"H. Beam Piper - He Walked around the Horses" - читать интересную книгу автора (Piper H Beam)

Chancellor to His Majesty Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia.)
25 November, 1809
Your Excellency:
A circumstance has come to the notice of this Ministry, the significance of which I am at a loss to
define, but, since it appears to involve matters of State, both here and abroad, I am convinced that it is of
sufficient importance to be brought to your personal attention. Frankly, I am unwilling to take any further
action in the matter without your advice.
Briefly, the situation is this: We are holding, here at the Ministry of Police, a person giving his name as
Benjamin Bathurst, who claims to be a British diplomat. This person was taken into custody by the police
at Perleburg yesterday, as a result of a disturbance at an inn there; he is being detained on technical
charges of causing disorder in a public place, and of being a suspicious person. When arrested, he had in
his possession a dispatch case, containing a number of papers; these are of such an extraordinary nature
that the local authorities declined to assume any responsibility beyond having the man sent here to Berlin.
After interviewing this person and examining his papers, I am, I must confess, in much the same
position. This is not, I am convinced, any ordinary police matter; there is something very strange and
disturbing here. The man's statements, taken alone, are so incredible as to justify the assumption that he is
mad. I cannot, however, adopt this theory, in view of his demeanor, which is that of a man of perfect
rationality, and because of the existence of these papers. The whole thing is mad; incomprehensible!
The papers in question accompany, along with copies of the various statements taken at Perleburg, a
personal letter to me from my nephew, Lieutenant Rudolf von Tarlburg. This last is deserving of your
particular attention; Lieutenant von Tarlburg is a very level-headed young officer, not at all inclined to be
fanciful or imaginative. It would take a good deal to affect him as he describes.
The man calling himself Benjamin Bathurst is now lodged in an apartment here at the Ministry; he is
being treated with every consideration, and, except for freedom of movement, accorded every privilege.
I am, most anxiously awaiting your advice, et cetera, et cetera,
Krutz
(Report of Traugott Zeller, Oberwachtmeister, Staatspolizei, made at Perleburg, 25 November, 1809.)
At about ten minutes past two of the afternoon of Saturday, 25 November, while I was at the police
station, there entered a man known to me as Franz Bauer, an inn servant employed by Christian Hauck,
at the sign of the Sword & Scepter, here in Perleburg. This man Franz Bauer made complaint to
Staatspolizeikapitan Ernst Hartenstein, saying that there was a madman making trouble at the inn where
he, Franz Bauer, worked. I was, therefore, directed, by Staatspolizeikapitan Hartenstein, to go to the
Sword & Scepter Inn, there to act at discretion to maintain the peace.
Arriving at the inn in company with the said Franz Bauer, I found a considerable crowd of people in
the common room, and, in the midst of them, the innkeeper, Christian Hauck, in altercation with a
stranger. This stranger was a gentlemanly-appearing person, dressed in traveling clothes, who had under
his arm a small leather dispatch case. As I entered, I could hear him, speaking in German with a strong
English accent, abusing the innkeeper, the said Christian Hauck, and accusing him of having drugged his,
the stranger's, wine, and of having stolen his, the stranger's, coach-and-four, and of having abducted his,
the stranger's, secretary and servants. This the said Christian Hauck was loudly denying, and the other
people in the inn were taking the innkeeper's part, and mocking the stranger for a madman.
On entering, I commanded everyone to be silent, in the king's name, and then, as he appeared to be
the complaining party of the dispute, I required the foreign gentleman to state to me what was the trouble.
He then repeated his accusations against the innkeeper, Hauck, saying that Hauck, or, rather, another
man who resembled Hauck and who had claimed to be the innkeeper, had drugged his wine and stolen
his coach and made off with his secretary and his servants. At this point, the innkeeper and the
bystanders all began shouting denials and contradictions, so that I had to pound on a table with my
truncheon to command silence.
I then required the innkeeper, Christian Hauck, to answer the charges which the stranger had made;
this he did with a complete denial of all of them, saying that the stranger had had no wine in his inn, and