. Doors are opened and slammed. The fellows use
loud and coarse language, and three or four times they stand in
front of the wardrobe. Upon my word, I actually feel how His
Highness is perspiring. Just picture to yourself the situation if
that brute had opened the closet! Just picture that and you can
realize how much courage I had!
COMMISSIONER. You must have suffered terribly.
SCHMETTAU. What I suffered does not matter. In such moments one
does not think of anything else but Highness. What an outrage!
Finally the steps disappear. Madame Hauteville, who throughout
behaved most decently and whose conduct was above reproach, is led
away and Highness and I can leave the wardrobe where we spent an
entire twenty minutes. And now I ask again, "How can such mistakes
happen?"
COMMISSIONER [to Assessor]. You shall find the answer to this.
SCHMETTAU. Upstairs the woman is still in her cell. The newspapers
are full of the scandal, and Highness suffers agonies when he
realizes the possibilities which can develop at any moment.
COMMISSIONER. Herr Baron, you need not worry any longer.
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