Page:The Jail, Experiences in 1916.pdf/25

 Politicians, authors,—yes, you are all guilty. Look here, I have a dog; when I come home, he is lying on the carpet sleeping happily in the sun. I begin to pity him; why, poor old fellow, you are so neglected, nobody troubles about you,—and he then begins to growl and to pity himself, as if he really were most badly off. The Czech nation is not badly off,—on the contrary, but you, authors, politicians and—"

"Wait a moment, doctor, just a brief comment upon this canine idyl of yours. The dog,—that tallies. But the room and the carpet do not tally, and as for the sun, we have never been in it at all. However, that's all, I will not go to his Excellency. Good-day."

This canine idyl had thoroughly warmed me up. And it opened out extremely distant perspectives to me; I now saw clearly all that had happened, was happening and would happen…

The reports about Dr. Kramář grew more and more copious. It was said that he was being cross-examined by Dr. Preminger,—who was Dr. Preminger? A man from Czernowitz. The Imperial Counsellor Penížek assured everybody convincingly whom he met: "Dr. Kramář can think himself lucky to have fallen into the hands of a Jew from Bukowina whose heart is in the right place." Good. There was even a rumour that the case would not be tried at all. Then it was asserted that there would be a trial, and that it would last several days. Lieut. Preminger was said to be on his way to Prague and was cross-examining somebody somewhere. Stuergkh was said to have been conferring in the matter. A deputation of Young Czech delegates had been received in audience by the General Staff. Everything, it was said, would turn out well.

Both Czech Ministers were retaining a firm hold upon their posts, a fact which also aroused a certain amount of confidence. Could they have remained, if there had been anything serious against